I entered the chat 'hall' and waded though the hundreds of 14 and 15 year old girls insisting they were the biggest 'Lij fans EVAR!' to wait for Elijah to come online.

It was interesting to note that when he did arrive on the virtual 'stage' he wasn't using a computer but was instead on a phone in a limo having just landed at JFK airport from his trip to Paris. Just thinking about it gives me jetlag.

He chatted for an hour, answering fan questions in the usual open and sincere manner we've come to expect from him.

He was asked what he'd do with The One Ring if he had it (get on planes for free), and what talk show he liked to go on (Conan O'Brien).

When asked about the whirlwind press junkett for TTT he commented that he loved going around the world but would much rather take it easy and relax, the same went for attending award shows like the Oscars and the Golden Globes.

Much to the delight of the females in the audience he mentioned that he is currently single and plans to fly to Hawaii for his upcoming birthday.

The chat lasted an hour and was overall an interesting read. I still say AOL is the devil's playground...but they do have some cool items from time to time.

Thanks to Wil we have most of the transcript! Here it is!

Host Jessica: here is one from vegechica 86. She says I am Amanda. I heard you had to return to New Zealand to film more scenes for "Lord of the Rings." What was it like seeing everyone again, and Elijah, I think you are a very talented actor and very good-looking, too. Had to say it.

Elijah Wood: Thank you. It was awesome. It's always awesome going back. There is an intense feeling of going home because we have spent so much time there, going back to Wellington, it literally feels like going home. We catch up with so many people and have breakfast at our favorite breakfast spots. Those little things mean everything to us. It's also just great to see all the cast again and all the old friends on the crew. So it was wonderful. And we are going back next year which is going to be both great and kind of sad in the sense that it will be the last time that we actually are called on to film new material for "Lord of the Rings." It will be a bittersweet experience.

Host Jessica: you still have a year, another year.

Elijah Wood: That's true.

Host Jessica: enjoy it. Everyone wants to talk about the video game. This one comes from Georgie9, he says let's talk about the new video game. Is it weird that people everywhere will be controlling a video image of you that has your voice?

Elijah Wood: No, I think that's cool. It's fun. I love video games myself. So if I can actually be a part of it as a character, then you know, it's kind of a dream come true to a certain degree.

Host Jessica: when you play the "Lord of the Rings" game which character do you play?

Elijah Wood: I play the Aragorn character, but apparently in the next game, you will actually be able to play Frodo.

Host Jessica: you can play yourself. Here is one from rings9. We all know that the ring has the power to make the wearer invisible. If you could be invisible, where would you go and what would you do?

Elijah Wood: If I could be invisible, where would I go and what would I do?
You know, this sounds kind of interesting. Maybe -- because I've had this question before.

Host Jessica: I asked you it last year and I wanted to see if your answer had changed.

Elijah Wood: And it's going to change. I've got a new idea. How about this?

Elijah Wood: Put the ring on, completely disappear and just step into planes and take free flights around the world.

Host Jessica: yeah?

Elijah Wood: You see, so you don't have to pay for transit?

Host Jessica: you could travel everywhere. That's a very economical and adventurous answer.

Elijah Wood: Thank you.

Host Jessica: last year you said that you would go to Disneyland and hide when it closed.

Elijah Wood: That's right.

Host Jessica: which I thought was also fun. You have talked about bonding with the cast. Has there been a time recently when you thought to yourself wow, this is a perfect moment and that's from Jenny.

Elijah Wood: Yeah, I -- I don't think there is ever such thing as a perfect moment, but I think that there are incredible moments and I feel like I am all the time, be it moments that I have with my friends where I am going out, and, you know, I recognize how great my friends are and how close we are. In terms of the entirety of the moment of the -- that these "Lord of the Rings" movies are out and things are going so well, I can certainly recognize how fantastic that is, but I tend to appreciate all of the moments that make up the bigger picture. And I feel like I am constantly saying that. Which is pretty damn good.

Host Jessica: Yeah. Here is one from daystar. I heard New Zealand is beautiful. Is it really that amazing?

Elijah Wood: Yes, it is. It really is. We keep talking about how great it is. I hope we don't, you know, build up the image of New Zealand so much that people go out to New Zealand and it's not nearly as good as they expected it to be, but it's beautiful. I don't think you can overhype New Zealand. It's incredible. It's one of those places in the world that is largely unspoiled by the modern world in terms of population, buildings, things like that. It's nature is kind of wild and free, particularly in the South island. So it's one of those kind of magical places that feels like it's untouched by the rest of the world.

Host Jessica: That's exactly how it looks on film.

Elijah Wood: That's nice. Rare to find places that are not tainted anymore.

Host Jessica: There you go. This one is from sunshine7342 who submitted a load of questions, a big fan.

Host Jessica: We all heard about how you like to surf but what about your other hobbies? P.S., if you say photography, you get extra points.

