from The Scotsman, April 5, 2009
( Cumming wows New York at head of Tartan Day Parade )

Alan and Me photo exhibit at the Chashama gallery, my favorite one is the one involving a ( Alan in a swirling kilt (SFW but flamboyant) )

dashery rocks! I so needed something cheerful this week :-)

( Boom De Ya Da (I Love the Whole World) - LOTR )

( Dom & Billy - I Got U )

PS - Viggo was much more coherent on the BBC on Monday morning, and that night's cinema panel on Good than he was at the Sunday night awards show. Which is a good thing, cos wow.

So Viggo won the "Empire Icon Award": (this part completely lifted from the Empire Online Blog)

"The Empire Icon, given to a talent who, in the eyes of Empire and its readers, is so much more than a star, they have reached the status of icon."

Bean: "It's a real pleasure to be here tonight to present this award to an actor who's a very good friend of mine. The work I did with him will always stay in my heart. Let's see the man in action."

AND THE WINNER IS... VIGGO MORTENSEN (cue some bromance)

( Viggo's speech includes some dumb jokes, thanks for Empire's support of LOTR and The Hobbit, and a tribute to Alan Howard, who originated the role of John Halder in 'Good' on stage )

And I got my hot little hands on some actual decent-sized photos of the two of them. I'm not cutting the thumbnails because they're too good to hide, and any click should take you to the MQ version.

HAPPY FANGIRL!

Tonight is the UK Empire awards, sadly not broadcast. But sammie323 on the LOTRInfo group at yahoo) shared a page of photo thumbnails with Sean (and Georgina?), Viggo by himself and with Jason Isaacs:



So I checked Twitter for near-real-time updates using this search string: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=bean+viggo and found the empiremagazine twitter account which just confirmed that Sean and Viggo are there (though it says "Jason Isaacs - the nicest man alive TM"). But the best one is Heleno84 who is "is unexpectedly discombobulated at the sight of Viggo Mortensen and Sean Bean chatting away. Like, GOSH!"

Empire magazine live blog has a bit more, and apparently there will be video tomorrow morning.

ETA: updated with pictures and more squee!

Billy, Dom, and Elijah together again, at a surfing movie premiere in LA on the 10th! Much thanks to karin_woywod for finding this. :-D


Also March 10, Viggo strolling in Madrid with some kids and their mom, Christina Rosenvinge, He and she both worked in the movie La pistola de mi hermano in 1997. Pictures from fadedyouthblog, via nikkie222. (that blog says Viggo and Christina involved, but I'm waiting for a little more evidence before I have an opinion)



ETA: fixed slightly incoherent use of pronouns. I blame fannish giddiness.

Dom!
We actually made it to I Sell the Dead at the SF Indie Film Festival, and it was quite good. Darling, even. More comedy than horror, so I didn't have to hide too much. I didn't realize Dom narrates the whole thing, and I do love his voice. I even wrote a review on IMDB, I liked it that much :-)

DOM AND BILLY!!!
Together, clowning around at the Independent Spirit Awards. Squeeeee! Small pictures now, I'm sure there are more to come. spikessweetgirl brought those first links.

Viggo!
Good is playing at the Contra Costa Jewish Film Festival, March 5 (scroll way down or do a page search for Viggo). It's way out in the plastic suburb of Pleasanton, but I'm going anyway. If anyone else is going, I'd like to meet up.

Ian!
Ian's King Lear is showing on PBS Great Performances in March. It's on KQED, on Wednesday, Mar 25, at 8:00 pm. As they are broadcasting in High Def, and we have a new TV, I am hosting a Viewing Party, and hope some people will join me. Note that he did not do that scene nude, for whatever reason.

---

There. I feel much better!

The title is Carmel (Billy's not on the IMDB page yet) which says it's about art forgery, anyone have IDMB Pro? Is there any more info?

It's shooting, not surprisingly, in Carmel, California which is about 100 miles south of San Francisco (and me). It's a pretty tourist town on the beautiful coast, full of shops with expensive art and restaurants, nothing much to do if you're young, boring the last time we went.

(via not_alone) a twitter says Billy was there last week

One of my alerts led me to a local newspaper that reports a call for movie extras for this weekend. Too far for me, and I have work and kidlet, alas.

