The Extraordinary Book of Useless Information
Page 6
Colin Farrell has a lucky belt and always wears the same boxer shorts, with shamrocks, on the first day of shooting a new movie.
Heidi Klum carries a bag of her baby teeth for good luck.
Reese Witherspoon’s father is a bigamist.
In 1935, unmarried actress Loretta Young conceived a child with Clark Gable while filming The Call of the Wild. Young had the baby in secret and put her into orphanages until she turned nineteen months, at which time she brought the child home and told the public that she had adopted her. In 1940, when Young married Thomas Lewis, the girl, Judy, took his surname. Until her dying day, Young never publicly acknowledged Judy as her biological daughter.
Comedian Jimmie “J.J.” Walker, of Good Times fame, once employed both Jay Leno and David Letterman as writers for $150 a week.
After the cancellation of Star Trek and a divorce from his wife, William Shatner lived in his car for a time.
Lucille Ball filed for divorce from Desi Arnaz the day after they filmed the last episode of I Love Lucy.
Johnny Depp appeared as a guy named Eddie in a 1991 music video for Tom Petty’s song “Into the Great Wide Open.”
Christina Aguilera made a Spanish language album—Mi Reflejo—in 2000, even though she doesn’t speak the language.
Richard Gere played the part of Danny Zuko in the stage production of Grease in 1973, five years before John Travolta rose to fame playing the role in the 1978 movie adaptation.
Kelly Bensimon of The Real Housewives of New York City is not a housewife, or any other kind of wife. She was divorced in 2007.
Richard Belzer holds the record for playing the same character in the most different TV series. He has appeared as Detective John Munch on at least eleven different shows, including Homicide, Homicide: Life on the Street, Law & Order: Trial by Jury, Law & Order: SVU, The X-Files, The Beat, M.O.N.Y., Sesame Street, The Wire, Arrested Development, and 30 Rock.
Daniel Radcliffe admits to showing up on the set drunk from the night before while filming the later Harry Potter movies.
Pat Sajak confided that he and Vanna White would down up to six margaritas during their breaks between the shooting of several Wheel of Fortune shows per day.
LeAnn Rimes has a tattoo on her right foot that reads, “the only one that matters.” It’s something husband Eddie Cibrian said to her.
Michael Richards was slated to play the title character on Monk on ABC. He backed out and then so did ABC. The show was then picked up by USA Network, starring Tony Shalhoub.
Kate Upton’s great grandfather was a cofounder of Whirlpool.
David Bowie’s left eye is permanently dilated from being punched in the face as a kid.
Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester was born in prison, where her mother was doing time for being involved in a drug ring.
Frank Oz is the puppeteer who performed Yoda, Miss Piggy, and the Cookie Monster, among others.
Katie Couric battled bulimia in college.
Pierce Brosnan used to work as a fire-eater in a circus.
During one week in November 1994, Tim Allen had the top movie (The Santa Clause), the top TV show (Home Improvement), and the top New York Times bestselling book (Don’t Stand Too Close to a Naked Man).
Jane Lynch met director Christopher Guest while shooting a Frosted Flakes commercial. The two went on to work together on several “mockumentary” movie projects, including Best in Show and A Mighty Wind.
CULT OF PERSONALITIES
Notable celebrity Scientologists include Kirstie Alley, Anne Archer, Karen Black, Sonny Bono, Jeff Conaway, Chick Corea, Tom Cruise, Isaac Hayes, Juliette Lewis, Priscilla Presley, Kelly Preston, Leah Remini, John Travolta, Greta Van Susteren, and Edgar Winter.
People who were once Scientologists include Al Jarreau, Charles Manson, and Lisa Marie Presley.
SELLEBRITIES
Rihanna once promoted Secret (deodorant) Body Spray.
Serena Williams hawked Tampax.
Ozzy Osbourne shilled for “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter.”
Florence Henderson pushed Polident.
Kris Jenner promoted Poise pads.
Justin Bieber has his own line of Opi nail polish.
50 Cent has planned to start his own line of condoms.
WHAT PRICE BEAUTY?
