andPOP - Pop Culture With Substance

Barbara Walters has named Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling as her Most Fascinating Person of 2007.

The title caps off a big year for Rowling, one in which she released the final book in her hit series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” oversaw the premiere of the fifth movie installment and “outed” a major character, Professor Albus Dumbledore.

Following Rowling on the Most Fascinating list was Don Imus, the radio host who provoked outrage following his comments on Rutgers University’s women’s basketball team.

In the past, Walter’s annual list has drawn from a varied pool of celebrities, entertainers and public figures, and this year’s edition was no different. The Top 10 ranged from actresses Katherine Heigl and Jennifer Hudson, to political figures Bill Clinton and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Walters, a co-host on the “The View,” is also writing an autobiography that is due out in May 2008.

Barbara Walters’ 10 Most Fascinating People of 2007 are:
1. J.K. Rowling
2. Don Imus (American radio broadcaster)
3. Hugo Chávez (Venezuelan president)
4. Jennifer Hudson
5. Katherine Heigl
6. Victoria and David Beckham
8. Tom Anderson and Chris De Wolfe (MySpace founders)
9. Bill Clinton
10. Justin Timberlake

Harry Potter fans, rejoice: J.K. Rowling will be in Toronto next month for the International Festival of Authors.

Raincoast Books, the Canadian publisher for Rowling’s Harry Potter series, announced Monday that the author will appear at the Winter Garden Theatre on Oct. 23.

Toronto will be Rowling’s only Canadian stop on her North American tour.

Tickets to the 950-seat venue are free. Starting Monday afternoon, 10 pairs of tickets will be randomly awarded each day to fans through the Raincoast Books website, where an entry form and rules are posted.

In a project organized by the Ontario Libraries Association, hundreds of tickets will also be made available across Canada through libraries and school boards. The details of this initiative are still being worked out.

Rowling will be reading from “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the seventh and final book in the series. It sold a whopping 15 million copies within 24 hours when it was released in July.

The author is also expected to answer questions and sign books for Potter fans while in Toronto.

The first six Harry Potter books have sold more than 325 million copies worldwide.

JK Rowling, author of the beloved Harry Potter books, won two awards at the first annual Quill Awards ceremony, held in New York.

The most recent book in the eagerly anticipated series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, won for Book of the Year, as well as in the Children’s Chapter Book/Middle Grade category.

Rowling, who was unable to attend the ceremony, said from her Edinburgh office, “I am thrilled and honored beyond words to receive the first-ever Quill Book of the Year Award. I am still not used to the idea that so many people across the world are intimately familiar with the characters who, for so long, I alone knew. Awards like this, where readers themselves vote, are therefore especially meaningful to me.”

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released at midnight on July 16, and sold a staggering 6.9 million copies within the first 24 hours of being released.