PotterCast 142: British Dogs and Fuzzy Hats! Transcript

News Talk (0:00 - 17:55)

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Melissa Anelli (MA): All right, welcome everybody to PotterCast 142. Again, I am Melissa, I am here with John. with John. I just said that, didn't I?

SU: (gasps) You did!

MA: I always say John and Sue! I'm here with Sue and Frak, our guest host who's hanging out with us while John is off getting his college degree. How dare he.

Frankie Franco III (FF): It's my pleasure.

MA: Thank you for coming back, Frak. And (FF: Oh, I have a great time.) as always, the lovely Suze.

SU: Yes, I'm happy to be here. (FF: Susie!) Always happy. It's scary.

MA: Well, it's been a busy week, I think, in the Harry Potter world. (SU: Yes!) So this week we have for you, a Bit by Bit, as we continue our discussion of The Deathly Hallows, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. And, the return of Canon Conundrums. (FF: Doot doo doo!) Yeah, we were actually talking right before we were recording, and something sounded like a great conundrum, and so we thought we'd tackle it here on PotterCast.

FF: Holla!

SU: Yeah!

MA: As we do. (SU: As we do.) Frak, it's your first Conundrums.

FF: Yeah! It's one of my favorite segments ever. So (MA: Elated!) I'm quite elated to be a part of it.

MA: Oh I can't wait to hear your arguments. The question, guys, is: What house was Professor Umbridge in? And everyone's going, "Slytherin! Slytherin! She's such a Slytherin! (SU: Dun dun dun.) I know she's a Slytherin! Why are you having a Conundrums on that? She is a Slytherin, what are you stupid?"

FF: So sure.

MA: However,(SU: However...) you wait. You wait! These guys had arguments, and I said let's do a conundrums.

SU: Yep.

FF: Quite valid arguments, if I do say so myself.

MA: And Sue, before we get to the rest of the show, what's happening this week in the world of the Harry Potter news?

SU: Oh well, we've actually had a little bit of news. There's been a little bit of a lull, but we've heard from Miss Jo who gave a very short interview with the Telegraph newspaper where she confirms that she is writing her children's book, and (FF: Wow!) she's- yes, she's still at work at it. And she's writing back in the Edinburgh cafes again, like she did when she wrote the Harry Potter series. (FF: Aw!) So if you're in the streets, and your wandering around the town of Edinburgh, you never know where Jo may be writing in a cafe. There she is.

MA: I love it. People coming up on the window, tapping on the window...

SU: "Is Jo Rowling in there?"

MA: Waving, waving the hands.

FF: We should record over there, and just bump into her.

MA: Sounds like a plan to me.

FF: I could always use some espresso. Oh, coffee sounds so good right now.

MA: I have some. Ah!

SU: But wouldn't you wanna be- what if you were one of those cafe workers. Say you’re at Starbucks, and there you see Jo coming in there. Jo!

FF: (laughs) Oh, my God!

SU: "Can I server you Jo? Can I please just bow at your feet?" I don't know.

MA: I'd throw all the coffee. I'd just bring her coffee every two seconds. I'd just keep- you know? "Ah, that one's less hot than this one. Take that one." Go through a month of my employee coffee just like- oh...

SU: That could be really funny.

MA: She also (SU: We also- go ahead.) updated her website. (SU: What's that?) She also updated her website. (SU: Yeah, she did.) We didn't get to talk about this last week. What was it about again?

SU: She said that she's not on MySpace, she's not on Bebo, she's not on Facebook. But in a bright, shiny, alternate universe, she might be. But, no. Meanwhile, on planet Earth, the dull human being, Jo Rowling, has not got a profile.

MA: Well, I just wonder what made her make just that update just that day? Because it was kind of a random, little one-off update. "Hey, by the way-"(SU: Yeah.) You know? So, what happened to make her say that? Is what I wanna know.

SU: I don't know. I don't know, 'cause, that's just so- there's been a slew on MySpace of "I'm Jo Rowling" fake things. All the actors, they say, "Oh, I talk to Dan Radcliffe all the time." Well, no, you don't. But Emma Watson is the first of the cast to have an official site. And if Emma Watson is- (MA: Well, the first of the trio.) The first of the trio, yes. I'm sorry. I should take that back. You're right. Right. 'Cause I know that Jamie Waylett had one, and I know that Matt Lewis- (MA: And Devon Murray.) yes, right, yes. So- and Chris Rankin has his own one out there, and those are official. But can you imagine how many people say, "Yeah, me and Jo-" I mean, we talk about John all the time, but you're not hanging, Jo does not hang out on Bebo or MySpace, and do all that kind of thing. I don't know.

