True (at least if you believe Gore Vidal, which--based on the visual record--I do) Charlton Heston Story.

So they were making Ben-Hur. (Yep, it's hyphenated.) And somehow, it wasn't working. They didn't have a real hook for the story--or, as I believe Gore phrased it, they have a disagreement about politics and that's supposed to fill three hours of film. It didn't work. So Gore Vidal went up to William Wyler, the director of the film, and suggested that they have the pair be, um, formerly very close. (Gore Vidal was a screenwriter, albeit an uncredited one.)

So William Wyler says that they can't do that--leaving aside the Code, the book is subtitled A Tale of the Christ. (Yep, that article belongs there.) So Gore says, you know, we won't say anything. We'll just throw in some subtext for those who are watching for it. And William Wyler agreed, and he told Gore to go off and explain to Stephen Boyd, who played Messala, and Wyler said he'd take care of Charlton Heston. Gore Vidal does not think he was filled in on the story, and the no politics rule forbids me from getting very far into why. (Let's just say that we're dealing with a man who swore, after quite a lot of research--presumably including the man's own notebooks with the pictures of his boyfriends in them--that Michelangelo couldn't have been gay.) However, if you actually watch the film again, watch for the looks Messala gives Judah Ben-Hur.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"