February 18, 2025 • 19 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: the iconic director of Men in Black, Get Shorty, The Addams Family, and more, Barry Sonnenfeld!
Join host A.J. Jacobs and his guests as they puzzle–and laugh–their way through new spins on old favorites, like anagrams and palindromes, as well as quirky originals such as “Ask Chat GPT” and audio rebuses.
Subscribe to The Puzzler podcast wherever you get your podcasts!
"The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs" is distributed by iHeartPodcasts and is a co-production with Neuhaus Ideas.
Our executive producers are Neely Lohmann and Adam Neuhaus of Neuhaus Ideas, and Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts.
The show is produced by Jody Avirgan and Brittani Brown of Roulette Productions.
Our Chief Puzzle Officer is Greg Pliska. Our associate producer is Andrea Schoenberg.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, puzzlers. Let's start with a little quiz. This movie
was recently featured in a Super Bowl commercial that starred
Sidney Sweeney, and here is a hint. This movie could
be more accurately named three pm Central Time, June twelfth,
nineteen seventy seven. The answer after the break, Hello puzzlers,
(00:34):
Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast the hoisted Chair at your
Puzzle Bar Mitzvah. I'm your host, AJ Jacobs, and I'm
here with Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Pliska.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Welcome Greg, Thank you. Aj. You gave a clue to
a movie before the break, right.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
This was a movie that was featured in a Super
Bowl commercial. They did an homage to it. It was
a commercial with Sidney Sweeney, Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
And that movie is When Harry met Sally.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
That's correct. They re enacted that famous scene at Kat's
Delhi with the line I'll have what she's having. But
I am very proud of the other clue I gave,
which is that When Harry met Sally could be renamed
three pm Central Time, June twelfth, nineteen seventy seven, because
that is the time and date when Harry actually met Sally.
(01:25):
I spent half an hour of my life figuring that out,
a productive use of my afternoon.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
You like, watch the movie and rewound and check the
clocks and look for a calendar in the background.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
That is exactly what I did.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Amazing, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
I'm very sud The movie starts in nineteen seventy seven
at the University of Chicago. Harry and Sally are graduating
and driving in New York City. I looked up the
graduation day of that year, June twelfth, and then I
figured out what time it was based on when they
arrived in New York. There you go. That's our important intro.
I bring all this up because our guest today is
(02:01):
once again Barry's on and film the legendary director. He
directed Men in Black, Get Shorty, The Adams Family, Schmeighah Dune.
He is also the author of some wonderful books, two
in particular and the latest of which is Best Possible Place,
(02:22):
Worst Possible Time. Welcome Barry, Hi Aja, Hello, So Barry,
we talked in the intro puzzle about when Harry met
Sally and you were there. You were there making cinematic history.
So what was that like being in Kats's Delhi that day.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Well, you know, I started out as a cinematographer before
I became a director. I shot the first three Coen
Brothers movies, and I shot two movies for Rob, When
Harry Met Sally and Misery. So there I was on
the set of When Harry Met Sally, and we were
shooting at Katz's. So the first thing is Kats's is
very warm. Two, it's very humid because they have all
(03:02):
those steam tables where they're keeping their pistrami and corn
beef and brisket and tongue. And three, because we wanted
to see outside the windows, I had to have a
lot of lights inside to make the exposure bright enough
that you could see outside and it wouldn't burn out,
which meant it was very hot. And Rob Reiner sweats
a lot. So Rob went up to the pistromi carver
(03:27):
and asked him for his pistrami towel. So he wore
this towel over his head just to absorb his sweat,
and he kept saying to me, I'm an idiot, I'm
an idiot. I am directing this young woman on how
to fake an orgasm in front of all these people
and my mother. Why did I have my mother there?
(03:49):
You know, Adelle Reiner is a woman who says, I'll
have what she's having. So he was very nervous the
whole day, and we knew we had a funny scene,
but we didn't know what was going to become one
of the I don't know ten iconic moments in comedy
history practically, And what I tell people about that scene,
(04:10):
what I learned from that scene is you have Meg
Ryan faking an orgasm and you have Billy Crystal watching
her fake and orgasm. And what's great about the scene
is a comedy, as we discussed in the previous issue,
plays in two shots, so you get to see Meg
faking an orgasm and Billy reacting in the same shot.
