Content deleted Content added

Inline

Revision as of 13:31, 13 December 2021

Welcome to the entertainment section
of the Wikipedia reference desk.

skip to bottom

Select a section:

Shortcut

WP:RD/E

Want a faster answer?

Main page: Help searching Wikipedia

How can I get my question answered?

Select the section of the desk that best fits the general topic of your question (see the navigation column to the right).
Post your question to only one section, providing a short header that gives the topic of your question.
Type '~~~~' (that is, four tilde characters) at the end – this signs and dates your contribution so we know who wrote what and when.
Don't post personal contact information – it will be removed. Any answers will be provided here.
Please be as specific as possible, and include all relevant context – the usefulness of answers may depend on the context.
Note:
- We don't answer (and may remove) questions that require medical diagnosis or legal advice.
- We don't answer requests for opinions, predictions or debate.
- We don't do your homework for you, though we'll help you past the stuck point.
- We don't conduct original research or provide a free source of ideas, but we'll help you find information you need.

Ready? Ask a new question!

How do I answer a question?

Main page: Wikipedia:Reference desk/Guidelines

The best answers address the question directly, and back up facts with wikilinks and links to sources. Do not edit others' comments and do not give any medical or legal advice.

December 6

Is it common for actors to be nicknamed after their roles?

I rarely ever follow celebrities, but it seems almost inevitable that people would start nicknaming actors after the characters that they play — perhaps there are more than a few real people who are in the habit of referring to Mark Hamill as ‘Luke’, for example. I can’t confidently say for myself that I remember witnessing this phenomenon more than once, though. —(((Romanophile))) ♞ (contributions) 22:24, 6 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think that that can be considered a nickname, more of a weak grasp of reality for some folks. See "From Lena Headey to Milo Ventimiglia: TV Actors Who Have Been Confused for Their Characters" and "Actors Who Get Mistaken for Their Characters in Real Life". William Powell and Myrna Loy played a husband and wife in all of their films together, so some of their fans thought they were married in real life. Clarityfiend (talk) 04:18, 7 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Barış Arduç and Elçin Sangu played the role of partners in the Turkish romantic drama television series Kiralık Aşk, and for months on end IP editors tried to make them romantic partners too here on Wikipedia. --Lambiam 10:59, 7 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

One of the child actresses in The Sound of Music (Charmian Carr) entitled her autobiogrpahy Forever Liesl, after the character she played in the film, since she became indelibly associated with that character. In her case, the fact she played very few roles after that one helped to fuse the two personalities in the public's mind. And I also remember someone who played a famous doctor in the early days of doctor saying strangers would continually ask him for medical advice, using his character's name (it could have been Richard Chamberlain, who played Dr. Kildare). So the phenonemon is quite common. Xuxl (talk) 13:38, 7 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Similarly consider Leonard Nimoy's two volumes of autobiography, I Am Not Spock and I Am Spock. --184.144.99.241 (talk) 14:04, 7 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

So he's Schrödinger's Spock? Fascinating. Clarityfiend (talk) 22:57, 7 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

From our article Mariette Hartley: "In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Hartley appeared with James Garner in a popular series of television commercials advertising Polaroid cameras. The two actors had such amazing on-screen chemistry that many viewers erroneously believed that they were married in real life. Hartley's 1990 biography, Breaking the Silence, indicates that she began to wear a T-shirt printed with the phrase 'I am not Mrs. James Garner'." Deor (talk) 15:35, 8 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

One I can think of is Larry the Cable Guy, which is the name universally used by the actor Dan Whitney. He's pretty much always called "Larry the Cable Guy", but that's a character he invented, originally used on a radio program.--Jayron 32 14:01, 7 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

A court ruled that Lorraine Kelly isn't a real person, but a character. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/mar/20/lorraine-kelly-theatrical-artist-tax-tribunal-judge-rules --TrogWoolley (talk) 14:15, 7 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

No, that's actually a deliberate misrepresentation. What they ruled was that her on-screen performance allowed her to claim her agent as a business expense. No where did they say that she wasn't real. They said that because she acts and performs as that character, the fees she pays her agent are tax deductible. Similar, in America, to Stephen Colbert (character) and Stephen Colbert. --Jayron 32 16:05, 7 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

It seems like there's a slippery scope between "normal" actors, actors who adopt a personality both off-screen and on-screen (Elvira, Pee Wee Herman, Dame Edna Everage, etc.) and actors sometimes being referred to by their most famous roles. Like, if you call Cassandra Peterson "Elvira" are you using her on-screen role as a nickname or are you simply calling her by the personality she's used? I don't think there's always a bright-line difference there. Matt Deres (talk) 17:27, 8 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

