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This of you familiar with the EGOT (Tracy Jordan’s object of desire in 30 Rock) will know just how hard it is for one person to get the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony combination. In fact, only a dozen or so people have obtained the rare achievement, one of whom is Mel Brooks.
Topless Robot has a list of awesome achievements of the great writer and actor, including said EGOT and the fact that he gave birth to Max Brooks, one of the world’s foremost zombie experts.
If you live for celebrity food and beverage lines, then you’ll love Mental Floss’s list of 10 Celebrity Refreshments.
Personally, I’d like to mix some of The Situation’s Devotion vodka mixed with some of Rush Limbaugh’s Two if by Tea. It might not be the most delicious drink, but the conflicting celebrity endorsements must give it a great kick.
No matter how much you love or hate these celebrities, you never want to see them this close up, believe me.
Some of the images in this gallery will give you a good laugh, others are the stuff nightmares are made of (Iggy Pop). Check out the rest of the gallery at the link below. I didn’t realize that Zooey Deschanel is so fuzzy!
It takes a lot of poise to still look beautiful, sexy and powerful while using crutches, but if anyone could do it -it was Marilyn Monroe. And the gorgeous pictures of the late, great actress featured on The Huffington Post show just how stunning she could look, even with an ankle injury. If you love Marilyn, don’t miss these great, unreleased-up-until-now shots.
If you’re like me, you tend to suck at comebacks (at least coming up with them fast enough for them to be useful), which makes BuzzFeed’s list of 32 wittiest comebacks even better.
Have you ever wondered what Brad and Angelina would look like if they switched faces with each other? Or what Abraham Lincoln would look like if he was actually played by Nic Cage? Well, thanks to the magic of Photoshop, now you can -and the results are hilarious. WebUrbanist has a great collection of Photoshop face swaps along with links to blogs that specialize in that sort of thing. Enjoy.
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
Tattoos. Nowadays, we see them everywhere we look. Movie stars, athletes, singers, and even (albeit rarely) the occasional politician proudly sports his or her special “tats.”
In 1862, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), the son of Queen Victoria, became the first “famous” person to receive a tattoo. The prince’s tattoo was a Jerusalem Cross he got when he visited Jerusalem. It is rumored that even Queen Victoria may have had one (heaven forbid!).
Even some of our US presidents have been tattooed. Although no president has been “officially verified,” both Franklin Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt reputedly had tattoos of the Roosevelt family crest on their respective persons. Various sources say George W. Bush has a tattoo, either on his arm or his back.
Probably the most popular tattoo for Hollywood celebrities (especially women) is the “star” tattoo. Drew Barrymore, Lindsay Lohan, Kate Hudson, Pink, Kelly Osbourne, and Britney Spears all have stars (Bruce Willis has one, too). OK, let’s take a look at 16 other people who had or have tattoos
Thomas Edison
“The Wizard of Menlo Park” had three dots tattooed on his right hand, in the form of the dots on the face of a die. Edison also invented electric tattoo pens in 1876, under the official name “Stencil-Pens.” It was the predecessor to the later “tattoo machine.”
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston proudly sported an anchor tattoo on his right arm. And why not? His mother, Jennie Churchill, had a snake tattoo encircling her wrist.
John Wilkes Booth
When John Wilkes Booth was a young man, he gave himself a homemade tattoo. Young John drew his initials “J.W.B.” on his right hand with a strong Indian ink. The initials remained on his hand for the rest of his life. When Booth was shot on April 26, 1865 after assassinating president Abraham Lincoln, his body was identified and verified by the tattooed initials.
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You probably already know that a lot of celebrities are vain, but it’s hard to tell just how self-obsessed some people are until you learn how much they are willing to insure their own bod parts for. Mariah Carey, for example, has her legs insured for $1 billion dollars.
I’ve always wondered though if an insured celebrity gets fat, does that enable them to collect insurance money?
I was surprised when I learned just how well Bill Murray could pull off the look of an 1800′s Russian general. But he’s not the only celebrity that looks right in the role. Replaceface features an array of modern celebrities in this classic portrait style.
These days it’s all too common to see celebrities like Paris Hilton trotting through the mall with their precious little puppies in their purse, but just imagine if they were as crazy as Salvador Dali with his pet ocelot or Lord Byron with his pet bear. For more strange celebrity pets, be sure to check out this great Flavorwire article.
