A group of LOST fans have become so fixated with DOMINIC MONAGHAN’s rocker character CHARLIE PACE on the show, they’ve set up real-life fansites for his fictional band DRIVESHAFT.

Monaghan plays one of several characters stranded after a plane crash, and he’s stunned to learn that he’s managed to attract fans almost as committed as those who followed his hit LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy.

He says, “That’s the internet for you. It has a life of its own. It’s a world bigger than our world that we can’t control – kind of like the Matrix.”

But Monaghan does like the idea of making his fans happy by bringing the band to life, adding, “If it did (happen), I’d be heavily involved with it. I would be singing and doing backing vocals, and maybe I’d try to play some guitar or some bass or some piano.”

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The world is Lost. The TV hit of the year commands 20 million viewers in the US and 2 million more in Australia. In less than a year it has beaten all comers, including this year’s other cultural juggernaut, Desperate Housewives, and is shown in 180 territories around the world.

From the first episode, in which Oceanic Airlines flight 815 from Sydney to Los Angeles crashed on a mysterious Pacific island, viewers have been spellbound by polar bears, unexpected twists and a still unseen “monster” in the jungle.

The internet is buzzing with theories: of a Dr Moreau-esque experiment, for example, or that the survivors are dead and the island is purgatory.
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Take 48 plane crash survivors stranded on a very unusual island, add an angry polar bear, a seething love triangle or two, and an invisible monster and you’ve got a surprisingly effective recipe for a television drama that critics call “the next great cult-pop sensation” ? ABC’s new hit series, “Lost.”

“Lost” averages more than 15.5 million weekly viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. The show has spawned countless Web pages where millions of avid fans log on and obsess about the show’s secrets. Like: Where is this mysterious island? Some guess they’re trapped in the Bermuda Triangle. Another theory says they’re all dead and in purgatory.
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Spending the night with the Lost cast. Watching the Felicity finale. Giving birth to my firstborn child.

Later on, I expect to look back on these three events as my most defining life experiences–in descending order, naturally.

Yes, the Lost panel at the Museum of Television and Radio’s Paley Festival was that good. And lest you think I was the only one who went ape-dung over it, you should know that hundreds of fans lined up at 6 a.m. to get good seats, bought costly tickets on eBay and flew in from mysterious, faraway places like New Jersey.
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The Lord of the Rings movies and ABC’s Lost are divergent tales, but they have more in common than meets the eye. Both are runaway hits. Each features filming on a verdant Pacific island that allows for adventurous off-day activities.

“I love having the opportunity to surf,” says Dominic Monaghan, speaking from Hawaii, where he is part of the Lost ensemble.

Both also share Monaghan, who came to renown as the hobbit Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck in the Tolkien trilogy, and his exceptionally devoted fan base.
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Getting stranded on an inhospitable island with a bunch of nefarious characters and a blood-thirsty beast that lurks in the bushes has turned out to be a good thing for Dominic Monaghan.

The British actor acquired cult fame status by playing the hairy-footed Hobbit Merry Brandybuck in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. And now his smoldering portrayal as tortured rocker Charlie on ABC’s “Lost” (tonight at 8) has positioned him as one of the hit show’s breakout stars.

“It’s great to be in a show that people actually watch,” Monaghan told the Daily News recently.
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All the world knows Dominic Monaghan as Merry Brandybuck, one of those brave li’l hobbits from the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Now he has another major hit on his hands with ABC’s Lost , the suspense drama about plane-crash survivors stranded on a desert isle where something even scarier than Jerri Manthey is roaming the forest. The 28-year-old Brit plays Charlie, the junkie rock star, whose tragic backstory is revealed tonight at 8 pm/ET. Yes, Charlie finally gets his very own flashback episode! Just before jetting off to Lost ‘s Hawaiian set, Monaghan sat down with TV Guide Online in Hollywood, where he lives during his downtime, to give us a juicy preview.

LOTR took you three years in New Zealand. Now you’re sequestered in Hawaii for Lost . When do you see your family? Or are ya on the run, like Kate? Dominic Monaghan: Yeah, kind of! But my parents are pretty much like me. They move around quite a lot. Right now, they’re living in Madrid. They’re not gypsies, but they’re traveling folk who like to move about. As kids, we moved every few years to different places in Europe. I think that’s what’s made me the type of guy who enjoys picking up his life and moving somewhere else. It’s no hardship for me living in new countries and getting used to different cultures. It keeps me alive and happy.
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No more Mr. Nice Hobbit.

Dominic Monaghan, the beloved Merry Brandybuck in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, stars as Charlie, a one-hit-wonder musician turned drug addict, in “Lost” (tonight at 8 on WCVB, Ch. 5). What the Frodo is going on here?

“I struggled for the past three or four years or so with most of the people internationally knowing me as a very cute, adorable, sweet-hearted, nonthreatening kind of boy,” Monaghan said in a recent telephone interview.
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Dominic Monaghan conquered the big-screen in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and is now grabbing the brass ring on the small screen with ABC’s new drama, “Lost.”

Monaghan plays Charlie, the one-hit rocker on the show about a group of airline crash survivors stranded on an island – which has become one of the few breakout hits of the season. He says he’s enjoying the challenge of playing a character coping with withdrawal from a heroin addiction, but is more intrigued by Charlie’s struggle with issues of faith.

“I was brought up in England in a relatively Roman Catholic faith,” says the 28-year-old Monaghan, who was born in Berlin and later moved to Manchester with his father, a teacher, his mother, a nurse, and his older brother.
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Dominic Monaghan is calling from paradise. Currently residing on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, The Lord of the Rings star is shopping for a birthday present for his mother. An avid surfer, he is enjoying his time on the tropical isle, but this is hardly a vacation. Instead he is starring as Charlie, a washed-up musician who survives a plane crash and must start a new life on a deserted island on ABC’s Lost, one of the fall’s most anticipated television shows. The brainchild of Alias creator J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof (formerly a writer/producer on Crossing Jordan ), Lost features a large ensemble cast and some ongoing mysteries that are sure to keep viewers guessing. Little is initially revealed about Charlie–the bass player in a one-hit-wonder band whose members, he insists, are still together and due for a comeback–and early hints indicate he’s hiding a pretty big secret.

Occasionally during our interview he stops to chat with a passerby who recognizes him from his role as the mischievous Hobbit, Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck, from the Rings trilogy, and the actor is always gracious and friendly. He relished his time on the epic and remains close with his co-stars; three of the four hobbits will be reuniting in Hawaii for New Year’s Eve. But he is clearly excited about his new project. Monaghan won the role of Charlie, even though the role was originally conceived for an older actor. “He was supposed to be a has-been rocker whose band had fallen off the map, like, 15 years earlier, but Dominic is 25 years old,” Lindelof told Back Stage West . “So, he came in and read and just brought this great sense of humor to everything, [so] that we just rethought the character and said, ‘Well, what if he wasn’t an ex-rocker, but he was a one-hit wonder, and he just didn’t realize it yet.’”
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