Paducah, Ky. - Lots of candidates kiss babie...

Swelled Head
"Long runs made [legendary actor and theater manager] Beerbohm Tree so fidgety h...

Death to all Kings
"Kings seem to have been tattooed throughout history. Henry IV, Peter the Great,...

Champagne
One day James McNeill Whistler, famous for his spendthrift ways, was visited by ...

Flophouse
One morning after returning from a gold prospecting adventure in Honduras in 190...

Repertory Company
The small repertory company in which Leslie Howard began his career put on so ma...

One-Eyed Jack
One day on the set of One-Eyed Jacks, Marlon Brando, famed for his perfec...

Classic Bono
Shortly after Jacques Chirac was elected President of France in 1995, U2 frontma...

Joan Crawford: Mommy Dearest
Joan Crawford, the prototypical demented mother, forced her adopted children (ac...

Fonda Marijuana?
One day in the late 1960s, Jane Fonda sat down for an interview in her apartment...

Babe
In 1973, the Carpenters were invited to play at a dinner party at the Nixon Whit...

Paraplegic Brando
While preparing for his role as a paraplegic in Fred Zinnemann's ...

Frank Zappa, Porn Star
In 1963, poverty-stricken Frank Zappa opened a soft core porn-production office....

Appointment
G. K. Chesterton often neglected to keep appointments and was obliged to send no...

Absolution
"My father's tutor, Monsignor Contini," the actress Stella Vitelleschi once reca...

Met
One day J. P. Morgan offered the directorship of the Metropolitan Museum to Sir ...

David Niven: Homing Pigeons
"When David Niven joined the army during the last war [World War II] he became i...

Damn Fool
"I see in The Times today," George V's private secretary remarked one day...

Magic Moment? (long)
"Almost thirty years ago now [in the early 1970s], two young actors were in thei...

Frank Capra: Lady for a Day
Frank Capra's successful, sentimental comedy Lady for a Day catapulted hi...

New Territory?
One evening during the production of The Cowboys, John Wayne and director...

Lunar Embassy
In July 2003, Dennis Hope, the founder of the Lunar Embassy which sells property...

Learned Professor
Max Planck was made a full professor at the University of Berlin at an unusually...

Mysterious Disappearance
Before embarking upon a political career, William Lyon Mackenzie King briefly wo...

Denis Leary: Asshole Song
"My son was taken to task at school because he taught his classmates 'The Asshol...

Carol Christian Poell Fashi...
In 2003, New Yorker critic Judith Thurman visited a fashion show hosted b...

April Fool's
"We are told that Phillips Brooks' preaching was fired by a glowing personality....

Casanova's Lover
The notorious womaniser Casanova once met a pretty 17-year-old girl named Leonil...

Hugh Jackman, Butt Naked
Hugh Jackman got a surprise while filming a scene one day on the X-Men se...

Old School Improv
"I was improvising this one scene in Old School," Jeremy Piven recalled, ...

Madcap Chef
Diners have been served food by celebrity chef Paul Liebrandt in a variety of ma...

Michael J. Fox & the Blackb...
While researching his role as Jamie Conway in Bright Lights, Big City (19...

Tiger Woods Prototype
Nike Golf once sent Tiger Woods a batch of five prototype drivers to test out. H...

Justin Hawkins: Darkness Below
Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins, famed for wandering into the crowd (and playin...

On With The Show?
"Knowing how fuckingstitious theatre people are, Mr Lawrence Wright announced th...

Young Megan Mullally
One day Megan Mullally came home from school and found several 45s which someone...

Merle Haggard: Dumbest Heist
"A petty criminal when he started performing, Haggard vowed not to let his music...

Sean Bean & Joely Richardso...
"[Sean Bean] hit the headlines as the sexy groundsman Mellors, servicing Joely R...

Lee Evans: Sexy Surprise
While vacationing in Florida in March 2001, comedian and actor Lee Evans decided...

Howard Stern & Beth Ostrosk...
"For our first trip together we went to Hawaii," fuckingmodel Beth Ostrosky once...

Ron Howard: Bowl Scene
One day during the production of Far and Away (1992), Nicole Kidman and T...

Howie Mandel: Trapdoor
"Todd Barry opened for [Howie Mandel] once at one of these things in a roundabou...

Gob: Chocolate Bar
During a tour stopover in Chicago one day, Gob frontman Theo pulled a classic pr...

Edward VII: Grandpa, Grandpa!
"Edward VII was well known for his indulgence to small children - though it beca...

Tom Wolfe: Country Man
"I remember during the holidays we went skiing in New Hampshire or Vermont, and ...

Godfather?
In 1965, a Putnam editor happened to stop by the magazine offices where Mario Pu...

Ice Breaker?
Virgin Records' founder Richard Branson was once invited to an exclusive party a...

Joseph Bell: Cheeky Diagnosis
One day Dr. Joseph Bell (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's medical school mentor and the ...

Zen Time
Searching for some "Zen time" one evening, radio shock jock Howard Stern went fo...

Elementary Question
After a school in his home town (Waukegan, Illinois) was named after him, famed ...

Sutherland Stumped?
While preparing for his entrance in a play one night, Donald Sutherland heard a ...