Viggo-Works has interviewed Viggo and got answers about his plans for this year, Perceval Press, books he's reading, and more :-)

The community bestorlando has a ton of great pictures of Orlando playing a rock star in a new movie.

dom_media and domweek have lots of Dom at Sundance and on the TV show "Chuck", including his interview with Craig Ferguson.

elijah_finds has photos of Elijah at Sundance, in LA and with Dom during the super bowl.

I'm sure there's more, though pretty low on Billy and Sean Bean news... anyone?

And I've been updating lotrips with all the fic I can find just about every week, so there's something for everyone! (If I'm missing anything, please let me know).

It seems the Montreal Canadiens are not, in fact, celebrating their 100th season. If they were, how could their CH logo have been worn in the mythological time of Middle Earth, beneath the battle garments of Aragorn in Lord of the Rings?

Ask the future king of Gondor himself.

"The classic white, beat-up Canadiens T-shirt I wore under Aragorn's clothes gave me just a little more power with the sword," says actor Viggo Mortensen, who played the lead role in the film adaptations of J. R. R. Tolkien's classic tale.

 -- Stars on Ice (National Post, Canada)

I can't stop giggling.

Dom's horror/comedy independent film, I Sell the Dead was at Slamdance, the low-rent adjunct of Sundance. So there are a ton of interviews and photos from Utah today, mostly in dom_media, and I especially direct your attention to the tight leather trousers ones :-) nothing_to_say has been very good to us tonight.

I Sell the Dead is coming to the SF Indiefest in Fabruary, and I read somewhere on their site that they might have some of the actors showing up, but who knows? I will try to keep checking, and update in various places if I find out. Let's see if we can get a fangirl contingent to go and squee together.

Fri. Feb 13 2009, 11:45 pm | Roxie Cinema
Thu. Feb 19 2009, 9:30 pm | Roxie Cinema
For tickets, click on the buy tickets button or go to http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/53529

• We go off Daylight Savings Time tonight, so turn (or digitally reset) your clocks back one hour, so that 2 am is 1 am. timeanddate.com has more if you're curious.


• The best ever kitty in a box video (link from almostnever)


• Don't Speak For Me, Sarah Palin, done by a Hockey Mama for Obama who can really sing


• And in conclusion: a bigger photo of Dom with eyeliner and a really dorky smile (from yesterday, a Cirque de Soleil opening in Las Vegas)

ETA: I keep fiddling with this. sorry if it seems to be morphing slightly

Colin Powell said a great thing: "Is there something wrong with being Muslim in this country? No, that’s not America." Finally someone points out that being a Muslim is not an automatic indicator of terrorism. I blame the Bush Administration and John McCain for this open-ended "War on Terror", as opposed to The World United to Suppress Al-Queda, which I am pretty much for.

Also, California, Alameda County, and especially Berkeley voters: the Green party voter guide (page will lead to PDF) is very helpful. Well-written explanations of the issues and candidates, even the obscure ones like BART board and judge. I may not agree with them 100% but at least I know why. Get this: the Greens agree with the fiscal conservatives (and me) that bonds are a bad idea, better to pay as we go.

And here's to Viggo "War Is Not The Answer" Mortensen, who got me into fandom. It was his smile, from the FOTR extended DVDs, that completely seduced me. May he have fifty more good years.

Monaghan, Rodriguez cast in 'Fortuna'
Grim future vision of collapsed economy, climate

( more about the Fortuna movie )

x-posted

I don't usually do birthdays: I get flustered and forget and then it's two weeks later... But for feelforfaith, I can't help it. She is such a lovely person, good writer and always a delight to work with on our fandom projects. And ( some of these pictures from C4 might be new to her )

The Toronto International Film Festival is being wonderful to us this year! There's lots and lots of Viggo (click page links for lots more) promoting both Appaloosa and Good and looking fantastic. Dom has been at several premieres, not quite as gorgeous but he still has it. And Billy is due at the Stone of Destiny premiere gala on the 13th.

I'm greedily hoping for Fellowship reunion pictures. *points at icon of Sean Bean and Viggo at TIFF in 2005*

cara_chapel took these great photos of Sean Astin at Dragon*con, earlier today (August 31, 2008). He was on a panel called "A Taste of Strawberries: Remembering the Shire".



Click images for larger versions of these photos.

It's almost as big as he is.

From photographer Rob McDougall.

ETA: the camera metadata says this was taken 2008:07:24 11:51:26

Crossposted a bit.

