Everest conquerer Sir Edmund Hillary once credited a tour of Weta Workshop with restoring his confidence in New Zealand’s future, according to longtime friend Tom Scott. “He was a huge fan of Lord of the Rings,” says Scott. “He was a huge romantic, he loved the forces of good against the forces of evil. He took Richard Taylor and Peter Jackson aside and said `I’ve been a little despondent about the future of New Zealand, but today’s been an absolute tonic. You’ve made me confident in New Zealand’s future’.”
New Zealand is in mourning since the death of Sir Hillary early on Friday morning NZ time. A state funeral is planned on January 22. Read complete article on Stuff
While most of us were eating cold noodles and watching Project Runway, another major Hollywood actor joined the industry’s growing brigade of charitable stars. Orlando Bloom recently took a four-day tour of Nepal on a UNICEF-supported visit, which took the 30-year-old actor to the impoverished western districts of Kaski and Chitwan. “Another Hollywood movie star might feel strange in a remote and impoverished area of Nepal, but [he] seemed perfectly at ease,” the humanitarian organization reports. Indeed, Mr. Bloom apparently took to certain Nepalese customs swimmingly. In one village, Mr. Bloom, who seemingly has no confirmed projects currently underway, had his forehead smeared with red “tika” by local women, who also offered him garlands of flowers to wear.