Robin Williams: Use Your Head!
During his audition for the role of Mork from Ork (on the '70s sitcom "Mork and ...

Roller Coaster (long)
At the turn of the millennium, geophysicists studying gaseous bubbles trapped in...

Lesson 9 From Outer Space?
Golfer Tommy Bolt was famed for his oddball antics and mercurial temper. Endeavo...

Jacques Plante: Hockey Pioneer
Famed Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jacques Plante was a pioneer on and off the ...

Welcome Mat
Even given his reputation for self-deprecating aloofness, visitors to director T...

Mutual Admiration Society?
When fellow artists Amedeo Modigliani and Maurice Utrillo first met, each paid t...

Housewarming
"Ralph Richardson seemed destined to have bad luck at the home of his friends, V...

*elcome to the *hite House
On Bill Clinton's last day in the White House, his departing aides played a curi...

Falmouth
In 1968, Robin Knox-Johnston set off from Falmouth, England in his old-fashioned...

Partridge's Almanac
On his way to a distant town one day, John Partridge, a charlatan famed for his ...

Scooter
For his role (as a character who has been brought up in the jungle) in Michel Go...

Russian Moment
While visiting Russia for a story one day, newscaster Connie Chung was asked by ...

Young David Spade
David Spade's sarcastic sense of humor did not always endear him to members of h...

Screwed?
Jonathan Wild masterminded several robberies using organized gangs of thieves (m...

DOCTORed Response? (long)
While working with BBN early in his career, artificial intelligence pioneer Dani...

Stravinsky / Schonberg
Artur Schnabel: "You may find this hard to believe, but Igor Stravinsky has actu...

Brazilian Prison
In August, 2002, Brazilian Judge Sueli Zeraick Armani de Menezes visited Taubate...

Just Do It
Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes's relationship with Atlanta Falcons receiver Andre Rison w...

Dave Pelzer: Pulitzer Prize...
Though Dave Pelzer's first three books, which purport to document severe child a...

Winery
Keith Dunstan once visited the historic old Tulloch winery in the heart of the H...

Oronhyatekha
The famous Mohawk physician (and chief of the Independent Order of Foresters) Or...

Dean Kamen: Family Vacation
By the age of 16, Dean Kamen (famed for his invention of the Segway Human Transp...

Barbie Liberation Organisation
"Naturally, there are periodic uprisings against Barbie. In the early 1990s, Mat...

Victor Hugo: Genius!
Even late in life, Victor Hugo was reputed to be a tireless and competent lover....

Qwerty Conspiracy?
In 1936, American efficiency expert August Dvorak patented a new keyboard whose ...

Standard Response?
On his way home from a visit to the vet one day, "Big Breakfast" host Johnny Vau...

Puzzling Question
Margaret Farrar, the Times' revered crossword-puzzle editor, was once ask...

Jackson's Bridge
One day during the Civil War, General Stonewall Jackson's Confederate troops fou...

Boy Scout
The famed brain surgeon Bronson Ray was out for a stroll one day when he saw a b...

Phone a Friend
During his appearance on the year 2000 celebrity edition of "Who Wants To Be a M...

Goofing Off
As punishment for goofing off during practice one day, legendary Chicago Bears c...

Great Seal
While serving as America's Ambassador to Moscow in 1945, Averell Harriman was gi...

When in Rome?
During the July Revolution in 1830, Alexandre Dumas joined a mob in the process ...

Pran's Dock
"The Newfoundland poet [E.J. Pran]... had a cottage near Bobcaygeon, Ontario, to...

Peas in a Pod?
Jerry Haleva boasted an uncanny resemblance to Saddam Hussein, a mixed blessing ...

Master of Suspense?
Shortly after Alfred Hitchcock's death, Burt Reynolds was apprised of a surprisi...

Juju Honeymoon
One evening in January 2003, Mariluce Antunes was delighted to share her wedding...

Angels in Paradise? (long)
Every Fourth of July weekend, between eighty and a hundred thousand bikers and g...

Devilish Devlin
"No actor is more exciting to watch than the mould-breaking Irish thespian Alan ...

Lousy Day?
In 1983, Prince Charles and Lady Diana visited Australia and New Zealand on a Ro...

Whiz Quiz
When it rains in Burbank, California, water flowing from the roof of Michael Gra...

Ed Koch: Terrible Mayor?
Former New York City mayor Ed Koch once told a large gathering about his return ...

Prince Faisal
In 1945, Prince Faisal visited San Francisco to oversee the drafting of the UN c...

Farquhar!
Sir Walter Farquhar was once visited by an elderly patient who had become convin...

Long Shot
Elfego Baca, one of the world's longest golf holes (a rocky three-mile stretch o...

Oh MI!
One day while working as a screenwriter in Hollywood, William Faulkner asked his...

Broken Nose
"I once slammed the door behind me, not knowing that my wife, Gladys Cooper, was...

One Night In Bangkok
When Murray Head's "One Night In Bangkok" ("One night in Bangkok makes a hard ma...

Barrel Organs
One summer Verdi rented a sizable cottage at a fashionable Italian resort. One d...

Staff Inspection
Following his appointment as home secretary, Georges Clemenceau and an aide race...

Not Standing
"I was conducting a wastedr round the Bencher's rooms at the Middle Temple Hall...

