Ever since Gollum lost his fave ring in a scuffle with Frodo in Mount Doom, he’s been looking for a new precioussss - and he’s found it: an iPod touch.

Well, maybe not good ol’ Gollum himself, but actor Andy Serkis, who provided the voice and motion-capture for The Hobbit Formerly Known As Smeagol in The Lord of The Rings film trilogy, seems quite completely immersed in Apple’s Reality Distortion Field.

In a recent interview in The Guardian, Serkis admits to being a Machead and says that his iPod has made him anti-social.

I’m a die-hard Apple user and I’ve recently got an iPod Touch which is really cool. I’m just getting going on my directing stuff and it’s great for storing photos and music and all sorts of stuff.

It’s probably made me more anti-social. Because it’s widescreen, it’s perfect for filmmaking. The best thing about it is that format. When you store photos on it, it’s great, it’s the right ratio.”

Since the iPhone has recently become available in his little corner of Middle Earth, Serkis is thinking of moving up to one from his current iPod. But despite his fanaticism for all things Apple, he’s not quite sure if he’s a nerd or a luddite.

I’m very firmly with one leg in each camp. Sometimes, there are certain things I’m rubbish at. There’s the classic, the setting of the video recorder, I’m rubbish at that and I’m very slow on the computer. I’m quick at the applications I use a lot but I’m very slow picking things up.