BY ADAM THOMLISON

Q: Who was that playing Helen in the big “Troy” movie from a few years ago? I don’t think I know her from anything else.

A: You’re expressing the sentiment a lot of people felt when director Wolfgang Petersen chose an unknown face to be the one “that launched a thousand ships.”

That is the famous description of Helen of Troy, one of the great beauties of history. The role went to German actress Diane Kruger, who was a complete unknown at the time — and that’s exactly why Petersen wanted her.

She was just about the only unknown actor in the thing. “Troy” (released in 2004 — not exactly “a few years ago,” I’m sorry to say) was loaded with big, expensive stars. Brad Pitt starred as the mighty (and pouty) Achilles while Eric Bana played his rival

Hector, Brian Cox was King Agamemnon while Peter O’Toole played his rival King Priam, Sean Bean played Odysseus, Orlando Bloom was Paris — the A-list goes on.

That makes it all the more surprising that they went with a rookie for Helen. The studio reportedly demanded a big star for that role, too — Halle Berry, Keira Knightley, Jennifer Lopez, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Nicole Kidman were all considered — but Petersen resisted. Indeed, he reportedly didn’t want Helen to actually appear in the film at all, feeling that no face could live up to the legend, and certainly not a

Hollywood face that people already knew. So he insisted on an unknown and selected Kruger out of a huge number of applicants.

Q: How did William Shatner end up on “The Curse of Oak Island”?

A: There’s the reason you heard on the show, about how he’s a fan and how he’s not interested in the treasure so much as the quest, and then there’s the reason he didn’t talk about, which is a little more boring — synergy, basically.

Shatner has his own show on History, “The UnXplained,” and it could use the bump that would come from a tie-in with “Curse,” one of History’s most popular shows. Indeed, “The UnXplained” aired its second-season premiere just a few days after his “Curse” appearance.

And he returned the favor in that season premiere. The first episode of this season of “The

UnXplained” tackles the Oak Island curse as well, bringing the show’s stars on to talk about the mystery and their obsession.

But this wasn’t just a cynical exercise in network promotion — there’s patriotism at play too. “The Curse of Oak Island” has been bringing Canada to Americans for years now, and that’s exactly what Shatner has done for his whole career. He’s one of Canada’s most famous sons.

He’s also a legitimate fan of the mysterious, and Oak Island is now one of Canada’s most famous mysteries.

Have a question? Email us at questions@tvtabloid.com.