Like all markets in Cambodia, the Russian market in Phnom Penh is chaotic, packed with hawking and gawking merchants. The floors are littered and various hunks of animal flesh can be purchased, but by Cambodian standards the market is clean and fairly modern. Paint vendors stand next to motorcycle part sellers and a cluster of bootleg video vendors — all in all, a typical Southeast Asian market. [More]

Ringer Superspy Jen sends us all manner of LOTR related news from many different sources, thanks Jen! [More]

Ringer Superspy Jen sends us all manner of LOTR related news from many different sources, thanks Jen!

‘Try’ing time for Millennium
Company touts upcoming romantic laffer

Touting his company’s upcoming romantic comedy “Try Seventeen,” about a collegebound youth who learns his biggest life lessons from the eccentric denizens of his apartment complex, Millennium Films co-chairman Avi Lerner offered up a succinct lesson of his own at the pic’s AFM launch party Friday night at Casa Del Mar. “It’s all about timing,” Lerner said, relishing his good fortune to have landed three youthful stars who are all in the midst of a collective hot streak.

Indeed, Elijah Wood is still conjuring box office magic in “The Lord of the Rings.” Pop star and budding thesp Mandy Moore has laid claim to teen auds with her starring role in “A Walk to Remember” and supporting stint in “The Princess Diaries.” And German thesp Franka Potente is riding her lightningflash breakthrough in “Run Lola Run” as she preps for the release of “The Bourne Identity” opposite Matt Damon.

Both Wood and Moore, on hand for Friday night’s party, were enjoying the change of pace, Moore from the high school parts she’s done and Wood from the ongoing “Rings” trilogy, for which he hasn’t kicked the Hobbit completely. He’ll be returning to New Zealand after “Try Seventeen” shoots in March for additional pickup shots on the second and third “Rings” pics as helmer Peter Jackson continues postproduction.

The Nu ImageMillennium Films party drew a sizable contingent of teens and twentysomethings as well as thesp Jean-Claude Van Damme and WMA agents Cassian Elwes and Nicole Dowd.

Funny LOTR cast interviews from the TBS late night show Burly TV(In 2 parts): [More]

From Ted Casablanca’s Awful Truth column: Liv Tyler, strolling down Ninth Street. West Village. Arm in arm with her fiancé, Spacehog hottie Royston Langdon. Cloaked in a big flowery cream-colored coat to nip the slight chill in the air, Liv seemed totally head over heels–and the honeymoon hasn’t even begun. Zooming back to the Left Coast was former Vice man. [More]

WireImage.com LOTR photos: New Line Cinema’s “Lord Of The Rings” Gets 13 Oscar Nominations. [More]

The last person you’d expect to find dominating a banquet room in the Four Seasons Hotel is the tousled-haired, barefoot New Zealander, “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson. Yet, there he was, amid the spotless carpeted hallways scented with floral arrangements, and the good-looking hotel staff with faces like eager question marks. [More]

In what is thought to be a world first, video pictures of a newly hatched Little Spotted Kiwi chick still in its nest have been recorded at Wellington’s Karori Wildlife Sanctuary. [More]

emz writes: Orlando Bloom ‘So Graham Norton” on Friday, Graham Norton is a wicked contreversial comedy chat show in the UK!