• Jan. 8, 2007 | 1 p.m. PT
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Multi-link Monday
Multi-link Monday has returned, with more job-distracting goodness.
• What kind of American accent do you have? Obviously, not applicable if you’re not American. I thought for sure I’d fall in the North Central (think “Fargo”) contingent, since I grew up in Minnesota, but says I don’t really have an accent. Ya, you betcha, dere.
• Retro chefs: You can buy (think Pop Rocks) and jazz it up to use in a recipe. ( turned them violet-flavored)The thought of Pop Rocks (or, uh, the generic version) being used in a recipe is so entertaining that I immediately sent this to my chef friend. Can’t you just see “Top Chef” making its contestants work with Pop Rocks? (Via .)
• I’m so sick of Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump’s . Snark at each other all you want, but I don’t want to hear about it. Game Show Network has set up a . Each fighter has a secret weapon – Rosie’s Tongue-Lasher and Donald’s Killer Comb-Over. The first rule of Rosie-Donald Fight Club is don’t talk about Rosie-Donald Fight Club.
• Getting ready for the Jan. 14 return of “24”? When the show comes back, print out and cover squares (or give yourself points, or take a shot, whatever) when these sure-to-occur events take place. My favorite “Jack disobeys a direct order.” Yeah, like that’s gonna happen. (Via )
• This is both addictive and frightening. Click on a facial feature at and you can change it … over and over and over and over again. It’s kind of like playing Mr. Potato Head, but with real images.
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Readers spot movie mistakes
Good news: Test Pattern will soon be moving to a new format, and we'll have a more blog-like way to display comments. Once more, though we'll do it the old way, with me plucking your comments out of the email mailbag.
Here are some of your thoughts on .
THE AUTHOR SPEAKSThanks for the reference to my books! I’m starting a new one soon (probably called “Roman Soldiers Still Don’t Wear Watches.” I’ll be anxious to see what kind of flubs your readers spot!” --Bill Givens, author “Roman Soldiers Don’t Wear Watches,” Los Angeles
MIRROR, MIRROR
“Seeing crew members in the reflections of car finish and windows is far more common than most people realize. I see these kinds of errors almost daily on TV and in movies. Next time you watch a movie notice how almost always the cars seem to have high gloss waxing, which makes reflections unavoidable. I recall a low budget film some years ago when a car battle scene had the car moving in circles with the camera at center rotating with the car. I know this because I could see the crew throughout the scene.” --Scott
ADJUST THAT BELT, MARINE“A common “goof” in many recent films is that most WWII actors (including those in Pearl Harbor, Saving Private Ryan, etc.) who are dressed in uniform (both Navy and Marine), have their military issued belt showing the end of the belt tucked into the left belt loops or actually dangling down which would never pass any inspection! Any navy or marine veteran knows full well that the brass type of belts issued by the military have a “gig line”. A gig line is when the end of the belt fits into the buckle and aligns exactly with the left end of the buckle (as seen from the wearer).” --Gregg
MAGIC BRA STRAP“The ‘mistake’ I noticed recently was in “The Holiday” with Cameron Diaz. She is in bed with Jude Law, wearing only a bra. When the camera shot is her face, bra strap is up. When the camera shot is from behind (showing Jude’s face), strap is down. Then she changes position and adjusts the strap. I kept thinking “This is going to be on all of those movie mistakes websites soon.” And voila, here it is!” --Joanne
NAME GAME“This may be a little older than you wanted but I spotted a goof in Meet the Fockers. The part in the movie where Focker’s dad, played by Dustin Hoffman, lays down in front of the bus, and says something to Greg. Instead of calling him Greg or Gaylord, he calls him Ben, as in Ben Stiller.” --Dani
BRIDGE TOO FAR“In Batman Begins, there is a seen in which there are cars driving over a bridge and they are driving in two directions, yet the bridge only has dashed lines and no solid lines, thus meaning that they used a one-way bridge and tried to play it off.” --Allison
BOOM, BOOM“Okay, so I am not a very good observer of goofs either, but when I watched Stranger than Fiction, I was amazed to see the boom mic about six times!! I had never seen one before in any type of movie and then in many scenes, there it was! At first I was excited to join the “club” (my friend as seen them in Pirates and Lady in the Water), but then after the fifth time, it felt like I wasn’t watching a movie anymore. I felt like I was watching the rough cut of a movie....very strange.” --Jen
SMILE“In the movie Apocalypto everyone has really rotten teeth except the female lead whose teeth look like they were made by one of today’s specialists!” --Gregory
ROYAL GOOFS“One Night With the King — Queen Esther wears a necklace that is quite possibly one of the most symbolic and prevalent visual props in the movie. Near the end of the film, while Queen Esther is making her fervent pleas to the King and mere minutes before she rips the necklace from her throat to reveal a pivotal secret to the King, the necklace is strangely missing from her neck. One moment it is there, camera cuts to another character and then cuts back to the queen and the necklace is gone! Another cut to the other character and the necklace is back. I’m not even going to get into the B.C. Persian queen’s bikini tan lines... Makeup anyone? A little CG touchup? Would that be asking too much?” --Nestra
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Modern movie mistakes
I admit: I'm not the world's most observant movie-goer. I never see boom mikes swinging through the background or . So when I actually catch a goof, it's got to be pretty obvious.
Over the holiday weekend, I saw the wonderful movie (which I highly recommend). I was entranced by the acting and the behind-the-scenes sneak peek into the lives of both the royal family and Tony Blair's family.
Now I may not be a movie geek, but I'm a bit of an Anglophile, so the scenes within the royal household felt real to me. Here's how much: In almost every non-state occasion photo of Queen Elizabeth II that I've seen, she's wearing the same style of earring: A small diamond perched on a larger pearl. When I saw "The Queen," Helen Mirren wore the same earrings when she wasn't dressed for a formal portrait. (You can see them in the .) That's good research.
So I was a little confused at a scene in which the queen coaxes two black dogs into her Land Rover, drives a short distance, then hops out and takes with her ... three black dogs? Was there a third dog already locked in the car? Do royal dogs mate quicker than commoner canines?
I checked the film's , always a hoot, and learned that I wasn't the only one who'd spotted the multiplying mutts. Of course I missed the more subtle goofs -- I didn't even see the crew member reflected in the queen's car window, and I certainly didn't recognize that Tony Blair uses a too-recent cell phone in one scene.
What are your favorite movie goofs? Let's stick to recent films, say 2006 or 2007 releases. I'd love to hear ones you spotted yourself, but if you want to cheat, here's the IMDB's list of its for recent flicks. And and are also fun sources to browse. You can use the email link below, and I've also .
MORE ENTERTAINMENT LINKS:• The Washington Post decrees that "America's Top Model" is out, but "Ugly Betty" is in. Check out the rest of . Link via • , according to the New York Daily News, which spotted a mention of that month HBO's Web site. That mention has since been yanked, so some poor HBO staffer is likely getting an earful. Why the mystery, HBO? We'd earlier heard January, then March, but apparently Tony and crew can't be rushed.• I love how the Comics Curmudgeon on what would happen in the "For Better or For Worse" storyline about Michael and Deanna's apartment burning down. And naturally, five or six of these things did happen. Regular readers saw coming from a mile away.