One Mullet to Rule Them All

A new controversy has exploded on Lord of the Rings fan sites. New publicity photos from "The Two Towers," New Line Cinema's follow-up to the fantasy blockbuster "Fellowship of the Ring," show the film's star, Elijah Wood, sporting a heinous mullet. Because the films are based on Tolkien's fantasy series, within Tolkien fandom nothing is a greater sin than altering the author's original work. Ancalagon, the message board moderator for www.thelordoftherings.net, cited Frodo's new mullet as "an enormous abomination to the legacy of Middle-Earth." But the film's director, Peter Jackson, defends the artistic license taken in creating Frodo's character. "Nowhere in Tolkien's novels does he specify the hairstyle of the hobbits." Jackson went on to explain that, like the "Star Wars" films, the mullet operates as a symbol of evil. "As a filmmaker, nothing is more difficult than visually conveying a character's internal struggle. The mullet seemed to be a wonderful symbol that could visually illustrate Frodo's struggle with the evil of The One Ring."

While Tolkien fans abhor the mullet, Jackson's decision seems to have won over some new fans; bumper stickers have been showing up in trailer parks across the nation reading: Welcome to Mullet-Earth!