Celebrities who were major liars about their lives

[Sampiro]

Several celebrities told so many lies about their pasts that sometimes it's not even known what is and isn't true. Who are a few examples you can think of?

Some that I'm familiar with:


Enrico Caruso- frequently claimed to be the 18th (sometimes 15th) of 21 children and the first to survive infancy, but was in fact less interestingly the oldest in a family of 3.

Yul Brynner- rarely discussed his past, though when he did it involved BIG FISH style tales of being the son of a Japanese princess and a Swiss nobleman, running away with gypsies as a boy, great adventures in WW2 underground resistance, etc., when in fact he was born to a Eurasian family on Sakhalin, grew up in Paris when his parents separated and effectively sat out WW2 in the US. He sang with gypsies in nightclubs but never joined them.

Al Lewis- best known as Grandpa Munster, among his whoppers are that he's a gypsy (he's Jewish and grew up in Brooklyn), that he has a Ph.D. in child psychology from Columbia (he never even completed his BA) and that he was a circus performer and trapeze artist (there's no record of it and it doesn't fit with what's known of his past). His date of birth is also recorded differently in different sources, some placing him in his late nineties and others in his early eighties.

Patty Duke- Perhaps due to the manic-depressive illness that was untreated most of her life or perhaps just show-biz spin, she's made several odd claims about the foster family who raised her (including tales of an odd device with spinning electric cylinders that she had to lie on that don't seem to be borne out by other evidence) and claims she became pregnant either by Desi Arnaz, Jr. or John Astin (she's not sure which) and married Michael Tell, a total stranger who sublet her apartment, in order to avoid the scandal of an unwed pregnancy; 30 years later DNA proved that her son Sean was the son of Michael Tell, though she still denies having slept with him.

Steven Seagal- Claims to be a black belt in several martial arts disciplines that experts who have watched his moves say he doesn't know the first thing about, has hinted strongly that he was a CIA operative in Japan, claims to have been the prize student of O'Sensei (Morihei Ueshiba) though none of Ueshiba's other students seem to have known this (they admit he hung around the classes, but never saw him fighting) and claimed to be one of the world's leading authorities on samurai swords (several claims he made were demonstrably false).

Raymond Burr claimed to have been married three times (twice widowed, once divorced) and said the heartbreak of his only child's death prevented him from any romantic involvement. In fact while he truly was divorced once (from a very brief marriage) he never had a child, was never widowed and was gay.

Who are some other celebrity prevaricators?

Who are some others who have so fabricated their past as to nearly lose it?

[Marley23]

Chuck "I killed a buncha people for the CIA" Barris comes to mind. (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030207.html)

[kung fu lola]

In one interview at the beginning of her career, Madonna claimed to have grown up in a rough, mixed-race 'hood.
She actually grew up in a middle-class family in a middle-class, white neighbourhood.

She's also lied about drug use and pregnancies, but that's a bit of a tangent off of the OP.

[duffer]

Steven Seagal- Claims to be a black belt in several martial arts disciplines that experts who have watched his moves say he doesn't know the first thing about, has hinted strongly that he was a CIA operative in Japan, claims to have been the prize student of O'Sensei (Morihei Ueshiba) though none of Ueshiba's other students seem to have known this (they admit he hung around the classes, but never saw him fighting) and claimed to be one of the world's leading authorities on samurai swords (several claims he made were demonstrably false).

Please tell me this wasn't news to you. It's been about 10 years since he was exposed for the fraudulent pussy he really is. Although, I disagree with anyone claiming him a good actor, he did fool a lot of people for awhile and got rich off it.

My 2.

John Wayne. I love every movie he's ever made. Really portrayed the individual American tough guy in every role adeptly. Now, he never claimed it, so I give him a pass, but he did let America beleive his publicist about being a war hero. Still, won't keep me from watching Rio Bravo when it's on again.

Second. Rock Huson. 'Nuff said.

[duffer]

:smack: shit, that's HUDSON

[Sampiro]

In one interview at the beginning of her career, Madonna claimed to have grown up in a rough, mixed-race 'hood.
She actually grew up in a middle-class family in a middle-class, white neighbourhood.

As memory serves the same is true of Robert "Vanilla Ice" Van Winkle; he claimed to be a child of the "skreets" when he grew up in an area about as ghetto as a Perry Como Christmas Special. (Of course when it comes to white rappers I have a special weakness for Brian Austin Greene (http://imdb.com/name/nm0004977/bio), who overnight went from affluent California kid to ebonics when he started rapping.

A reverse past doctoring was The New Kids on the Block. They were portrayed as the boys next door, the kind you'd want your daughters to bring home, when in fact several of them were from very rough neighborhoods, had lengthy juvenile records, and backstage and hotels during the tours that were portrayed as something out of an Osmond Brothers benefit concert were in fact a non-stop orgy of hormonally raging overnight millionaires that required an army of PR reps to run damage control.

[Paul in Qatar]

Charlie Chaplain claimed to be Jewish for some reason. He wasn't.

[Sampiro]

Charlie Chaplain claimed to be Jewish for some reason. He wasn't.

IIRC his half-brother (who also went by Chaplin, though they had different fathers) actually was half-Jewish. Perhaps it was fraternal solidarity.

[duffer]

Charlie Chaplain claimed to be Jewish for some reason. He wasn't.

Maybe he had a budding Hollywood carreer?

[QuizCustodet]

From Britain, Jeffrey Archer (novelist and (mostly former) politician) appears to lie
about his life about as easily as he breathes. Michael Crick, a former BBC journalist, put together a stunning biography that exposes most of them. Basically, stuff gets spun:

[QuizCustodet]

Sorry for the cut-off. A few examples of Jeffrey Archer's spin:
- He claimed to have a degree from Oxford, when in fact he had a certificate in teaching P.E. from a teaching college only loosely associated with the University.
- Several of his ventures into charity work have serious financial question-marks,
despite Archer's voluble protests of their success
- In the most famous case, he took a newspaper to court over allegations that
he'd had an affair with a prostitute. He won the case initially, but it later emerged that he'd only done so by buying several people's silence and getting his wife
to lie on the stand. He was found out some years later, and recently served some time in prison over it.

[paulberserker]

I point you in the direction of Jennifer Lopez's "Jenny from the Block". I don't think I need to say more. I hate it when people lie to me through song.

[gobear]

Brian Dennehy claimed to have won the Congressional Medal of Honor in Vietnam, but investigative reporters discovered the claim was false.

[Diceman]

I point you in the direction of Jennifer Lopez's "Jenny from the Block". I don't think I need to say more. I hate it when people lie to me through song.
To be fair to ol' Jenny, this is probably more self-delusion than outright lying.

Still, everything I've ever heard about JLo suggests that she's a typical Rich Bitch.

[CandidGamera]

Dan Aykroyd made up a spouse, at one point, or so I recall.

[Annie-Xmas]

When Demi Moore married Bruce Willis, she claimed she was "Single" on the marriage license. Which must have come as quite a shock to Freddie Moore, her ex-husband, whose name she uses.

[Kalhoun]

Can't you use the term "single" when you're no longer married to someone?

[Annie-Xmas]

Can't you use the term "single" when you're no longer married to someone?

I think she was suppose to check the box marked "DIVORCED."

[Eve]

Theda Bara never lied about her own life (well, except her birthdate, which was 1885, not 1890), but her studio delightedly made up stories that she was the daughter of an Italian painter and an Arabian princess, born in the shadows of the pyramids and trained in Paris' Grand Guignol theatres. Actually, she was Theodosia Goodman, a nice, upper-middle-class girl from Ohio.

Anna Held lied like a rug. She insisted she was a native Parisienne, convent-schooled. She was actually a Jewish girl from Warsaw.

[Shirley Ujest]

I beleive it was Patrick O' Brien of the famous Master and the Commander Series that left a wife and young son behind in England, changed his name and left that life behind him to re-invent himself into PO'B, the writer. And no one knew, (except exwife & son) I think, until after his demise.

[BrotherCadfael]

John Wayne. I love every movie he's ever made. Really portrayed the individual American tough guy in every role adeptly. Now, he never claimed it, so I give him a pass, but he did let America beleive his publicist about being a war hero. Still, won't keep me from watching Rio Bravo when it's on again.Prior to about 1955, the studio system told enormous whoppers about virtually ALL of their stars either to (1) make them the darlings of the public, or (2) keep their REAL activities out of the public eye.

The studios concocted war records, relationships, marriages, educational backgrounds, birthplaces, religeous preference, medical histories, hobbies, friendships, cetera, et cetera, ad nauseum.

There was no lie a studio publicist wouldn't tell, and any star who contradicted the official line would quite literally "never work in this town again".

