Watch a Young Joseph Gordon-Levitt on 'Jeopardy!' [Video]
JGL competed against Kirsten Dunst on a teen celebrity version of the game show in 1997.
Is it possible to fall more in love with Joseph Gordon-Levitt? Yes, it is! Before the handsome actor made hearts flutter in "500 Days of Summer" and "Inception," he was an adorably nerdy teen excited to play "Jeopardy!"
Well, it was a teen version of "Celebrity Jeopardy!" that pitted the "3rd Rock From the Sun" star against Kirsten Dunst and Benjamin Salisbury ("The Nanny").
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Called "Joey," the young actor got some clues right and some wrong. He incorrectly answered "Celine Dion" for this one: "Her self-titled debut album, which included the hit 'Vision of Love,' reached the top of the charts in 1990." (It's Mariah Carey.)
But for another clue, "Holden Caulfield, the hero of this Salinger novel, hates movies, phones, and his classmate Ernest Morrow," an excited Gordon-Levitt couldn't wait to answer.
"Ooh ooh," he said while host Alex Trebek read the clue. "What is 'Catcher in the Rye?' I'm so excited! That's my favorite book."
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Meanwhile, Dunst didn't fare well on the game show. To the clue "Of Venus, Mars, or Saturn, the planet whose mean distance from the sun is 67,230,000," she replied, "What is Pluto?" (It was multiple choice, Kiki!)
In fact, she didn't get on the board until the end of the first "Jeopardy!" round with her correct response to "This magician was still in high school when he taught a magic course at NYU in 1972." "What is … who is David Copperfield?" she offered. "Wow! Finally!"
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But her success was short-lived; by the end of the second round, Dunst was at minus $700. Trebek brought her total up to $1,000 so she could play "Final Jeopardy!" All three kids got the last clue wrong, however. Both Gordon-Levitt and Dunst ended up with $0, so Salisbury won with $1. His charity for cystic fibrosis got $15,000. His opponents had to settle for just $10,000. (Watch the full episode here.)
