'Half-Blood Prince' Release Date Moved Up!

No doubt you recall the dark days last August when Warner Bros. announced that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was being pushed from its Nov. 21, 2008, release date all the way back to July 17, 2009. Surely you still bear the emotional scars of those troubled times, and I apologize if my mentioning it has reopened old wounds. But you will pleased to know that Warner Bros. has heard your plaintive weeping and done the honorable thing. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is being moved up -- all the way from July 17 to July 15! That's two whole days sooner that we'll get to see Harry, Henrietta, Rob, Haggad, Prof. Mumblecore and all the gang do battle with Vadermort!Astute readers might notice that July 17 is a Friday, making July 15 a Wednesday. Those readers might also recall that pretty much ALL of the biggest summer blockbusters have been coming out on Wednesdays lately. Cynical readers might wonder why HPATH-BP was ever scheduled for a Friday in the first place, and if indeed it was the plan all along to "change" it to Wednesday as a means of drumming up a little extra publicity now, in April, when most people wouldn't be thinking about the movie otherwise. To those readers I say: You're probably right. Still, good news. A Wednesday release date means it's really coming out late Tuesday night, at midnight, maybe even 10 p.m. No word yet on when the pirated copy will be avilable on the Internet.