[Sampiro]

Theda Bara never lied about her own life (well, except her birthdate, which was 1885, not 1890),

The very first line of Marion Davies's autobiography, The Times We Had (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0672521121/qid=1084545739/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl14/102-6787728-2900162?v=glance&s=books&n=507846), was a lie: I was born in 1905. In fact she was born in, at the latest, 1897 (some accounts back it up three more years).

She claims she was 15 when she began her affair with Hearst, who was 57, and it was totally innocent. The affair more likely began when she was about 18 and he was around 52. Her date also makes her a film star when she was 12 and on B'way (as a showgirl) when she was about 9.
She doesn't lie about the Ince/Chaplin/Hearst affair (whatever happened) but just doesn't mention it at all. She generally comes across as not particularly deep and at times dummer-than-a-bag-of-hair, though a generally very nice person who truly did grow to deeply love her Sugar Daddy. (The story of her hocking her jewels and other possessions to bail him out of a financial bind is famous.)


Timothy Leary's autobiographies (particularly Flashbacks) are all (undeniably very well written) masterpieces of self-exoneration in which, among other things, he claims never to have had a bad trip (which he contradicted in several other sources) and neglects to point out the many flaws in his Harvard studies on the benefits of LSD (not the least of which being that psychologists researching chemical use don't generally trip/imbibe/get stoned with their test groups).

[Revtim]

Didn't Steven Seagal also go on Letterman and try to pass off the "dead dog replaced by live one at airport" (http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/deadair.htm) urban legend as something that he did? Letterman called him on it, IIRC.

[Master Wang-Ka]

Wau.

I didn't know a lot of this stuff.

I do know that Buffalo Bill Cody personally invented enough bullstuff about his past to fill a book, which he then hawked copies of at his Wild West Show.

[Paul in Qatar]

Charles Kuralt, the guy who used to host 'CBS Sunday Morning' had two wives, two families, two houses, everything.

[Sampiro]

Another type of closeted star: Jews. It's almost hard to believe that believe that being Jewish was once something studios wanted to cover up, but famous "I didn't know s/he was Jewish" stars included Leslie Howard [b. L.H. Stainer] who was fairly devout himself and whose parents were very conservative and observant Hungarian Jews, Judy Holliday (b. Judith Tuvin), Eddie Albert (b. E.A. Heimberger) and Lorne Greene (b. Lorne Hyman Greene and named in honor of his two grandfathers, both of whom were rabbis).

I wonder (especially since so many studio execs were Jewish) if the knowledge that some of these actors were actually Jewish really would have hurt their career. I can't imagine Eddie Heimberger being any less funny on Green Acres than Eddie Albert, and Eva Gabor was pretty "openly Hungarian" even though most of middle-America couldn't relate to that.

OTOH, the sad thing is that if you do a google of the names "Leslie Howard Stainer" and "Edward Albert Heimberger", you come up with several white-supremacist, neo-Nazi and Islamic supremacist sites. What sick sick sad sad f*cks.

[Sampiro]

Didn't Steven Seagal also go on Letterman and try to pass off the "dead dog replaced by live one at airport" (http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/deadair.htm) urban legend as something that he did? Letterman called him on it, IIRC.

Michael Landon did the same thing on Johnny Carson with the closely related blow dried dead rabbit story (http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/haredry.htm) (also used in the godawful Dickie Roberts).

Charles Kuralt, the guy who used to host 'CBS Sunday Morning' had two wives, two families, two houses, everything.

Bizarre! I didn't know about that one, but according to Google there have been some pretty nasty lawsuits between the families.

[UrbanChic]

Charles Kuralt, the guy who used to host 'CBS Sunday Morning' had two wives, two families, two houses, everything.Wow. Really? I used to watch that. Tell me more.

[ThatDuckIsEvil]

River Phoenix - There were a lot of different stories going around about his family life and how he grew up, a few versions from River himself. And he also claimed in a Vogue Magazine interview in 1990 that he'd never done drugs, and never would do drugs. His quote: "Like Nancy says - Just Say No." He OD'd the next year.

[Eve]

The very first line of Marion Davies's autobiography, The Times We Had (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0672521121/qid=1084545739/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl14/102-6787728-2900162?v=glance&s=books&n=507846), was a lie: I was born in 1905. In fact she was born in, at the latest, 1897 (some accounts back it up three more years).

Two of the biggest tale-spinners were Pearl White and Mae Murray—White because she had a great sense of humor and loved playing games with the press; and Murray because she was nuttier than a Stuckey's log. She was born in 1886, but always referred to her good friend Rudolph Valentino (born in 1895) as "being just like an older brother to me."

[Hampshire]

[QUOTE=Sampiro]Michael Landon did the same thing on Johnny Carson with the closely related blow dried dead rabbit story (http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/haredry.htm) (also used in the godawful Dickie Roberts).

I remember William Shatner attempting to tell the same story on Letterman. But he totally screwed up the punchline. Nobody laughed. I remember yelling "That's not how the story goes! You screwed it up! That's not even funny!"

[Eats_Crayons]

River Phoenix - There were a lot of different stories going around about his family life and how he grew up, a few versions from River himself. And he also claimed in a Vogue Magazine interview in 1990 that he'd never done drugs, and never would do drugs. His quote: "Like Nancy says - Just Say No." He OD'd the next year.
River Phoenix spoke of this in an interview. He said he use to tell totally inconsistent stories in press interviews and had wondered if had ever anyone compared the different vresion of events, because if so they'd think he "was schizophrenic."

The basics of his family and biographical background is right. But some well-known stories were fabricated and/or contradictory (e.g./ It was widely publicized that he'd lost his virginity at the age of four, do just "dumb kid stuff", other times they make a big deal about how his hippie parents decorated a tent so he could have his first time with an older girl whio was a friend fo the family's).

[lieu]

Charles Kuralt's secret (http://www.salon.com/people/feature/1999/06/08/kuralt/) life.

[RealityChuck]

In amid the Hollywood stars who fudged their backgrounds, there was Erich von Stroheim, who claimed to be from German nobility, while his parents were actually Jewish shopkeepers. He kept up the facade most of his life.

Josef von Sternberg did the same thing, though he gladly admitted the "von" was just a pose.

[Eats_Crayons]

Oh, just remembered. Stephanie Romanov, Angel's ever-sexy "Lilah", says she is the granddaughter of Grand Duchess Xenia, claiming she to be a direct descendent of the Russina Tsars. This is denied by the Imperial Family.

Whether she is "lying" or just "mistaken" is unclear.

[Revtim]

That's so unexpected about Charles Kuralt. I'm very surprised I hadn't heard this before.

[FriarTed]

Anton LaVey (aka Anthony "Tony" Levey) claims- descent from European (I think Gypsy) aristocracy, a circus organist (no circus could verify that tho it's not impossible, he was a good organist), had an affair with Marilyn Monroe in her Norma Jean days when she stripped at the sideshow, worked as a crime photographer for a police dept (I think he claimed San Francisco), inadvertently cursed to death irreverent disciple Jayne Mansfield. The circus organist part is the only one that is even probably.

On the other side- there are the Christian "ex-occultist" hoaxsters-
Mike Warnke- Satanist High Priest in charge a coven of 1500 & half the area's
drug traffic
John "Lance Collins" Todd- Grand Druid Illuminist in charge of "demonizing" rock
albums
Lauren Stratford- Satanic ritual abuse victim & breeder (I won't count "Michelle" of
MICHELLE REMEMBERS because I never saw her on every talk show in the late
1980s)
Alberto Rivera- ex-Jesuit infiltrator of Evangelical churches, Jack Chick's albatross
Dr. Rebecca Brown- rescuer of ex-Witch/Bride of Satan "Elaine", fought Satanic
conspiracy against her in the hospital where she worked, also attacked by astral
projecting Satanists & threatened by a werewolf, married to Daniel Yoder- who
was ritually abused by Kabbalistic Rabbis while a child, even Jack Chick doesn't
publish her stuff any more
William Schnoebelin (or Schoenbelin?) (aka Christopher Syn) ex-Wiccan,
Voodooist, LaVeyan Satanist, Catholic priest, Mormon, Illuminist, Vampire (I think
he wins the prize!)

[Nonsuch]

I read an exegesis of A Moveable Feast which argued pretty convincibly that most of Hemingway's stories about being a poor, starving writer in Paris were bullshit: his wife at the time, Hadley, had a comfortable inheritance and it seems likely that the Hemingways lived a nice middle class lifestyle in Paris. Of course, spinning tall tales about starving for his art is probably the least of Hemingway's sins in that department (eg., the slander perpetrated on Scott Fitzgerald with the famous "the rich are different from you and me" anecdote).