FF: (laughs) I just think it's so funny that there's people actually out there who legitimately think they're actually pulling the wool over somebody's eyes. And it's like, "Yeah, I'm JK Rowling." And it's like, "Oh!"

MA: (laughs) Yeah. Who are you, and what has made you want to do this with your life? Seriously? Why would you ever- "I'm bored today, I think I'll pretend to be J.K. Rowling, and set up a MySpace." (FF laughs))(SU: It just...) "I'm feeling neglected, I think I'll pretend to be a billionaire. Nobody will ever know."

FF: Because billionaires that are extremely talented and have such busy schedules have no other reason to design crappy MySpace pages.

MA: "Oh my God! J.K. Rowling friended me! (SU and FF laugh) I'm gonna poke J.K. Rowling!" Poke, poke.

SU: Poke her! And then I'm gonna throw a sheep at her! And the different things you can do on Facebook. You can do all this little app thing. You can SuperPoke, you can dance, you can buy a beer, throw sheep. I threw a sheep at Melissa the other day.

MA: There's an excellent- there's an excellent...

FF: "J.K. Rowling took the Sorting Hat test." (MA laughs)

SU: Yes! "I wonder what house she's in! I don't know!"

FF: She said she thinks she would be in Ravenclaw, but since she wrote the story, she picks Gryffindor, and she gets to be in Gryffindor. I remember her saying that somewhere. Which I always thought was cute.

SU: She could be a Hufflepuff. We'd take her in. You know, just saying.

FF: Of course you would have. (SU: You think?) That's the whole Hufflepuff mantra. (SU: It is!) If you wouldn't, you wouldn't be Hufflepuff.

SU: That's true, that's true.

MA: That's like what somebody sent to me once- actually Andrew Slack who run The HP Alliance sent this- that he was arguing with somebody about who was more humble about a certain award they had gotten. Because somebody said "I'm more humble" and "I'm more humble", they kept saying it back and forth, meaning it, like they kept responding to each other answers. "Oh, I'm so humbled and honored" and bla bla bla- and he said it's so stupid because the winner of a humility contest would have to immediately concede his prize! (laughs)

SU: Yes! (laughs)

FF: Exactly! (laughs)

MA: It was so funny to me so- it's one of those things.

FF: It's ridiculous! "I'm the most humble person I know". Right...

SU: Exactly.

MA: Right. Mm. (SU: It's funny.) There's a very funny and also R-rated (http://www.youtube.com)YouTube video about what the MySpace- some of you know- parents, keep your kids from watching at the end- the end five seconds are not the best ever, but it's really funny about all the websites at a party...

SU: Yes.

FF: Oh my gosh, that is pretty funny.

MA: Have you seen it?

SU: Yes.

FF: Yeah.

MA: Google and Facebook, and Facebook goes around poking people and Wikipedia goes around with a notebook saying "Are we in a den? What's a den?" (FF laughs) and so the others look nervous, they say, "Just tell her anything, she doesn't really care". It's really fun, so look that up. So anyway, back on topic.

SU: Back on topic. Well, we're briefly mentioning the cast and we did hear a bit, a slight bit of news about filming is actually going on, and Helen McCrory is filming this week as Narcissa Malfoy. Woo hoo! Yes, her husband...

MA: So, I guess they're doing...

SU: Spinner's End, right?

MA: Yeah, it must be.

FF: I'm so excited to see- I want to see her in Deathly Hallows so bad, because I just finished Book Seven again, and that last chunk of that book is just so amazing, and like so much of it, of that story, just depends on mother's love, whether it was Harry's mom- like it was Lily or Narcissa. The fact that she lied to Voldemort about Harry not being dead, like imagine if she was honest, that would have changed the whole ending of the story, you know what I mean? It's like- it's just amazing.

MA: Deathly Hallows was a giant mother's day gift or so. (laughs)

FF: That's a great way to put it.

SU: Yeah.

MA: It's really...

FF: Especially with Molly, too. Oh, Molly's so cool.

SU: Oh brilliant, I can't wait for that.

MA: It was one of those things that made me kind of like smack my hand on my head and think, "Why didn't I get this about Jo's writing before?" That it basically all comes down to being a mother and being a good mother at that. It couldn't happened if certain people weren't good mothers.

