The Harry Potter franchise has grossed more than $1.7 billion at the American box office, no small feat for a series of films about pale British children struggling with dragons, cloaks, and strange new feelings. American audiences responded particularly well to young leads Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, mobbing them on press tours and never once telling Radcliffe he looks like k.d. lang. They weren't actors--they were tiny foreign people who grew up before our eyes.

As it turns out, they weren't nearly as fascinated with America as it was with them. How else to explain their inability to speak in serviceable American accents during a recent interview MTV's Josh Horowitz? Watson is fluttery and charming and British and perfect, like a character Minnie Driver would have played in 1997, except real. On the other hand, Radcliffe--an actor who has spent the last decade of his life yelling out words like 'Avada Kedavra' and 'Tarantallegra' and pretending they mean something--seems unable process the notion of an American ordering a product called 'mozzarella sticks.'

Guess they don't teach that at wizard boarding school.

(H/T to Pablo Torre)

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Ray Gustini