Dave Winer asked about using a regex query "to do a simple replacement that's complicated by the constraint that it can't do the replacement inside an HTML element, only in text that's not."
I have exactly the same query for a very similar purpose (part of the search function) but with an additional complication of using it within a MySQL query where different regex rules apply.
It looks as though regex lookarounds aren't supported in MySQL queries (unless I'm missing something) so I'll have to settle with the current search query which returns a little more than I'd want.
Rewatching LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring, I had to rewind the scene just as the hobbits enter Bree. I've never noticed before that Peter Jackson makes a brief cameo as a bedraggled resident of Bree munching on a carrot. A quick search later and it transpires that he had cameos in each of the LOTR series. How did I not know this?