Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about music and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the movie urban legends featured so far.
MUSIC URBAN LEGEND: Gram Parson wrote “Wild Horses.”
Legendary country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons passed away in 1973 at the far too young age of 26. Parsons was a member of both the Byrds and his own band, the Flying Burrito Brothers. In 1970, he released the song “Wild Horses” one year before the Rolling Stones released the song…
Parsons and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stone became close friends after meeting in 1968…
Over the years, the legend has been that Parsons actually wrote “Wild Horses,” not Richards and Mick Jagger. Is that true? Read the rest of this entry »
Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far.
TV URBAN LEGEND: Bryan Cranston only got the role of Walter White on Breaking Bad after two other movie actors turned the role down.
Similarly, many things had to go right for Bryan Cranston to be cast as Walter White on the hit series Breaking Bad, including two famous 1980s film actors both turning the role down before executives would even consider Cranston! Read the rest of this entry »
Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about movies and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the movie urban legends featured so far.
MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: Crispin Glover sued the studio that produced Back to the Future II and the lawsuit led to a change in actors’ rights forever.
Crispin Glover was one of the co-stars of the 1985 hit film, Back to the Future.
He played George McFly, the father of Michael J. Fox’s Marty McFly, who Marty meets in 1955 when Marty accidentally travels to the past from 1985 (and then proceeds to try to get…back to the future. Check out this past Movie Legend to see the bizarre way that Marty originally used to return to the future).
The movie was such a success that they decided to make a sequel (heck, they decided to make TWO sequels! They filmed them in a row to save money). Glover, however, was not happy with the amount of money that they were offering him to appear in the second film, so he ultimately decided not to do the film (as you might imagine, Glover and the film’s producers both have differing ideas on who was being unreasonable over the financial terms of Glover’s participation in the sequel).
This led to some interesting shenanigans that ultimately ended up with actors’ rights being changed forever! Read the rest of this entry »
Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about music and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the movie urban legends featured so far.
MUSIC URBAN LEGEND: The Guns N’ Roses’ song, “Rocket Queen,” has the sound of Axl Rose having sex with the girlfriend of one of his bandmates on it.
A few years back, we had a discussion on the site about legends involving strange sounds being captured on songs, and commenter machine wrote, “I don’t know of recorded murders in music, but I know that GnR recorded sex. In “Rocket Queen” you clearly hear moaning and groaning. It was Axl Rose banging Steven Adler’s GF in the studio.”
Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far.
TV URBAN LEGEND: Bruce Willis guest-starred on Friends because he lost a bet to Matthew Perry during the filming of The Whole Nine Yards.
During the sixth season of the TV series Friends, movie star Bruce Willis guest-starred in three episodes as Paul Stevens, the father to Ross’s girlfriend, Elizabeth (as we detailed in a recent TV Legends Revealed, Elizabeth was originally going to play a major role on the series). Paul not so surprisingly has a problem with his college-aged daughter dating her former professor. However, Paul also finds himself enamored with Ross’ friend (and ex-girlfriend) Rachel, and he finds himself having to make nice with Ross if he wants to have a chance of dating Rachel. In the second of the three episodes Willis appears in, he has a memorable scene where he pumps himself up in the mirror before a date with Rachel, telling himself “You’re a neat guy. You’re a love machine.”
Willis eventually won a Best Guest Actor in a Comedy Emmy Award for his performance as Paul. However, over the years, there has been an interesting rumor over just howFriends was able to get such a major movie star to guest-star on the series. Brad Pitt also guest-starred on the show, but he was married to Friends cast member Jennifer Aniston at the time. So how did they nab Willis? Was it seriously due to a bet he made with Matthew Perry, his co-star on the film The Whole Nine Yards? Read on to find out! Read the rest of this entry »
MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: The Joker was going to appear in The Dark Knight Rises before Heath Ledger’s tragic death squelched those plans.
Heath Ledger’s Academy Award-winning performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight highlights the fallacy of overreacting to casting news before the film debuts, as Ledger’s casting drew a lot of criticism that was soon reversed when the actual film came out.
Tragically, before the film was even released, Ledger passed away, leading to his Oscar win being a posthumous one. The character of the Joker died with Ledger, at least in the context of Christopher Nolan’s Bat-films. However, had Ledger not died, was Nolan planning on using the Joker in The Dark Knight Rises, his final Batman film?
Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far.
TV URBAN LEGEND: Darkwing Duck is returning to television in 2018.
