20/20, The Lord of the Rings and

March 12, 2002

A lot has been said over the last few days about the negative impact of

the 20/20 report on dwarf tossing. People got upset and worked up and

rightfully so.

By contrast I hear people talking about the wonderful job Meredith Eaton

does on Family law. But wouldn’t it be better for the show to pick a

better know actress of average size and just shrink her down with a

little computer magic? I mean if you took someone like a ,

say, and shrunk her down to 3 foot five, they’d get even higher ratings,

they could sell more commercials and could portray a little person

just as well or better, couldn’t she?

In fact, with this computer magic in mind, why is there a need for any

LP actors at all? The job can be done just as well by any actor of

average stature, right? Obviously I’m being facetious.

What I’m really wondering is why are more people on this list are not

outraged by the fact that “The Lord of the Rings,” a movie based around

a race of little people, does just that? They cast no LPs at all. The

characters in this movie are not dancing grapes in a Fruit of the Loom

commercial, they’re not Ewoks covered from head to toe in carpet and

they’re not ETs. The characters in LOTR are individuals who eat too

much, like to gossip about their neighbors, enjoy a nice pipe in front

of the fire of an evening, are capable of great heroism when the need

arises and are characters that audiences care about. This was “The”

movie for LP actors and the opportunity is gone.

In two weeks, with several s, Hollywood will endorse the practice

of replacing LP actors digitally with actors of average stature

regardless of who says what. I would like to tell everyone I can that I

don’t agree so they can be ashamed of what they’ve done. A couple actors

I’ve talked to agree with me. Is it just us three? If you agree, I could

use some quotes that I can send along. Check out what I have so far.

Marty

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