Another poster mentioned Charlie Chaplin's claim to be Jewish; in fact, Chaplin really didn't know what his ancestry was (I've even heard it suggested that Charles Chaplin, Sr. wasn't his real father), and I'm sure that at least some of his claims to Jewish ancestry were made to rankle Nazi sympathizers and other xenophobes. But that doesn't mean he didn't lie about plenty of other things, most notably the role other comics had on his art. He consistently downplayed the influence of both his predecessors (such as Max Linder) and his contemporaries (including Arbuckle and Keaton). He took credit for composing the scores for his films when much of the actual work was done by hired composers (credited as "arrangers" when they were credited at all).

Jim Morrison used to tell the press that his parents were dead, when in fact they were not. (His father was a Navy admiral—not a very cool association in the counterculture in the 60s, to be sure.)

[rackensack]

I beleive it was Patrick O' Brien of the famous Master and the Commander Series that left a wife and young son behind in England, changed his name and left that life behind him to re-invent himself into PO'B, the writer. And no one knew, (except exwife & son) I think, until after his demise.

More or less correct; Patrick O'Brian was born Richard Patrick Russ. While he claimed to be an Irish Catholic, his family was English of German descent, and not Catholic. He essentially abandoned his family around the beginning of WWII, worked (though perhaps only peripherally) in British intelligence during the war, took up with the English ex-wife of Count Dmitri Tolstoy, Mary Wicksteed Tolstoy. He formally changed his name to Patrick O'Brian two weeks after they were married. Tolstoy's son, Nikolai, has written a brief memoir (http://www.hmssurprise.org/Related/tolstoy_obrian.html) in which he defends O'Brian from many of the alleged lies and character flaws with which he's been charged since his death.

Related links:
New York Times obit, including information about O'Brian's deceptions regarding his personal history (note that this article contains at least one factual error I'm aware of: Master and Commander, the first book in the Aubrey-Maturin series, was published in 1970, not 1959 as stated in the article):
http://www.io.com/gibbonsb/pob/times-unabridged.html

[dropzone]

Erich von Stroheim, who claimed to be from German nobility...Josef von Sternberg did the same thing, though he gladly admitted the "von" was just a pose.On the other hand there is Paul Henreid, born Paul Georg Julius Henreid Ritter Von Wassel-Waldingau, who WAS Austro-Hungarian nobility but didn't make a big thing of it.

[teela brown]

Although I recently read her biography, I can't remember if it was Merle Oberon or the studio system that passed off the notion that she was born in New Zealand. She was actually born in India to an Indian mother and an Irish laborer father.

[Winston Bongo]

Let's not forget the apparent brother and sister duo, The White Stripes, who aren't actually siblings, but ex-spouses. However, I don't know if this was an actual lie perpetuated by them, or just a rumor that developed because they wouldn't clarify their relationship.

And then, of course, there was Bob "Ethel" Merman, who throughout his career convinced most of the world he was female.

[LifeOnWry]

Anton LaVey (aka Anthony "Tony" Levey) claims- descent from European (I think Gypsy) aristocracy, a circus organist (no circus could verify that tho it's not impossible, he was a good organist), had an affair with Marilyn Monroe in her Norma Jean days when she stripped at the sideshow, worked as a crime photographer for a police dept (I think he claimed San Francisco), inadvertently cursed to death irreverent disciple Jayne Mansfield. The circus organist part is the only one that is even probably.



FWIW, Anton was NEVER called "Tony", mainly because his name was Howard.

That he was a big-time charlatan, I won't deny. His ex-wife Diane is my cousin.

[jimmmy]

Dyan Cannon said that she lied so long and so well about her age that, eventually, she realized that even her parents had lost track and were fooled.

Bill O'Reilly may or may not have exaggerated the poor circumstances he faced in childhood by making them seem a bit more humble than they actually were. Al Franken pointed this out in print, again maybe or maybe not exaggerating how badly B.O'R. had gotten carried away. The created a fairly BIG and overly emotional stink among the tiny minority that would concern itself with such things.

[Eve]

Marlene Dietrich flatly denied the existence of her sister Elisabeth after she discovered Elisabeth was married to a minor Nazi prison-camp official. To the end of her life, Marlene insisted she was an only child.

Of course, so many stars lied about their homosexuality that we only know for sure of a handful who were actually gay or bi (William Haines, to his credit, was one who never lied about it).

[JohnT]

And then, of course, there was Bob "Ethel" Merman, who throughout his career convinced most of the world he was female.

Wait... you mean the "There's No Business Like Show Business" Ethel Merman?

[Eve]

Wait... you mean the "There's No Business Like Show Business" Ethel Merman?

T'was a joke. And a very, very funny one, I may add.

[JohnT]

Well, I was thinking she had a suspiciously deep voice. ;)

[Snooooopy]

More or less correct; Patrick O'Brian was born Richard Patrick Russ. While he claimed to be an Irish Catholic, his family was English of German descent, and not Catholic. He essentially abandoned his family around the beginning of WWII, worked (though perhaps only peripherally) in British intelligence during the war, took up with the English ex-wife of Count Dmitri Tolstoy, Mary Wicksteed Tolstoy. He formally changed his name to Patrick O'Brian two weeks after they were married. Tolstoy's son, Nikolai, has written a brief memoir (http://www.hmssurprise.org/Related/tolstoy_obrian.html) in which he defends O'Brian from many of the alleged lies and character flaws with which he's been charged since his death.

Related links:
New York Times obit, including information about O'Brian's deceptions regarding his personal history (note that this article contains at least one factual error I'm aware of: Master and Commander, the first book in the Aubrey-Maturin series, was published in 1970, not 1959 as stated in the article):
http://www.io.com/gibbonsb/pob/times-unabridged.html

I found it funny when I read that O'Brian, whose novels were rich with detail about sailing, knew nothing about actually piloting ships himself. Not that he lied about this, he just didn't mention it.

[Marley23]

On the other hand there is Paul Henreid, born Paul Georg Julius Henreid Ritter Von Wassel-Waldingau, who WAS Austro-Hungarian nobility but didn't make a big thing of it.
And there's Nigel Tufnel, who is actually Baron Christopher Haden-Guest. (So Jamie Lee Curtis is English nobility.)

I'm pretty sure the White Stripes brother-sister rumor was something Jack and Meg started.

[CalMeacham]

Virtually all stars seem to lie about their ages, shaving off a couple o years. See William Poundstone's first book of Big Secrets, where they do as bit of detective work (legal records, high school yearbooks,etc.) to ferret out real ages. One star that has pushed this as far s you can is Charo, who had her age "pushed back" in documents so far that she would've been underage when she married Xavier Cugat.


The all-time champ for lying about his background has to be Dianetics/Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Go to www.xenu.com and look up Miller's well-researched bio of him, Bare-Faced Messiah.

[smiling bandit]

Dyan Cannon said that she lied so long and so well about her age that, eventually, she realized that even her parents had lost track and were fooled.

That's not so hard... my parents forget my name all the time!

[AveDementia]

In one interview at the beginning of her career, Madonna claimed to have grown up in a rough, mixed-race 'hood.
She actually grew up in a middle-class family in a middle-class, white neighbourhood.

She's also lied about drug use and pregnancies, but that's a bit of a tangent off of the OP.

Aww, come on! You can't leave it at that!

Come on, spill it! You know you want to... ;) [/tempting]

[Paul in Qatar]

More about Charles Kuralt. (I looked this up before I realized someone else posted a nice link, but darn it, here is mine) :)


http://www.evesmag.com/kuralt.htm

[Marley23]

Bill O'Reilly may or may not have exaggerated the poor circumstances he faced in childhood by making them seem a bit more humble than they actually were. Al Franken pointed this out in print, again maybe or maybe not exaggerating how badly B.O'R. had gotten carried away.
Franken has also gotten on O'Reilly's case for fudging the truth about winning a Peabody award.

[AHunter3]

Tell them that David Caruso, of television's CSI: Miami and NYPD fame, claimed -- possibly in a TV Guide (?) interview -- to have been raised on the "mean streets of Queens" and that your GF, who is sitting beside you, is still ballistic about this, since in fact he grew up 2.5 blocks from her childhood home in The Forest Hills Gardens.

He went to private, Catholic grade school and then to Archbishop Molloy High School in Briarwood, Queens (again, no "mean streets" in sight).

[dropzone]

And there's Nigel Tufnel, who is actually Baron Christopher Haden-Guest. (So Jamie Lee Curtis is English nobility.)Trumping Henreid, who was only a crappy baronet. Christ, I've had garbagemen higher in the peerage than that!

