It’s time to review the results of another What the Hell Happened Pop Culture Quiz. I have collected all the papers and the grades are in. Let’s see how everyone did.
I went easy on you all in the last quiz. So this time, I tried extra hard to stump everyone. For the most part, it looks like I was successful. A couple of questions were just downright devious. I threw in a few bunnies to make up for those.
This was one of those devious questions. 58% of responders guessed that Sylvester Stallone had never appeared in a movie directed by Woody Allen. But pre-Rocky, Stallone appeared as a mugger on the subway in the Woody Allen comedy, Bananas. Elisabeth Shue was one of many celebrities to appear in Allen’s Deconstructing Harry. Sharon Stone had a pre-fame appearance in Allen’s Stardust Memories.
Both Stallone and Stone did voice work with Allen in the animated feature, Antz. But that movie was not directed by Allen. This is how tricky I was trying to be. I was counting on people to think of Antz and to think I was trying to fake them out with the fact it was not directed by Allen. But both stars have actually appeared pre-fame in Woody Allen-directed movies.
I chose Hilary Swank as the wrong answer because she seems like someone Allen would cast. Surprisingly, he hasn’t.
44% of you remembered that Melanie Griffith got a breast enhancement during filming of Bonfire of the Vanities. The production broke for Christmas and Griffith came back with new boobs which she rubbed in the face of director Brian DePalma. Reportedly, she was motivated at least partially by snarky comments made by the crew during filming. She had no idea that changing the size of her breasts during filming would mess up the movie’s continuity.
For other choices, I had to go with actresses who at least looked like that could be enhanced. Demi Moore obviously had some enhancements done at the peak of her fame. So no surprise that 33% of you chose her. No idea if Lacy or Leelee are natural. But they at least seemed like plausible answers.
This was meant to be a freebie. Kevin Costner was cast in The Big Chill by Lawrence Kasdan. He played the best friend whose suicide brings the likes of Glenn Close, Kevin Kline, Tom Berenger and Jeff Goldblum together. Costner actually filmed flashback scenes, but the scenes were cut from the movie. So he appeared as a corpse, but his face was never shown.
To make it up to Costner, Kasdan later cast him in his Western Silverado. But Costner was not thrilled with his role because he wanted to play the hero. Eventually, Costner got to play the hero in Kasdan’s Wyatt Earp.
I was surprised that 71% of you guys remembered that Thora Birch’s parents were both in Deep Throat. It was actually tough finding actresses who would be the appropriate age who didn’t have famous parents.
This was another stumper. The top three choices each got 31% of the responses. Of the choices presented, Debra Winger was the only one who never worked with Douglas. According to Douglas, he met with her at a Mexican restaurant to discuss starring with him in Romancing the Stone. The interview did not go well and Douglas claims Winger bit him.
This was my trickiest question this week. 58% of you guessed that Michael Keaton refused to work with Sean Young in Batman. Young was originally cast as Vicki Vale. But she injured herself practicing for a horse riding scene. The scene was eventually cut from the movie, but the injury forced the production to recast the role with very little notice.
Michelle Pfieffer was one of the candidates to replace Young. But Pfeiffer and Keaton had dated and Keaton didn’t feel comfortable working with her at the time. So he vetoed her. 3 years later, Keaton felt enough time had past to work with Pfeiffer on Batman Returns.
Rene Russo was actually cast in Batman 3. But when Keaton refused to come back for the sequel, she was deemed to old to star with his replacement, Val Kilmer. So she was replaced by Nicole Kidman.
69% of you knew that Matt Dillon was discovered while cutting class. It was actually difficult for me to think up actors who seemed more likely to cut class than Matt Dillon. Guess I didn’t do too well there because most of you got it right.
47% of you remembered that Cuba Gooding Jr. appeared as a break dancer at the Summer Olympics in LA. I threw in Jean-Claude Van Damme as an answer because he made an early appearance in the movie Breakin’ which I hoped would throw people. Lea Thompson had a history as a dancer and was about the right age. Helen Hunt is also the right age and had a long history in entertainment.
I was actually surprised by how many of you got this one right.
This was another freebie. Nicolas Cage’s real name is Nicolas Coppola. He is part of the Coppola clan. In order to avoid the appearance of nepotism, he changed his name to Cage based on the Marvel comics character, Luke Cage. I picked Billy Zane and Chevy Chase because they had names that sounded like they might be based on comic book characters.
Michael Keaton famously changed his name from Michael Douglas to avoid confusion with the actor Debra Winger supposedly bit. But no one fell for that answer. I have seen conflicting explanations regarding how Keaton chose his name. Some claim it was based on actress Diane Keaton while others believe he chose the name for silent comic Buster Keaton. However, he certainly didn’t name himself after a comic book character.
39% of you remembered that Renee Zellweger played a groupie in Reality Bites. She has no lines. She just kisses Ethan Hawke on her way out the door after what is implied to be a one-night stand. Once again, I had some trouble finding plausible alternate answers that were roughly the same age and might have appeared in a bit role at the time.
That’s it for this week’s quiz results. Look for a new quiz next week!
