Culture & entertainment
Discover facts about culture & entertainment. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Culture & entertainment
Shrek found his Scottish voice after Mike Myers tried another one.
Shrek found his Scottish voice after Mike Myers tried another one. Myers rerecorded the role with a Scottish accent after hearing an earlier version of his…
Discover more
Friends filmed its New York-looking fountain credits in California.
Friends filmed its New York-looking fountain credits in California. The fountain stood at the Warner Bros. Ranch in Burbank, not in a Manhattan park. The…
Discover more
A TV buzz helped give lightsabers their voice.
A TV buzz helped give lightsabers their voice. Ben Burtt combined a film projector's hum with interference his microphone picked up near a television. To make…
Discover more
HBO talked The Sopranos into keeping one theme song.
HBO talked The Sopranos into keeping one theme song. David Chase originally wanted a different opening song each week. An HBO executive argued for a tune…
Discover more
Star Wars found its rhythm in the editing room.
Star Wars found its rhythm in the editing room. Marcia Lucas, Richard Chew and Paul Hirsch shared the film's editing Oscar. Their work helped turn separate…
Discover more
Producers of the legendary sitcom The Golden Girls originally included a live-in gay housekeeper named Coco in the pilot episode, played by actor Charles Levin.
Producers of the legendary sitcom The Golden Girls originally included a live-in gay housekeeper named Coco in the pilot episode, played by actor Charles…
Discover more
STACKY FOR IPHONEA bigger world.
One discovery
at a time.
Keep discovering with Stacky. Interesting facts in an app that is always within reach.
Paul McCartney and John Lennon never actually learned how to read or write standard sheet music, despite composing some of the most influential and commercially successful pop…
Paul McCartney and John Lennon never actually learned how to read or write standard sheet music, despite composing some of the most influential and…
Discover more
Leo Fender built guitars without being a guitarist.
Leo Fender built guitars without being a guitarist. His expertise came from electronics and repair, while musicians supplied practical feedback on the…
Discover more
Darth Vader's body and voice came from different performers.
Darth Vader's body and voice came from different performers. David Prowse supplied the imposing physical presence, while James Earl Jones gave Vader his…
Discover more
Iconic green digital rain code that cascades down the screen in the 1999 sci-fi classic The Matrix is actually composed of scanned Japanese sushi recipes.
Iconic green digital rain code that cascades down the screen in the 1999 sci-fi classic The Matrix is actually composed of scanned Japanese sushi recipes.…
Discover more
The Fast and the Furious began with a magazine story about street racing.
The Fast and the Furious began with a magazine story about street racing. Ken Li’s 1998 Vibe article “Racer X” explored New York’s underground scene and…
Discover more
Pop superstar Michael Jackson tried to purchase Marvel Comics in the late 1990s specifically because he desperately wanted to star in a movie as Spider-Man.
Pop superstar Michael Jackson tried to purchase Marvel Comics in the late 1990s specifically because he desperately wanted to star in a movie as Spider-Man.…
Discover more
A writers' strike helped sell a show with no script.
A writers' strike helped sell a show with no script. Cops had been pitched before the 1988 strike. What had sounded risky—a police series without actors, a…
Discover more
Cats received a visual-effects update after it reached theaters.
Cats received a visual-effects update after it reached theaters. On its opening day in December 2019, Universal told cinemas an updated version was coming…
Discover more
Will Smith famously turned down the lead role of Neo in "The Matrix" because he completely misunderstood the Wachowskis' pitch and instead opted to star in the absolute critical catastrophe that was "Wild Wild West".
Will Smith famously turned down the lead role of Neo in "The Matrix" because he completely misunderstood the Wachowskis' pitch and instead opted to star in…
Discover more
Fast & Furious builds much of its engine soundtrack after filming.
Fast & Furious builds much of its engine soundtrack after filming. Sound crews record vehicles separately and edit those sounds into the action. Acceleration,…
Discover more
GoldenEye gave its pause screen a soundtrack people wanted to keep playing.
GoldenEye gave its pause screen a soundtrack people wanted to keep playing. Grant Kirkhope's watch-menu music became memorable far beyond its job of…
Discover more
Someone measured Tom Cruise's running and compared it with box office.
Someone measured Tom Cruise's running and compared it with box office. Rotten Tomatoes grouped his films by estimated on-screen running distance and found…
Discover more
Rod Serling helped write more than half of The Twilight Zone.
Rod Serling helped write more than half of The Twilight Zone. The original series ran for 156 episodes, and its archive credits Serling with writing or…
Discover more
George Lucas filmed a cameo appearance with the members of the 90s boy band NSYNC as Jedi Knights in the background of Star Wars Attack of the Clones to appease his teenage daughters.
George Lucas filmed a cameo appearance with the members of the 90s boy band NSYNC as Jedi Knights in the background of Star Wars Attack of the Clones to…
Discover more
Stephenie Meyer's dream Edward Cullen aged out of her fantasy casting.
Stephenie Meyer's dream Edward Cullen aged out of her fantasy casting. Meyer had pictured Henry Cavill as Edward, but wrote in 2007 that he was now 24 and too…
Discover more
The Walking Dead hid blue meth in Merle's drug stash.
The Walking Dead hid blue meth in Merle's drug stash. In the episode Bloodletting, Daryl produces a bag belonging to his brother that contains blue crystals.…
Discover more
Frank Sinatra had to be offered Die Hard before Bruce Willis made John McClane famous.
Frank Sinatra had to be offered Die Hard before Bruce Willis made John McClane famous. The film adapted a sequel to the novel behind The Detective, whose…
Discover more
Popular tourist photos erase hundreds of people from the frame
An empty-looking plaza photo may have been edited to remove around 300 other tourists from the frame.
Discover more