The Golden Girls

This show was pretty funny. Almost anyone who watches the show can probably either relate to one of the characters or knows someone who like one of the characters.

Summary
-Four women, previously married, now live together in a house in Miami, trying to get through life the best way they can-sharing experiences and laughs at the same time

Cast
-Bea Arthur: Dorothy Zbornak
-Betty White: Rose Nylund
-Rue McClanahan: Blanche Devereaux
-Estelle Getty: Sophia Petrillo
-Herb Edelman: Stan Zbornak
-Harold Gould: Miles
-Sid Melton: Salvadore Petrillo
-Bill Dana: Angelo
-Scott Jacoby: Michael Zbornak
-George Grizzard: George Devereaux
-Doris Bellack: Gloria Petrillo

Did You Know?
-The Queen Mother in England was such a fan of the show that she wrote to the four actresses and asked them to perform an episode live for her. They flew to London and performed an episode on stage for the Queen and her family
-It was Rue McClanahan's idea for Blanche to have a Southern accent. It was not originally in the script

-Despite being the oldest member of the cast, Betty White was the last surviving member after Rue McClanahan died
-Estelle Getty had gotten some work done on her face between the first and second seasons. Makeup crew had a hard time making her look old on camera
-It took approximately 45 minutes to transform Estelle Getty into Sophia Petrillo
-Despite the fact that there were four women living in the house, only three chairs were present at the dining room table. This was designed to not have all four squeezed in shoulder to shoulder and to have no backs to the camera. Bea Arthur always sat in the center due to her tall height. Plus her facial expressions were extremely comical when listening to Blanche's previous sexual encounters, Sophia's "Picture this!" stories and Rose's "St. Olaf" stories
-According to Betty White, she and fellow Golden Girl Bea Arthur did not get along
-Brandon Tartikoff, an NBC executive, got the idea for the show after visiting his elderly aunt one day. He saw how she and her equally elderly next door neighbor, both of whom were friends, interacted. They would fight and argue, but still loved each other as friends
-The show has dealt with issues otherwise considered controversial, like HIV/AIDS, LGBT, etc. There was a personal chef named Coco who was openly gay. Blanche's brother Clayton was openly gay. An old friend of Dorothy's was a lesbian. Another episode dealt with HIV/AIDS
-Dorothy has a brother named Phil who is always mentioned but never seen. He has kids with his wife but is a cross dresser. He dies from a heart attack in season 6
-Both Estelle Getty and Bea Arthur were Jewish. Getty wasn't Italian. Supposedly, Getty asked producers "couldn't we just make Dorothy and Sophia Jewish?" but producers didn't oblige
-Sophia often had the raciest, most suggestive lines. The reason being early in the show she had a stroke and was unable to control what she said

Def Leppard finally gets inducted in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

That's right! You heard it right! Def Leppard has finally been inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame.

The bands getting inducted include: Def Leppard, The Cure, Radiohead, Roxy Music, The Zombies and Stevie Nicks. To be eligible for this, an artist must be around for at least 25 years after their first album release.

The people inducting these artists in include Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Brian May of Queen, Janelle Monae, Harry Styles of One Direction, David Byrne, Simon Le Bon, John Taylor of Duran Duran, Susannah Hoffs of The Bangles

April Birthdays

Since it's April, time to say Happy Birthday!!

Ritchie Blackmore

-Birth name: Richard Hugh Blackmore

-DOB: 4/14/1945

-Where: Weston-Super-Mare, England

-During the 1971 Deep Purple Machine Head tour, Ritchie experienced a complete and utter mental breakdown. One of the roadies found him in his hotel room, crouched in a corner, crying. When he tried to talk to doctors, who asked him what was wrong, he couldn't tell them. All he could do was cry. So for most of that tour, he was loaded with antidepressants.

Paul Nicholls

-Birth name: Gerrard Paul Greenhalgh

-DOB: 4/12/1979

-Where: Bolton, United Kingdom

-One of his best known roles is as Joe Wicks from the British TV series EastEnders

Jeremy Clarkson

-Birth name: Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson

-DOB: 4/11/1960

-Where: Doncaster, England

-On Top Gear, he is usually called by his other two co-hosts "The Orangutan"

Jet Li

-Birth name: Li Lianjie

-DOB: 4/26/1963

-Where: Beijing, China

-He earned his nickname "Jet" from the fact that his career had taken off like a jet and also because he is incredibly quick at performing martial arts

Peter Davison

-Birth name: Peter Malcolm Gordon Moffett

-DOB: 4/13/1951

-Where: Streatham, London, England

-His mother was born in India because her father was a British Army officer stationed in Calcutta

Jamie Bamber

-Birth name: Jamie St. John Bamber Griffith

-DOB: 4/3/1973

-Where: Hammersmith, London, England

-In addition to having British citizenship, he also has American and Irish citizenship due to his father being American and his mother being from Northern Ireland

Eddie Murphy

-Birth name: Edward Regan Murphy

-DOB: 4/3/1961

-Where: Brooklyn, New York

-He is best known for his time on Saturday Night Live, playing characters such as Gumby, Mr. Robinson, Buhweet and others

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)

This is the third installment of The Mummy series. This one completely moves away from ancient Egypt and instead moves on to ancient China.

