Great news for fans of Daniel Radcliffe … the young British actor who took both the West End stage and the Broadway stage by storm with his powerful performance in Equus has just signed on for a new Broadway production. This time, DanRad will be performing in musical theater in a revival of the classic show How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. Here is a great look back at Dan’s performance in Equus and some deets about his new B’way gig:

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe is heading to Broadway for his first musical. The 20-year-old actor has been announced as the lead for How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. Radcliffe is already used to the pressures of nightly Broadway and West End appearances, having wowed critics in Equus last year. He will play the plum part of J. Pierrepont Finch, a window cleaner who rises to the top of a huge company while, of course, wooing and winning a girl along the way. Robert Morse created the role on Broadway and in the 1967 screen adaptation. The original production, running for a healthy 1,417 performances, won the top Tony for best musical in 1962 as well as six more, including awards for lead Morse and supporting player Charles Nelson Reilly. And the 1995 saw Matthew Broderick win the lead actor Tony. Radcliffe is currently filming the final instalments of the Harry Potter movies, Deathly Hallows, which will be released in two parts.

This is FANTASTIC news!! I suspect that this is but the beginning of a long and storied carrer on the stage. I was lucky enough to see Radcliffe in Equus and was stunned by his performance. I have no doubt that he will be just as superb in this new role in How to Succeed. I have been nothing but impressed with every acting performance I’ve seen from the lad and I have been wondering what his future career in acting holds for him. I suspect he will make a great name for himself on the musical theater stage. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he gave up films altogether and stuck with plays and musicals. Time will tell what other projects DanRad will take on but I, for one, am very excited about the prospect of seeing Daniel Radcliffe on the Broadway stage again.

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Daniel Radcliffe, Mr. Harry Potter incarnate, is featured on the cover and in the pages of the UK magazine Attitude and in his coverstory interview, DanRad reveals his political proclivities and expresses his abhorrence of homophobia … which clearly shows that the young man is aces in my book. Here is Dan’s Attitude magazine cover and some excerpts from his coverstory interview:

HARRY Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has confessed in a frank interview to a gay magazine – he is a Liberal Democrat. The handsome actor – who turned 20 yesterday – appears on the latest cover of Attitude and inside reveals his true political feelings. He tells of his deep dislike for Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Tory leader David Cameron. The multi-millionaire also tells how he grew up surrounded by his parents’ gay pals and hates anyone with a homophobic attitude. Radcliffe – who is not gay and is dating actress Laura O’Toole – said: “I just loathe homophobia. It’s just disgusting and animal and stupid and it’s just thick people who can’t get their heads around it and are just scared. “I grew up around gay people entirely. I was the only child in my class who had any experience of homosexuality or anything like that.” The actor – who battles soul-sucking Dementors as the boy wizard and is currently starring in Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince – said he supports Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg because the other parties offer nothing to young people. He said: “I rather like Nick Clegg. At the next election I will almost certainly vote Lib Dem. “If all the people who liked them voted for them you could change politics overnight and we could have a proper three party system.” Asked about Gordon Brown he said: “Paul Merton said, and I agree with him, ‘it’s a tragedy that this man has waited all his life to do this job – and now he finds out he can’t do it.’ “I don’t like the New Labour thing. I never experienced the optimism of New Labour, I was too young but I hear everyone was up and it was fantastic. I’ve only seen the bad years of it.” Radcliffe’s opinion on David Cameron is no more positive. He raged: “No! No, no, no, no, no! David Cameron is barely distinguishable from Tony Blair.” He added: “I think the reason why people don’t vote is because the politicians are all so central now, it doesn’t seem to matter who you vote for.” He also blasted the BNP who won two seats in the recent Euro elections, saying: “I hate any type of prejudice.”

Attaboy … there aren’t many young people who are willing and capable of expressing their political beliefs in such an open manner but Daniel Radcliffe never struck me as the type of person to play coy with his beliefs. The young man has impressed me on numerous occasions and this is but the latest. That, as a straight actor, he would appear on the cover of one of the UK’s most successful gay magazines and talk so candidly about his beliefs is quite a feat. The lad is very intelligent and very well-spoken … he really is a great role model that younger kids can look up to. DanRad is a great guy … I wish more young actors were like him.