[Dr. Rieux]

And then, of course, there was Bob "Ethel" Merman, who throughout his career convinced most of the world he was female.
Airplane!
Ted Striker: It's Lieutenant Hurwitz. Severe shell-shock. Thinks he's Ethel Merman.
Lieutenant Hurwitz: [singing] You'll be swell, you'll be great. Gonna have the whole world on a plate. Startin' here, startin' now. Honey, everything's comin' up roses...
Ted Striker: War is hell.

[Sternvogel]

While many a performer has shaved several years off her (or, less frequently, his) age, Louis Armstrong (http://classicfilm.about.com/library/weekly/aa072901a.htm) actually added a year and a month to his. Apparently, he believed he was indeed born on the symbolically resonant Fourth of July in 1900. Interestingly, the linked source gives his actual birthdate as August 4, 1901, while other sites place it three days earlier.

[merrily]

Then there is Lillian Hellman, of Julia fame (Vanessa Redgrave was terrific in it). Facts seem to indicate that Lillian "borrowed" another woman's life, and made up her won involvement in it out of whole cloth.

She was pretty famous as a liar in her own circle--but the larger-than-life liar, someone who you don't believe, but you can still cherish the out-sized nature of her personality. Someone who needs drama constantly in her life.

Her book Scoundrel Time about the McCarthy hearings, was less made up, but to read it, you would think her the Joan of Arc of the hearings, the person who personally turned them around. Actually, she was more of a small blip on the radar.

She is still a powerful writer, but there is a sort of Urban Legend feeling--she knows it is more powerful if you believe it was actually true, so she uses that.

[Annie-Xmas]

Jamie Lee Curtis also has the whole "are you a genetic male or female" thing that Unca Cecil covered in a column.

Patty Duke has always insisted that John Astin is her son Sean's biological father, and never had DNA tests done. Sean himself insisted on the tests, probably in view of the Lucille Ball inheritance. The DNA tests proved Tell was the father, but Duke still denies it.

[Little Nemo]

Maybe this doesn't count because he apparently didn't know himself, but I believe Jack Nicholson didn't find out until he was an adult that the woman he thought was his sister was actually his mother. She became pregnant at an early age and Nicholson's grandmother subsequently pretended he was her son instead.

One star that has pushed this as far s you can is Charo, who had her age "pushed back" in documents so far that she would've been underage when she married Xavier Cugat.
Charo apparently managed to do something I didn't think was possible; she had her birthdate legally changed.

[FriarTed]

FWIW, Anton was NEVER called "Tony", mainly because his name was Howard.

That he was a big-time charlatan, I won't deny. His ex-wife Diane is my cousin.


THANK YOU!!!! I cobbled that from vague memories of the Rolling Stones article a few years back & if I recall correctly (I have the mag somewhere but darned if I can dig it out now) his full name was Howard Stanton Levey (the middle name being the source of the "Anton").

And I am trying to recall... was Diane the mother of Zeena?

and what's up with her?!? (Zeena, I mean- I saw her on video years ago with Nikolas Schreck being interviewed by Bob Larson.)

[Annie-Xmas]

Maybe this doesn't count because he apparently didn't know himself, but I believe Jack Nicholson didn't find out until he was an adult that the woman he thought was his sister was actually his mother. She became pregnant at an early age and Nicholson's grandmother subsequently pretended he was her son instead.

This is also true of Ted Bundy. His "parents' were really his grandparents, and his sister "Louise" was actually his mother.

[LifeOnWry]

THANK YOU!!!! I cobbled that from vague memories of the Rolling Stones article a few years back & if I recall correctly (I have the mag somewhere but darned if I can dig it out now) his full name was Howard Stanton Levey (the middle name being the source of the "Anton").

And I am trying to recall... was Diane the mother of Zeena?

and what's up with her?!? (Zeena, I mean- I saw her on video years ago with Nikolas Schreck being interviewed by Bob Larson.)

Yes, Diane is Zeena's mom. And I have no idea what's up with Zeena. The relationship is through my father's family and I haven't had any contact with anyone from that side of the family in 21 years. When I was a kid, Anton was at the height of his celebrity and most of my knowledge of him is from hearing adults at family functions talk about his goings-on. Somewhere on the web is a page that Zeena put together that debunks her father's entire life, but I'm not looking for it this minute. You should be able to find it easily.

[NoClueBoy]

Add to the list of formerly closeted gay stars:


Van Johnson

While he was intially marketed as the desire of teen girls everywhere, he was living quite comfortably as a queer (as they were known back then. Now, too, I guess).

My Dad (you know that story) told me about this years ago while we were watching some old war film of his. Go For Broke! I think. Dear old Dad told me about how all his bi/gay military buddies used to laugh at the persona he showed in public appearances, while they had "partied" with him themselves.

I'm not really sure that he counts as being closeted, tho, since he didn't hide it, the studio did.

[monstro]

When Prince was big on the scene in the early 80s, he told the press that he was biracial: his mom white and his father black. Recently, Prince revealed that this was a lie to protect the identity of mother, who is black (albeit very light-skinned).

[Mehitabel]

This isn't a lie, exactly, but Mark Lenard was born Lenard Rosensen and gave his birthdate as 1927 when it was really 1924.

I thought he was wicked young to be a paratrooper during WWII, but he really wasn't!

Fascinating actor with I believe the most beautiful voice ever to issue from a human being. Even if his age was 72 instead of 68 when he died, it was way too early :(

[Sampiro]

This is also true of Ted Bundy. His "parents' were really his grandparents, and his sister "Louise" was actually his mother.

It's also true of the singer Bobby Darrin.

[voguevixen]

Didn't Steven Seagal also go on Letterman and try to pass off the "dead dog replaced by live one at airport" (http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/deadair.htm) urban legend as something that he did? Letterman called him on it, IIRC.

Ugh....why do people do this? I remember Douglas Adams telling the UL about the punk at the train station eating his cookies and then when he got up to catch his train he picked up his newspaper and there was HIS package of cookies. He was terribly bad at telling it and by the time he was finished Dave was like "yes, yes...that's nice." I would've expected Douglas Adams to have an actual interesting story about his real life to tell - or at the very least make up something original!

[pesch]

W.C. Fields told so many lies about his life that it took a long time for the truth to surface. The author of the biography, "The Man on the Flying Trapeze," gained access not only to Fields' papers, but to his scrapbooks, where he methodically kept track of his appearances, clippings, etc.

Fields liked to tell that he was thrown out of the house at an early age, lived on the streets and left Philadelphia as soon as he could. He actually grew up in more comfortably circumstances (lower middle class) and got along with his parents. He didn't stash money in hundreds of accounts around the world. He had several mistresses throughout his life, one of whom bore him a son, which he refused to acknowledge even privately.

[kung fu lola]

Aww, come on! You can't leave it at that!

Come on, spill it! You know you want to... ;) [/tempting]

Well, since you twisted my arm....

Pregnancies

Documented Facts:

* In 1991, Madonna concieved a child with model/actor Tony Ward. She was in love with him and decided to have the child. A few weeks later, serious defects were detected in the fetus, coupled with complications in the pregnancy. Dr. Randy Harris, an OB at Cedars-Sinai who specializes in high-risk pregnancies, advised that she terminate the pregnancy. She thought about it for 3 days, then agreed.
Her publicist denied that she was ever pregnant. A reporter impersonating a health care worker was able to get Madonna to discuss the pregnancy in question with him directly (Andersen, 1992. Victor, 2001. Morton, 2001). BUSTED!

* In November of 1997, Madonna told boyfriend Andy Bird that she was pregnant. She later terminated the pregnancy. Her publicist denied the whole can of worms, although Andy tells a different story (http://www.madonnalicious.com/features/andybird2.html).

* In December of 1999, Madonna concieved again, this time with director Guy Ritchie. The pregnancy was detected in February and in March, Matt Lauer asked Madonna point-blank on the Today Show, "Are you pregnant?" She said, point-blank, "No."
A week later, this (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/684206.stm) happened. No one will ever believe her again, not after a blatant fiasco like that.

Rumours and anecdotal evidence:

I have a source inside Camp Madonna who tells me that she was actually pregnant when all of these (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/2024229.stm) rumours were flying (and being denied). She had a miscarriage.

Drug Use:

Documented Facts:

It is a common litany among Madonna's fans that she is anti-drug. She has said things like; "I don't need drugs to feel high," and "I like to keep it real."

In a 1994 interview with Spin magazine, Madonna discussed the effect taking X had on her mood. In a 1998 interview with Q magazine, she talked about the kind of high she got from Ketamine.

Rumours and anecdotal evidence:

Both of my Sources have seen Madonna take "club" drugs while out with friends. She was spotted snorting coke in now-defunct Twilo. One of my Sources has seen her overdose.

So now you have the dirt. Satisfied?