Did you know that Matthew Broderick once killed someone while driving? While the circumstances of the car accident were never made completely clear, he was definitely not drunk at the time. In the end, he just had to pay a $175 fine for “careless driving.”
He’s not the only celebrity responsible for someone else’s death. BuzzFeed has an interesting list of people who have killed someone.
Did you know Leonardo DiCaprio collects action figures or that Johnny Depp likes to play with Barbies? Also awesome -Ben Stiller is a Trekkie. If you want a little more insight into some of today’s most popular stars, this BuzzFeed article is a great place to start.
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I know most of us have had some incredible teachers in our time, but most of them will never be well-known by people other than those they have had direct contact with. Sure you may have the occasional teacher that was so inspiring a movie will be made about them, a la Dangerous Minds, but even then, the real educator won’t even be featured in the movie and his or her actions will probably be over dramatized for the sake of the audience. That’s why when talking about famous teachers, it’s much more realistic to talk about those who have been teachers at one point of their life, but are much better known for their roles outside the classroom. Here are 10 individuals that you almost certainly know of, but you probably didn’t know they also served as teachers.
Education has been an important part of Angelou’s life ever since a teacher helped her recover from becoming voluntarily mute. When Maya was eight, she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend, who was beaten to death shortly after by some of her relatives. Because she believed her confession of the act was responsible for his murder, she felt that her voice was directly to blame for his death. It wasn’t until she was 13 that she learned to speak again with the help of a dedicated teacher and family friend who introduced her to classic authors such as Shakespeare, Poe and Dickens as well as black female artists like Frances Harper and Anne Spencer.
Naturally, it was only fitting that Angelou repay her gratitude by working to educate others. While writing has remained her main passion, she has also taught at a number of colleges, including the University of Kansas, Wichita State University and California State University of Sacramento. For over 20 years though, she’s remained a professor at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.
You might know him best for his epic tongue-flicking rock concerts and terrible reality shows, but long before he was the legendary make-up sporting rocker, he was Mr. Simmons, a sixth-grade teacher in Harlem. While most celebrities who used to be teachers quit to follow their dreams, Gene was fired before Kiss started taking off. As it turns out, school administrators don’t particularly like it when a teacher decides to teach Spiderman comics in place of Shakespearean plays. In Gene’s defense, he’s right that the students were probably more likely to read the comic books than the plays, but I doubt they’d get as much out of them as they would the bard’s classic works.
Image via Lokomotive74 [Wikipedia]
If you thought Lord of the Flies did an excellent job depicting the attitudes and mannerisms of preteen boys, there’s a good reason for that –Sir William Golding served as a teacher before and after his stint in WWII. He often allowed the boy’s free reign of the classroom during debate sessions, which provided him with ample inspiration for the very novel that allowed him the financial freedom to leave the teaching profession.
Before joining The Police, Sting worked as a teacher during the week, heading out to the jazz clubs during the weekends. In his own words, he claimed to be a terrible teacher, only bothering to teach the students about subjects he enjoyed. This meant they pretty much only learned poetry and soccer from the future rock star.
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We all recognize the artwork on the cover of The Beatles’ 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Recognizing it and remembering who was in that image are two different things! Today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss challenges your recall by giving you a celebrity, and you decide whether that person was included on the cover or not. I only got 8 out of 12 right -because I was in a hurry, of course. Link
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
Here’s your question for the day: In what activity were men once 100% in control, but now women are in almost totally in control?
Did you say, “cheerleading?” Well, you’d be correct if you did. One hundred years ago, cheerleading was an entirely male activity, but by the 1920s (1927 is usually given as the first year), the girls moved in. By the 1940s, girls (and the newly-invented pompon) had almost totally overtaken the males as the nation’s cheerleader.
Why did girls so quickly overtake the guys in people’s hearts? No one knows the exact reason. Quite possibly, it was the lack of any sports for girls at the time, and they just wanted to get involved.
Interestingly, as it usually does, the sex angle played a part. Male cheerleaders still dress almost exactly the same as they did 100 years ago, i.e. full pants, full shirts, and a sweater with the team emblem. The female cheerleaders’ outfits, over the years, became skimpier and skimpier. The well-known cheerleader short shorts or short skirts became the custom. This of course, please the guys in the crowd immensely.
Also, by the 1940s, tumbling and gymnastics had become a popular part of cheerleading. The guys would stand and catch the girls, hold them aloft, or throw them up in the air. Obviously, the reverse was not possible, so the ladies became the stars of the act. In any cheering squad with both sexes, the girls inevitably are the center of attention.
