If director Robert Zemeckis had gotten his way, "Forrest Gump" would have been very different.

The role of Lt. Dan, a platoon leader who loses his legs, was played by Gary Sinise in the 1994 film, but Zemeckis originally wanted a different -- and very famous -- actor for the part.

Casting director Ellen Lewis, who appears in the new HBO documentary "Casting By," talked with HuffPost Live's Ricky Camilleri about her work on "Gump" and revealed the actor who could have been Lt. Dan.

"I was working on 'Forrest Gump,' and the role of Lt. Dan, Robert Zemeckis very much wanted Kevin Bacon to play the role, and for whatever reason he passed on that," Lewis said.

After Bacon turned down the part, Lewis and Zemeckis went through a series of auditions with other actors. Eventually, Lewis came back around to Sinise, who had been considered earlier in the process.

"I said to Bob, 'Do you remember that I had shown you some tape on Gary?'" she said. "We got him in, he auditioned, he got the role."

Tom Donahue, who directed "Casting By," asked Lewis if she ever considered using a paraplegic actor for the part. She said she didn't for Lt. Dan, but she did use disabled actors for various roles in Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York."

Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan on Friday accused Congress chief Sonia Gandhi of extending support to suspended IAS officer Durga Sakthi Nagpal for political benefits.

Supporters take out a Mashal March in support of IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal, Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar who had taken on the mining mafia in Greater Noida region, at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. (Vipin Kumar/HT Photo)

Commenting on the letter written by Gandhi as chairperson of National Advisory Council to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking that Nagpal is not unfairly treated, Khan said, "Has her (Gandhi's) stature reduced to this level that she has started writing for a SDM rank official?"

"In view of 2014 Lok Sabha polls, this SDM will be posted somewhere and she (Durga) will get 10 fake votes in favour of Congress," he said.
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Attacking Gandhi, Khan further said, "She has affected our federal system by interfering in the matter."

Reacting strongly on Khan's statement, former Congress chief of Uttar Pradesh and MLA Rita Bahuguna Joshi said, "Azam Khan always makes such statements...when he talks about the Congress and votes, we know who manages votes... We know who takes votes on the basis of money and muscle."

Khan should know that its Central government's policy that no honest officer is penalised and every IAS has a right to approach the Central government against their grievances, she said.

Joshi further said, "She (Sonia) has only made a request to the PM in a letter to ensure that an honest officer is no penalised... Where is the issue of affecting the federal structure involved in the matter....She was not talking about PCS officers."

The Congress leader added, "I think, she has made a very relevant point in the letter and we don't take seriously the statements made by the ministers of the state government."

Khan on August 7 had accused media of glorifying Nagpal as "Durgaji", and said her case was highlighted while other such suspensions went unnoticed.

"The media has projected Durga as Durgaji. Otherwise in such cases, officers from the level of managing director to chief engineer get suspended and not even a single line is published," Azam, who was in Bareilly had told reporters.

A Minnesota man claimed his third of a $448 million Powerball jackpot on Thursday, wasting no time before revealing his good fortune to the world and saying he had "been waiting for this day my entire life."

Paul White, 45, a project engineer from Ham Lake, said his family often gave him a hard time for frequently playing the lottery, and he had a tough time convincing many of them that he had finally won.

"The only person who didn't feel I was BSing them was my mother," a beaming White said at a news conference where he was joined by his girlfriend, brother and two colleagues.

White said he'll take a lump sum, which will amount to $58.3 million after taxes. Despite the minuscule odds of a jackpot win, White said he often daydreamed about how he'd spend his winnings if he won.

"I've totally been waiting for this day my entire life," he said, lamenting that he has to wait two weeks for his money. "Start the clock right now," he said, eliciting laughs.

The other two winning tickets were sold in New Jersey, including in a coastal community that is still recovering from Superstorm Sandy. But no one had stepped forward to claim either of those two shares as of Thursday afternoon.

White said his girlfriend called him Thursday morning to say a winning ticket had been sold in Minnesota, and he quickly checked the 10 he had bought the night before.

Mega-jackpot winners often wait days or weeks before claiming their prizes, giving them time to prepare and make legal arrangements. White said he had an attorney and financial adviser in mind, and wasn't afraid of the publicity – noting the New Jersey winners hadn't stepped forward yet.