Publisher's Bible
One day Lord Byron gave his publisher, John Murray, a handsomely bound Bible, it...

Cairo Bazaar
"I was walking through the bazaars of Cairo," Sir Ronald Storrs once recalled, "...

Music Box
"During a European tour, [John Kenneth] Galbraith was presented with a tiny gold...

Lynne Cox: Babushka
On August 7, 1978, Lynne Cox swam across the Bering Strait. "When it finally hap...

Alec Guinness: Mudlark
The high point of Jean Negulesco's The Mudlark (1950), was a rousing parl...

Royal Reception
"At a reception in Vancouver during the visit of the royal family to celebrate B...

Doctor at Large
"Athene Seyler was appearing with me in the film ...

Drunk, by God
"Dr. Fordyce sometimes drank a great deal at dinner. It was after one of these h...

Asanokiri
Noted sumo wrestler Asanokiri once lost a disappointing match with Chiyohakuho w...

Jobs, Not Condoms
In the late 1980s, Irish comedian Arthur Mathews launched a faux campaign parody...

National Hooky League
In mid-Febrary 2003, Montreal Canadiens defenseman Patrice Brisebois took a week...

Dietrich Method
The famed caricaturist Al Hirschfeld and his wife (the actress Dolly Haas) once ...

Leo Elegans
"A brother of mine laid out a new rock garden at his house in the country," Lord...

Point of View (long)
"Ted Elliott and I [Terry Rossio] were working as producers on a project set up ...

Justice Avory
"When practising at the bar the tables were once turned on Mr Justice Avory. 'Le...

Young (Nude) Britney Spears
"When I was thirteen years old," Britney Spears once recalled, "I used to walk a...

Pleasures of Hope
Thomas Campbell once told a friend that he had grown tired of his association wi...

Dynamite King
One day in 1888, Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, was astonished to find ...

Hudson's Homosexuality
Though Rock Hudson's homosexuality was public knowledge by the time of his death...

Houdini
Among his friends, Harry Houdini was as famed for "escaping" from paying his bil...

Foo Fighters: Jailhouse Rock
On tour in Australia in 2000, Dave Grohl and the other Foo Fighters rented moped...

Lip Sunk
In 1989, Milli Vanilli won a Best New Artist Grammy Award. After scoring three #...

Star-Spangled
On tour one year, Arturo Toscanini's NBC Symphony Orchestra arrived in a South A...

Happy Mondays
The Happy Mondays' once opened for Carlos Santana. Shortly before the concert, f...

Portrait of a Madman
In the late 1990's, Brian Grazer started putting photographs of himself, grinnin...

Rockin' Rockne!
One day in 1923, legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne, bent on imbui...

Mafioso Monkey
One day during the production of Marked Woman (1937), producer Hal B. Wal...

Backhanded Favor?
While visiting a beach in the south of France one day, Pablo Picasso was approac...

Abracadabra
A woman, under the mistaken impression that Isaac Newton was an astrologer, once...

Stiff Competition
James Eggink was among the players selected by the Montreal Alouettes in the 199...

Novello & the Vatican
While researching his role as "Father Guido Sarducci" on "Saturday Night Live" o...

Sidelong Glances
"Once, when watching a play, the actor Walter Hudd found himself sitting next to...

Egg Face?
Following his retirement, John Dewey amused himself by selling eggs and vegetabl...

Lip Readers
In 1924, silent star Aileen Pringle appeared as the queen (who runs off to spend...

Idi-ot?
In 1979, a rebel army of Tanzanians and Ugandan exiles invaded Uganda and depose...

Asylum
"Having, in a fit of unsociability, banished all visitors from his home, Renisha...

Fanfair
In 1944, King Haakon - leader of the exiled Norwegian government in London durin...

Albert Brooks & the Family ...
"I opened for Sly and the Family Stone in '73," Albert Brooks once recalled of h...

Jayaprakash Narayan: Elder ...
"India was swept with grief on 22 March 1979 when the Indian Prime Minister, Mr ...

Flat Tire
"Driving somewhere along the Massachusetts North Shore in the early 1900s, Bisho...

High Hopes
"As a boy in Swansea Harry Secombe's English teacher had high hopes for him, dec...

Musical Chairs
Director Jane Campion, famed for her use of improvisational directing techniques...

Deep Curtsey
The Queen Mother was fishing in Highland waters one afternoon and had waded some...

Dale Earnhardt Driving School
Dale Earnhardt, Jr was once asked whether he had ever been given driving lessons...

Ozzy's Plumbing
"Late Night" host Conan O'Brien once filmed an Emmys skit at the home of Ozzy Os...

Shirley You're Joking
During a performance one evening, Shirley MacLaine made the following announceme...

Rickenbacker
When the Douglas Aircraft Company was competing with Boeing to sell Eastern Airl...

Georgie
The 28-year-old brother of the Duke of Argyl, Lord Colin Campbell, left his brid...

Motivation
One day during the early stages of World War I, British prime minister Herbert A...

Makropoulos Affair
During the rehearsals of The Makropoulos Affair, the composer Leos Janace...

Stout Response
One night Kinks frontman Ray Davies tried to emulate Keith Moon (the Who's misch...

Reverie
One Sunday morning Adam Smith, famed for his absent-mindedness, wandered into hi...

