This post was born on a Friday night when I declared a certain actor to be my favorite B-list actor currently working. A lot goes into this sort of decision. It’s not just a matter of judging on-screen performance. No, finding a favorite B-lister is more a matter of unquantifiable taste: an affinity for the bad movies he or she has appeared in, a formative childhood role, a body of credits that reads more like a list of punchlines, all of that je ne sais quoi. I made my choice for all those good reasons and cited his works. I was devastated, then, to be corrected – my actor had not appeared in most of the movies I had named. Impossible. Couldn’t be. But, of course, a brief flash of an iPhone prove it could be. It was. Half of the films in which I had identified this man had not featured him at all. It had been someone else, somehow. A fake, an impostor. I had confused my man with someone else, combining their collected screen appearances into what I thought was the greatest CV ever compiled by a second-tier actor. I was wrong. So wrong that I am determined now to make sure you never have to suffer the same embarrassment and heartbreak that I have suffered.

(PS – I still love you Elias Koteas. Nothing can change that)

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