(Holidailies #12)

I am not the best person at parties. I finally met someone I had known online for more than ten years yesterday and could handle that social situation (especially as she is bright and bubbly), but in a crowd, gah, I need something to do/something to distract me from my endless worry that I’m not 100% sure how to behave like a human.

But at the work Christmas party, it’s not quite as bad. Sure, as second-in-command (mostly), I have to behave less audaciously than some of the other people, but that’s okay. I’ve never been one to court a hangover, at least not intentionally, nor dance on tables, nor make out with an employee. (YET. Actually, ew. No. Too incestuous.) I also have the added distraction of holding court and hosting a quiz. It feeds into my favourite things: trivia, booze, and mild power-tripping.

Alas, the party’s tomorrow and I’ve not finished writing the fucker for this year yet, so I’m pulling a late-nighter to cobble the last bits together and get everything formatted for the picture round and such.

So I’m gonna do that.

But here’s Round 1 from last year’s quiz:

1. Cary Grant’s birth name, Archibald Leach, was used for one of the lead characters in which comedy film?
2. David Huddleston played the title character in which Coen brothers movie.
3. Speaking of the Coens, what Oscar-winning movie was being filmed very near the Texas set of No Country for Old Men, causing delays when the black smoke on one set was visible on the No Country one, necessitating reshoots?
4. Michael Fassbender was in approximately 387 movies in the last few years, including the acclaimed SHAME. But which of these films in which he was in the main cast made the most money at the box office worldwide: X-Men First Class,  Inglourious Basterds, or 300?
5. We all, or at least I did, celebrated the dissolution of the Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes marriage, if only because it might mean that she will stop making terrible, terrible films now that he isn’t influencing her decision-making career-wise. What record-breaking (it won all 10 categories) Razzie winner of 2012 did she co-star in?
6. Number question: How many women have been nominated for Academy Awards for Best Director?
7. Two pop stars had their documentaries/concert films rocket to the top 10 of the highest grossing documentaries this year? (half-point for each)
8. Who played baby Michael Rizzi in the original Godfather, was credited as ‘Child on Ship’ in Godfather II, and had an actual, much maligned speaking role in Godfather III? (They also appeared in The Phantom Menace as one of Padme’s entourage.)
9. The 75 possible contenders for Best Song at this year’s Academy Awards were announced this week. Which actor, semi-improbably, has a shot at a nomination for a ditty he sang in Magic Mike?
10. What movie musical was the top grossing film of the 2000s (meaning 2000 through 2009) in the United Kingdom?

Answers:

1. A Fish Called Wanda
2. The Big Lebowski
3. There Will Be Blood
4. 300, with $456,068,181 (X-Men First Class made $353,624,124 and Inglourious Basterds $321,455,689)
   
5. Jack & Jill
6. 4 – Lina Wertmüller for Seven Beauties (1976), Jane Campion for The Piano, Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation, and Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker.
7. Katy Perry and Justin Bieber
8. Sofia Coppola
9. Matthew McConaughey
10. Mamma Mia