Summary
-When Alex O'Connell is excavating at a dig site in China, he unearths the first emperor of the Qin dynasty-a brutal, shape-shifting creature who was cursed by a witch long ago.

Cast
-Brendan Fraser: Rick O'Connell
-Jet Li: Emperor
-Maria Bello: Evelyn O'Connell
-John Hannah: Jonathan Carnahan
-Michelle Yeoh: Zi Yuan
-Luke Ford: Alex O'Connell
-Isabella Leong: Lin
-Anthony Chau-Sang Wong: General Yang
-Russell Wong: Ming Guo
-Liam Cunningham: Roger Wilson

Did You Know?
-Jet Li was only available for part of the shoot. To do his scenes as the Dragon Emperor, it was decided that his character would be seen as either a rotting mummy or as a terracotta mummy. It was done this way so that he could do his live scenes and the remainder would be done through CGI
-In the scene with the tombs, the crossbow traps were based on real life. According to Chinese archaeologists, there were similar traps when archaeologists tried excavating the site of the Terra Cotta Army
-In the movie, there is a device that triggers a trap by dropping a small bronze ball from a dragon's mouth into a frog's mouth. This is said to be inspired by an ancient machine that could predict what direction an earthquake was coming from and is considered to be the father of the modern seismograph
-The scenes in the Himalayan Mountains were actually filmed in summer heat on a soundstage
-This was the Hollywood debut for Chinese martial arts legend Wu Jing, who appeared as one of the soldiers having a brief battle with Jet Li at the start of the movie
-Rob Cohen, director of the movie, had always been incredibly fascinated with Chinese history and culture. When he was approached about filming a movie in China, he was all for it. He wanted the movie to be filmed in China as much as possible and also to pay respect to the culture, he wanted Chinese history and culture to be depicted as accurately as possible
-This movie involves another collaboration between Jet Li and Russell Wong. The first movie starring the two martial artist/actors was 2000's Romeo Must Die

The Mummy Returns (2001)

This is the sequel to the first film, The Mummy.

Summary
-Alex O'Connell is the eight year old son of Rick and Evelyn O'Connell. They are discovering ancient Egyptian artifacts and when Alex accidentally slips on the Bracelet of Anubis, which is being transported to a museum in London, they soon discover so is the body of Imhotep. The dead high priest wants the bracelet to control the Scorpion King's army and with the bracelet on, Alex's life is at stake.

Cast
-Brendan Fraser: Rick O'Connell
-Rachel Weisz: Evelyn Carnahan / Nefertiri
-John Hannah: Jonathan Carnahan
-Arnold Vosloo: Imhotep
-Oded Fehr: Ardeth Bay
-Freddie Boath: Alex
-Alun Armstrong: Mr. Hafez
-Dwayne Johnson: The Scorpion King
-Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje: Lock-Nah
-Shaun Parkes: Izzy
-Aharon Ipale: Pharaoah

Did You Know?
-Rachel Weisz and Patricia Velasquez did their own fight scenes without stunt women. To do this, they trained for five months
-Arnold Vosloo had to have his whole body shaved twice a day to retain the smooth, hairless look. Initially, he tried waxing but it caused him too much pain
-On the dress that Anck Su Manu wears, the sleeves look just like the body paint from her previous life
-Production was approved to start on this movie the morning after The Mummy opened in May 1999
-All the lines spoken by Dwayne Johnson are in ancient Egyptian
-The axe the Arnold Vosloo carried weighed about 50 pounds. He said that after three days, his arms felt like they were going to fall out of their sockets

-Production rounded up vintage double decker buses for the movie. The ads in them are real ads from the 1930s
-The exterior shots of what is supposed to be the British Museum is not the real British Museum. It's actually University College London. The actual British Museum was undergoing renovations at the time and was covered in scaffolding
-In real life, Oded Fehr has no face tattoos. He does have one on his back, a small ghost
-At the end of the film, the voice of the Scorpion King was dubbed by Brazilian rock musician, songwriter and guitarist Max Cavalera, lead vocalist of the bands Sepultura, Soulfly and Cavelera Conspiracy
-The two men guarding the Bracelet of Anubis in Evy's vision in the tomb are brothers in real life

The Mummy (1999)

This movie is one of the bigger movie series out there. Almost each one deals with a mummy coming back from the dead.

