January 10-12 – We thought we were sitting on a scoop when Andy Serkis reverently handed Elijah Wood a ring at a screening of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King – you know, all the news lately about gay marriage and all. But turns out it was only that ring, the one everyone’s chasing after in the LOTR trilogy. Oh well, we’ll save money on wedding gifts. Anyway, the Film Society of Lincoln Center invited us to this screening, but it was actually an entire LOTR weekend, with various cast members roaming around amidst adoring cult members, er, we mean fans. We asked Sean Astin how it feels to be a part of a cultural phenomenon (LOTR, not gay marriage). “Actually, when I look at the line of photographers, it doesn’t make sense to me. Why are there so many photographers? One of our hosts said, ‘Well, it’s Lincoln Center’, and you think, oh, OK.” We assured him that, to the contrary, it’s Lord of the Rings, and that we were there to see them, whereupon a colleague whispered that we should have told him we were really there to see Liv Tyler, who didn’t show.

Liv and her husband Royston Langdon did join Astin, Wood et al the next evening for the New York Film Critics Circle awards dinner, where LOTR was named best picture. Best director Sofia Coppola, best actress Hope Davis and American Splendor’s Paul Giamatti were among the film types at Noche for the dinner.

Andy Serkis is apparently fully aware of the cultural weight of the Rings trilogy. We found him flashing that ring around again the following day at a Barnes & Noble bookstore, where he signed copies of his book, Gollum: A Behind the Scenes Guide to the Making of Gollum (The Lord of the Rings). We couldn't help wondering how much that ring would bring on E-bay, if only we could have snatched it.