Jerry Brown and the politics of Harry Potter

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The new Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood will be officially unveiled Tuesday. In these times of sluggish state job growth and an unemployment rate stuck in double digits, Gov. Jerry Brown is highlighting the project as a California job creator.

Brown will join the list of those muggles (that’s humans to you non-Potter readers) expected to be on hand for the announcement, including Universal head Ron Meyer and Barry Meyer, chief executive of Warner Bros.

While the project has been confirmed by the studio, details remain sketchy. But the studio is hoping to repeat the success it had with Potter-related attractions at its theme park in Florida. Times reporter Brady MacDonald reported “Wizarding World proved an instant hit when it opened in June 2010 at Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure theme park. Crowds often grow so thick in the incredibly detailed 20-acre land that visitors are slowed to a shoulder-to-shoulder crawl.”

Brown is expected to be in Los Angeles on Monday for the Democratic Governors Assn.’s ‘holiday party and annual meeting’ in Beverly Hills.

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-- Anthony York in Sacramento