Carl from 'Ghost'

Fame, teenagers, John Travolta, relationships, wives and incidents in Glasgow car parks. Just a few of the subjects discussed by the Liverpudlian comedian John Bishop in the SECC last night. In fact Bishop's main subject was probably his wife. After having been married for the past 17 years, in what sounds like a slightly rocky relationship, Bishop gave us tales involving the many ups and downs, highs and lows, trials, tribulations and arguments with his wife. Usually won or started, in some way or another, by the wife. All these tales, and others, delivered in his usual naturally funny, toothy, scouse manner.
Bishop likes Glasgow too but then don't all visiting acts, taking bookings for venues with well over a thousand bums on seats?
He likes Glasgows history, it's entertaining football scuffles and it's great barn. The barn we were sitting in as we listened to him. The SECC, not the SECC Auditorium, where I thought the night's entertainment was, arguing with Ka on the way into town, driving up to Kelvingrove to find a place to put the car. I'd always thought the Auditorium was part of the SECC. Unfortunately Ka was right on this occasion and apparently the Auditorium was never officially called the SECC Auditorium as I thought it had been (or the Armadillo for that fact). The McGarvas backed Ka up on this, after we met them all in the SECC's front coffee bar. Colin, Jillian, Dougie and Grace all looked at me blankly as I tried to explain my reasoning behind my initial thoughts. As Colin and Jillian enjoyed some of the free whiskies that were being given away, the in-laws all ganged up on me and I didn't stand a chance.
Well, it wasn't that last week on the way back from the cinema.
Ka and myself had just been to see Liam Neeson's latest flick 'Unknown', the story of a man that wakes from a coma, following a car accident to find his identity, life, and even wife, has been taken by another man (the thought of it!). A familiar but little known actor by the name of Aidan Quinn features in 'Unknown'. One of those many actors you see in movies whose face you recognise but whose name you don't know or just always manages to escape you. These actors and actresses seem to be in loads of movies and after spotting them you always immediately, without fail, start pointing at the tv or screen saying things like, "Oh, look, it's him", or "Oh, look, him, he was in that the other day!".
People look at you blankly.
"He was in that thing, with whatsername!" you might click your fingers at this point and look into a far corner of the ceiling. "You know we were watching it the other week and he was the guy that got killed!"
As the frustration mounts this 'unknown' knowledge either puts you off the rest of the current movie your watching, ever time you see him or her, or it makes you have to leave what your doing and rush to your nearest google search engine. If this happens to be in the middle of a cinema screening, so be it. I wonder if cinema workers ever have people rushing out half way through a movie, disturbing their popcorn making, accosting them desperately for the nearest internet outlet with shouts of "It's him, it's him!"?
Sometimes you can't even remember what you were watching when you last seen the actor or actress, you can't remember where you were, who you were with, or even, in Liam Neeson's case, who you were!
Anyway, the argument on the way back from the cinema that night came about because of Aidan Quinn. Ka came out of 'Unknown' under the impression this actor played opposite Patrick Swayze as Carl in 'Ghost', the villain of the piece. Remember? The guy that got Sam killed with the help of Willie Lopez?

Ka said she'd hardly seen Quinn in anything since 'Ghost' and I shook my head on hearing this. Aidan Quinn was not Carl in 'Ghost', I told Ka, that was some other guy.
I knew because I seen the guy that was Carl in 'Ghost' in 'The Last Samurai' only a month or so ago, when I sat up late one night to try and watch it. Unfortunately I had no idea 'The Last Samurai' was six hours long and fell asleep around the two hour mark. That one movie seemed longer than a sitting of the whole of 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy, complete with Special Extended Editions with 'day turning to night and then turning back again' extra scenes and easter eggs.
Anyway, Carl in 'Ghost' didn't even remotely resemble Aidan Quinn so when Ka started growing more and more frustrated with my dissent on the matter I knew I was on to a winner. I mentally rubbed my mental hands with glee, steering home from Glasgow as Ka got more riled up and eventually text her movie expert brother, Colin, on the matter.
Needless to say Colin responded almost immediately, texting back the name of the guy that actually played Carl in 'Ghost'.
I'm sure you can imagine what happened next. Ka went very quiet as she read, refusing to respond to Colin's text and being suddenly hesitant in answering me about what Colin had wrote.
Oh, how I laughed, enjoying the moment. I love moments like that. Sheer, unadulterated smugness. I was right. Michael was right. The wife was wrong. The man of the house won the argument!
We do have better arguments. Bigger, more worthwhile, life affirming arguments. Arguments that don't involve Carl from 'Ghost'. I don't win those arguments.