During the filming of Wag the Dog (1997) Hoffman, his co-star Robert De Niro and director Barry Levinson had an impromptu meeting with President Clinton at a Washington hotel. Wag the Dog is a film about a president who fakes a war to draw attention away from his sex scandal. "So what's this movie about?" the president asked De Niro. De Niro looked over to Levinson hoping he would answer the question. Levinson, in turn, looked over to Hoffman. Hoffman, realizing there was no one else to pass the buck to, is quoted as saying "so I just started to tap dance. I can't even remember what I said."
John Wayne and his drinking buddy, actor Ward Bond, frequently played practical jokes on each other. In one incident, Bond bet Wayne that they could stand on opposite sides of a newspaper and Wayne wouldn't be able to hit him. Ward Bond set a sheet of newspaper down in a doorway, John Wayne stood on one end, and Bond slammed the door in his face, shouting "Try and hit me now!" Wayne responded by sending his fist through the door, flooring Bond (and winning the bet).
The evening before a shoot John Wayne was trying to get some sleep in a Las Vegas hotel. The suite directly below his was that of Frank Sinatra (never a good friend of Wayne), who was having a party. The noise kept Wayne awake, and each time he made a complaining phone call it quieted temporarily but each time eventually grew louder. Wayne at last appeared at Sinatra's door and told Frank to stop the noise. A Sinatra bodyguard of Wayne's size approached saying, "Nobody talks to Mr. Sinatra that way." Wayne looked at the man, turned as though to leave, then backhanded the bodyguard, who fell to the floor, where Wayne knocked him out by crashing a chair on top of him. The party noise stopped.
[ November 24, 2003, 01:37 AM: Message edited by: Book ]
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
I don't know about the other two, but the Newspaper Door routine has been an Abbott & Costello comedy routine since the early 1930's. They stole it from Vaudeville. As such I doubt its Authenticity.
Unless its a fake Hollywood door, putting one's fist through a wooden door is difficult, and unless trained with martial arts, is likely to break bones or at the least, cause severe bleeding.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
Why are the John Wayne stories neat? An actor beats up people when the world doesn't conform to his wishes. That doesn't make him cool; that makes him selfish and abusive of his prestige.
Posted by Youth ap Orem (Member # 5582) on :
What a party pooper
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
Why, because I don't consider selfish violence admirable?
What kind of parties do you have?
Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :
Republican?
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
Pop, that comment would horrify my grandmother from her perfectly-styled curls to the tips of her polished Italian pumps.
Posted by Strider (Member # 1807) on :
knowing Sinatra's relations to the mob i doubt he or his friends would let anyone knock out one of his bodyguards and not perform some sort of retrobution.
Posted by Julie (Member # 5580) on :
I thought the first one was cool. I'll have to try that one on someone sometime. (And hope that the door locks so the other person doesn't simply open it!)
Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
O.K. BS or not, I enjoyed the stories.
And now I know...the rest of the story. Posted by Ryuko (Member # 5125) on :
(noogies Storm Saxon) You're a cool guy.
Posted by Book (Member # 5500) on :
They're all from IMDB. So, I doubt if they're BS, because those guys make a living off of this stuff, but, hey, they sure could be.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)