How to empty 5000 photos from iPhoto's trash

Question

hi guys
a friend of mine -  a newcomer to Mac OSX.. - has piled up 5000+ photos in iPhoto's trash & when he tried to empty it , iPhoto simply freezes & has to be closed using ''force quit''.
he asked for my help but, no matter what i tried i simply didn't find a way to do it - one other thing, when we open his iPhoto & select ''trash'' to view it's contents, it doesn't show any thumbnails just little white outlined squares where the thumbnail's should/would normally be - is this normal ?
the reason i tried to ''view'' iPhoto's trash content is that i read on MacRumors ( i think.. ) a suggestion of  ''tagging'' the trash photos, create a smart folder with that tag to it, move the photos back into iPhoto's Library & THEN delete them in bunches of 50 or 60 at a time from that smart folder
so my obvious question is : any suggestions on how i can get iPhoto's trash to empty  ?
according to him his computer ( a 27'' iMac i7.. ) has started showing the spinning beachball a lot lately - could this trash situation be related to this ?
i have ran out of solutions so, any help anyone could provide would be MOST welcome
hoping to hear from you guys soon, many thanks
Nuno

Answer 1

iPhoto has a well known problem with trying to delete large numbers of photos at one time.
Make a temporary, duplicate copy of the library and try the three fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
1 - delete  the iPhoto preference file, com.apple.iPhoto.plist, that resides in your Home/Library/Preferences folder. 
2 - delete iPhoto's cache files that are located in your Home/Library/Caches/com.apple.iPhoto folder. 
3 - reboot, launch iPhoto and try again.
NOTE: If you're moved your library from its default location in your Home/Pictures folder you will have to point iPhoto to its new location when you next open iPhoto by holding the the Option key.  You'll also have to reset the iPhoto's various preferences.
Fix #2
Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys depressed and follow the instructions to rebuild the library.
Select the options identified in the screenshot. 
Fix #3
Using iPhoto Library Manager  to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
In the next  window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments but not books, calendars or slideshows. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
Once you get the library to open in iPhoto try the following: 
1 - select all of the photos in the trash and assign a unique keyword, say "Delete", using the Keyword pane:
Click to view full size
2 - then drag all of the photo in the Trash bin onto the Photo icon in the left hand pane to move them back to their original Events.
3 - create a smart album with the criteria "Keyword" is "Delete".
4 - not select about 100 photos at a time, drag to the Trash bin and empty.
This should let you delete all of the photos safely.
OT