It’s a world of laughter, a world of tears. It’s a world of hopes and a world of fears.

There’s so much that we share, it’s time we’re aware.

It’s a small world after all.

The words come from a song played in Walt Disney World.

But we’re reminded of the accuracy of those words in bizarre ways.

Sometimes the message comes when you’re a thousand miles from home and bump into an old high school classmate. Or you begin a conversation with a stranger on an airplane only to realize you both have a mutual acquaintance.

While the notion of how small our planet is has been around for a while, the idea earned extra attention following the 1993 film &uot;Six Degrees of Separation.&uot;

And sometimes the idea just seems to fall from the sky.

Men and women much more knowledgeable than myself despite years of research are still unable to understand what makes thoughts pop into our heads.

I won’t begin trying to explain a thought that leaped from the back of depths of my brain last week.

It just happened.

The thought – really more of an epiphany – came to me one morning in the shower.

Almost every star in Hollywood can be traced – in six steps or less – to Ferriday, La.

It sounds like an insane notion.

But so far, with only a little thought, I’ve come up with some bizarre connections.

Think Madonna’s ever set foot in Concordia Parish? Probably not.

I know I’ve never seen her voguing through Vidalia.

But nonetheless, she can be linked to Ferriday.

Madonna and her one-time husband, Sean Penn, starred together in &uot;Shanghai Surprise.&uot; Penn also starred in &uot;The Game&uot; with Michael Douglas, who was in &uot;Wall Street&uot; with Daryl Hannah. Hannah appeared in &uot;Legal Eagles&uot; with Debra Winger, who starred in &uot;Urban Cowboy&uot; with Mickey Gilley, a Ferriday native.

&uot;Urban Cowboy&uot; is Ferriday gold. It’s amazing the number of Hollywood brass that can be connected through the 1980 hit.

With only minimal effort a few work cohorts and myself were able to link Hollywood heavyweights Katherine Hepburn, Sean Connery, Tom Hanks, Glenn Close, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Julia Roberts to Ferriday using &uot;Urban Cowboy&uot; as a root.

Think actor Alec Guinness, the star of &uot;The Bridge on the River Kwai&uot; can’t possibly have a connection to Ferriday? Think again.

Guinness was Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi in &uot;Star Wars.&uot; James Earl Jones supplied the voice of &uot;Darth Vader&uot; in &uot;Star Wars&uot; and also appeared in &uot;A Family Thing&uot; with Robert Duvall.

Duvall shared the silver screen with Dennis Quaid in &uot;Something to Talk About.&uot;

Quaid portrayed Ferriday rocker Jerry Lee Lewis in the 1989 hit move about Lewis’ life, &uot;Great Balls of Fire!&uot;

Even some TV stars can be linked to one of Ferriday’s native sons.

Take Scott Baio for example. In case you’ve forgotten he played Chachi on &uot;Happy Days.&uot;

He shared the television screen with Ron Howard who went on to direct Tom Hanks in &uot;Apollo 13.&uot; Hanks starred in &uot;You’ve Got Mail&uot; with Meg Ryan, who shared the screen with Dennis Quaid in &uot;Innerspace.&uot; Quaid played Jerry Lee, and we’re back to Ferriday.

The whole idea is crazy but may in fact be true. Could Ferriday be the center of all things Hollywood?

To paraphrase from the immortal words of Jerry Lee Lewis himself, goodness gracious it’s a small world.

Kevin Cooper is managing editor of The Democrat. He can be reached at (601) 445-3541 or by e-mail at kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.