(04:32):
In addition, what I learned is the biggest laugh is
always the reaction shot. Meg as funny as she was,
Let's say the laughter is at eighty DB's faking her orgasm,
you cut to Billy doing nothing but chewing on his
cornbeef sandwich, and the laughter goes from eighty DB's to
(04:54):
one hundred and twenty DB's because the reaction shot is
the audience's point of view, So and you know, Will
Smith learned that to to the point where smart comedy
actors always want to give someone else the punchline so
they can have the reaction shot.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Oh, that's why they're.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Very Those are the really smart actors. The actors that
aren't smart are always asking for more lines, and they're
really good actors are always asking for less lines because
they'd rather react than speak, especially in a comedy. So
that day on when Harry met Sally was kind of
reinforced something that I suspected, which is that comedy, the
(05:36):
biggest laugh is always the reaction shot, not the not
the punchline.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Great.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yeah, well there's a good segue because I am in
this episode going to be giving the reaction shots and
Greg Kliska is going to be doing the comedy. Reaction
shots on podcasts are not quite as funny, but I'll
do my best. But I'm going to turn it over
now to Chief Puzzle Off Sir. Greg.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Oh, thank you and Barry. Thank you. I love having
you here. I love all these stories. You can come
back anytime and tell stories.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
All right, Hi, Greg, good to see you again.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
All right, So, in honor of your initials, Barry We
have just made a completely BS puzzle.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Got it?
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Every answer It's easy. Every answer is just a two
word phrase or a name with the initials BS, and
I will clue them. Actually, all the clues have a
kind of cinematic spin of some kind, but all the
answers are just BS words BS phrases. So here's your
first one. Along with powdered milk, this cooking ingredient has
been used in film as a stand in for cocaine.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
I'm gonna guess, although I've never had a scene with cocaine,
I'm gonna guess that would be baking soda.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yes, baking soda. I did a little research, not on cocaine,
on substituting for cocaine. It turns out there's other stuff
that gets used nowadays, but in the old days more common.
All right, This is the financial snapshot of your production
company's health. It shows assets, liabilities, and equities a good
(07:14):
BS absolutely similar to what you might get from your bank.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Bank something statement, no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
But what do you get from your bank? You check
every day? You check you if you check it every day?
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Balance and balance sheet?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Balance sheet? There you go.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Oh Jesus, that's a tough one for me.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
That's a that's well, you know that one's tougher. I
think because it's a specialized it's a very specific category.
There's not a lot of other ways into that one.
Let's talk about some actresses. Marilyn Monroe, Blake Lively, Cindy Crawford,
Kelly Rowland are among the actresses with this facial feature.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Big.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
They all have moles, but we call them what.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
They're not, moody mark. But that's my middle initial beauty, beauty, beauty.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Hole see blank run, see blank run.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Beauty spot.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yeah, there you go, very good.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
I love what next? Time dispelled the answers.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
And this one you may have already said, but I'm
going to give it. Give you the clue, Lancaster, Yeah good,
very good. So quick, okay, sorry, you give me the
you got the answer, Give me the clue.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Let's play.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Bert, Bert Lancaster and Deborah Carr filmed a famous beach
scene and from here to eternity wearing these.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
What do you call a bathing suit?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
What do you call a bathing suit? Very good? For
one hundred dollars, all right. This is a nineteen seventy
four heist common starring George C. Scott. And it's also
the name of a technique you might see used in
the Color of Money or The Hustler.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Oh, but the title is a heighst movie with.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
George Scott which I had not heard of, but you
might know more.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Gower Champion directed it and it's based upon a Donald
Westlake novel of the same name.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
The first word is in bank is it?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
It is bank?
Speaker 1 (09:31):
And then you're thinking pool for a color of money
in The Hustler.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
The Color of Money. Both had que balls.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Both had when you're playing pool. It's a particular kind
of thing you.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
It's a shot, Yeah, yes, with George C. Scott.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
George C. Scott. So I remember seeing this movie when
I was a kid. It was a ridiculous comedy.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Interesting, well, the best comedy that George Scott has ever
been in, although he almost ruins the movie is Doctor Strangelove. Yeah.
But the great thing about Strangelove, and this is another
theory about shooting movies, is you never want anyone to
be funny in your comedy. You want them to play
(10:22):
the reality to the seen, but don't be funny, don't
try to act funny. And everyone else Sterling Hayden. You know,
Peter Sellers are all playing it for no laughs at all.
