Culture & entertainment
Discover facts about culture & entertainment. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Culture & entertainment
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck deliberately inserted a completely graphic and explicitly fabricated gay sex scene straight into the middle of their original screenplay for the critically acclaimed drama Good Will Hunting.
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck deliberately inserted a completely graphic and explicitly fabricated gay sex scene straight into the middle of their original…
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Gene Kelly's rain-soaked joy concealed a fever.
Gene Kelly's rain-soaked joy concealed a fever. Accounts of the famous Singin' in the Rain number describe Kelly performing while ill with a high fever. The…
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Nicolas Cage actually named his second son Kal-El in a bizarre tribute to the birth name of Superman, perfectly encapsulating the chaotic energy of a man who once spent millions on dinosaur skulls and haunted mansions.
Nicolas Cage actually named his second son Kal-El in a bizarre tribute to the birth name of Superman, perfectly encapsulating the chaotic energy of a man who…
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Dakota Fanning's vampire stare came with red contact lenses.
Dakota Fanning's vampire stare came with red contact lenses. Playing Jane in Twilight meant replacing her familiar blue-eyed appearance with the Volturi's red…
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The Terminator's minigun also existed as a rubber stunt prop.
The Terminator's minigun also existed as a rubber stunt prop. A surviving Terminator 2 prop combines hard rubber, resin, and metal to reproduce the weapon's…
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George Harrison turned a tax bill into a Beatles song.
George Harrison turned a tax bill into a Beatles song. Taxman channels his anger at Britain's steep top marginal rates. The crucial word is marginal: the rate…
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Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart developed one of the most lucrative and genuine friendships in modern pop culture after bonding over mashed potatoes on her daytime cooking show back in two thousand and eight.
Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart developed one of the most lucrative and genuine friendships in modern pop culture after bonding over mashed potatoes on her…
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Engineers at Netflix produced a bizarre short film featuring a man doing a monkey dance in a courtyard as the very first piece of original content uploaded to their streaming servers.
Engineers at Netflix produced a bizarre short film featuring a man doing a monkey dance in a courtyard as the very first piece of original content uploaded to…
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Jurassic Park's digital dinosaurs still needed stop-motion expertise.
Jurassic Park's digital dinosaurs still needed stop-motion expertise. ILM's animation tests helped persuade Spielberg that computer-generated dinosaurs could…
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Star Wars filmed its opening crawl as a physical object.
Star Wars filmed its opening crawl as a physical object. For the original film, the yellow text was laid out on a long black surface and photographed with…
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Disney actually brought fully grown, live lions and other dangerous African wildlife directly into their animation studios in California so the artists could accurately study…
Disney actually brought fully grown, live lions and other dangerous African wildlife directly into their animation studios in California so the artists could…
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Iron Man's repulsors need a sound for something you cannot see.
Iron Man's repulsors need a sound for something you cannot see. Designers of Marvel's Avengers described recreating the familiar rising camera-like whine as…
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Mattel's iconic Barbie actually has a full legal name, Barbara Millicent Roberts, and she officially hails from the completely fictional midwestern town of Willows, Wisconsin,…
Mattel's iconic Barbie actually has a full legal name, Barbara Millicent Roberts, and she officially hails from the completely fictional midwestern town of…
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Ocarina of Time nearly hid Link behind a first-person camera.
Ocarina of Time nearly hid Link behind a first-person camera. Nintendo experimented with a view through the hero's eyes, but designer Yoshiaki Koizumi wanted…
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Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman originally intended for Monica and Joey to be the central romantic couple of the beloved 90s sitcom before the actors' on-screen chemistry changed the plot entirely.
Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman originally intended for Monica and Joey to be the central romantic couple of the beloved 90s sitcom before the actors'…
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Rob Lowe credits two words about diarrhea with helping keep him on Parks and Recreation.
Rob Lowe credits two words about diarrhea with helping keep him on Parks and Recreation. In the episode “Flu Season,” the obsessively healthy Chris Traeger…
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Seinfeld writer Dan O'Keefe based the hilariously cynical holiday of Festivus on a genuine, completely unironic tradition that his eccentric father invented in the nineteen sixties.
Seinfeld writer Dan O'Keefe based the hilariously cynical holiday of Festivus on a genuine, completely unironic tradition that his eccentric father invented…
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Chris Pratt completely improvised the famous line in Parks and Recreation where he diagnoses Leslie Knope's computer issues by claiming it has network connectivity problems.
Chris Pratt completely improvised the famous line in Parks and Recreation where he diagnoses Leslie Knope's computer issues by claiming it has network…
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Gene Roddenberry wrote lyrics to the original Star Trek theme song solely so he could legally claim half the royalties from the composer, Alexander Courage, despite the fact that…
Gene Roddenberry wrote lyrics to the original Star Trek theme song solely so he could legally claim half the royalties from the composer, Alexander Courage,…
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The Balrog's voice began with a block dragged across a floor.
The Balrog's voice began with a block dragged across a floor. Sound designer David Farmer mixed grinding stone with animal bellows to give The Fellowship of…
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Leia used the chain of her captivity to kill Jabba.
Leia used the chain of her captivity to kill Jabba. Return of the Jedi places Leia in an exposed costume and a chain at Jabba's throne, then turns that chain…
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Disney even has a preferred way to point.
Disney even has a preferred way to point. Cast members commonly give directions with two fingers or an open hand rather than a single index finger. The…
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Seinfeld producers had to force audiences to laugh at Kramer's eccentric physical comedy during early tapings because the studio crowds were actually genuinely terrified of…
Seinfeld producers had to force audiences to laugh at Kramer's eccentric physical comedy during early tapings because the studio crowds were actually…
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The Simpsons secured a rare right: no network notes.
The Simpsons secured a rare right: no network notes. James L. Brooks negotiated creative independence from Fox when the series was developed. The network…
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