Silly or genius? Or maybe both? Michael and Francesca Bennett saved bits of food left by celebrities that visited their cafe in Kingsand, England:

The impetus for the museum came to the Bennetts after musician Pete Doherty dined at the café and left behind panini crumbs. Around the same time, fashion photographer David Bailey failed to polish off his sandwich crust after lunch at the Boatstore, and the idea was born.

The pieces are now displayed under glass domes in shelves on a wall of the café. Among others, luminaries such as Prince Charles and the actress Mia Wasikowsa have both left behind food remnants, which are now artifacts in the museum. There are no preservatives used on the leftovers, but apparently that hasn’t caused mold — some items are simply shriveled up.

Link | The Museum of Celebrity Leftovers official website

Previously on Neatorama: 25 Strangest Collections on the Web

New York comedian Mark Malkoff visited every Starbucks in Manhattan, raced a Big Wheel against a bus, and treated people to free cab rides. His latest stunt is to take a trip to Los Angeles and avoid hotel bills by bunking at various celebrity’s homes. Thirteen of the people he contacted said, “Sure!” -Thanks, Mark!

Scientists have just named the "all-time diva of flies" with a golden rear end after a certain pop singer famous for her curves as well as her music. Meet, the bootylicious Beyonce fly:

The rare Scaptia (Plinthina) beyonceae species of horse fly was collected in 1981 (the year that Beyonce was born) together with two other previously unknown specimens from northeast Queensland's Atherton Tablelands.

The singer Beyonce, on the other hand, was a member of the group Destiny’s Child, which recorded the 2001 hit single "Bootylicious." The fly got its booty-ful name from its extreme diva feature: a big gold butt.

"It was the unique dense golden hairs on the fly's abdomen that led me to name this fly in honor of the performer Beyonce as well as giving me the chance to demonstrate the fun side of taxonomy — the naming of species," Lessard said in a statement.

Link (Photo: CSIRO)

Remember when celebrity portraits weren’t photoshopped, and the stars were allowed to relax and be themselves, rather than posing on ridiculously overdone sets in the latest couture ensemble?

This series by Norman Seeff finds celebs relaxing, goofing around, and occasionally just hangin’ out in full outfit and makeup (I’m looking at you KISS). Take a stroll through the rest of the images at the link below, and reminisce about a time before John Travolta found Scientology, the Jackson 5 sported afros, and the Rolling Stones still had their edge.

Link –image credit: Norman Seeff

These cool metal sculptures, of celebrities like John Lennon and Andy Warhol, have such soft edges and fine detail that I was surprised to find out they’re made out of chicken wire. Kenyan artist Ivan Lovatt uses skills he learned from working in construction to create these metal masterpieces, and like a good builder he’s built sculptures which are durable enough to weather any storm!

Hit the link to see more of Ivan’s creations, including his amazing renditions of wildlife in wire.

Link –via BuzzFeed

Debbie Ritter at Uneek Doll Designs captures real people in doll form in a way in which anyone would recognize them. Each is hand-painted one at a time, and the selection is incredible! Where else could you get a doll that looks like Percy Shelley or Willie Nelson or Teddy Roosevelt? Pictured here are Thomas Edison, Madeline L’Engle, Jane Goodall, Edgar Allan Poe, Maya Angelou, John Adams, and Eleanor Roosevelt, all available at her Etsy shop. Link -via Everlasting Blort

Previously: Ritter’s Susan Boyle Doll.

Rochus Misch is 93 and uses a walking frame to move around his apartment. He told the Berliner Kurier tabloid that, with most of the letters he receives asking for autographs, it was “no longer possible” to reply because of his age.

“They (letters) come from Korea, from Knoxville, Tennessee, from Finland and Iceland — and not one has a bad word to say,” said Misch, who is believed to be the last man alive to have seen Hitler and other top-ranking Nazis in the flesh.

Misch published his memoirs in 2008. Link -via Breakfast Links

Wrong! According to Peter Daboll of AdvertisingAge, having celebrity endorsements do not pay:

Over the course of last year, time and time again we observed incredibly low effectiveness scores of TV ads starring celebrities. From Tiger Woods to Donald Trump, we found that with rare exception, celebrity endorsements were largely ineffective and failed to yield the benefits popular wisdom promises.

