Actress EVANGELINE LILLY failed to recognise her future boyfriend DOMINIC MONAGHAN at the auditions for TV series LOST, despite being a "die-hard LORD OF THE RINGS fan".

Lilly only realised the British actor was one of her favourite hobbits in the JRR TOLKIEN saga when she heard him talking authoritatively about the movie. She says, "I remember my first audition in LA and I was sitting in a room with him. I'm a die-hard Lord Of The Rings fan, but I had no idea who he was. No idea, I saw him and thought, 'Huh, that guys is kind of familiar. That's really odd.'

"An hour later, I was still waiting to go in, because that's the way those auditions are, and somebody made a comment about Lord Of The Rings. And he started talking like he knew all about it.

"So, I was thinking, 'Who are you?' And all of a sudden it clued in, oh my goodness, you were MERRY in Lord Of The Rings!"(ZJS/FRM/GES)