When Dominic Monaghan came zooming back from Middle Earth, he hit with a resounding thud. “My first year in Los Angeles was pretty hellish,” says the British actor who played Merry in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. “I came over here after the high point of ‘Lord of the Rings,’ and I saw all my friends jumping around to jobs, and I had nothing.” [More]
Day: September 21, 2004
Dawn Lux Sprague writes: The gown I designed, made and wore to the Return of the One Party in L.A. has won third place in the garment category of Sew News’ Magazine’s “Design with Doupioni” contest. With inspiration from Tolkien and LOTR, the gown’s design depicts a tree, complete with face and open eyes, wrapped around the body and arms of the dress over a simple forest scene. It is made from 109 individual pieces of doupioni silk in 13 different colors and is embellished with a seed bead moon and Swarovsky crystals as stars. It took approximately 250 hours and two months to design and make. It will be on display at the American Sewing Expo in Novi, Michigan on October 1-3, 2004.
Arwen writes: The third edition of TORN’s Baggins Birthday picnic, which took place this Sunday September 19th in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, turned out to be once again a party of special magnificence. The weather was a delightful mix of bright sunshine, blue skies, and thanks to a constant breeze which occasionally swelled up to a wicked wind, the temperature remained pleasant -when the previous two years had been scorchingly hot. [More]
Arwen writes: The third edition of TORN’s Baggins Birthday picnic, which took place this Sunday September 19th in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, turned out to be once again a party of special magnificence. The weather was a delightful mix of bright sunshine, blue skies, and thanks to a constant breeze which occasionally swelled up to a wicked wind, the temperature remained pleasant -when the previous two years had been scorchingly hot- (pictures to be posted shortly).
Food was plentiful and delicious, between yummy mushroom tortes and a variety of salads, and many many many desserts. Of course, per tradition the infamous yellow jackets were present. However, maybe because of the wind and the semi-protection of the mosquitoe net in the food tent, they seemed less numerous than the previous years (or maybe I’m getting used to them!).
Ringers showed up en masse, and this year’s picnic probably had the biggest crowd of all three events. Costumes were aplenty, with many hobbits, a few elves, some Rangers, and the occasional random Mordor orc or Mumak commander (very creative indeed!). Thanks to the generosity of New Line Cinema and Sideshow Collectibles, all guests were treated to fantastic mathoms: a deck of cards from ROTK, with the images all taken from the Alan Lee drawings of the film’s end credits; a ROTK mini poster, and a Sidehow keychain. The winners of the three contests (trivia, costume, and impersonation) walked home with Sideshow’s Helm’s Deep Environment, Golden Hall Environment, and The Morgul Lord!
Picnic’s Uber MC Quickbeam kept the crowd entertained, whether giving humorous deliveries of lines from the movie, or updating all fans on the status of the Ringers: Lord Of The Fans documentary, which production team is working against the clock to complete a rough cut of the film by the Sundance Festival’s submission deadline of Friday September 24th.
To make this year’s picnic an afternoon to remember, two very special guests made a surprise appearance: Rohan’s unsung hero Gamling: Bruce Hopkins, and the Dark Lord himself: Sala Baker. Bruce and Sala gracefully served as judges during the costume and impersonation contests, and afterwards mingled and chatted with the fans, posing for pictures and signing autographs. After our special guests had left (Bruce was catching a plane back to New Zealand later on that evening), it was time to wrap the party, and the guests started to leave slowly. All faces were smiling and happy, and everyone had the greatest of times, here at the end of all things. It was time to drive home, pet my little dog Chipie and tell her “Well, I’m back!”.
pipnlvr writes: I happened to catch a new special on E! last night called The Next Wave. It took a closeup look at some of the up and coming young stars who could possibly be taking the places of the more established “older” ones, and their pick to be the successor of current Hollywood hunk Brad Pitt was none other than our favorite elven warrior, Orlando Bloom!
Those goofballs at somethingawful.com have created a ‘Goldmine’ featuring LOTR images in a Christmas theme. Take a look! (Adult content MAY appear). [More]