I guess I’m not sane then. Seeing an actor wave their coffee cup around empty is right up there with seeing wires and microphones dangling down into the scene.
Maybe it’s not sane, but it’s not like anybody chooses to notice this stuff.
Exactly.
At my theatre we always use liquid in cups. Most times it’s water with some sort of colouring. The issue that occasionally comes up is that if a cup gets knocked over all of a sudden there is a puddle on stage and there might not be anything on set to clean it up. Then you end up with a whole lot of ad libbing while one actor makes an excuse to leave the stage to get a rag from “another room”.
If we can we keep something to clean up messes on stage, but with some sets that’s not an option. Thats why I love shows where there is a maid character. It makes mistakes so much easier to cover.
I thought from the title this was gonna be another diva cup thread.
Well actually he does write things - the other day in fact he’d drawn a picture of a sheep and he was so proud of it he turned it around and showed it to the camera. (Well, I that isn’t exactly MEANINGFUL, no, but it isn’t PRETEND.)
Dennis Miller always did that annoying “pretend” scribble while he said: “I. AM. OUTTA. HERE.” at the end of the SNL weekend update and we all know what happened to him. MAKE YOUR SCRIBBLES COUNT, KIDS!
You are totally not alone in this! It has been bugging me for years and years! And if the cup HAS to be empty, can’t the actors learn better how to fake drinking coffee… Seriously !
I love Graham Norton because on his show, the guests are often drinking wine or liquor, in proper glasses. None of this bullshit of “coffee” for them. Liquor! 
I thought it was either an homage to Dennis Miller on SNL or that Jon Stewart was writing a to-do list. “Wash sox. Call mom. Get milk.”
This reminds me of something that happened at least 50 years ago. My family was watching Dick van Dyke one evening, and Rob had a cup of coffee in his hand. The exchange in our living room went something like this:
MY MOM: You know, there really isn’t any coffee in that cup.
MY OLDER BROTHER: Yes, there is.
MY MOM: No, there isn’t. Actors never have cups with coffee in them, they’re always empty.
MY OLDER BROTHER: No, there’s coffee in it. I know because I saw it. It came up to right about … there! [Points to level in cup on screen.]
MY MOM: Don’t try to tell me there’s coffee in there, because I know there isn’t!
MY OLDER BROTHER: Yes, there is!
The discussion became quite heated at this point. I presume they could have gone on all night.
How weird that something like this should stick in my mind after all these years. Whenever I watch DvD nowadays, I think of this incident!
My brother was right. There was coffee in the cup; I saw it too! 
Something even weirder:
They had exactly the same conversation when that episode was rerun sometime later, at exactly the same point in the show!
:smack:
Any actor will tell you, when there is liquid in the glass, it’s almost always been dicked with by the stage crew. It’s actually Bourbon, or salted water, or some other foul thing or other.
To such a degree that the actors are only going to pretend to drink due to brutal experience, I suspect. Because it’s easier to pretend to drink than to cover up an actual mouthful of awful!
But I take your point, it is distracting. My pet peeve is boxes, bags and suitcases which are clearly empty. It’s easily seen because of the way they handle it, etc.
I mean, how hard would it be to just throw a couple of books in there to give it some heft and make it more visually believable? It’s not like it costs anything more to do. And no one expects them to put 50lbs in or anything!
Once you notice it, it’s very distracting.
And now you’ve taken a 3-cent prop and made it a project. If it gets dropped, torn or just dirty from use, you can’t just throw it out and grab another cup unless the prop people have gone to the time and expense of making extras. Which is probably not a huge expense but it does take time away that the prop person could spend doing something arguably more critical.
If you want shows to have realistic cup behavior, don’t watch shows with bad endowing.
It’s possible to go too far the other way. Like they did here.
When I saw Sleuth on stage during its original Broadway run there was actual liquid in the glasses – you could see it being poured as part of the “stage business”, and the actors drank it. In fact, the fact that there really is clear liquid and ice in a glass becomes an important plot point in the second half of the play (during the “hunt for incriminating objects” portion) I believe there was even a credit for the liquor used in the Playbill.
So glasses onstage aren’t invariably empty, and the liquid isn’t always non-potable.
I’ve been both an actor and a props man. I know of the pranks of props people, but in a show where actual drinking occurs, I can see potential pranksters being threatened with real penalties if they adulterate the drink.
I can understand why you don’t want to put actual coffee in the cups. Coffee can stain, or burn. But what’s so hard about plain ordinary water?
It’s even worse when they hold the cup upside down.
On TV, at least, you can see that there’s coffee in the cup. It’s black!
Water, you might be able to see, but you would sure as hell know it’s not coffee! :eek:
These days I notice it the most with paper coffee cups with lids.
Hell, they did the the same shtick in The Untouchables more than 50 years ago. Ness and Co. were always bringing paper cups of coffee to the office with them from the diner up the street! :o
Luggage. Whenever someone is going on a trip they are carrying an empty suitcase or two and it is blatantly obvious. Don’t they know we can tell?
Also… when the pizza guy makes a delivery he hands over an empty pizza box. So obvious.