Why? Peter blames the changing consumers, though I suspect that the ad makers relied so heavily on the star power of the celebrity that they either neglect to actually make good ads or no longer have enough funds to do so:

Were celebrities losing their pizazz in influencing consumers? Had the age of social media and consumer control ushered in a new consumer that is not as easily won over by a famous face?

In fact, yes. Today’s consumer is a totally different animal than the consumer of even five years ago, meaning that what was effective and influential five years ago is not necessarily so today, as today’s consumer is more likely to be influenced by someone in their social network than a weak celebrity connection. Today’s consumer is informed, time-compressed, and difficult to impress, and they are only influenced by ads that are relevant and provide information. They don’t want to have products pushed at them, even from a celebrity. In fact, the data show that relevance and information attributes were key missing ingredients from most celebrity ads.

Link

He changed his phone number and put it in his wife’s name, but it still was put on a fan website. Now he gets even more calls – sometimes 50 messages in two hours. Usually, he just unplugs the phone.

He also tried to contact Facebook to get reinstated, but it’s hard. Bieber had an account for six months, when with no warning or email, his account was disabled.

“I guess their policy is ban first, ask questions never.” He was briefly kicked off another social network, Ping, which is affiliated with iTunes.

He also still gets anywhere from two to 10 fan letters a day.

Bieber says there’s an upside to the situation. For the first time in his life, everyone knows how to pronounce his name correctly! Link -via The Daily What

The name is not a common one, but there are a handful of Sarah Palins in the United States. About 12 are Facebook members. The database on Classmates.com lists 30 — including the one who graduated Wasilla’s Burchell High School in 1982. But per capita, the coincidence appears far more common in England, where a handful of the dozens of Sarah Palins I contacted were also far more willing to talk about it.

"If I had a pound for every time I have heard someone crack a joke about my name, I would be the proud owner of a Bugatti Veyron," says one Palin from Brighton. "My name is actually not the same as hers either — I am a Sara, not a Sarah."

Other Palins recounted, perhaps thanks to the former Alaska governor’s own predilection for Facebook, receiving friend requests from Mama Grizzly groupies, including positive messages of thanks for inspiring them to beat cancer. But of course there is hate mail: "you should never have been born," "you bitch," and "you’ve insulted every single black American," for starters.

"In everyday life in England it’s fine, the odd comment — everyone thinks they’re the first," says a Sarah Palin from outside of Manchester. "But on Facebook it’s just a right pain in the rear end."

Link

Rob’s book Zombiewood Weekly: The Celebrity Dead Exposed is a clever parody of the tabloids that feed on America’s undying love for celebrities. The descriptions are a hoot to read – they’re almost as good as gawking at the rotting flesh of the zomblebrities.

Here are a few examples:

And just for you Mac Fanboys, here’s the I’m a Pc vs. I’m a Mac parody:

Links: Zombie Daily | Zombiewood Weekly on Amazon | Kindle | Zombie Portraits

Don’t just leave it to (genetic) chance – now you can stack the odds of having beautiful children in your favor by selecting sperm donors that look like celebrities.

Read about some of the most unusual sperm banks for designer babies over at our baby and parenting blog NeatoBambino: Link

Talking heads proclaim that the public is due an explanation, and that the story simply isn’t going to go away without a public accounting of who (Tiger) had done what (or whom, as it were implied).

No, this post isn’t about Tiger, his accident, alleged affair, or whatnot. I don’t care about that – but what is interesting to me is why people care about such matters. If you follow this kind of news, let me ask you: what is it about celebrities that capture your fancy? What is so interesting about Jon and Kate, or Brad and Angelina or whomever.

Jaye L. Derrick and Shira Gabriel of the Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, SUNY, published a study that "connections" to celebrities or parasocial relationships, allow people with low self-esteem to view themselves more positively:

The current research demonstrates that parasocial relationships can have self-enhancing benefits for low self-esteem people that they do not receive in real relationships. These parasocial relationships, which have very low risk of rejection, offer low self-esteem people an opportunity to reduce their self-discrepancies and feel closer to their ideal selves.

“Even ‘fake’ relationships with celebrities, relationships without any actual contact, can have benefits for the self,” the authors conclude. “We found that parasocial relationships can sometimes have benefits for people with low-self esteem that ‘real’ relationships do not.”

