Rowling hints at ending

London – Don’t cry, but two “Harry Potter” characters are going to die, says author J.K. Rowling.

Rowling says in a Britain television interview that she wrote the final chapter for the final book years ago. She thinks it was back in 1990, before she even had a publisher for the first one. The chapter includes the death of two characters, though she does admit making a change to give the third character a reprieve. She won’t say whether the wizard boy is at risk.

“I have never been tempted to kill him off before the final because I’ve always planned seven books, and I want to finish on seven books,” Rowling said Monday.

“I can completely understand, however, the mentality of an author who thinks, ‘Well, I’m gonna kill them off because that means there can be no non-author-written sequels. So it will end with me, and after I’m dead and gone they won’t be able to bring back the character’.”

Rowling declined to commit herself about Harry, saying she doesn’t want to receive hate mail.

A scolding for Boy George

New York – Boy George, the former Culture Club singer, got a scolding from a judge for not complying with the terms of his sentence on a drug charge.

“I’m not going to give you another chance,” Criminal Court Judge Anthony Ferrara warned Monday. The singer, whose real name is George O’Dowd, didn’t do the community service required by a plea deal.

O’Dowd pleaded guilty in March to third-degree false reporting of an incident. The charge followed his false report of a burglary at his Lower Manhattan apartment where police said they found cocaine.

Under his plea deal, O’Dowd was to enter a drug program in England and do five days of community service in Manhattan. He was also ordered to pay a fine of about $1,000 and to avoid arrest for the next six months.

But O’Dowd didn’t do the community service. The judge gave O’Dowd until Aug. 28 to complete it.

His lawyer, Louis Freeman, said O’Dowd always intended to comply with all the terms of his conditional discharge, but had proposed working with an HIV/AIDS charity while he was in an outpatient drug-treatment program.

The judge rejected that proposal.

“He’ll probably be raking leaves in Central Park, or something like that,” Freeman said of O’Dowd, who was referred to the Sanitation Department for possible assignment.

When O’Dowd left the assignment office, he quipped, “I’m going to be teaching basketball in Harlem.”

Superman goes back to Iowa

West Des Moines, Iowa – Superman’s parents say Brandon Routh is still the kind and earnest son they raised in Norwalk. That may be true, but things are changing for the star of “Superman Returns.”

Back in Iowa for a special premiere of his new movie, Routh was greeted by dozens of fans as he walked the red carpet outside Jordan Creek Town Center in West Des Moines on Sunday. It was quite a change from the relative anonymity of growing up in a sleepy town like Norwalk.

“Having people at the airport, wanting autographs or taking photos of me getting out of a car – it’s definitely different,” the 26-year-old actor said.

The screening was delayed more than 40 minutes as Routh worked the crowd outside the theater, posing for pictures, signing autographs and talking to members of the media.

“Superman Returns,” also starring Kate Bosworth and Kevin Spacey, opens in theaters Wednesday.

Now Bogie has a place

New York – The Upper West Side brownstone where Humphrey Bogart grew up has long ago been turned into public housing. But the block, like Paris, will always be his.

Scores of fans stood in the drizzle this weekend as the city unveiled a plaque renaming the short stretch in front of 245 W. 103rd St. as Humphrey Bogart Place.

“Bogie would have never believed it,” said Lauren Bacall, who was married to the Oscar-winning actor from 1945 until his death in 1957. She said the day was an emotional one, and her time with Bogart too short.

“I’m happy he is honored,” she said. “Of course, it’s only brass on a wall.”

Born in 1899 to well-to-do parents, a surgeon and an illustrator, Bogart lived at the home until 1923. He went on to make dozens of films, including the classics “The Maltese Falcon,” “Casablanca” and “The African Queen.”

The campaign to recognize the actor’s connection to the neighborhood was waged by a movie buff and fellow kid from the block, Gary Dennis.