Entertainment Triva

Entertainment Trivia

Here are some useful facts and figures from the world of entertainment.

Stanley Kubrick took out an insurance policy before the release of his movie 2001: A Space Odyssey in case extraterrestrial life was discovered. He was worried that the discovery of aliens would reduce the value of his film. If the coils of a French horn were straightened out, the instrument would be 7 metres long.

Steve McQueen persuaded his karate teacher, kickboxing champion Chuck Norris, to start an acting career. Mr Norris went on to become the star of that world-famous series Texas Rangers.

Despite a population of well over one billion people, there are only about 250 million televisions in use in China. They’ve got better things to do with their time.

The final episode of the television series M*A*S*H (all about medics in the Korean War) ranks as the most watched television programme in US history. An estimated 125 million people watched the episode on 28th February 1983 (60% of all households with a television). Second on the list was an episode of a popular series called Dallas.

Harrison Ford is one helluva rich guy: ten of his top films have each earned at least $200 million.

Tatum O’Neal is the youngest Oscar winner: she was just 10 years old when she won the Best Supporting Actress award for her role in the film Paper Moon.

The biggest movie flop in history is Pluto Nash with Eddie Murphy. It cost $100 million dollars to make, but only made 4.4 million at the box office. Other disastrous movies include Cutthroat Island, which lost an estimated $81 million; D-Tox (with Sylvester Stallone), which lost about $54 million; and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which lost $48 million.

The most expensive item of movie memorabilia ever sold was Clark Gable’s Oscar for his role in the film It Happened One Night. The award sold for $607,500 on 15th December 1996.

Seven of the top ten grossing movies of the 1980s were either produced or directed by Stephen Spielberg or George Lucas.

Between 1991 and 1996, on average, India produced the most movies per year: 851, which is more than the US (569).

Audrey Hepburn’s real name was Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston.

The idea for the Cannes Film Festival was developed in 1938 by two French journalists while they were travelling by train to the Venice Film Festival.

In one scene of the film Forrest Gump, Lieutenant Dan (played by Gary Sinise) says to Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks), “The day you work on a shrimp boat is the day I’ll be an astronaut”. Curiously, the following year Sinise and Hanks appeared together as astronauts in the film Apollo 13.

The musician and composer Irving Berlin never learned to read music or to write it. He hummed or sang his songs to a secretary, who wrote the songs in musical notation.

No one knows where Mozart is buried.

The film Quo Vadis had 30,000 extras.

Alfred Hitchcock directed the first talking film ever made in England. It was called Blackmail and was made in 1931.

The model of King Kong used in the original movie was only 36 centimetres tall.

The French composer Erik Satie holds the record for the shortest and the longest compositions in the world. His piano piece Vexations lasts just 58 seconds. However, Satie, insists that this piece should be played 840 times in succession, which makes it 14 hours long.

Elton John and The Beach Boys each have the record for the longest gap between number one hit singles in the United States: 21 years, 11 months.

The rap star L.L. Cool J is the only singer of his kind to have performed at a presidential inaugural concert. He sang at Bill Clinton’s gala in 1993.

John Wayne’s real name was Marion Michael Morrison. Incidentally, the U.S. Army has a reconnaissance helicopter named “The Duke” in honour of John Wayne.

The longest movie ever screened was a 1970 British film that lasted 48 hours. Believe it or not, the film is called The Longest and Most Meaningless Movie in the World… and it is.

G L O S S A R Y

to take out an insurance policy exp to sign a contract with an insurance company. If something bad happens to you, they pay you an amount of money the release of a movie exp the time when a film starts to be in the cinemas and people can go and see it extraterrestrial life n aliens; people from outer space to rank vb if something “ranks” as the most watched programme, official records show that it was the most watched programme a helluva rich guy exp inform “helluva” is an abbreviation of “hell of a”, which means “very”. The whole expression means, “a very rich man” a flop n an unsuccessful film the box office n if a film does well at the “box office”, many people go to see that film memorab lia n objects that once belonged to famous people an award n a prize a top ten grossing movie n one of the top ten films that has earned the most money a shrimp boat n a boat that is used to catch shrimps (little, pink sea creatures that are used to make “shrimp cocktail”). “Prawn” in British English to hum vb to sing a song with your mouth closed a co l n a French horn is a metal musical instrument with a coil (a tube in the form of little circles) to straighten out phr vb to make something straight an extra n a person who acts in a film but who has no speaking part a talking film n a film in which the actors speak and the sound is recorded a gap n a period of time in which nothing happened a number one hit single n a record that was number one in the list of the most popular records to perform vb to sing or act a gala n a special party to honour someone a reconnaissance helicopter n a helicopter that is used to discover where the enemy is meaningless adj with no sense; with no meaning