[Dr. Rieux]

It's also true of the singer Bobby Darrin.
And, IIRC, Eric Clapton.

[Bambi Hassenpfeffer]

On the other hand there is Paul Henreid, born Paul Georg Julius Henreid Ritter Von Wassel-Waldingau, who WAS Austro-Hungarian nobility but didn't make a big thing of it.
Just to interject here --
If I had a name like "Paul Georg Julius Hernreid Ritter von Wassel-Waldingau" I would insist that I be addressed as such at all times. Such a collection of syllables marching across the page must be appreciated for its awesome majesty. As my IRL name consists of 2 four-letter words, I must say I'm a little jealous. That is all.

[tomndebb]

On the other hand (regarding the first post on Madonna), while she was comfortably white middle class, living in far western Avon or else Pontiac township, her neighborhood was close enough to various mixed (Anglo-Mexican) neighborhoods that she probably had friends from there by junior high and could easily have been familiar with the territory. Not that anything in Pontiac Township could be remotely compared to a South Los Angeles barrio, but it had its seedier elements.

I'm not a fan, but I'd have to see her exact statement before I judged it a lie.
(Of course, now Avon Township is the tony Rochester Hills and Pontiac Township is Auburn Hills, home of The Palace, so tales of "rough" neighborhoods from 30 years ago are harder to credit.)

[Smapti]

Frank Hopkins claimed to have been the son of an Indian princess, a Pony Express courier at the age of 12, a performer in the Wild West Show, and the winner of a trans-Arabian horse race, when in reality he never rode a horse in his life. None of that, however, stopped Disney from billing the movie based on his fictional exploits, Hidalgo, as a "true story".

[Sampiro]

On a related note to the River Phoenix 'Just Say No' hypocrisy, Tobey Maguire claimed to be a vegetarian health food freak who neither smoked, drank nor did drugs. He may be a vegetarian, but there are photos of him smoking and he was temporarily relieved of his SPIDERMAN 2 job due to substance abuse of some type (either alcohol, drugs, or some combo thereof).

Juliette Lewis's latter-day-honesty got her into some financial trouble. She sued the National Enquirer for reporting that she had a drug problem which has caused major problems on the set of Evening Star. She claimed in court that she had never had a drug problem and she won.
Later she gave an interview in which she admitted to having gone to rehab when her drug use got out of control and even admitted that it had- guess what?- caused problems on the set of Evening Star. The Enquirer sued her for their money back (settled out of court) and perjury charges were considered but I don't believe ever filed.

On the subject of nobility, IIRC Audrey Hepburn (though she never actually denied it) downplayed the fact that she was a baroness.

[Jeff Lodoen]

Ugh....why do people do this? I remember Douglas Adams telling the UL about the punk at the train station eating his cookies and then when he got up to catch his train he picked up his newspaper and there was HIS package of cookies. He was terribly bad at telling it and by the time he was finished Dave was like "yes, yes...that's nice." I would've expected Douglas Adams to have an actual interesting story about his real life to tell - or at the very least make up something original!

You are aware that Arthur Dent tells this story in "So long, and thanks for all the fish"?

My pastor used this story in a sermon. The synod must have spread this UL!

[KGS]

Anton LaVey...inadvertently cursed to death irreverent disciple Jayne Mansfield.
Hey, you can't dismiss that part entirely. I've accidentally cursed dozens of people in my lifetime. Only a few have died, though.

Your list of "Christian ex-occultist hoaxsters" reminded me of Jeff Fenholt, some mullethead who made the rounds on Christian talk shows in the early 90's and claimed to be the lead singer for Black Sabbath. It turns out that he did audition for the band (and even recorded some demos, which proved at least that much of his story) but in no way was ever considered as a member.

Lorenzo Carcaterra, author of Sleepers (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0117665/trivia), claims his novel is a true story, but has since been discredited.

And nobody's yet mentioned Michael Jackson?? "No, I've never had plastic surgery! No, I've never slept with boys! And my (extremely white) child has a black mother!"

[kung fu lola]

On the other hand (regarding the first post on Madonna), while she was comfortably white middle class, living in far western Avon or else Pontiac township, her neighborhood was close enough to various mixed (Anglo-Mexican) neighborhoods that she probably had friends from there by junior high and could easily have been familiar with the territory. Not that anything in Pontiac Township could be remotely compared to a South Los Angeles barrio, but it had its seedier elements.

I'm not a fan, but I'd have to see her exact statement before I judged it a lie.
(Of course, now Avon Township is the tony Rochester Hills and Pontiac Township is Auburn Hills, home of The Palace, so tales of "rough" neighborhoods from 30 years ago are harder to credit.)


It was early in her career and her label reps had already tried to pass her off as black to the radio stations by not putting her on the cover of her first single. That entire interview (conducted in the back of a limousine in 1983) was pretty much all bullsh*t. She was trying to look more "street" than she was.

[Revtim]

And my (extremely white) child has a black mother!"Did he really claim that? I hadn't heard that one before.

[Sampiro]

Your list of "Christian ex-occultist hoaxsters" reminded me of Jeff Fenholt, some mullethead who made the rounds on Christian talk shows in the early 90's and claimed to be the lead singer for Black Sabbath. It turns out that he did audition for the band (and even recorded some demos, which proved at least that much of his story) but in no way was ever considered as a member.

That &@&#*&head visited my college when I was an undergrad and I've seen his TV show a few times. I'd have to open a pit thread to express my complete opinion of him but here I'll just say that while he's far from the most successful televangelist he's definitely the most evil. On one of his shows he told a woman who's 20-something son hears voices that tell him to do erratic things that "Your son doesn't need that medicine the atheist doctors are giving him... he's not suffering from any illness, he's taking on demons."

He really did star on Broadway and in a touring company of Jesus Christ Superstar and says he was saved by a vision of the real Christ that occurred while he was on acid during the crucifixion scene. (How odd--- you were using powerful hallucinogens while dressed as Christ and hanging on a cross and you had a religious hallucination.) He claims that he immediately went straight and started his ministry, which is of course an absolute lie- he turned to religion for a living a few years later after his career was completely dead. Absolute scum.

[CalMeacham]

Your list of "Christian ex-occultist hoaxsters" reminded me of Jeff Fenholt, some mullethead who made the rounds on Christian talk shows in the early 90's and claimed to be the lead singer for Black Sabbath. It turns out that he did audition for the band (and even recorded some demos, which proved at least that much of his story) but in no way was ever considered as a member.




I saw him starring on Broadway in Jesus Christ, Superstar. After th show, he and the guy playing Judas were beseiged by fans and autograph-seekers. I didn't hear anything about him for years afterwards, until a friend who is in the Assembly of God loaned me an audiotape of the now-reformed Fenholt speaking about his former life at one of his sessions. Interesting turnabout.

[HeyHomie]

Slight hijack:

How much of Eminem's shtick is just that: shtick?

Or is he really a white boy from the ghetto who has street cred because of his mad rap skeelz?

[Marley23]

Slight hijack:

How much of Eminem's shtick is just that: shtick?
IMDb has a LONG biography of him, maybe that's a start... I have a friend from the Detroit area who's said that 8 Mile really is a rough area.

He may be a vegetarian, but there are photos of him smoking and he was temporarily relieved of his SPIDERMAN 2 job due to substance abuse of some type (either alcohol, drugs, or some combo thereof).
Really? Never heard that before.

[Walloon]

And nobody's yet mentioned Michael Jackson?? "No, I've never had plastic surgery! No, I've never slept with boys! And my (extremely white) child has a black mother!"You're incorrect on all three counts. Michael Jackson does admit to plastic surgery on his chin and on his nose (see his book Moonwalker). He openly and happily talks about sleeping with boys. And he has never claimed the mother of his children is black.

[Marley23]

I think he's said that he's undergone less plastic surgery than he obviously has, though. Is that right?

[commasense]

I can't believe no one has mentioned the times that, while president, Ronald Reagan told stories, supposedly about his own life, that were in fact scenes from movies he had appeared in. I can't recall any specifics at the moment, but I'm pretty sure it happened more than once or twice.

I could go into other non-autobiographical lies Reagan told, but this isn't the Pit.

[Spavined Gelding]

[QUOTE=commasense]I can't believe no one has mentioned the times that, while president, Ronald Reagan told stories, supposedly about his own life, that were in fact scenes from movies he had appeared in. I can't recall any specifics at the moment, but I'm pretty sure it happened more than once or twice.
[QUOTE]

I had a professor who did that. Minty Green may have run into him too. Following one of his more colorful stories about being the XO on a sub that went into Tokyo harbor one of the GI Bill students stood up and denounced him for a liar, since the student had been a torpedoman on that very boat on that very cruse. He wasn't a very good teacher, either.

