{babes} For 'Potter' star Emma Watson, premiere is hair-raising moment

LONDON — Glance at the cover of every London newspaper Friday, and it would seem that the latest Harry Potter movie is actually called Hermione Granger and the Deathly Hallows. Or maybe Emma Watson and the Pixie Hairdo.

Photos of 20-year-old Watson, who plays the young wizard Hermione, in her new short coif graced all the front pages of London dailies after Thursday night's premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1. The film, based on the first half of J.K. Rowling's seventh and final book, opens Friday.

Watson — a fashionista soon to be seen on the December cover of Vogue — posed on the red carpet in a short black lace and feathered dress from Atelier Mayer, "which takes vintage fabrics and asks designers to rework them," she says.

She called her glamorous mini "quite ethical in a sense because it's made of used fabrics. It seemed like an obvious choice for me."

Vintage might also describe her new hairstyle. The look has been compared to that of Mia Farrow circa Rosemary's Baby and Twiggy in her Carnaby Street days.

Watson chopped off her long hair in August. She says the general reaction has been positive but allows that "it's a bit of a shock for some people simply because it's different."

Dressed down in jeans and a T-shirt the day after the premiere, Watson calls her shorn locks "liberating."

In Rowling's books, brainy Hermione's most oft-described physical characteristic is her long, bushy hair.

"I just needed to do something that signaled, 'OK, you're entering a new phase,' " says Watson, who speaks of "the hole in her heart" upon completing a decade of working on the Potter series. "I needed to do something to move on in some way."

After growing up on the Potter set, Watson, a native of Oxfordshire, began a new chapter last year in the USA by enrolling at Brown University, where she's majoring in history. It seemed logical to update her appearance. And there was some familiarity associated with the look.

"My mom has the same cut, so I kind of knew it was going to be OK," says Watson. "We look quite similar, so I had a bit of confidence."

Watson concedes that the short, boyish style has taken some getting used to. "It did feel weird at first. I keep doing this" — she runs her fingers through her closely cropped hair. "I keep expecting to feel something."

But it's wash and wear now. "That's my favorite part: getting out of the shower and shaking off like a dog," says Watson. "It dries so quickly. I don't have to do anything to it."