Soros
"A trader named Jean-Manuel Rozan once spent an entire afternoon arguing about t...

Expert Witness
Alexander Borodin was once called upon to testify (as an expert witness) in a ca...

Quick Conversion
"On my second day in the army, at Fort George, they lined us up and asked us whi...

Too Many Cooks?
By her own admission, the recipes which appeared in Tamar Myers' culinary myster...

Amazing Grace
"Father Dennis Ackroyd of Ewhurst, England, doing his duty as a conscientious vi...

Wingy Manone
"During World War II, Wingy Manone was playing at Cafe Society Downtown. One nig...

Rousing Speech
During Matt Simon's first year as head coach at the University of North Texas in...

B-Prepared?
One day while rehearsing for the title role in Otello, the leading tenor ...

Two G-G-Georges
The war correspondent George Kingswell, famed for his stutter, once had occasion...

George Dantzig: Homework
In 1939, 24-year-old George Dantzig began his graduate studies at the University...

Secret Life of Salvador Dali
One day Salvador Dali entered a New York bookstore and asked for a copy of his b...

James Bond, 00738958362?
In October 2000, Roger Moore was stunned to learn that his bank, Credit Suisse, ...

Drew Barrymore & Steven Spi...
On her 20th birthday, Drew Barrymore received a care package from her godfather,...

Orrin Hatch: Hipster Hatch
In September 2000, Senator Orrin Hatch enthusiastically agreed to back Jubilee 2...

Tibbles's Briefcase (long)
"At Palm Springs Municipal Airport, a writer named George Tibbles passed unchall...

Cosmo Woman
"This year's runner-up in the Cosmopolitan New Journalist of the Year com...

Neil!
"Parliament's equivalent of the U.S. Speaker of the House is called the 'Keeper ...

Handy Letter
In 1839, a young composer left his native Germany to seek fame and fortune in Pa...

Bill Clinton: Shagging the ...
In 1998, days after it was revealed that President Bill Clinton had explored var...

Normal?
Supermodel Tyra Banks was often approached by fans looking for more than an auto...

Crikey!
In his capacity as host of "Lorne Greene's Wild Kingdom," Greene once had an int...

Ryan & Quaid
After their breakup, Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid were said to be squabbling over t...

Leo the Lion
Director Marshall Neilan cultivated a first-rate rivalry with MGM chief Louis B....

Incredible Hulk
One day in July 2003, a six-year-old British girl named Leah Lowland visited a f...

Britney Spears: Exotic Dancer?
Any preconceived notions that Britney Spears was merely an innocent ex-Mousekete...

Paul Bettany: Three Surprises
Paul Bettany was once asked to list three things which fans might not know about...

Sheepish Painter
Winston Churchill, an amateur painter, once visited Time magazine publish...

Unveiling Ceremony
One day in 1978, British prime minister James Callaghan attended a formal recept...

Just Compensation?
While working for the Gold & Stock Co. (a telegraph company which provided gold ...

Speechless
Arthur Roberts was once cast to play the speechless part of a manservant in a ga...

Liver Than Live?
Texan maverick Ross Perot embodied the individualistic values that southern cult...

Easy Rider?
As a sophomore studying English at Yale, Jennifer Connelly was approached by one...

Captain's Log
Patrick Stewart once offered a word of advice to the show's fans. "If William Sh...

Boogie Nights
One day on the set of Boogie Nights, writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson...

Schachtster
"[Washington Senators pitcher] Al Schacht slid into second base and felt a low-t...

Ammunition (long)
"On August 4, 1914, I went to Edinburgh where accommodation had been taken for a...

Happy Family?
One day on the set of National Velvet (1943), Elizabeth Taylor, then just...

Kevin Spacey: Pencil Pusher
After leaving school, Kevin Spacey made an abortive foray into show business as ...

Slaight Problem
While co-starring in "Long Day's Journey into Night" in Washington, Kevin Spacey...

Breaking News
"I [Sydney Moseley] was being tried out as a reporter on the ill-fated ...

Wozzeck
The composer David Raksin was once told by a director that he did not want "any ...

Arts Critic
In August 1987, San Francisco Chronicle arts critic Heuwell Tircuit wrote...

Milk Boner?
During a formal dinner at Buckingham Palace one evening, a young British army of...

Timeless Question
"A man whom we had never seen before was wished on us for luncheon one day... He...

Generation Gape?
While working as a researcher at Life magazine, Lady Jeanne Campbell (Lor...

File Under F?
Such was George Tebbetts' devotion to the game of baseball that other areas of h...

Club Rules
While playing golf one hot summer day, Harpo Marx and George Burns elected to fi...

Shoichi Yokoi
In 1974, Hiroo Onoda, a lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army, was discovered...

Ah, Wilderness!
Famed theatrical director Russell Crouse once asked Eugene O'Neill to shorten th...

Heather Mills: Wake-Up Call
In September 2001, [Paul McCartney's wife Heather Mills] told British reporters ...

Fish Dish
"Invited - with wife, Rachel - to join friends for dinner, I duly arrived, dined...

Hard Knocks
A keen amateur boxer, the billionaire oil baron John Paul Getty frequently visit...

