Muggle mania!

The crowd, already antsy at 8PM.

Last night: riding on the Tube back from Harrod's, I was reading the newspaper and came across an article talking about the Harry Potter premiere in Leicester Square. Very interested, and remembering cousin Amy's advice to try to catch a premiere (thanks Amy!!), I went back to the flats to round up some recruits. Jenny was game, and we made our way.

We saw the theater (actually, we saw the signs first, then the crowd, and finally the theater) and joined the masses at 8PM. We discovered the priemere had been earlier in the evening and were disappointed to hear the stars we had missed: Johnny Depp, the entire cast, and I have even heard rumors of Madonna! The buzz among the crowd was that the stars would be exiting from the theatre after the show on the same red carpet. Determined to make up for lost star sightings, Jenny and I buckled in and even managed to get a few feet closer to the red carpet through the crowd's compression!

Just before 10PM, the stars began coming out. Freddie Highmore, of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Finding Neverland fame was the first to come out. Daniel Radcliffe followed, but was too quick to capture any good camera shots. We also saw the Weasley twin actors and Luna Lovegood's actress.

The closest brush came when Helena Bontham Carter came to our side of the carpet for autographs. At this point, I don't think I was standing... everyone was pushing so hard I think I was held up by everyone else's force!

Despite my close position to the red carpet, the rowdy crowd and many reaching hands and cameras prevented me from getting a lot of good shots. Luckily, to preserve our premiere memories, Jenny and I befriended a fellow American student, Tracy. She wasn't as affected by the crowd's force and was able to get some good pictures, which she kindly emailed to me today!

One of the few pictures I got that turned out decent: the long sparkly dress belongs to Evanna Lynch, who plays Luna Lovegood

A pic from Tracy of CA (a new friend) of Helena Bonham Carter, wife of Tim Burton and Belleatrix Lestrange (Voldemort groupie) in the movie

Official NY Daily News photo of the soaking wet stars

"Splashed" over the front of the papers today were pictures of the wet stars. Daniel's suit is shown soaked more than it is dry!

Jenny and I were on such a high from our night! It is definitely not everyday that you are in London for the night of the Harry Potter premiere!