UNITED KINGDOM: Thousands queue for chance to star as Luna Lovegood in new Harry Potter film, 'The Order of the Phoenix'

Thousands of school girls queued for hours on Saturday (January 14) in the hope they would be the one chosen to star as Luna Lovegood in the new Harry Potter film, 'The Order of the Phoenix.' Girls aged between 13 to 16 years old were asked to audition for the part of Luna Lovegood, one of the teen wizard's school mates at Hogwarts. No previous acting experience was necessary. Kim Allen, 15, from Hampshire, arrived late on Friday night (January 13) to be the first girl the casting directors would see. "We got here about half ten, 11 o'clock last night and we thought that - because Harry Potter is such an important film - that well, there's going to be loads of people here already. So, we walked around the corner. We thought - here we go. No one here," Allen said, still surprised hours later as thousands of girls queued behind her. "We get off the plane. We go to the train. We get on the train. We go to another train. Then we try to find another train. Then we get here. Then we have to get a taxi. Then we have to find out where we're going. It was so fun. And then we came here and I was like the fifth person here," said Megan Jackson, 14, who flew from Ireland to audition. The casting call in central London, near Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, was open to all girls in the correct age range who lived in the UK and Ireland. Production officials stopped people from queuing after 2 p.m. (1400GMT) but aimed to see everybody who had attended the call. Security officials estimated about 10,000 girls turned out for the chance to star in the next blockbuster film. The first appearance of the blonde-haired Lovegood appears in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". Described as having a dotty, distracted appearance, she is called "Looney Lovegood" behind her back. "Professionally you have to research to see what the character is about," said Claire Martin, 16, who was reading a copy of the book ahead of her audition. "I decided to read the book again and then visualise what I thought about her." "She's blonde and I am, sort of," said Heather Robinson, 13, as she stood among the thousands of other hopefuls. "I always thought she'd be quite tall and stuff. And I am tall. And I think she's got blue eyes in the book." For the girls lining several London streets, in a queue that stretched two miles long, the chance to play her in the new film could propel them to instant stardom. After waiting several hours, the girls had the identifications and bags checked ahead of their big moment. "There was about 50 people and we're all in a semi-circle and we're supposed to step forward, say our name and where we came from," said Alice Plews, shortly after her audition in which she was selected from the crowd for a closer viewing. "Then we went through into the next room and we were given scripts and we were supposed to just read through some of the script and they were recording it the whole time and it was all about, you know, surreal really." Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have become household names for millions of fans after they were chosen in 2000 to play Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley in the first Potter story to be turned into a movie. Radcliffe first played the bespectacled boy wizard in Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone at the age of 12. He beat 16,000 hopefuls who also auditioned for the part. J K Rowling's books about the adventures of Harry and his friends have become a worldwide publishing phenomenon, with six novels written, 300 million books sold in 63 countries and four films made.

ITN Source | January 19, 2006

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