In the movie Chloe, Liam Neeson plays a guy who cheats on his wife with a prostitute. In one early scene, the wife finds evidence of the affair by secretly checking his cellphone text messages. The incriminating message is dated March 16, 2009 - the exact same day Neeson’s real-life wife, Natasha Richardson, was involved in a fatal skiing accident. She died two days later.
I’m guessing that was unintentional.
And Jeremy Applegate (whose character Peter knelt beside her casket and prayed suicide never happened to him because he couldn’t handle it) shot himself.
Both very sad.
In 1975 Tom Paxton wrote the song "Crazy John"about Lennon
Not ironic, but I’ve always chuckled when, in Shogun, Richard Chamberlain shouts ‘Do you think I am a God-cursed Sodomite?’
Oddly, he was supposed to do the theme song for that film, but the song in question (‘Is It Scary?’) was removed from association with the movie due to contract problems.
I hadn’t seen that. That is…incredibly eerie.
Well, in that film he does say “They always said I’d be the first one to go.” So I guess you could take it as either ironic or inevitable.
Here’s a spooky one I just noticed:
In Rosemary’s Baby, a character commits suicide by leaping from a NYC apartment buillding, hitting a Volkswagon before landing on the sidewalk. The scene was shot outside the Dakota building, where John Lennon would be murdered in 1980. Therefore, the movie features a “bloody Beetle” next to a corpse in the very same spot where Lennon would be killed 13 years later!
Yikes…
Giving credit where credit is due: Ira Levin wrote the scene 15 years before Lennon’s murder (though the building’s name in the book and movie was the Bramford).
Could someone closed-caption this for the youtube-impaired?
James Dean’s PSA on Traffic Safety, interviewed by Gig Young not long before Dean’s fatal car crash.
But did Levin specify the type of car in the novel? I just think it’s creepy to see a ‘bloody Beetle’ next to a corpse in the exact same spot where John Lennon was later gunned down.
By the way, there are a lot (well, a couple) of strange connections between Rosemary’s Baby and Lennon’s death, in addition to the Dakota location:
-the song "Dear Prudence," off the White Album, was written for Mia Farrow's sister;
-the White Album also featured the song "Helter Skelter";
-Charles Manson was "inspired" by the song to order his minions to go on a
murderous rampage, during which Sharon Tate, Roman Polanksi’s wife, was
killed
I’m sure there are more, if anyone wants to help me out.
In The Ballad of John an Yoko he says “They’re gonna crucify me”. In know he wasn’t literally crucified, but still…
He also wasn’t killed by any “they.” Just a sick, twisted kid who wanted attention, and was less a part of “they” than John was himself. There was no foreshadowing, and no irony.
Yes, Ira did say Volkswagon Beetle. Roman Polanski made sure the movie version was a faithful adaption of the book. He even called Levin to ask him which issue of The New Yorker had the shirt that Guy saw advertised. Levin had to admit that he hadn’t checked the magazine, but just assumed any issue would have an ad for a nice shirt. But it turned out the issue for that week didn’t.
Just thought of another one: “Rocky Racoon,” from the White Album, features in its opening line, all all things, the word ‘Dakota,’ in a song in which the title character is shot!
Lennon Murder Truth will keep you busy for hours.
I think Christopher Reeve’s last movie before he became paralyzed was the made-for-cable Above Suspicion (1995), in which he plays a murderer who fakes being paralyzed.
Reeve also played a gay paraplegic Vietnam veteran on stage in Fifth of July
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls - A character who is a very thinly-veiled stand in for Phil Spector goes on a murderous rampage at his own beach-side estate, shooting a girl in the face.
Adding to that irony, the Spector-esque character rips off his clothing to reveal a very “shocking” secret. Not quite the same thing as the real Spector taking off his wig, and showing off a scary look, but in the same vein.