SU: But It's so- but I think that I'm looking forward to her performance as Narcissa, I mean, the fact that they are putting it in, I think I'll just be- oh...

MA: Well, this is probably going to be very fast. I don't know, she's not going to be in the end. (SU: No, no.) Because she's not a- do you think Narcissa is an actual Death Eater?

FF: No.

SU: No, I don't think she is.

FF: I think that's been asked somewhere or maybe I just read it on a fan site or something, like someone's LiveJournal about that, how she just kind of supports- (SU: Lucius.) yeah, Lucius and kind of like- I always took it kind of like- what's the face- Sirius's parents, (SU: Oh, right.) how like they weren't Death Eaters but they supported the whole pure blood mantra, and everything like that so...

MA: They were fine with all the killing and...

FF: Or it's just one of those things that kind of like "Well, it's a necessary evil" or they just kind of turn their- I don't know, but I don't think she's a Death Eater.

SU: Can I just say this though, about the report about Helen McCrory. Her husband, Damian Lewis, who's a marvelous actor, (MA: Oh, yes.) and if you ever saw the mini-series Band of Brothers which was just phenomenal, but he was in that, but he was on the talkshow and he said that Helen's been going around on all the blogs, websites, so she could have come to Leaky. And I just want to say you're welcome to come on Leaky anytime, just saying. Shameless plug.

MA: So wait- she's been going around reading whatever everybody has been saying about her? (SU: Yes, yes.) That can be dangerous kind of actually! (SU: You imagine?) Don't do it! Helen McCrory, keep go- please don't take us as the general population because you know, people get very very passionate, (SU: Surely.) and the people who have the negative opinion are sometimes more vocal, (FF: Yeah.) are most times more vocal then most people.

FF: Especially on the Internet.

MA: And so it's not- yeah!

SU: I know!

FF: And enmities are so powerful.

SU: And it's not like people on Leaky obsess about every minor thing like commas or anything like this so...

MA: Yeah. But hey, if she can handle it, the more power to her. (SU: Yeah.) If she's got enough security to not be freaked out by that...

SU: That's true. Excellent. (MA: That's excellent.) It is. And one other bit of news, Ralph Fiennes has confined that he his not going to be back as Voldemort for Half-Blood Prince, but I think we all just kind of reckon that, (FF: Han?) but he hasn't signed yet for Deathly Hallows. He's not going to be...

MA: Well, my question about that, then, is are they not showing the Voldemort's request chapter?

SU: No- well, what he said is that the older Voldemort is going to be played by that Frank Dillane, but I don't think that that matters- I guess that means he would still even be too young for the Voldemort's request, so...

FF: Wait, wait, wait. What happened? He's not going to be in which movie?

MA: You know Voldemort's request, when he comes and he...

SU: Half-Blood Prince.

MA: Well, he's not in six.

SU: Yeah.

FF: Oh!

MA: Because he's not really in six.

FF: I could sworn you said Deathly Hallows.

SU: But he hasn't signed yet for that. He said- there was two things: he did not- he confirmed he's not going to be back for Half-Blood Prince and he's not yet signed for Deathly Hallows. (FF: Oh, okay.) Yeah.

MA: Which is fine. They'll get him for Deathly Hallows, I'm not...

SU: He was actually very complimentary about both the movies though, I mean, he said he really enjoyed working with Mike Newell, because he had that big reveal, you know, Voldemort coming out of the grave, and you know, being reborn or whatever (FF: That was an awesome scene.) out of the pot, you know (MA: Yeah.) but, he was actually very complimentary about the style of David Yates, so- I don't know if the rumours hold true that Yates does direct Deathly Hallows so, you know.

FF: I really enjoyed the fifth one, and I've been surprised to hear some negative things about David Yates, like from just random people, and I was just, I was never, I really liked it, but I'm biased 'cause that's my favourite book, so I think I just really liked the movie.

MA: Well again you're hanging out on the Internet. (All laugh) When will you learn, Frak?

FF: Case and point, check and mate.

MA: When will you learn? No, because we are, we're the people who are gonna love it or hate it, whereas if you talk, I think maybe in the general (FF: That's true.) public, I've never really heard much else than "Oh, it was great! There was glass flying everywhere, so cool!" You know.

FF: Oh wait, listen, listen to this. (sound of bottle opening) Did you hear that? I just opened a bottle of Pellegrino. I'm so happy.

