NEW YORK (Variety) – Cate Blanchett has committed to star with Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton in “Outlaws,” a romantic comedy that Barry Levinson will start shooting for MGM in September. [More]

Anyone Kiwi TOR.netters out there listen to Radio 1ZB? Finally somebody got round to mentioning to me that they’d been advertising for extras for LOTR on 1ZB. Auditions are to be held in Palmerston North, Wanganui and Napier. Basically the central North Island. More crowds for Mordor? They want two types of people. Type a) Men and women 5’10” and over, between the ages of 18 and 40, of slim build. Type b), men 5’10” and over, with fair or grey hair, bearded is OK, between the ages of 18 and 50, with an athletic build.

Well, the Haradrim have got their call-up papers. Apparently they are required to be available from the end of April to mid-May, and they’ll be filmed up on Mt. Ruapehu. I asked my friend if he thought they had looked for Maori or Pacific Islanders specifically to be Haradrim, and he didn’t believe so. Just felt I had to check in case you’re tired of talking about Arwen and want to get back to the ol’ ‘Tolkien was a racist’ debate.