'Rings' Director Now 'Lord Of The Blogs'

Blogophile is written by CBSNews.com's Melissa P. McNamara

Middle Earth Mêlée

Don't get mad, get digital. That was "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson's approach, at least.

Jackson posted a letter on a fan site, explaining that New Line cinema dumped him from "The Hobbit," a movie in its planning stages. He wrote:

"This outcome is not what we anticipated or wanted, but neither do we see any positive value in bitterness and rancor. We now have no choice but to let the idea of a film of 'The Hobbit' go and move forward with other projects."

The main argument between New Line and Jackson centered around a legal dispute over income from merchandising on the "Lord of the Ring" films.

As The New York Times reported, thousands of fan sites and bloggers picked up Jackson's comments, and Jackson almost immediately garnered innumerable online fans. Sites like Lord of the Rings Fanatics and The One Ring called for fans to boycott "The Hobbit." "Can you imagine someone else being the director of that movie? It really is unthinkable," Kim at Media Possible writes.

Even some of the original "Lord of the Rings" actors weighed in. "I'm very sad as I should have relished revisiting middle Earth with Peter again as team-leader," Ian McKellan wrote on his website. "It's hard to imagine any other director matching his achievement in Tolkien country."

Will at Heroic Dreams agrees. "This is some really bad news," he blogs. "In my opinion Jackson is the only candidate for the job. What other director knows, and loves, Tolkien so well?"

"This whole ordeal is turning into an emotional rollercoaster for the loyal fans," Cam writes at Cam's Pop-Culture Episodes.

And Jackson's appeal may have worked. Just days later, New Line apparently reinstated him as director.

Nevertheless, some bloggers were perfectly happy at the prospect of Jackson not returning. "Fellowship of the Ring was the best of the trilogy movies, Return of the King had SERIOUS issues, especially with diverging from the original story significantly enough to contort the ideology and intentions of the author," Miss Ann Thropic writes. "The special effects were fantastic, the story was wacky."

And for some, it's much ado about nothing. Enough is enough, some bloggers say. "Seriously, everyone needs to stop getting worked up about this, it's almost certainly a non-issue right now," a blogger at Film Junk says.

Liberal Hearts Beat Faster

A frosty exchange between President Bush and Virginia Sen.-elect James Webb that was made public this week has liberal bloggers calling Webb their hero, a man they see as a potential Senate maverick.

The comment that has launched a thousands words online happened at a White House reception for new legislators last month. President Bush walked up to Webb to ask about his son, who is a Marine in Iraq. According to several published accounts, Webb said, "I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President." "That's not what I asked you," Bush replied. "How's your boy?" "That's between me and my boy, Mr. President," Webb responded.

That brief chat riled up bloggers, many of whom were happy to see a senator-elect standing up to the president. "Webb refuses to play elitist Washington game," a blogger at Sense and Sensibility For Our Dot Com World writes. And a blogger at What Strikes Me added, "He won't be able to be a "good old boy" part of the Senate club? It's about time! You go Webb."

Some even add this type of candor is what our government was meant to include. "The Founders would raise a pitcher of ale in Webb's honor. They never envisioned the Congress kissing the king's ring in America. It's long past time it stopped," Taylor Marsh blogs.

Some bloggers sympathized with Webb as the father of a Marine. "As the father of a soldier who's going to that hell hole in a few months, I say, right on, Senator," W. David Stephenson blogs.

Barbara O'Brien agrees. "I can only imagine the grinding, prolonged anguish a parent feels when a child is off fighting in a war," she writes at The Mahablog.

Some bloggers also question the president's tone with Webb. "I can think of a dozen responses the President could have given, none of them as confrontational as the one he chose," a blogger at Centrisity writes. "So much for his pledge to work with the new Democratic majorities in Congress."

But some bloggers question whether Webb has the temperament for the Senate and suggest this exchange with the president suggests he may not. "I look in the future and see Webb storming out of the senate because others will not agree with him. When he introduces legislation and others take the stand to support or disagree in civil debate will Webb want to slug them also?," Spark it Up! Blogs.

Mustang Bobby simply has some unsolicited advice for Webb: "If the White House offers you a 'fact-finding' trip to Guantanamo Bay, don't go."

Not An Immaculate Conception

"The Nativity Story," the New Line film about the courtship between Mary and Joseph and their journey to Bethlehem is a relatively non-controversial movie. But it got a somewhat controversial twist when Keisha Castle-Hughes, who plays the teenage Virgin Mary, announced her own nativity story. Castle-Hughes, 16, is pregnant by her 19-year-old boyfriend. Bloggers took note of the irony.

Castle-Hughes' performance has been widely praised. She made Oscar history in 2004 when, at 13, she became the youngest actress ever to be nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award for her debut film, "Whale Rider."

The coincidence between "The Nativity Story's" narrative and the actress' pregnancy is not lost on the movie's director, Catherine Hardwicke. She told the Independent Online: "From the beginning I sensed a kind of old soul in her, she's very deep. Her mom also just had a baby who's about two months old, so the baby will have an uncle who's only a couple of months older - just like John the Baptist was to Jesus. And Keisha's boyfriend is in construction so he's a carpenter too. The whole thing's pretty wild!"

Many bloggers say the director's comments were a little much as well. "Obviously she is worried about a backlash but talk about over-compensation...Please! I'm waiting her for to claim that three wise men showed up! I'm waiting her for to claim that three wise men showed up at the filming," a blogger at No God Zone writes.

Others thought Castle-Hughes sure took her acting to heart. "Isn't that taking method acting a little too far?," a blogger at Chapter 5 writes. "Let's really give credit to the new movie for realism," Rschyster adds.

"Sure, Jean-Luc Godard went out on a limb in 1985 with 'Hail Mary' modern interpretation of the Virgin Mary as a basketball playing, gas pumping teenager–but a pregnant actress is way New Wave!," Shannon at Screenhead writes.

Her pregnancy also caused a bit of a PR nightmare for the movie executives. News broke of Australian-born Castle-Hughes' pregnancy just weeks before the film's global release.

But, a blogger at The Art of Grand Gesture has an idea. "She could make the rounds of the talk shows and tell us all how she was inspired by the film and got a bit carried away with the method acting. But if she names the baby Jesus, well, that's going too far altogether," she blogs.

And besides, a little controversy never hurt a movie at the box office.

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Melissa McNamara