Diary of a Hobbit Fiend: My Precious Draws

By Susan Thea Posnock

A/N: This is the first in a series of 14 columns I wrote for the web site Oscarwatch.com from September 2003 through March 2004, tracking my obsession with "The Lord of the Rings" films, the release of "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" and its subsequent Oscar sweep. Obviously the material is dated. I'm posting it here because it is no longer available at OW.


I must say, I've done an excellent job of keeping my “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” anticipation (read: obsession) from consuming me so far. I only check Theonering.net every couple of weeks, and I merely "toyed" with the idea of getting faux fur permanently glued to my feet.

Lately, however, I'm finding that the precious is on my mind more and more. First there was that sort-of-trailer that was leaked on-line, the one shown at the end of the ROTK preview on “The Two Towers DVD.” The hobbit urges started to stir a bit, as I watched it in a rather low-quality format. It was just enough to whet my appetite a bit.

But since purchasing the DVD, I am STARVED. The problem is, I promised myself that this time I would not read every bit of hype and I would make myself as, well, "virginal" as possible when ROTK finally comes out in December. I sort of screwed up the wedding night with TTT. I mean, I LOVED it, but I just felt like we'd been fooling around too much before finally consummating the relationship. So it was sort of anti-climactic.

I refuse to have that happen with ROTK. I will not sully what Elijah Wood (Frodo, to me) says is BETTER THAN THE FIRST TWO COMBINED. Oh no, this year I will fight off the hype. I won't let myself get sucked in.

I know I'm making progress. I've only watched the ROTK preview three times since I got the DVD. And I've only watched TTT about four times. (Of course that doesn't count the countless times I watched the Oscar screener copy I managed to get my hands on early in the summer—but it's just not the same watching it with “For Your Consideration” popping up every five minutes).

I'm also lucky to have my friends support me in controlling my addiction. In fact, they were kind enough to hold a little party (read: intervention) for me recently. Then again, there are the enablers, like Oscarwatch editor Sasha Stone, who gave me the ROTK teaser poster. Bitch.

But that's just a minor setback. And the poster is hanging above my bed, so it's not like I'm constantly staring at it. Vigggggoooooo…

Yup, this year I've got it all under control.

I’m even getting excited about other movies. For instance, that “Secondhand Lions” looks excellent. I will definitely have to catch that on the 26th. I didn’t want to see it opening weekend, of course. Movies need at least a week in the theaters to age properly. Really, this has nothing to do with that report on TORN that the full ROTK trailer will be attached to this Haley Joel Osment crowd-pleaser in its second week.

Bring on the secondhand lions, I say!

(Originally published on OscarWatch.com. ©2003 OscarWatch All Rights Reserved.)