extremely little

Distracting from other events, here's an article, striking off the trailer release for the upcoming Little Women, on casting for this and past adaptations. The writer is mostly fixated on the fact that William Shatner once played Prof. Bhaer, but there are lots of other little-known interesting castings we can find in television adaptations. Two years ago the BBC did a version - only the latest of several from them - with Angela Lansbury as Aunt Marsh and Michael Gambon as Mr. Laurence; an earlier BBC version in 1970 had Patrick Troughton as Mr. Marsh. But the oddest one was a 1958 tv version which was evidently a musical. Margaret O'Brien, then 21, reprised her film role as Beth from nine years earlier, but the really striking castings for the later-day viewer (if there are any: I haven't yet been able to find this online) are, as Meg, Florence Henderson; and, as Laurie, Joel Grey. Well, well.

And speaking of unexpected juxtapositions, here's a historical trivia question for you: Who had, let's call it, personal encounters with both Tolkien and Allan Sherman? You might be surprised at the answer.