MAGIC TIME RICHARD HARRIS FINDS THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WIZARD IN 'HARRY POTTER' SOMEWHAT MYSTIFYING.

Byline: David Kronke Staff Writer

HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND - Richard Harris shuffles through the 15th-century palace where a day's worth of press promoting ``Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' is transpiring, off for his second cigarette break in as many interviews. He wears a long yellow coat with navy pinstripes that just might be a bathrobe, a navy stocking cap and hyper- striped running shoes, a cross between an elderly man and a gangsta rapper. His studio handler delivers the instructions for ensuring Harris makes it through the day: ``We need to keep him smoked up, coffee'd up and sugared up.''

Kids, meet Harry's Professor Dumbledore.

At age 71, Harris is the veteran of 72 films, two Oscar nominations (he's appeared in two Best Picture-winning films in the past decade, ``Unforgiven'' and ``Gladiator''), countless stage and TV performances, and two books. He's also almost as famous for his off-screen antics, which he happily discusses at length.

And now, he's assuming what may become the most-seen role of his life, the wise and wizened Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts, the school of witchcraft and wizardry at which Harry Potter and his friends matriculate. Hogwarts is also filled with much sinister intrigue - Dumbledore is the only person respected and feared by the evil Lord Voldemort, who killed Harry's parents. (Maybe he crossed Harris in a pub?)

``Richard, it's no secret, has lived the life,'' says ``Potter'' director Chris Columbus. ``He's probably lived 10 lives that most of us can only dream about. So he brought that to Dumbledore. Dumbledore is hundreds of years old, and Richard brought that with him, hundreds of years of living.''

Because of that experience, Harris has a refreshingly hype-free attitude regarding the global phenomenon of which he is part. Ask him the appeal of the Harry Potter books, and his face turns quizzical as he answers, ``I have no idea.'' He only took the role of Dumbledore when his granddaughter informed him she wouldn't speak to him again if he didn't. ``I thought, 'Well, I can't afford that,' '' he says.

``It's a very easy part to play,'' Harris says of Dumbledore, adding, ``anyone who would apply the Stanislavsky method to playing a wizard would go berserk.''

Harris is most resistant to the idea of having to make seven ``Potter'' films, one from each of the projected books in author J.K. Rowling's series (four are currently in print; the fifth is due next year). ``I know they're going to make at least three or four, and I hate that kind of commitment, the idea that my life is restricted by the conditions of a contract,'' Harris says. ``That's why my marriages broke up, because I hated having to be places.''

``By the time they do them all, I'll be 80. I asked my agent, 'Any way I can get out of it?' He said, 'Die.

Much ado

Harris' indifference with the Potter publicity machinery extends to his fellow actors.

``I think they all take this too seriously,'' Harris says. ``Bodyguards, private jets, dietitians, their own private trainers, I laugh at it all - it's a joke.

``I was asked to go to the Oscars this year - fly me in, fly me out, and I said, 'I'm not going,' '' Harris adds. ``I'd have to spend 14 hours in an airplane to get there, and 14 to get back - that's 28 hours. And I would spend 10 hours in Hollywood talking to arseholes. I can go to my local pub and speak to arseholes there.''

Making that comment had grave ramifications, he sheepishly adds: ``I was barred from the pub.''

Harris does have one fond Hollywood memory: The time he and Dean Martin skipped out of a party Dino himself was throwing. ``He said, 'Hey, boring, huh? Let's go!' We got in a car and went to the Coach and Horses pub on Sunset, and spent all night there getting drunk.'' And though Harris laments the paucity of good old-fashioned pubs in L.A., he notes with some pride that Coach and Horses lives still.

Harry Potter and the pub crawl

Ask Harris his favorite story about himself that he doesn't remember, and he smiles wryly. ``There are many I don't remember. I say, 'Is that what I did? I'll take your word for it.'

``The best one ever,'' he continues, ``two policemen came to my door and they said, 'Do you remember last night when we arrested you?' I said, 'Yeah, I think I remember.' 'Do you remember what you said to us?' I said no.

``It was the funniest thing I ever heard. Apparently I was frolicking, having a great time. There were cars parked on my street, and I was running over the cars - up the bonnet, over the top, down the trunk, up the bonnet. And one of them was a police car, and they were standing having a cigarette off-duty. And I came dashing up and then went and sat in the center of the street and pulled up, calm.

``They asked, 'Richard, what in the name of God are you doing?' and they said I told them, 'I have a theory that the world goes around, and I'm sitting here, waiting for my house to pass.' ''

There's one thing to look forward to when the ``Harry Potter'' series concludes, Harris notes. Referring to his young co-stars - Daniel Radcliffe (who plays Harry), Emma Watson (Hermione) and Rupert Grint (Ron) - he says, ``When this is finally over, they'll be drinking with me.''

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no caption (Scene from ``Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'')