MA: Aw, Frak! Frak, I miss- this makes me miss Frak's California (FF: My Pellegrino.) abode. All he drinks is Pellegrino.

FF: I like it because it sounds like a spell. Pellegrino! (SU laughs) I'm just kidding.

SU: A water spell. Oh no, we've learned, thanks to Frak.

FF: That would be an awesome spell to make water bubbly.

SU: Yeah. (MA: Okay.) You know, we're - can I just, we were talking about the internet, internets are known for the spread of rumors, especially when posted by tabloid newspapers in the UK, and this week we saw (MA: Argh.) a couple of ludicrous things. (MA: I love, I love this.) Okay, first one to talk about that, first The Sun claimed that, first there was streaking interrupted the night shooting on Half-Blood Prince, two guys showed up and they were streaking through the- (MA: Well, but they had pictures of that!) yeah, and I think it's actually true, that because the guy had apparently called in on BBC Radio or something but, I don't know, but then The Sun claimed that there were these crazy death threats, and then the best part of all (MA laughs) is that now Dan Radcliffe's dogs need special security because he's like J-Lo. (All laugh) I mean beyond, beyond fail. (All laugh) (MA: I love it.) We're gonna get those SAS guard in, you know, for his two dogs. That's my favorite. (FF laughs)

MA: Are they bored? Have we given them nothing to write about for a while?

SU: Apparently so! (FF laughs)

MA: We lost Frak, he's gone. (All laugh)

FF: Dog security…

MA: (laughs) Are you okay there, Frak? (FF laughs)

SU: Usually it's me who dies, and now it's become Frak!

FF: (laughs) I'm imagining these little British dogs with fuzzy hats! (All laugh) Guarding these dogs. (All laugh)

MA: John- Frak- I'm laughing so hard that I just called you John. (All laugh)

SU: So he has little bobby dog guards, is that what you're saying? (FF and MA laugh)

MA: He took dog security literally, in other words.

FF: Oh, I gotta, okay.

MA: Little dogs!

FF: That was way too... (laughs)

MA: Dogs in funny hats! (FF laughs)

SU: Okay Frak, that'll be your challenge this week, is to draw those dogs, okay? That's our new challenge.

FF: (laughs) I should draw it real quick, that'd be funny. (laughs)

SU: Oh my goodness.

MA: So, no.

FF: I'm sorry, that was a tangent.

MA: (laughs) Dan Radcliffe's dogs are not in the care of the secret service. (SU: No.) Okay. Established.

SU: It's just (MA: Oh, man.) too funny.

MA: Yeah, I mean the- yeah. Thank God for senses of humor, because the tabloids may have- (SU: Oh, they're just...) they just make stuff up!

SU: What's the matter with them? Saying all that stuff about Dan was just, just- (sighs) Come on, and then the dogs, it's just beyond- people.

FF: That's funny.

MA: Well, it goes in the kind of like- at least they weren't saying that he is threatening the lives of his dogs.

SU: Yes, oh God. (MA: You know?) It's true.

MA: It's a little- it's a better rumor than something about him, so...

FF: Or his dogs are streaking. (All laugh)

MA: Or his dogs are streaking…

SU: That's it! You've cracked the case!

FF: The tenacity of those dogs (MA: With fuzzy hats!) to walk around in their birthday suit. (SU laughs)

MA: And their fuzzy hats, Frak.

FF: The what?

SU: Wearing nothing but their (MA: The fuzzy hats.) fuzzy hats. (FF laughs)

FF: Well, those are the bodyguards that protect them, the little British dog. (SU: It's just too funny.) The hats- like those- the fuzzy hats, that the guards...

MA: With the chinstrap.

SU: Yeah, like you see at Buckingham Palace, and the bobbies. (FF: Exactly.) The old...

FF: Yes, okay, yes. That's right, okay.

SU: Yeah. (MA: Okay.) Done. (MA: Is there anything else of importance?) I don't know, by the time we're recording this, Emma Watson had updated that she's going to be attending the Empire Magazine Awards, and she's hoping that you know, it'll be a good night for Potter. Harry Potter was nominated for six awards and I am assuming, I think, because those are fan-voted, fan choice, I think that Harry Potter will probably have won one thing at least, so, okay, that's it. Yeah. (MA: Awesome.) (laughs) Okay! Done! I'm still gonna go think about those dogs. I'm kind of in shock.

MA: Okay. So why don't we go on and do our Bit by Bit?

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