Famous Girl Cheerleaders? The list goes on and on and includes Meryl Streep, Ann-Margret, Sally Field, Alicia Silverstone, Halle Berry, Katie Couric, Vanna White, Raquel Welch, Sandra Bullock, and Cybill Shepherd.
Madonna was a cheerleader (and a straight A student, too!). Even Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsberg (!!!) was once a cheerleader.
Famous Guy Cheerleaders include Jack Lemmon, Jimmy Stewart, Michael Douglas, Steve Martin, Samuel L. Jackson, and Jerry Lewis.
But did you know four U.S. presidents were once cheerleaders? It’s true, can you guess who they were?
Former president George W. Bush was the head cheerleader for Phillips Academy Andover in Massachusetts.
Ronald Reagan, “The Gipper” himself, was a cheerleader at Eureka College.
Dwight D. Eisenhower was actually a cheerleader at West Point Academy.
And Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a sad twist of irony, was actually a cheerleader at Harvard in the early part of the 20th century, long before polio befell him.
I remember many of these ads, but of course, at the time nobody knew the actors in them were going to be famous someday! Unknown actors take work where they can, and that’s often commercial ads, which lead to experience, which can lead to starring roles later. Unreality magazine has a collection of ads featuring stars you know, yet you might not recognize at a much younger age.
This list includes everyone from A-listers to TV stars, and products ranging from Pringles to Mylanta. It took me a while to track these down, but if you know of any more I’m missing, I’d be happy to amend the list with your finds. I’m sure there are a ton more out there, it can just be tough to know where to looks.
Enjoy the ones I’ve found so far, and keep in mind when watching commercials today, that someday that annoying kid from the Toyota commercials might be our next big movie star.
Go see them and find out who is in the picture here. Link
These letters were part of Dear Me: a Letter to My Sixteen-Year-Old Self, a 2009 project to raise money for the Elton John AIDS Foundation. Some of them are funny (love the one from Jonathan Ross), some of them are practical and some of them are a bit of both. I think I see a bit of myself in 16-year-old Emma Thompson.
What would you say to your 16-year-old self?
If you are famous, people are always trying to get something out of you. From Frank Stallone to Jim Belushi, we’ve seen how even your own family will try to ride your coattails. Here are some of the infamous and almost famous that are following in their relatives more famous footsteps.
Tom Hanks Son is a Rapper
How many rappers do you know named Chester? Well now you know one: Chester Hanks AKA “Chet Haze” the son of Oscar winning actor Tom Hanks is an aspiring rapper and frat boy college student. Having released the song “Purple and White” in an effort to stir up school spirit at his college, North Western University Hanks throws down his street cred of growing up on “the west side” AKA Los Angeles. The video of his rap song which you can watch below has gone viral. Hanks raps about his frat boy lifestyle including keg parties, bagging freshmen and rolling blunts. I’m sure his dad is proud.
Overall he sounds like any other not-so-talented amateur rapper trying to make it and no one outside of North Western would give him a second listen if his last name wasn’t Hanks. Remember when Kevin Federline came out with an album? Hanks and Federline should grab Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton and go on the “Just Because I’m Rich I’m going to Record an Album” tour. I guess having children is kind of like that old Forrest Gump quote; “Sometimes life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.”
Chester Hanks “White and Purple”
(YouTube link)
Gallagher Too
When you think of prop comedy, one name comes to mind amongst all the rest: Gallagher. Gallagher is a comedian who was big in the 1980’s and early 90’s who stole the show smashing huge watermelons and showering his audiences with loads of goop. This may or may not be your thing, but Gallagher proved to have a successful act during this period with countless TV specials released.
Unfortunately his brother Ron Gallagher wasn’t having the same amount of success in life and around this time was unemployed and down on his luck. At first, like a good brother Leo Gallaher (the famous one) gave Ron permission to perform his water melon smashing “Sledge-O-Matic” shtick under one condition; Ron must promote these live appearances in a way that would make it clear that fans were getting the brother and not THE Gallagher. At first Ron adhered to these restrictions, but then slowly started to make the distinction less clear. He billed the shows as “Gallagher Too” or even “Gallagher II” and made no mention that he was not the mustached, long haired but balding man millions loved to watch smash watermelons on TV. He just really, really looked like him.
Eventually Leo Gallagher sued his brother Ron in 2000 for trademark violations and false advertising. Leo won the lawsuit and Ron can no longer perform his brother’s routine or even intentionally try and look like his brother. Check out Ron Gallagher impersonating his brother’s act.
