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How embarrassing for Voldemort -- it turns out the vilest villain in the world wasn't just defeated by a boy wizard, but a boy wizard who'd had a few too many Firewhiskeys.

Daniel Radcliffe -- who admitted last July that he battled alcohol addiction for a couple of years before kicking booze in 2010 -- tells the British celebrity magazine Heat that he was definitely drunk during the filming of some scenes in the Harry Potter films. But don't go comparing Dan to Charlie Sheen just yet. The 22-year-old actor insists he never imbibed on the set; he just turned up still buzzing from the previous night.

"I can honestly say I never drank at work on Harry Potter. I went into work still drunk, but I never drank at work," he tells the magazine. "I can point to many scenes where I'm just gone. Dead behind the eyes."

So how is it that no one ever caught on to the fact that young Potter's Butterbeer wasn't of the non-alcoholic variety?

"People with problems like that are very adept at hiding it," Radcliffe explains. "It was bad. I don't want to go into details but I drank a lot and it was daily -- I mean nightly."

Radcliffe, who previously referred to himself as a "very unsuccessful drinker," has since kicked the booze, and feels better for it.

"I loved the fact I suddenly could talk to people and feel so entertaining and so interesting," he tells Heat. "But after a while, you're living under such a cloud of shame about what you've done and the dread of who you might see, what you might have said to them, what you might have done with them. You either have to change something or give into that shame and I wasn't prepared to do that at 21."

Another thing Radcliffe isn't prepared to do is abuse his fame. The actor, who recently completed an acclaimed Broadway run in How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying and currently stars in the eerie thriller The Woman in Black, says he's never done "the groupie thing" (a fact that surely pleases his current girlfriend Rosie Coker).

"I like to like somebody before I sleep with them, I really do," he insists. "You know you're going to have to talk to them afterwards, even if it is a one-night stand. I have… I mean that has happened, but generally speaking I've known the person. Someone once said to me, 'You can go outside and pick from the girls at the stage door.' And I said, 'No, that's not me.' Because, to do that, you kind of have to be a dick."

There's no playing nice in the world of reality singing competitions! Shortly after American Idol's Randy Jackson went "there" by taking a jab at The Voice during a Television Critics Association panel, Adam Levine came to his show's defense. 

"The winner of The Voice, as I will remind you, was an artist that had a deal at Capitol Records for many years, a failed contract over there," said Jackson. "So it’s almost like that show, it was almost like second chance people."

During an appearance on Ellen, Levine responded to Jackson's recent comments -- watch here: 

 
"Shame on Randy Jackson for saying that," he said. "Because he of anybody should know that if you’re in this business you need second, third, fourth and fifth chances. So we love and embrace having that being part of the show." 

Well played, Levine! It must have been tough to respond to Jackson while avoiding being catty, especially after Randy also dissed the show's set-up when he said, "we will definitely never ever rip off Star Trek like The Voice did with spinning chairs." Ouch.

When The Voice kicks off its second season (Sunday, Feb. 5, after the Super Bowl on NBC), it's returning as a hit that averaged more than 12 million viewers last season. It's actually in position to give American Idol (Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET, on FOX) a run for its money as the highest-rated show on TV, considering Idol is down more than 20 percent in the ratings from last year at this time.

As this sneak peek demonstrates, the format of The Voice is different enough that the show does a good job of separating itself in its crowded space: 

Yes, many contestants' stories are edited to tug at viewers' heartstrings, but the mentoring aspect of the competition -- with Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton -- is a winning detail. Also, the fact that the four judges, who are all up for Grammys this year, compete against one another in coaching a group of contestants -- and each hopes to have the winning singer on his or her team -- adds another dimenion to the competitive aspect of the show.

Considering The Voice had such a successful rookie season, executive producer Mark Burnett has made only some slight tweaks to its second season. The teams will be bigger, with 12 acts each instead of eight. And the blind auditions and head-to-head battles will be extended. Also, the interactive component of the show has been given a little boost of star-power now that singer Christina Milian has joined the cast as a social media correspondent. 

