If you watch enough movies and TV, you’ve probably watched many scenes where an actor is reading a newspaper over his morning cup of joe. What you may not have noticed is that they are rarely reading a real newspaper. Instead, the blog slashfilm.com has noticed that many of them have been reading the exact same newspaper since the 80s!

The story behind the prop is still unknown, but it was probably made long ago for filmmakers to avoid copyright issues from using real newspapers. However, the whole situation comes full circle when comparing shots of actor Ed O’Neill reading the newspaper over two decades ago, portraying Al Bundy in Married… with Children, and more recently, as Jay Pritchett in ABC’s Modern Family.

Check out the SlashFilm post for a full collage of images of the newspaper in everything from the film No Country For Old Men to the TV comedy Scrubs.

LOL: The Reoccurring Prop Newspaper [slashfilm.com]

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