Behind The Scenes: Trivia And Other Gossip

[Chaos Theory]

I think a lot of this Criminal Mind/Gibson stuff signals the show is on its last season.  If we were in the first few seasons when the show was in its prime Gibson would have been sent on a great apology tour and back on the set in a few episodes.  My guess is that the show is pretty much over.

Edited August 15, 2016 by Chaos Theory

[Neurochick]

1 hour ago, Chaos Theory said:

I think a lot of this Criminal Mund/Gibson stuff signals the show is on its last season.  If we were in the first few seasons when the show was in its prime Gibson would have been sent on a great appolgy tour and back on the set in a few episodes.  My guess is that the show is pretty much over.

I agree with this.  It will be interesting to see what happens with the ratings. 

[Sandman87]

Every now and then I encounter some amazing fact about a celebrity that just begs to be shared, hence this thread. Note that celebrity news should go in that other thread.

------------------------

Today I learned that Yoko Ono's grandfather was the founder of one of the four giant family-owned monopolies which dominated Japan's economy up until the end of WWII.

[Blergh]

11 hours ago, Sandman87 said:

Every now and then I encounter some amazing fact about a celebrity that just begs to be shared, hence this thread. Note that celebrity news should go in that other thread.

------------------------

Today I learned that Yoko Ono's grandfather was the founder of one of the four giant family-owned monopolies which dominated Japan's economy up until the end of WWII.

  IOW, Ms. Ono is somewhat the Japanese equivalent of Dina Merrill who was the daughter of E.F. Hutton (the founder of that brokerage firm) and Marjorie Merriweather Post (the Post cereal heiress) . Yet, it should be noted that ,despite their inherited monies,  both of them   forged  lengthy careers  in the entertainment field  and  have had heartbreaking personal tragedies.

Edited September 2, 2016 by Blergh
grammar

[atomationage]

I think it's always interesting when a celebrity is better educated than we probably assume most of them are, or their families sometimes.   Jon Tenney apparently went to Vassar, but he's from Princeton, and his mother was a psychiatrist, his father a nuclear physicist.  I wonder what they talked about at dinnertime. 

[Blergh]

Interesting point, atomationage. I wonder if the  late dancer Martha Graham ever got together and compared notes with James Taylor  insamuch as Miss Graham ALSO came from inherited wealth and from educated parents but opted to start from scratch in poverty to essentially create an entire genre of dance.

[GaT]

Steve Buscemi used to be a New York City firefighter & after 9/11 he showed up at his old firehouse & volunteered to work at Ground Zero digging through the rubble for missing firefighters.

[AimingforYoko]

9 hours ago, Blergh said:

  IOW, Ms. Ono is somewhat the Japanese equivalent of Dina Merrill who was the daughter of E.F. Hutton (the founder of that brokerage firm) and Marjorie Merriweather Post (the Post cereal heiress) . Yet, it should be noted that ,despite their inherited monies,  both of them   forged  lengthy careers  in the entertainment field  and  have had heartbreaking personal tragedies.

Another heiress/actress is Julia Louis-Dreyfus, five-time Emmy winner and one of the heirs to the Dreyfus shipping fortune. For a TFB, she definitely made quite a name for herself.

[roamyn]

The late Princess of Wales has American blood.

Her grt grandfather,  Baron Edmund Fermoy, was the eldest twin son of Frances Work, an American Heiress.  And he was raised in the US from approx age 6 to when he inherited from his father, which I believe he was in his late 30s.

I actually didn't know this until a few years ago, so if it was common knowledge,  I apologize for "old" information.

[ParadoxLost]

Woody Harrelson's father was a hitman.

Andrew Lincoln's (Walking Dead) real name is Andrew Clutterbuck

Samuel L. Jackson was one of a group of students that held Martin Luther King Sr. and others hostage during a student protest.

Edited September 3, 2016 by ParadoxLost

[Mountainair]

Probably only interesting to me (and known by all) but I recently learned that Mary Martin's (the only person I ever knew as Peter Pan) son was Larry Hagman from I Dream of Jeannie and Dallas fame. 

