I never knew that about Billy Bob Thornton being afraid of antique furniture. However, in his most popular movie, Slingblade, the character Doyle Hargraves (played magnificently by Dwight Yoakam) has the same fear. And now I know where it came from. Just Billy Bob passing along some personal traits. Another one with very bad stage fright that wasn't mentioned was Buddy Hackett but with Buddy, he didn't inherit that fear until very late in his career (1996). It stopped him from performing live which was a huge loss for his fans (like me). Great article Eddie. I learned a lot!

Well Eddie...as you know, I am a BIG Beatles fan like yourself and the thought of calling any song that's not a Beatles song the GREATEST R&R song of all time is against the rules. Can't be done and it won't be done, from me anyway. I do love & respect Stairway though. It's a classic, that's goes without saying. But the greatest of all time...no. I give that title to I Saw Her Standing There. I know I'm biased but you don't fool with perfection!!

Anyone who wants to know what song best describes the hysteria, the screaming, the fainting, the crying, the excitement of Beatlemania, it HAS to be She Loves You. It's a great song to watch The Beatles perform too, with George coming in every other line and of course baby-faced Paul shaking his hair in a frenzy to the WOOOO's. Hard to believe it was criticized badly when first played on American Bandstand before The Beatles hit it big in the states. Nice piece Eddie. Your Beatles bits are always great!!

I always thought the cast sounded like a weekend at The CopaCabana back in the 50's or 60's. Except for A Hard Day's Night, HELP!, Magical Mystery Tour or Let It Be, this just might be the one movie I would have loved to have worked on (oops...sorry Eddie...add on I Wanna Hold Your Hand). Can you just imagine? Everytime you turned around there would be a MEGA-star. Nice informative piece Eddie. Thanks for that.

Oh I can understand the appeal. She was the girl that you didn't bring home to meet mother & father, that's for sure. She was the classic "naughty" girl in her movies and every guy is attracted to that.

A very heart-felt, informative, detailed tribute to the leader of the funniest comedy act of all time. Thanks for submitting that Eddie. And I don't know where you find these awesome pictures but they are GREAT! Keep the articles coming.

Sorry but I disagree...a kiss is a kiss, whether it's a peck on the cheek or an all out lip locker. The difference is the passion and that one is far more fun than the other. What I wonder about though is whether there were any other "cheek pecks" that went unnoticed before Sammy and Boots had theirs. Did Mary ever give Rochester a kiss to say thank you or happy birthday on the old Jack Benny Show? Did Sammy ever give a cheek kiss to someone else before the Nancy kiss, perhaps on The Ed Sullivan Show, Jack Paar Show or Steve Allen? Hard to say. But I like the subject Eddie. The younger generation may not realize it but kissing someone of a different race back in the 60's was like planting an open mouth frenchie right on Osama Bin Laden. Would not go over well at all. Very troubled times back then. Nice piece Eddie.

Perfect cast, perfect script and the perfect director. What more could you ask for? And the fact that Sid Ceasar actually knocked a horse out in real life is awesome! Great story Eddie. Keep them coming!

Very fascinating piece Eddie. When reviewing the life of Honest Abe, I truly believe the things he stood for and accomplished as a human being far outweigh those he did as a president. He was a man who knew that life was not going to be easy, and that things would not be handed to him on a silver platter. But I am quite surprised, Eddie that you didn't mention perhaps the one feat that saved arguably thousands of lives...his experience as a Vampire killer. Man...what Hollywood won't stoop to. What's next? Grover Cleveland...Exorcist!

Batman is not gay. He's about as gay as SNL's THE AMBIGIUOSLY GAY DUO and we all know that they're not gay.....right??
Then again, he does call Robin DICK when he's not Robin.
Maybe he came up with his sidekick's name because he's ROBIN' him of his manhood??
Come to think of it...I guess you could have Bruce GAYne and DICK GAYson.
Makes ya think....

Great piece Eddie. I think MacFarlane is incredibly talented and deserves to receive opportunities like hosting the Oscars (although I thought his opening act with Shatner was far too long). But then again, I'm an old school guy who would have loved to have seen Johnny Carson host it forever. Anyway...thanks for the info about Seth. A lot I did not know.

Ali is the only true Champion in my generation. He is still referred to as "Champ" when people address him and it's well deserved and he's earned it. My favorite Ali story is the Ernie Terrell one where Terrell refused to acknowledge Ali by his Muslim name and kept calling him Cassius Clay. When the two finally met in the ring, Ali came out and started landing punch after punch and yelling to him "What's my name? Say it. Ali. What's my name?" Terrell refused and took the punishment. At one point, Terrell appeared to be going down but Ali went over and lifted him up by the underarms and told him "You're not going down till you say my name. What's my name?" Finally in round 12, Terrell had enough and said the word "Ali. Your name is Ali". The referee immediately stopped the fight. True story. Great post Eddie. Great topic!! Ali is definitely one man I would like to meet.

I hate to admit it but I was never that big a fan of Elvis' movies. I was a big Elvis fan but just never cared for him as an actor or the plots. Eddie Murphy summed it up best when he said that Elvis just sang all his lines..."We're gonna win this race", etc. Nice details though about Love Me Tender Eddie. Made it very interesting.

I am a HUGE believer in fate and I've always believed that had Decca signed The Beatles, they NEVER would have been as popular and successful as they were and that's because they never would have worked with George Martin who really took them under his wing and molded their style of music into something special & historical. So a BIG thank you to Dick Rowe for allowing The Beatles to take their rightful place in history!! Atta Boy Dick!!