_{I would assume you meant to link to Cassandra Peterson with Elvira and not the disambig page for the name Matt Deres― Blaze The Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 17:48, 8 December 2021 (UTC)}[reply]

Elvira and Herman are more like drag or wrestling personas than roles. Everage is a drag persona. --Khajidha (talk) 21:54, 8 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Everage isn't a drag persona. Just a female character created by an actor who created many male and female roles. HiLo48 (talk) 01:55, 11 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure what distinction you are trying to draw here. --Khajidha (talk) 13:46, 11 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

"Drag" has obvious overtones of sexuality. That is not what the characters created by Barry Humphries are about. We don't give equivalent labels to the male characters he has created over the years such as Sir Les Patterson. HiLo48 (talk) 01:26, 12 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Huh. I've never considered "drag" as necessarily having sexual overtones. And I've actually done drag. --Khajidha (talk) 03:32, 12 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Well, what kind of persona is Sir Les Patterson? HiLo48 (talk) 06:17, 12 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Reading over the description, I am not sure what exact description I would give him, but he does seem (like the Elvira or Pee Wee Herman characters mentioned before) to have more in common with the personas used by professional wrestlers or drag queens than he does with the characters in movies, tv programs, or theatre.--Khajidha (talk) 14:39, 12 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

In Australia, a Gold Logie is warded to the most popular personality on Australian TV each year. (Like an Emmy Award.) Australian actor Garry McDonald played the role of a character called Norman Gunston, a seemingly naive celebrity interviewer with a very popular weekly TV show. In 1976 the Gold Logie was awarded to the fictional character Norman Gunston, not Gary McDonald. HiLo48 (talk) 22:58, 8 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

December 9

Which Movies were These, Please ?

I watched Sea of Love (film) (1989) more than once, and on two occasions, forgetting the first one when the second occurred earlier this year, I thought I had missed an amusing scene, and looked back at the Movie at the place I thought I missed on the disc but did not see it.

The scene I thought was in it, and perhaps indeed is, but could be in another film, is one where a cop, and if in another film, it could still be Al Pacino, is waiting for someone outside a flash international school where diplomats and such send their kids, and he notices another man standing about ten yards the other side of the gate, and they acknowledge each other, but within a minute, they end up pulling their guns on each other, but it turns out the other guy was a bodyguard for I think the child of an Iranian diplomat, so all is good. The actor playing him resembled the Canadian Elias Koteas, who himself bears a slight lookalike to Robert de Niro, but I cannot recall any other movie that this was in.

Also, while I am here, I may as well ask about another movie I have made mention of three times before over the past twelve years, to see if anyone else is now reading, or others who have heard it might now remember - a film from about 1987, where a mother finally finds her missing son in New York, but the drug dealer he is with has him as a slave, and will not let him go, so the lady calls a uniformed street cop, who challenges the crook. This reprobate makes the mistake of drawing on the middle aged officer, who shoots him dead, and mother and son are reunited. It is similar to the David Ogden Stiers TV Movie The Kissing Place, but that is not it. Any help ? Thanks. Chris the Russian Christopher Lilly 08:59, 9 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Can anyone identify this black and white film?

Hi, Google has failed me entirely, and the Wikipedia list of films with time travel is very long.

The film is black and white (and I am guessing 1950s as the decade it was made, but that could be wrong). The lead character is a woman married to a playwright. The marriage is terrible and she shoots him on New Year's Day. She wakes up a year before and resolves to change what happened. She bends over backwards to be more supportive of her husband but nothing works and he tries to kill her on New Year's Day, so she shoots him in self-defence and the scene looks exactly like the previous New Year that she tried to avoid. Her friend, a poet, takes the blame.

I thought the poet was played by Richard Widmark but can't find anything obviously similar in his filmography.

Red Fiona (talk) 11:38, 9 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

That'll be Repeat Performance (1947). Card Zero (talk) 11:57, 9 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you Red Fiona (talk) 12:22, 9 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

That'll be Repeat Performance (1947). Card Zero (talk) 11:57, 9 December 2021 (UTC) [reply]

That'll be Repeat Performance (1947), showing in a double bill with Groundhog Day. MinorProphet (talk) 21:37, 12 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

What type of jacket is Jackie Gleason wearing in this Honeymooners episode (funny money)?

Thanks so much!