But then Georgie Scott is sort of like mugging a
little bit and he almost ruins the movie. But he's
(10:42):
also brilliant in the movie as well, except when he
occasionally mugs My favorite movie ever made.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
By the way, Oh, it's a great, great well. You
write about that in your latest book, Best Possible Place,
Worst Possible Time, But it is You talk about how
Tommy Lee Jones when he first cast him in Men
in Black, he was trying to be funny and you
had to gently to explain to him, no, you are,
(11:11):
it's funnier if you're not.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Funny, right, And the challenge there was Tommy didn't believe
me to the full twenty one weeks of shooting. So
first day of shooting, I'm shooting Tommy Lee Jones and
he is talking to Mikey, who is in a legal
alien from another planet, right, And Mikey is speaking in
(11:34):
an alien language. He's got flippers and arms, and he's
got this weird nose. But Tommy Lee Jones, because he's
a man and Black agent, understands what the alien is saying.
Even though he's speaking in this alien language and it's
and he's giving an excuse why he's on earth. The
alien is and Tommy's line to Mikey, who's the name
(11:54):
of the alien is that's enough. Mikey, put up your
hands and all your flippers is his line. Funny line,
except Tommy, first they were shooting, says that's enough. Mikey,
put up your hands and all your flippers. Oh, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, Hey, Tommy,
(12:14):
I think it's gonna be funnier if you don't acknowledge
that and all your flippers is funny. See, you do
this every day for you. This isn't out of the ordinary.
It's it's Joe Friday. It's government issue. Just flat say
the line, no comedy. Tommy looks at me like I
(12:35):
am going to kill you with my eyes. I look
down so I can't look back into his eyes. I go,
come on, it will be fun For twenty one weeks
Tommy tries to be funny, and for twenty one weeks,
I say, cut, let's do it again. Don't acknowledge that's
that's funny. His agent is calling me. You only want
will Smith to be funny. You don't want Tommy to
be funny. I said you, when you see this movie,
(12:58):
you're gonna see that Tommy is funnier than Will. How
is that possible? Because Tommy is a reaction shot. Will's
the crazy guy. Tommy is a reaction shot. The reaction
shot always gets a bigger LP. Barry, you just want uh,
it's all right. So now we have to show the
movie to Tommy because we're about to we finish the movie.
We're about to have our big junket, you know, our
(13:20):
press junket. So you got to show the movie to
Tommy so he knows what's in what's out. He sees
the movie. Of course, he loves the movie and he
loves his performance. And all these press guys, because Tommy
had not been in a comedy before, all these journalists
are saying, how did you learn how to be so funny?
I never thought you were funny? And Tommy says to
(13:41):
every single journalist, the secret to being funny is to
stand next to Will Smith and do whatever Barry's Sonenfeld
hell him to do. Such a great I love and
by the way, though even the full twenty one weeks
that Tommy hated me, I kind of loved working with
him because a his performance is so good. But he
(14:05):
can talk fast, which is all I want from an
actor with great diction. His voice has this beautiful lilt
to it. And the most importantly, Will and Tommy had
fantastic chemistry. They loved each other, they loved working with
each other, and ultimately, Men in Black is a buddy movie.
(14:26):
It doesn't have a lot of special effects. It's not
like a Marvel movie. There's not a ton of CGI
or anything except near the end. But it's really a
small movie. I call that chapter Smoke and Mirrors because
I fake people out into thinking they're seeing a big movie,
but it's really a buddy comedy. So I love working
(14:49):
with Tommy.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yeah, well, I love that movie.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah yeah, And I totally agree. That's my favorite part
of that movie is the two of them. That's what
it's about. It's terrific. We have time for a couple
more of these bs puzzles. This one is a term
for a successful novel that people buy a lot of
(15:12):
copies of, like Get Shorty.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Oh, that one wasn't but that would be a best seller.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
It wasn't a bestseller, really, I think, so, Oh that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
It might have been after the movie.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Yes, certainly after the movie. It must have.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I had read a ton of those books, all right,
I think this is an easier one. She won an
Oscar for Funny Girl and a Grammy for Evergreen.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Yes. I haven't listened to her book, but I hear
it's very long, and that would be Bab's Streisand.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Yeah, that's right, Barbara Streiss. Did you ever work with.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Her on anything? That's a great question.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
No, but I've said high to her because she is
the stepmother of Josh Brolin. Interesting, so I once said
high to her when she was with Josh.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
I think I hope you didn't call right, Yeah, Yeah,
well I hope you didn't call her Babs, because I'm
pretty sure that's not She's made it clear she does
not like that.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Did you listen to the book?
