No question about it: Orlando Bloom was looking like a very hot package a year ago with his leading-man performances in the upcoming Kingdom of Heaven and Elizabethtown yet to be seen but everyone thinking nonetheless, “Yeah, he’s really the guy… teenage girls love him, and how can he miss in major films by Ridley Scott and Cameron Crowe?” But both films tanked and Bloom didn’t do well by the critics in either one, and now he’s really in Shit City because New York Times reporter Sharon Waxman has written an obituary (in Sunday’s 1.1.06 edition) about Bloom’s career troubles and characterized his choices over the past two years as a cautionary tale. At the end of the piece, Waxman writes that “Hollywood is most likely already on the march, hunting for its next new naif.” Okay, so he’s over…for now. But you know what? Bloom can be born again like Heath Ledger was with Brokeback Mountain. Things happen in their own time, for their own reasons. Bloom told Waxman via e-mail that he’s “focused on his craft rather than on achieving stardom,” and added that he’s “proud” of having made Kingdom of Heaven and Elizabethtown. “I learned so much from both Ridley Scott and Cameron Crowe, and view both experiences as the opportunities of a lifetime,” he said.