Samuel Goldwyn, famous for his verbal bloopers, once learned that producer Jesse Lasky planned to name his second son William. "Why would you name him Bill?" he snapped. "Every Tom, Dick, and Harry is named Bill!"

[Among the many classic Goldwynisms? "You've got to take the bull by the teeth"; "include me out"; "in two words, im-possible!"; and "a verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on." Although many of his supposed malaprops were fabrications, Goldwyn's wife Frances once admitted that she had heard him utter about half of the lines attributed to him.]