Fone Bone, just the thought of gag #2 has me shrieking in laughter.

Me too.

Hill brought up Viggo's rant about action figures, for example

I don't think I've heard this before. What was the rant?

I watched the Critics' Choice Awards on E! last night (which could have been a week old for all I know) and it was just adorable to see PJ (via satellite) win all these awards and give his acceptance speeches in a striped polo looking all crazy and disshelved. Billy Boyd was there in person to accept the Best Ensemble award and if I thought Billy was a hottie at all I would have squeed mightily because he was wearing a very sexy tux. But - not thinking Billy is a hottie - I just thought "huh. cool tux."

I started re-reading Fellowship this weekend by accident (I was looking something up, couldn't stop, went back to the beginning and started all over) and am surprised at how much I now envision the actors faces as I am reading.

I am soo glad there are still RotK EE DVDs to look forward to - gag reel!! Yay.

Hill brought up Viggo's rant about action figures, for example

I don't think I've heard this before. What was the rant?

Me either.

ETA: I almost forgot! Nilly! I am looking so forward to reading your thoughts on RotK. Wheeee- Nilly review!!

We got The Peoples of Middle-Earth (book number...11?...in Christopher's History of Middle-Earth series) for Christmas. Of note, Tolkein had started on a sequel. He wrote about 10 pages, which are included in this book.

It's quite dark. I can see why he stopped (other than maybe not having another 50 years to spend on a book). As he said, "As I suspected, there is nothing worth writing about in the world of Men."

If you read this book, have the Prozac ready.

A&E is premiering a new LotR special tonight - 9 pm Central.

A behind-the-scenes look at the sets, special effects, and people who made "The Lord of the Rings" the most popular movie trilogy of all time. Includes a trip to a pub with the Hobbit boys and interviews with director Peter Jackson and actors Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellan, Miranda Otto, and Orlando Bloom. TV G

It says it's a premiere. I can't remember if it really is, I've seen so many of these it is hard to tell them apart.

"The Lord of the Rings" the most popular movie trilogy of all time.

Has it really outstripped the original Star Wars trilogy in terms of the total number of people who've paid to see it, and not just in post-inflation dollars?

Has it really outstripped the original Star Wars trilogy in terms of the total number of people who've paid to see it, and not just in post-inflation dollars?

Hard to imagine it has. I am sure this blurb (off the A&E web site) was written by a 21-yr-old intern who didn't quite think about it in those terms.

According to boxofficemojo the whole franchise has taken in 2.5 billion though:

ROTK has raked in $710.4 million worldwide in just its first 22 days of release, 30% ahead of TTT at the same point. Add in FOTR's and TTT's grosses, and the LOTR trilogy has grossed over $2.5 billion at the worldwide box office. ROTK is well on its way to surpassing TTT and FOTR.

I don't think I've heard this before. What was the rant?

I think he first talked about this on the TTT DVD and he's repeated it in some other interviews. Basically he and Viggo were both unhappy with the idea of being action figures. So one day as they were preparing to shoot a scene, Viggo launched into this long monologue in character. He was saying things like "There will be hundreds of our heads, all cast in plastic." His speech grew more and more elaborate and the crew was just standing around shaking their heads wondering what the hell he was talking about. Once he finished, he and Hill burst out laughing.

this A&E special was on NBC already.

Oh, man. Gag #2 had me laughing to hard to breathe.

I just saw the A&E special, I didn't see it when it aired on NBC. That was fun. I could watch stuff like that all day. Bring on the LotR channel!