Good Hollywood stories never fade.
But for all the strange Hollywood scandals you hear that are true, there are almost just
as many that are as fictitious as the movies that made these stars famous.
Here are some Hollywood myths that refuse to go away, no matter how untrue they are.
Frozen fib
On its face, Disney's Frozen is a loose adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The
Snow Queen."
But perhaps the movie was really just a feature-length homage to the House of Mouse's namesake.
At the end of the movie, Princess Anna is frozen solid by her sister's curse and can
only be resurrected through an "act of true love."
Sure, that gives everyone a moment to enjoy some sisterly feels and all, but for those
that buy into the story that Walt Disney is cryogenically frozen somewhere, waiting for
revival, well, it seems more like some wish upon a star.
So the story goes, Disney decided to have his body given the deep freeze treatment,
and it's currently stowed away somewhere beneath the animatronic Captain Jack Sparrow and the
Small World ride.
That would mean Disney is still waiting for his act of true love, which in his case would
be a time machine and a cure for lung cancer.
"It's frickin' freezing in here, Mr. Bigglesworth."
Of course, this story isn't really true — there's no evidence at all to suggest that Disney
had himself frozen or that he was even aware such a thing was possible.
According to Disney historian Jim Korkis, Walt Disney was actually cremated on December
17th, 1966.
And all this story really does is let Disney posthumously steal the glory of the real first
person to get a cryo burial -- a professor named James Bedford.
Not cool.
Roar story
The MGM lion has been growling at moviegoers since 1916, which was before movies actually
had sound, so it's as much of a Hollywood icon as anyone.
And if there's one thing people love, it's the tale of a ferocious animal mauling his
hapless trainer, right?
"Now what?!"
"AHHHHH!"
In the case of MGM's lion, the story of a predatory animal having his way with a human
being seems to stay pretty pervasive.
According to legend, one of the early logo lions attacked his trainer and two assistants
the day after its famous footage was shot, but MGM kept using the reel anyway because,
well, it was just plain cool to have a man-eating lion as a mascot.
Orrrrr, maybe the lighting was just too perfect to let it go over as simple a thing as blood
and guts.
According to Snopes, the story was totally fabricated by a website famous for — you
guessed it — fabricating stories, which rather ironically called itself "Factropolis."
The truth is that no lion that appeared in the MGM logo ever attacked a trainer.
[Lion roaring]
Hung out to dry
While the Yellow Brick Road produced plenty of on-screen oddities, from shoe thievery
to a color-changing horse, there's one tall tale about the film that just falls short.
According to cinematic legend, when Dorothy and Scarecrow meet the Tin Man and skip off
into the forest, there's a Munchkin that can be seen hanging himself in the distance as
the film keeps rolling.
The myth persists because if you squint and tap your heels together three times, viewers
can easily convince themselves that a shadow in the distance is a Munchkin dangling from
the end of a rope.
But the much more boring truth is that MGM thought it would be fun and whimsical to turn
a bunch of turkeys and peacocks loose on set.
If you watch the scene on a big screen, it's clear that the shadow is that of a large bird,
not a swinging extra.
So the only real story here is that Dorothy and her pals were probably skipping down the
Yellow Brick Road through extra-large piles of bird poop, which means those prized ruby
slippers were probably pretty gross by the end of this shoot.
Break through
All the world's greatest heroes come from humble beginnings — Spiderman was but a
lowly newspaper photographer, Luke Skywalker was just trying to grow stuff in a desert,
and Batman was … um … a rich orphan.
Okay, well, most great heroes were humble.
According to various rumors, Steven Spielberg, a man famous for telling great stories, wanted
his own awesome origin story — which is why he totally fabricated a tale of trespassing,
deception, and impersonation of a movie executive.
Over the years, Spielberg rather shamelessly embellished his story, which started with
him sneaking past Universal Studios guards dressed in a suit and tie and carrying a briefcase
that contained nothing but "a sandwich and two candy bars."
From there, the story morphed into him spending a two-year stint as a squatter in an empty
dressing room, which evidently gave him the "in" he needed in order to become a respected
Hollywood filmmaker, though the specifics are all a bit hazy, to say the least.
The story was entertaining enough that it's still told by tour guides at Universal, although
it's completely false — Spielberg actually got his start when he landed an unpaid internship
at Universal after his dad introduced him to one of the executives.
That's boring, though.
What if Luke Skywalker had gotten his start with an unpaid internship with a Jedi Knight,
right?
Oh, wait.
Exit wound
There've been an unfortunate number of on-set casualties over the years, but perhaps none
is quite as storied as the loss of Bruce Lee's son Brandon Lee, who was accidentally shot
while shooting a scene from 1994's The Crow.
There's no fibbing about that part; the guy really was shot point-blank after a co-star
fired off a prop pistol that was supposed to be empty.
But there are plenty of people who'll scramble for the pause button during a playback of
the scene in question and insist that what you just saw was the real deal.
The truth is though, Lee's final shot footage was not used in the film, and the scene was
also completely rewritten so the manner of his character's demise no longer resembles
the on-screen accident.
So, next time your film school friend tries to pull a fast one on you, you'll know better
than to believe any of these tinseltown tricks.
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