Tom Hanks Speaks Bulgarian

How do I know? Saw Steven Spielberg's The Terminal. Tom Hanks plays Viktor Navorski, a visitor to New York City from a made up Eastern European country called Krakozhia. When the Airport authorities attempt to communicate with him, he answers in Bulgarian. He's pretty good at it and uses some pretty funny expressions. It's too bad every time he speaks in his native tongue, the volume is lowered and he seems to mumble.

Why did Spielberg and Hanks decide to use Bulgarian as the mystery language of the mystery Eastern European country? Well apparently Tom Hanks' wife, Rita Wilson, is half Bulgarian (on her father's side).

It was great to see the return of Kumar Pallana who played Pagoda in The Royal Tenenbaums. The picture below is from the funniest scene in the movie. Kumar Pallana cracks me up!


Besides Tom Hanks speaking Bulgarian in The Terminal, I felt another cool personal connection with the movies when later we saw Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban. I spotted Ian Brown, the frontman of one of my favorite bands, the Stone Roses, sitting on a table in one of the scenes. They cast him in the wrong film; I still believe the self-proclaimed King Monkey would've been perfect in Planet of the Apes.

Krassy Can Listen To It: "Good Fortune" by PJ Harvey