[pepperlandgirl]

This isn't really a big deal compared to everything else, but in 2002, James Marsters claimed he was 28.

He was 40.

Some industrious (read: crazy) fan dug up his birth certificate and forced him to come clean.

[Sampiro]

This isn't really a big deal compared to everything else, but in 2002, James Marsters claimed he was 28.

He was 40.

I couldn't believe that when I read it. I'm not gay or anything (well, alright I am) but he is one damned hot and delicious and yummy looking 40 (up there with Brad Pitt & Viggo).

[Walloon]

Some industrious (read: crazy) fan dug up his birth certificate and forced him to come clean.Why does that make the fan "crazy"?

[Walloon]

I can't believe no one has mentioned the times that, while president, Ronald Reagan told stories, supposedly about his own life, that were in fact scenes from movies he had appeared in.I only heard of him doing that once. He gave the impression to a visiting Israeli official that he was part of the U.S. Army forces that liberated the Nazi concentration camps at the end of World War II, when he was actually a Hollywood-based officer in the Army Signal Corps, watching Signal Corps footage of the liberation.

[Sir Rhosis]

^^^I heard of him telling one about some kid going down in a burning fighter plane or somesuch thing, which was actually from a film.

Sir Rhosis

[KGS]

Michael Jackson does admit to plastic surgery on his chin and on his nose (see his book Moonwalker). He openly and happily talks about sleeping with boys. And he has never claimed the mother of his children is black.

Granted, I don't delve too deeply into the private life of Wacko Jacko -- but in that documentary "Living With Michael Jackson", he most definitely did claim that his youngest son "Blanket" (the one he dangled out a window) has a black mother: "Why do you think they call us 'colored people'? Because we come in all colors!" And at first he denied having ANY plastic surgery done -- eventually the interviewer got him to confess that he'd done his nose. Twice.

What's scary is that he believes all that shit about himself. (As do many of the other celebrities in this thread, I imagine.)

[TeaElle]

That Jackson's youngest son has light skin and hair is no barrier to the child having a mother who self-identifies as "black." By now I'd think that the most sheltered of people would realize that we do, indeed, range in shades from black as night to light, bright and darn near white, and, consequently, so do our children.

[pepperlandgirl]

Why does that make the fan "crazy"?


I just think it's a bit crazy to go rooting around people personal files for whatever reason.

I couldn't believe that when I read it. I'm not gay or anything (well, alright I am) but he is one damned hot and delicious and yummy looking 40 (up there with Brad Pitt & Viggo).

Shit I know. There are still people who don't believe it, though he's admitted it publically several times now. Mostly teenage girls who think it's oogy to lust after a man who's about the same age as their father....

And in real life? He's even hotter.

[imthjckaz]

Ronald Reagan told stories, supposedly about his own life, that were in fact scenes from movies he had appeared in.
I recall hearing something similar.

My bone of contention is that he said before he ran for Governor of California, that he was an actor.

I've seen some of those movies.


He's no actor.

[NDP]

In 1991, Madonna conceived a child with model/actor Tony Ward. She was in love with him and decided to have the child. A few weeks later, serious defects were detected in the fetus, coupled with complications in the pregnancy. Dr. Randy Harris, an OB at Cedars-Sinai who specializes in high-risk pregnancies, advised that she terminate the pregnancy. She thought about it for 3 days, then agreed. Her publicist denied that she was ever pregnant. A reporter impersonating a health care worker was able to get Madonna to discuss the pregnancy in question with him directly (Andersen, 1992. Victor, 2001. Morton, 2001). BUSTED!
Sorry to get up on my high horse here but is anybody really bothered by this story? Not so so much for Madonna's "lying" but the fact this sleazebag "reporter" passed himself as a medical professional in order to pry some very private information out of her. I think anybody in the same position as her (public figure or not) would feel extremely violated by what happened. Plus, what the "reporter" did in this case is probably illegal. (BTW, I'm not a Madonna fan in any way and have no interest in either her music or personal life.)

Originally Posted by commasense
I can't believe no one has mentioned the times that, while president, Ronald Reagan told stories, supposedly about his own life, that were in fact scenes from movies he had appeared in.
During the 80's, there was an interesting book by Gary Wills about Reagan's blatent meshing of fact with Hollywood fiction. At the time, I thought Reagan was lying. However, I now wonder if it was just a symptom of the onset of Alzheimer's.

[Walloon]

I just think it's a bit crazy to go rooting around people['s] personal files for whatever reason.I asked because I'm a professional genealogist, and regularly order birth certificates of people living and dead. Califiornia, like many other states, considers birth certificates public documents, not private — anyone can order a non-certified copy of a birth certificate. And the California birth index, 1905-1995, is a on-line public database.

[Sampiro]

That Jackson's youngest son has light skin and hair is no barrier to the child having a mother who self-identifies as "black." By now I'd think that the most sheltered of people would realize that we do, indeed, range in shades from black as night to light, bright and darn near white, and, consequently, so do our children.

That's certainly true and I don't think anybody here disputes it, but it's neither racism nor ignorance to say that the odds are very much against a black man who was not particularly light-skinned (MJ before surgery and whatever the hell is the true story of his skin color changed his appearance (http://jackson5ive.free.fr/)) and who had black and obviously negroid hair producing three children who are all light skinned and blonde. It defies Mendel.

Halle Berry (http://www.celebrity-exchange.com/celebs/photos23/halle-berry-1.jpg), Jasmine Guy (http://www.smokingcelebs.com/g/jasmine.jpg), Lenny Kravitz (http://www.lookalikes-susanscott.co.uk/New%20images/Popstars/Lenny%20Kravitz.jpg), Eartha Kitt (http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/j/Eartha%20Kitt.jpg), Maya Rudolph (http://www.papermag.com/stylin/fashion/shows/03spring/new_york/backstage/marc_jacobs/images/maya_rudolph.jpg),Sydney Poitier (http://ak1.aka.eonline.com/7/1480/1218/0002/www.eonline.com/Features/Features/Springtv2001/Images/poitier.jpg) and Lisa Bonet (http://www.lisa-bonet.konta.waw.pl/galerie/IMAGES/lisa-bonet-11.jpg) are just a few of many celebrities with one white and one black (or biracial) parent, and none of them are naturally blonde or fairskinned. (The only multiracial celebrity I can think of who was was Peter Ustinov (http://www.zuhause3.de/_leben/2003-05/ustinov-02.jpg) , but then he was only 1/8 black). The odds of Jackson fathering three children who look uniracially white is astronomical.

[Laughing Lagomorph]

...Sydney Poitier (http://ak1.aka.eonline.com/7/1480/1218/0002/www.eonline.com/Features/Features/Springtv2001/Images/poitier.jpg) ....


Sydney must have had surgery recently.

[Sampiro]

Sydney must have had surgery recently.

Sydney is the daughter. Sidney is the father.

[Laughing Lagomorph]

Sydney is the daughter. Sidney is the father.


:smack:

[Diceman]

IMDb has a LONG biography of him, maybe that's a start... I have a friend from the Detroit area who's said that 8 Mile really is a rough area.
I take 8 Mile to work every day. The part that borders Detroit is quite seedy. Several strip clubs, and lots of run-down and closed businesses. I don't know if Eminem really grew up in a trailer park, but there is a large trailer park on the north side of 8 Mile at one point.

[stuyguy]

Long ago I read the liner notes on an original original cast recording of I can Get it for You Wholesale, the Broadway musical that cast an unknown Barbra Streisand in a minor part that eventually launched her to stardom. I remember reading that her bio claimed she was born in Madagascar! Of course it was total BS; she was born across the East River in Brooklyn, NY, USA.

Before I posted I googled around to be sure I was not misremembering. Sure enough, I found this:

...When she appeared on Broadway as Miss Marmelstein in I Can Get It For You Wholesale, her first major part, the Playbill bio stated that she had been born in Madagascar and raised in Rangoon. (Later she changed it to Zanzibar and Aruba.)...

[Saint Sparky]

I recall hearing something similar.

My bone of contention is that he said before he ran for Governor of California, that he was an actor.

I've seen some of those movies.


He's no actor.

I remember a good quote Glenda Jackson (Double Academy Award winning actress and current MP in the British House of Commons) saying that Reagan was no actor and less of a politican (paraphrasing somewhat, but that was the gist).

[Walloon]

I wonder if people like Glenda Jackson are letting their political opinions influence their judgement of Ronald Reagan as an actor. I hated Reagan's presidency. On the other hand, I've seen many of Reagan's movies, and if he was never a great actor, he was never a bad actor either. Occasionally he was above average in dramas like King's Row and The Hasty Heart, and in the romantic comedy The Voice of the Turtle.

