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Good Evening Mr. Gamgee
Sam

Well, I had a fascinating evening tonight. I work in a Wellington restaurant on Oriental Parade and who should be sitting on the balcony and having dinner but Sean Astin. "Good evening Mr Gamgee," I said as I introduced myself. He had his wife and his daughter with him and he was one of the nicest guys I have ever met, in fact, his whole family was wonderful. Seriously, I'm not even exaggerating any.

Anyway, I told him I was a huge fan of Lord of the Rings and of his (thought he was great in Bulworth, which is a fantastic movie if you haven't seen it) and I hoped they were enjoying themselves over here, to which they responded in the affirmative wholeheartedly. They asked my name and I replied and his daughter, who was incredibly cute, leaned over and whispered in his ear and he looks up at me and says, "She says I've got to tell you a secret. She finishes her sentence and he tells me that the secret is that the person he's playing in the Lord of the Rings ... his name is Sam as well."

Anyway, and this may be the part that most of you will be slightly interested in -- he mentioned that she might be going to be his daughter at the end of the film -- so what that means for the Grey Havens and the Scouring I'm not sure. You can all interpret that for yourselves. I didn't want to pry ... New Zealanders have a bit of a reputation for not inquiring too far into the lives of celebrities, and besides, I want him to come back some time. Fantastic guy, gonna make a great Sam Gamgee. Hope this doesn't get him into any trouble at all with the confidentiality agreement and everything.

Oh, and here's a tip for you Wellingtonians out there -- if you can get into the bar "The Motel" which is apparently around Burger King on Abel Smith Street (they're a little exclusive, and they've got a door cam going -- but mainly because they've only got a license for 50 people) you can meet yourself some Rings people, or so I'm told. Apparently a a whole bunch of the Matrix cast had been in there the other night too. Wellington's a good place to live!