Bruce Almighty phone number annoys many

[Cathryn Crawford]

Forget the private message. I swear, some days I'm an idiot.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Can you provide a calendar with those days? It will make it easier for us to know what to expect, and when.

[Cathryn Crawford]

Those who know me know my moods. And very few belong to that club. :-)

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Breakfast Club?

[RedBloodedAmerican]

She's over here.

[Cathryn Crawford]

No, the Cathryn Club.

[Izzy Dunne]

Many moviegoers have remembered the number and put it to work in their own area codes.

As a kid, I used to wonder why everybody's phone number (on TV or movies) was 555-something.
I never thought anybody would be stupid enough to call a number they saw in a movie.
I guess I was wrong.
WAY wrong.

[Scothia]

Movies and television always use phony phone numbers identified by the non-existent 555 exchange.

And 555 always takes me out of the story.

Kudos to Rev. Patrick Collington of Cornelia, Ga. for having a sense of humor and knowing what to do with lemons.

[Cathryn Crawford]

Am I the new chasee?

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Long ago, in a land far away (California, I think) there was a band called "Sugarloaf" who had been turned down for a record deal by CBS records. When they finally recorded their hit song "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You", they recorded the touch tones for a private number at CBS Records.

Legend is it that if you held the phone up to your speakers, it would actually dial the office.

(I think the number probably got changed pretty quickly; I'm sure CBS was not amused.)

A friend of mine actually played on the recording, and I'd say what he played but then everyone would know he was my friend and they might shun him. : )

[Centurion2000]

This is Tommy TuTones's revenge.

[Cathryn Crawford]

That means, you're, like, famous, right?

[RedBloodedAmerican]

they might shun him

Everyone likes Chad Fairbanks.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Comedy relief.

[supercat]

And 555 always takes me out of the story.

Back in the days of NNX exchanges, using a N1X or N0X was a good approach; those who knew how phones worked would recognize the numbers as fake, but they weren't glaringly obvious.

I wonder how hard it would be, or how hard it would cost, for a movie company to sign a deal with the owner of a phone number not to use that number for anything for, say, ten years. Given that phone numbers are often allocated in blocks, I would think there should be no problem allocating a few dozen or a few hundreds numbers for such purposes.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

(you don't know who DOAIJV is?????)

[Cathryn Crawford]

I'm comedy relief? Funny, I was thinking the same about you and old Laz.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Ummmmm...no. But there is an All Music Guide (allmusic.com) listing for me. It has the dumbest stuff I've ever done on it, and none of the good stuff. Very embarrassing. I actually stumbled on it by accident one day.

I suppose I could write them a note and get them to bring it up to speed.

Note to all three of you who are even mildly curious: Don't even ASK. LOL (I am not telling my real name here, and a search on AMG for "DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet" will not yield any results...those of you who know my name won't get a hit either, 'cause it's under a stage name. Thank God.)

[Cathryn Crawford]

Nope.