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Lords of the Rings star embraces Buddhism Item 9652 • Posted: Wed, Dec. 08 2004 • Weblogged by ReligionNewsBlog.com Permalink to this article (Click link to copy to clipboard) Hindustan Times (India), Dec. 6, 2004 http://www.hindustantimes.com Another Hollywood star Orlando Bloom is to become a Buddhist. The Lord of the Rings star, 27, took part in an hour long ceremony at a centre to commit himself to the faith, according to a Mirror report. Orlando, who jealously guards his private life, joined 60 other fledgling Buddhists at the Soka Gakkai International Buddhist movement HQ at Taplow Court Mansion in Maidenhead,...

Crosswalk.com News Channel - LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Near the end of his life, J.R.R. Tolkien (also spelled Tolkein) received a letter from a young girl posing a question concerning the chief end of man.Tolkien, author of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy which has now become a motion picture, provided the youngster an answer that lends insight into the worldview of the realm in which he casts his fantasy novels. "It may be said that the purpose of life for any one of us is to increase according to our capacity, our knowledge of God by all the means we have ...

"One ring to rule them all" – Those are the words that echo in my head as I watch the Israeli opposition to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's proposal to leave Gaza and portions of the West Bank. As an American Jew who has visited Israel over a dozen times, I have a natural enthusiasm and empathy for the Zionist project. However, like many, I believe that Israel's current geopolitical course is unsustainable. As I watch the attempt of settlers to hold onto settlements scattered through Gaza and parts of the West Bank, I am forced to conclude that a segment...

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One of the most controversial and provocative films of the year, Fellowship 9/11 is Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore's searing examination of the Aragorn administration's actions in the wake of the tragic events at Helms Deep. With his characteristic humor and dogged commitment to uncovering - or if necessary fabricating - the facts, Moore considers the reign of the son of Arathorn and where it has led us. He looks at how - and why - Aragorn and his inner circle avoided pursuing the Saruman connection to Helms Deep, despite the fact that 9 out of every 10 Orcs that...

Now, a call for help. I am trying to fashion a LOTR analogy to the events of Rathergate.

Our Own Private Tower of Cirith Ungol If I were Thórr, I’d be pretty ticked. Someone has stolen my thunder! To be precise, two different guys have made off with my big rumble this month. Way, way back last December, I started assembling the editorial plan for the year’s Lord of the Rings features on Hollywood Jesus: twelve monthly guest features, twelve featured interviews, the make-it-up-as-we-go email-of-the-month, and twelve hard-hitting, incisive (and somewhat insightful) features in the vein of the pieces I’d done for the previous two years. Now, this was no great hardship, and I didn’t have too hard...

More Lord of the Rings movies — oh, yesss, preciousss, we wantsss them. And within the next twenty or thirty years, we'll get them. Children who watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy will take their own children to a complete remake of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It's inevitable. Most great movies will never be remade. We will never see remakes of The Godfather, or Gone with the Wind, or even Star Wars. But Lord of the Rings is different. Why? Consider these five reasons. • The pre-existing fame of the LOTR novels prevents the actors in the...

Upon reading and rereading Atlas Shrugged and The Lord of the Rings, I find comparison of the two tempting, for both of these novels display firm and compelling visions regarding personal philosophy and the rejection of Evil. One of the most unique aspects of Atlas Shrugged is its rational definition of Good and Evil based on the principles of Objectivism. Good is that which is free, independent, thinking, and productive. Evil is that which attempts to feed upon others through false premises. But fundamentally Good is strong and Evil is weak, for Evil can only perpetuate itself through the consent...

When as a boy I read “The Scouring of the Shire” near the end of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, I could not understand why Tolkien felt the need to tack on such an anti-climactic and shabby bit of evil. Only later, as I began to notice modernity’s penchant for ugliness in the world beyond Middle Earth, did I understand that the scouring of the Shire bespoke a present evil, a malevolence insidious precisely because it lacked the stark drama of the trenches or the gas chambers. I came to understand that the demolition of the...

