Alright, time for me to stop being facetious.
I must make a decision and even though Gollum is a far better literary creation, I have to hold up my 'white hands' right now and admit that I find Saruman
utterly cool and always have done. So if I had to live without one or indeed spend time with one of them, it would be Saruman and I'd be a fool to deny it. He's just so
clever and interesting with his 'Third way' of doing things, thinking he could do things
his way apart from either the Valar or Sauron.
++Saruman