The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - the LA premiere in pictures

Welcome ladies and gents to west coast earth! The LA premiere of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug rumbled into town last night. Here's Stephen Fry, of National Treasure status, arriving for the film. He plays The Master of Laketown, a character who looks like Mick Hucknall, gone horribly to seed. Photograph: Stewart Cook/REX/Stewart Cook/REX

Here's Martin Freeman and his partner Amanda Abbington. Martin plays Bilbo Baggins. He's The Hobbit of the title. And he's out to find Smaug. And desolate him. Photograph: Gregg Deguire/WireImage

Luke Evans, who plays Bard the Bowman, girds himself for another round of Hobbiting. Photograph: Stewart Cook/REX/Stewart Cook/REX

And here's old Smaug himself. Or at least, actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who voices the gold-grabbing dragon. You have no idea how long it took his tailor to hide the scales with that jacket. Photograph: Stewart Cook/REX/Stewart Cook/REX

Meanwhile across town a rival franchise is also having its premiere. Orlando Bloom and Evangeline Lilly star in The Obbi Desolation - a moving drama about an East End Airfix enthusiast who suffers a terrible mishap when he knocks over his craft table. Photograph: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Back at the real deal and here's singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, dressed for the occasion as one of The Hobbit's dwarfs. Photograph: Stewart Cook/REX/Stewart Cook/REX

"You shall NOT PASSSSS!", says director Peter Jackson (here with his daughter Katie) to one uninvited guest ... Photograph: Stewart Cook/REX/Stewart Cook/REX

... which is The Hobbit plane. Too big, too burly to fit through the doors. Poor old Hobbit plane. Someone take him out a canape, will you? Photograph: Air New Zealand/EPA