Bloom Nabs Razzie Nom On a more dubious note, Orlando Bloom has nabbed a ‘Razzie’ Award nomination for his work on ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End’. The Razzie Awards have been around since 1981, they are intended to be the Yin to the Oscars Yang as they showcase the worst acting, screenwriting, songwriting, directing, and films that the film industry had to offer. Take a look at the rest of the nominations here.

Oscar NominationsThe Oscar® Nominations are out today and two LOTR Alums have snagged nominations. First up, Viggo Mortensen, has landed a Best Actor Nomination for his role in ‘Eastern Promises.’ And continuing her critical success in 2008, Cate Blanchett has been nominated for two awards: Best Actress in Leading Role and Best Actress in a Supporting Role. The Oscars will air (maybe) on February 24th 8pm ET/5pm PT. Congrats to Cate and Viggo! [Complete Oscar Nominations]

Phil Dragash Design 01A few weeks back we asked Ringers to submit designs to skin TheOneRing.net. Since then we’ve had received a lot of wonderful artwork from all parts of the world. We plan on featuring one design every few weeks, so if you submitted something, please be patient! Our first skin comes from Phil Dragash. Among the many designs Phil submitted, this ‘Aragorn’ skin based on stills from The Lord of the Rings films, really stood out. (We’ll be seeing more of Phil’s skins in the coming weeks as there are many great ones) If you like this theme, please click on the ‘discuss’ link below to leave your feedback. If you are interested in submitting your own design for TORn, please check out our original request by clicking on the following link. Thanks! [Submitting Designs]

Aragorn TurnaroundAlong with the pre-order of the Ringwraith Legendary Scale Bust, Sideshow also posted a few other LOTR updates with their newsletter launch last night. In their production blog, Sideshow posted of a few official reference shots of the Witch-King in Twilight Form – something we had not seen before. It is pretty cool to see this digitally manipulated character, which appeared so blurred on the screen, in crystal clear photography. The images were posted to show how they finished the sculpt for Sideshow’s Witch-king Legendary Scale Bust. The second update is a 360° view of the Aragorn Premium Format Figure with one of the best Viggo likenesses we have ever seen. To see this file, you need to click on the icon below the feature image at Sideshow’s website. Now if only I could save up enough to get all this stuff! [Witch-King Imagery] [Aragorn PF]

Dominic Monaghan Supports New Zealand Forests Dom has become the spokesperson for Project Last Stand, an organization dedicated to preserving the worlds forests and supporting groups that buy and protect local forests. One of the featured charities is a New Zealand group decicated to restoring native forest habitats along the Kapati Coast, north of Wellington. Dominic Monaghan Supports New Zealand Forests

Viggo MortensenApocalypse, here we come. Pittsburgh has landed “The Road,” a big-screen adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy best-seller of the same name that will star Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce and a young Australian actor named Kodi Smit-McPhee. 2929 Entertainment, which is producing the movie, and the Pittsburgh Film Office yesterday confirmed rumors “The Road” will shoot in Southwestern Pennsylvania for eight weeks starting in late February to take advantage of the cold and snow. The film also will spend a week in Louisiana and a week in Oregon. [Read More]