Leo Gallagher is on the left; Ron Gallagher is at right.
Dane Cook’s Half Brother Embezzled Millions from Him
Working as his business manager for years, Dane Cook’s half brother Darryl McCauley stole millions from the comedian and is now serving jail time for what Dane told Larry King was a total “betrayal.” Having used the money to buy a home and make investments in a hotel and restaurant, McCauley was sentenced to five to six years hard time for 27 counts of larceny and three counts of forgery and embezzlement. The dubious brother who wanted his chunk of the comic star’s wealth will have to repay 12 million dollars to Cook.
What’s with all the drama from comedians’ families? Also, Dane Cook is making enough money not to notice twelve million dollars missing? Instead of stealing the money, Darryl should have taken a page out of the playbook of Gallagher II and we could have all ironically enjoyed a second rate rendition of “who’s in my mouth” (supposing that there is a first rate rendition).
Marvin Bush 9/11 Conspiracy
Marvin Bush has a lot of big famous family shoes to fill as the son of former President George H.W. Bush and former first lady Barbra Bush, the brother of former President George W. Bush and the brother of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.
While Marvin never ran for political office, he, like his well known relatives, was successful in business, sitting on the board of directors for a company called Securacom. Because of this, Marvin Bush is famous or rather infamous to people in the 9/11 Truth Movement, those who believe that the terrorist attacks were an “inside job” perpetrated by the US government (let the trolling begin).
If you do a quick Google search for Marvin Bush, a good number of links will be regarding his involvement in this 9/11 conspiracy claiming that Securacom was in charge of security for the World Trade Center and that the company’s contract ran out on September 10th 2001. From this, they speculate that Marvin’s company was responsible for what they deem strange security lapses in the days leading up to the attack and even setting up the explosive charges that they believe were the true cause of the trade center’s collapse. Others have pointed out that Marvin actually left the company in 2000, but this hasn’t dissuaded conspiracy theorists from asserting his involvement.
What are some of your favorite almost famous relatives of famous people?
Ever wonder what some of Hollywood’s hottest starlets would look like if they had Steve Buscemi’s eyes? No? Well, thanks to the amazing Photoshop work of Chicks with Steve Buscemeyes, now you won’t be able to stop wondering. Is it just me, or does Taylor Swift with Steve Buscemeyes look a lot like Heather Graham?
If you’ve been keeping up with actor Charlie Sheen’s very public meltdowns, or if you are a fan of Hunter S. Thompson’s philosophical remarks, you should do well on this quiz. You’ll be given a quote, and all you have to do is decide which man said it. Simple! I got 12 out of 15 right. Link
Illustrator Benjamin Douglas created this chart as your guide to famous redheads. Link -via Buzzfeed
“This is not porn” is a photo blog with posts about rare and beautiful photographs of various celebrities.
Here you you find rarely seen pictures of celebs such as Albert Einstein, Bill Murray, Ozzy Osbourne, Princess Diana and many, many more.
Who are the most popular people on the internet? Well, they are not popular just for being on the internet -it takes a presence in the real world. However, the internet can measure a celebrity’s popularity pretty well. And the most popular person, teen pop singer Justin Bieber, got his start on the internet.
In the past twelve months, more people have searched for the 16-year-old wonder on Google than have searched for “china,” “jesus,” or “boobs.”
Bieber also left other celebrities in the dust. The only person who came close was Lady Gaga.
Based on a rigorous analysis of Google Trends we’ve identified the most popular people on the Internet. Since Google provides only comparative data, we compared everyone we could think of to Bieber. Feel free to check the data and post a comment if we left anyone off the list.
Business Insider counts down the top 20, ranked in comparison with Bieber’s popularity. Link -Thanks, Adam!
Famous faces in public places, but these aren’t advertising bill boards. Web Urbanist rounded up pictures of street art that incorporates celebrities you know and maybe love. This image of Jack Nicholson was painted in Berlin a few years ago. Link -via Rue the Day
(Image source: Lost At E Minor)
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Judy Berman of Flavorwire rounded up photographs of luxurious libraries in the homes of celebrities, such as Diane Keaton’s, which is pictured above. Karl Lagerfeld’s is astoundingly packed from floor to ceiling (and then some) with books.
