Peter Jackson

GiveCorps, a philanthropic community that gives to local nonprofit organizations, was formed because of Generation Y. It was started two years ago in an effort to help nonprofits connect with a young audience, according to Peter Jackson, the vice president of the organization. "Millennials are not only the biggest generation in history," Jackson says. "They're also the most giving. " Jackson, 27, began working with GiveCorps when it first formed and his role has continued to grow.

December brings holiday parties, subfreezing temperatures - and, not infrequently, the release of a new Peter Jackson movie based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Whenever this happens, a low-simmering debate among lovers of Tolkien's works bubbles to a full boil. Friday's release of the second installment in Jackson's trilogy of "The Hobbit" is no exception. For more than a decade now, the questions have persisted among Middle-Earth devotees: Do Mr. Jackson's films honor Tolkien's books or ruin them?

Some people would pay to hear actor Ian McKellen read the phone book. I'd pay to see Peter Jackson - who is directing him in the Lord of the Rings trilogy - film anything from the Gilgamesh Epic to Roberts' Rules of Order. In The Two Towers, Jackson paints a world in upheaval and depicts the drastic revamping of its codes and traditions. The result is harrowing and inspiring. As escapist entertainment, it's the movie of the year. This is the rare picture that evokes and revives the spirit of classics from The Wizard of Oz to The Seven Samurai.

As Maryland legislators debate the repeal of the state's death penalty, everyone should go to see an excellent documentary, "West of Memphis," directed by Amy Berg. Sadly, three teenagers were falsely convicted of murders which someone else committed and they had their youth taken from them. Only because of the dedication of so many supporters were the three released after serving around 19 years in prison. However, they can't be compensated by the state of Arkansas because the government refuses to admit its malfeasance.

When it comes to King Kong, why not leave well-enough alone? At first blush, it would seem difficult to improve upon this extraordinary American film, the story of a giant gorilla and his unrequited love for a beautiful blonde. Images from the film have become mainstays of popular culture: Kong roaring at an attacking tyrannosaurus, Kong astride the New York skyline with a terrified Fay Wray dangling from his oversized paw, Kong plummeting to his death from atop the Empire State Building.

NEW YORK - Peter Jackson, the New Zealand director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, almost begs to be described as a hobbit. His hair flies out like untrimmed shrubbery. His endomorphic profile suggests a yen for enormous Shire-style feasts. And he goes barefoot despite the frigidity of his Manhattan hotel room when the heating system breaks down. More important, as his hobbit actors say, he catalyzes fun with every passing second. His avidity for sparking spontaneous humor and emotion in mammoth, outlandish settings gives The Two Towers, which opens Wednesday, an escalating, inexhaustible vitality.

When it comes to what's great about King Kong, it's not the harum-scarum. It's the girl. That's not to put the title character down. Peter Jackson's King Kong resembles a DC Comics super ape. He boasts the brainpan of Gorilla Grodd and a scrambled version of Superman's power menu: He's faster than a locomotive, more powerful than a speeding bullet, able to leap tall jungle walls in a single bound. As the fearsome monarch of Skull Island, he can dispatch several dinosaurs at once with body-slamming wrestling moves, while holding a human in one hand.

Jamaican musician Peter Jackson has sued the U.S. Customs Service for $10 million, claiming that inspectors at Baltimore-Washington International Airport singled him out for a strip-search and X-rays for possible drugs in September 1997 because he is black.The suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, comes seven months after Jackson, 27 -- a reggae artist who goes by the stage name Galaxy P -- filed a $2 million administrative claim against the agency. His lawyer, Marvin Ellin, said he filed the suit because the Customs Service ignored the administrative claim.

THE QUESTION The Pink Panther, When a Stranger Calls, The Hills Have Eyes, The Shaggy Dog ... all remakes due by the middle of March. And with The Fog - yeesh - still too fresh in our memory, we wonder, when was the last time you enjoyed a remake more than the original? WHAT YOU SAY There are three remakes I think are unquestionably better than the originals - Gone in 60 Seconds, Ocean's Eleven and The Italian Job. It's not that the originals aren't good and entertaining in their own way, but the remakes are far more imaginative and well done, and thus hold up better even after multiple viewings.

