witchcraft Tagged Articles at Cinematical

At a reading of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Friday night at Carnegie Hall, author J.K. Rowling revealed what many fans have suspected all along: Albus Dumbledore is gay. The outing of Dumbledore came during a question and answer period following the reading, when a young fan asked if Dumbledore ever found true love. "Dumbledore is gay," Rowling responded. Gasps, prolonged applause. So now it's official, Potter fans, Dumbledore is out of the closet.

Rowling, who has since the publication of the final book in her enormously popular series, revealed to fans bits and pieces of the back stories that aren't in any of the books, further elaborated that Dumbledore was smitten by his former friend and later rival Grindelwald, who figures heavily into the last book, and that his love for Grindelwald blinded him for a while to the Grindelwald's true nature. Rowling called Dumbledore's love for Grindelwald, "his great tragedy" before noting with a laugh, "Oh, my god, the fan fiction!"

Rowling revealed that while working on the planned sixth Harry Potter film, she noticed a reference in the script to a girl Dumbledore once loved, and passed a note to the director, David Yates, revealing to him the truth about Dumbledore's sexuality. Fans have long suspected Dumbledore was gay -- he's had no significant relationship with a woman, and his past has always been clouded in mystery.

Rowling noted that some Christian groups already don't like the Harry Potter series because the books allegedly promote witchcraft. Dumbledore being gay, as she noted will give them one more thing to not like about it. Not that Rowling -- or most Harry Potter fans -- seems to care.

Emma Thompson won't be winning another adapted-screenplay Oscar for her sophomore script, but she has written a most enjoyable combo of familiar plots and themes for the film of Nanny McPhee. Based very, very loosely on Christianna Brand's Nurse Matilda books, it takes one of the most commercially trite foundations for kiddy comedies — that of the unsinkable nanny — and adds the current safe bet for family films: magic.

The result is an unnecessary but satisfying mix of light and dark comedy that should come as no surprise from Waking Ned Devine director Kirk Jones. Finally following up his loveable debut after seven years, he continues his ability to make death a pretty funny concept. Devine begins with an old man croaking suddenly after winning the lottery; McPhee tops it with six children eating a baby.