Re the Mirror of Galadriel scene - this is why Christopher Lee went Librarian-shit because they
did film it or planned to and he was looking forward to appearing in the final part of the Trilogy. It's also why they're having to rebuild Hobbiton out in NZ for The Hobbit as they torched parts of it for the scene in Lothlorien that did survive in Fellowship.
It was a pure production decision to take the Scouring out and also why PJ and Newline also fell out briefly as the screenplay (that won an Oscar and was written by Jackson and his wife Fran Walsh) did include the true ending as it was a crucial part of the story but also spoiled the happily ever after ending which for Frodo and Bilbo was completley wrong (they went on the white ship to 'find peace' (i.e. die) in Elfland basically).
With the Hobbit the plan is to split it to have the 1st part ending with Bilbo and the Dwarfs in Mirkwood somewhere I would imagine and then in Part 2 splice the 'missing' part of the action in the actual book
SPOILER said:
where Gandalf leaves them at the western side of Mirkwood and then follows him down to southern Mirkwood to Dol Guldur for the face off with the 'Necromancer' (really Sauron). There'll be another huge battle scene, possibly featuring wizard fire down there which wasn't covered in the book, as Gandalf, Elrond and Galadriel join forces, besiege and then kick the nasssty Necromancer out of the castle. However, because of Saruman giving them duff info, they foul it up and in fact bring total war (as per LotR) closer by doing so, as Sauron promptly heads off to Mordor etc etc...
The rest of the book of the Hobbit also has another big battle and Smaug etc which would of course quite easily make a single but very, very long film.
The 'new' bit is v. interesting indeed as Tolkien yet again only outlined the Dol Guldur section and skimmed it in LotR (where Gandalf gives Frodo the history of the Ring in terms of Bilbo's taking it off Gollum) so Fran Walsh almost had a free hand with dramatising a really meaty bit of lore that's not too well known outside of Tolkien study circles.
