F(UN)-Facts about Arsenic and Old Lace

*Like many classic Hollywood films of its era, the film was adapted from a stage production, in this case a play written for a P.S. 131 Show For Our Parents Night in New York.

*The original title of the play was "Icky Stuff and Gross Perfume That Aunt Agnes Wears."

*The ladies that play Cary Grant's aunts, despite their delightful light comic performances, took their roles so seriously that in order to get into character, they poisoned 8 people in the two weeks before shooting began.

*Frank Capra's original ending for the film was a 3-minute cameo from Gary Cooper, who looked directly into the camera and delivered a speech on apple pie, motherhood, and patriotism in front of a giant rustling American flag.

*Mortimer Brewster's cousin "Teddy," who believes he is Theodore Roosevelt, was called "Jerry" in an early draft of the screenplay and believed he was Gerald Ford. The character was modified when an unknown executive reminded everyone Ford wouldn't become President for another 30 years.

*Raymond Massey, who plays the deranged Boris Karloff lookalike in the film, took his role in good humor, but at a cocktail party, he once punched out a man who told him he resembled Margaret Hamilton.

*Karloff himself was supposed to play Massey's part, one he created and was concurrently performing in on stage, but he declined by saying, "Compared to THEATER, films are CRAP." But he said it in a really gentlemanly way with his classy accent, so nobody minded.

*If you look closely about 50 minutes into the film, you can see a cardboard standee of Ted Danson near a windowsill.

F(UN)-Facts about The Merry Widow (1934)

I just watched the 1934 version of "The Merry Widow" the other day and decided to compile some neato f(un)-facts about it. Did you know...

*The operetta on which this was based was titled "The Rather Sprightly and Dare We Say Quite Gay In Spirit Woman Who, Having Lost Her Husband, Encountered Love." Director Ernst Lubitsch said, "Hey, let's call it 'The Merry Widow.'" That's the Lubitsch Touch!

*Star Maurice Chevalier took 3 weeks of voice lessons to lose his thick New York accent for this film.

*Co-star Jeanette MacDonald's singing voice was dubbed by a young Andy Williams.

*The opening musical number "Girls! Girls! Girls!," in which soldiers march and sing about how the only reason they wage war is for Girls! later inspired the Motley Crue hit single of the same name.

*If you look closely at the scene in which Chevalier's character reintroduces himself to the ladies of Parisian society, you can see Cloris Leachman dancing in the background.

*This story, set in the kingdom of Marshovia, is based on a real incident. Only the real incident precipitated World War I, while the movie takes some dramatic license and ignores that consequence.

*In an ironic turn of events, the producers, lured by tax breaks, filmed "The Merry Widow" not in Marshovia, but in neighboring Freedonia.

F(UN)-Facts About the New Fall TV Season

Here we go with some more juicy F(un)-Facts. As I wrote last time, everybody is in love with "fun facts" these days. Well, anyone can give you actual information, but I find the really fun facts are un-facts.

*President Bush reportedly thinks Jimmy Smits' return to Prime Time TV in "Cane" will somehow help the country get past "this whole immigration thing."

*Until a CBS suit suggested they sex it up by making it about vampires, "Moonlight" was originally supposed to be a mysterious, sexy Yeti who roamed the night as a private eye.

*The titular character in NBC's "Chuck" is already the fourth most popular Chuck in TV history (as measured by Q rating), right behind Chuck Connors, the original Chuck Cunningham, and former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Chuck Noll. (Chuck Norris wasn't included due to considerations of fairness to the other participants.)

*During filming of "K-Ville" in New Orleans, producers arranged for 100,000 gumbo doughnuts to be delivered to local policemen. When the policemen took offense, producers diverted the doughnuts for Katrina relief. They now sit in a FEMA trailer.

*The producers of "Cavemen" originally wanted Fred Flintstone to star, but negotiations stalled quickly when Flintstone changed his representation to an agent who, rumor has it, hates Geico with a passion.

*NBC's new "Bionic Woman" was, in an early scrapped pilot, constructed from animal dung. Focus groups hated the concept, though, asking why the scientists didn't use human dung. the show eventually, of course, went in another direction.

F(UN)-Facts about Hairspray

Everybody is in love with "fun facts" these days. Well, anyone can give you actual information, but I find the really fun facts are un-facts.*

--The original plan for this new version was to cast the key roles with stars of another famous Baltimore-set work: The Wire. In that version, McNulty would have been Linc, Stringer Bell would have been Edna Turnblad, and Snoop would have been Little Ida.

--In order to perfect his Baltimore accent, John Travolta watched over 50 hours of local Boston television such as news, ads, and even public access programs. When asked how watching Boston TV would help him play a native of Baltimore, Travolta reportedly said it wouldn't, but he just liked listening to the Boston accents better.

--It's estimated the actual hairspray used in the movie took 3.6 years off the life of the planet.

--A Gallup poll indicates 3 of 5 men are afraid seeing "Hairspray" will "turn them gay."

--3 X Original Ricki Lake (who starred in the original) + 2 X Nikki Blonsky (who takes over in this version) - John Travolta in fat suit = 1.5 pre-surgery Star Jones.

--Co-star Michelle Pfeiffer took a 5-year hiatus from live action movies after "White Oleander." She spent that time in an unsuccessful bid to become a UFC champion.

--The original songs in "Hairspray" can all be sung to the tune of the theme song from "F Troop."

--At the Baltimore premiere of the film, a man strongly resembling Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis shot someone.

--Original helmer John Waters is in talks to do a big-screen adaptation of the popular "Kidz Bop" CD franchise.

*That is, I made them up, and they're not really facts.