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Nickelodeon Originally Rejected Hey Arnold’s Emotional Vietnam Episode

The producer of Hey Arnold! reveals that the show’s emotional Vietnam episode was originally rejected by Nickelodeon. The iconic animated series was a touchstone for many in the 1990s, centering on a fourth-grader named Arnold who lived with his grandparents. Although many Hey Arnold! episodes focused on the titular character’s experiences and problems, several would actually turn over the spotlight to other major and even minor figures in the series. This has become a fairly standard approach for prestige dramas and comedies, which often turn over the spotlight to supporting players, but Hey Arnold! made a success of it back when it wasn’t such a common trend.
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One of the show’s most enduring examples of this shift in focus was “Arnold’s Christmas”. Aired in December 1996, it offered a close look at Mr. Hyunh, a recurring character who lived in the same boarding house as Arnold, and depicted the 1975 fall of Saigon in Vietnam. In particular, the episode examined how a young Vietnamese girl named Mai was forcibly separated from her father Mr. Hyunh. The plot itself was sweetly simple, however, as it showed Arnold trying to find the right gift for his neighbor and ultimately understanding him much better as a result.

Related: Hey Arnold’s Spinoff Explained (& Why It Was Cancelled)

In an interview with /Film, writer and producer Joe Ansolabehere discussed how the Hey Arnold! episode happened and why it almost didn’t. As the producer tells it, there had always been an interest in including a flashback to Vietnam from the moment the character of Mr. Hyunh was introduced but Nickelodeon kept saying no. Ansolabehere said that the network’s main worry was that kids wouldn’t care about the story. An executive at Nickelodeon, who had the final say over whether the episode could continue being animated, showed it to her son. Her son’s reaction, Ansolabehere says, was the turning point. You can read the quote below.

“She popped it in and her son, who was like nine, was sitting there and watched it. And it got to the end of the Vietnam thing, where he’s holding the baby up and the helicopter guys take the baby and everything… And the little boy turned to his mom and said, ‘Mom, is that what Vietnam was all about?’”

Hey Arnold! gives Mai and Mr. Hyunh a happy ending, as they two are reunited at the episode’s conclusion. But it also features the gutting flashback that shows Mr. Hyunh handing off his baby daughter to an American helicopter pilot with the hopes she would grow up and find a better life. In the decades since the Christmas episode debuted, it’s been credited as one of the first times the Vietnamese community was presented in pop culture through an honest and open lens.

Hey! Arnold creator Craig Bartlett has reflected on the story’s impact, as well. He’s explained that in an era before social media, it took him some time to appreciate how the story of Mr. Hyunh and Mai resonated. It wasn’t really until Asian Americans, who’d grown up watching the series, began sharing its significance. It’s undoubtedly a good thing that Nickelodeon moved past its reluctance.

Next: Hey Arnold: Helga’s Parents Were The Real Bullies, Not Her

Source: /Film

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‘I am officially off the market’: When Margot Robbie revealed she made the ‘conscious’ decision of not dating actors


Margot Robbie revealed her decision to not date actors because of the media scrutiny that came with a public relationship of two high-profile actors
Back in 2015, A-lister Margot Robbie made a declaration that she would not be dating any actors. The actress may have alluded to her fiance Tom Ackerley, who she married the following year in 2016. In an exclusive interview with Marie Claire, she revealed that being in a relationship as an actor herself came with its own set of challenges. She believed that dating someone who was popular would add on to the media scrutiny.

Margot Robbie opened up on why she made a conscious decision to not date actorsTalking to Marie Claire, she claimed, “I am officially off the market.” She then shared the reasoning behind her decision and added, “I made a conscious decision not to date actors.” She continued to explain, “But not because I hate actors. That’s a nasty generalization to make, and that’s not the case. People take such an interest in your love life when you have a profile, it puts a lot of stress on a relationship.”
The Barbie actress continued, “So two people with profiles, I figure it’s just double the amount of scrutiny, and I’d like to avoid that at all costs.” This came after reports of her locking lips with Tarzan co-star Alexander Skarsgard started making rounds. It was reported that she was caught kissing the actor during the Sundance Film Festival.

