Hollywood Trivia

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Raymond Burr and Robert Benevides also hybridized orchids, creating over 250 new orchids!

Paul Anka wrote Johnny Carson's "The Tonight Show" theme song.

Someone once said of Errol Flynn:

"You knew where you were with him. He would always let you down".

Don't know who said it, though.

Godzilla's original design had a mushroom-shaped head, meant to evoke images of mushroom clouds, since Godzilla was born from nuclear fire. This design was later used for the creatures in Matango a.k.a. Attack of the Mushroom People, from the same director of the original Godzilla.

In the film'The Mirror Cracked', Elizabeth Taylor and Kim Novak had some tasty lines as two competitive former movie stars....

My favorite is:

"There are two things I don't like about you.....

Your face."

In the 1930s, Ricardo Cortez and Warren William played Sam Spade in two different adaptations of The Maltese Falcon. They both also played Perry Mason in a series of films from the same decade. Humphrey Bogart played Spade in the third film version of Falcon, but never played Mason, presumably because that would have simply been too cool.

A Director told Judi Dench that she didn't have the face for film. (It's funny because I don't think there's alot of "pretty" women----there's gorgeous, and "striking", and attractive, but not that many who are pretty----but, I think Judi Dench is VERY pretty----BEAUTIFUL eyes!!)

Also, a Director that Meryl Streep auditioned for thought she was ugly. He, however, didn't have the chutzpah to tell her, directly----instead, he turned to the person beside him and, in Italian, told THEM. Luckily----or, unluckily, depending on how you look at it----Meryl is fluent in Italian, and understood every word he said about her.

Judi Dench was in A Study in Terror (1965). It's the only Sherlock Holmes film in which she appeared. It was also the only Holmes film for John Neville, who turned down future offers to play the detective again.

One of the film's actors, however, returned to Holmes cinema. Frank Finlay, who played Inspector Lestrade in A Study in Terror, played the same character in Murder by Decree fourteen years later.

The two films are completely unrelated... except for the fact that they're the only two films ever made in which Sherlock Holmes goes up against Jack the Ripper.

Frank Finlay also played Van Helsing in a 1977 adaptation of Dracula. Finlay's co-star in Murder by Decree, in the role of Sherlock Holmes, is Christopher Plummer, who played Van Helsing in Dracula 2000. He acted alongside Jonny Lee Miller, who is currently on TV playing... who? Yep, Sherlock Holmes.

I could do this "six degrees of separation" stuff all day.

Peter Falk played Sam Spade in "Murder by Death"----a movie in which Maggie Smith ALSO played. Maggie Smith and Judi Dench are really close friends and have done several movies together. Also, in one movie Judi's daughter played Maggie's character's daughter----and, in another movie Maggie's son played Judi's character's son.

Go, Jory.....

Hmm.

Maggie Smith was in Sister Act with Harvey Keitel, who was in Taxi Driver with Joe Spinell, who was in Rocky with Talia Shire, who was in The Godfather with Robert Duvall, who played Watson in a Sherlock Holmes movie (The Seven-Per-Cent Solution).



Yeah, I think I'll stick with stuff I already know, stuff that doesn't require me to scour IMDb.

Such as:

Leonard Nimoy "replaced" Martin Landau when the latter turned down the role of Spock on Star Trek. A few years later, Nimoy did it again, taking over for Landau when he left Mission: Impossible. (The character was technically different but the role was practically identical.) Star Trek and Mission: Impossible were sort of sister shows, debuting the same year and filming next door to each other on the same studio lot. Star Trek cast members William Shatner and George Takei did guest spots on Mission: Impossible, and the two shows shared many other guest actors: Michael Ansara, Joan Collins, Sid Haig, Gary Lockwood, Lee Meriwether, Ricardo Montalban, Dean Stockwell, Ray Walston, Fritz Weaver, Paul Winfield, Jason Wingreen, and Anthony Zerbe.

The connections between Star Trek and Mission: Impossible don't end there. Mission: Impossible II was written by Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore, known for their Star Trek work, and Mission: Impossible III was directed by J.J. Abrams and written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, just like the two most recent Star Trek films.

Oh, and you bet your ass I can tie all this to Sherlock Holmes and Perry Mason as well. Shatner played the villain in a Holmes movie, the 1972 version of The Hound of the Baskervilles (which also featured Anthony Zerbe), and Leonard Nimoy played Holmes on the stage. (I could also mention Spock revealing that Holmes was an ancestor of his, or Data's love for Holmes stories, but I'm long-winded enough as it is.) DeForest Kelley, Leonard Nimoy, and George Takei all guest-starred on Perry Mason before appearing on Star Trek (same for Michael Ansara, Gary Lockwood, Lee Meriwether, and Paul Winfield.) Jason Wingreen (the original voice for Boba Fett) appeared on The New Perry Mason, as well as Ironside, the show in which Raymond Burr starred immediately following Perry Mason. Ironside also starred Barbara Anderson, who was on Mission: Impossible and Star Trek.

Phew. My brain hurts.

Phew----I feel for ya, man----GOOD JOB!! !

Ridley Scott can be heard talking about Prometheus (an early version of it, at least) on the audio commentary for the 1999 DVD of Alien, 13 years before Prometheus was released.

In a typical year, 14,030 answers are questioned on Jeopardy!

Years ago Roseanne Barr, on a talk show, claimed that her therapist had diagnosed her with MPD, or Multiple Personality Disorder.

(The term has since been replaced by Dissociative Identity Disorder.)

The difference in her disorder in opposition to any other case that I ever heard of is that her therapist told her that all of her other identities were.....

her.

Never did figure that out.

Yeah, well she ALSO told everybody that her dad had molested her----and THAT turned-out to be untrue, TOO!! ! GOOD GRIEF!! !

~~~~~~~~~

(MAN, have I missed you, Sylkat!! You're not to leave the playground, without permission, AGAIN!! ! Do you hear me, young lady!! LOL {wink} Now, will you PLEASE go play my "Entertainment 'This or That'" thread?? I've been chompin' at the bit!! !)

I did not know that Roseanne Barr claimed to be a victim of molestation........have to check that out.....

Any how, I do know that she and her husband (Tom Arnold?) had bought themselves a mansion in a ritzy part of Los Angeles ( Beverly Hills?) and that pretty quick she was on talk shows and in print complaining that the neighbors were making trouble just because her kids left their toys on the lawn.

She/they finally moved out, and the people who bought the place not only said, but posted pictures of the dining room walls as Roseanne's family left them.

There were hand-painted naked, chubby, winged cupids all over every wall.........

And each one had her face.