HBP delayed because of "Equus"?

[Carol]

bboyminn: wrote
> 
> I think this idea the 'naked Dan' is the problem has been
discredited by everyone including Dan himself.
> 
> First, as Geoff points out, the whole notion defies logic. Dan has
already performed the play in London. When it was announced that he
was going to strip off in the controversial play in London, we heard
news report right away that Warner was furious at the idea. Yet,
Warner threw there full support behind Dan and the play. 
> 
> Now some trumped up reporter from Faux..er...Fox News came out with
this idea, and it has spread to countless other media outlets. 
> 
> And there in lies the problem. No one is actually reporting news any
more. A few stories go out on the wire services, and everyone just
repeats them over and over as if they had some exclusive scoop. As if
/this/ is really news. 
>
<snip>

Carol responds:

I agree that many news stories are just copied, with little original
thinking or real knowledge of the situation. (Whether that's a new
trend or goes back to AP and other news services providing world and
national stories for local papers in the 1930s or earlier, I don't
know.) Certainly, copying is an Internet phenomenon causing much more
serious problems than rumors about Dan Radcliffe and the reasons for
WB's moving the release date of HBP. I was going to mention all those
stories about "two deaths" in DH when what JKR really said was that
there would be two *unplanned* deaths--we, unlike those reporters,
knew perfectly well that more than two people would die, but there
that story was, all over the Internet, as if it echoed what JKR had
really said. Possibly we're seeing the same phenomenon here.
Certainly, this story is not based on what B actually said--but, then,
we have no guarantee that WB is giving us its real motives, either.

However, I want to point out that I was only quoting the story, not
presenting it as true or my own viewpoint. I also want to mention that
it's not just the nudity that this author and others think might
contaminate Dan's image: it's the brutal treatment of horses in the
play, "raping and blinding them," as the author puts it. Needless to
say, that's something that Harry Potter wouldn't do, and it's actually
quite possible that WB wants to distance Dan and by extension Harry
and the whole HP franchise as far as possible from that violent image.

Just presenting the other side's view. Please don't attack me, anyone.
I'm not for a moment denying that WB's primary motive is money and the
hope of two profitable years rather than a "fat" year (2009 with HBP)
followed by a lean one (2009 with no summer blockbuster).

Carol, trying to make herself watch the Democratic convention and
wishing it were as exciting as the Olympics