In a memorable scene in the comedy Old School (2003), several students pledging a fraternity demonstrate their trust by standing on a roof and dropping weights (connected, by carefully measured ropes, to their testicles) over the edge. (Naturally, the largest pledge drops his weight down a manhole, with unfortunate results.)

Among the actors playing pledges was "Daily Show" correspondent Rob Corddry (cast as Warren, the silent pledge). "That was the night I met Gwyneth Paltrow," he later recalled, "with my pants around my ankles, and a rope tied to my [genitals]." His verdict of Gwyneth? "She's very nice," he said, "but she didn't shake my hand, which I thought was rude."

["I had to sign a nudity clause," Corddry recalled of his contract. "I actually had to sign a clause which said they can use my naked ass in perpetuity, anywhere in the universe... even in forms of media that are not yet devised... Holograms on Mars..."]