Culture & entertainment
Discover facts about culture & entertainment. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Culture & entertainment
Some Like It Hot made a case against color.
Some Like It Hot made a case against color. Marilyn Monroe wanted color, but Billy Wilder's comedy ended up in black and white. Screen tests made the makeup…
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Creators Matt and Ross Duffer were rejected by over fifteen different television networks when they initially pitched the concept for Stranger Things, with executives claiming…
Creators Matt and Ross Duffer were rejected by over fifteen different television networks when they initially pitched the concept for Stranger Things, with…
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Mad Max's onscreen hostility had an uncomfortable offscreen counterpart.
Mad Max's onscreen hostility had an uncomfortable offscreen counterpart. In Kyle Buchanan's oral history of Fury Road, cast and crew described serious…
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Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny teamed up in ads before Space Jam.
Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny teamed up in ads before Space Jam. Nike's Hare Jordan campaign paired them in the early 1990s. Their live-action-and-animation…
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Michelle Rodriguez needed a driver's license before playing a street racer.
Michelle Rodriguez needed a driver's license before playing a street racer. She has recalled getting her license and attending racing school for The Fast and…
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Marlon Brando was paid a record-breaking 3.7 million dollars and a percentage of the profits for his brief role as Jor-El in the 1978 Superman movie, despite absolutely refusing to memorize a single line of his dialogue.
Marlon Brando was paid a record-breaking 3.7 million dollars and a percentage of the profits for his brief role as Jor-El in the 1978 Superman movie, despite…
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Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson cast actor Christopher Lee as the wizard Saruman, but quickly discovered that the veteran actor needed absolutely no direction on how to…
Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson cast actor Christopher Lee as the wizard Saruman, but quickly discovered that the veteran actor needed absolutely no…
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Sales of Ray-Ban Aviator sunglasses skyrocketed by over forty percent immediately after Tom Cruise wore them in the 1986 movie "Top Gun," literally saving the brand from the brink of financial ruin.
Sales of Ray-Ban Aviator sunglasses skyrocketed by over forty percent immediately after Tom Cruise wore them in the 1986 movie "Top Gun," literally saving the…
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Beloved television painter Bob Ross used to be a master sergeant in the United States Air Force, where his primary job was to be the guy who screamed at raw recruits to make them scrub the latrines.
Beloved television painter Bob Ross used to be a master sergeant in the United States Air Force, where his primary job was to be the guy who screamed at raw…
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Hannibal Lecter won a leading-actor Oscar from the sidelines.
Hannibal Lecter won a leading-actor Oscar from the sidelines. Anthony Hopkins is absent for much of The Silence of the Lambs, yet his encounters with Clarice…
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Peter Jackson filmed the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy simultaneously over the course of four hundred and thirty-eight days in New Zealand, a massive financial gamble by New…
Peter Jackson filmed the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy simultaneously over the course of four hundred and thirty-eight days in New Zealand, a massive…
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Dougray Scott was originally cast to play Wolverine in the year 2000 X-Men film but had to drop out at the last minute because filming on Mission Impossible 2 ran over schedule,…
Dougray Scott was originally cast to play Wolverine in the year 2000 X-Men film but had to drop out at the last minute because filming on Mission Impossible 2…
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Real mobsters used The Godfather as a reference book for one another.
Real mobsters used The Godfather as a reference book for one another. Undercover agent Joseph Pistone recalled mob associates requesting the film's theme at…
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Ricky Gervais watched as NBC executives forced the writers of the American adaptation of The Office to shamelessly plagiarize the original British pilot script rather than risk an original thought.
Ricky Gervais watched as NBC executives forced the writers of the American adaptation of The Office to shamelessly plagiarize the original British pilot…
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Mickey Mouse entered the public domain one version at a time.
Mickey Mouse entered the public domain one version at a time. The 1928 Mickey from Steamboat Willie entered the U.S. public domain in 2024. That opened the…
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The Shining's snow was salt and polystyrene.
The Shining's snow was salt and polystyrene. Cinematographer John Alcott recalled a layer about a foot deep in the maze. Running through it was difficult…
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Shrek's effects team needed mud to behave differently from water.
Shrek's effects team needed mud to behave differently from water. The production developed a fluid system whose settings could create liquids with different…
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Men in Black's director talked an actor out of starring in it.
Men in Black's director talked an actor out of starring in it. Barry Sonnenfeld says he was asked to persuade Chris O'Donnell to take the role that ultimately…
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Bryan Cranston managed to throw that legendary party-sized pizza onto the roof of Walter White's house in Breaking Bad in exactly one single, miraculous take.
Bryan Cranston managed to throw that legendary party-sized pizza onto the roof of Walter White's house in Breaking Bad in exactly one single, miraculous take.…
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James Cameron sold The Terminator for a dollar to keep the director's chair.
James Cameron sold The Terminator for a dollar to keep the director's chair. He told an interviewer that buyers wanted the script but not him as director.…
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Disney's first credited female feature animator drew Bambi's terrifying dogs.
Disney's first credited female feature animator drew Bambi's terrifying dogs. Retta Scott's drawings of the hunting dogs impressed the studio enough to move…
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Minions speak a language built for being understood without translation.
Minions speak a language built for being understood without translation. Their speech mixes invented sounds with recognizable words from several languages.…
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory used trained squirrels alongside visual effects.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory used trained squirrels alongside visual effects. For the nut room, animal handlers taught real squirrels to sit at stations…
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Jim Carrey found the Grinch makeup so claustrophobic that the production brought in a trainer to help him endure it.
Jim Carrey found the Grinch makeup so claustrophobic that the production brought in a trainer to help him endure it. Carrey later described learning…
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