Running Footman
The Duke of Queensberry once interviewed several candidates for "running footman...

Marx Brothers: Bachelor Party
Groucho and Harpo Marx were once invited to a bachelor party at a restaurant in ...

Ikku
Shortly before his death, Ikku handed several small packages to his disciples, o...

Rube
"[Philadelphia Athletics pitcher Rube Waddell] wielded a pretty hefty bat for a ...

Language of Love
A few months before his marriage to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning,...

Financial Advisor
One day Herbert Beerbohm Tree's financial manager at the Haymarket Theatre cauti...

Full Deck?
Napoleon's small talk was almost completely predictable: having asked one's name...

Rain Check
One afternoon during a difficult phase in his first marriage, Tristan Bernard wa...

Small Consolation
During rehearsals for "The Manor of Northstead" it became painfully apparent tha...

Woody Boner
One day in 1992 Mia Farrow was horrified to learn that Woody Allen (her partner ...

Crappy Timing
Georges Bizet once visited his girlfriend and tapped on her window - at the prec...

Spider-Man
One day during the filming of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire was r...

Doppelgangmember?
The sculptor Lorado Taft left the Art Institute of Chicago one windy day and fou...

Crossword
While taking the train to London one morning, Oxford University Chaplain Ronald ...

Kirsten Dunst: Spider-Man R...
In a classic scene in Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson (played by Kirsten Dun...

Publicity Stunt? (long)
"Before Mary Martin went to Hollywood to make The Great Victor Herbert (1939), s...

Daniel Radcliffe: Harry Pot...
One day during the production of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" Dani...

AC/DC
While working as a mechanic (in a bra factory!) one day, Malcolm Young often not...

Rockin' Pope
In September 1999, Pope John Paul II hosted a debt relief concert in Italy featu...

Lee's Meat
So scarce was meat at the end of the Civil War, that even men like Robert E. Lee...

Tommy Cooper: Taxi Tip
Comedian Tommy Cooper got out of a taxi one day and slipped something papery int...

Nuclear Family?
At a social function one evening Lord North found himself conversing with a cert...

Young Churchill
One day Winston Churchill's father paid a "formal visit" to inspect his son's co...

Cheap Lie
While visiting an antique shop one day, William Gladstone encountered an early 1...

Libeskind & Wife
The architect Daniel Libeskind, famed for his designs for the buildings which re...

Blonde Jokes
Dolly Parton's appearance engendered considerable speculation - and not just on ...

Piatigorsky
Gregor Piatigorsky once had great difficulty with a certain pupil. No matter how...

Cosby
After a performance one evening, Bill Cosby was visited backstage by an aide who...

Pakistani Intelligence
One day in February 2003, Javed Ghumman, the director general of Pakistan's Inte...

Old Ruse
"Once after a performance in Boston an elderly lady met me at the stage door," ...

Frankly Spoken
One day Al Franken and his daughter (then a senior at Harvard) were approached b...

Escape Artist
Shortly after his escape from prison during the Boer War, Winston Churchill deli...

Small Talk
Roosevelt found the insipid small talk at White House social functions rather te...

Wily Wabbits (long)
"Berthier, the great organizer of the marches of [Napoleon's] Army-Corps, tried ...

Blindfold (long)
"During Napoleon's invasion of Russia, his troops were battling in the middle of...

Commander in Chief?
One day during the early stages of the Revolutionary War, George Washington enli...

Naked Gun?
One day Humphrey Howarth, having been challenged to a duel, appeared at the appo...

Corporal Punishment?
One day during the American Revolution an officer on horseback wearing civilian ...

Davy Crockett
While visiting a menagerie exhibition in Washington one day, Davy Crockett amuse...

Grrrr
One day before the war, Winston Churchill was dismayed to learn that his daughte...

Profound Moment?
"President Coolidge had a group of guests on the presidential yacht cruising the...

The Just
Under the Athenian system of ostracism, each citizen could vote to have a man ba...

Valet Parking
Wilson Mizner once drove to a Hollywood premiere in a dilapidated Ford. Pulling ...

Necessity
In 1906, Sherwood Anderson abandoned his job and family to devote himself to a l...

Garfield's Death (long)
Just two hundred days into his presidency, James Garfield was shot by a lawyer n...

Monkey Mischief
"The few documented cases of animal humor are physical in nature. The researcher...

Pass the Port
The Shakespearean actor Henry Irving once stayed as a guest at the Tennysons' ho...

Isaac Newton: Absent-Minded
One evening a friend arrived as scheduled to dine with Isaac Newton in his room....

Good Points
One day in 1959, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe were visited in a dressing room ...

Brahm$
Johannes Brahms was often perturbed by the financial instability of his parents....

Leland Hayward
Famed agent Leland Hayward counted among his clients such film stars as Judy Gar...

Fine Casting?
When director Henry Koster married Peggy Moran in 1941, he promised to put her i...

Open Sesame?
"On one of his European tours, the master magician and locksmith Harry Houdini f...

Ego Feeder?
While performing at a university one evening, Robert Merrill was given a science...

Klop
Winston Churchill, irritated by the noise of staplers, insisted upon fastening p...

Chopsticks
While Paderewski was waiting backstage before a concert one evening, a nine-year...

Quirky Memory
Tennyson may have inherited his quirky personality from his clerical father, who...

