Get ready for your yearly dose of Ralphie, as TBS' 24-Hours of "A Christmas Story" starts TONIGHT at 8 p.m.

You might be surprised at what Ralphie (Peter Billingsly) is up to now.

He's now a movie producer and frequent collaborator with close friend Jon Favreau on films like "Zathura," "Made" and the Vince Vaughn-Jennifer Aniston romantic comedy "The Break-Up," due out in June. In the '90s, the semi-recognizable Billingsley used to get then-struggling actor pals Vaughn and Favreau past the velvet ropes at L.A. nightclubs — where all their skirt-chasing glories went directly into Favreau's breakthrough screenplay "Swingers"? Yes, it's true. In the parlance of "Swingers," Billingsley was "the guy behind the guy behind the guy."

"We'd go up to the bouncers, like seven dudes," he remembers, "and Vince would be like, "Perhaps you know Peter Billingsley from 'A Christmas Story,' and they'd look at each other and then let us through. We worked that scam for a while."

Billingsley was roommates in a house of five that included Vaughn, whom he met shooting an after-school special called "The Fourth Man." Billingsley was the fourth man on a high-school track relay team who took steroids to keep up, and Vaughn played his star teammate. "There was a whole thing where my dad liked him more than me, because I took after my mother and I was a science kid," laughs Billingsley. "So I started taking steroids to impress my dad." "I, of course, got the heart condition and the four-page diagnosis from the doctor about how my n - - s were gonna fall off."

Billingsley also soon became a working partner with Favreau, with whom he's also co-produced the roundtable "Dinner for Five" chat show on IFC, and the two became close friends. "He's an ace in the hole," Favreau says "We went to a USC [football] game this year, and he got us into the coaches' parking lot. The guy at the gate didn't know me, but he recognized Peter. People get a kick out of him."

--This is my favorite Christmas movie. :)

Source: New York Post

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Posted by Lawren at December 24, 2005 09:42 AM | Trackbacks (0)

You Said

I have a feeling Vince knows EVERYONE ... it'd be great to know him, that's for sure.

Says: Iceman at December 25, 2005 08:26 AM

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Awww those baby blues of his are still beautiful.

Says: Andrea at December 25, 2005 08:33 AM

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