UBER-BLOCKBUSTER SHOWDOWNTHE PASSION VS. LORD OF THE RINGS VS. SPIDER-MAN VS. STAR WARS (Daily Gross / % Yesterday / % Last Week / Total Gross / Day No. or Day of Week)BY DAY OF WEEK | BY DAY NUMBER WK 6 $17,537,761 $8,989,770 $14,904,564 $22,317,549 WEEK 7 Fri Est. $6,543,000+189% / +161.2%$344,333,000 / 45 $1,371,409+148.3% / -9.2%$341,392,421 / 45 $2,124,686+78.3% / -28.6%$377,146,371 / 43 $2,900,000+37.1% / -23.1%$362,775,311 / 45 Sat Est. $4,905,000-25% / +19.7%$349,238,000 / 46 $2,739,574+99.8% / -13.3%$344,131,995 / 46 $3,011,494+41.7% / -28.6%$380,157,865 / 44 $3,820,000+31.7% / -33.9%$366,595,311 / 46 Sun Est. $5,639,000+15% / +40.8%$354,877,000 / 47 $1,199,820-56.2%...

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Comments on items recently in the news. • Having missed Hamas' dialectician Ahmed Yassin in September, the Israelis now have picked him off — as they vowed they would. The mastermind of hundreds of attacks against Israel, resulting in the murder of at least 377, Yassin vowed in January: "We do not fear the threat of death. We will not bow to pressure, and resistance will continue until the occupation is destroyed." That Israel has killed him should come as no surprise. Nor should the double-standard outrage reserved for Israeli and American actions against terrorists. Yassin's successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi,...

Alone among 20th century novelists, J R R Tolkien concerned himself with the mortality not of individuals but of peoples. The young soldier-scholar of World War I viewed the uncertain fate of European nations through the mirror of the Dark Ages, when the life of small peoples hung by a thread. In the midst of today's Great Extinction of cultures, and at the onset of civilizational war, Tolkien evokes an uncanny resonance among today's readers. He did not write a fantasy, but rather a roman-a-clef. I spoke too soon when I wrote a year ago that a "reasonably faithful cinematic...

"The Lord of the Rings," with its subtext of God's providential guiding, and "The Passion," with its in-your-face text of Christ's suffering for us, have been the big movie successes of the past few months. Pastor Rick Warren's "The Purpose-Driven Life" was the No. 1 nonfiction hardback bestseller last year. Many churches report increasing attendance, and some observers even speculate that a great revival is underway. At the same time, The Wall Street Journal accurately noted yesterday that "Secular absolutism is becoming the most potent religious force" in America." The WSJ blasted the "effort by liberal activists and their judicial...

Studios at Odds Over 'Rings' Prequel By The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) - Peter Jackson won't be returning to the Shire any time soon. The Oscar-winning director is planning to film "The Hobbit," the prequel to "The Lord of the Rings," trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien, but two studios must first fight over legal rights to the film. Jackson said New Line Cinema has the rights to make the movie, but MGM has the rights to distribute it. "I guess MGM's lawyers and New Line's lawyers are going to have a huge amount of fun over the next few years...

LOS ANGELES — Another Academy Awards ceremony has come and gone. If you're like me, you spent much of it on the edge of your seat, silently praying that none of the winning actors would launch into a noxious left-wing tirade, featuring such sagacious bromides as "War is Not the Answer" (to what?). It's a common perception that Hollywood is a liberal town, and rightly so. There are a few bold souls, however, who are willing to swim against the tide. One of these starred in the film that won the most Oscars last Sunday night. He's John Rhys-Davies, who...

"The Lord of the Rings" is no match for the Lord. Updated figures show Mel Gibson's foreign-language "The Passion of the Christ" with a box-office take of $125.2 million, the greatest debut in movie history by a film opening on a Wednesday. The previous record holder, "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," had $124.1 million. Oh, how the studio bosses must be gnashing their teeth today after refusing to finance or distribute the movie. "The total was almost $8 million more than Newmarket first estimated, because far more people turned out Sunday to see Gibson's grisly...