Link | Photo: Calfinder
Alesia Newman-Breen sculpts dolls as characters from movies, TV, and literature. Each doll is one-of-a-kind and captures the look of the subject in a way no mass-produced doll can.She also does custom dolls that look like people you know! Link -via Nag on the Lake
Watching old episodes of Soul Train is always a good time. The outrageous outfits, the wonderful and wacky dance moves, the cool music acts and the sweet, soulful voice of Mr. Don Cornelius make up one excellent hour of television. If you start watching the reruns though, you may occasionally find yourself exclaiming “I recognize that person,” and you just might be right. A number of celebrities danced on the show before and after they made it big. Here are a few stars you might recognize if you keep your eyes peeled while watching.
After graduating high school, Rosie Perez moved to Los Angeles and started attending LA City College with hopes of becoming a marine biologist. She was a killer dancer though and soon found herself working on Soul Train in the late 80s. After a few seasons, she went on to perform at the club Funky Reggae, which is where she was spotted by Spike Lee who soon cast her in his film Do The Right Thing.
She continued working in the dance field and earned three Emmy nominations for her choreography on In Living Color and she choreographed music videos for Janet Jackson, Bobby Brown, Diana Ross and LL Cool J. Of course, Rosie is best know for her acting, starring in White Men Can’t Jump, Untamed Heart, Fearless and more. She’s even appeared on Broadway, where she was able to combine her dancing and acting talents.
These days, she focuses most of her energies on activism and President Obama even appointed her to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS this year.
Sources: Star Pulse, Biography.com, Wikipedia
Born Tara Leigh Patrick, Carmen’s parents knew she was destined for fame and they enrolled her in creative and performing arts classes since she was a youngster. Before she was even 18, she had already moved to LA and started dancing on Soul Train in 1991. Her big break came when she snuck into a nightclub and was spotted by Prince, who asked her to audition for a new female singing group he was forming. While she failed that the audition, she soon met Prince a second time and he asked her to be a solo artist on his record label. He also asked her to change her name to something more exotic, suggesting Carmen Electra after Bizet’s opera, Carmen, and the Greek princess Electra.
Her music career failed, but she was able to land a job on Nickelodeon’s All That, and she soon posed in Playboy, which helped her land a role on Baywatch and in MTV’s Singled Out. Since then she’s starred in a number of TV shows and movies, although these days her biggest roles seem to be in parody films like Disaster Movie and Meet the Spartans.
Sources: Wikipedia, Hot Carmen Electra
Image via Rafael Amado Deras [Flickr]
Nick Cannon started young. He was only eight when he started doing comedy acts and at 11, he was performing his act on public access. At only 15, he moved to Hollywood and joined the cast of Soul Train while performing his comedy routine at night. Like Carmen Electra, he was also recruited for Nickelodeon’s All That and he served as the warm up stand up comedian before the sketches were underway. Soon enough, he was added to the cast and the writing crew, making him the youngest staff writer in the history of television at age 17.
In 2002, he starred alongside Will Smith in Men in Black II and was soon cast as the lead in Drumline. The same year, he also released his debut album. These days, while still working on movies, music and his marriage to Mariah Carey, he is also the host on America’s Got Talent.
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Ross Luippold of The Huffington Post photoshopped nine movie posters, album covers, and title cards that imagined a world in which celebrities went by their real names instead of their stage names. Tom Cruise’s real name is Thomas Mapother?
Link via Geekosystem
Here’s an interesting and surprising list of celebrities who were leathernecks, including Bozo the Clown, Pat Robertson, and even Captain Kangaroo!
Prior to being Clarabell the Clown on The Howdy Doody Show and then the kindly Captain Kangaroo, Bob Keeshan was a trained killer. An urban legend claiming that he fought alongside actor Lee Marvin on Iwo Jima is false. Keeshan never saw combat because the war was over by the time he was of enlistment age (Lee Marvin was indeed a leatherneck who was wounded during the Battle of Saipan, but was not at Iwo Jima).
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by Treliske.
So you probably are well aware that chessmaster Bobby Fischer, born an American, died a citizen of Iceland, having renounced his citizenship in the US, and eventually having renounced everything else about the US.
But what about President John Tyler or W.E.B. DuBois? And would you be shocked to learn that Terry Gilliam of Monty Python was originally an American but became an expat and is now 100% British?
OK, this one is cheating just a bit. Former President John Tyler, by accepting a post as representative of the Confederacy, basically renounced his U.S. citizenship (and technically was the only President to die on “foreign” soil when he passed in 1862 in Virginia).
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by nmiller.
