Produced by the University of Virginia’s Department of Computer Science, this celebrated site uses data from the Internet Movie Database to show the degrees of separation between any screen actor and Kevin Bacon. The site is a demonstration of some fundamental principles of computer science and mathematics, as well as being an illuminating illustration of the spread of world cinema, and great fun. So, for example, Mary Pickford has a Bacon number of 3: she was in Hollywood Hobbies (1939) with William ‘Billy’ Benedict, William ‘Billy’ Benedict was in Farewell, My Lovely (1975) with Sylvester Stallone, Sylvester Stallone was in Dolan’s Cadillac (2002) with Kevin Bacon.