[yosemite]

This isn't really a big deal compared to everything else, but in 2002, James Marsters claimed he was 28.

He was 40.

You can kind of see it in his face, though.

Not that he doesn't look fabulous, because he does. And not that I was surprised when I read his birthdate on IMBb, because I was, a little. But he doesn't look 28. He looks more "mature" (in an attractive and very fabulous way). I can definitely believe that he's 40. One of those scary, well-preserved 40s, like Tom Cruise and Johnny Depp and so forth.

Frankly, I think if he had simply claimed he was 33 then perhaps no fans would have rooted out his birth certificate. Or not. I don't know how far these fans will go.

Re: Ronald Reagan. He wasn't a bad actor. He was certainly adequate. I thought he did perfectly fine in King's Row as well. To say he was "no actor" was reaching.

[The Asbestos Mango]

Hey, you can't dismiss that part entirely. I've accidentally cursed dozens of people in my lifetime. Only a few have died, though.

Your list of "Christian ex-occultist hoaxsters" reminded me of Jeff Fenholt, some mullethead who made the rounds on Christian talk shows in the early 90's and claimed to be the lead singer for Black Sabbath. It turns out that he did audition for the band (and even recorded some demos, which proved at least that much of his story) but in no way was ever considered as a member.



IIRC, Black Sabbath was going through their guest vocalist of the week phase (at one point, it seemed like Sabbath consisted of Tony Iommi and whatever bunch of randomly selected musicians he happened to be haning out with on any given evening), . Hell, I remember after Ian Gillan split for the Deep Purple reunion, there was a short article in Hit Parader announcing their new front man, a gorgeous hunk of yum named David Donato. He never actually recorded or performed with the band, and was gone a few minutes after the publicity photo was taken. So it would have been an eays mistake for Jeff to make. OTOH, I actually saw him on one of those talk shows (I think it was the 700 Club), his account of his Salvation Experience went something like...

He was touring with Black Sabbath, and felt the need to go to church, and, when the altar call was given, he went forward to Get Saved, the preacher recognized him and told him to get out of his church. I thought this was unlikely- any Fund'ist preacher worth his salt would consider getting Black Sabbath's lead singer saved to be a prime catch and great publicity for his church. Anyhoo, he went back to his drugs and rock 'n' roll lifestyle for another year or so, then one day when he was having some remodelling done on his house (he had completed his stint with Jesus Christ, Superstar at this point,) and the head of the construction crew, an Italian guy with many scars as he, and most of his crew, were former steet thugs who had Found God, cornered him in the kitchen and said, "You played the role of Jesus Christ. Are you ready to meet the real Jesus Christ?"

So, apparently ol' Jeff has given inconsistent accounts of how he Got Saved.

Lauren Stratford, on the other hand, seems to be a real piece of work. The alleged Michelle was apparently a highly suggestible woman who fell into the hands of a what members of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation like to call a "therp" who had her remembering all kinds of weird shit that never happened. She eventually divorced her husband and married the therp. Stratford seems not to have benefit of this excuse. She basically saw the then current craze of people supposedly coming out of Satanic cults, finding God, and making it big on the Christian talk show/bookstore circuit and decided to cash in.

I actually read her book Satan's Underground, and the whole thing rang false from top to bottom. It's a truly bizarre read. She describes sacrificing an infant (up, down, went the knife) but does not give any details about who the baby had originally belonged to. In the last chapter of the book, she states that the baby was in fact hers, and that she had given birth to and sacrificed two other children. Nowhere in the book does she mention having been pregnant. People who knew her during the alleged Satanic Captivity phase of her life say that she was attending college at the time, and that they had never seen her pregnant.

I think some enterprising sociology, psychology, or religious studies student could have a potential thesis on the subject of these fake ex-Satanists.

[MidnightRadio]

* In 1991, Madonna concieved a child with model/actor Tony Ward. She was in love with him and decided to have the child. A few weeks later, serious defects were detected in the fetus, coupled with complications in the pregnancy. Dr. Randy Harris, an OB at Cedars-Sinai who specializes in high-risk pregnancies, advised that she terminate the pregnancy. She thought about it for 3 days, then agreed. Her publicist denied that she was ever pregnant. A reporter impersonating a health care worker was able to get Madonna to discuss the pregnancy in question with him directly (Andersen, 1992. Victor, 2001. Morton, 2001). BUSTED!

* In November of 1997, Madonna told boyfriend Andy Bird that she was pregnant. She later terminated the pregnancy. Her publicist denied the whole can of worms, although Andy tells a different story (http://www.madonnalicious.com/features/andybird2.html).I'm unable to find it on Goolge now, but I once saw a list of pro-life celebrities and Madonna was on it. Wonder where they got that idea?

[Cicero]

And Mata Hari had no more of an exotic background than I have.

[FisherQueen]

I was also deeply bothered by a journalist impersonating a medical person in order to get dirt on Madonna. If that isn't illegal, it oughta be. And I'll bet you twenty bucks that it is.

[Annie-Xmas]

Jeff Fenholt wrote a book about his coversion "Out of Darkness into the Light." It usually goes for huge bucks on ebay. I found a used copy for $3, and the thing is totally unreadable. Now I have to read the damn thing and find the inaccuracies.

[JillGat]

I can't believe no one has mentioned the times that, while president, Ronald Reagan told stories, supposedly about his own life, that were in fact scenes from movies he had appeared in. I can't recall any specifics at the moment, but I'm pretty sure it happened more than once or twice.

I could go into other non-autobiographical lies Reagan told, but this isn't the Pit.

My mom worked for Warner Bros. when Reagan was in Hollywood. She said he was thought to be handsome but insipid. They used to laugh about how he'd wear his military uniform (really a movie costume) all the time, trying to impress the girls.

I found a book in the library once (I thought about stealing it, and I should have) by Liberace - a photo book of the rooms in his house. Oh man, great book. In it, he said that the only reason he never got married was because he had yet to meet a woman as wonderful as his mother. I don't know, maybe it's true.

[Mr. Miskatonic]

Ugh....why do people do this? I remember Douglas Adams telling the UL about the punk at the train station eating his cookies and then when he got up to catch his train he picked up his newspaper and there was HIS package of cookies. He was terribly bad at telling it and by the time he was finished Dave was like "yes, yes...that's nice." I would've expected Douglas Adams to have an actual interesting story about his real life to tell - or at the very least make up something original!

I may be wrong, but I could swear it was Micheal Palin telling that story, not D.A.

[kung fu lola]

I'm unable to find it on Goolge now, but I once saw a list of pro-life celebrities and Madonna was on it. Wonder where they got that idea?

They probably meant this one (http://www.geocities.com/reginamundi77/image40.html). She's pretty famous, too.

[kung fu lola]

I was also deeply bothered by a journalist impersonating a medical person in order to get dirt on Madonna. If that isn't illegal, it oughta be. And I'll bet you twenty bucks that it is.

Probably. Us fans don't like it any more than you do. Most of our web communities have rules against posting personal information about her, even pictures of her children. Just because we're "fanatics", doesn't mean that we condone invading her privacy.

We don't like being lied to, either, but that doesn't necessarily interfere with her right to privacy. A simple "we don't comment on wild speculation", or "there is no proof of that", would suffice. No lying necesary.

[Eats_Crayons]

That's certainly true and I don't think anybody here disputes it, but it's neither racism nor ignorance to say that the odds are very much against a black man who was not particularly light-skinned (MJ before surgery and whatever the hell is the true story of his skin color changed his appearance (http://jackson5ive.free.fr/)) and who had black and obviously negroid hair producing three children who are all light skinned and blonde. It defies Mendel.
I'm confused here, Sampiro. MJ never claimed that his two older children had a black mother. Their mom is Debbie Rowe (http://www.mjackson.de/galerie/michael/familie/images/debbie10.jpg). Who is blond and blue-eyed.

As for the newest kid:"I used a surrogate mother and my own sperm cells. She doesn't know me and I don't know her," Jacko told Martin Bashir. "I didn't care what race she was as long as she was healthy and her vision was good. And her intellect - I wanted to know how intelligent she is."
He later added that he thinks she is black. (Which is doubtful considering the alabast-pink little legs we all saw dangled over the balcony).

But to make things interesting, back in January, Debbie Rowe made the news claiming that Jackson wasn't the kids' father at all and is seeking full custody...

So, Og knows what's really going on there! But her certaily never claimed that Debbie Rowe was a black woman. He just said he thinks the one's mother may have been black.

[Governor Quinn]

Walter Matthau made up his original last name, his ancestry, and most of his exploits before entering acting.

In this case, however, he appears to have made it up as a joke, unlike most of the people already mentioned.

