Astin At Dodgers Hollywood Stars Game
Kirstie writes: Sean Astin was one of the players at the Dodgers Hollywood Stars Game yesterday, among other celebrities. He played pretty well and even hit a home run at one point. He also accidentally hit a little kid with the ball, but he apologized over the microphone. Afterwards, some of the other stars were signing autographs, but he said he couldn’t because he was running late for a black tie event and his wife was going to kill him.

Kate writes: Barnes and Noble University is having an online Tolkien course: This course provides an overview of The Hobbit and LOTR by JRR Tolkien. We’ll look first at Tolkien’s biography, his writing life, the origins of the stories, and their publication history. We’ll continue with lessons on each book, concentrating on Tolkien’s construction of a mythological world and its peoples and languages, his characters and their development, and his thematic concerns. Finally, we’ll look at Tolkien’s lasting influence on 20th-century fantasy literature, as well as on cultural movements such as neo-paganism and environmentalism. [More]

Actress Fay Wray Dies at 96
Fay Wray 1907 – 2004
NEW YORK – Fay Wray, who won everlasting fame as the damsel held atop the Empire State Building by the giant ape in the 1933 film classic “King Kong,” has died, a close friend said Monday. She was 96. [More]

Now playing at the Museum of Science: a reliquary for our modern age. `The Lord of the Rings’ Motion Picture Trilogy — The Exhibition” is, on the brutal face of it, little more than a collection of pretty costumes, drawings, plastic models, and cast-off prosthetics lined up for display. The ambience, however, is hushed, the lighting low, the speakers emitting distant sounds of battle. You would think you were making a pilgrimage to the toe bone of a saint. Many people in the hall think they are. [More]