The jacket in question

2600:1702:690:F7A0:48F3:C2C5:3432:29C0 (talk) 20:57, 9 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

A sport coat or in the UK, a sports jacket. The pattern might be described as a "loud check" (best avoided). Alansplodge (talk) 23:41, 9 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I concur that this is a sports coat. As far as the pattern, This article discusses various types of check patterns; from what I see there, this is probably closest to "windowpane check" or "tattersall" depending on whether the lines are in one or two colors (it's difficult to tell on black-and-white like that). --Jayron 32 00:23, 10 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Many thanks! 2600:1702:690:F7A0:9C79:84F1:2A3:B3E6 (talk) 08:09, 13 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

December 10

Artificial turf in field hockey versus other outdoor sports

What is the reason why artificial turf has been embraced by field hockey so much to the point that its use is almost universal in the professional level, but other outdoor sports, particularly football codes, tend to prefer natural grass whenever possible and the use of artificial turf tends to be disliked by players? Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 02:27, 10 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

See Field hockey pitch#Artificial playing surface, particularly the first quote: "Artificial grass permits easier ball control and this in itself helps to reduce the number of infringements of the rules—which means less whistle and fewer stoppages. The game thus becomes easier to follow, as well as being a faster spectacle and much more interesting from a spectator point of view." Clarityfiend (talk) 03:44, 10 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I've read the article and that section, but it doesn't explain why other field sports haven't universally embraced artificial turf, unlike field hockey. I've read that the potential for harder injuries is a factor, but if that were the case, then why doesn't that apply to field hockey? Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 03:58, 10 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Is gridiron football-style tackling allowed in field hockey? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:14, 10 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Players sliding is very common in various forms of football, where the ball may be played with the feet. Such a slide is a manoeuvre rather than accidental, and may be initiated while the player has a high velocity, thus making "turf burn" a very real risk. In field hockey, any slides are accidental and rarely involve high speeds. --Lambiam 11:44, 10 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

And as Bugs implied, there is no tackling in field hockey as there is in American Football or Rugby, so the harder artificial surface in not an issue. In baseball, artificial turf used to create unnatural bounces and faster ground balls, changing the game. More modern versions of artificial turf mitigate these problems, so there is a budding trend of professional teams using it once again, as it is easier to maintain. But purists will always prefer natural grass. Xuxl (talk) 13:26, 10 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Artificial turf also provides for a more consistent playing surface. Natural grass, as a natural product, has far more variation; from both venue-to-venue and even within the same field. Indeed, the same grass surface may play differently on different days. Turf is likely to be much more consistent. --Jayron 32 13:40, 10 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Artifical turf gets "crushed" over time and otherwise deteriorates. I recall in the early 2000s, before they replaced the fake grass at the Metrodome, they were spray-painting the bare areas with green paint. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:32, 10 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Artificial Pitches and (Association) Football: A History. Alansplodge (talk) 00:51, 11 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Also see artificial turf#Environmental concerns and the section after that. There are some health and environmental concerns about artificial turf. It's non-biodegradable material containing some chemicals known or suspected to be hazardous, which may get in wounds, be inhaled after being kicked up or end up in the environment (especially for outdoor fields). So natural grass would be the default. Hockey uses a rather small ball that mostly rolls over the field (footballs are larger, baseballs fly), making it very sensitive to inconsistencies in the surface. PiusImpavidus (talk) 10:08, 11 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

What happened to the destroyed house at the end of the incredibles?

I don't understand the incredibles parr family would be arrested because of destroying their own house. Didn't ever in the US that have a law for the money loss incurred of destroyed house caused by accidental fall of nonpartisan villain like syndrome. Parr family would be homeless and be subjected at police station for forgetting insurance that had done. Are the Incredibles rendered homeless upon the accidental destruction of the parr's family house caused by syndrome's jet? 2404:8000:1005:555:1422:A887:1E54:5A69 (talk) 12:36, 10 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The Incredibles is a work of fiction; unlike a documentary, where the people on screen have lives that continue after the cameras stop rolling, in fiction, the work is completely made up. When the story ends there is nothing that happens to the characters. They only exist for the duration of the work, and they don't have lives that continue on after the story, unless someone comes along later to invent more story. Your question is unanswerable in the sense that there is no way to find it out from a reliable source of information. There is a sequel titled Incredibles 2; you can watch that if you want to learn more about the story of the Parr family. That sequel may or may not directly answer your questions. --Jayron 32 12:49, 10 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

And as an aside, most household insurance policies should include cover against loss or damage by "aircraft or other aerial devices or articles dropped from them" [1]. Alansplodge (talk) 00:43, 11 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Isn't The Incredibles a cartoon? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:28, 11 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

American law has no jurisdiction in Pixaria. Clarityfiend (talk) 09:23, 11 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

December 11

When is the closing ceremony of the world chess championship?

