# Articles and pieces about LOTR/Tolkien in general



## Barliman Butterbur (Dec 14, 2004)

For openers: There is a new documentary motion picture (_Ringers: Lord of the Fans_ narrated by Dominic Monaghan) coming out about Tolkien/LOTR's influence on Western popular culture over the past 50 years, and the article is here: http://www.thetolkienforum.com/showpost.php?p=436033&postcount=6

Barley


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## Barliman Butterbur (May 20, 2005)

*Tolkien fan writes how she, others were played for scam*

*The Oregon doctor says she lost $3,000 to a Bit of Earth, which even ensnared some actors from the popular movies.*
BY MIKE HOLTZCLAW
928-6479

May 20 2005

Jeanine Renne has a story to tell.

It revolves around J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" saga, but it isn't set in Middle Earth. Rather, much of the story takes place in cyberspace - in Internet chat rooms where "Lord of the Rings" fans meet under fanciful screen names and commiserate about hobbits and the movie stars who play them.

Renne said she was part of a group of fans taken in by a phony charity set up by Amy Player, a young woman from York County who seems to have been motivated less by money than by the goal of online status and the opportunity to mingle with the stars of the "Lord of the Rings" movies.

Renne retells the story in her new book, which she will be signing at 7 tonight at Beck & Stein Books in Newport News.

She estimates that she lost $3,300 to the phony charity, called Bit of Earth. In all, Renne says, the victims of the scam were taken for about $24,000.

"I'd like to see the book make enough money that I could gain back what I lost and pay back the money to the other people who were taken in," said Renne, a physician who lives in Oregon and who published the book herself.

Player, 21, reportedly lives in Los Angeles. She could not be reached for comment. Her family declined to discuss her case or the book.

The Oregon Department of Justice confirmed that Player (who occasionally used the alias Jordan Wood while posing as a man) and her friend Abigail Stone were fined $9,000 in June 2004 for operating a phony charity. Player and Stone also ran afoul of the Reading is Fundamental charity because they falsely claimed that their fundraisers would benefit RIF, according to the Oregon Department of Justice.

But Renne's book is not a dry recitation of a small-scale fraud. It is a colorful tale that describes, at one point, "Lord of the Rings" cast members sleeping on the floor of a small apartment when their travel arrangements fell through for a purported fundraising event. It also includes lengthy online chat transcripts in which Player and Stone claim to be "channeling" characters from Tolkien's books.

Bit of Earth arranged for its online circle of "Lord of the Rings" fans to construct a children's reading garden in Beaverton, Ore. Bit of Earth wasn't a real charity, but Player and Stone managed to involve various members of the movie cast in the garden project and other events. Sean Astin, who played one of the lead roles in the "Lord of the Rings" films, was on hand to help build the garden.

Meanwhile, the contributors continued to give money to Bit of Earth even after they came to understand that one of its administrators, Jordan Wood, was actually a young female passing herself off as a male.

"A lot of people have tried to write this off as a bunch of gullible people who should have known better," Renne said. "But I don't think it's a matter of who's gullible or not. It has to do with how an online fan site puts your interests and your passions right out there for all to see, which makes it easier for a con artist to get you.

"In retrospect, there were red flags we should have seen. But I kept thinking, if these people are con artists, why would they build a beautiful garden in Beaverton? Why would we actually see the work being done?"

Renne, 37, is now part of a group that maintains the reading garden and is applying for legitimate status as a non-profit organization. She looks at the garden as something good that came out of an otherwise unhappy episode.

But she said that writing the book helped her put a lot of bad feelings to rest.

"It was very cathartic to get the whole thing off my shoulders," she said.

Source: http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/dp-19810sy0may20,0,4403557,print.story?coll=dp-news-local-final

Barley


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