Fire at Universal Studios: Like Backdraft, But Real

BuzzSugar — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 09:27:58 PDT

A fire broke out at Hollywood's Universal Studios around 4:30 a.m. Sunday morning. Nobody was seriously hurt, though the fire destroyed some set pieces and soundstages, including the courthouse square used for Back to the Future. According the AP, "Two mock New York and New England streets used both for movies such as Bruce Almighty, Spider-Man 2 and Transformers and as tourist displays were a total loss," and in addition to the courthouse square, "the famous clock tower that enabled Michael J. Fox's character in Back to the Future to travel through time was damaged." Thousands of videos were also destroyed, though Universal has duplicates of all the lost footage.

Today officials are saying the fire took over 12 hours to extinguish due to low water pressure and because "the sprinkler system on the outdoor sets was nearly useless." The cause of the fire is still unknown.

Many of the people quoted about the fire can't help but quip that the incident was just like what filmmakers crave when making a disaster film, except, you know, real.

Source

Alexander Skarsgard Jokes About Naked Scenes and His "Harry Potter" Moment in NYC

Katie Henry — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 12:27:17 PDT

Alexander Skarsgard arrived in NYC this week and checked out SoHo yesterday before dropping by Regis and Kelly studios this morning. He got a warm reception from the audience and fans who were waiting in line for hours to get a glimpse of their favorite True Blood star. Regis and Kelly had fun with Alex, probing him about his childhood acting career and stripping down on set, and they even surprised him by flashing a photo of Alex accepting his honorary degree from Leeds University, to which he fired back, "I look like a character from Harry Potter." Alex kept the conversation lighthearted when it came to shooting scenes in the buff, and Skarsgard exclaimed "let's get naked!" and quipped that in his native Sweden clothing is always optional. Fans got to see an awful lot of Alex on Sunday's True Blood, when things finally started heating up between Eric and Sookie Stackhouse, played by Anna Paquin.