Edited September 3, 2016 by Mountainair

[mariah23]

Speaking of celebrity family members,. former SNL cast member David Spade's sister-in-law is designer Kate Spade.

[Enigma X]

Maybe both of my tidbits are well-known. I am a genealogy buff (do it and watch the TV shows dealing with it), so maybe it is not known outside of my genealogy bubble, but Johnny Depp’s s eighth great-grandmother was Elizabeth Key, the first African-American slave to sue for freedom, and Ty Burrell’s fourth great grandmother was an African slave.

[BoogieBurns]

Nick Kroll grew up very wealthy, his dad Jules founded a billion dollar corporation called Kroll, Inc. 

[ParadoxLost]

Megan Boone (The Blacklist) is another actress with a billionaire grandfather.

[SVNBob]

5 hours ago, ParadoxLost said:

Samuel L. Jackson was one of a group of students that held Martin Luther King Sr. and others hostage during a student protest.

This fact gives an episode of the Boondocks a whole new meaning.

[Kromm]

Hmm.  A few.

Sophia Loren was once an in-law to Benito Mussolini. Her sister, Anna Maria, was married to Benito's son, Romano, in the early 1960s.

Jason Sudeikis is George Wendt's nephew. 

Wedge Antilles was a character in the original three Star Wars movies. He was played by Irish actor Denis Lawson. Years later Lawson's nephew, a lad named Ewan McGregor, was also cast in some Star Wars movies.  Sadly not as anyone related to Wedge, but instead as Young Obi-Wan Kenobi.

[Blergh]

Vivian Vance (Lucy's longtime costar) claimed to be born in 1912 ( a year after Lucy) and, because she lived there for a few years in her 20's, tried to claim to be from Albuquerque, New Mexico . However; in actuality, she  was born in 1909 (two years before Lucy)  in Cherryvale, Kansas- and was a childhood friend of Cherryvale's most famous resident- silent movie bombshell Louise 'Lulu' Brooks.

[Joe]

1 hour ago, Kromm said:

Wedge Antilles was a character in the original three Star Wars movies. He was played by Irish actor Denis Lawson. Years later Lawson's nephew, a lad named Ewan McGregor, was also cast in some Star Wars movies.  Sadly not as anyone related to Wedge, but instead as Young Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Lawson is Scottish! And it was seeing him that inspired McGregor to go into acting.

[Bookish Jen]

22 hours ago, GaT said:

Steve Buscemi used to be a New York City firefighter & after 9/11 he showed up at his old firehouse & volunteered to work at Ground Zero digging through the rubble for missing firefighters.

I think this is pretty damn awesome.

Liberace grew up in Milwaukee and my grandmother babysat him when he was a kid.

[JBC344]

Brad Pitt is a distant cousin of Barack Obama while Angelina Jolie is a distant cousin of Hilary Clinton.  So in essence Clinton and Obama are in-laws.

[Bookish Jen]

2 minutes ago, JBC344 said:

Brad Pitt is a distant cousin of Barack Obama while Angelina Jolie is a distant cousin of Hilary Clinton.  So in essence Clinton and Obama are in-laws.

Speaking of Obama, an acquaintance of mine went to high school with him. She graduated a year after him and showed me her yearbooks. He was cute, but dorky at the same time.

[Blergh]

OK, as long as I'm doing Lucy trivia, here's one to possibly live long and prosper on: It's well-known that she and her 1st husband Desi Arnaz formed Desilu Studios which, after she gained sole ownership of it after their split, blossomed into the largest television production company until it would be bought out by Paramount/ Gulf Western. Anyway, among the shows she greenlighted and helped launch was the Star Trek. Decades later, when the movie Star Trek the Undiscovered Country, who got cast as Spock's longlost and catharticly emotional half-bro? It was Lawrence Luckinbill who happened to be Lucy's son-in-law! Even though the movie premiered two weeks after Lucy's death in 1989, no doubt she'd heard about it and I have to wonder how she felt about  being Spock's half-bro's mother-in-law!