"If you thought last year was amazing, wait till you see this year," says Shelton in this preview trailer. And Levine makes yet another mention of how his show is different from Idol. "At the root of it, it's singers guiding other singers to where they need to be," he says. "That's why there's something very special about this show." We couldn't agree more!

Get ready for Sunday's premiere by watching the full trailer here:

Elizabeth Banks plays an expectant mom in What To Expect When You're Expecting -- but in real life, the 37-year-old actress struggled to get pregnant for years before she and producer husband Max Handelman decided to pursue gestational surrogacy instead.

In the March issue of Women's Health, Banks reveals that once she realized that having a baby is all about the birth of her child and not about the actual pregnancy, she knew surrogacy was the way to go.

"It helps that other moms had said that once they had their babies, they forgot they were ever pregnant," she says. "So once my focus became the baby and not the pregnancy, it was a very easy decision."

Banks and Handelman are now the happy parents to Felix, who was born in March 2011. But even with a newborn and two busy schedules, Banks and her hubby, who have been together for 19 years, make sure they have time for each other -- even if it is to work (they own a production company together).

"Working together provides a lot of balance in our life and it's a way for us to (see each other), because I travel so much for work," she says.

And because of that balance, Banks thinks she and Handelman have the stuff to make their relationship last.

"I have an amazing marriage, and it will be long-lasting. I think I'm a good mom," Banks says. "I could run for office, no problem, because there are no skeletons in my closet. Not that I would run for office."

Banks can currently be seen in Man on a Ledge, and stars next as Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games, out March 23.

Michael Fassbender hasn't let the fact that he got gipped by the Academy Awards bring him down! In fact, the Shame star reportedly partied so hard in London on Tuesday that he had to get a piggyback ride out of the bar.

Fassbender, 34, was photographed having one heck of a time at the afterparty for the U.K. premiere of his film A Dangerous Method: He was snapped playing the piano and dancing with costars Keira Knightley and Viggo Mortensen.

In fact, U.K. tabloid The Sun claims that Fassbender got a little bit two rowdy at the party and was asked to vacate the premises after lighting a cigarette in the bar.

"Michael was politely asked to leave... it was becoming a bit of a handful for the other guests," an attendee at the GQ-hosted party told The Sun, adding that Fassbender jovially obliged.

But GQ editor Olivia Cole -- who was also at the soiree -- was quick to debunk The Sun's story, taking to Twitter to call it "complete fiction."

"We were glad he was there and no one was asked to leave early," she tweeted. "But hey, feel free to just make it up."

While the story of why Fassbender left the party is a bit muddled, there's no disputing how the actor made his exit: in grand fashion.

Photos show a grinning Fassbender getting a piggyback ride out the door from an unidentified male (who kind of looks like Guy Ritchie). Looks like the perfect end to a fun night.

In which the X Factor winner performs her leaked version of "Respect" in front of Elton John. (She then disposes of him via a trap door that surely also claimed Paula Abdul, Nicole Scherzinger, and Steve Jones as casualties.) [YouTube]

Read more posts by Kyle Buchanan

Filed Under: the x factor ,clickables ,tv ,melanie amaro ,elton john

Surely mine won’t be the first joke made about the Material Girl making a Material Movie. Madonna’s W.E., about the legendary romance between American divorcee Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII, seems to find as much soul in objects as it does in people – which is perhaps ironic for a tale of tempestuous passion and lives abandoned for the sake of desire. (Edward abdicated his throne in 1936 in order to marry Wallis, and they became the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.) As such, this love story is a surprisingly chilly affair — but not always in a bad way. It’s a mess, and occasionally ridiculous, but it has a cool, pointed beauty all its own.

The film actually interweaves two stories: The first is that of Wallis (Andrea Risborough) and Edward (James D’Arcy) – she’s been unhappily wed once before, and is currently married to pleasant, obliging Ernest (David Harbour). She and Edward first meet at a party, and, having prepared obsessively for their introduction, she’s already seducing him, even if she doesn’t realize it yet. The then-Prince of Wales soon becomes quite taken with her, and her husband reluctantly tolerates their growing intimacy. The love affair itself is treated as a whirlwind of parties, dances, and foreign travel; the things, perhaps, of a young girl’s fantasy. Edward’s family is up in arms, of course, but no matter — this is a man in love. Even his abdication is treated like the act of a hopeless romantic, not that of a monarch who threw his country into turmoil while the rest of Europe was starting to burn.