It's lotrips_remix time again, and I hope many of you will play. It's sometimes a big stretch, but can be really exciting, going outside not just your own story universes, but into someone else's.

amygirl posted a really fun Sean Bean Timeline, with pictures starting in 1983, both theatre and films.

Great article by Missy Merlin: Your Friends Are Not Watching the Same Show You Are (And That's OK) - via kaydeefalls post about it. I watch so much more TV now that I'm in fandom than I did before. It's fun to squee with friends and be part of the excitement, more than the shows themselves. I like the "Donna Noble & Doctor Banter Show" as well as the "David Tennant Chews the Scenery Show", and I quite enjoyed season four of the "How Weird Can That Island Get? Show", and I wish there were more episodes of the "Cuddy Kicks Ass Show".

In more David Tennant fannishness, Nina Sosanya will be playing Rosaline in Love's Labour's Lost! (via antigone921). She was a great Bellino to David's Casanova, and is gorgeous, so Rosaline to his Berowne could be electric. For those who aren't familiar with the play, Rosaline is the leading female role, and there is lots of clever verbal fencing between the two characters. I expect it will be fabulous!

I realized I had only one Billy icon and one Billy/Dom, so have brought back the one on this post (Billy in Santa Barbara, February 2004, made by the lovely and talented kiltsandlollies), a gorgeous hand one, from the Wellington ROTK press conference by mrkinch, and a Berlin ROTK premiere one that is so fuzzy, I must have made it (am a pathetic icon maker), but I kinda like the softness of it.
&

The Colour of Magic / Light Fantastic tv movies are premiering out this week -- the event is on Monday March 3rd 2008 at the Curzon Cinema Mayfair. The producers are encouraging anyone who would like to come along and wave and cheer before the first screening [6:30 pm] - costumes are, of couse, most welcome. This is the one where Sean Astin plays Twoflower.

I'm slowly updating my recs on del.icio.us/msilverstar (as a feed: msil_fanfic_rec), mostly LOTRIPS and a few Torchwoods and other fandoms. ( very hot cross-dressing Billy/Dom rec )

And birthdays! Hopes for a fabulous year to bunniewabbit, airgiodslv, rosiespark, rosamundeb, and v_angelique!!! *Sings various embarrassing birthday songs*

PS I am still stuck on chair or wheelchair, so rather bored. Talk to me, people! Lurkers, come out and say hi!

According to trianne, Billy was on the Channel 4 Richard and Judy show this morning (Feb 26). This was on their site this morning (but it's gone now):

‘Empty’ is a new six-part sitcom starring Rab C Nesbitt and Love Actually star Gregor Fisher and Billy Boyd of The Lord of the Rings fame. Fisher and Boyd play workmates Jacky and Tony, who clear and maintain houses in Glasgow for a property contractor. They join Richard & Judy to talk about the comedy.

Anyone record it? Or can you get it from their site? I've asked my source, but no luck yet, so please reply if you can upload.

ETA: the BBB has it.

For those of you who haven't seen them yet, there are giant high-res pictures in the fantastic sparklies.org Oscar gallery.



PS. yeah, I'm spamming, cos I'm bored. But I'm trying to keep my posts short at least.

At the Oscars last night, Viggo says hi to Cate and admires her pregnant belly



Then Viggo has an idea and it involves the San Lorenzo flag...



Note: I do not know the exact order in which things occurred. But the last picture is not a manip, I swear!

Thanks to M. for sharing and cheering me up considerably. Viggo's with his niece, which makes it even better.

As I may have mentioned, I broke my left knee and then I slipped on the crutches and broke my left right heel. So I'm sitting a lot.

Fan happiness: Dom lunching with Liev Schreiber in Australia, yay for new co-stars!

Book that got me through the long day of tests: Beat Until Stiff - a really good murder mystery set in San Francisco, written by a friend of mine. The insights into the SF restaurant scene are fascinating and I even like the first-person narration, which usually bugs me.

( Other things that have been amusing me )

ETA: Happy Birthday beizy!!!

I don't know where I got it, but I uploaded this video of Viggo signing at the Oscars nominees lunch event. I found it a bit hard to watch, because it keeps going on and on and on, all the yelling and in-his-faceness just got to me. At the end of that is where someone says that they've voted him the best autograph signer. I wish just one person had yelled "We love you Viggo!" because for me it's more about that. Ah well. If I ever see him, I now have A Plan.

