Anne Tyler’s novels about protagonists who desperately need to be smacked upside the head are typically set in Baltimore.
Actress Liv Tyler’s mom was notorious groupie Bebe Buell. For most of her childhood, she thought her father was “Hello, It’s Me” singer Todd Rundgren, rather than Aerosmith vocalist Steven Tyler.
Novelist Anne Tyler, whose married name is Modarressi, was born on the same mm/dd/year, October 25, 1941, as fellow novelist Anne Rice, who was born with the name Howard Allen O’Brien.
ETA: Regressing to Anne Tyler but playing off Liv and Steven so I think it counts.
Novelist and Twitter enthusiast Poppy Z. Brite, like Anne Rice, has focused on dark and gothic and resides in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The New Orleans Saints started the second half of the Super Bowl by recovering a suprise onside kick.
Union Gen. Ben Butler outraged the fire-eating rebel citizens of New Orleans, after its fall, by ordering that women who insulted or threw chamberpots on his troops be treated as prostitutes. It is also alleged (but not proven) that he stole silverware from the house which he had commandeered as his headquarters, leading to the nickname “Spoons.”
The butler Niles on The Nanny was played by Arkansas born actor Daniel Davis, who later starred in a failed revival of La Cage Aux Folles, soon to be revived again starring Kelsey Grammer whose most famous character had a brother named Niles.
Not to play off of, but a curio you may be interested in: a Benjamin Butler chamber pot used by women of NOLA(though this one’s at a museum in Tuscaloosa).
Fran Drescher of The Nanny was brutally attacked in her apartment in 1985. She was able to give a police artist a near perfect description of her assailant and sent him to prison for two life sentences.
One of Fran Drescher’s roles was Sheryl in American Hot Wax, a film based on the life of Alan Freed, a Cleveland radio disc jockey credited with popularizing the term “rock ‘n’ roll” (some even claim he coined it, although earlier uses of the phrase have been documented).
Ian Hunter’s song *Cleveland Rocks *begins with a recording of Alan Freed from his old radio show: “Hello everybody, how are you tonight? This Alan Freed the ol’ King of the Moondoggers, and it’s time again for another of your favorite rock ‘n’ roll sessions as you enjoy … The Moondog Show!”
The Moondog Coronation Ball, started by Freed, is a periodic rock concert/celebration in Cleveland at which some of the top acts in rock have appeared. In large part because of Freed’s pioneering status in rock history, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is in Cleveland (although induction ceremonies are typically held in NYC).
Moondoggie was the nickname of Gidget’s boyfriend Jeff in a popular series of novels by Frederick Kohner (an Austrian Jew who came to America fleeing the Nazis) that inspired several movies and at least two TV series; Gidget was based on his daughter.
Moondog was a blind street musician in New York City, known for his Viking helmet. He eventually recorded several albums of his music.
The Dukes of Normandy were descended from Rollo, a Viking who was given much of northern France by King Charles the Simple as part of a peace treaty in 911; per tradition, when Rollo was ordered to kiss King Charles’s foot as a symbol of obeisance he did so by grabbing the king’s leg and lifting it until the foot was at his mouth level and the king was on the ground.
In “Tropic Thunder,” action movie star Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) tried to defy typecasting and win an Oscar by playing a retarded boy in a tearjerker called “Simple Jack.”
“Springheel Jack” was a Victorian-era bogeyman who could supposedly jump great heights as he committed crimes. Descriptions of his appearance and methods vary widely. No authoritative proof of his existence has come to light.
Smackwater Jack bought a shotgun, or so sings Carole King on her zillion-selling “Tapestry” album.
Carole King and her husband, Gerry Goffin, co-wrote many hit songs, including “The Loco-Motion”, which was first recorded by King’s babysitter, Little Eva.
Little Eva was a planter’s daughter in UNCLE TOM’S CABIN which was made into a ballet within the musical THE KING AND I in which the writer was Tuptim played by Rita Moreno.
Despite years performing and winning several local music awards in Washington D.C., jazz singer Eva Cassidy’s greatest career success came several years after her untimely 1996 death from melanoma.