A new question about The Fellowship of the Ring periodically took over discussion of The Two Towers last week during three days of press conferences in New York: Which is the definitive version of the first movie in the Lord of the Rings trilogy? The 178-minute theatrical cut? Or the roughly half-hour-longer presentation on the "special extended edition" of the DVD? Even director Peter Jackson couldn't decide. He initially suggested that the theatrical version did play better in theaters.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey , has split the critics, creating a gulf as vast as the one separating Bilbo Baggins and Gollum. Such criticism could be expected from a movie that kicks off a trilogy -- yet is drawn from a novel that ran all of about 330 pages . So there's a bit of a slow wind-up here, something that has enraged a number of critics who wanted more action from a J.R.R. Tolkien adaptation. Here are exceprt from some movie reviews: -- Tribune: Extracting three generously proportioned films from Tolkien's books made sense.

GiveCorps, a philanthropic community that gives to local nonprofit organizations, was formed because of Generation Y. It was started two years ago in an effort to help nonprofits connect with a young audience, according to Peter Jackson, the vice president of the organization. "Millennials are not only the biggest generation in history," Jackson says. "They're also the most giving. " Jackson, 27, began working with GiveCorps when it first formed and his role has continued to grow.

It was annoying enough to purists when Harry Potter and Twilight books were split into two movies -- a blatant attempt to squeeze more money out of rabid fans -- but now we learn that "The Hobbit" is going to be carved into three movies. If you do the math, that means director Peter Jackson will make a movie for each 90 pages of Tokien's book. And I'm guesssing that each movie will be epic-length, so we're probably in for seven-plus hours of screen time. That's more than enough time to read the book at least twice.

The historic lunchroom at the Woman's Industrial Exchange reopened Tuesday. It is now called the Woman's Industrial Kitchen, and it's operated by Irene Smith, owner of the popular Souper Freaks food truck. The downtown luncheon room, famous for its chicken salad, tomato aspic and starched-apron waitresses, had it rough in the past decade, closing and reopening under a string of outside operators, some of whom tried to run it like in the old days, some who didn't. Smith has restored the lunchroom, if not literally, then in spirit.

There's a method to the maki madness. One past champion eats two sushi rolls at a time with quick sips of water in between. Last year's champ builds up an appetite by taking a long swim and bike ride before arriving at the competition. For others who have not developed a method — or a strong stomach — for the Maki Madness competition at RA Sushi, the restaurant has several garbage pails on hand. Just in case. In its third season, the brackets-style sushi-roll eating contest — based on the NCAA basketball championships — has grown in popularity and regularly attracts competitive eaters from around the region.

In Alice Sebold's best-selling book "The Lovely Bones," after 14-year-old Susie Salmon is raped and murdered by her next-door neighbor, she ends up in the afterworld: not quite heaven, but a sort of cosmic way station that looks much like Susie's old terrestrial stomping grounds - a typical American suburb, with a junior high school, subdivisions and a mall. In Peter Jackson's film version of "The Lovely Bones," which opens today in Baltimore, Susie's netherworld is an extension of her subconscious, full of trippy dream imagery of extraordinary mountains and forests, giant camellias, mammoth boats in glass bottles and a spooky gazebo in a field of corn.

Jamaican musician Peter Jackson has sued the U.S. Customs Service for $10 million, claiming that inspectors at Baltimore-Washington International Airport singled him out for a strip-search and X-rays for possible drugs in September 1997 because he is black.The suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, comes seven months after Jackson filed a $2 million administrative claim against the agency. His lawyer, Marvin Ellin, said he filed the suit because the Customs Service ignored the administrative claim.

LOS ANGELES--When it comes to power games, some in Hollywood are beginning to learn a basic lesson of digital politics: The Internet plays rough. Such is the case with a growing spat between New Line Cinema and Peter Jackson, the A-list director of the Lord of the Rings movies and a savvy player when it comes to the power of the Web. Last week, Jackson posted a letter on a fan Web site, theonering.net, explaining that he had been dumped by New Line from The Hobbit, a movie based on the book by J.R.R.

LOS ANGELES--When it comes to power games, some in Hollywood are beginning to learn a basic lesson of digital politics: The Internet plays rough. Such is the case with a growing spat between New Line Cinema and Peter Jackson, the A-list director of the Lord of the Rings movies and a savvy player when it comes to the power of the Web. Last week, Jackson posted a letter on a fan Web site, theonering.net, explaining that he had been dumped by New Line from The Hobbit, a movie based on the book by J.R.R.