[Kromm]

2 hours ago, Joe said:

Lawson is Scottish! And it was seeing him that inspired McGregor to go into acting.

That makes more sense. I saw this as a bit of trivia recently and went back and checked it last night on the same site (Cracked.com, which said he was Irish). I should have looked at another source, since I definitely knew McGregor was a Scot. Then again, I figured they might have just been related by marriage.

20 minutes ago, JBC344 said:

Brad Pitt is a distant cousin of Barack Obama while Angelina Jolie is a distant cousin of Hilary Clinton.  So in essence Clinton and Obama are in-laws.

I do think they're all distant though.

I mean it turns out that most of our Presidents are distantly related to each other since allegedly they're almost all related to one specific English King (John Plantagenet). Martin Van Buren is supposedly the exception for some reason.

A 12 year old girl using genealogy software supposedly discovered this. 

Edited September 3, 2016 by Kromm

[Kromm]

Lucille Ball special post:

I Love Lucy wasn't produced until Lucy was 40. The character being played was of course not supposed to be nearly that old. Previous to that Lucy did a precursor to I Love Lucy on radio called "My Favorite Husband" for four years. Desi was not involved--her "radio husband" was Richard Denning and the couple George and Liz Cooper. "My Favorite Husband" was later brought to TV with a different actress, since Lucy of course was busy by that point playing... Lucy Ricardo. 

Since it is now public domain, if you actually want to hear "My Favorite Husband"... https://archive.org/details/MyFavoriteHusband

A lot of firsts: First woman to head a major studio. First actually pregnant woman to play a pregnant woman on TV. Was part of the first Interracial couple on TV. 

Lucy hoarded pencils for her whole life. As a kid her family had been so poor they couldn't afford new ones for her schooling and she developed something of a compulsion over it.

Lucy was a femme fatale in movies. And that famous red hair was nowhere to be found. The difference was startling:

 

Lucy started as a model.  Her biggest gig was as the Chesterfield Cigarette Girl. She was a blonde at the time and went by the name "Diane Belmont". She continued to personally smoke and help sell cigarettes for much of her career, so if you see later ads with her for Chesterfield (and many other brands) that's why. 

Lucy almost lost her career because (at least as she told it) she once (back in the mid 1930s) registered to the American Communist Party as a favor to her Socialist grandfather. When the Communist scare happened in the 1950s, Lucy fessed up to this and somehow managed to spin it well enough that people believed her. This is a true sign of her power. Likely nobody else in show business would have gotten away with it. 

Edited September 3, 2016 by Kromm

[Ceindreadh]

Malcolm McDowell (Star Trek Generations) is uncle to Alexander Siddig (Doctor Bashir - Deep Space Nine)

[Shannon L.]

I just learned that Lin-Manuel, who wrote the music for Hamilton, wanted to include a song to the colonies from King George.  He told this to Hugh Laurie one day while they were having drinks and Hugh said one, simple, 4 word response that helped Lin decide just what he wanted to say. 

[shantown]

1 hour ago, Shannon L. said:

I just learned that Lin-Manuel, who wrote the music for Hamilton, wanted to include a song to the colonies from King George.  He told this to Hugh Laurie one day while they were having drinks and Hugh said one, simple, 4 word response that helped Lin decide just what he wanted to say. 

Which was... ?

[ikmccall]

19 hours ago, ParadoxLost said:

 

Andrew Lincoln's (Walking Dead) real name is Andrew Clutterbuck

 

And his father in law is Ian Anderson, of Jethro Tull fame.

[candall]

8 minutes ago, ikmccall said:

And his father in law is Ian Anderson, of Jethro Tull fame.

I came across this sentence on the "dot dot dot" page of most recent posts--I'm bored--and came SPRINTING over here to see any newsy news about Ian Anderson.

(Bored and old!)

Now I love Andrew Lincoln even more.

[Shannon L.]

1 hour ago, shantown said:

3 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

I just learned that Lin-Manuel, who wrote the music for Hamilton, wanted to include a song to the colonies from King George.  He told this to Hugh Laurie one day while they were having drinks and Hugh said one, simple, 4 word response that helped Lin decide just what he wanted to say. 