Jennifer Aniston spends about four hundred dollars a day on beauty. She uses a $450 neck ointment, a $350 rejuvenating serum, gets $295 laser skin peels and $450 facials, $600 hair cuts, $320 highlights, and spends $900 a week on yoga sessions.
JUST A CLICK AWAY
Justin Bieber was the most-searched-for celebrity on the Bing search engine top ten list for 2011. The next nine were Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Aniston, Lindsay Lohan, Megan Fox, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and Miley Cyrus.
Yahoo! reported that the top-searched athletes for 2011 were Danica Patrick (race car driver), Tiger Woods, Manny Pacquiao (boxer), Maria Sharapova (tennis player), Serena Williams, Kris Humphries (basketball player briefly married to Kim Kardashian), Hope Solo (soccer player), Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom (basketball player), and Caroline Wozniacki (tennis player).
Lady Gaga had the most Twitter followers in 2011, with 14.4 million. Kim Kardashian had 10.3 million and Britney Spears had 10 million.
One can now download an app to have Snoop Dogg as the voice on a TomTom GPS device.
BACKWORDS
Several well-known celebs have suffered from dyslexia, including Jewel, Bruce Jenner, Kurt Cobain, Orlando Bloom, Whoopi Goldberg, Cher, Patrick Dempsey, Vince Vaughn, Keanu Reeves, Keira Knightley, and Tony Bennett.
WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
Christopher Walken, Al Pacino, and Nick Nolte were all considered for the role of Han Solo in Star Wars, instead of Harrison Ford.
Al Pacino was considered, along with Christopher Reeve, for the lead in Pretty Woman, instead of Richard Gere.
Molly Ringwald, Heather Locklear, Kim Basinger, and Meg Ryan were all thought of before Julia Roberts for Pretty Woman.
Nicolas Cage was in the running with Mickey Rourke for the lead in The Wrestler.
Gwyneth Paltrow almost beat out Kate Winslet for the part of Rose in Titanic.
Val Kilmer could have been the one hitting the floor with Jennifer Grey in Dirty Dancing, instead of Patrick Swayze.
Kate Winslet nearly beat out Renée Zellweger for the lead in Bridget Jones’s Diary.
Tom Cruise was the first choice to play Henry Hill in Goodfellas, not Ray Liotta.
RACIST ROLES
Many older movies chose to cast white actors as characters of another race, usually with embarrassing results:
Charlton Heston was cast as a Mexican drug agent in 1958’s Touch of Evil. His skin and hair were darkened and he wore a cheesy mustache.
John Wayne played Genghis Khan in the 1956 film The Conqueror. His eyes were taped back at the corners and he sported a bad glue-on goatee.
Mickey Rooney portrayed a Japanese character in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. His buckteeth, near-sighted glasses, and horrible accent would be considered offensive today.
Keanu Reeves played Buddha in 1993’s Little Buddha.
TAXING TIMES
Chris Tucker owes the Internal Revenue Service millions of dollars and has had his $6 million home foreclosed on.
Joe Francis, the Girls Gone Wild guy, went to jail for owing $34 million in back taxes.
In 1996, Burt Reynolds filed for bankruptcy and was $10 million in debt.
In 1998 and 2010, Toni Braxton filed for bankruptcy and had to take court-ordered financial classes.
BAD ACTS
Actor Jamie Waylett, who played the villain Crabbe in the Harry Potter movie series, was arrested for looting and possession of a homemade bomb, during the 2011 riots in London.
Joe Son, the martial arts expert/actor who played
the character Random Task, Dr. Evil’s henchman in the movie Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, is serving a life sentence for the rape and torture of a girl in 1990. In 2011, he killed his cellmate and was moved to solitary confinement.
Cameron Douglas, the son of Oscar-winner Michael Douglas, was sent to prison for dealing drugs in 2010. Four and a half years were added to his sentence in 2011, after he was found with drugs in jail.
In 1978, Tim Allen was arrested for drug trafficking after he was found to have 650 grams of cocaine. Allen served just over two years in prison.
