Today (August 16th), the actress who plays Luna Lovegood in the Potter films turns 17!

A diehard Potter fan, readers may remember that Evanna was a frequent MuggleNet visitor and heard about the Luna Lovegood casting call through the site.

She is truly one of us, and how far she has come! Have a great one, Evanna!

As we told you yesterday, Emma Watson was nominated for Best Actress, Dan Radcliffe for Best Actor, David Yates for Best Director, Nicholas Hooper (who composed the fifth film's soundtrack) for Best Soundtrack, and OOTP itself for Best Film and Best Sci-fi/Fantasy at the Empire awards.

The ceremony took place last night and congratulations to David Yates who earned the Best Director award for his work on Order of the Phoenix. Check out a video interview with him at the bottom of this page where he concedes being tempted to direct the Deathly Hallows film.

Further coverage of the event, including photos of Emma Watson, Evanna Lynch, Katie Leung and Jason Isaacs, can be seen here.

Thanks to everyone who wrote in!

Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood) today attended the Irish premiere of the Order of the Phoenix movie in Dublin. Devon Murray (Seamus Finnigan) and Brendan Gleeson (Mad-Eye Moody) were previously expected to attend but were unable to make it.

Check out some photos of Evanna at the event here, wearing a white dress decorated with phoenix-colored garments and phoenix earrings.

Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood) has done a new interview with the NY Post where she discusses landing the coveted role, some of her theories on the books, and more.

As a fan, are you a shipper? Who do you like?
I ship all the normal ones - Ginny/Harry, Ron/Hermione, blah blah blah. But I do have a strange one, which is Luna/Dumbledore. I think they would be quite perfect. They're both so detached, so otherworldly and so comfortable with themselves and they have this uncommon fearlessness of death. They also both have quirky hobbies and deep minds and I can see them getting along a storm. I don't see this ship sailing, of course. It's just one which I think could have had potential, aided along by a time-turner.

Also, Emma Watson did an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald where she talks about kissing Ron in the sixth film:

"Kissing Rupert's going to be sooo awkward," Watson says, screwing up her cute rosy-cheeked face. "I'm trying not to think about it...it's all part of the job I guess. Don't tell him I said that. Rupert's lovely. Girls would probably give their left arm to be in my position, so I'm certainly not complaining."

The BBC has a new interview with Bonnie Wright, Matt Lewis, Katie Leung, and Evanna Lynch online now. When asked what his highlight of filming the fifth movie was, Matthew replied:

"I love comedy, I love making people laugh - but what I really loved this year was tackling the emotional side of Neville. That was a big challenge for me because Neville has always been a light-hearted, humorous character and I have never had to do anything as deep and emotional as that before."

Both the Telegraph and the Gazette have posted new interviews with some of the Order of the Phoenix cast.

The Telegraph interview features Katie Leung, Bonnie Wright, Matthew Lewis, and Evanna Lynch. They each talk about their characters in the Order of the Phoenix movie and how their roles in the movies have affected their lives. Bonnie Wright explains why she decided to go for the role of Ginny Weasley:

Why did you first go for the role?
My brother had read the books and told me that I reminded him of the character Ginny Weasley but I didn’t really know anything about it at that point. Then I heard that they were doing auditions and he told me I should go along. I never really realised at that point how big the films would become. I don’t think any of us did.

The second interview, conducted by the Gazette, also contains a question-and-answer session with Bonnie Wright, Evanna Lynch, and Matthew Lewis. When asked about Neville's fate, Lewis answered:

"A lot of people have come up to me and said, 'You're going to die, mate.' Cheers! But I like to think he'll be there fighting to the end. If he does die, I'd like it to be really heroic, saving someone else's life."

The BBC has conducted a new interview with the actress who will be playing Luna Lovegood in Order of the Phoenix. In it, she talks about her favorite book (OOTP) and what she'll be doing for the Deathly Hallows release:

This is my schedule - I get out of a summer course on Thursday night, go to the bookshop, start queuing, queue all day Friday with my biggest Harry Potter fan friends, then read all of Friday night, all of Saturday, and then Sunday is a mourning day.

