Same Newspaper Prop Recurs in TV, Movies

Everybody's been reading the same news for years
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 5, 2010 4:40 PM CDT

Watch the commercial and notice the quick image of the newspaper at about the 12-second mark. Then go to Slashfilm to see how that very same newspaper page has been showing up in all kinds of TV shows (hey, there's Al Bundy reading it) and movies for decades. It's apparently become an inside joke in the prop world.

Another guess, from Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing: "Paranoid studio lawyers don't want to use real newspapers because they think that they might get a copyright complaint from the paper (despite this incidental use being clearly fair use), so they insist that set-dressers all use the same prop that's fully rights-cleared." (More movies stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X