You have questions. I have some answers.
Q: In one of the last scenes of the new “Elvis” movie, Elvis is seated singing and playing the piano, not in good health, with a puffy face and sweating profusely. It appears to me that was the real Elvis. Or was it the same actor who portrayed him throughout?
A: Both. The climactic performance of “Unchained Melody” in the film had Austin Butler as Elvis leading into the real man’s performance. Matt Villa, an editor on the film, told Variety that “it was a huge job putting Austin into that makeup, and that was the most significant of his makeup. … He did sing [“Unchained Melody”] in its entirety because there was a question mark towards the end as to whether we were going to get the real footage of Elvis and if we would be allowed to use it. … Thankfully that famous footage came through and we were able to use it, and that’s the real Elvis. It’s so interesting that a lot of people don’t realize we cut to the real Elvis because it punches me in the heart every time I see that scene and you see Elvis’ face.”
And that’s not the only place the film had the real Elvis on screen. For example, editor Jonathan Redmond told Variety that “at the very beginning where Elvis comes out in the blue suit, where he’s doing karate moves, there’s a two-panel split-screen … (with) real Elvis on one side and Austin is on the other.”
Q: My husband and I like to watch “The Wall” but we haven’t seen it on for a while. We hope you can let us know about it.
A: NBC mentioned the series when announcing many of its 2022-23 plans and called it a “viewer favorite.” But I have not seen an air date beyond a network note that it “returns soon.”
Q: On “Jeopardy!” the winner gets to keep all of their money, but the other two contestants get $1,000 or $2,000. Is that all the money they get to take home?
A: Yes. The long-running game show used to let all the contestants keep their winnings. But it appeared that some contestants were overly cautious in Final Jeopardy so they could keep the money they had won rather than risk losing it on a final bet. It’s thought that setting a fixed amount for second and third place makes it more likely that players will take risks at the end.
Q: I’m a big fan of “The Voice” on NBC. It used to have two sessions every year, spring and fall, but there’s been nothing since last fall. What’s the deal?
A: The show, which begins a new season on Sept. 19, is doing just one session a year now. “‘The Voice’ remains one of the most popular shows on television and we want to keep it that way,” a top NBC executive told Deadline.com. “We want to event-ize this iconic series. We think ‘The Voice’ will be on NBC for a very long time to come and we believe the best way to protect the brand, while also super-serving fans is to produce one amazing cycle this year.”
Q: What happened to the comedy team of Allen and Rossi, who were big in Las Vegas and on television?
A: I remember laughing often at the routines by Marty “Hello Dere!” Allen and Steve Rossi on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” where they appeared dozens of times, including twice when the Beatles were on the show. Their heyday was roughly from the late '50s to 1968, when they broke up for the first time. When Allen died in 2018 at the age of 95, the New York Times said much of their comedy was old-fashioned but their approach made a difference: “If Mr. Rossi’s unflappable suavity was standard operating procedure for a comedy team’s straight man, Mr. Allen’s childlike mix of innocence and insanity was something new.” They enjoyed careers separately but reunited in the '80s and '90s. Rossi died of cancer in 2014; he was 82.
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