Jamie Oliver has cruelly deprived us all of a chance to see him don prosthetic ears and frolic around in The Shire.
Yep, the TV chef and famed turkey twizzler campaigner was offered a role in The Hobbit by the film's director, Peter Jackson, in exchange for catering his 50th birthday party in New Zealand, according to BBC News. But, alas, Jamie turned it down on account of work committments. Spoilsport.
Still, at least he seems to understand the gravity of the situation: poor Jamie referred to having to say no to the experience as "the worst thing that happened to me.” Quite right, fella.
While filming the upcoming Channel 4 series Jamie and Jimmy's Friday Night Feast, he said: "I got phoned up by the exec producer and asked did I want to go and cook for Peter Jackson's birthday.
"And if I did, they would fly me over and I could be a hobbit in the film. But I was working, I couldn't get out of it."
He went on: "I really wanted to do it. I would have got right into it as well."
Ah, we can just see him now: gleeful smile, hairy feet, cooking up some Middle Earth mushrooms over a roaring fire. Sigh.
Still, maybe the next role offer won't involve having to spend, well, a GAZILLION hours being projected to the rest of the world as about two foot high. Yeah, we reckon there are better things to come, Jamie.