Sorcery and magic was what it took for the 25-year-old English boy to enchant us all in Lord Of the Rings last year, and he's back for more this year-end

After those swift, even elegant moves in all that swishing blond long mane in The Fellowship of the Ring as the ever-balletic Legolas Greenleaf, it's been a bit hard to recognise Orlando Bloom (named after that Virginia Woolf text of the same name for all you literature students out there) after that.

Yet, despite that rather girly look, Bloom didn't fail to catch many of our eyes with his elfish good looks -- which stays (as a dark, olive variety) after the LOTR costume comes off. And never mistake the rather effete elf persona in the movie for the androgynously-named Bloom himself. He's into girls, big-time, all right, and has been quoted as saying "I don't care much about the money [from acting] at all. Frankly, if I get the chance to kiss someone in a movie, they wouldn't have to pay me at all". Here's one jock guy who also doesn't shy away from extreme sports like sky-diving, bungee-jumping (a chance, he, er, jumped at while spending 18 months filming LOTR in New Zealand), paragliding, snowboarding and the lot.

After all, why should we be surprised the hottie works hard? Bloom hasn't exactly been a plucked-from-oblivion one-off star. The Canterbury guy knew his calling was in acting since he realised, as a kid, that Superman was really just actor Christopher Reeve. He's got his credentials from the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, turned down multiple film offers to concentrate on his stage career before his return to the big screens as Legolas last year -- phew for us!

And boy has Legolas brought Bloom back into full bloom. Since then, apart from completing filming of the other two parts of the Tolkien trilogy (The Two Towers returns this December and the final parter The Return of the King end of next year), he's also been seen in Black Hawk Down and soon in Australian frontier film with Heath Ledger in The Kelly Gang and The Calcium Kid -- where he will definitely not look remotely, um, elegant.

In their article about their It Girl Emma Watson, there's also mention of Orlando

Emma Watson
Both our It Boy and IT Girl are in the cinematic highlights to close the year with a big bang; they are both caught up with magic and mischief on screen and their appearances in films (which they are appearing this year in sequels in) are their first celebrity status-makers.

But see where the difference of being 12 or 25 sets you apart: while Orlando Bloom will give up the money for kissing the girls, the prim Oxfordshire girl Watson will not even hear of it.