Anton Rubinstein: Wake Up Call
So marked was Anton Rubinstein's penchant for sleeping in each morning that he o...

Billy Blooper
One day shortly after the birth of his son (in June 1988), Billy Idol told his m...

Freddy Heineken: Cat Lover?
One day famed brewer Freddy Heineken showed a female journalist around his Amste...

Blue Lard
In early 2002, a pro-Kremlin youth movement called Moving Together (a group with...

Favorite Author
James Cabell once received an amusing letter from one of his fans: "Dear Mr. Cab...

Gladiators
One day during a break in the production of a certain historical epic, Victor Ma...

Black-Scholes
One day a certain economist, expecting no more than a dozen government officials...

Celebrity Surprise
Before attending Denis Leary's celebrity roast in 2003, Rene Russo visited a mak...

Deepest Secrets of the Medi...
When the famous Dutch physician and chemist Hermann Boerhaave died in 1738, he l...

Mushroom
One evening, the great comedian Alan King took Judy Garland to a restaurant in N...

Pagers
Kiev (Reuters) — A Ukrainian businessman who bought a pager for each member of h...

William Anders
A member of the crew of the famous Apollo 8 voyage, William Anders circumnavigat...

World Peace
In the early stages of World War I, Henry Ford - aiming to appeal to heads of st...

Puzzling Question
During a long hospitalization, James Thurber found himself doing a crossword puz...

Government House
"Sir Andrew Cohen had invited Ava [Gardner], Grace [Kelly], Clark [Gable], Frank...

Rotary Club Dinner
"Alfred Lunt told a story about an American Roman Catholic couple who were discu...

Ben Affleck: Love Scene
When Amanda Peet felt awkward about doffing her top to shoot a love scene with B...

George Boore?
"George Moore unexpectedly pinched my behind," Ilka Chase once recalled. "I felt...

Greatest Violinist
Jascha Heifetz and Mischa Elman were dining together one night when their waiter...

World's Worst General
Such was General Burnside's ineptitude that no numerical or tactical advantage w...

Max Boor
One day, boxer Max Baer called Mae West from the street outside her apartment in...

Police Dog
Peter Lawford, who once had his wife smuggle several grams of cocaine into Austr...

Barbra Streisand: Vocal Tracks
During a recording session one day Barbra Streisand, famed for her perfectionist...

David Bowie: Love Triangle
One morning, David Bowie's wife Angela went up to their bedroom and found her hu...

Worm Saloon
Shortly after the appearance of Independent Worm Saloon, Butthole Surfers...

Sock Trick
In 1994, Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis recounted a seminal momen...

New Yorker Welcome
The New Yorker's famed founder and editor Harold Ross once welcomed a pro...

Bluff
"Richard Porson was once traveling in a stagecoach with a young Oxford student w...

Dropping In
While celebrating his first night with Bianca in a London hotel suite, Mick Jagg...

Uncommon Cold (long)
"In the summer of 1950, Sir Christopher Andrewes conducted a series of experimen...

Exceptional Visitor
While recovering from a serious illness one year, Phillips Brooks ordered that n...

Major Aneurism?
In 1997, Dana Carvey underwent open-heart surgery for a blocked artery. Sadly th...

Brush with Fame
One summer day in July 2002, four teenaged girls made a pilgrimage to the home i...

Dream Date
In 1975, a KISS fan won a dream date contest with Gene Simmons, the band's front...

First Class Passenger
In the middle of a flight one day in 1974, Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham got ...

So Soiree
One evening Benjamin Franklin attended a meeting of a literary society in Paris....

Lucky Pint
"I had written a play about my experiences looking for work," Dominic Behan once...

David Cassidy: Lucky Ladies?
Before a concert one night, teen idol David Cassidy heard nature calling. Unable...

Anthony Kiedis: Simple Plan
While studying at UCLA, future Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis was...

Thirst For Adventure
In 1992, Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis, seeking to quench his th...

Homies
In 1992, Tupac Shakur visited his old Bay Area neighborhood in Los Angeles to at...

Calvin Coolidge: Medical Ha...
A smooth-talking salesman once persuaded the wife of President Calvin Coolidge t...

Irwin Edman
Professor Irwin Edman, famed for his absent-mindedness, once spent a delightful ...

Wreckers
When the opera The Wreckers was first staged in 1909, influential friends...

Seventh Course
"I once had lunch with Groucho Marx," Gypsy Rose Lee recalled years later, "a bi...

Andrew Carnegie: God Save t...
"Andrew Carnegie was given scant warning that King Edward was on his way to pay ...

Valley of the Shadow
"Andrew Gow once visited us during the grouse season at Douglas," the playwright...

Wrong Way Bleriot?
Hamilton Fyfe was among those present when Louis Bleriot set off on his historic...

Old Fool
"After breakfast King George V would telephone his sister, Princess Victoria. Th...

Mystery of the Universe?
"There is a wonderful photograph of Albert Einstein [taken in 1953] by Ernst Haa...

Such Cooperation
"One of our technicians went along to a big hall to discuss microphone positions...

Tower
"I [Sir Thomas Beecham] once notified the manager of the theatre at, I think, Ki...

Tara Reid's Fish
"I shouldn't tell you this story. I had this fish named Howard that kept eating ...

