Dear Ken: Please tell me in what films or TV shows I have seen Rachel McAdams before she starred in “The Vow.”

McAdams, 33, a native of London, Ontario, Canada, was a figure skater as a girl and switched to acting in her teen years. She made her TV debut in 2001 in an episode of the Disney Channel’s “The Famous Jett Jackson” and co-starred in “Slings and Arrows” from 2003 to 2005. She most recently gained fame as Irene Adler in the two Sherlock Holmes films, starring Robert Downey Jr. Her other movie credits include “The Hot Chick,” “Mean Girls,” “The Notebook,” “Wedding Crashers,” “The Family Stone,” “State of Play,” “Morning Glory” and “Midnight in Paris.” The environmentalist and daughter of a truck driver and a nurse worked for three summers at McDonald’s and loves to shop for vintage clothing.

Dear Ken: I’ve seen a TV movie in the past three or four years about a New York City photographer whose car breaks down out West and she meets a modern-day cowboy who makes her help him drive his herd of cattle for several days. What’s the name of this movie and who is the actress?

That is the 2003 Hallmark TV movie “Straight From the Heart,” starring Teri Polo and Andrew McCarthy, and set in Wyoming. Polo, 42, starred in the ABC-TV series “Man Up,” which was canceled in December, and played Helen Santos on “The West Wing.” She also starred in the films “Little Fockers,” “Beyond” and “Haunting at the Beacon.”

Dear Ken: I recently watched an Alfred Hitchcock film, “The Trouble With Harry.” Was it filmed in Vermont and wasn’t that little boy the same child who starred in “Leave It to Beaver?”

Yes, the 1955 black comedy, starring Shirley MacLaine and John Forsythe, was shot in Craftsbury, Vermont. And yes, the boy actor, Jerry Mathers, grew to become Beaver Cleaver about three years later. The native of Sioux City, Iowa, 63, has three grown children. 

Dear Ken: Please help me recall the biggest hits of the band Badfinger.

The Brit band that rocked from 1969 until 1983 had their greatest hits in the early 1970s. Those tunes were “Come and Get It,” “Day After Day,” “No Matter What” and Baby Blue.” Two of the band members, Pete Ham and Tom Evans, co-wrote the No. 1 pop hit “Without You” for Harry Nilsson.

If you have a trivia question about actors, singers, movies, TV shows or pop culture, e-mail your query to Ken Beck at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it