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Daniel Radcliffe, who can currently be seen in theaters in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is finally confirming that he is not only involved in a romantic relationship but that he has been involved in said relationship for quite some time. DanRad has confessed that he and his Equus co-star Laura O’Toole have been dating for some time now … sorry y’all, he’s taken:

Always keeping his lips tightly sealed when he is asked about his love life, Daniel Radcliffe finally reveals his dating partner. “My girlfriend is Laura O’Toole, and she was in ‘Equus’ with me. But I don’t really want to talk about that, because she’s not here and it’s not fair,” the British actor tells U.K. OK! Magazine. Daniel and Laura were co-stars in a revival of Peter Shaffer’s 1973 play “Equus”. Laura was known as the understudy for the lead female character of Jill, played by Joanna Christie, who engaged in a lengthy nude sex scene with Daniel’s character Alan Strang. Report that Daniel dating Laura, who is four years his senior, first emerged in November 2007 after they played together in the particular play. They were said to be “very close” and were even photographed enjoying a shopping trip together in Fullham, West London. Back in January 2008, the “Harry Potter” leading actor was said splitting from Laura. Their separation reportedly took place in late 2007. News of the World quoted the female star as confirming, “Daniel and I are still good friends and have a good time when we see each other. But we just have to be realistic.” However, Daniel has confirmed to OK! Magazine that he and Laura never parted ways.

I’d say that all those nights appearing on stage together totally nekkid might’ve had some influence on these two actors getting together. I imagine, first, they took comfort in the fact that they were both bearing more than their souls on a nightly basis in front of sold out audiences. Then, I suspect the hormonal part took over … and voila! Dan has always talked about how he enjoys the company of older women, I suspect those comments were a secret nod to his older girlfriend. I’m glad to know that DanRad is gettin’ some lovin’. He strikes me as solid young man and deffo deserves happiness. Dan and Laura make a cute couple, no?

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Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and others were joined by author J.K. Rowling at the London premiere of the newest Harry Potter film The Half-Blood Prince at Leicester Square last night. Despite the buckets of rain that fell all night long, hundreds of fans came out to catch a glimpse or score an autograph of their fave Harry Potter stars as they walked the red carpet last night. Here are a few pics from the arrivals last night along with some info from the event:

If Potions Professor Horace Slughorn had mixed a brew to conjure up torrential rain, the weather could not have been worse for the premiere of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” Dedicated fans braved thunder, lightning and Biblical downpours in London’s Leicester Square to catch a glimpse of the film’s stars arriving at the opening of the sixth film in the wildly popular “Harry Potter” franchise. While dreadful weather has become an unfortunate tradition at Potter premieres (it rained during the 2007 premiere of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”), the latest installment holds something new for fans. “The Half-Blood Prince” offers up an uncommonly large helping of humor as Harry, Hermione and Ron enter their sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. “I think this film’s funnier,” said star Daniel Radcliffe who plays the titular young hero. “There are a couple of moments which I laughed out loud at.” Hormones are also running high inside the castle walls, with romances blossoming between some of the formerly chaste characters. But, says director David Yates, for all the romance and humor, the film still has a very dark side. “It is a bit bipolar,” Yates told CNN. “On the one hand, there’s all this snogging and romance and on the other hand people are getting killed and bridges are being blown up.” “The humor is there to kind of leaven the intensity of what happens later on in the movie,” he added. If the latest Harry Potter installment treads more adult terrain, it’s not just because the three lead actors — who started as unknown children — have grown up. The three have amassed huge fortunes and international recognition off the back of the films. Daniel Radcliffe wowed Broadway by going nude in “Equus,” Emma Watson has become the face of Burberry and Rupert Grint recently hit the headlines with a dose of swine flu. A dark storyline runs through the core of “The Half-Blood Prince”: The ascendancy of the malevolent Lord Voldemort threatens the wizarding world, while tragic events provide some genuinely scary moments and spell the end of childhood for Harry and the others. “I think it’s aimed at a slightly older audience,” says Emma Watson, 19, who plays bookish heroine Hermione Granger in the franchise. “I think the films have grown up with the audience” … Fans have had to wait an extra eight months for the latest installment after Warner Bros (which, like CNN, is owned by Time Warner) delayed the release of the movie after the success of “The Dark Knight” to spread out its blockbusters. It is estimated the film cost $250 million to make. The last film, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” came out in 2007 and took $938 million at the box office worldwide. The five films have so far made $4.5 billion in worldwide box office, making it the most successful movie franchise in history. The Harry Potter franchise is based on the best-selling series of books by British writer J.K Rowling. The first film, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” directed by Chris Columbus, was released in 2001.

OMG RELEASE THIS MOVIE ALREADY!!! We still have about a week left to wait for the film to hit theaters and I’m already freakin’ out about it. The Harry Potter story gets seriously serious in Half-Blood Prince and I can’t wait to see it on the big screen. Even tho those Londoners had to get soaked to the bone at last night’s premiere, I envy that they’ve been able to see the film already. I can’t even wait any more … Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opens in theaters on July 15. Are y’all as excited as I am?

