The setting was awesome. It was in the exhibit halls of the New York Public Library, which were dimly and intimately lit. They were expecting 1200 people, but because of the snowstorm, I'd say there were only about 400 people there at any given time. They had incredible food - entire roasted turkeys set up, and servers whirling around with all sorts of appetizers and petit fours on trays, with a gigantic Gandalf statue in the middle of the lobby (on a white horse - hmph), grotesque orc facsimilies at the bar, and solemn-faced, long-haired men and women in Lothlorien velvet cloaks holding lamps along the corridors and stairwells. It was a strange juxtaposition to hear the DJ playing "Groove is in the Heart" above.

What did I wear? A Banana Republic knee-length black halter dress and a silver arm bracelet, with beautiful open-toed black shoes. My friend Danielle, having been my personal dresser, said it was perfectly New York-ish. And I have to say, I fit right in.

So Danielle and I arrived, and were checking out the scene, hanging out around the entrance. Then we recognized one face, and then it was like dominos. In about sixty seconds...

"Turn around, behind me. That...is the guy...who got thrown out of the window in L.A. Confidential."

"Ohmigod. Peter Jackson just walked in the door! Ohmigod!!"

"Aaaaand there's Sean Lennon."

"Holy Mother of God!"

"Whoa! Liv Tyler just walked in!"

"Wow. She looks beaauuuutiful."

"Danielle. I am dying." I nearly fainted right there on the Gandalf ice sculpture.

So, yes. Liv Tyler (Arwen) is stunningly beautiful in real life. She was wearing a long silk black-and-white patterned gown (see the attached picture). There was this huge clump of people moving around her wherever she went so that she could hardly move, and these scruffily handsome British men, probably some hot up-and-comers, were commenting behind me, "Well, she is, she just Is, she's just a beautiful gel. A very beautiful gel. Don't you think? Yes, a beautiful gel."

Our first foray was to approach Peter Jackson (the director), who was engaged in a long conversation with Sean Lennon and Sean Astin (Sam). (And Mikey, for those of you who know what that means. If you do, God bless you.) Danielle and I arrayed ourselves on the marble bench directly behind him. He was very short, unkempt and round, and he looked rather overwhelmed. When we finally got to talk to him, Danielle (knowing far more about film than I ever will) told him she thought Heavenly Creatures was a bloody brilliant film. As for me, I wanted to say something eloquent like, "Thank you for making such a beautiful visualization of my most deeply held, internalized myth" but it came out more like, "You did such an amazing job thank you sooo much we're just poor students who snuck in and we're not important but I just wanted to tell you that..." I turn red just thinking about it! But he was very cordial, thanking us in a thick Kiwi accent.

After that, I was a little cooler about the whole meeting-celebrities thing.

I stopped briefly to congratulate Miranda Otto (Eowyn), who was getting much less attention, probably because she's not well known in the States. But she looked incredibly lovely (see attached picture), and struck me as being very like Eowyn herself: cold and wild.

No, I did not get a hobbit's number :( But the atmosphere was crazy - everyone was crowding 'round and wanting to get a word in, and I didn't want to seem like an jerk.

I waited until other people had left before jumping in, and I considered myself lucky to hold a conversation with both Billy Boyd (Pippin) and Dominic Monaghan (Merry). Woo!

So, surreal moment #1: I wait for the crowd to lessen around Dominic (who is far more handsome in person than in the film - check out the attached photo), and then I approach him, saying,

"Hi! I'm sorry, I was waiting to talk to you. My name is - - - - - - - -"

"Hi! My name is Dominic."

(with a dreamy, besmitten look on my face) "I know."

I complimented him on his hot suit, we talked about the second movie being very unlike the first, and the people out in the lobby who were attempting to dance. And then he got whisked away to have his picture taken by fox.com.

Surreal moment #2: I went up to one of the bars to approach Ian Holm (Bilbo) and tell him how wonderful I thought he was, but when I did, he said he wasn't Ian Holm at all - he was Dominic Monaghan's father! We went over to a group of people then, still talking, and I ended up having a lovely conversation with him, Billy Boyd (Pippin) and Dominic Monaghan's mother (who was also incredibly sweet). (I was like, "Goodness, you must be proud of him!" and she was all like, "Oh yes, oh we are, we're just thrilled for him!")

Billy (see pic) was the most personable, conversational, easygoing guy you could imagine. We talked about my ordeal in getting to the party (I had to take Amtrak because the snowstorm canceled all the buses out of Boston). He was like, "But you had a good time, didn't you!??" I said, yes, but there's a whole coalition of women from my college who want me to return with A Story. He suggested, in his thick Scottish brogue, that I get very very drunk and fall down in the middle of a big crowd.

I passed David Wenham (Faramir) about ten times, but he was always talking to Miranda Otto, which I thought was adorable, given their characters' relationship. Also, Karl Urban (Eomer) passed me about twelve times, though I didn't screw up the courage to say hi. He's supposed to be the New Zealand equivalent of Brad Pitt, and yea verily, he was Very Hot up close. And yes, I did see Orlando Bloom, but he was talking on a cell phone in the middle of the party, surrounded by Gels, and so I passed up introducing myself. Finally, I had a lovely exchange with Brad Douriff (Grima Wormtongue) - he was an incredibly humble, soft-spoken and kind man. He thanked me extensively for my compliments - he even bowed to me :)

No sign of Elijah (Frodo), Ian McKellan (Gandalf) (Ian was not in NYC -Xo), Cate Blanchett (Galadriel), Christopher Lee (Saruman) or Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn). Maybe they arrived briefly and left, but I didn't see them. Or maybe it was past their bedtime. As for other star sightings, we also bumped shoulders with Bijou Philips, Matthew Modine and Kate Hudson (though it took me about five passes to recognize her).