Welcome back to Tuesday’s Trivia Tidbits. For those of you out of the loop, this is a little compilation of 10 movie related facts that I will be posting weekly and info that I always find interesting. So without further ado, this weeks are…



1: Michael Fassbender’s performance as Lt. Archie Hickox in “Inglorious Basterds” is layered with irony due to his real life. Fassbender was born in Germany to German and Irish parents and raised in Ireland, now residing in London with fluency in German as his first language and English as his second, and a mastery of English accents and dialects. In the film, he plays an Englishman who goes undercover as a German, and who can speak German fluently, but cannot hide his accent.



2: Sergio Leone was approached to direct “The Godfather” but turned it down since he felt the story, which glorified the Mafia, was not interesting enough. He later regretted refusing the offer, but would go on to direct his own critically acclaimed gangster film, “Once Upon a Time in America“.



3: (Courtesy of Fogs’ Movie Reviews)

In “Blue Velvet“, Dean Stockwell held a worklight in the Roy Orbison “In Dreams” sequence only after director David Lynch saw him holding one during a lighting session. He was originally supposed to hold a microphone but Lynch found the worklight far more creepier and effective.



4: After their success in “Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid“, the subject of “Serpico” was first planned as a star vehicle for Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Redford was to play Frank Serpico (Al Pacino’s role) and Newman was to play his lawyer friend David Durk (a character renamed “Bob Blair” in the final film, where he is played by Tony Roberts).



5: As of 2010, there are only six actors to win an Academy Award for a role primarily in a language other than English. They are: Sophia Loren, Robert DeNiro, Roberto Benigni, Benicio Del Toro, Marion Cotillard and Christoph Waltz.



6: Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone had to wear genital pads during the sex scenes in “Basic Instinct” due to the AIDS epidemic in the early 1990s.



7: Yann Martel, the author of the book “Life Of Pi” has stated that his inspiration for the book’s premise came from reading a book review of Brazilian author Moacyr Scliar’s 1981 novella “Max and the Cats“, about a Jewish-German refugee who crossed the Atlantic Ocean while sharing his boat with a jaguar.



8: There is a supposed “odd-numbered movie curse” associated with the “Star Trek” films in which the odd-numbered films tend to be weaker and the even-numbered ones tend to be stronger. This curse was supposedly proved false with the poor reception of film ten, “Star Trek: Nemesis“. J.J. Abrams’ new “Star Trek” is the eleventh film. Years before, Simon Pegg’s character in “Spaced” joked that every odd-numbered Star Trek film being “shit” was a fact of life. Pegg noted: “Fate put me in the movie to show me I was talking out of my ass.”



9: The mug shot of George Clooney’s character Jack Foley in “Out Of Sight” (of which Karen says “He doesn’t even look like that“) is the mug shot of Clooney’s character Seth Gecko from “From Dusk Till Dawn“.



10: While filming the whipping scene in “Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom“, the crew played a practical joke on Harrison Ford. While he was chained to a large stone, Barbra Streisand appeared, dressed in a leather dominatrix outfit. She proceeded to whip him, saying “That’s for “Hanover Street“, the worst movie I ever saw.” She continued whipping him for “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope“, and making all of that money. Carrie Fisher then threw herself in front of Ford to protect him, and Irvin Kershner chided director Steven Spielberg. “Is this how you run your movies?” This entire sequence was filmed.

So there you have it. 10 esoteric Tidbits to masticate on. Some you may know. Some you may not. If you have any thoughts, stick your donations in the comment box.

See you next Tuesday…

(For earlier editions of Trivia Tidbits click here.)