I Want to Hear You Squeal Like a Bond

Today the always informative--just like the rat in a gangster film--IMDB.com reports this tasty nugget:

Veteran actor Burt Reynolds holds such a deep regret about turning down the role of James Bond in the 1970s, he still wakes up in a cold sweat thinking about it. Late James Bond producer Albert R. Cubby Broccoli offered Reynolds the chance to follow Sir Sean Connery as the slick sleuth, but the actor rejected the opportunity - an action he has lived to regret ever since. He says, "Sean Connery had said he wanted more money and left and (Cubby Broccoli) came to visit me and said, 'We want you to play James Bond.' And I said, in my infinite wisdom, 'An American can't play James Bond. It just can't be done.'"

Shoot, just think of the brilliant films we missed since Burt chickened out (and his tombstone shall say, "Brave enough to wear a staple in Cosmo, not actor enough to fake a British accent") :

The Man Who Loved Octopussy Dancing
Hooper-raker
For W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings' Eyes Only
The Fuzz Who Loved Me
To Cannonball Run and Let Die
The Man with the Golden Gator
Never Say Smokey and The Bandit Again
Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex*But Were Afraid to Only Live Twice

Bond girls could have included '70s hotties like Sally Field and Dinah Shore.

Besides, you just can't get the name Cubby Broccoli into print enough, if you ask me.