We don't usually dig mythical creatures-but it was an arrow to the heart when we spotted 26-year-old Orlando Bloom as elfin archer master Legolas Greenleaf in The Lord of the Rings. Before becoming a foxy fixture in the fantasy trilogy, the virtual unknown for Canterbury, England, was an assistant at a skeet-shooting range.

" I set the clay discs the gentlemen would shoot," he confides. During the 18 months of shooting, LOTR, the sentimental stud got the elf symbol for "9" tattooed on his right wrist as a sign of solidarity with his castmates.

"You have to be quite serious about tattoos because they're there forever," he says. Off the set, this extreme-sports lover likes surfing and snowboarding- and he should have plenty of time for both since his split from actress Christina Ricci. But he's still on the prowl for a new lady. "Women are beautiful," he declares. "They deserve to be cherished and respected." Bull's eye!