Speaker 1 (16:23):
No, I don't have time.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
I'm gonna when I retire, I'm going to devote a
year or two.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
To that that book.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Yeah, Julie actually did Julie, And even Julie was like
a little too much detail, a little too Yeah, but
she does talk about her cloned dogs, which that I
find very interesting. Oh wow, they always say no, don't
work with kids or animals. But you worked with kids,
animals and roaches. You worked with roaches, Yes.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Yes, we did so. The animal you're referring to is
Frank the Pug. His real name was Mushu. He was
in all three movies, even though they took place over
fifteen years.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
On the set, I would say, hey, I know we
never discussed this, but would it be okay to have
Mushu holding a Martini glass while smoking a cigar? And
the trainer would come, yeah, give me five minutes. And
Musha Mushue was the most He was the greatest actor
I've ever worked with. There was nothing that phazed this dog.
(17:26):
Never needed to be trained for months. He was amazing.
We had the best best trainers and Mushu was. He
was like a superstar, which is SS not BS, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
That is remarkable, Greg. Do you have an extra credit
for the.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
I do have an extra credit for the folks at home.
I'm actually going to give him two. Let to give
him two totally different ones. One is pod People who
Invade in a classic nonineteen fifty six sci fi horror film,
and the other is a two thousand and two romantic
comedy with Tay Diggs and Sna Lathan, or a sweetener
(18:10):
containing molasses.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Okay, all right, I think I got those, but maybe not.
We'll find out tomorrow, so come on back, and before that,
if you do have thirty seconds, please go rate the
Puzzler on your favorite podcast platform because it makes a
huge difference in helping people to find us. And of
course we'll meet here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that
(18:35):
will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Hey, puzzlers, it's Greg Plisker. You're Chief Puzzle Officer. Here
are with the extra credit answer from our previous episode,
we had Barry Sonenfeld on and played some bizarro movie
titles with him. These are where we give you the
opposite world title of a movie and you have to
flip it around to find out the name of the movie.
In our universe, they were Shine Women, Sprint Woman, and
(19:08):
Noon Farmer, and those opposite movies are Shine Woman becomes
rain Man, Sprint Woman becomes marathon Man, and Noon Farmer
is Midnight Cowboy. Because of that old the cowboy and
(19:30):
the Farmer can't be friends or whatever, so we decided
they must be opposites but we love them all. We
love rain men, shine women, sprint women, marathon men, midnight cowboys,
noon farmers, and everybody in between. Come here and play
the puzzle with us. We love you all,
Hello, puzzlers. Let's start with a little quiz. This movie
was recently featured in a Super Bowl commercial that starred
Sidney Sweeney, and here is a hint. This movie could
be more accurately named three pm Central Time, June twelfth,
nineteen seventy seven. The answer after the break, Hello puzzlers,
(00:34):
Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast the hoisted Chair at your
Puzzle Bar Mitzvah. I'm your host, AJ Jacobs, and I'm
here with Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Pliska.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Welcome Greg, Thank you. Aj. You gave a clue to
a movie before the break, right.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
This was a movie that was featured in a Super
Bowl commercial. They did an homage to it. It was
a commercial with Sidney Sweeney, Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
And that movie is When Harry met Sally.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
That's correct. They re enacted that famous scene at Kat's
Delhi with the line I'll have what she's having. But
I am very proud of the other clue I gave,
which is that When Harry met Sally could be renamed
three pm Central Time, June twelfth, nineteen seventy seven, because
that is the time and date when Harry actually met Sally.
(01:25):
I spent half an hour of my life figuring that out,
a productive use of my afternoon.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
You like, watch the movie and rewound and check the
clocks and look for a calendar in the background.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
That is exactly what I did.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Amazing, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
I'm very sud The movie starts in nineteen seventy seven
at the University of Chicago. Harry and Sally are graduating
and driving in New York City. I looked up the
graduation day of that year, June twelfth, and then I
figured out what time it was based on when they
arrived in New York. There you go. That's our important intro.
I bring all this up because our guest today is
(02:01):
once again Barry's on and film the legendary director. He
directed Men in Black, Get Shorty, The Adams Family, Schmeighah Dune.
He is also the author of some wonderful books, two
in particular and the latest of which is Best Possible Place,
(02:22):
Worst Possible Time. Welcome Barry, Hi Aja, Hello, So Barry,
we talked in the intro puzzle about when Harry met
Sally and you were there. You were there making cinematic history.
