Showbiz411

New dad Orlando Bloom is going to join the “Hobbit” reunion.

Sources say that Bloom’s people are negotating for him now to hook up with Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood, and Sir Ian McKellen in the prequel to the “Lord of the Rings” series.

However, reports of Bloom getting $1 million for two minutes on screen are wrong. “The Hobbit” is going to be two movies. Many of the beloved characters from “Lord of the Rings” may appear briefly in the first film, and at length in the second one.

Sources say that director Peter Jackson is creating a kind of story “bridge” between the second “Hobbit” film and the first “Lord of the Rings” installment, so the whole billion dollar deal can play as a five part, all day, all nigt extravaganza.

Are Viggo Mortensen and Liv Tyler next? And what of Sean Astin? My guess is we’ll see everyone once Jackson is done.

Roger Friedman

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.