No Sign of Rowling at Harry Potter PRemier

[SVZ]

Take some screeching fans, a fire-breathing dragon and several intermittently hooting owls -- throw in a bit of typical English weather and what do you get? Nothing less than the magical orchestration that is the world premier of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, featured Sunday on London's Leicester Square.

There was Harry, played by the fast-maturing Daniel Radcliffe and his co-star Rupert Grint, both snazzy in their matching velvet suits by designer Christian Lacroix. But the real star of the evening's red carpet though was of a female nature. No, not the book's billionaire author, but the ambrosial 15-year-old actress Emma Watson, a.k.a. Hermione Granger. The adoring British papers professed that she looked "every inch the movie star." A steady squelching rain couldn't hold back the enthusiasm of fans of the teenage wizard at the centre of Rowling's best-selling tomes and their films. But wait--where was the original star and instigator of the global Potter phenomenon, J.K. Rowling?

The venerated author, worth just over a $1 billion, reportedly missed the first screening of the Goblet of Fire two weeks ago to take care of her husband who had just arrive home from an operation for appendicitis.

Subsequently taking the cue to replace the grown-up celebrity on Sunday was Madonna, prompting near hysteria from U.K. tabloids who cooed that the "star mum" not only appeared with her daughter Lourdes, but was dressed head to toe in "this season's must-have color--purple."

The latest film, produced and distributed by Time Warner's (nyse: TWX - news - people ) Warner Bos. unit, has been described by critics as "darker", and "more gruesome" than its three predecessors. The, plot, characters and actors may be maturing, but the prosperity of Potter shows little sign of decline.