Hobbit Confesses to Kiwi Crush
Staff Reporter

The Lord Of The Rings star Elijah Wood has admitted being spellbound by talented Kiwi actor Madeleine Sami - but the enamoured actor won't kiss and tell.

In this month's British magazine Arena, the diminutive 21-year-old American talks of his attraction to the former Shortland Street actor.

Wood also reveals that he and fellow hobbit Dominic Monaghan urinated on a well-known Wellington fountain - believed to be Cuba Mall's bucket fountain - much to the disgust of Rings director Peter Jackson.

In the interview, Wood - who lived in New Zealand for 15 months playing Frodo Baggins in the $650 million Rings trilogy - was asked what was the wildest thing he'd ever done.

Wood said: "Not so much wild, but spontaneous. In New Zealand there was this really cool girl Madeleine Sammy (sic) - if this ends up in the magazine I hope her name goes in because I lost her phone number - we all went and saw this play she was in and I thought she was really attractive and lovely and a brilliant actress. I was blown away. One Saturday I decided to drive for four hours to spend some time with her. She was essentially a stranger."

Arena: "Did you get it on?"

Wood: "I can't say!"

Arena: "You did. Were you wearing your hobbit feet?"

Wood: "No! That's kinky! Cheeky!"

Sami, 22, a Chapman Tripp award-winner for the play No 2, is in rehearsals for the Auckland production of The Vagina Monologues alongside Lucy Lawless. She confirmed today she'd struck up a friendship with Wood but wasn't giving out too many details.

"He came and saw both Bare and No 2, the two shows I did, and we kind of hung out and went to the movies a bit. He was a really cool guy."

Bare was performed in Wellington, while Wood made the trip to Taupo to see Sami in No 2. "He was really down to earth, and loving New Zealand, loving the adventure."

But was he loving her? "Couldn't say, wouldn't say."

In the end, work got in the way for the two busy actors. "Things started to get really busy for him, and then I started touring, and I went to Edinburgh, so I was never home, and we kind of lost touch."

The magazine also asked if Wood had ever mooned someone. Wood: "No, but . . . we were out in Wellington, Liv (Tyler), Orlando (Bloom), Dom (Monaghan) and I, we couldn't get into this club - we were underage - and Dom says: 'I've got to pee,' and I had to piss too. So we climbed this . . . I don't want to say what it was as people from Wellington would know."

Arena: "You peed on a national monument?"

Wood: "Not a monument."

Arena: "A major urban landmark?"

Wood: "No. Maybe . . . Peter (Jackson) was very disappointed. He said he grew up with that fountain. He was very upset."

Jackson couldn't be reached today for comment on the fountain episode.