Upon further reflection, I have changed my mind about my earlier prediction.

I now doubt that Sir Ian McKellen will be cast to replace Richard Harris in the Harry Potter series. That realization has me feeling rather sad, actually. Not sad in a teary sense, but rather, sad about the state of human development represented by that realization.

My reasoning is simple: it would cause more problems than it will solve. Sir Ian is a wonderful actor. He is, however, openly gay (and I loved his star turn on Saturday Night Live – including his stolen kiss from Jimmy Fallon). Can you imagine the outrage from our Religious Right? I mean, these are people who thought Tinky Winky of the Tele-Tubbies was gay.

These people – the Pat Robertson's and the Jerry Falwell's of the world – would go directly into apoplexy over sending children to see an openly gay actor portray the kindly, grandfatherly headmaster of a school for children. Never mind that there is absolutely nothing sexual about the character. Never mind that seeing a movie about wizards and magic requires at least some level of a suspension of disbelief.

Not that this moral outrage from the Religious Right regularly offers me solace.

These are the same types who insisted, in the days after September 11, that homosexuality, among other things, was the reason the death and destruction had been visited upon New York City.

They're the same men who now are condemning Islam as an evil religion and Mohammad as a terrorist. Never mind that their Right Wing rhetoric shows them to be, no more and no less, as radical in their religion as the Taliban was in theirs.

And in these days of heightened tension around the world, at a time when this country is thinking about attacking a sovereign Islamic nation, these men are the equivalent of a football player who can't keep his mouth shut before the game – they give terrorist bulletin board fodder.

Okay, stepping off the soapbox.

I do have another prediction for the role. Came to me in the shower, oddly enough. Well, maybe not so odd, considering his name.

Christopher Plumber. No. Wait. Christopher Plummer. Captain Von Trapp from Sound of Music. One of a string of actors to play Sir Charles Litton, the notorious Phantom in the Pink Panther movies. A former Sherlock Holmes. Father of Amanda Plummer. It's the voice. The voice, soft and resonant. Especially when he speaks softly.

More soon.