"I hope I'm yesterday's news as soon as possible," he said.

White said he is divorced and has a 16-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter. He said his days working for a Minneapolis electrical contractor "are over," although he said he planned to help his boss, Ron Bowen, finish some projects before quitting. Referring to Bowen, who was sitting nearby, he quipped: "He started the day my boss. He's going to end the day my chauffeur."

A long-lost Orson Welles film that was believed destroyed in a 1970 fire has been discovered in a northern Italian warehouse and will finally make its public debut 75 years after being filmed, an Italian film archive announced Thursday.

The silent film "Too Much Johnson," a slapstick comedy made just before Welles went to Hollywood to film "Citizen Kane," was found in a box that had been stored for years in the northeastern city of Pordenone before being identified, said Giuliana Puppin, a spokeswoman for the archive, Cineteca del Friuli.

How the 35mm nitrate print arrived in Pordenone remains a mystery.

Found by a shipping company, it was turned over at some point to a local film society – but the film seemed of no particular value and was left unopened for many years, Puppin said.

"We don't know where the box came from. There were no documents with it. We don't know the road it took," Puppin said.

"Too Much Johnson" stars Joseph Cotten and is less a feature film than a series of scenes made to be shown as part of a production of the play by the same name, said Circo Giorgini, an Italian expert on Welles who identified the film about three years ago. It was never finished and never shown publically.

While the existence of the film was known, the only remaining copy was believed to have been destroyed in a 1970 fire at Welles' home in Madrid. It is not known how many copies of the film were actually made.

Giorgini said he knew immediately "Too Much Johnson" had been found when he got a call from a friend saying he believed he was in possession of a Welles film that starred Cotten wearing a straw hat – the give-away.

"I said, `It is something very precious, take care of it. You have found a film that has been missing for decades,'" Giorgini said.

One of the most joyous days in the Islamic calendar, Eid al-Fitr, also known as Eid ul-Fitr or Eid, is a celebration that marks the end of Ramadan (a holy month of fasting observed by Muslims). This year Eid al-Fitr will most likely be observed on Thursday, August 8, 2013 in the United States. It is celebrated on the first day of Shawwal, the 10th month of the Islamic lunar calendar. Traditionally, the observance begins with the sighting of the new moon. While many will wait to see the moon or an announcement from Mecca, the Fiqh Council of North America has determined that Eid al-Fitr 2012 will fall on August 8, 2013, based on astronomical calculations.

According to a hadith attributed to Anas ibn Malik, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad, the two festivals of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha were instituted by the Prophet after his journey from Mecca to Medinah.

    “When the Prophet arrived in Medinah, he found people celebrated two specific days in which they used to entertain themselves with recreation and merriment. He asked them about the nature of these festivities to which they replied that these days were occasions of fun and recreation. At this, the Prophet remarked that the Almighty has fixed two days [of festivity] instead of these for you which are better than these: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.

The first Eid al-Fitr was celebrated in 624 CE by the Prophet Muhammad and his companions after the victory of the battle of Jang-e-Badar.

To mark the beginning of Eid and in accordance with the Sunnah, or practices of the Prophet Muhammad, many Muslims wake up early in the morning and pray Salat ul-Fajr, or the pre-dawn prayer. After brushing their teeth, taking a bath and wearing perfume, they have breakfast before heading off to perform special congregational prayers known as Salaat al-Eid. Many Muslims recite the takbir, a declaration of faith, on the way to the prayer ground and give special charitable contributions known as Zakat al-Fitr.

Eid al-Fitr is a day of great merriment and thanksgiving. Muslims celebrate by gathering with friends and family, preparing sweet delicacies, wearing new clothes, giving each other gifts and putting up lights and other decorations in their homes. A common greeting during this holiday is Eid Mubarak, which means, “Have a blessed Eid!”

The government said it will step in and take "firm measures" to combat leaks of radioactive water at Japan's crippled nuclear power plant, including possibly funding a costly containment project.

The announcement Wednesday came a day after the operator of the wrecked Fukushima Dai-ichi plant said some of the water was seeping over or around an underground barrier it created by injecting chemicals into the soil that solidified into a wall.

"There is heightened concern among the public, particularly about the contaminated water problem," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said during a government nuclear disaster response meeting at his office. "This is an urgent matter that needs to be addressed. The government will step in to take firm measures."

