# What two people or things do you always confuse?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-two-people-or-things-do-you-always-confuse/445312
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [April 14, 2008, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-two-people-or-things-do-you-always-confuse/445312 "2008-04-14T15:38:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2008, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-two-people-or-things-do-you-always-confuse/445312/41 "2008-04-14T22:17:28Z")
[QUOTE=yellowval]
Bob Denver being the guy who played **Gillian** on “Gilligan’s Island.”
[/QUOTE]
Funny, I’ve seen probably every episode of that series, and I don’t recall Denver donning drag… 😛
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2008, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-two-people-or-things-do-you-always-confuse/445312/42 "2008-04-14T22:22:26Z")
I’m one of the many who always confused Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton for each other.
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### Author:  [@A.R.Cane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.R.Cane)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2008, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-two-people-or-things-do-you-always-confuse/445312/43 "2008-04-15T00:08:43Z")
Helen Hunt and Jodie Foster.
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### Author:  [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2008, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-two-people-or-things-do-you-always-confuse/445312/44 "2008-04-15T00:15:52Z")
“EI” vs. “IE”
I cannot get it straight.
Supreme irony: I’m a freakin _editor_! But I have to say the little mnemonic thingy every. single. time. I blame it on my mother. She misspelled my middle name.
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### Author:  [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2008, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-two-people-or-things-do-you-always-confuse/445312/45 "2008-04-15T00:18:13Z")
Oh.
AND… Ben Stiller and Ben Affleck. Same guy, right?
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### Author:  [@BluePitbull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BluePitbull)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2008, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-two-people-or-things-do-you-always-confuse/445312/46 "2008-04-15T01:26:31Z")
In my house, we always say “get the butter”, when actually we meant, “get the margarine”.
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### Author:  [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2008, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-two-people-or-things-do-you-always-confuse/445312/47 "2008-04-15T02:57:41Z")
Glenn Close and Meryl Streep.
Kid Rock is the skeevy one with the hat, and Chris Rock is the comedian.
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### Author:  [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2008, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-two-people-or-things-do-you-always-confuse/445312/48 "2008-04-15T04:00:05Z")
[QUOTE=pinkfreud]
I often get [Erika Christensen](http://www.vnn.vn/dataimages/original/images635739_Erika_Christensen.jpg) mixed up with [Julia Stiles](http://www.celebrity-hairstyles.org/juliastiles/images/juliastiles2.jpg).
[/QUOTE]
Me too. I went the longest time thinking Julia Stiles was in _Traffic_.
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2008, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-two-people-or-things-do-you-always-confuse/445312/49 "2008-04-15T05:11:33Z")
I always mentally blur [Tony Shalhoub](http://imdb.com/name/nm0001724/) with [Robert Picardo](http://imdb.com/name/nm0000585/). I mean, I have it straight now, or so I think, until I confuse them again next time.
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### Author:  [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2008, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-two-people-or-things-do-you-always-confuse/445312/50 "2008-04-15T05:23:22Z")
Dustin Hoffman/Al Pacino
Richard Gere/Richard Dreyfuss. (Plus I always forget Dreyfuss’s name)
Sarah Jessica Parker/Jennifer Aniston
Minnie Driver/Andie McDowell (Plus I always forget BOTH their names)
Capitol/capital
Principal/principle
geodes/diodes
…I think I’ll stop; this is depressing.
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### Author:  [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2008, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-two-people-or-things-do-you-always-confuse/445312/51 "2008-04-15T05:24:26Z")
It took me a long time to break the mental block I had over the names of Billy Idol and David Bowie.
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### Author:  [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2008, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-two-people-or-things-do-you-always-confuse/445312/52 "2008-04-15T13:38:29Z")
For a little while, (just right at first!) I used to confuse the names of [these](http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj107/quorumangelorum/bill-clinton-picture.jpg)[guys.](http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj107/quorumangelorum/GeorgeClintonLarge.jpg)
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### Author:  [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2008, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-two-people-or-things-do-you-always-confuse/445312/53 "2008-04-15T15:05:26Z")
Admiral Byrd and Admiral Peary. Well, they were both cold.
Patricia Clarkson and Hope Davis. I can tell them apart when I see them, but I can’t remember which has been in which movie.
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### Author:  [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2008, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-two-people-or-things-do-you-always-confuse/445312/54 "2008-04-15T15:23:57Z")
[Zombie thread: How to tell them apart, a public service.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=269920)
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### Author:  [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2008, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-two-people-or-things-do-you-always-confuse/445312/55 "2008-04-15T15:50:47Z")
[QUOTE=ZipperJJ]
Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy) and Todd McFarlane (Spawn).
They’re both popular “cartoonists” for my generation.
[/QUOTE]
I’d pay cash money to see what they’d come up with if they switched for an episode/issue.
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### Author:  [@InappropriateHumor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InappropriateHumor)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2008, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-two-people-or-things-do-you-always-confuse/445312/56 "2008-04-15T15:54:37Z")
I can’t keep [Leo DiCaprio and Matt Damon](http://www.imdb.com/media/rm796563712/tt0407887) straight. To me, they both look like teenagers who’re pissed because they got shorted on their allowance.
Also the words effect and affect give me fits. At one point I made myself write the words and their definition 5 times each, but it didn’t stick.
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### Author:  [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2008, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-two-people-or-things-do-you-always-confuse/445312/57 "2008-04-15T15:56:38Z")
I often confuse the Allman Brothers with Lynyrd Skynyrd. That’s probably a pretty common thing to do.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2008, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-two-people-or-things-do-you-always-confuse/445312/58 "2008-04-15T18:54:48Z")
[QUOTE=Raygun99]
It took me a long time to break the mental block I had over the names of Billy Idol and David Bowie.
[/QUOTE]
Billy Joel and Billy Idol, too.
That one can be VERY embarrassing. :o
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### Author:  [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2008, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-two-people-or-things-do-you-always-confuse/445312/59 "2008-04-15T19:18:10Z")
Francis Drake: Sailed for Queen Elizabeth.
Francis Bacon: Member of Parliament for Queen Elizabeth, violently against alchemy.
Roger Bacon: Alchemist.
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### Author:  [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2008, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-two-people-or-things-do-you-always-confuse/445312/60 "2008-04-15T19:59:39Z")
I always confuse [Charles Durning](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001164/) and [Kenneth McMillan](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0573299/)
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