Elijah Wood: I get extra points then because photography is something I am interested in, but I don't pay nearly enough attention to it. I am still kind of working on that. The problem with me is I love so many different things and I get a little bit scattered, and I start to lose focus. And that makes me slightly lazy. But there's tons of things I am interested in. Video editing is another that I am now getting into. I really want to kind of work on that, for possibly taking that somewhere in the future in terms of making films. I am still a music nut, so I collect music constantly. I mean, I certainly consider that a hobby. Yeah, there are all sorts of things I am interested in.

Host Jessica: This one is from cc4, and she says, this Friday is Friday the 13th.
Are you a superstitious person?

Elijah Wood: I am not a superstitious person, really. Although there are certain things that I won't do, like I won't walk underneath a ladder.

Host Jessica: Why tempt it?

Elijah Wood: Exactly. But I wouldn't necessarily consider myself superstitious to the point where I did walk under a ladder that I would be worrying about it. I love the idea of Friday the 13th. I think it's great. Anything that is slightly shady and freaks people out. That's probably why I am into horror movies as much as I am. Did you see the ring?

Host Jessica: Yes, it was awesome.

Elijah Wood: That made me smile. What a great movie.

Host Jessica: I hope the sequel is as good as the first. So there we have an Elijah Wood movie recommendation.

Host Jessica: Speaking of special days in the near future aren't we getting close to your birthday?

Elijah Wood: We are, January 28. Last time, I said I was going to Vegas. That never happened. This time I've got another harebrained idea that I am sure in keeping with the fact that I didn't do anything last year, I probably won't do this either. But the plan at the moment is to go to Hawaii for a week.

Host Jessica: You can go surfing. That would be so much fun. The waves are better in the winter. As I learned from watching "blue crush." Here is a question from Toby1158. What other movies are you working on right now? You have upcoming projects, right?

Elijah Wood: I do. I did a movie called "Try Seventeen" that comes out sometime next year. And there is a movie called "Thumbsucker" that I am probably going to start working on sometime in the new year. But other than that, there is nothing actually happening at the moment. I kind of took the summer off to just enjoy some free time with friends, which was kind of totally necessary, especially to lead up to this whole mayhem. But this has been fun, too. I feel like I have been working on this press junket for two years.

Host Jessica: Yeah, because you are all over the world, right?

Elijah Wood: Yeah. We started like early crush in November, the actual trip didn't start until the first week of December. But it still feels like it's being going on for a while. It's been fun, though.

Elijah Wood: I haven't slept at all. I got 2 1/2 hours of sleep the other night and I had to do a whole day of television, press interviews in Paris.

Host Jessica: We will have to try to look at those cps.

Elijah Wood: Yeah, exactly. Look out for the European press and see how dog tired I look. I managed to pull it off ok though.

Host Jessica: Here is one from fonz 518. Hello, Elijah. You are my idol because all of the hard work and determination you have. There you go. What in your opinion was the biggest physical challenge in making "The Two Towers"?

Elijah Wood: The biggest physical challenge was getting through the challenge of the endurance of the schedule, the length of time that we were in New Zealand. The schedule was constantly changing and the hours that we were having to deal with and halfway through the movie, we were doing like six-day weeks. It was just -- there was an intensity to the process that after the first, like, three or four months, it starts to wear you down, and when there is no sign of it letting up, it literally takes quite a lot of strength to push yourself through and keep yourself motivated and passionate about the film.

Host Jessica: Well, I have to ask this question because it's the most-asked question tonight and the girls would kill me if I didn't. I think that nina42 put it best when she said is there a special girl in your life?

Elijah Wood: At the moment, there is not. That was probably the best way to put it. Host Jessica: I think you just made 10,000 people's days by that one sentence. So here is one from diva. Did you ever not want to be a hobbit and play a different role?

Elijah Wood: In the film, probably not, no. It's funny because it's only recently that people started asking me that question. I love Frodo. I wouldn't want to be any of the other characters. I love a lot of the other characters as well, but I wouldn't want that responsibility. I enjoyed the responsibility that I had. That kind of internal struggle and the fact that he is a hobbit. I love hobbits. I relate who hobbits quite well.

Host Jessica: We've got time for a couple more questions. This one comes from toro 5girl, speaking of upcoming projects, has it been difficult to move on to other projects after you completed "Lord of the Rings" given that it was such an unprecedented experience?

Elijah Wood: You were sort of breaking up there, but I think I got what you said. What was the question again?

Host Jessica: Has it been difficult to move on to other projects after you completed "Lord of the Rings" given that it was such an unprecedented experience?

Elijah Wood: It hasn't been ease dwroy jump into other things -- easy to jump into other things particularly smaller movies. Right after I did "Lord of the Rings" I didn't want to work at all, but when I did want to work and projects started to become available, the idea of doing something smaller and completelydifferent from "Lord of the Rings" was really exciting. Kind of a relief. It was nice to be on something that was a little bit more focused and not as massive in scale and just simply not as long, two months to do a film was kind of a relief. So in that sense, it was, you know, it was good to get back. But hard in the sense that I had been away from -- I had been in that comfort zone of "Lord of the Rings" for so long. It was difficult to imagine myself on another project. So from that perspective in a lot of ways, it was actually difficult to move on because it meant that I had to kind of break free of that zone and put myself in a different head space.