CRADLE ROBBERS
In 2012, eighty-six-year-old Dick Van Dyke married his forty-year-old makeup artist.
Eighty-six-year-old Hugh Hefner topped that, marrying twenty-six-year-old Playmate Crystal Harris in 2012.
Fifty-year-old Doug Hutchison, who starred in The Green Mile, married Courtney Stodden when she was just sixteen.
Forty-nine-year-old Linda Hogan, former wife of Hulk Hogan, dated one of her kids’ high school classmates after the split with Hulk—nineteen-year-old Charley Hill.
In 1993, thirty-eight-year-old Jerry Seinfeld began dating high school senior Shoshanna Lonstein, who was seventeen at the time.
Twenty-nine-year-old Milo Ventimiglia dated Heroes co-star Hayden Panettiere when she was seventeen.
MAN ABOUT TOWN
Singer John Mayer is quite the ladies’ man. He has dated Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Aniston, Minka Kelly, Jessica Simpson, and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Mayer wrote the song “Your Body Is a Wonderland” about Hewitt. She is quoted as having said, “My body is more like a pawn shop.”
SCARRED FOR LIFE
Tina Fey has a scar on the left side of her face from a nasty cut she received when she was five years old.
Marilyn Monroe had a big scar on her stomach, which is the reason there are very few photographs of her midsection.
Elizabeth Taylor underwent a tracheotomy in 1960 that left a scar at the base of her throat.
Catherine Zeta-Jones, likewise, has a visible tracheotomy scar obtained in childhood.
Sharon Stone has a rope burn scar on her neck from the time she rode a horse into a clothesline.
Joaquin Phoenix has a cleft lip.
Victoria’s Secret supermodel Karolína Kurková has an extraordinarily smooth belly button due to a procedure that she had as an infant.
Mary J. Blige has a scar under her left eye, and Sandra Bullock has one over her left eye.
Queen Latifah has a scar on the top of her forehead.
GOOD FENCES MAKE GROUCHY NEIGHBORS
Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne were sued in 2012 for building a fence to encompass roughly 8,500 square feet of a neighboring property’s land.
THE MOUTH THAT ROARED
Rush Limbaugh has the largest listening audience on talk radio, followed by Sean Hannity and Michael Savage.
RISKY BUSINESS
Eighty percent of Hollywood movies are insured by Fireman’s Fund Insurance during production, covering the actors, props, wardrobes, and equipment.
Insurance accounts for about 1 to 3 percent of a film’s budget.
The more dangerous stunts involved in a movie, the more it costs to insure. The riskiest movies to insure in recent years, according to Fireman’s, were The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, because of the motorcycle chases and torture scenes; Salt, where Angelina Jolie did her own stunts; Inglorious Basterds; 2012; Crazy Heart; Nine; The Wrestler; and Into the Wild, where props had to be flown to Alaska and bears were used.
JUST IN CASE
Over the years, celebrities have taken out insurance policies on various body parts. Singer Tom Jones once insured his chest hair for $7 million. Jennifer Lopez insured her butt for $27 million. Pittsburgh Steeler Troy Polamalu insured his long dark hair for $1 million. David Lee Roth got a policy in case one of his sperm accidentally impregnated one of his many partners. Heidi Klum insured her legs for $2.2 million, and Mariah Carey insured her gams for a whopping $1 billion! Ugly Betty star America Ferrera insured her smile for $10 million. Dolly Parton’s assets were insured for $300,000 per boob. David Beckham insured against a career-ending injury for $151 million. Rod Stewart insured his raspy voice for $7 million. Keith Richards insured his middle finger for $1.6 million, lest he not be able to flip people off anymore.
MOVIE MAGIC
The distance shots in the tornado scene in The Wizard of Oz were of a real twister. The mid-range shots were created by coiling a stocking. The close-up images used a burlap bag full of dust.
The nasty boy next door in Toy Story had exactly 15,977 computer-generated hairs on his head. The trees had up to ten thousand leaves each.
In Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace, the communicator Qui-Gon Jinn uses is a modified Gillette for Women Sensor Excel razor.