I guess some people might recognise me in the queue, but everyone is just going to be so excited for the book that they won't care about me.

Edit: It looks like the BBC took the article down for no reported reason. Hopefully the full article will be back online soon!

The LA Times has a new article on the Order of the Phoenix movie, quoting director David Yates, Dan Radcliffe, and Emma Watson.

During one particularly emotional scene in this installment, Radcliffe recalls [Gary] Oldman [Sirius Black] saying to him: "'Dan, do you mind if I do something sort of physical with you before we start?' I was like, 'No, no,' assuming he meant giving me a hug. He came up to me and grabbed me and shook me really, really hard. As he went away, he kept eye contact. And tears started to form up. I had no idea how it happened, but it worked."

Emma also mentioned that Yates is perfect for this film: "I don't know if he could have directed any of the other ones. This was his story to tell."

Also, in an article previewing some of this summer's movies, USA Weekend writes about how Luna Lovegood actress Evanna Lynch made her own radish earrings (which we told you previously) for use in the film.

The costume department on the film hired several jewelry designers to make the earrings, but Evanna Lynch, the young actress who plays Luna, was so into the character that she made her own. "And they were better!" says costume director Jany Temime. "More artsy-craftsy, more like what a creative young girl would do. The stuff we had was too professional. So we used hers."

Thanks to those who emailed!

The Luna Lovegood actress recently did an interview where she spoke in detail about the past year where she won the role of the quirky Ravenclaw. On whether she and Luna share similarities, Evanna says this:

"Yes, quite a few. Our taste in clothes is very similar. I proudly and happily wore her clothes and I think she would wear mine too. I believe that almost anything is possible if you see the possibilities rather than the obstacles; Luna has some very unconventional beliefs that need no basis of fact and while I don't share them I think it shows us that she won't believe things are untrue until you have some very firm evidence. There is no evidence to suggest that The Crumple Horned Snorkack exists but there is no evidence to suggest that it doesn't exist, therefore she can believe in it. I think the main difference between us is that I am a lot more ambitious and that makes me serious. Luna is so free and seems to drift along with life, dealing with everything as it comes to her. I have more goals so I've more worries. I think that's why I love Luna so much. She doesn't have to have achievements or approval to feel satisfied and she's as wonderful and balanced a person as anyone could be. She knows worrying is pointless so she just floats and I really admire that in her."

You can read the entire interview here, though free registration is required.

Empire magazine's latest edition included a three-page spread on the Order of the Phoenix movie, where director David Yates spoke about the length of the film. "The book's huge, but it actually distills quite easily. That said, I've shot a movie that's probably over three hours, so I'll have to lose 45 minutes in the edit."

Also, Imelda Staunton (Umbridge) has been trying for some time to get involved in the franchise and joked: "Well, actually I was rather insulted they'd never asked."

Finally, producer David Heyman praised Evanna Lynch as Luna: "She's an obsessive Potter fan who'd actually had correspondence with Jo Rowling. When she was cast Jo rang me up because she just couldn't believe it - from her letters she said, 'She is Luna.'"

You can view scans of this spread here, thanks to reader Elle!

CBBC Newsround has just posted their interview with Evanna Lynch. In it, she talks about getting the role of Luna, reactions from fans, and much more. Read it here! You can see pictures from the interview in our gallery.

UPDATE: The video has been posted on CBBC's website...you can watch it by clicking here. You must download RealPlayer for the video to work. The interview, which aired on the BBC earlier today, included short clips of Dan and Emma talking about Evanna.

NEW MEDIA: You can find screencaps from the entire segment right here. We also have the video up (in a higher quality than the one on the BBC's site) which you can download in two different formats:

- Windows Media [10.46 MB, WMV]
- QuickTime/iPod [4.93 MB, MP4]

Thanks to EvannaLynchFans.com and everyone who's e-mailed with links!

The BBC has announced that they will be conducting an interview with Luna Lovegood actress Evanna Lynch tomorrow, at 5:25 PM in the UK.

If anyone is able to capture the video, please e-mail it to tips at staff dot mugglenet dot com! Thanks to everyone who e-mailed with the info.