[Photo credit: Splash News; Source]

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe is featured on the cover and in the pages of the new issue of British Esquire magazine … and homeskillet is lookin’ very much worse for the wear. For DanRad’s coverphoto, he had make-up applied to make it look like he got beat up. One assumes the look is meant to make him look manly? Whatever the case, here is Daniel’s Esquire coverphoto along with some quotes from his coverstory interview:

Daniel Radcliffe, the British actor who plays boy wizard Harry Potter, laughed off suggestions he has become a heartthrob on the eve of Tuesday’s premiere of the sixth film of the series. Radcliffe, 19, who won the role of Harry as a cherubic 11-year-old, has updated his image by appearing naked on stage in the play “Equus” between filming recent adaptations of J.K. Rowling’s phenomenally successful books. But he said most fans still think of him as the bespectacled Harry. “If girls like me, it has not been proven yet,” Radcliffe told journalists ahead of the London premiere of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”. “OK, I go to the red carpet in Tokyo and thousands of girls scream at me… but the me that sits in a darkened room watching cricket for eight hours with a bowl of pasta in his underwear and socks is not quite so attractive to girls.” Radcliffe admitted in an interview that the male actors on the Potter set had felt male hormones kick as they grew into adolescence on the set, telling Esquire magazine: “We were all unbelievably horny from about the third film to probably about the end of the fifth; then it all settled down.” But Emma Watson, who plays the geeky Hermione Granger in the films, said fans should forget any hopes of her, Radcliffe and Rupert Grint — who plays the gawky Ron Weasley in the films — pairing off with each other in real life. “When we were younger, we were always going back and forth to school so it is not as if Rupert and Dan were the only boys I saw,” the 19-year-old said at the news conference. “I know it would be of huge interest to the media if we were hooking up. But we grew up together and we are just like siblings. There have not been any pairings like that (among the cast), I’m afraid.”

Horniness at Hogwart’s? Duhvs. I don’t think anyone doubted that … but I do believe Emma Watson’s assertion that the actors never philandered together in real life. As we know by now, Radcliffe likes himself an older woman … so while the Harry Potter kids may have, shall we say, blossomed during the course of making the Harry Potter films, I highly doubted that they blossomed with one another (at least not the main kids). After the jump, check out an alternate cover of British Esquire magazine with Daniel Radcliffe on the cover along with some photos from his photospread …

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Daniel Radcliffe, star of the upcoming new film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is featured on the cover and in the pages of the new issue of Parade magazine which appears as an insert in newspapers around the country. In his coverstory interview, Daniel talks about (among other things) growing up as a celebrity, his lurve of older women and that nude scene he did on Broadway’s Equus. Here is DanRad’s Parade coverphoto and excerpts from his coverstory interview:

In this Sunday’s issue of PARADE, Daniel Radcliffe talks about breaking free of his Harry Potter image and finding love with older women.

Shocking audiences with a nude love scene on Broadway:
“As soon as we started doing the show, people went, ‘Oh! So this is not pornography—this is a play,’ It was mainly hyped beforehand. I didn’t set out to shock people. I set out to do something different from Potter. If I had wanted to shock people I would have played, you know, a gay drug dealer.”

I’ve talked at some length of my respect for Daniel Radcliffe as an actor and as an artist and this interview with Parade goes a long way in fortifying that respect. The young man deffo has his head on straight and has the talent to make it very far in the biz. After the jump, check out the rest of the photos from his Parade mag photospread …

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Yesterday we got our first look at Helena Bonham Carter in the role of Bellatrix Lestrange on the London set of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows … and today we get to see a few more pics from the set. This time, we get to see principal stars Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Emma Watson (Hermoine Granger) chillin’ on the set in between takes … and another photo of Bellatrix being her usual evil self:

There are other more spoilery photos but I don’t want to post too many pics this early in the filming. We’ve got plenty of time to see little teaser pics from the set. Deathly Hallows is going to be an epic film, I can just feel it. The book itself is too huge to be contained by just one movie. The film will prolly be the one Harry Potter movie that will contain almost all of the best bits from the book. Previously, the films had to cut content to fit in the time constraints. This 2 part film will have lots of time to do the final Harry Potter book justice. But … while all of this Hallows talk is very exciting, we still have The Half-Blood Prince to look forward to this Summer. So much Harry Potter!! Woot!

[Photo credit: Splash News]