XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.fan.tolkien   
   From: hayesstw@telkomsa.net   
      
   According to a report in today’s New York Times Arts Beat Blog, a casting   
   agent for the upcoming Hobbit films recently posted an advertisement   
   looking for extras with “light skin tones.”   
      
   According to the Agence France-Presse, an actor with a Pakistani   
   background was dismissed at a casting session, and promptly started a   
   Facebook group, “Hire hobbits of all colours! Say no to hobbit racism!”   
      
   A spokesperson for Peter Jackson’s Wingnut Films has stated that the   
   casting director had received no such instructions, and the studio does   
   not condone discrimination. According to a report on CNN’s Entertainment   
   Blog, the casting director in question has been dismissed.   
      
   JRR Tolkien’s Prologue to The Lord of the Rings contains a section titled   
   “Concerning Hobbits,” which tells us that the Harfoots (apparently   
   ancestors of the Bagginses and other Hobbits of the Shire) “were browner   
   of skin” than other Hobbits. It would seem that most Hobbits in the Third   
   Age might be considered “people of color.”   
      
   Read it all at:   
      
   http://live.hollywoodjesus.com/?p=6688   
      
      
   --   
   Steve Hayes   
   Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/litmain.htm   
        http://www.goodreads.com/hayesstw   
        http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/Methodius   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)