Which was... ?

Oh! Sorry.  "Aw...you'll be back."   That's it.  Lin liked the sentiment and used it for what's become one of my favorite songs on the soundtrack. 

Edited September 3, 2016 by Shannon L.

[Popples]

28 minutes ago, Shannon L. said:

Oh! Sorry.  "Aw...you'll be back."   That's it.  Lin liked the sentiment and used to for what's become one of my favorite songs on the soundtrack. 

If this becomes a film, I now demand that Hugh Laurie play King George.

[roamyn]

6 hours ago, Kromm said:

 

I mean it turns out that most of our Presidents are distantly related to each other since allegedly they're almost all related to one specific English King (John Plantagenet). Martin Van Buren is supposedly the exception for some reason.

A 12 year old girl using genealogy software supposedly discovered this. 

This is actually true.  It's John of Gaunt, who's 3rd wife was his longtime mistress Katherine Swynford.

Not only are ALL British Kings/Queens from Henry IV descended from Gaunt, and many US Presidents, so are Tom Hanks, Winston Churchill, Oliver Platt, the late Princess Diana and the Duchess of Cornwall, amongst others.

I'm a long cousin to the last king of Poland, apparently.   My sister found this out, as our Grt Grandmother was an Ingersoll, and I guess they were nobility in Poland at some point.

[maraleia]

Among the many famous descendants of the Mayflower are: John and John Quincy Adams, Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, FDR, George W and George H W Bush, astronaut Alan Shepard, Marilyn Monroe, Orson Welles, Clint Eastwood, the Baldwin brothers, Humphrey Bogart, Dick and Jerry Van Dyke, Chris Lloyd, Richard Gere, Chris Reeve, Sarah Palin, George Eastman, Gen George McClellan, Bing Crosby, Dan Quayle, Hugh Hefner, Grandma Moses, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Longfellow, Cokie Roberts, Benjamin Spock, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Amelia Earhart, Ashley Judd and Sally Field.

Since there were only 29 people from the Mayflower to produce descendants some of these people have multiple ways that they are descendants. Also, there are between 25 and 30 million direct descendants of these 29 individuals.

[Sandman87]

3 hours ago, Kromm said:

Lucy was a femme fatale in movies. And that famous red hair was nowhere to be found.

You mean that shade of red that's found nowhere in nature? What a shock!

Speaking of Lucy: She claimed once on Dick Cavett's show that some temporary fillings which she had during WWII picked up radio signals one day, and that led to the capture of some Japanese spies.

[atomationage]

22 hours ago, Popples said:

If this becomes a film, I now demand that Hugh Laurie play King George.

It would be appropriate, since he played his son in Blackadder. 

This is an odd one from years back, but I know someone who watches reruns of Roseanne, and she was completely surprised by it.  Glenn Quinn, the actor that played Becky's boyfriend Mark, died of a drug overdose in 2002, about five years after the show ended.  He was also from Ireland. 

Edited September 4, 2016 by atomationage

[roamyn]

5 hours ago, atomationage said:

 

This is an odd one from years back, but I know someone who watches reruns of Roseanne, and she was completely surprised by it.  Glenn Quinn, the actor that played Becky's boyfriend Mark, died of a drug overdose in 2002, about five years after the show ended.  He was also from Ireland. 

I believe he died while playing in Buffy.

[ParadoxLost]

26 minutes ago, roamyn said:

I believe he died while playing in Buffy.

Angel

[anna0852]

He had recently finished is run on Angel. They had written him out early because of his drug issues. 

[Joe]

3 hours ago, anna0852 said:

He had recently finished is run on Angel. They had written him out early because of his drug issues. 

That's one story. Joss claimed it was always meant to be a temporary part. Possibly it was an attempt to give him a certain amount of dignity. But no one believed it.

[UYI]

Pamela Anderson was born on July 1st, 1967--Canada's Centennial Day, or 100th birthday, and she was born and raised in British Columbia. She was born shortly after midnight, and is believed to be the first baby born on Canada's Centennial Day, and so she made national news in Canada as the "Centennial Baby." 