Or is it genetics? Duke University Medical Center neurobiologist Michael Platt found that adult rhesus macaque monkeys would pay (by giving up their favorite drink, Juicy Juice cheery juice) to look at images of dominant "celebrity" monkey of their pack.

So here’s my question to you again: What’s so captivating about celebrities?

(Photo: Jim Epler [Flickr])

This is a statement that could easily be exemplified by Rick Rosner.  Despite a high IQ and a firm grasp on a litany of subjects, including writing, Rick’s life has had some strange twists and turns that are the combined result of his skewed sensibilities, and his desire to be famous.

Rick’s exploits, and the fact that he got a 44/48 on the Hoeflin Test are legendary.  He’s also been said to have an IQ that rises each time he takes the test.  Here’s his story.

Genius Prefers High School
Rosner liked high school a lot.  After graduating with a (then) IQ score of 170 in 1978, he later successfully fooled school officials by repeating the twelfth grade four times.  From 1979 to 1987, he returned as a valid senior four times using false IDs, prosthetics and makeup.  On why he did this, he says:

High school’s attractive to me, not necessarily because you have a good time, but because it’s clear why you are miserable. As opposed to real life – post-high-school life- you can be miserable and not have a clear idea what makes you miserable. Dissatisfactions are more vague, more amorphous. (High school’s) an abridged version of real life, and its abridgment adds clarity, and that clarity is comforting.

It’s also interesting to note that he got away with one of his fake IDs using the alias Gilligan Rich Rosner.  Gilligan.

Who Wants To Be A Genius?

The event that catapulted Rick’s life into the spotlight happened on a show that was simultaneously spotlight and knowledge heavy.  This show asked viewers if anyone in the crowd would perchance want to have a lot of money.

After numerous tries to get on the show, Rick was finally in the hot seat.  He was sailing along on the questions and felt really good until a relatively easy-level question messed him up.  He guessed according to his logic, and lost.  He then sued the producers after sending three detailed letters to them explaining his case.

The question was: “What capital city is located at the highest altitude above sea level?”  and the choices were:

A. Mexico City    B. Quito
C. Bogotá       D. Kathmandu

The reasons Rosner lays out in those letters are spot-on critiques of the semantics of the question and its relative difficulty compared to all other questions asked at that level, but he never got anywhere with his suit.  A sample of his correspondence: “I’m sorry to keep sending you letters. I’m not a grievance-oriented person, but a little research led me to a surprising amount of information indicating that it is an unacceptably-flawed question.”

15 Minutes Late?

I do think Mr. Rosner has a strong love affair going with the celebrity dance.  Aside from his appearances (often in the nude) on cable TV shows like The Man Show, Jimmy Kimmel and Crank Yankers, he’s also appeared on a show called Obsessed, and took jobs guaranteed to draw attention to himself.  Clearly this is someone eager for the 15 minutes of fame he thinks he deserves, but I also see a real human being, one who is acting naturally to the stimuli.  He also got steamed at Domino’s when they featured him in this commercial, somehow managing to spell his last name wrong in the graphics (Rossner).

Errol Morris’ First Person

Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, The Fog of War) created a show where he interviewed subjects through an “interrotron”, a “self-designed camera that allows the interview subject to see” Morris’ face transposed into the cameraface focused on them.  First Person is one of the best interview shows I’ve ever seen, as it tends to elicit more truth than can be seen in other shows.  Errol Morris on Rick Rosner:

I imagine he is a pretty complicated character who doesn’t understand himself that well.  He’s in the grip of all this stuff that he cannot control.

The journey he has taken, along with all the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and other stories of Mr. Rosner can be seen in six parts on You Tube, starting here.  Notice how Morris strings the facts into a collection, much like a weaver manipulates the strings.

YouTube Link

For a good time, watch and link to all 6 parts of the interview.  Wikipedia on Rick Rosner More on Errol Morris’ interrotron.  Photos: Errol Morris, Rick Rosner

The 50-year-old known for his shouting OxiClean ads was pronounced dead at 7:45 a.m. The Hillborough County medical examiner will perform an autopsy, Tampa police Lt. Brian Dugan said.

Mays was on the US Airways flight from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Tampa on Saturday that had a hard landing at Tampa International Airport when the plane’s front tire blew out. There were no reported injuries on Flight 1241, US Airways told CNN.