And then after the BAFTAs, I was trying to find the Famous Viggo/Orlando Hug and having a hell of a time. Though I found Viggo signing a zillion autographs, also Orlando, amazingly sweet and patient with the fans. But my l33t search skillz ;-) finally paid off and I found a great vid of them, set to "Something's Gotta Give" as sung by Frank Sinatra, by lotrips' own idrillia (two hours after she uploaded). The Hug is there, behind Hugh Laurie being interviewed. Pretty damn subtle: whoever noticed it should be recruited for spotting bank robbers or terrorists! ( embedding in the cut ) ETA, from amygirl: longer clip of Ian, Orlando and Viggo! with Hugh Laurie dubbed in some other language. more squee!

Alas, it does not have Viggo extracting from under his waistcoat his Argentine football club's banner and displaying it proudly. Football fanboy, him. Makes stories of bonding with Bean that much more realistic.

Lotrips gets a lovely revival, lucky us!

Two of my favorite Dom/Billy AU series are updating a lot these days! inclineoftrees is a complete revision, from the beginning, of the LOTR University AU, the one where Billy's a Philosophy professor and Dom's a German major. I love the intricate details, the strong supporting cast, the slow pace of story, and the emotional weight of the characters and their mutual attraction. While I'm not very fond of the teacher/student dynamic, this story completely overwhelms my scruples, I just adore it. [Warning for BDSM (very consensual) in chapters to come.]

On a much lighter note, v_angelique and rainbowcobweb have a romp of a series in which Billy owns a bookshop in Paris and Dom's a teacher at a primary school. First there's UST and then there's ST and then there's a whole bunch of happy sex and meeting the family and clubbing in Manchester and a move towards bottomy Billy that I'm finding delightful. A funny thing happened on the way to the librarie -- the best kind of fluffy smut!

For more, see the lotrips comm, where we link to at least 30 fics a week (some better than others). feelforfaith and I have it down to an art, or at least a craft.

Hobbits, six years ago (approx): December 8, 2001, on a British TV show during the FOTR premiere publicity (posted by not_alone ). They look so young....

And on, December 9 of this year, Dom with cohorts from "I Sell the Dead". (source is domweek)

Nifty Viggo interview from ctv and one from the Denver Post -- nothing really new and special, just little charming bits of Viggo-ness.

New Lotrips Fic Listing (31 new fics this week) -- check it out, find a new author you like!

nikkie222 has been fabulous about posting Viggo news! He looks great in Toronto and New York: relaxed, happy, enthusiastic.

( giddy fangirl squee )

From the wondrous matildabj, some fabulous pictures of Billy and Beecake playing today at the London Gathering! She's so nice to share with us :-)

If you're on InsaneJournal and like Viggo, add the Viggo Daily feed. The more paid journals watch the feed, the fewer "points" it costs (according to the FAQ).

from matildabj, quite a few delightful pictures of Dom on Saturday, at the London Film & Comic Con.

Another link from Herself: the implications of Martha as the Dark Lady of Shakespeare's sonnets. Clearly, I should have paid more attention.

From another friend: a bunch of clowns prank a Ku Kux Klan rally in Knoxville, Tennessee. ( full text here in case indymedia is down )

All in all, quite cheering.

canciona tagged me with this meme, and it's taken me a while.

(1) List 5 celebrities you would have sex with without even asking questions.
(2) Put all of them IN ORDER of your lust for them. (5 - 1, 1 is the hottest.)
(3) Say which movie/show/thing it was that hooked you.
(4) Supply photos for said people.
(5) Tag five people!

There's no one I'd have sex with without asking questions, it just doesn't work that way in my head. That said, I enjoyed thinking about it very much. ( if I wasn't married... )

Hmmm. I seem to be more heterosexual than I thought. Part of it is that celebrity women have to stay very thin and I like more substance and body to a sex object. Being so thin makes them seem fragile, even when they're not, and that's not sexy to me. I stood next to Miranda Otto for a minute while she was signing autographs -- she's 5'6" in three-inch-heels, very finely boned, and about half my girth. I was afraid I'd knock her over.

ETA: feelforfaith just found a scarily still-relevant LOTRIPS cliché drinking game that cupiscent posted back in May 2002.  Read it and weep.

ETA: I'm so bad about birthdays. HBD to the wonderful canciona, tvillingar, morebliss, and especially my dear kaydeefalls!