[Blergh]

Josh Holloway was born and Glenn Close was first married on July 20, 1969- the date of the  1st Moon Landing. I wonder if either of them ever felt connected that historic event?

Edited September 8, 2016 by Blergh
Century Correction

[ParadoxLost]

James Lipton (Inside the Actors Studio) was a pimp in France for a year after WWII.

[atomationage]

There was an interesting news story today that an asteroid has been named for Freddie Mercury.  More interesting is that his bandmate, Brian May, is now an astrophysicist.  I like it when people are smart.  

[roamyn]

Sorta celebrity and POTUS trivia:

John Tyler, 10th POTUS, born in 1790, still has 2 grandsons living.

Lyon Tyler, Jr. born in 1924 and Harrison Tyler, botn in 1928.

He had 15 children, the last ones when he was in his 70s, and his youngest son (Lyon Sr.) had his last two sons when he was in his 70s.

Oh, and one of Tyler's grand-nephews:  Harry S. Truman.

i love telling people this bit of trivia.

Edited September 6, 2016 by roamyn

[Blergh]

  It's well-known that for about a decade, performers later-turned directors Rob Reiner and Penny Marshall were married to each other. What's less known is that Miss Marshall's daughter by her first union (born Tracy Henry) took Mr. Reiner's surname as a child and has performed under it ever since despite her mother and stepfather's later divorce and even her own later marriage. What's especially odd to me about this is that, as far as I know, her own mother Penny did NOT use the surname of Reiner even during their marriage.

[TaraS1]

<---- Obviously, I'm a big Lucy Liu fan, and I don't think a lot of people know what a talented (IMO) visual artist she is.  Since the early 90's, she's had quite a few exhibitions in the US and Europe, but it's only been in the last few years that she started showing her work under her own name.  Until then, she exhibited in NY, LA, Munich, etc., under her Chinese name, Yu Ling.  I know nothing about art and have zero artistic ability, but I think she does some incredible work, from painting to sculpting to these really cool collages that she basically makes out of trash she finds on the streets.  

Her official website is mainly about her art, so you can see a lot of her pieces and read the process behind them under the Art tab here and see a lot of cool stills of her working here.

[GaT]

I just found this out, Rush singer/bassist Geddy Lee's parents met & fell in love in Auschwitz.

[Kromm]

13 hours ago, TaraS1 said:

<---- Obviously, I'm a big Lucy Liu fan, and I don't think a lot of people know what a talented (IMO) visual artist she is.  Since the early 90's, she's had quite a few exhibitions in the US and Europe, but it's only been in the last few years that she started showing her work under her own name.  Until then, she exhibited in NY, LA, Munich, etc., under her Chinese name, Yu Ling.  I know nothing about art and have zero artistic ability, but I think she does some incredible work, from painting to sculpting to these really cool collages that she basically makes out of trash she finds on the streets.  

Her official website is mainly about her art, so you can see a lot of her pieces and read the process behind them under the Art tab here and see a lot of cool stills of her working here.

A bit too abstract for my personal taste (and whenever I see big Mixed Media installations I always ask myself "okay, but IF they had to could they even DO traditional art?") but she's a beautiful enough woman that I have to admit to a certain visceral pleasure in seeing that video of her slap that paint up on the glass, which even if not intended as such, comes off as more than a bit erotic. Also, while no doubt "Yu Ling" had a door into certain galleries because perhaps someone behind the scenes knew it was Lucy Liu, I admire if she got a good rep from sales and critics who didn't know the two were the same person. 

[TaraS1]

6 hours ago, Kromm said:

Also, while no doubt "Yu Ling" had a door into certain galleries because perhaps someone behind the scenes knew it was Lucy Liu, I admire if she got a good rep from sales and critics who didn't know the two were the same person. 

Yeah, which is why I love the fact that her early exhibitions were years before she was hired on Ally McBeal, when her real name would've carried no weight whatsoever.  I'd really like to own some of her work, but I don't think they offer a layaway plan lol.