Hungry Genius
"Often [Duke Ellington] finishes his breakfast in a taxi. Frequently, driven fro...

Sleepwalker
"Ellington is a hard man to get to bed and a harder man to get out of it," Duke ...

Alarming Assumption
"[One day During World War II] George VI and his queen decided to test the Bucki...

Pea Soup
Cecil B. De Mille was once so busy that he asked Pauline Kessinger, the head of ...

Battle of Britain
"There is no denying that the Supermarine Spitfire, the most famous plane in the...

Zeta Hypothesis
The great mathematician G. H. Hardy was once invited to deliver the keynote addr...

X-Games Stunt
At the inaugural Moto X competition at the 1999 X Games in San Francisco, fiftee...

Absent-Minded Professor
The notoriously absent-minded Russian composer and professor Alexander Borodin o...

Lunch Break
Every day on the set before breaking for lunch, director Cecil B. De Mille would...

Porn Producer Adam Glasser
The legendary porn producer Adam Glasser once moved into an exclusive gated comm...

Old Farmer's Almanac
In the 18th century, Robert Thomas's Old Farmer's Almanac was just one of...

Mad Mike (long)
While interviewing Mike Tyson in a corner booth in a greasy restaurant in Las Ve...

Sweet Mary Jane
"I never smoked marijuana," Stan Lee - the creator of such classic Marvel Comics...

Shatner on Shatner
William Shatner was once asked how he had prepared for his role (as himself) in ...

Three-Headed Alien?
When director Barry Sonnenfeld cast 'Jackass' star Johnny Knoxville as a two-hea...

Brentano's
"A stately old gentleman walked into Brentano's, the New York bookstore, and ask...

Buckling Down
As an undergraduate at George Washington University, the horror film producer Ro...

Banksy at the Tate
In October 2003, Britain's "most celebrated graffiti artist" Banksy, famed for s...

Robson Robbed
One day in October 2003, "Birds of a Feather" star Linda Robson stepped out of h...

The Real Terminator?
When James Cameron was seeking financing for The Terminator (1984), Lance...

Hillary Clinton: Living His...
Shortly after the publication of Living History (her memoirs) in 2003, Hi...

Salami Surprise
Walter Matthau was an inveterate practical joker. On the set of Donald Petrie's ...

Phil Ramey: Paparazzi Surprise
In 1984, famed paparazzo Phil Ramey once followed Elizabeth Taylor through four ...

Hop Her, Hurley!
Marilyn Manson was not the only beast who found Rose McGowan irresistible. Alyss...

Peter Farrelly & the Bulbou...
Shortly after landing a role in the Farrelly brothers' goofball comedy ...

Jeff Raines: Galactic Misco...
"[Galactic guitarist Jeff Raines] and Galactic bassist Robert Mercurio formed th...

Naughty Brosnan
"Pierce Brosnan may play the suave gentleman in Bond flicks, but in real life, h...

Silent Romance
One day in July 2002, Patricia Arquette and her boyfriend, actor Thomas Jane, sa...

Jennifer Aniston & Brad Pit...
Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt were roused from sleep one night by their home se...

Wild On!
"I was sunbathing topless in Ibiza," 'Wild On' host Brooke Burke once recalled, ...

David Lynch's Pocket
Oddball director David Lynch was once spontaneously asked what he had in his poc...

George Clooney Interview
In 2003, Vanity Fair's Ned Zeman interviewed George Clooney in Italy (whe...

Crikey!
While crouching in the fall foliage one day discoursing upon timber rattlers ("H...

Wim Deetman & Fan
After a meeting with the directors of a local soccer club (ADO Den Haag) in Janu...

Keanu Reeves: Surprise!
On his 30th birthday, Keanu Reeves, a self-professed hard-core hockey fan, visit...

Chevalier de Coislin: Bored...
"It happened that he went with his brothers... on one of the King's excursions,"...

Matt Dillon & Friends: Funn...
"It was free love, man," C. Thomas Howell once recalled of the his experience fi...

Brooke Burke: Chosen One
"We did 'Wild On Greece,'" 'Wild On' host Brooke Burke once recalled. "At one ba...

Ryan Patterson: Boy Genius
After ringing NASDAQ's opening bell one morning, young Ryan Patterson - famed fo...

Pauly Lit: Robert DeNiro Im...
During a guest appearance on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" in 2004, eight-year...

Agnetha Faltskog: First Con...
ABBA singer Agnetha Faltskog's first public performance came at the age of five....

Young Rob Zombie: Art Show
"In third grade," Rob Zombie once recalled, "I learned about Alice Cooper — I mu...

Madonna: Material Girl
"Madonna, the woman who until now never seemed to be able to get enough (of anyt...

Christopher Logue: Poetical...
"Christopher Logue and the painter Derek Boshier were on their way to see the pu...

Kevin Bacon: Full Frontal
Kevin Bacon's full frontal nude scene in Wild Things (1998) came as somet...

Bill Paxton: Parking Lot Pi...
"I was only 18 when I got here [to Hollywood]," Bill Paxton once recalled, "and ...

George Jones: Deedoodle
"In 1979, ravaged by cocaine and heroin, George Jones experienced some difficult...

