Page 273 - Celebrity Facts

Blue was the color originally associated with St. Patrick's Day.

"St. Patrick's Blue" is still used for both Ireland's Presidential flag and on the plumes of the Irish Guardsmen's hats. Unfortunately, blue was up against some difficult competition in maintaining its associations, not only to the saint, but also to the rest of the Irish nation! Green is the color of the Irish countryside and the reason Ireland has the nickname the "Emerald Isle."

St. Patrick himself used a green shamrock to represent the Catholic Holy Trinity. The wearing of these plants on the holiday eventually grew into a single hue being representative of Irish Catholics politically. The 'wearing o' the green' was a powerful symbol during Ireland's quest for independence and continues to be practiced on March 17th each year throughout the Western world.

If you're still in the holiday season for whatever reason, check out this this list of St. Patrick's day facts.

There's also this History Channel video about the color green's connection to St. Patrick's Day.

Will Smith passed on The Matrix to make Wild Wild West.

In an interview with Wired, The Fresh Prince was asked if he had any regrets. His response: "You know, The Matrix is a difficult concept to pitch. In the pitch, I just didn't see it. I watched Keanu's performance - and very rarely do I say this - but I would have messed it up. I would have absolutely messed up The Matrix. At that point I wasn't smart enough as an actor to let the movie be. Whereas Keanu was smart enough to just let it be. Let the movie and the director tell the story, and don't try and perform every moment."

So let me get this straight, Will. You just called yourself AND Keanu terrible actors? At least this partially explains why Wild Wild West was soooo terrible. What's funny is that you seemed to take your performance in West so seriously, when even if you had 'let the movie be,' it still would've been awful. And how was The Matrix any harder to pitch? Evil robots having already taken over the world? Sounds a lot more reasonable than a half-robotic Confederate mad scientist trying to take over America in a giant robotic spider...OH, and the Secret Service was formed by Abraham Lincoln, NOT Ulysses S. Grant. Sorry to spoil the surprise ending, but that always really bothered me.

As it turns out, Smith passed up on one of the biggest summer blockbusters of all time to star in one of the all-time worst. The Matrix went on to become the fifth-highest grossing film of 1999 and win four Academy Awards; Wild Wild West, despite the highest film budget that year ($170 million!), only managed five Razzies! Maybe Will wanted to avoid the inevitable Matrix sequels that were nowhere near as good as the original film? Oh wait, he's currently working on Bad Boys III, Independence Day II (followed by IDIII), Men in Black III, I, Robot II, and a prequel to I Am Legend. Never mind.

On the bright side, at least we were spared a Matrix Rap during the film's end credits?

Police mistook a horror movie set for a murder scene.

Firefighters in Pittsburgh were responding to a routine fire call at the George Washington Hotel when they found something completely unexpected - a room covered in blood! They quickly called in the local police, and Chief J.R. Blyth called the scene "the most grisly murder scene he'd seen in 35 years in law enforcement." He proceeded to call in several detectives, who put in EIGHT HOURS of work until they realized the blood (and the piece of "scalp" on the bed) was fake!

In reality, the room had been used to film a B-horror flick starring Corey Haim two years prior. New Terminal Hotel had gone straight to DVD, but the hotel owner left the bloody room untouched because he wasn't sure if the filmmakers would need to return to the scene of the "crime" for reshooting. In all fairness to Pittsburgh's finest, the George Washington has a reputation for being haunted, and four people had actually perished there in the seven years preceding this incident. Heck, Corey Haim himself had even died eight months before the investigation!
Sources: (1, 2)

A Japanese woman learned that her family survived the recent earthquake from a YouTube video.

After nearly half the residents of her hometown went missing, Akiko Kosaka had all but given up the hope of ever seeing her family again. Kosaka had been studying English in California when the earthquake and ensuing tsunami had struck her native land. A tip from a friend caused Akiko to check for news on YouTube.com. There she found a video of local news coverage in her hometown of Minami Sanriku and, lo and behold, her sister wearing a hard hat and calling out to the cameras to let Akiko know the family was all right!

Their survival is even more amazing since the video shows that most of the houses in their neighborhood were completely destroyed. "I didn't think they survived," Kosaka told CNN. "I cried for three days--Friday, Saturday, Sunday." She has now uploaded her own video in an attempt to let her family know she received their message.

For more on this story, and more reunion stories from the Japanese disaster.

The sound of snakes in Indiana Jones was made by a guy sticking his fingers in a casserole.

The sound of snakes in Indiana Jones was made by a guy sticking his fingers in a casserole.

The funny thing is, though you may not have heard of this "guy" you've definitely heard him. His name is Ben Burtt, and he is responsible for some of the most iconic sound effects in film history. And yes, to create the sound of thousands of snakes slithering, Burtt stuck his fingers in a cheese casserole. He then altered this effect a bit with the sound of wet sponges on the rubber of a skateboard. The giant boulder rolling toward Indy? That's actually Burtt's Honda Civic rolling down his gravel driveway! And the Ark of the Covenant being opened? That's the lid of his toilet tank being lifted!

(More crazy Indiana Jones trivia!)

Though his achievements in Indiana Jones are notable, Ben Burtt is most famous for his work in the Star Wars franchise. He is responsible for many of the beloved sounds from that franchise, including the voices of the droids, Darth Vader's heavy breathing, and the hum of a lightsaber! You can learn how those effects and several others were made here. After 28 years with Lucasfilm, Burtt joined Pixar in May 2005. He made an instant impact there as well - Burtt is credited as the "voice" of Wall-E!

We enjoy all of these effects, but our personal favorite has to be the "Wilhelm Scream," a sound Burtt gleaned from the 1953 Western The Charge at Feather River. Burtt used the effect in most of his films, typically whenever a person is shot or falls from a great height (or both!). Many other sound designers picked up on the effect and it soon became an industry cliché used in hundreds of films and television programs, even during the Battle of Helm's Deep in 2002's Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers!

Here is a compilation of several examples of the Wilhelm Scream. You'll wonder why you never thought this effect sounded absolutely ridiculous before.



And now you'll always notice it in movies. You're welcome.