The second story, which serves as a framing device set in 1998, belongs to Wally Winthrop (Abbie Cornish), a well-heeled but unhappily married society beauty who finds herself obsessed with an exhibit of Wallis and Edward’s personal objects ahead of a Sotheby’s auction. Wally was named after Wallis, but her fondness for the historic lovers likely goes deeper: Her shrink husband is cheating on her, she’s desperate to have a child, and she seems to find genuine solace in the vestiges of this supposed Royal fairy tale. Under the watchful eye of a hunky Russian security guard (Oscar Isaac), who will predictably play a bigger role in her life, she repeatedly visits the exhibit. As Wally’s eyes and hands hover over the fine china, silverware, tablecloths, and jewelry, the older story comes to life before our eyes.

Well, almost: The fluid camera dances among teacups and cocktail glasses as much as it does the faces, and characters rarely come into focus. Even the framing device of the Sotheby’s auction suggests a kind of material transmigration of the soul – as if our doomed, legendary lovers somehow managed to fragment and bury their spirit in a thousand glistening knickknacks. Madonna cuts rapidly between the different time periods of the film, and we may wonder if all this frenzied storytelling is deliberately withholding something. Turns out it is: A touching revelation in the third act actually winds up justifying the film’s aesthetic, but it also feels like a bit of an afterthought, because the script hasn’t set it up properly.

And yet, for all that, W.E. kind of works. Madonna knows something about movement, attraction, and seduction. The women in her film walk gracefully and command the center of the screen, while the men always seem to hover along the edges, even when one is the King of England. The whole thing feels like a dance of seduction, and we, like Edward, can’t take our eyes off Risborough’s Wallis. “I’ve never seen one person so utterly possessed by another as he was by her,” someone says about them later on, and we know what they’re talking about.

“Love” might not be the right word here: After Edward gives her a series of crosses during a whirlwind European tour, Wallis tells him he “knows the way to a girl’s heart.” “I wasn’t aiming that high,” he replies. Their relationship is somehow both all-consuming and all surface. It’s not like they sit around and talk about literature or anything; rather, she mixes drinks, dances, and looks fabulous in carefully chosen dresses, while all he has to do is be a prince. That may sound like a condemnation, but it seems to be the essence of the story Madonna is trying to tell, one of status, artifice, and illusion. When we first see Wallis, in a flashback to her first marriage, she seems elegant, poised, and graceful, only to be quickly beaten down by her brute of a first husband. She needs someone who will match the needs of her imagined self. So what if it’s all surface? Look hard enough at surfaces, the film seems to be saying, and you’ll find souls trapped within.

Read more posts by Bilge Ebiri

Paramount and Michael Bay aren't playing around: In order to lock up Oscar votes, they're running actual commercials to tout the movie's effects and sound design. Take that, Andy Serkis! [YouTube]

Read more posts by Kyle Buchanan

Filed Under: movies ,clickables ,transformers dark of the moon ,oscars ,oscars race 2012 ,awards

"Courteney, with an exclamation point!" [Funny or Die]

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Filed Under: cougar town ,tv ,clickables ,courteney cox

THR is reporting that Zalman King, director of Red Shoe Diaries and Wild Orchid, has passed away at age 69. Around twenty years ago, King (who also produced 9 1/2 Weeks and the Showtime version of Red Shoe Diaries) was something of a mogul when it came to erotic dramas, and his heavily backlit sex scenes, in which well-coiffed brunettes were ravished at night in lofts and fire escapes, gave him an unmistakable aesthetic stamp. The news of his death was first broken by Charlie Sheen on Facebook, who wrote, "The world lost a brilliant and noble soul today. My dear friend of 40 years, Zalman King, just lost his battle with cancer. Fought like a recon marine til the bitter end."

Read more posts by Kyle Buchanan

Filed Under: zalman king ,obits ,movies