Let's see what's in our Pop Culture Grag bag today,kids!

Here we are again,on a bright hot summer morning,getting ready for another week of time to kill before Labor Day looms ahead. With the weekend box office results in(pretty much guaranteeing us a Transformers sequel after raking in $67 million) and still several days away from the release of Harry Potter 7,let's see what folks will have to talk about in the entertainment world:

HARRY POTTER AND THE NEXT MOVIE DEBUT

The fifth HP title will be in theaters this Wednesday and so far,most of the early reviews have been on the positive side. The director this time out is David Yates,who has worked with one of the HP film regulars(Shirley Henderson,aka Moaning Myrtle) in the BBC miniseries,The Way We Live Now,which was made in 2001. I own that one on DVD and it is really worth seeing,especially if you're big into Anthony Trollope.

ABC Family held a "Harry Potter Weekend" recently,with several promo clips for the new movie slipped in during the commericals. Some of the bits were very tantilizing for the diehard Potter junkie,such as character profiles of Delores Umbridge, Luna Lovegood and Bellatrix Lestrange,played by Helena Bonham Carter. Looks like HBC really has fun with her wacky wicked witch part:

BELLATRIX



LUNA



UMBRIDGE



MORE J.K. ROWLING

Harry Potter's creator,J.K. Rowling,gave an interview on the Jonathan Ross show in England last Friday and it was a great conversation. I'm not familar with Ross' show but I really enjoyed the clever,laid back style of his interviews. It was also great to see someone treat Rowling no different than an author of adult literature,with some funny off-color remarks:

PART I



PART II



THE LAST GUY YOU'D EXPECT TO SEE ON FOX AND FRIENDS!



Saturday morning,the first thing I saw on TV was Korn's former guitarist,Brian "Head" Welch being interviewed on Fox and Friends to promote his new memoir called Save Me From Myself. Welch left the band awhile ago,after getting off of drugs and becoming a Christian. I'm glad to see that he's doing well,especially since he has a daughter to take care of and I suspect plenty of present and past Korn fans will be eager to check out his book to see just how jacked up the group was on the Family Values tour.

I did get a glimpse of the book's intro at the Harpercollins website,which has a "Browse Inside" feature. Remember that Motley Crue book,The Dirt,a few years back? This rock n' roll memoir might rival that one for musical decadence;in the prologue alone,Welch describes his daily diet for a year as being made up of " beer,pills,speed and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches." Well,atleast he had some protein there!

GOOD MORNING!



LIVE EARTH,SCHMIVE EARTH

The big international rock fest,Live Earth,went off well on Saturday but I was more interested in the Harry Potter-a-thon. I'm sure everyone involved ment well but I question the wisdom of having a huge concert to promote environmental awareness that used up plenty of those precious fossil fuels that contribute to global warming,with all of those planes and limos needed to transport the artists.

Plus,I find that,as I get older,I'm much more in tune with the wacky wisdom of George Carlin on many subjects:

IF CARLIN SAYS THE PLANET IS FINE,THAT'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME!




P.S., congrats to Toni Collette,who has offically announced that she's expecting her first child with musician hubby,Dave Galafassi. Glad to hear it and please don't fall prey to that sinister celebrity trap of unusual baby names. You might want to consider some sensible ones,like Muriel or Harriet.

I know Gwyneth's a buddy but instead of her,you really should ask a few other of your friends for suggestions. Who would you trust,for example,to pick out some really great shoes or a fun place to do some ABBA karoake? Just saying!