Q&A Hollywood
Q: I just rewatched “Paul” again, and only now noticed the joke about him talking to Steven Spielberg about “E.T.” Did they have to get permission from Spielberg for that?
A: They got more than permission — they got a cameo.
That was the actual voice of legendary Hollywood director and film icon Steven Spielberg on a call with the titular alien in the 2011 comedy “Paul.”
For those who haven't seen the movie, it's about an alien who crashed to Earth in the 1940s and has been living here, co-operating with the American government, ever since.
There's a joke partway through the film about how he has influenced world culture, with a flashback to him speaking on the phone with a film director about alien biology and how it could be used for a film plot. It soon becomes clear that the director he's talking to is Steven Spielberg and the plot they're developing together would become his 1982 cinematic classic “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.”
“Paul” stars (and was written by) comedy duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Pegg said in an interview with Syfy.com that he and Frost knew Spielberg from their time doing voice work on the director's 2011 movie “Tintin.” They were working on “Paul” at the same time and told him about their idea for the joke.
“He loved the idea and jokingly suggested a cameo,” Pegg said. “Nick and I immediately hashed out the scene and held him to it.”
It probably didn't hurt that the whole script for “Paul” was a big homage to Spielberg's sci-fi work, particularly “E.T.” and his earlier classic, 1977's “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
Q: Out of all the reality competition shows — “Big Brother,” “Masterchef,” “RuPaul's Drag Race” and so on — which one has the biggest cash prize?
A: Even as the genre has grown and changed over the years, it's still the old, established ones that pay the most — and not any of the ones that you mention. That payoff appears to cap at a cool million — a round, impressive figure that the highest-paying shows repeatedly turn to (with one big exception).
“Survivor” and “The Amazing Race,” two of the biggest, longest-standing players on the reality competition landscape, routinely give $1-million prizes to their season winners. This is also true of relative newcomer “America's Got Talent” (which debuted in 2006, five years after “The Amazing Race” and six years after “Survivor”).
An even newer entrant has also joined this club: “American Ninja Warrior” has been giving out million-dollar prizes to its winners since its seventh season in 2016.
There's been one big exception to this million-dollar rule. The 40th season of “Survivor,” an all-star edition dubbed “Winners at War,” doubled the number, awarding its winner, Tony Vlachos, $2 million.
It should be noted that these are one-time numbers. Other individual competitors have won more through repeated wins. For example, Chris Tamburello, Johnny Devenanzio and Ashley Mitchell have all earned more than $1 million through repeat appearances on the lesser-known but longrunning MTV show “The Challenge.”
If we widen the definition even further, the biggest winner of all would be Brad Rutter. He raked in nearly $5 million through his various appearances on “Jeopardy” (which, admittedly, is not quite the kind of reality show you were thinking of).
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