In the news, a fascinating article; Once more on New Line, Peter Jackson, and The Hobbit on a cinema website, about why Peter Jackson is being so aggressive in pursuing the case against New Line (lots of expenses). Which links to this Variety article: New Zealand actors sue New Line - despite millions of dollars in sales of lunchboxes, T-shirts, caps and other LOTR gimcrack, there was -- gasp! -- zero "net merchandising revenue." Actors suing include Craig, Mark, Bruce, Jed Brophy and Sarah McLeod.

Fics and recs

• The lotr_fic_recs challenge this week is Billy/Dom RPS. They only have about fifteen fics, and I know there are lots more fabulous ones.


• Speaking of which, kiltsandlollies and almaviva's LOTR University is now inclineoftrees, still (very slowly) updated, and complete enough to be hugely satisfying. ETA: series index.


• I've been slowly updating my recs at http://del.icio.us/msilverstar, you can also subscribe to the feed: msil_fanfic_rec


• I'm planning a poll about lotrips_remix. A little late but really doing it.

Pictures

• morebliss posted birthday mathom pictures of Billy at the ROTK Wellington premiere, including one with his hand up that I can't stop looking at.


• Someone linked to a picture of Dom laughing in his new film, "I Sell the Dead." I don't know if it's in scene or out, but he's laughing and wearing a tank top -- it's a great picture!


• mata090680 has a great picspam of Billy (in that suit with the open black shirt and the satin lapels), Sean Astin, Andy, Elijah, Bernard and Liv at the 2004 National Board of Review.

And no spoilers, but I'm another one who loved Doctor Who 3x10, "Utopia". So much going on, great lines, The Doctor, Captain Jack and Martha (all looking gorgeous), allusions to old-school Doctors, just gotta squee! I watched it by myself last night and am going to watch again with my guys tonight.

Viggo news: Eastern Promises preview review (with spoilers)

A long and thoughtful review of Pandemoniumfromamerica in Blogcritics Magazine.

Billy news: May interview in which he talks about a Beecake video and mentions interest from Viggo and Peter Jackson, also a Scottish Youth Theatre fundraising project and charming tidbits about baby Jack.

ETA: my fic recs are at http://del.icio.us/msilverstar, you can also subscribe to the feed: msil_fanfic_rec

karin_woywod found this photo of the LOTR cast life masks, I think it's amazing.

Upper Row: Liv, Orlando, Cate Blanchett, Sean Bean, Viggo, Ian McKellen
Middle Row: Ian Holm, Elijah, Sean Astin, Billy, Dom, Andy Serkis
Lower Row: Bernard Hill, maybe Christopher Lee ?, Brad Dourif or Bruce Hopkins?, Hugo?, John Rhys-Davies, Kiran Shah

---

Also: handwritten notes from the cast to Fon from her book, quite charming. Found by helens78.

---

I'm reading The Children of Húrin, having visited the Other Change of Hobbit bookstore and been fed a slice of their 30th anniversary cake. I've I spent a fair amount of money there in every one of those years (the owners are old friends). My personal Silmarillion canon has been much enhanced by tyellas's Magweth Pengolodh series, a fascinating and affecting story told by an Eldar who lived through much of the First and Second ages, stopping in Numenor on his way to the West.

---

There was something else, I know there was. But it seems to be gone now :-(

Dom in eyeliner! Dom being heroic! Dom being damn good actor :-D

jdsmylover has some nice unwatermarked pictures of Billy singing at Collectormania.

matildabj has a report from the concert, as well.

There was this "Dressed to Kilt" event last night in New York, and Billy was there, sometimes in in a kilt and a wig(!), in just a kilt, and in a nice gray suit. Fifteen more big pictures, courtesy of mata090680!

Rec: There's an utterly charming geek!Orlando/Viggo fic that's almost crackfic, what with geek!Orlando working at 'Best Buys 'R Us' and loving spam and velveeta, but it's also got fabulously smutty sexual awakening at the hands of a caring and careful Viggo. I find myself reluctantly addicted.

sex sells! erotic_authors has info about the erotic fiction marketplace

LJ rulz! 'White List' of writers, editors, and other publishing professionals that have LiveJournals or LJ RSS feeds.

from a Spanish-language site, via nikkie222 news of ( Viggo's film,  )

ETA: ( not a spoiler, but the best line in this ep )

Short update: Billy was funny and riffed in extremely silly ways, David Wenham was sweet and interesting, Beecake concert was excellent. Notes from the talks to come as soon as I get them typed.