HOME ON LOAN
The suburban Chicago Georgian-style mansion used in the filming of Home Alone sold in 2012 for $1.585 million. The family that owned it lived in the house during the six-month shooting of the blockbuster movie. The owner’s daughter became playmates with the eight-year-old star of the flick, Macaulay Culkin.
HOT MOVIES
Early movies were shot on nitrate film base, which is extremely flammable. There were many movie house fires as a result of film igniting in the projector.
In the 1920s, Hollywood made twice as many films a year as it does today.
MISOGYNIST MOVIES
Two-thirds of speaking roles in movies go to men.
Eighty percent of Hollywood producers, directors, and writers are men.
RATINGS GAME
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) movie rating system is followed voluntarily by theater operators. There are no local, state, or federal laws governing who can see what films. The ratings are just a suggestion.
From 1970 to 1972, there were four movie ratings—G, GP, R, and X. Then from 1972 to 1984 they were—G, PG, R, and X. In 1984, there was an uproar over the PG rating of Steven Spielberg’s two rather violent films Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Spielberg encouraged the MPAA to add a fifth rating—PG-13—for movies too intense for PG but not deserving of an R rating.
The first movie to be released with a PG-13 rating was Red Dawn, in 1984.
In 1990, the X rating was replaced by the NC-17 rating. Henry & June was the first film to get this rating.
Midnight Cowboy was rated X when it was released in 1969. When it was re-released, unedited, in 1971, it was rated R.
The MPAA has no written rules for how to rate a movie, and ratings can seem inconsistent. Most films can use the word “fuck” up to four times in a nonsexual context and still get a PG-13 rating. The word “pussy” was even allowed in the PG-13 films Super 8 and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
PIRATE COVE
The motion picture industry sued Sony Betamax (an early video recording format) to prevent the use of their system for home recording purposes. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1984 that it is not copyright infringement to record television shows at home for personal use.
Avatar is the most pirated movie of all time, with 21 million illegal downloads as of 2011. The Dark Knight and Transformers tie for second place, with 19 million downloads each.
Game of Thrones was the most illegally downloaded TV show in 2012.
WRETCHED RATCHED
Actress Louise Fletcher, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, now finds her performance of the wicked RN so disturbing that she can no longer watch the movie.
BACK TO THE FRIDGE
In the first draft of the script for Back to the Future, the time machine was a refrigerator. Steven Spielberg changed his mind because he didn’t want children climbing into refrigerators, plus the DeLorean was much cooler looking.
ALTERNATE REALITY
The Discovery Channel “reality” show Moonshiners was eventually revealed to be a scam. The supposed moonshiners trying to evade the Virginia authorities were not really distilling spirits in their stills. The producers duped Virginia authorities into believing they were making a documentary and thus gained their cooperation with the series.
Storage Wars performer David Hester revealed that the producers of the show often plant interesting and valuable items for the cast to find. He also maintains the bidding that takes place on the series is rigged.
POTTER’S PLACE
In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, a picture of Gandalf the Grey, from The Lord of the Rings, can be seen hanging on Dumbledore’s wall of wizards.
Actress Shirley Henderson, who was in her late thirties at the time, played fourteen-year-old Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
The name Voldemort derives from the French, meaning “flight from death,” which is what Voldemort does in the books.
During the filming of Chamber of Secrets there was an infestation of lice among the child actors.
The Harry Potter series were the first children’s books to make the New York Times Bestseller List since Charlotte’s Web in 1952.
The final installment of the Harry Potter book series—Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—sold 11 million copies in just twenty-four hours.
PROLIFIC PERFORMERS
Actor John Carradine holds the record for appearing in the most films, more than three hundred. The total is higher if movies he appeared uncredited in are counted.
John Wayne was the most commercially successful actor of all time and starred in the most movies—142.
BEAUTY AND BRAINS
The beautiful Austrian-American film star Hedy Lamarr was also a mathematical genius. During World War II, she came up with an early technique for frequency hopping and spread-spectrum communications that is still used today for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and wireless phones.