Came across this a while ago. Obviously another example why we need sub-editors.
July 12, 2006
July 11, 2006
Last night I learnt that directors and actors and such like use the general psedonym Alan Smithee to avoid putting their own names to productions in situations where control has been lost or overthrown. I guess its an example of standardisation. If this is an Alan Smithee movie then there has been dissent among the ranks at the directorial level!
I Googled the name and got this nice little bio from IMDb - “Born in 1967, the same year he directed his first picture, Death of a Gunfighter (1969)” - that’s a child prodigy!
Wikipedia has a great entry and defines it very deftly as a contractual arrangement with the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers. When you think about, that makes sense. You couldn’t pick just any name to use as a pseudonym - it would have to be registered for all sorts of legal reasons, income tax being one of them.
July 10, 2006
I just got to looking at a second-hand book that I had last seen some time in the 1960s. It is one of those popularly produced books for kids - very popular at Christmas. I glanced at the section on the moon and noticed the caption on this picture:
What I’d like to know is, what’s with the pistol? Even in the 50s what danger could possibly be expected that required the use of a pistol?