The Mammoth Book of Useless Information. Noel Botham
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the Vampire Slayer.
• Czech supermodel Karolina Kurkova’s father doubled up as a police chief and a basketball professional when she was a child growing up in Decin.
• Rapper NAS’s 30th birthday cake was iced with green marijuana leaves, as a nod to his hemp advocacy.
• Presenters and nominees at the 2003 Emmy Awards received a gift basket worth more than £18,750 featuring speciality phones and a trip to Bora Bora.
• US actress Rena Sofer, who stars in the American version of saucy British sitcom Coupling, is an orthodox rabbi.
• Legendary singer Sir Elton John refuses to play white pianos, which he brands ‘tasteless’. He also dislikes white limousines, but he can tolerate one item in white – refrigerators.
• US rappers Eminem and Wyclef Jean were born on the same day in the same year, 17 October 1972.
• Rocker Dave Matthews and his wife Ashley have matching wedding bands made out of pressed pennies from the years they were born, 1967 and 1973 respectively.
• Flamboyant comic Eddie Izzard practically managed to sell out his Sexie show at New York’s City Centre despite having virtually no advertising or promotion.
• Director Quentin Tarantino was so impressed with the bar from the fictitious House of Blue Leaves, created for his movie Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (2003) he had it installed in his Hollywood home.
• Funnyman Jim Carrey, comedienne Ellen DeGeneres and Frasier star Jane Leeves were in the same acting class before hitting fame.
• Actress Uma Thurman carried home rocks from the different locations where she filmed Kill Bill for her children Maya, five, and Roan, one.
• Everybody Loves Raymond star Ray Romano went to high school with actress Fran Drescher in New York, and refused to be funny in her presence because he couldn’t stand her nasal laugh.
• Radiohead star Jonny Greenwood has turned composer – he has penned the score for the human life on Earth TV documentary Bodysong.
• Rapper 50 Cent’s £2.6 million mansion in Farmington, Connecticut, is the largest in the entire state. The pad used to belong to Mike Tyson and boasts eighteen bedrooms, thirty-eight bathrooms and a man-made waterfall.
• Dublin kebab restaurant Abrakebabra rewarded Westlife singer Bryan McFadden with a gold card to thank him for being their best customer.
• Rapper Eminem’s parents once fronted a covers group called Daddy Warbucks.
• Movie funnyman Bill Murray owns a little-league baseball team in St Paul, Minnesota, and helps boost attendances by inviting fans to try out the hot tub he has installed in the stand.
• Football-mad rocker Rod Stewart’s fourteen-year-old son with model Rachel Hunter, Liam McAllister Stewart, is named after Scottish international sport hero Gary McAllister.
• Friends star Jennifer Aniston wore underwear with a picture of Brad Pitt on it to the 2003 Emmy Awards.
• Welsh actress Catherine Zeta Jones’s son Dylan has become so close to his mother’s pal George Clooney that he now refers to the actor as ‘Uncle George’.
• Reportedly, flamboyant rocker Sir Elton John is having a range of candles made for him with specially designed wicks, as he can’t sleep unless he has personally trimmed them before going to bed.
• Staff at supermarket Tesco were so impressed with a special extra-large species of South African avocado that they’ve christened it the ‘J-Lo’ after Jennifer Lopez’s impressive curves.
• US actor Kevin Costner has twice taken on roles after Harrison Ford turned them down – Ford was the original choice to star in Dragonfly (2002) and JFK (1991).
• The name of 4-LOM, one of the bounty hunters seen listening to Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), stands for: For Love Of Money.
• Hollywood comedian Jim Carrey voted in 2004 at the Beverly Hills City Hall. He had an assistant wait in line for him, however.
• Police in Italy had to come to UK supermodel Naomi Campbell’s rescue when a crowd of up to 4,000 men swarmed a beach she was visiting.
• The Russian Imperial Necklace has been loaned out by Joseff jewellers of Hollywood for 1,215 different feature films.
• Titanic (1997) star Leonardo DiCaprio says he practised his losing smile for the Oscars – because he knew he wouldn’t win the Best Actor trophy.
• There is a new television show on a British cable channel called Watching Paint Dry. Viewers watch in real time: gloss, semi-gloss, matt, satin, you name it. Then viewers vote out their least favourite.
• The BBC asked to interview reggae legend Bob Marley in 2005 for a documentary – despite the fact he died in 1981. They sent the Bob Marley Foundation an email saying it would involve him ‘spending one or two days with us’.
• Thousands of Britons say they would like Robbie Williams’s song ‘Angels’ played at their funeral.
• In Star Wars, a small pair of metal dice can be seen hanging in the Millennium Falcon’s cockpit as Chewbacca prepares to depart from Mos Eisley. The dice do not appear in subsequent scenes.
• Zeppo Marx (the unfunny one of the Marx Brothers) had a patent for a wrist watch with a heart monitor.
• A schoolgirl asked band Coldplay for their autographs to sell for charity – and got a triple platinum disc worth £4,000.
• Flamenco dancer José Greco took out an insurance policy through Lloyd’s of London against his trousers splitting during a performance.
• Jonathan Davids, lead singer of Korn, played in his high-school bagpipe band.
• Rap artist Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs had his first job aged two when he modelled in an ad for Baskin-Robbins ice-cream shops.
• E.T. (1982) director Steven Spielberg is Drew Barrymore’s godfather. After seeing her nude in Playboy magazine, he sent her a blanket with a note telling her to cover herself up.
• In 1996, 37 per cent of the toys sold in the United States were Star Wars products.
• Speed (1994) star Sandra Bullock has revealed she uses haemorrhoid cream on her face.
• The Monty Python movie The Life of Brian (1979) was banned in Scotland on its release.
• In 1977, the legendary Groucho Marx died three days after Elvis Presley died. Unfortunately, due to the fevered commotion caused by Presley’s unanticipated death, the media paid little attention to the passing of this brilliant comic.
• Men in Black star Will Smith wants female fans to stop asking him to sign their breasts – because he doesn’t want to upset their boyfriends.
• Actor Robert De Niro played the part of the Cowardly Lion in his elementary school’s production of The Wizard of Oz. De Niro was ten at the time.
• ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ was created in 1939, in Chicago, for the Montgomery Ward department stores for a Christmas promotion. The lyrics were written as a poem, ‘Rollo, the Red-nosed Reindeer’, by Robert May. Montgomery Ward liked it but didn’t like the name Rollo, so they changed it to Rudolph. It wasn’t set to music until 1947 and Gene Autry recorded the hit song in 1949.
• The first Michelin Man costume (Bibendum) was worn by none other than Col. Harlan Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame.
• Former EastEnders star Danniella Westbrook buys her millionaire husband clothes on eBay.
• In Estonia, Teletubbies