The Mammoth Book of Useless Information. Noel Botham
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Teletubbies is filmed in the open on a site in Warwickshire. The dome, hills and rabbits are real. Some of the grass and flowers are real and some are artificial.
• You cannot walk down the Disney parade route without being on at least one camera.
• Actress Jodie Foster was George Lucas’s second choice to play the part of Princess Leia in Star Wars.
• In 1978, the ‘Hollywood’ sign was in such a state of disrepair (termites had infested the wooden scaffolding that supports the 15m-high letters) that one of the Os had fallen off.
• After fifty events, the UK claims to be the most successful Eurovision nation – Ireland have won more often, with seven victories to the UK’s five, but the UK have finished second an astonishing fifteen times.
• A shocking EastEnders storyline featuring Dennis Rickman having an affair with Peggy Mitchell was pulled at the last minute.
• Nicole Richie has six pet rats and gave her Simple Life co-star Paris Hilton a rat she called ‘Tori Spelling’ for Christmas.
• Ex-Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth cancelled the rest of his US tour after injuring himself performing ‘a very fast, complicated 15th-century samurai move’ during a recent performance.
• In 2004, rocker David Bowie thought he was being stalked by someone dressed as a giant pink rabbit. Bowie noticed the fan at several concerts, but became alarmed when he got on a plane and the bunny was on board.
• The beginning of The Wizard of Oz is black and white because colour was not available at that point. When colour was available, the writers decided to start using it for the scenes in Munchkinland.
• Television presenter Johnny Vaughan says his £60,000 sports car was crashed by his pet bulldog, Harvey. Vaughan had stopped his automatic Maserati 3200GT on the way home from a visit to a vet, thinking Harvey needed the toilet, but, when he got out of the vehicle, Harvey jumped across the seat and hit the gear stick into drive.
• Stars received an unusual gift in their goodie bag at this year’s Oscars – a vacuum cleaner.
• The computer Hal in 2001: Space Odyssey (1968) got his name from the producers of the film. HAL are the letters before IBM (H comes before I, A before B and L before M).
• Napoleon Bonaparte is the historical figure most often portrayed in movies. He has been featured in 194 movies. By comparison, Jesus Christ features in 152 and Abraham Lincoln in 137.
• While on a training schedule and drinking protein drinks to enhance her muscles, Hollywood superstar Halle Berry confessed she couldn’t stop breaking wind as a result of the drinks.
• Chewbacca’s name is inspired by the name of Chebika City, in Tunisia, near the place where the Tatooine scenes in Star Wars where shot.
• Glamour model Jordan once said she fancied a six-in-a-bed romp with five other celebrities – but not the Beckhams.
• In 1965, auditions were held for TV show The Monkees. Some of the people who responded (but were not hired) were Stephen Stills, Harry Nilsson and songwriter Paul Williams.
• American Beauty (1999) star Kevin Spacey’s older brother is a professional Rod Stewart impersonator.
• A BBC children’s presenter was reprimanded for wearing a T-shirt that contained a risqué slogan. Dominic Wood was rapped for wearing a ‘Morning Wood’ T-shirt on his Dick and Dom in da Bungalow show.
• Irish singer Ronan Keating had to abandon a filming session when he was flashed at by streakers in Phuket, Thailand.
• A mouse caused £7,000 worth of damage to BBC television presenter Sue Barker’s Ferrari.
• David Letterman was voted Class Smart Alec at his home-town high school, Broad Ripple High.
• La Boca in southern Buenos Aires, Argentina, is the birthplace of the tango.
• Basic Instinct (1992) star Sharon Stone is a member of MENSA.
• The Millennium Falcon in Star Wars was originally inspired by the shape of a hamburger with an olive on the side.
• Singer Lenny Kravitz kept a marijuana joint he’d shared with Rolling Stone Mick Jagger for a year as a tribute.
• In The Empire Strikes Back, legendary actor Alec Guinness performed all his appearances in six hours.
• The Swedish pop group ABBA recently turned down an offer of £1 billion to reunite.
• In 1962, the Mashed Potato, the Loco-Motion, the Frug, the Monkey and the Funky Chicken were all popular dances.
• Friends star Lisa Kudrow has a degree in biology from Vassar College.
• Hollywood legend Paul Newman was colour-blind.
• Miss Congeniality (2000) star Sandra Bullock is allergic to horses.
• US actress Lara Flynn Boyle is dyslexic.
• 9 ½Weeks Star Kim Basinger has suffered panic attacks during which she cannot leave the house.
• Austin Powers star Mike Myers has an aversion to being touched.
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) star Johnny Depp is afraid of clowns.
• Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) actress Andie MacDowell worked at McDonald’s and Pizza Hut as a teenager.
• US funnyman Steve Martin once worked at Disneyland selling maps and guidebooks.
• Matrix star Keanu Reeves’s father has served time in prison for cocaine possession.
• Cheers actor Woody Harrelson’s father has served time in prison for murder.
• Red Dragon (2002) actor Edward Norton’s father invented the shopping mall.
• ER actress Julianna Margulies’s father wrote the ‘Plop-Plop, Fizz-Fizz’ Alka-Seltzer commercial.
• The great-uncle of Baywatch star David Hasselhoff was Karl Hasselhoff, the inventor of inflatable sheep.
• Singer Eric Clapton owns one-fifth of the planet Mars.
• In the film Forrest Gump (1994), all the still photos show Forrest with his eyes closed.
• Toto the dog was paid £65 per week while filming The Wizard of Oz.
• Kelsey Grammar sings and plays the piano for the theme song of Frasier.
• The director of 2005’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Tim Burton, spent millions on training squirrels to crack nuts to recreate the ‘Nut Room’ scene.
• Cinderella’s slippers were originally made out of fur. The story was changed in the 1600s by a translator.
• Pupils at a US school have been offered counselling after a teacher showed them clips of Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ (2004).
• A fan of Pop Idol runner-up Gareth Gates missed meeting him when he turned up at her home because her dad had the television on too loud.
• An elderly actor who broke his leg on stage during a performance of Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo’s The Accidental Death of an Anarchist in Bosnia had to endure laughs and taunts from the audience who thought his cries of pain were part of the show.
• Pinocchio was made of pine.
• In the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Indy escapes with the golden idol in a seaplane with the registration number OB-3PO. This of course refers to Obi-wan and C-3PO from Star