I just got back from the charity screening of Sean Astin's short film, "The Long and Short of It." And when they say short film, they MEAN short film. About five minutes short. It was a wonderful five minutes, though.

My sister and I just barely made it to the theater in time, where Kara, one of my fellow Project Elanor volunteers, was waiting to give me her spare ticket. (Thank you, Kara!)

The theater was pretty full, but not packed. There were three rows roped off in the middle, though I never saw who actually sat there. My sister and I grabbed some seats in the front left of the theater. Which was a very wise choice, since that's the isle Sean came down.

The manager of the theater asked us to give Sean a real Portland welcome, so when Sean walked in, we stood and cheered him on. He came down the isle smiling, waving, shaking hands. Strolled right past us, he did. He stood in the front of the theater and OrangeBlossom from BoE gave him a Samwise teddy bear she'd made from scraps of her own costume, which came complete with a little backpack that had tiny little pots and pans dangling off the back. Someone else gave him what appeared to be tie-dye jammies.

Sean spoke to us for...ten minutes? I forget. He spoke briefly about his inspiration for the movie, which came to him on the first or second day of filming LotR. So after setting up the film, the lights went down and Sean took a seat in the front row.

I won't go into the film (don't want to spoil it for anyone), but I will say that Sean promised it would be on "The Two Towers" DVD coming out in August, as well as an eight minute "making of" piece. It really was a great five minutes of film, and Sean should be very proud. Dom, as well, since he shared writing credits. Billy Boyd, it should be noted, was thanked for the music. Go Billy!

After the film, Sean stood back up to take questions. One of the first questions to be asked was "Will there be a 'Goonies 2?'" Sean said he was on board, and that he was in Texas recently and someone had claimed that Sean said he wasn't going to do it. A few days later, he got a "little note" from Dick Donner saying, "Hey, kid, whaddya mean you're not doing it?" (or something to that effect)

You'll have to forgive me; a lot of it has flown right out of my head, but I'm sure you'll get about three hundred more e-mails about it, filling in more details. He did mention TOR.n, though. Go you!

Sean got a phone call at some point during the Q&A. It was his wife telling him to wrap it up. Well, Sean didn't want to leave anyone with an unanswered question, so he just kept on taking questions. At one point, a little girl asked a question about "Return of the King," and Sean hesitated. Then asked for a show of hands, "How many of you have read the book?"

Many, many hands shot up, and Sean laughed, "Okay, how many of you HAVEN'T read the book?" A few hands went up and a woman seated behind me yelled out, "And I haven't seen the movies, so don't say anything!" Sean said he didn't want to spoil it for anyone, so he apologized to the girl.

At around sometime after 8:00, Team Astin (as Sean calls his family/people) came down the very left isle and out the exit. Sean asked them to stop and "Wait, wait, girls! Come on out!" Alexandria was too shy, but he eventually coaxed her out. A very pretty little girl with gorgeous hair, she came and stood next to her father. And when her father kept talking and talking, she started walking in circles around him. Quite a charmer. Christine and the new baby made a brief appearance, and my goodness what an adorable baby that is. Which reminds me, Sean couldn't remember how old she was. "Seven... eight.... *counts on fingers* ... seven months old tomorrow!.......*pause* She's still spitting up, so whatever that means.."

To wrap up, Sean is a very warm and lively person and I count myself very luck to have had this opportunity to not only see his short film, but to see it with The Man Himself, and hundreds of other LotR fans (not to mention forty-nine other Project Elanor people).

By the way, someone in the audience asked for Orlando's phone number. And someone else asked if Billy had a girlfriend. Sean wasn't sure. "Yes. No. Well, he had one...but now.. I don't know!" Ah, and he also said, about filming his movie, that Elijah was his assistant A.D. and he "was quite a handfull." And he did mention playing chess with B.K., who kept calling him Mr. President. "Mister President, I will take your bishop!"