December 11, 2003

Board of the Zings

Forget about Nicole, Julia and Tom. The ring ruling Hollywood these days is the tight cast of Lord of the Rings: Elijah, Viggo, Orlando...I mean, last week's Return of the King premiere was the equivalent of a Justin Timberlake concert, with frenzied, screaming fans and smitten, tear-streaked girls lining the red carpet at Westwood's Mann Village.
After scrawling autographs and delivering sound bites for the salivating press (helps polish the loafers, I find), Elijah and his Hobbit boys were hyped for some serious getting down. Sweating up the Middle-earth scene at the after-soiree (held on the tented grounds at the Wadsworth Theater), E. & Co. took over the deejay booth, mixing the tunes for the glitzed 'n' gyrating crowd well into the wee hours.
Much more mellow, hardly a surprise, were Orlando and Viggo, deep in mahn-ly chitchat much o' the night. Gossiping? Or solving the ills of Hollywood, ya think? Mind you, earlier in the evening, V.M. had a little to say on that matter when I asked him if there's an equivalent to the One Ring in Hollywood.
"Yes: awards," the totally do-able iconoclastic actor-artist responded simply. "They're not evil in themselves--and neither is the ring--but what they bring out in some people certainly can be. [People] become more interested in [awards] as opposed to working together."
You go, you barefooted bearer of the truth!
But is the Lord franchise itself immune to such evils? Turning to the granddaddy of the gang, Ian McKellen--who was totally resplendent in leathuh pants, with a chain tie under his velvet smoking jacket--I asked if this will be the year for the awaited Oscar nod.
"Well, I'm a member of the Academy," he responded with a cheeky wink. (He's a dirty middle-aged man. Takes one to know one.) "And I know who I'll be voting for!"