Because I'm on "Spring Break..."

*cough, cough* Middle of February! *cough* Because I had nothing better to do today, I decided to research the real names of people you KNOW changed them in order to make it big in Hollywood. Generally, you know them when you see them. The most obvious example? Wolf Blitzer. Seriously...you expect us to believe that Mama Blitzer named her baby boy Wolf?! But some real names are more incredible than their chosen names. Famous Name: Wolf Blitzer Real Name: Wolf Blitzer (Really! http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05276/581641.stm) Famous Name: Trey Wingo Real Name: Hal Chipman Wingo, III (Third, hence the "trey") Famous Name: Erykah Badu Real Name: Erica Wright (the Y, the H, and the Badu gave her...street cred) Famous Name: Alan Thicke Real Name: Alan Willis Jeffrey (the Thicke gave him...Canadian street cred) Famous Name: Rick James Real Name: James Ambrose Johnson (what, Ambrose wasn't tough enough, be-yotch?!) Famous Name: Wyclef Jean Real Name: Nelust Wyclef Jean (why he dropped Nelust, we'll never know) Famous Name: Elton John Real Name: Reginald Kenneth Dwight (Elton was less...more...hell, I don't know) Famous Name: Max Power Real Name: Homer Simpson Famous Name: Busta Rhymes Real Name: Trevor Smith, Junior (I guess Trev wasn't so much "Flip-Mode" as "Dip-Mode") Famous Name: Xena Real Name: Lucy Lawless REAL Name: Lucille Frances Ryan (we all know we watched this show...) Famous Name: River Phoenix Real Name: River Jude Bottom (what were Mr. and Mrs. Bottom Thinking?! River Bottom?) Well, that's enough for tonight. Let me know if you find any others. A great site to help is http://www.famousfolk.com/real/names-s/. Peace