That's Not a Prop . . .

I know realism is important to actors, but this is nuts:

Real-life tragedy nearly struck at a Florida theatre on Monday night, when an actor fired a live gun at a cast member's head.

During rehearsals for an amateur production of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men in Sarasota, the show's director, Bill Bordy, shot 81-year-old actor Fred Kellerman in the back of the head at point-blank range, only to realise with horror that the gun he used was loaded with live ammunition. Luckily the shot only grazed Kellerman's skull, and he was quickly released from hospital.

The gun was borrowed from a friend that, oopsie, forgot to unload it. Good thing, as Bordy put it, "I was a lousy shot." Otherwise, they'd have to have one of those Gallagheresque "the front three rows will get wet" warnings in the playbill!