[Eats_Crayons]

I was thinkin'.... If however you still want to have a beef about MJ you could take issue with the B.S. that the Jackson 5 did all their early stuff when MJ was five.

I remember back in the sixth grade, much was made of the song "Ben" - because "it was done when MJ was five!"

That was a load of horse-pucky! It was built out of publicity hype that said MJ "started his career at the age of five." At the age of five, Michael Jackson sang a song from The Sound of Music as part of a run-of-the-mill school assembly thing. Yes, the audience was tremendously impressed at his vocal abilities, however, it was a school assembly!.

Jermaine Jackson was the main lead volcalist for the Jackson 5 until well into 1967. Michael Jackson was 9 years old when they recorded their first single.

Still, if you want to embellish a lot his first "public performance" was at the age of 5 (in a school assembly, just like every other kid in North America.)

[Sampiro]

Walter Matthau made up his original last name, his ancestry, and most of his exploits before entering acting.

In this case, however, he appears to have made it up as a joke, unlike most of the people already mentioned.

I'd forgotten about him. He also told people that his father was a Russian Orthodox Priest and his mother was a Catholic nun when they met and this is actually in some of his biographies. (If I'm not mistaken, he was really Jewish and of German ancestry.)

Eva Peron's lies may actually have cost her political office. She lied frequently about her date of birth and eventually had her birth certificate changed to not only show that she was born about 4 years later than she actually was but that her parents were married (which they weren't- one reason she chose the d.o.b. that she chose was because it was about a year after the death of her father's wife and was the first time he actually could have legally married her mother). Later when she was trying her "dead level damnedest" to become Juan's Vice President (a notion that not even Juan was that wild about), it was pointed out by a political enemy that she couldn't- you had to be 30 years old to be VP of Argentina and according to her birth certificate she was only 28. (She was in fact about 31/32 at the time.)

[Diceman]

Does anybody have a link to a site that shows what Jackson's kids look like? Now you've got me curious.

[Sampiro]

Here are a few:

1 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/38493000/jpg/_38493705_jackson_children300_reu.jpg)
2 (http://www.wklh.com/images/DaveCarole/MichaelJacksonBaby.jpg)
3 (http://www.nicksthings.com/images/creepyjacksons.jpg)
4 (http://www.icenine.org/mjforsale/photos/parismatch.jpg)

Other lies Jackson told in the series: the children have a warm and loving relationship with their mother, whom they visit frequently (Prince Michael I when asked replied "I don't have a mommy") and that he ran home with his daughter as soon as she was born without even letting her be cleaned off (I don't care how rich you are- there's no hospital in America that would let you do that- the liability in case of infection or any of a thousand other possible complications would be wayyy too intense).

[Walloon]

They used to laugh about how he'd wear his military uniform (really a movie costume) all the time, trying to impress the girls.Why would he have to wear a movie costume when he had the real thing? He was a Captain in the Army Air Corps' 1st Motion Picture Unit, on active duty from April 1942 to December 1945. Before and after that he was in the Army Reserve, discharged as a Major in 1953.

[Diceman]

Here are a few:

1 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/38493000/jpg/_38493705_jackson_children300_reu.jpg)
2 (http://www.wklh.com/images/DaveCarole/MichaelJacksonBaby.jpg)
3 (http://www.nicksthings.com/images/creepyjacksons.jpg)
4 (http://www.icenine.org/mjforsale/photos/parismatch.jpg)
Those kids can't be Jacko's biological children. Remember, that old Jackson Five picture that Sampiro linked to is what Jackson naturally looks like. Those are the features that he would pass on to his offspring. Those kids have got to be adopted or something.

[Superdude]

I asked because I'm a professional genealogist, and regularly order birth certificates of people living and dead. Califiornia, like many other states, considers birth certificates public documents, not private — anyone can order a non-certified copy of a birth certificate. And the California birth index, 1905-1995, is a on-line public database.


Extremely off-topic, but how much do you charge for your services? I'm interested in trying to get my family history charted, but I have no idea as to how to proceed.

[Annie-Xmas]

In his book "Nobody Sees You Eat Tuna Fish," David Brenner states "my son's mother was never my girlfriend, but just someone I dated." No, David, Charisse Brody was the person you lived with from 1980-1983 and had a vicious custody battle with over yours & her son Cole Jay.

[astro]

Delaware Senator Joe Biden got in hot water some time ago for campaigning with hard luck stories about his ancestors he deliberately made up, and knew were false.

[Sat on Cookie]

This is also true of Ted Bundy. His "parents' were really his grandparents, and his sister "Louise" was actually his mother.

I seem to recall some speculation that his grandfather was really his father (and his sister was his mother).

[Eats_Crayons]

Those kids can't be Jacko's biological children. Remember, that old Jackson Five picture that Sampiro linked to is what Jackson naturally looks like. Those are the features that he would pass on to his offspring. Those kids have got to be adopted or something.
*sigh* This is the mom (http://www.mjackson.de/galerie/michael/familie/images/debbie10.jpg) of the two older kids. Those are the features that she passed on to her offspring.

While she is now claiming that she was inseminated with non-MJ sperm (they are in mediation with respect to their custody arrangment in light of all the accusations against MJ), nevertheless, even if MJ really truly is the bio-dad the kids could still come out pasty white. Look at the mom!

Geez. A friend of mine has one blakc parent and one white parent and he complexion makes her look like the Pillsbury Dough Boy.

[Annie-Xmas]

I seem to recall some speculation that his grandfather was really his father (and his sister was his mother).

There has always been major speculation about Bundy's paternity, including the idea that his mother was impregnated by her father. Nobody really knows, and apparently even his mother has put the circumstances of Bundy's conception out of her mind.

Another Brenner lie: He claims that the TV show he did with Leslie Anne Downs was never shown in the US is because the TV executives didn't like the premis that a guy would be living on his ex-wife's couch. No, they didn't like the idea of a TV show where you played a GAY guy living on his ex-wife's couch or anywhere else (not that there's anything wrong with that).

[Governor Quinn]

Delaware Senator Joe Biden got in hot water some time ago for campaigning with hard luck stories about his ancestors he deliberately made up, and knew were false.

Even worse than being fake ancestors, they were the real ancestors of (then) Labour (UK) leader Neil Kinnock. Biden stole from Kinnock's speechs.

[FriarTed]

Lauren Stratford, on the other hand, seems to be a real piece of work. The alleged Michelle was apparently a highly suggestible woman who fell into the hands of a what members of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation like to call a "therp" who had her remembering all kinds of weird shit that never happened. She eventually divorced her husband and married the therp. Stratford seems not to have benefit of this excuse. She basically saw the then current craze of people supposedly coming out of Satanic cults, finding God, and making it big on the Christian talk show/bookstore circuit and decided to cash in.

I actually read her book Satan's Underground, and the whole thing rang false from top to bottom. It's a truly bizarre read. She describes sacrificing an infant (up, down, went the knife) but does not give any details about who the baby had originally belonged to. In the last chapter of the book, she states that the baby was in fact hers, and that she had given birth to and sacrificed two other children. Nowhere in the book does she mention having been pregnant. People who knew her during the alleged Satanic Captivity phase of her life say that she was attending college at the time, and that they had never seen her pregnant.

I think some enterprising sociology, psychology, or religious studies student could have a potential thesis on the subject of these fake ex-Satanists.

The late (she died in the past year) Lauren Stratford's story had gotten even better. Apparently, she discovered that her "abusive" mother had been her adopted mother & that she was actually a child survivor of the Nazi concentration camps.

[Ross]

Alec Guinness did an interview with Michael PArkinson (looked like it had been done in the seventies) during which he started talking about once having met James Dean. Sounded fair enough. Then about how they'd been in the carpark of some restaurant and Dean had wanted to show off his new car... at this stage the bullshit alarm starts ringing faintly in the background. Then Guinness apparently looked straight at Dean and said "Please don't get into that car. If you do, you will be dead by next Thursday". Which was the day he'd died, or something.

It was very clearly bollocks before he even got to the punchline, and when the camera cut to Parkinson he looked a bit pissed off. Eventually he said "spooky". I think Guinness knew he'd been busted 'cos he quickly changed the subject. I just remember being really fascinated by how I, twenty years later, could clearly identify the story as bollocks just as quickly as Parkinson, when (iirc) Guinness was a good actor and should have been able to carry it off.

My mother suggested it was something his agent had convinced him to say, or something, but then she tends to look for the best in people.

Regarding Charlie Chaplin's Jewishness... I was told he simply "didn't deny it" during the war. Did he actually go out and parade a falsehood? Naughty Charlie. Next thing you'll be telling me Fox Mulder didn't mysteriously show up in the cutting room of his first studio. Tchoh.