Praise the Lord

Peter Jackson: “‘He’s as cool as an elf, he has the heart of a hobbit, and he’s as mad as a wizard.’ That’s the awestruck opinion of Lord Of The Rings star Orlando Bloom [wearing a huffer t-shirt, above left with Liv Tyler] on a man who has “more prestige than any director in Hollywood”. Actor John (Gimli) Rhys-Davies claims PJ has done more for NZ than Captain Cook! An Observer story entitled ‘King Kiwi’ backs up the view of Jackson as Hollywood’s most powerful black sheep: “He has never felt the pull of California and now the studios bosses who probably once struggled to find NZ on a map are beating a path to his door. It is a stark measure of how the stout Jackson, who wears shorts without shoes as routinely as a suit, is not merely the most powerful man outside Hollywood. He is more powerful than almost anyone inside it too. It is as if his lifelong vow to stand his ground on home turf has earned him an authority denied those breathlessly pursuing the rat race.”