Lucy Honeychurch casts a spell

I fell in love with Helena Bonham Carter after seeing A Room with a View. I don't know what it was about her. Maybe I have some weird Edwardian fetish.

Actually, that makes sense because I kind of lost interest in her after she quit playing E.M. Forster heroines. Although that was also about the time when she was standing a bit too close to Kenneth Branagh when he and Emma Thompson divorced. And I was a big fan of Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson. Still am.

I'm dangerously close to losing my point for posting this, but I'll add that the last scoop of dirt on the grave of my Helena Bonham Carter crush was her again standing a bit too close to Tim Burton when he and Lisa Marie broke up. Not that I'm huge fans of either of theirs; it just got me thinking.

My point is that Helena Bonham Carter's name in the credits still gets my attention. The Edwardian fetish is actually related to my love for historical stories of any medium, and Helena still conjures up images for me of England and Italy and the sound of "O Mio Babbino Caro" from Puccini's Gianni Seicchi. There's also the fact that she's a great actress.

Which is all to say that I'm glad she got the role of Bellatrix Lestrange in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I haven't read the Potter books -- I'm just enjoying the movies as they come out -- so I can't comment on her appropriateness for the role. All I know is that I have no problem at all seeing Helena Bonham Carter playing a character named Bellatrix Lestrange.

Incidentally, the role originally went to Helen (Count of Monte Cristo, Casanova) McCrory, but Helen is pregnant and will be pretty far along in the process by the time her scenes are ready to be shot.

All of this Potter news comes to us courtesy of Cinematical, who also reports that the last Harry Potter book is scheduled to come out next year.