Lenny Kravitz: Lenny's Love...
Natalie Imbruglia once recalled her first visit to Lenny Kravitz's fabled love s...

Young Gina Gershon: Look Ma!
"...when I was really little, I was sitting around the dinner table," Gina Gersh...

Max Beesley: Walken Impression
The British actor Max Beesley once tried to win over casting director Georgianne...

Muammar Qaddafi: Body Language
In March 2004, Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi met with British Prime Minister T...

Jay Leno: HDTV
"One day I'm at Mulberry Street Pizza," Jay Leno recalled, "and they have an out...

Danny Pino: Dream Lover
One morning, "Cold Case" star Danny Pino's girlfriend told him she had had "the ...

Harland Williams: Chinatown
While visiting Chinatown one day, goofball comedian Harland Williams began talki...

Bette Davis & Henry Fonda
Young Bette Davis once had a date with young Henry Fonda. At the end of the even...

Don Imus: Hardball Guest
"Hardball" host Chris Matthews once recalled his oddest interview. After meeting...

Peter Farrelly: Wedding Pla...
The Farrelly brothers' goofball antics were not limited to the realm of film. "W...

Charles Beresford: Cock-a-d...
"Lord Charles Beresford (who was in love with Lady Warwick at the same time as t...

Dame Judy Dench: Put-On Humor
"Judy Dench's love of put-on humor, the ruder the better, is legendary. Once whi...

John Mayer: Encore!
"So we've got one more song to play for you tonight," John Mayer announced durin...

Reidar Osen: Lucky Dealer
In July 2004, Norwegian art dealer Reidar Osen learned that a painting which he ...

David Bowie: Heart of Gold
Iman was once asked to recall the most romantic thing her husband (David Bowie) ...

Tom Green: Hotel Porn
Tom Green once traveled across Canada in a van with two of his friends, filming ...

Jay Leno: Indian Tech Line
"I called the tech line here [at NBC]," Jay Leno once recalled, "and I got a guy...

Tom Arnold: Staying Calm
Tom Arnold once recalled an "incident" at a Clippers game. "I was in the front r...

Chris Russo: Domestically C...
"Chris is domestically challenged," Christopher "Mad Dog" Russo's wife Jeanne on...

Steve Harvey: Rude Awakening
Though Steve Harvey generously allowed his seven-year-old son to sleep in his be...

Colin Farrell: Pocket Rocket
"He was a f---ing nut," Angelina Jolie recalled of Colin Farrell and his antics ...

Al Franken & Tom Davis: Pri...
Shortly after joining the cast of "Saturday Night Live," Al Franken and Tom Davi...

John Belushi & Neil Levy
"I was at Catch a Rising Star trying to pick up a girl one night," comedy writer...

Goran Visnjic: Hypnotized?
ER's Goran Visnjic had an eye-opening experience while researching his role as h...

Ben Stiller & Dustin Hoffma...
"There was a scene [in Meet the Fockers] where I walk in and [Dustin Hoff...

Joan Wolfenden: Chicken Noodle
"A large party was lunching at Peacock Vane, the Isle of Wight hotel founded by ...

Philip Norman: Warm Toast
"While staying at Bikaner Palace, Rajasthan, in 1973," Philip Norman later recal...

Gerhard Brinkmann: Mug Shot
One day in February 2005, 88-year-old Gerhard Brinkmann encountered a thug in a ...

Ernie Sabella: Pumbaa
While visiting a toy store one day, Ernie Sabella, famed for his role as Pumbaa ...

Dominic Dunne & Jane Stanto...
In April 2005, Dominic Dunne was sent the bound galleys of Jane Stanton Hitchcoc...

Freddy Heineken: Cat Lover?
One day famed brewer Freddy Heineken showed a female journalist around his Amste...

OOps!
One day, Guess? model Kim Smith put on an unplanned show for a group of f...

Audacious Insult
W. H. Auden was surprised one day to learn that a sculptor friend named Mike De ...

Weseruebungle?
On February 21st, 1940, Adolf Hitler ordered General Mikolaus von Falkenhorst to...

Hairy Situation
Michael T. Weiss once appeared in an experimental play entitled "Hair" in northe...

Little Fouler?
One day New York mayor Fiorello "Little Flower" La Guardia, convinced that they ...

Tureen
"Lady Caroline, renowned for her flamboyant style, once celebrated the birthday ...

Racing Stripes
In 1974, a five-year-old gelding named Stanley Steamer lost its first (and-only)...

SAT on its Head?
Critics of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) have long made a sort of parlor ga...

Work Ethic?
Grant Wood's famous painting American Gothic is often admired for its app...

Oath of Allegiance
One day at the end of the Civil War, a Confederate soldier was brought before Be...

John Ashcroft & Mel Carnaha...
In November 2000, former Missouri governor John Ashcroft lost his bid for reelec...

Urgent Question
Julian Huxley once presided over a long and tedious UNESCO meeting in Mexico Cit...

Yellow Gold?
While meeting with a journalist in Hong Kong one day, Beck was bemused to hear t...

Airing Discontent
Arriving at a school in Victoria one day, Australian Prime Minister John Howard ...

Lake Wobegon Effect
Social scientists have drawn from Garrison Keillor's "News from Lake Wobegon" mo...