Host Jessica: Ok, well, here is a really fun question from what an angel 181 who was been following your career. Did you have fun spending time with the Osbournes? You were on an episode last season. That was fun.

Elijah Wood: It was cool. The Osbournes are great. I haven't seen them in quite some time. I saw jack recently at a party in Los Angeles. He organized some crazy party and it was very funny. He is a character. I haven't seen Kelly in ages. I actually saw Amy a while ago. But they're fantastic. I love the family.
I think they're very sweet and incredibly -- it's odd for a television family that are seemingly so controversial. I feel like they represent the truth in what a family is all about more than most reality shows would or even fake television programs. That try and capture that essence of what it means to be a family. I think they capture it better than anything.

Host Jessica: That was a funny episode that you were on because you were cleaning --

Elijah Wood: Cleaning up urine.

Host Jessica: It's a fun activity.

Elijah Wood: What you didn't say later on is that we made ramen and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Host Jessica: How could they leave that out?

Elijah Wood: It's not as rock'n' roll.

Host Jessica: Two more questions. This one from Phoebe. She asks, what is the most interesting celebrity gossip that you've seen in a magazine that's caught your eye lately? Do you think it's funny?

Elijah Wood: I don't know what's going -- I don't know what the new gossip is. I don't know. You know, I think the j-lo-Ben Affleck.

Host Jessica: it's all of that and Britt knee-Justin.

Elijah Wood: I could honestly not give a -- some of it is interesting on a pulp reflects on us that we as a society are fascinated by other people's lives and need that kind of information and it's more sensitive when you are kind of in the middle of it and you recognize that that could kind of be you at some point or people could be that interested in your private life and it's a weird thing. It's bizarre. I still find it incredibly strange, the breakup of Brad and Gwyneth made the front page of newspapers. That's our focus? That's kind of sad.

Host Jessica: I can't decide which would be more frustrating, hearing a story about you that's not true or having the press find out something juicy that is
true. I don't know which would drive me more crazy.

Elijah Wood: It actually drives you more crazy when they print something that's true. I find the stuff that's not true to be really funny and easy to -- because you are in a righteous position at that point because you know you had nothing to do with it or whatever it is they're printing is completely false.
It puts you in a position of, you know, freedom. Even though you feel like if it's something really intense, you have that moment where you feel like you have to speak out against it. Most of the time, I don't even care. I think it can be really funny. Especially when they put you with, like, in terms of dating, they put you with people that you would never have dated. Why would they ever write that?

Host Jessica: They're like Elijah Wood and Christina Aguilera.

Elijah Wood: Some stuff is so good you don't want to contest it. You want to let people believe what they want to believe.

Host Jessica: The last questionis from hemesyvenom.

Elijah Wood: What a story there. Like evil cognac.

Host Jessica: Reminds me of a snake or something.

Elijah Wood: That's strange.

Host Jessica: Do you think that "The Two Towers" will leave people wondering what is to come next?

Elijah Wood: Like the first movie, it does achieve that same kind of feeling of what is the last or what is the next chapter going to reveal? However, this film -- I feel "The Two Towers" actually leads into the third movie a lot more than the first into the second. It's much more of a cliffhanger ending. The scenes in this movie kind of -- it kind of -- it moves you forward and progresses you forward more into the third than the second because we are in the middle of the journey now whereas at the end of the first, they were about to embark on their journey. hereas right now we are in the middle of one giant progressing story. So I feel like this movie actually leads into the third quite a lot more than the first one. Which is great, but also really frustrating for those that can't wait to see the next movie.

Host Jessica: I was just going to say if they're that frustrated they can read the book. So they have that option. Well, I am so sad because we are out of time. Elijah, I think you are my favorite AOL guest ever.

Elijah Wood: Stop.

Host Jessica: I think the audience will agree with me. Thanks so much for chatting with you.

Elijah Wood: Thank you. Wait, you still have my e-mail address.

Host Jessica: I do.

Elijah Wood: You should e-mail me and don't pay attention to the fact that I don't reply because I am an idiot.

Host Jessica: Ok. Well, I can't wait to see the movie on December 18. That's like six days and six hours from now.

Elijah Wood: Wicked. It's very cool. I am sure you will love the film.

Host Jessica: Is there anything you want to say to your fans? I wish we could have gotten to more questions.

Elijah Wood: Thank you all for waiting in line. It's such a thankless thing when everybody gets in the chat room together and there is not any way for all the questions to be answered. So I appreciate everybody waiting around, even if they didn't get their questions answered.Thank you for your support and your love. And enjoy the next "Lord of the Rings."

Host Jessica: I too would like to thank our awesome audience because they just sent in these great, specific questions that many of you probably hn't heard befor.