The GloveFor many years, Dame Judi Dench and friend and fellow actor Tim Pigott-Smith played an elaborate game of hide-and-seek with a certain black glove. It regularly popped up on one another's film and theater sets, the more surprisingly the better.
During the production of The Shipping News, Kevin Spacey, having learned about the glove, had it sent to Newfoundland where he kept its presence a secret for a full month - until the day Dench shot one of her most emotional scenes, in which Agnis dumps the ashes of her much-loathed older brother down an outhouse before peeing on them.
Spacey, having positioned himself beneath the outhouse with the glove on a stick, waited for Dench to lift her skirts and squat above the seat. "I felt something tickling my bottom," she recalled. "Kevin says I jumped into the air, screaming. It took me quite a long time to recover, and it will take even longer to plan the proper revenge."
[Trivia: Until the Middle Ages, underwater divers near the Mediterranean coastline collected golden strands from so-called pen shells, which used strands to anchor themselves to the sea floor. Called byssus, the strands were woven into a luxurious "cloths of gold" and made into women's gloves so fine that a pair could be packed into an empty walnut shell.]
Dench, Dame Judith Olivia ["Judi"] (1934- ) British actress [noted for her roles in such television series as "A Fine Romance" (1981) and "Mr. and Mrs. Edgehill" (1985), and in such
films as
Die Another Day (2002),
The Importance of Being Earnest (2002),
The Shipping News (2001),
Iris (2001),
Chocolat (2000),
The World Is Not Enough (1999),
Shakespeare in Love (1998, Oscar),
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997),
Mrs. Brown (1997),
Hamlet (1996),
GoldenEye (1995),
Henry V (1989),
A Handful of Dust (1988),
84 Charing Cross Road (1986),
A Room with a View (1986), and
Wetherby (1985)]
[Sources: Premiere, Dec. 2001; Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts]More Dame Dench anecdotesRelated Anecdote Keywords:
Practical Jokes Film Movies Behind The Scenes Practical Jokes Toilets Urination Gloves Tickling Bottoms
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