It’s good to have Peter Shaffer back on Broadway with Equus. Whatever the flaws of the watershed 1973 psychodrama that became one of his biggest international successes, Mr. Shaffer reminds us of the lifeblood that’s being drained from the theater: the power of articulate ideas and ritual.

Like all his major plays—The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1964), Amadeus (1979)—the confrontation between two male protagonists in a war between ecstatic instinct and colder reason is found at the center of Equus. In Lettice and Lovage, his delightful 1987 stately home comedy written for Maggie Smith, he reversed his own convention and had two women fight for ascendancy, one of them a nutty fantasist, the other a conformist mediocrity.  read more »

A former assistant to McCartney ex Heather Mills named Michele Elyzabeth doesn’t seem to have anything nice to say about her former boss. [Daily Mail]

Uma Thurman may be expecting a child with fiancé Arpad "Arki" Busson. [NYDN]

Singer Natasha Bedingfield is engaged. [People]

Reforming playboy Fabian Basabe is opening a restaurant in Coral Gables, Fla. called Da Vittorio. [P6]   read more »

CONCERTS

As with Hollywood, the music industry seems have gone on a bit of a vacation these last few weeks. Maybe we’re just bummed about the final concert at McCarren Park Pool, but there doesn’t seem to be much going on.

Raise a glass of your last summer rosé to the Decemberists, then, for soldiering on. Colin Meloy and his crew take to the road this fall—their first gigs since performing for 75,000 at an Obama rally in Portland back in May—and their first stop is Terminal 5 on Nov. 5. But before then, you’ll have the band’s Always the Bridesmaid to look forward to.  read more »

Bad news for Harry Potter fans: due to a lackluster schedule for next summer, Warner Bros. has decided to move the next Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, from this November to about a year from now, July 17, 2009. You can blame the writers' strike, which left the studio without much to develop for the crucial summer slate, says Variety. It's especially bad timing, as Daniel Radcliffe, soon to be seen al fresco on Broadway in Equus, graces the Fall Movie Preview cover of Entertainment Weekly, out this week.

Olivier Award winner Richard Griffiths and stage and screen veteran Kate Mulgrew will get to see Daniel Radcliffe naked. A lot. They'll all be rehearsing together for the Broadway revival of Equus. Actually, Mr. Griffiths and Mr. Radcliffe have been pretty intimate before, since they all worked together on the London Equus revival in 2007. The play begins previews at the Broadhurst Theatre on Sept. 5. There will be an official opening on Sept. 25.

Mr. Radcliffe will star as Alan Strang with Mr. Griffiths as Dr. Martin Dysart. Ms. Mulgrew will play Hesther Saloman, the role created on Broadway by Marian Seldes in 1974.

Playbill has more:  read more »

Shine the Harry Potter signal! Equus, the hit London play starring rapidly budding heartthrob (maybe?) Daniel Radcliffe, will begin previews Sept. 5 at the Broadhurst Theatre, replacing the acclaimed revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Playbill reports that opening night is scheduled for Sept. 25, and the production will play a 22-week engagement through Feb. 8, 2009. Tickets go on sale to American Express Gold Card members on April 12 at 9 a.m. by calling (212) 239-6200 or by visiting www.telecharge.com. Set your alarms, you muggles.

Daniel Radcliffe, aka Harry Potter, has closed on a $4.9 million condo at 1 Morton Square, his second downtown apartment purchase in the past year. The New York Times reported the sale two weeks ago, but the deed just appeared in city records today.

The 18-year-old had been renting out the $4.3 million condo on Mercer Street he bought last November.  read more »

So Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe officially signed the contract to bring Equus (and the 10-minute sex scene that goes along with it) to Broadway next year. The New York Post tells us that he had to wrangle with studios over scheduling obligations to the Potter movies to make it happen.  read more »

We won’t be able to see Daniel Radcliffe’s razor sharp nipples in the Broadway production of Equus until September 2008. Bummer.

Science nerds collectively gasp: Bionic Woman and Battlestar Galactica productions have been shut down due to the strike.

The New Museum on the Bowery is opening Dec. 1. Everyone is freaking out about it.

Oy vey, Louis Vuitton designed a menorah!

Sometimes, with the unimaginable chaos in Iraq half-a-world away, we must turn to young celebrities, like Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, to remind us about the horrors of war. Speaking today about his role in British television’s My Boy Jack, in which he plays pro-war propagandist Rudyard Kipling’s son, Mr. Radcliffe, 18, said: “I think it is as relevant today as it ever was with young men all over the world still sacrificing their lives in the name of war.”

My Boy Jack was aired in the U.K. in conjunction with Remembrance Day; it’s also the subject of an exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in London. In his introduction to the retrospective, the actor explains: “I can’t even begin to imagine what it must have been like in the trenches living amongst the stench of death and knowing that at any moment it may be your last.”

Lest We Forget: Potter star on First World War [Reuters via Yahoo]