According to legend, the addition of candles to cakes began in Ancient Greece, where cakes were made in the shape of a moon for the Goddess of the Moon, Artemis.The moonlight was reflected in the candles, and the smoke lifted the devotee's prayers to Artemis. It's also said that when we blow out the candles on birthday cakes, the smoke carries our wishes away to be granted. You don't want to be blowing out those birthday candles in Venezuela, where it's customary to try to push the birthday girl/face boy's into the cake after the candles have been extinguished. At the very least, they get to try the cake first!

In the United Kingdom, nearly £368 million is spent on whole cakes each year, which includes birthday cakes! That's nearly £1 million worth of cake per day, which is a lot of cake (and even more candles). When you extrapolate this to the entire world, you'll discover that people eat between 50 and 100 million birthday cakes every single day, not just once a year.

Andy Serkis had to play King Kong twice for Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005). First, he had to play the giant ape alongside Naomi Watts (Ann Darrow) in a rough-and-ready gorilla costume, so his co-star could react. After principal photography was finished, he had to perform again, this time in a motion capture suit. Andy, fantastic double performance!

Banquo, like the other characters in Shakespeare's Macbeth, is based on a real person. King James I (James VI of Scotland) claimed his ancestry could be traced back to Banquo, a friend of the real Macbeth, via the Stuart dynasty. In the play, Shakespeare portrays Banquo in a favourable light, which he may have done in order to please King James.

When you steal someone's thunder, you use their ideas for your own benefit without giving them credit. Shakespeare appears to have used a sound effect invented by fellow playwright John Dennis to create the thunder heard throughout Macbeth. Appius and Virginia, Dennis's failed production, was the first to feature the sound. Dennis then heard thunder during a Macbeth performance shortly after that one ended. He was enraged that his thunder had been stolen.

It's no coincidence that the Queen in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs bears an uncanny resemblance to Lady Macbeth. Walt Disney purposefully imitated Lady Macbeth's on-screen persona, and was even quoted as picturing the Evil Queen as "a mixture of Lady Macbeth and The Big Bad Wolf."

Speaking the name of the play in a theatre is said to bring a curse. Actors commonly refer to it as "The Scottish Play." No one knows where this idea came from; some speculate that it was inspired by the death of the actor who played Lady Macbeth in the first production during the run of the play. Another theory is that Shakespeare used real witches' spells in the play. If an actor makes a mistake, he or she must leave the room, turn around three times, spit, say a curse word, and then knock to re-enter.

The character of Macbeth was loosely based on Mac Bethad mac Findláich, a Scottish King in the 11th century. There are some significant differences between Shakespeare's storey and reality, and while the Bard portrays Macbeth's reign as brief and bloody, the real king was widely regarded as a successful and fair ruler, reigning from 1040 to 1057.

More than 700 different versions of Cinderella have been collected from all over the world, and it has been translated into almost every language. In addition, it is the most popular pantomime on the British stage.

In pantomime versions of Cinderella, the ugly sisters were originally named Clorinda and Thisbe, but their names have evolved over time to reflect current fashions, including Buttercup and Daisy, Euthanasia and Asphyxia, Alexis and Krystle, and even Posh and Scary.

According to a 2017 study published in Psychology Today, "love at first sight" isn't always a case of looking back with rose-colored glasses. Respondents did report falling in love at first sight with potential partners, with men being more likely to do so than women. Granted, those strong, initial feelings do not encompass all of what romantic love entails, but they can prompt a person to pursue something deeper.

As the adage goes, opposites attract. And research shows that this is partially correct. Couples who are too similar or too different do not last long. Apparently, there must always be a foundation of similarities, but there must also be things that the two of you learn from each other.

According to the findings of one study published in the Journal of Personality, even the most pessimistic people can change for the better with a little bit of love in their lives. The scientists behind the study discovered that being in a relationship indirectly made neurotic partners more optimistic and self-confident, presumably due to all of the positive emotions and experiences associated with the relationship, after following 245 young couples for nine months.