Margot Robbie revealed she opted for a minimal lifestyle even after becoming an actorIn the interview, Robbie also opened up about how she was adapting to fame. She shared, “I have a normal 24-year-old life. If I were a waitress, I’d probably have the exact same lifestyle. I’d go to the same clubs I go to already, live in the same house with the same housemates, hang out with the same people.”
However, Margot Robbie tied the knot with Tom Ackerley who is an English producer and actor. The duo met on the sets of 2013 movie Suite Francaise where Tom was working as an assistant director. Post marriage, both of them launched their production company LuckyChap Entertainment.

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Monica Bellucci and Tin Burton at lunch in the restaurant in Selci Lama


For All Saints’ Day, the Hollywood star from Tiferno returned to his native Umbria to enjoy a moment of relaxation and then visit his parentsOn the occasion of the All Saints’ Day celebrations, the Hollywood star of Tiferno origin, Monica Bellucci, returned to her native Umbria to enjoy a moment of relaxation and to visit her father Pasquale and her mother Brunella.Flanked by her current partner Tim Burton, she went to lunch, together with about twenty old friends, at the Osteria del Musicista, which has always been her favorite restaurant, in Selci Lama.Menu dedicated to typical dishes of the area, which includes an appetizer with breadsticks lined with coppa, duck in porchetta and grilled pork livers, polenta with wild boar sauce accompanied by the very typical cappelletti in broth.To conclude, a dessert based on fried “ciaccia” with Nutella and roasted chestnuts.
Having paid the bill and greeted the restaurant owner and lifelong friend, Roberto Polchi, Monica brought home cappelletti and broth for a family dinner.

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‘Rocky’ Was Quite Different In His Original Screenplay, Sylvester Stallone Claims


Sylvester Stallone took his friend’s advice on a rewrite of the original screenplay to Rocky. A few tweaks later, he was on his way to major success.
In the new Netflix documentary Sly, Stallone discussed how he initially conceived of the project, which had a much harder edge. In the early version, Rocky was depicted as a “thuggish” character, inspired by Martin Scorsese’s crime drama, Mean Streets.

But Stallone’s perspective changed when a friend read the script and thought the boxer was too cruel for audiences to actually care about him.
Stallone recalled her crying.

“She goes, ‘I hate Rocky. I hate him. He’s cruel. He hits people. He beats them up.’”
Stallone took it to heart, and asked what he could do to soften the character.

“I said, ‘what if you stop short of it?’ Like, maybe he almost did. He could have, that’s his job, but he doesn’t?’ ‘That’d be nice,’” he added. “I said, ‘What if he had a girlfriend or something?’ ‘Yeah, that’s nice.’ So I go back, start writing that: ‘Girlfriend. Nice.’”
$117 million in box office later, a franchise was born.

Stallone also revealed that actor Dolph Lundgren sent him to the hospital during one fight scene in Rocky IV.
“Dolph Lundgren… he pulverized me,” Stallone says in the documentary. “Later that night, my heart started to swell—which happens when the heart hits the chest—and then my blood pressure went up to 260, and they thought I was going to be talking to angels. Next thing I know, I’m in intensive care, where I’m surrounded by nuns, and I thought, ‘OK, that’s curtains.’”
Stallone was in the hospital for nine days following the incident, praying for “one more round.”
“For the first minute of the fight, it is going to be a free-for-all,” Stallone told Lundgren. The Swedish actor joked in a separate interview that all he did was “obey orders,” explaining, “[Stallone] was the boss. I did what he told me.”
Doctors allegedly told Stallone that he received a blow to the ribs that made his heart rattle around in his ribcage, a condition typically seen in head-on collisions. “I did hit a bus, of sorts,” Stallone joked.

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