Hobbit embroiled in race row over casting restrictions

PETER Jackson’s troubled Hobbit project has become embroiled in a race row after a would-be extra was told she was too dark to play one of the Tolkien creatures.

Briton Naz Humphreys, who has Pakistani heritage, attended a casting session in the New Zealand city of Hamilton last week, queuing for three hours only to be told her skin tone was not suitable, the Waikato Times reported.

“It’s 2010 and I still can’t believe I’m being discriminated against because I have brown skin,” Humphreys told the newspaper.