Forget politics. Is “Die Hard” really a Christmas movie? | comment

Yes, this depressing all-star hullabaloo is more common than Mariah Carey this season, but it’s making people more and more angry – especially what Alan Rickman (RIP) is doing to Emma Thompson (who doesn’t love her?).

Well, in Die Hard we see Rickman atone for the sins of Love Actually. There are even memes about it these days.

If all of this is a bit too trivial for you, brighten up your relationships with trivia from It’s a Wonderful Life, which half of you probably saw last night.

For example, did you know that the guy who opens the dance floor, causing George and Mary to fall into the swimming pool below, is Alfalfa from the Our Gang and Little Rascals shorts?

Yes, this was one of Carl Switzer’s most famous adult roles before he tragically died in 1959.

In the scene where George and Mary stop to look at the old house in Granville, director Frank Capra had a gunman ready to shoot out the window when Mary threw her rock. But Donna Reed had played baseball in high school and hit the nail on the head on her first take.

And did you know that offscreen crash wasn’t part of the script, as a drunk Uncle Bailey (when wasn’t he?) leaving the party?

Shortly after Thomas Mitchell left the camera, a crew member dropped something, resulting in a horrific accident. Mitchell improvised the phrase, “I’m fine! I’m fine,” and that’s Jimmy Stewart – not George – laughing about it.

Frank Capra thought it was so funny that he left the scene…and gave the crew member a $10 bonus.

Such jewels are sure to make anyone forget, if only for a moment, that we will fight again after the New Year.

So what does all this have to do with politics? Absolutely nothing, and that’s the point. Today we should all take a break from the dismay and stay in the festive joy.

As Charleston resident Bill Murray said in “Scrooged” — not even debating its holiday status — if we go back to that feeling, we might want it every day. Then perhaps the world will become less controversial.