If you suffer from chronic headaches and have tried everything to relieve the pain, love could be the secret solution you've been looking for. When researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine administered a nasal spray containing oxytocin, or the "love hormone," to subjects suffering from chronic headaches, they discovered that 50 percent of participants reported their headache pain was cut in half after four hours, with an additional 27 percent reporting no pain at all during the same timeframe.

This may come as a surprise given that Eric McCormack (better known as Will from Will & Grace) made headlines when he revealed that he auditioned "two or three times" for Ross. However, because executive producer Kevin Bright had previously worked with Schwimmer, the writers were already developing Ross's character in Schwimmer's voice. Schwimmer was, in fact, the first person to be cast in the show

"When things are going well, [romantic love] is a very powerfully wonderful addiction," said Helen E. Fisher, a biological anthropologist at Rutgers University, in a 2006 TED Talk. That's because the hormones released by your brain when you're in love are intensely euphoric, to the point of making you addicted to love—and the person you're in love with.

People may try to convince you that long-distance relationships can't and won't work, but research shows otherwise. According to one study published in the Journal of Communication, long-distance relationships are not only as successful as regular ones, but they are also more effective in building trust and satisfaction between partners.

Kudrow stated that she was surprised to hear Perry's interpretation of Chandler during the first table read because she thought Chandler was supposed to be gay when she first read the script. She wasn't the only one who felt this way. Many fans speculated about Chandler's sexual orientation during the first few seasons of the show. "No, Chandler isn't gay," David Crane told Entertainment Weekly in 1997. He will not be gay."

While there isn't a real Central Perk in New York City, the fictional cafe has inspired a few. Friends fan Du Xin opened a Central Perk replica in downtown Beijing in 2010, which quickly became extremely popular. Due to its success, Du Xin was able to replicate Joey's apartment next door. Another Central Perk opened in Liverpool in 2012.

Being in a loving relationship has a positive emotional and physical impact on your life. According to one meta-analysis of more than 3.5 million people nationwide, married people up to the age of 50 were 13% less likely to develop vascular diseases than divorced or single people.

Friends co-creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman wrote a seven-page pitch for a new sitcom called Insomnia Café in the early 1990s. Aside from the different title, the plot was quite different from what became known as Friends. For example, Joey and Monica were supposed to be the love interests rather than Ross and Rachel.

"I didn't like the guitar," Lisa Kudrow admitted of Phoebe Buffay's musical instrument of choice. "It wasn't sinking in with me. So I'm pretty sure I asked, 'What if she plays the bongos?'" They eventually brought in a guitar teacher, but that didn't last long. Kudrow learned a couple of chords before declaring that she was finished with the lessons. She reasoned that Phoebe would only know a few chords anyway. And thank goodness, because "Smelly Cat" is perfect as is.

The Princess and the Frog gradually introduced the first black Disney princess, but the film had some unintended consequences. For example, it sent 50 children, mostly girls under the age of ten, to the hospital with salmonella after they attempted to kiss toads like the film's heroine. "Reptiles aren't ideal kissing partners," AOLHealth's Liz Neporent wrote at the time.

Although the '90s Disney princesses are thought to be more feminist than the older ones, a surprising study found that this is not entirely true. Despite being bolder, more independent, and less reliant on men, princesses still speak 40% less than their male counterparts. More recent Disney princesses, such as Rapunzel from Tangled and Merida from Brave, are more equal, but even Frozen, a film about two sisters, had 59 percent male dialogue.

Have you ever noticed how the Disney princesses never look at each other in promotional photos and marketing materials? There's a good reason for this. "To preserve what [Andy] Mooney referred to as their individual'mythologies,' the princesses never make eye contact when they're grouped," the New York Times reported in 2006. "Each looks off in a slightly different direction, as if unaware of the presence of the others." However, with the release of Wreck-It Ralph 2, which depicts all of the princesses hanging out together, this may change.