The closing ceremony of the world chess championship was scheduled to be on 15th December. Now with the match finished early, does this still hold? Or will it take place earlier - if so, when? --KnightMove (talk) 19:37, 11 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Our article World Chess Championship 2021 states (without citing a source) that the closing ceremony was moved up to 12 December (today). The summary of the revision that added this refers to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPh2uhPcWoo. --Lambiam 00:22, 12 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

December 12

Who's watching a film with Madness?

The video for Michael Caine by Madness includes a scene of the band watching a film. There is an older moustachioed gentleman with them. Who is the actor? The video can be seen here. Thanks, DuncanHill (talk) 15:56, 12 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

At first I thought it was Richard Vernon (Slartibartfast; Sir Desmond Glazebrook et many al), but he died in 1997. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:07, 12 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Well, dying 13 years after the video was made makes him a better candidate than my first thought, Nigel Green, who died 12 years before it! But I don't think it is Vernon, despite not being dead at the time. DuncanHill (talk) 00:25, 13 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Vernon's chin was longer. —Tamfang (talk) 04:10, 13 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

It could be Guy Doleman. He was in the IPCRESS file (which the Madness song was inspired by) and he has the same off-center crease in his chin as that actor. Not 100% convinced though, as I can't find pictures of Doleman with a mustache or with the skin tag over his eye like the man in the video. --Jayron 32 04:02, 13 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

December 13

Aeon Flux film - Bregna City Size

In the Aeon Flux film, how big is the city of Bregna?62.253.143.3 (talk) 10:05, 13 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

How big is the city in the film Dark City?

In the 1998 film Dark City, how big was the city supposed to be? What's its approximate size? 62.253.143.3 (talk) 10:07, 13 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The "city" in Dark City was [SPOILERS ALERT] of course really a giant construct on an alien spaceship. Beyond some brief scenes where a few exterior shots of the ship occur which may give some impression of scale, there is almost certainly no definitive answer, as anything not spoken about or shown onscreen need not have been specified in the screenplay. To my recollection, the 'size' (either scale or population) of the "city" as believed by its mind-controlled "citizens" or as the construct actually known to the aliens, is never mentioned.

Moreover, the screenplay was an original work written by the director and two colleagues, not based on a previous work of fiction such as a novel or story that might have mentioned the city's size, so there are no clues to be found in that respect.

I have presumed that you are asking about the notional size of the fictional city/construct in the fictional story, not the size of the film sets and sound stages used in shooting the film, about which there is some information in the linked article. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.205.227.133 (talk) 13:18, 13 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@@ Line 134: / Line 134: @@
 In the 1998 film Dark City, how big was the city supposed to be? What's its approximate size? [[Special:Contributions/62.253.143.3|62.253.143.3]] ([[User talk:62.253.143.3|talk]]) 10:07, 13 December 2021 (UTC)
-:The "city" in [[Dark City (1998 film)|Dark City]] was [SPOILERS ALERT] of course really a giant construct on an alien spaceship. Beyond the closing scenes, where a few exterior shots of the ship occur which may give some impression of scale, there is almost certainly no definitive answer, as anything not spoken about or shown onscreen need not have been specified in the screenplay. To my recollection, the 'size' (either scale or population) of the "city" as believed by its mind-controlled "citizens" or as the construct actually known to the aliens, is never mentioned.
+:The "city" in [[Dark City (1998 film)|Dark City]] was [SPOILERS ALERT] of course really a giant construct on an alien spaceship. Beyond some brief scenes where a few exterior shots of the ship occur which may give some impression of scale, there is almost certainly no definitive answer, as anything not spoken about or shown onscreen need not have been specified in the screenplay. To my recollection, the 'size' (either scale or population) of the "city" as believed by its mind-controlled "citizens" or as the construct actually known to the aliens, is never mentioned.
 :Moreover, the screenplay was an original work written by the director and two colleagues, not based on a previous work of fiction such as a novel or story that might have mentioned the city's size, so there are no clues to be found in that respect.
 :I have presumed that you are asking about the notional size of the fictional city/construct in the fictional story, not the size of the film sets and sound stages used in shooting the film, about which there is some information in the linked article. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} [[Special:Contributions/90.205.227.133|90.205.227.133]] ([[User talk:90.205.227.133|talk]]) 13:18, 13 December 2021 (UTC)