According to a local Tampa TV station, Mays said: "All of a sudden as we hit you know it was just the hardest hit, all the things from the ceiling started dropping. It hit me on the head, but I got a hard head."

No words whether the a bump in the head, which caused the death of actress Natasha Richardson a couple of months ago, is also responsible for Billy May’s death. CNN has the news: Link

Previously on Neatorama: 5 Shocking Celebrity Deaths

Grace Kelly

Grace Kelly’s death in 1982 was a big surprise. The Princess of Monaco, who was only 52 and seemingly in perfect health, suffered a stroke while driving with her daughter Princess Stephanie. The timing couldn’t have been worse – it was just as she was driving on the edge of a mountainside, and the stroke left her incapacitated and unable to control the car. It careened off the edge of the mountain and rolled down, flipping over multiple times. Stephanie suffered a cervical fracture and some bruising, but Princess Grace didn’t recover from her injuries. The world was stunned because the reports from Monaco originally said that she had broken her collarbone, a leg and some ribs, but was in stable condition.

Photo from CoverBrowser.com.

Elvis

We know now that Elvis was on more drugs than Anna Nicole Smith, but at the time, it wasn’t widely known that he had a veritable pharmacy in his system. In fact, he had gone to Richard Nixon to complain about the prevalence of drugs in the entertainment industry. Despite a series of kind of crappy concerts – he was out of shape and self-conscious about his appearance, and it showed – he was getting ready to embark on a new tour on August 17, 1977. He didn’t make it. The day before, his fiancee Ginger Alden found him dead on the floor of his bathroom at Graceland.

At first the public was told his death was due to cardiac arrhythmia, which wouldn’t have been too unbelievable giving the amount of weight he had gained; he had also been having some obvious breathing troubles onstage. But it didn’t take long before the truth emerged: his very own Dr. Feelgood, Dr. Nick, had been prescribing massive amounts of pills for a very long time. His autopsy revealed that he had 14 drugs in his system when he died; 10 were in large quantities. They included Morphine, Demerol, the antihistamine Chloropheniramine, Valium, Placidyl, Codeine, Ethinamate, Quaaludes and an unidentified barbituate. It’s rumored that he also had Diazepam, Amytal, Nembutal, Carbrital, Sinutab, Elavil, Avental, and Valmid in his system. It’s a wonder that he didn’t die sooner, really.

Photo from FrancesEllenSpeaks.

John Lennon

When Mark David Chapman killed John Lennon by shooting him four times at close range, the entire world immediately went into mourning. On December 8, 1980, John and Yoko were coming back to their apartment at the Dakota in New York after an evening recording session. Waiting in the shadows of the building’s archway was Chapman, an obsessed fan who had approached Lennon earlier in the day for an autograph and a photo. Of the five hollow-point bullets Chapman fired, four of them hit Lennon and inflicted severe injuries. At least one of them punctured his aorta.

Lennon managed to get six stairs up to the doorman before he collapsed; the doorman took the gun from Chapman’s hand and covered Lennon with his jacket. Police loaded Lennon in the backseat of the police car and drove him to the hospital immediately and said that acknowledged that he knew who he was and fell unconscious shortly after. He was pronounced dead upon arrival at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center where the cause was determined to be hypovolemic shock caused by more then 80 percent blood loss.

Crowds gathered in Central Park outside of the Dakota singing and chanting and apparently keeping Yoko Ono awake. She asked them to give her a little peace, but please come back the following Sunday to help her observe 10 minutes of silence for her slain husband. Not only did they come back, the whole world decided to get in on the tribute. More than 100,000 people gathered in Central Park on Sunday, December 14, and 30,000 people in Liverpool followed suit.

Photo from the BBC.

Princess Diana

Princess Diana is the first shocking death I really remember. On August 31, 1997, the Princess and her boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed were being driven in Paris just after midnight. Their driver was trying to evade paparazzi and was driving at speeds much higher than the recommended 30 mph – some reports estimate that he was going at least 65 and others say 90. He lost control of the car in the tunnel and plunged into a support pillar. Al Fayed died at the scene, as did the driver. The other passenger survived.

