Wouldn't winner-take-all Quidditch have been easier?

Rowling (and Warner Bros.) sued Vander Ark's publisher RDR Books last year, claiming their "Harry Potter Lexicon" - based on Vander Ark's Web site - infringed on her copyright.

Vander Ark, a former middle school librarian, who has devoted years to studying the books and indexing their content, wiped away tears when he was asked to reflect on what the case has done to his relationship with Potter fans.

"It's been . . . it's been," he stammered, choking on his words. "It's been difficult because there has been a lot of criticism, obviously, and that was never the intention . . . This has been an important part of my life for the last nine years or so."

During Vander Ark's testimony, he acknowledged that he, too, had concerns about whether the encyclopedia would constitute copyright infringement. He said he was talked into doing it by RDR.

Rowling testified Monday that the Harry Potter characters are too precious to allow an inferior Potter encyclopedia to be published without letting the world know the ordeal is draining her of her will to write.

"I believe that it is sloppy, lazy and that it takes my work wholesale, verbatim. This book constitutes wholesale theft of 17 years of my hard work," she said.

She also said she recently started work on her own encyclopedia to be completed in two to three years. If Vander Ark's is published, "I'm not at all convinced that I would have the will or the heart to continue with my encyclopedia," she said.

Oh, please.

In his opening statement, RDR lawyer Anthony Falzone did not contest that the lexicon infringed upon Rowling's copyright but argued it was a fair use allowable by law for reference books.

Yo! 'Mama'

At "Baby Mama" press day Monday in NYC, stars Amy Poehler and Upper Darby's Tina Fey (in the People Paper, she can only be referred to as "Upper Darby's Tina Fey") were asked their favorite TV shows (besides "Saturday Night Live" and "30 Rock").

Tina said she was a fan of "Arrested Development" and both versions of "The Office" (she'll soon be in a film with Ricky Gervais) plus, acknowledging she's "a 37-year-old white lady," added "Project Runway," "Barefoot Contessa" and almost anything on the Food Network.

Upbeat Amy said when she gets home from a day of laughs, all she wants to do is cry. She cited "The Wire," "Frontline" and "Intervention" as faves - "things to really bring me down."

The two pals, who've known each other 15 years from their early improv days in Chicago, love working together and Amy said one of her dreams for the pair is a "dramatic musical playing two of the three Pointer Sisters."

Asked her opinion of the Vanity Fair article on the novelty of funny women, Tina said, "I sort of did a President Bush; 'Not gonna like it, not gonna read it.'

Besides, she added, "I don't have the kind of time to read a Vanity Fair article."

Tina did have time to read an issue of the New York Post and comment on the paper's refusal to print the acronym "MILF" after a semi-controversial "30 Rock" episode featuring the faux (for now) NBC show "MILF Island."

Noting the Post's coverage of Eliot Spitzer, she said, "The Post would not print 'MILF' - yet they ran five glamour pages on a prostitute."

Tattbits

* Anger-challenged Naomi Campbell always has bad blood with someone.

So Brazil doesn't want any of it.

Naomi wanted to help fight a dengue fever epidemic in Rio de Janeiro, but officials turned her away from a blood drive.

She needs to wait longer after having surgery in February to remove a cyst.

Meanwhile, Rio Mayor Cesar Maia has invited Naomi to be a goodwill ambassador for the city.

Who needs Carnivale?

* One of Rob Lowe's former nannies, Jessica Gibson, claims Lowe sexually abused her for years but she continued to work for him and his wife, Sheryl, because she loved their two sons and needed the job.

In her suit, Gibson says Lowe touched her inappropriately several times between 2005 and 2008. She had worked for the Lowes on and off for seven years before quitting on Feb. 24.

"I always thought it would be different when I went back, but it was not," Gibson said in the suit. Last week, Lowe sued three ex-employees, including Gibson. He said she wanted $1.5 million to stay silent about the abuse allegation. Lowe's attorney dismissed Gibson's allegations as "outrageous" and "untrue."

Gibson's attorney, the ubiquitous talking head Gloria Allred, said Lowe filed his suit after his attorneys saw "the original content of our suit."

"They may have thought their pre-emptive strike would intimidate our client," Allred said. "I can assure them it will not."

* Toni Braxton won't return to the Flamingo stage on the Las Vegas Strip until at least next month while she has more medical tests for chest pain. Ironically, Toni is best known for the song "Un-break My Heart."

* With a new album in tow, Neil Diamond is hitting the road for a European/North American tour launching May 24 in Holland.

He'll play Philadelphia's Wachovia Center on Aug. 9.

* Playboy.com is searching for the sexiest "Girls of Olive Garden." No breadsticks. Candidates must be current employees. For details, go to playboy.com/kendralovesolivegarden.

Like the Olive Garden's Soup & Salad special, it will be an all you can eat pictorial. Kendra Wilkinson, star of E!'s "The Girls Next Door," will personally pick the winners. Kendra's a huge fan of Olive Garden, thus implying that Hef has destroyed her taste buds. *

Daily News wire services contributed to this report.

Send e-mail to gensleh@phillynews.com