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'Phoenix' Rising

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NO HORSING AROUND Unlike Harry, seen here on trial at the Ministry of Magic, Warner execs say they never made Radcliffe defend his roles in Equus or Extras to them

Murray Close

1. Daniel Radcliffe does not appear naked in this film
He also doesn't smoke, swear, simulate sex with any young actresses, or blind any make-believe horses. Radcliffe has been engaging in all these un-Harry behaviors eight times a week this winter and spring, playing a troubled lad in a stage production of Equus in London's West End. It's a showcase that seems deliberately designed to shake up his chaste onscreen image. ''Hopefully, people will be able to see me as other things,'' he says. Theater critics certainly have, handing him excellent notices and declaring the mantle of Potter officially cast off. Warner Bros. execs have professed to be delighted by the career move, although British tabloid reporters fell over themselves to suggest otherwise before Equus opened. (Studio reps also took exception to claims that they freaked over Radcliffe's guest stint on Ricky Gervais' sitcom Extras last fall — not aired till this year in the U.S. — spoofing himself as an oversexed child star who brags about his seduction plans while brandishing an unfurled condom.) So in Phoenix, does the now-15-year-old Harry get any sort of adolescent-rebel nooky action? Yes: one kiss with sweetheart Cho Chang (Katie Leung).

2. Hermione isn't quitting
In a Newsweek interview last year, Emma Watson, who plays Harry's brainy female buddy, said she was ambivalent about whether she wants to remain an actress. At 16, she's the youngest of the three main Potter kids (Rupert Grint, as Ron Weasley, is the eldest at 18), and she dragged her feet before agreeing to films 3 and 4. In mid-March, British tabs circulated stories that she was more than wavering about the last two movies — that she flat out wasn't going to do them, despite Warner supposedly offering her nearly $4 million for each. (Warner won't comment on salary negotiations, but as a point of comparison, Radcliffe got a reported $13 million just for Phoenix.) All the breathless assertions turned out to be about as reliable as a news flash from Harry's tabloid-journo nemesis Rita Skeeter. ''Of course she was always going to come back,'' says a rep on the Potter films, blaming some of the delay on ironing out Watson's complicated school schedule. It's all academic now anyway, with Watson safely signed.

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