Hollywood Q&A

A: For a show about scientists, the characters on “The Big Bang Theory” were all pretty artistic. Of course, the actors are artists first — they just play scientists on TV (with the exception of Mayim Bialik, who actually has a PhD in neuroscience), so it’s not that surprising that they all actually know how to play their instruments, Johnny Galecki included.

Galecki, who starred on the show as Leonard, has been playing the cello since he was very young.

He has, of course, been acting since he was very young as well — he was just 12 when he appeared in his first screen role (a 1987 NBC telefilm called “Time Out for Dad”) — but it hasn’t always been easy. According to CBS, he once had to sell his cello to pay bills.

But Galecki’s cello skills aren’t even the most impressive musical accomplishment on the show. That honor goes to Jim Parsons, whose character, Sheldon, plays the theremin on the show. Parsons actually learned it himself specifically for the role. That’s pretty impressive given that the theremin is known as one of the most difficult instruments to learn.

Bialik gets a close second, though. She already knew how to play the piano, bass and trumpet, but for her role as Amy she learned to play another famously difficult instrument: the harp.

Simon Helberg is also a pretty strong piano player — as we see on the show when he forms the band Footprints on the Moon with Raj (played by Kunal Nayyar).

That leaves us with Penny (played by Kaley Cuoco). At a media event, when the other cast members were talking about these musical accomplishments, she offered a comment that almost sounded in-character: “And when Penny drinks, she’s really drinking!”

Q: Is it a little bit coincidental that two similar films — “White House Down” and “Olympus Has Fallen” — both came out in the same year?

A: It’s tempting to assume there’s some kind of corporate espionage or, in this case, political conspiracy at play when two movies about an attack on the White House are released just weeks apart. But “White House Down” screenwriter James Vanderbilt insists it really was a coincidence.

He said he had just finished writing his script when production on the other movie, “Olympus Has Fallen,” was announced. He considered just throwing his own script in the trash, but his agent told him to shop it around anyway. Sony bought it the day they received it and rushed it through production, presumably hoping to beat “Olympus Has Fallen” to theaters.

So what we’re left with is the idea that the existence of these two nearly identical scripts was actually a coincidence, but the fact that they were produced and released months apart was not.

If Sony hadn’t known about “Olympus Has Fallen” when it got the “White House Down” script, it may not have bought it. At the very least, if Sony had taken the usual time to review the script and produce the film, it would have come out quite a bit later and the coincidence wouldn’t have been as stark.

Q: Do we know who will play James Bond next?

A: At time of writing, that’s still a mystery, but this is a hot one that could change at any minute.

For example, a previously unknown actor is now the betting person’s fourth favorite to take on the iconic role. Regé-Jean Page of the popular new Netflix hit “Bridgerton” entered the race out of nowhere and is suddenly a top contender.

I refer to betting because people are, in fact, doing just that. Ladbroke’s, the U.K.-based betting firm, runs a book with odds for who will take the role, and it’s pretty closely followed by the industry and news media.

The current favorite is Tom Hardy (the star of 2012’s “The Dark Knight Rises”). There are a lot of things going in his favor, including the fact that he’s a dapper British white guy, just like all the previous James Bonds.

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