So what was that like being in Kats's Delhi that day.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Well, you know, I started out as a cinematographer before
I became a director. I shot the first three Coen
Brothers movies, and I shot two movies for Rob, When
Harry Met Sally and Misery. So there I was on
the set of When Harry Met Sally, and we were
shooting at Katz's. So the first thing is Kats's is
very warm. Two, it's very humid because they have all
(03:02):
those steam tables where they're keeping their pistrami and corn
beef and brisket and tongue. And three, because we wanted
to see outside the windows, I had to have a
lot of lights inside to make the exposure bright enough
that you could see outside and it wouldn't burn out,
which meant it was very hot. And Rob Reiner sweats
a lot. So Rob went up to the pistromi carver
(03:27):
and asked him for his pistrami towel. So he wore
this towel over his head just to absorb his sweat,
and he kept saying to me, I'm an idiot, I'm
an idiot. I am directing this young woman on how
to fake an orgasm in front of all these people
and my mother. Why did I have my mother there?
(03:49):
You know, Adelle Reiner is a woman who says, I'll
have what she's having. So he was very nervous the
whole day, and we knew we had a funny scene,
but we didn't know what was going to become one
of the I don't know ten iconic moments in comedy
history practically, And what I tell people about that scene,
(04:10):
what I learned from that scene is you have Meg
Ryan faking an orgasm and you have Billy Crystal watching
her fake and orgasm. And what's great about the scene
is a comedy, as we discussed in the previous issue,
plays in two shots, so you get to see Meg
faking an orgasm and Billy reacting in the same shot.
(04:32):
In addition, what I learned is the biggest laugh is
always the reaction shot. Meg as funny as she was,
Let's say the laughter is at eighty DB's faking her orgasm,
you cut to Billy doing nothing but chewing on his
cornbeef sandwich, and the laughter goes from eighty DB's to
(04:54):
one hundred and twenty DB's because the reaction shot is
the audience's point of view, So and you know, Will
Smith learned that to to the point where smart comedy
actors always want to give someone else the punchline so
they can have the reaction shot.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Oh, that's why they're.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Very Those are the really smart actors. The actors that
aren't smart are always asking for more lines, and they're
really good actors are always asking for less lines because
they'd rather react than speak, especially in a comedy. So
that day on when Harry met Sally was kind of
reinforced something that I suspected, which is that comedy, the
(05:36):
biggest laugh is always the reaction shot, not the not
the punchline.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Great.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yeah, well there's a good segue because I am in
this episode going to be giving the reaction shots and
Greg Kliska is going to be doing the comedy. Reaction
shots on podcasts are not quite as funny, but I'll
do my best. But I'm going to turn it over
now to Chief Puzzle Off Sir. Greg.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Oh, thank you and Barry. Thank you. I love having
you here. I love all these stories. You can come
back anytime and tell stories.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
All right, Hi, Greg, good to see you again.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
All right, So, in honor of your initials, Barry We
have just made a completely BS puzzle.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Got it?
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Every answer It's easy. Every answer is just a two
word phrase or a name with the initials BS, and
I will clue them. Actually, all the clues have a
kind of cinematic spin of some kind, but all the
answers are just BS words BS phrases. So here's your
first one. Along with powdered milk, this cooking ingredient has
been used in film as a stand in for cocaine.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
I'm gonna guess, although I've never had a scene with cocaine,
I'm gonna guess that would be baking soda.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yes, baking soda. I did a little research, not on cocaine,
on substituting for cocaine. It turns out there's other stuff
that gets used nowadays, but in the old days more common.
All right, This is the financial snapshot of your production
company's health. It shows assets, liabilities, and equities a good
(07:14):
BS absolutely similar to what you might get from your bank.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Bank something statement, no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
But what do you get from your bank? You check
every day? You check you if you check it every day?
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Balance and balance sheet?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Balance sheet? There you go.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Oh Jesus, that's a tough one for me.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
That's a that's well, you know that one's tougher. I
think because it's a specialized it's a very specific category.
There's not a lot of other ways into that one.
