So True? So False? Did Daniel Radcliffe Shun Queen Elizabeth's Jubilee Celebration?!

Last we checked, he didn't have a Harry Potter filming schedule to attend to...

By Natalie Finn Jun 05, 2012 1:18 AMTags
Daniel RadcliffePrisma / Splash News

What Brit wouldn't want to be a part of Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee? It's the party of the year!

But, though he acts, sings, dances and looks great in white tie and tails, we didn't see Daniel Radcliffe at the celebratory concert outside Buckingham Palace tonight.

Well, he has been in New York for most of the year, starring on Broadway in How to Success in Business Without Really Trying. But London is just a pond-hop away from Manhattan! And wouldn't the special song cowritten by Andrew Lloyd Webber have been a perfect fit for the musical-theater buff?

Could it be that the boy who lived, er, played Harry Potter turned down an invitation to participate in the royal festivities?

Hang onto your commemorative miniature flags, mates, because the rumor is...

So false!

But, in addition to getting Prince Harry on tambourine, it turns out that Webber and English pop star Gary Barlow did consider asking Radcliffe to take the lead on "Sing." In fact, they considered the idea to be a "real corker"!

"Who better than a young Brit, known throughout the world as Harry Potter, to sing on such an occasion?" Webber recalled to the Telegraph. "The problem was that Daniel is anti-monarchy and has given interviews to this effect, so we decided that it was probably not a path we should pursue."

Perhaps.

"I am not a royalist. Not at all," Radcliffe replied when the Daily Beast asked in 2009. "I am definitely a republican in the British sense of the word. I just don't see the use of the monarchy though I'm [a] fierce patriot. I'm proud, proud, proud of being English, but I think the monarchy symbolizes a lot of what was wrong with the country.

"Not that they're doing anything wrong," he added, "but that symbol of class division is not something I particularly like. And I am a very upper-middle-class kid. I have nothing against the royals as people. I've never met them."

Webber and Barlow obviously didn't want to be the ones to play matchmaker.

Instead, Barlow sang and they commissioned choirmaster Gareth Malone to complete the royal sound and Webber revealed in his interview that the queen has said she's "delighted" with the finished product.

We probably, however, won't be seeing the word Sir attached to Radcliffe (or, as he might known among the royal family, He Who Must Not Be Named) anytime soon.