The latest problem involves water that accumulated over the last month since the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., began creating the chemical barrier to stop underground leaks after detecting radiation spikes in water samples in May.

Government officials said Wednesday that an estimated 300 tons of radioactive water has been leaking into the sea each day since early in the crisis, which was caused by the March, 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami.

Since a major leak occurred from a maintenance pit a month after three reactors at the plant melted following the disasters, TEPCO had denied any further leaks of radioactive water into the sea, despite repeated warnings by experts, until finally acknowledging them last month.

The underground barrier on the coastal embankment has slowed the leaks somewhat, but has caused underground water to swell. To prevent an overflow above the surface, which is feared to happen within weeks, TEPCO will start pumping out about 100 tons of underground water from coastal observation wells this week. Later this month, TEPCO will remove old contaminated water from trenches near the coast – a time bomb that it had left untouched despite repeated prodding from the government.

Shinji Kinjo, an official at the Nuclear Regulation Authority, said faster-than-expected swelling of the underground water following the installation of the chemical barriers accelerated the emergency caused by TEPCO's delays.

Alarmed by the leaks, a fisheries cooperative in nearby Iwaki city decided to indefinitely postpone a test catch planned for September.

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney jumped into the debate over the GOP's future Tuesday night, warning congressional Republicans against forcing a government shutdown in their quest to stop President Barack Obama's signature health care law.

Romney addressed more than 200 donors on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee at a fundraiser for the New Hampshire Republican Party, staged just four miles from the vacation home where he has spent much of the summer with his family. The event was closed to the media, but his office released his prepared remarks.

Romney, 66, warned congressional Republicans against letting emotions drive their decisions.

"I badly want Obamacare to go away, and stripping it of funds has appeal. But we need to exercise great care about any talk of shutting down government," Romney said in the first speech of its kind since his November election loss to Obama. "What would come next when soldiers aren't paid, when seniors fear for their Medicare and Social Security, and when the FBI is off duty?"

He continued: "I'm afraid that in the final analysis, Obamacare would get its funding, our party would suffer in the next elections, and the people of the nation would not be happy. I think there are better ways to remove Obamacare."

Romney did not criticize anyone by name, but he dismissed the very strategy employed by some of his party's biggest names – potential 2016 presidential candidates among them. Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah are urging Republicans to swear off voting for any year-end spending bill that includes money for the president's health care law. Parts of the federal government would shut down on Oct. 1 if Congress doesn't approve a short-term funding bill before then.

Several Republicans on Capitol Hill have attacked the plan to strip health care funding from the spending bill in unusually harsh language, although Romney has been silent on this – and virtually every other public debate – for much of the last nine months.

It's unclear what role the former Massachusetts governor hopes to play for the GOP. He has hinted at a desire to remain an active voice on major policy debates, and he maintains ties to a powerful national fundraising operation.

His presence at the New Hampshire GOP fundraiser Tuesday night helped raise tens of thousands of dollars, according to organizers, which is considered a large haul for a state party so long before the next election. Donors paid between $100 and $1,500 and traveled from as far as California to attend the event, which was held at a lakeside mansion used in 2007 as a vacation home for French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
   
   
In his speech, Romney acknowledged that some Republicans may not care for his perspective given his recent loss.

"I'm probably not the first person you'd ask for advice," he said. "But because we all learn from our mistakes, I may have a thought or two of value."

He called on Republicans to "stay smart," in part, by backing candidates who can win. And as the pool of potential candidates for the 2016 presidential contest begins to grow, Romney suggested that most are not electable.

There is one thing every married person will tell you: marriage is hard. Anyone in the midst of that proverbial honeymoon period may have a hard time believing that, though. Those first few months after you tie the knot, you truly understand the notion of wedded bliss. But once life starts to settle in, some inevitable problems crop up for most couples. We asked married women about the biggest issues in their marriages and here's what they had to say:

    Money, money, money. We can barely even talk about it in an objective, budget-discussing sense without getting all testy and defensive. So much emotional murk tied to money.
    It's kind of cliche, but he leaves his sh*t everywhere!
    He never goes to our kids' school activities or plays.
    Our marriage has three people -- me, my husband, and his mother.
    Tempering our expectations of one another. Often we will "expect" the other person to do things in the way that we would have done it, be it showering the kids or acknowledging a birthday, or having dinner on the table after a particularly hard day. And when that doesn't happen, coming back from that disappointment is hard. But we set ourselves up for it a lot of the time because maybe the other person didn't realize you wanted things done in a certain way or maybe our expectations are unfair and unrealistic.
    He doesn't want any more kids, but I want just one more.
    I figured this out a little too late, but I don't think we are actually sexually compatible.
    We don't spend enough alone time with each other. Between work, kids, and house stuff, I feel like I never see him.
    He doesn't help enough around the house. It's like he thinks the dishes miraculously wash themselves. When I ask him to help out, he says that he's too tired. Like I'm not!
    Too much time together. I have NO breathing room.
    He never tells me what he is thinking. It's like talking to a stone wall sometimes.
    He snores as loud as a freight train and won't do anything about it.
    He is obsessed with sports. He even tried to miss our child's birthday party because of some playoff game. I'm like, what's more important here?
    He doesn't respect my career goals as much as his own.
    He spends way too much time at strip clubs.
    He is Facebook friends with his ex-girlfriend. Sorry, but that's not okay.
    We never go on dates anymore. It's just work, home, work, home. Where's the excitement in that?
    He's never around. Sometimes I feel like a single mom.
    We never have sex. Like ever. It's like we are roommates.
    This may sound small, but it drives me nuts. He NEVER replaces the toilet paper roll. He will even open a package and use a new roll and just place it on the counter instead of in the holder. WHY???!!!

Brooks Forester might have been the frontrunner all season on "The Bachelorette," but Desiree Hartsock ended up accepting Chris Siegfried's proposal on the dramatic finale last night (Aug. 5).

Following Brooks' surprising departure from the show last week, Desiree decided to continue on with her journey to find love, ultimately sending Drew Kenney home and choosing Chris to be her fiance. But many were shocked that Chris still wanted to be with Des after she revealed her love for Brooks during their heartbreaking on-air split.

So, what did Chris really think about Desiree's breakup with Brooks? Nothing, because -- wait for it -- he didn't even watch it.

"I actually didn't watch the entire part of it," Chris told "Good Morning America" today (Aug. 6). "We initially talked about watching the episodes and how we would handle that for our relationship going forward and we kind of just decided that maybe it would be best to watch the segments that we just shared together," he added.

Despite opening up about her heartbreak over Brooks leaving the show, Desiree admits that she didn't just choose Chris because Brooks was no longer an option.

"It's a different situation because the feelings are more accelerated, but at the same time I think that helped in me really getting past the hurt from Brooks leaving and being able to see all that was here in Chris," she explained. "Sometimes I think you do need to go through the hard to get to the good."

And speaking of good, Des says that seeing Brooks at the "After the Final Rose" special was fine.

t seems like common sense that sex in porn doesn't mirror what men and women do in their own, non-commercialized bedrooms. But this point gets really driven home in "Porn Sex vs Real Sex: The Differences Explained With Food," a video which shatters the illusion the porn is anything like real sex by going back to basics: fruit metaphors.

Inspired by the video, HuffPost Live spoke to women working in the porn industry, and asked them to share what they believe the difference between porn sex and real sex is.

Jincey Lumpkin, Esq., Chief Sexy Officer of Juicy Pink Box, noted that porn involves, "posturing for the camera," "flattering" angles and "cutting together of the scenes" -- all of which, if reenacted by normal people, can "take away sometimes from the pleasure and enjoyment aspect" of their sexual experiences.

Nina Hartley, an adult film actress, agreed, emphasizing the performative aspect of porn. She told HuffPost Live host Caitlyn Becker:

    Pornography is a paid, professional performance by actors. It is a fantasy, it is not meant to be a rulebook and guidebook or a how to as a general rule. And it goes to show how poor our sex education is in this country that people are reduced to looking at an entertainment medium for information about the body.

Both the "Porn Sex vs. Real Sex" video, and HuffPost Live's conversations with Lumpkin and Hartley, contribute to a greater dialogue about porn as a sometimes unrealistic fantasy. The more we discuss these subjects, the more women and men alike will hopefully realize that they don't have to force themselves to emulate what they see in porn films. Fantasy is great, but the reality of sex based on one's own desires -- and separate from the pressure to look or act a certain way -- can be even better.