STEPHEN FRY - FRY WORRIED POTTER SEQUEL WILL BE TOO LONG

British actor STEPHEN FRY is anxious JK ROWLING's next HARRY POTTER book will be too long for him to narrate.

The English novelist his week (begs28JUN04) revealed her sixth book about the bespectacled teen wizard will be called HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE - much to the excitement of Rowling's millions of fans.

Fry - who narrates the stories for audio tapes - isn't interested in the new book's plot, but he's dreading the amount of time it will take for him to record, if it's as "meaty" as the author has suggested.

Fry says, "I would have my legs cut off if I gave anything away. But I think we can probably say that this next one is probably not going to be longer than the ORDER OF THE PHOENIX - 29 hours of listening if you buy the tapes or CDs. That's a lot of studio time reading!"

"In fact, whenever I see Jo Rowling, I've just become completely banal and vulgar - I'm not at all interested. I don't care what the story is, who lives, who dies, just 'How long is it going to be?'"