I don’t usually feature stuff this current, but when you see Darkwing Duck actually trending on Twitter, it suggests that there is a lot of people who believe something, so it is worthwhile confirming it or debunking it.
There are seemingly tons of old television shows that are returning to the air in the coming year or so, from the X-Files to Full House to Twin Peaks. So when the news came out that Darkwing Duck was returning to Disney XD with new episodes in 2018, it seems believable enough.
Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far.
TV URBAN LEGEND: It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia revealed the real name of the Waitress in an episode.
One of the things that I have found over the years doing Legends Revealed is that people are really interested in the origin behind famous names. Some examples include whether Pearl Jam was named after a peyote concoction, whether AC/DC was named after a sex term, whether The Lovin’ Spoonful was named after a sex term, whether Stone Temple Pilots were named after a…sex term and I think you get the basic picture. However, something that seems to strike people’s fancy even more than the origin of a name is when a character’s name is hidden from the audience. A lot of people were obsessed with the mystery of Kramer’s first name on Seinfeld and a lot of folks are currently a bit obsessed with the name of The Waitress on the FX/FXX comedy, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
The Waitress, played by actress Mary Elizabeth Ellis, is the only non-cast member on the series to appear in all eleven seasons of the show so far (Ellis is married to one of the leads on the show, Charlie Day who plays “Charlie” on the series). One of the jokes on the series is how none of the main cast seem to know the Waitress’ real name, not even Day’s character, who has been stalking her for over a decade. Reader Mark G. wrote in with a popular fan theory about the Waitress that he wanted to see me confirm or debunk, whether the Waitress’ name was actually subtly revealed in an episode of the series. Read on to see if is true! Read the rest of this entry »
Idris Elba is a terrific actor, but I can think of other black actors who would do it better. For me, Idris Elba is a bit too rough to play the part. It’s not a colour issue. I think he is probably a bit too ‘street’ for Bond. Is it a question of being suave? Yeah.
He later apologized for his comments, noting:
I’m really sorry my comments about Idris Elba have caused offence. That wasn’t my intention. I was asked in my interview if Idris Elba would make a good James Bond. In the article I expressed the opinion that to my mind Adrian Lester would be a better choice but I’m a writer not a casting director so what do I know? Clumsily, I chose the word ‘street’ as Elba’s gritty portrayal of DCI John Luther was in my mind but I admit it was a poor choice of word. I am mortified to have caused offence.
Clearly, the use of the word “street” to describe a black actor was a terrible choice of word by Horowitz and even the use of the word “rough” has some iffy connotations when you’re referring to a black actor. What’s interesting to me, though, is that there actually was a famous actor, Oliver Reed, who lost a shot at the role of James Bond specifically for HIS “roughness.”
It is a completely different scenario, of course, as Oliver Reed was not black, but the discussion of an actor being too rough to play James Bond made me think it worthwhile to discuss the only man who couldn’t play James Bond because he drank too much and was too much of a womanizer. Read the rest of this entry »
Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far.
TV URBAN LEGEND: Lisa Kudrow was a virgin until marriage.
When it comes to sexuality in popular culture, people seem particularly fascinated when actors and actresses take a pious approach to sex, since it is so different from the prevailing depiction of sex in TV and film. So when Elvis Presley’s first film screen kiss becomes a nun or Kirk Cameron refuses to kiss a woman other than his wife, even in a movie, it stands out to us. That’s why it was so memorable to people when it was revealed that actress Lisa Kudrow was a virgin until she was married at the age of 31 (a year into her stint as one of the leads on the hit sitcom, Friends).
Over the years, she has appeared on countless online lists of celebrities who waited until marriage (there are tons of these lists because, again, people are fascinated with this stuff). The key quote cited when discussing this surprising fact was a quote from when she was promoting her film, The Opposite of Sex, in 1999:
I decided pretty early on that I should stay a virgin until I got married. My virginity was something I had decided was very precious, something that I owned, to give away. It was an honor I was bestowing on a young man, and he had to be worthy of it.
So the belief was that she gave this “honor” to her husband of 19 years, Michael Stern.
If you enjoy this site, there's a good chance you'll enjoy my books from Plume Publishing (a division of Penguin-Random House Books) Was Superman a Spy? and other Comic Book Legends Revealed! and Why Does Batman Carry Shark Repellent?. Plus, my newest book from Triumph Books, 100 Things X-Men Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die
Here are links to some fine online bookstores where you can order copies of the books!
100 THINGS X-MEN FANS SHOULD KNOW AND DO BEFORE THEY DIE
