Pola Negri was not noted for her modesty. While lying on her deathbed in 1987, she was attended to by a handsome young doctor who looked at her chart and failed to react upon seeing her name. Pola reputedly pulled herself up into a "movie star" pose and asked: "You don't know who I am!?"
While still in her teens, Mia Farrow developed a close friendship with the famed surrealist painter Salvador Dali. One day she complained that her life was in a rut. Fortunately, Dali had a suggestion. A few days later, Farrow ran into the artist and thanked him for his help, explaining that his advice had yielded a fresh perspective. Dali's suggestion? That Farrow wear her shoes on the opposite feet.
Farrow later went through a mystical period during which she claimed to have discovered a "mathematical formula for mind expansion."
As a child, Gillian Anderson dreamed of becoming a marine biologist. By way of preparation, she would spend hours in her parents' back yard... digging up and dissecting earthworms.
No doubt, Agent Scully (her character on "The X-Files") would have sympathized.
Jack Warner, the movie producer and co-founder of Warner Brothers, was in the habit of taking an afternoon nap in his office at Warner Brothers, and it was an unwritten rule of the studios that he should not be disturbed. On one occasion, however, Bette Davis burst into the office while Warner was asleep and began ranting about a script that did not meet her approval. Without opening his eyes, Warner reached for the phone and called his secretary. "Come in and wake me up," he said. "I'm having a nightmare." Miss Davis could not help laughing, and the crisis over the script was resolved in a few minutes.
Place a child in a room, with a bible, an apple and a Rs 5 note. If he takes the bible, he will become a priest. If he takes the Rs 5 note, he will become a business man. But if he takes the apple in one hand and eats it, the 5 Rs note in the other and sits on the bible, he will become a politician.
When Silvio Berlusconi became Prime Minister of Italy in 2001, he continued to run his media empire. "There are no blind trusts, no meaningful guidelines on conflict of interest," Jane Kramer, an American journalist, explained. "No culture of divestment, no legal reason for a Prime Minister even to consider divestment..."
Berlusconi had an answer for such critics. "I wanted to do it," he once declared, "but my children won't let me."
Controversial documentary filmmaker Michael Moore was often advised to run for president. On one such occasion, Moore opened his arms, exposed his famous Big Mac belly, and replied: "You don't want this rolling around in the White House!"
Harry Truman was once asked by a young student how he might get started in politics. "You've already started," Truman replied. "You're spending somebody else's money, aren't you?