Diana died of her internal injuries a few hours later at the hospital – the crash had jolted her body so severely that her heart reportedly was displaced to the right side of her chest. Her death was announced at 5:30 a.m. People worldwide were horrified and saddened and more than three million people showed up to mourn her during her Westminster Abbey funeral on September 6. So many flowers and gifts were left outside of Kensington Palace that the public was asked to refrain from bringing any more items because they were becoming safety hazards.

Photo from BiographyAndBiographies.

Dale Earnhardt

While not exactly in the same vein as Princess Diana or Elvis, Dale Earnhardt’s death certainly stunned the sports world. He was just completing the last lap of the Daytona 500 on February 18, 2001, when the left rear corner of his car hit driver Sterling Marlin’s front bumper. This made Earnhardt veer sharply left, then sharply right toward the concrete retaining wall. Just as his car was hitting the wall, Ken Schrader’s car ran into the #3 black Goodwrench car.

To most people, this didn’t seem like such a huge deal – for NASCAR, this was a relatively common accident and they had seen Dale come out unscathed after much worse crashes. The two cars slid down toward the infield grass and Schrader got out of his car, appearing to be completely fine. He walked to the #3 car and looked inside to check on Dale, then immediately signaled for help.

It turned out that Earnhardt died instantly, but wasn’t officially pronounced dead until he was examined at Halifax Medical Center. His injuries included a fatal skull fracture, eight broken ribs, a broken ankle, a fractured breast bone, and collarbone and hip injuries that indicated his seat belts did not fail. Sterling Marlin started receiving hate mail and death threats, Earnhardt’s #3 car was retired, and fans paid tribute to Earnhardt by holding up three fingers for the third lap of every Winston Cup race for the next year (I’m sure some people still do it). Even television announcers stopped commentating for the third lap.

Photo from USA Today.

What celebrity deaths totally floored you? Share your reactions in the comments.

We’re all gonna die someday. What will be our last tweet before we do? I found this pretty hilarious. Takes a look back at what might have been tweeted had twitter been around in years past.

A day rarely goes by without word of a new celebrity signing up to join the Twitter revolution. Everyone from mainstream personalities, like Shaq and Jimmy Fallon, to YouTube stars, like iJustine and Michael Buckley, are microblogging personal details that were formerly accessible only to the most ardent stalker/fan. Allowing celebrities to reach out to their fan base in such a direct manner must keep their management teams in high alert, which makes us wonder what would’ve happened if troubled stars from years past had known the power of Twitter. We did a little soul/Twitter searching and came up with a collection of “Famous Last Tweets” that sadly never were.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by internetisscary.

A collection of cross stitch awesomeness. This blog features works by Shanna of "St!#ch Out Loud."  Sure these pieces may have hearts and flowers, but they also feature sexual innuendos, profanities and David Hasselhoff. A perfect addition to any humble abode, cubicle or bar stool setting. 

Lastest posted works include:
- Make Awkward Sexual Advances Not War
- Cowboy M-Fer
- David Hasselhoff
- Debauchery

The bonus is Shanna’s "super hilarious" and "witty" commentary.  Check it. Check it.

The world fell in love with David Hasselhoff for his hair, his car named KITT, his mad lyrics and tunes, his lifeguard tan, his pugs, his drunken rages, and most of all his sexy.

This is my latest in celeb “man candy” pieces – capturing the greatness that is the Hoffenator.

De-lisch.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by shanbanan.

Looking back, everyone had a bad yearbook photo, and over groomed, picture perfect, celebrities are no exception.

Have a look at some of the pictures these famous faces would love to forget. Including George Clooney, Tom Cruise and Zach Braff

Link – via reddit

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Jake.

Here’s a neat quickie article at our pal mental_floss about 10 famous people who were homeschooled. For example:

1. Agatha Christie. Agatha was a painfully shy girl, so her mom homeschooled her even though her two older siblings attended private school. [...]

4. If Thomas Edison was around today, he would probably be diagnosed with ADD – he left public school after only three months because his mind wouldn’t stop wandering. His mom homeschooled him after that, and he credited her with the success of his education: “My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me; and I felt I had something to live for, someone I must not disappoint.”

5. Ansel Adams was homeschooled at the age of 12 after his “wild laughter and undisguised contempt for the inept ramblings of his teachers” disrupted the classroom. His father took on his education from that point forward.

Link – via i met a possum