Let's talk about some actresses. Marilyn Monroe, Blake Lively, Cindy Crawford,
Kelly Rowland are among the actresses with this facial feature.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Big.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
They all have moles, but we call them what.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
They're not, moody mark. But that's my middle initial beauty, beauty, beauty.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Hole see blank run, see blank run.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Beauty spot.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yeah, there you go, very good.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
I love what next? Time dispelled the answers.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
And this one you may have already said, but I'm
going to give it. Give you the clue, Lancaster, Yeah good,
very good. So quick, okay, sorry, you give me the
you got the answer, Give me the clue.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Let's play.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Bert, Bert Lancaster and Deborah Carr filmed a famous beach
scene and from here to eternity wearing these.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
What do you call a bathing suit?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
What do you call a bathing suit? Very good? For
one hundred dollars, all right. This is a nineteen seventy
four heist common starring George C. Scott. And it's also
the name of a technique you might see used in
the Color of Money or The Hustler.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Oh, but the title is a heighst movie with.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
George Scott which I had not heard of, but you
might know more.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Gower Champion directed it and it's based upon a Donald
Westlake novel of the same name.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
The first word is in bank is it?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
It is bank?
Speaker 1 (09:31):
And then you're thinking pool for a color of money
in The Hustler.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
The Color of Money. Both had que balls.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Both had when you're playing pool. It's a particular kind
of thing you.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
It's a shot, Yeah, yes, with George C. Scott.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
George C. Scott. So I remember seeing this movie when
I was a kid. It was a ridiculous comedy.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Interesting, well, the best comedy that George Scott has ever
been in, although he almost ruins the movie is Doctor Strangelove. Yeah.
But the great thing about Strangelove, and this is another
theory about shooting movies, is you never want anyone to
be funny in your comedy. You want them to play
(10:22):
the reality to the seen, but don't be funny, don't
try to act funny. And everyone else Sterling Hayden. You know,
Peter Sellers are all playing it for no laughs at all.
But then Georgie Scott is sort of like mugging a
little bit and he almost ruins the movie. But he's
(10:42):
also brilliant in the movie as well, except when he
occasionally mugs My favorite movie ever made.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
By the way, Oh, it's a great, great well. You
write about that in your latest book, Best Possible Place,
Worst Possible Time, But it is You talk about how
Tommy Lee Jones when he first cast him in Men
in Black, he was trying to be funny and you
had to gently to explain to him, no, you are,
(11:11):
it's funnier if you're not.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Funny, right, And the challenge there was Tommy didn't believe
me to the full twenty one weeks of shooting. So
first day of shooting, I'm shooting Tommy Lee Jones and
he is talking to Mikey, who is in a legal
alien from another planet, right, And Mikey is speaking in
(11:34):
an alien language. He's got flippers and arms, and he's
got this weird nose. But Tommy Lee Jones, because he's
a man and Black agent, understands what the alien is saying.
Even though he's speaking in this alien language and it's
and he's giving an excuse why he's on earth. The
alien is and Tommy's line to Mikey, who's the name
(11:54):
of the alien is that's enough. Mikey, put up your
hands and all your flippers is his line. Funny line,
except Tommy, first they were shooting, says that's enough. Mikey,
put up your hands and all your flippers. Oh, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, Hey, Tommy,
(12:14):
I think it's gonna be funnier if you don't acknowledge
that and all your flippers is funny. See, you do
this every day for you. This isn't out of the ordinary.
It's it's Joe Friday. It's government issue. Just flat say
the line, no comedy. Tommy looks at me like I
(12:35):
am going to kill you with my eyes. I look
down so I can't look back into his eyes. I go,
come on, it will be fun For twenty one weeks
Tommy tries to be funny, and for twenty one weeks,
I say, cut, let's do it again. Don't acknowledge that's
that's funny. His agent is calling me. You only want
will Smith to be funny. You don't want Tommy to
be funny. I said you, when you see this movie,
(12:58):
you're gonna see that Tommy is funnier than Will. How
is that possible? Because Tommy is a reaction shot. Will's
the crazy guy. Tommy is a reaction shot. The reaction
shot always gets a bigger LP. Barry, you just want uh,
it's all right. So now we have to show the
movie to Tommy because we're about to we finish the movie.
We're about to have our big junket, you know, our
(13:20):
press junket. So you got to show the movie to
Tommy so he knows what's in what's out. He sees
the movie. Of course, he loves the movie and he
loves his performance. And all these press guys, because Tommy
had not been in a comedy before, all these journalists
are saying, how did you learn how to be so funny?
