'Targets'

While discussing the film Contempt by Jean-Luc Godard, I brought up the circumstances surrounding Fritz Lang's cameo as himself.

In the film, Lang is himself, the great German director. Jack Palance is an American producer hiring Lang. He also hires Michael Piccoli to write the film. Piccoli's girlfriend is Brigitte Bardot.

So, Lang is himself, but wouldn't Lang also know who Bardot was? And Palance? However, we're forced to suspend our belief that Lang may indeed know Bardot and Palance, but that both of them are doing a film elsewhere, or vacationing in the south of France.

But, as it is, Lang only know Jeremy Prokosch (who looks eerily like Palance) and Camille Javal (who is strikingly similar to Bardot).

With that said, in Targets, Boris Karloff portrays Byron Orlok, an aging film actor known for his roles in the horror genre, where he's made a living playing fictional "monsters." Karloff is portraying someone, who is basically a mirror of himself.

So, why didn't Peter Bogdanovich just name Karloff's character "Boris Karloff"? It would've made a bit more sense.