Liam Neeson has two scars from his role as Arthur’s adoptive brother in Excalibur: his right hand along the “head line” where Arthur (Nigel Terry) handed him the sword and Neeson grabbed it by the blade, and his right foot between the 2nd and 3rd toes where he dropped it through his boot. Shooting was delayed an hour while the sword was inspected for damage.
Several scenes were dropped from Excalibur after negative audience reaction at test screenings: a sex scene between Sir Gawaine and his horse; an extended speech by Merlin about the difficulties of finding a really good wizard’s robe; and a fight scene in which the Knights of the Round Table use extreme sarcasm against their foes.
Meryl Streep won her first Oscar for her role of Morgan le Fay in Excalibur. She said she found the sex scenes terribly boring, but did like getting to set Nicol Williamson on fire in repeated scenes.
Helen Mirren has long been considered a “good sport” in Hollywood; she loves nothing better than a good practical joke–especially one played on her. During the filming of Excalibur, director John Boorman called for a last minute “script change” and instructed Mirren to read from cue cards with the “charm of making” written thereon; slowly at first, as if learning the chant, then faster. Nicol Williamson tumbled immediately on the first reading, barely hiding his hysterics as Helen read aloud The Charm Of Making: Oh-wah Tah-goo Fiam.
John Boorman is, by all accounts, not at all boring. He is well-known as a witty and engrossing storyteller in Hollywood social settings, and beautiful actresses have been known to get into fights with each other for the privilege of sitting next to him at gala dinners. He has been married 17 times.
Charley Boorman, director John’s son and star of The Emerald Forest–as well as young Mordred in Excalibur–is not really sure who his mother is. His father is not 100% positive, either.
The original screenplay of Excalibur has two additional characters, Lessdred, who would have been played by Peter Dinklage, and Evildred, a role especially written for Bruce Campbell.
Bruce Campbell’s chin, by itself, tore down the Berlin Wall.
The Berlin Wall was a popular brand of condoms during the Nazi regime, made with ribbed swastikas for added pleasure.
The Berlin Wall was, in part, made of balsa wood, cardboard and spongecake, but the East German regime kept pesky Western reporters well away from those isolated sections.
When Robert Berliner was at the taking down of the Berlin Wall, a piece of spongecake fall right on the crotch of his too big jeans. A friend taunted him “Hey, Sponge Bob! Square Pants.”
Stephen Hillenburg was at the event and overheard this. And a cartoon character was created.
The German word for “Berlin Wall” is “Deutschlanderberlinerengigantischebrickenstonehengenkeepenzeoutenstein”. Some dialects add “mit schlagsahne” to the word, but it’s frowned upon.
A German penchant for frowning is actually an American misconception, born partly out of their adversarial position in two world wars (agreed by most to be major downers), but mostly due to emigration from Germany of the most frowny segment of their population (to places such as Pennsylvania).
There are no such medications as uppers and downers. They are merely sugar pills, and the effect is purely psychological. Despite this, companies are making megabucks off of them.
“Megabucks” are the proposed currency of the United States of Trump, according to an economic and monetary policy paper recently released by the Trump for President campaign.
“Did you Trump my face?” is a common bridge term used by Republicans.
Republican wives often ask their hairdressers “Will you frump my face?” i.e., make me look older.
The ‘frump face’ debeautifying salons call this makeover the Suck This, Democraps!, or STD! look.
The first-known debeautifying salon, An Uglier You, opened in North Blawnox, Pa. on June 3, 1977. It closed at noon the next day, having cleared a profit for owner/entrepreneur Phyllis Phartuccio of -$4,372.03.
The First Thanksgiving Dinner, with prices adjusted for inflation, would have cost $4,372.03. The Second one was almost twice that, because turkeys were so prohibitively expensive and everyone was running out of cranberry sauce.