I never thought you were funny? And Tommy says to
(13:41):
every single journalist, the secret to being funny is to
stand next to Will Smith and do whatever Barry's Sonenfeld
hell him to do. Such a great I love and
by the way, though even the full twenty one weeks
that Tommy hated me, I kind of loved working with
him because a his performance is so good. But he
(14:05):
can talk fast, which is all I want from an
actor with great diction. His voice has this beautiful lilt
to it. And the most importantly, Will and Tommy had
fantastic chemistry. They loved each other, they loved working with
each other, and ultimately, Men in Black is a buddy movie.
(14:26):
It doesn't have a lot of special effects. It's not
like a Marvel movie. There's not a ton of CGI
or anything except near the end. But it's really a
small movie. I call that chapter Smoke and Mirrors because
I fake people out into thinking they're seeing a big movie,
but it's really a buddy comedy. So I love working
(14:49):
with Tommy.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yeah, well, I love that movie.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah yeah, And I totally agree. That's my favorite part
of that movie is the two of them. That's what
it's about. It's terrific. We have time for a couple
more of these bs puzzles. This one is a term
for a successful novel that people buy a lot of
(15:12):
copies of, like Get Shorty.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Oh, that one wasn't but that would be a best seller.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
It wasn't a bestseller, really, I think, so, Oh that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
It might have been after the movie.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Yes, certainly after the movie. It must have.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I had read a ton of those books, all right,
I think this is an easier one. She won an
Oscar for Funny Girl and a Grammy for Evergreen.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Yes. I haven't listened to her book, but I hear
it's very long, and that would be Bab's Streisand.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Yeah, that's right, Barbara Streiss. Did you ever work with.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Her on anything? That's a great question.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
No, but I've said high to her because she is
the stepmother of Josh Brolin. Interesting, so I once said
high to her when she was with Josh.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
I think I hope you didn't call right, Yeah, Yeah,
well I hope you didn't call her Babs, because I'm
pretty sure that's not She's made it clear she does
not like that.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Did you listen to the book?
Speaker 1 (16:23):
No, I don't have time.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
I'm gonna when I retire, I'm going to devote a
year or two.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
To that that book.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Yeah, Julie actually did Julie, And even Julie was like
a little too much detail, a little too Yeah, but
she does talk about her cloned dogs, which that I
find very interesting. Oh wow, they always say no, don't
work with kids or animals. But you worked with kids,
animals and roaches. You worked with roaches, Yes.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Yes, we did so. The animal you're referring to is
Frank the Pug. His real name was Mushu. He was
in all three movies, even though they took place over
fifteen years.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
On the set, I would say, hey, I know we
never discussed this, but would it be okay to have
Mushu holding a Martini glass while smoking a cigar? And
the trainer would come, yeah, give me five minutes. And
Musha Mushue was the most He was the greatest actor
I've ever worked with. There was nothing that phazed this dog.
(17:26):
Never needed to be trained for months. He was amazing.
We had the best best trainers and Mushu was. He
was like a superstar, which is SS not BS, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
That is remarkable, Greg. Do you have an extra credit
for the.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
I do have an extra credit for the folks at home.
I'm actually going to give him two. Let to give
him two totally different ones. One is pod People who
Invade in a classic nonineteen fifty six sci fi horror film,
and the other is a two thousand and two romantic
comedy with Tay Diggs and Sna Lathan, or a sweetener
(18:10):
containing molasses.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Okay, all right, I think I got those, but maybe not.
We'll find out tomorrow, so come on back, and before that,
if you do have thirty seconds, please go rate the
Puzzler on your favorite podcast platform because it makes a
huge difference in helping people to find us. And of
course we'll meet here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that
(18:35):
will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Hey, puzzlers, it's Greg Plisker. You're Chief Puzzle Officer. Here
are with the extra credit answer from our previous episode,
we had Barry Sonenfeld on and played some bizarro movie
titles with him. These are where we give you the
opposite world title of a movie and you have to
flip it around to find out the name of the movie.
In our universe, they were Shine Women, Sprint Woman, and
(19:08):
Noon Farmer, and those opposite movies are Shine Woman becomes
rain Man, Sprint Woman becomes marathon Man, and Noon Farmer
is Midnight Cowboy. Because of that old the cowboy and
(19:30):
the Farmer can't be friends or whatever, so we decided
they must be opposites but we love them all. We
love rain men, shine women, sprint women, marathon men, midnight cowboys,
noon farmers, and everybody in between. Come here and play
the puzzle with us. We love you all,
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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