Summary
-An English librarian obsessed with ancient Egypt hires a man named Rick O'Connell to take her and her brother to the ancient city of Hamunaptra. They discover that someone else is interested in this ancient dig site and unknowingly unleash the dead High Priest Imhotep, who was cursed at the time of his death.

Cast
-Brendan Fraser: Rick O'Connell
-Rachel Weisz: Evelyn Carnahan
-John Hannah: Jonathan Carnahan
-Arnold Vosloo: Imhotep
-Kevin J. O'Connor: Beni Gabor
-Jonathan Hyde: Dr. Allen Chamberlain
-Oded Fehr: Ardeth Bay
-Eric Avari: Dr. Terrence Bey
-Stephen Dunham: Mr. Henderson
-Corey Johnson: Mr. Daniels
-Tuc Watkins: Mr. Burns
-Omid Djalilli: Warden Gad Hassan
-Bernard Fox: Captain Winston Havelock
-Patricia Velasquez: Anck Su Namun

Did You Know?
-During the scene where Brendan Fraser's character was hanged, he nearly died. Rachel Weisz said that he had stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated
-Most of Patricia Velasquez's costume was body paint, which took four hours to apply. Other than that, the only other costume pieces was a loin cloth and some jewelry

-To make sure the ancient Egyptian spoken in the movie was accurate, an Egyptologist had phonetically rendered what the language would have sounded like
-To keep the PG-13 rating, the white nightgown Evelyn wore had to be digitally painted white because it became transparent when wet
-The morning after the film's release, director Stephen Sommers was contacted by Universal and told "We need another one". Obviously they already saw the success of the film and wanted a sequel
-Originally, the voice over in the beginning of the movie was supposed to be done by Imhotep. But since he would not know English, it was given to the character Ardeth Bay instead
-In real life, Imhotep was an architect. He was the one who first developed the great pyramids, especially the Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara in 2600 BC. He was not a villain as shown in the movie, but a highly revered architect and physician
-Historically, the Medjai were tattooed from head to toe. Stephen Sommers didn't want Oded Fehr tattooed like that because he considered the Israeli-born actor "too good looking" to cover up

-When Imhotep was creating the sandstorm in the desert, the camera had to quickly go up. The reason being that the wind machines kept blowing up the cape and loincloth worn by Arnold Vosloo, exposing his bare backside
-The prison where Evelyn first meets O'Connell was filmed at an apartment complex in Marrakech
-The whole production had the protection of the Moroccan Army behind them as well as kidnapping insurance taken out on everyone. This was a fact that Stephen Sommers told everyone only after the shooting had finished
-Due to unstable political conditions, filming could not be done in Egypt
-Ardeth Bay is an anagram of Death by Ra, the protector of mankind from the mummy Imhotep
-There were many health risks filming in the scorching Sahara sun. Medics had created a special drink for everyone to consume every two hours. Sandstorms were constant. Medics had to airlift people out due to snake bites, spider bites and scorpion stings
-Even though the title of the movie is The Mummy, the title character was never mummified. He suffered a far more gruesome death called the Hom Dai, which was a very brutal way to go only used for the most extreme of circumstances. The ancient Egyptians feared it so much they dare not perform it unless absolutely necessary

-Rick O'Connell mentions he was in the French Foreign Legion. He mentions he was a lieutenant. This is incorrect; as an American, he could certainly serve in the Legion, but lieutenants are required to be French nationals
-This was the first major screen role for Oded Fehr
-The building used for the Cairo Museum was really a government building in Marrakech
-During the scenes of the Bedouin trading post and Royal Air Force runways, there are children visible. These were local children from in and around Marrakech
-Both Arnold Vosloo and Oded Fehr appeared on the television series Charmed, playing warlocks


Oded Fehr, Charmed

Arnold Vosloo, Charmed

-Once again, Arnold Vosloo and Oded Fehr appeared together on another television series-NCIS, both playing Israeli Mossad agents

Arnold Vosloo, NCIS. Playing an Israeli Mossad agent



Oded Fehr, NCIS. Playing an Israeli Mossad agent

-Omid Djalilli, who is a British-Iranian comedian, made his acting debut in this film

-Jonathan Hyde, who plays a British Egyptologist, is in real life Australian. He was born and raised in Brisbane, which is a city in Queensland, Australia