# Legendary, apocryphal or just plain untrue stories of celebrities **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 21, 2016, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legendary-apocryphal-or-just-plain-untrue-stories-of-celebrities/769270 "2016-10-21T19:47:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legendary-apocryphal-or-just-plain-untrue-stories-of-celebrities/769270/1 "2016-10-21T19:47:56Z")
Legends and stories have been told about celebrities for as long as there have been celebrities. Some are true, some have a grain of truth and some are fabrications. Go ahead and share some of them. The story goes that on the set of Marathon Man Dustin Hoffman didn’t wash or go to sleep for a prolonged period of time to get into a particular scene. When Lawrence Oliver heard that he supposedly told Hoffman, “My dear boy why don’t you just try acting?” I’ve seen this story listed as apocryphal or just plain untrue. But I have also read where Hoffman has confirmed it but blamed his state on insomnia or too much partying the night before. The first time I heard the story it was told by Oliver’s wife Joan Plowright on Letterman. I don’t know if it is possible to know for sure if it happened. I like to think it did. Douglas Adams t[old this story](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF2fZ2iOXhk) on Letterman. I was a big Adams fan and I remember watching that episode. I believed that it did happen to him. He put a version of it in _So Long and Thanks for all the Fish._ I found out much later that it was an [old legend/joke](http://www.snopes.com/crime/safety/cookies.asp). Maybe something similar happened to Adams. Maybe he just knew how to tell a good joke. We will never know. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legendary-apocryphal-or-just-plain-untrue-stories-of-celebrities/769270/2 "2016-10-21T19:53:23Z")
Richard Gere stuck a gerbil up his ass. The “Hey Mikey!” kid from the Life cereal commercial was Marilyn Manson. Who BTW had ribs surgically removed so he could blow himself. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legendary-apocryphal-or-just-plain-untrue-stories-of-celebrities/769270/3 "2016-10-21T19:57:55Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > The “Hey Mikey!” kid from the Life cereal commercial was Marilyn Manson. Who BTW had ribs surgically removed so he could blow himself. No Marilyn Mason was [Josh Saviano](http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/marilyn.asp) from the Wonder Years. I never heard that about Mikey. ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legendary-apocryphal-or-just-plain-untrue-stories-of-celebrities/769270/4 "2016-10-21T20:03:31Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > Richard Gere stuck a gerbil up his ass. > > The “Hey Mikey!” kid from the Life cereal commercial was Marilyn Manson. Who BTW had ribs surgically removed so he could blow himself. I heard it was a hamster. And no, the kid who played Mikey was killed when he mixed Pop Rocks and Coke. ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legendary-apocryphal-or-just-plain-untrue-stories-of-celebrities/769270/5 "2016-10-21T20:10:37Z")
> [@Gordon\_Urquhart](#): > > … > > And no, the kid who played Mikey was killed when he mixed Pop Rocks and Coke. That’s what I heard too. Back in the early '80s when I was a young teen, Rod Stewart had to have his stomach pumped for drinking an entire Coke can amount of semen. :rolleyes::dubious::smack:☹ ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legendary-apocryphal-or-just-plain-untrue-stories-of-celebrities/769270/6 "2016-10-21T20:22:42Z")
There were rumors when I was a teen in the 80s that Jody Foster was a lesbian. Oh, wait 🙂 There’s the very sad story about Fatty Arbuckle and the “Coke bottle rape” that essentially ruined his career. Much of what I’ve read exonerates Arbuckle. Cary Grant and Randolph Scott are rumored to have been long-time lovers. It’s nigh impossible to separate the truth from the chaff at this point, but I’ve always hoped it was true. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legendary-apocryphal-or-just-plain-untrue-stories-of-celebrities/769270/7 "2016-10-21T20:24:33Z")
> [@Southern\_Yankee](#): > > That’s what I heard too. > > Back in the early '80s when I was a young teen, Rod Stewart had to have his stomach pumped for drinking an entire Coke can amount of semen. :rolleyes::dubious::smack:☹ Man, does this ever take me back! I forgot about this one. It does raise the question if semen is toxic in Coke can amounts . . . ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legendary-apocryphal-or-just-plain-untrue-stories-of-celebrities/769270/8 "2016-10-21T20:42:44Z")
Jamie Lee Curtis is a hermaphrodite. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legendary-apocryphal-or-just-plain-untrue-stories-of-celebrities/769270/9 "2016-10-21T20:46:01Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > Cary Grant and Randolph Scott are rumored to have been long-time lovers. It’s nigh impossible to separate the truth from the chaff at this point, but I’ve always hoped it was true. They would live together whenever their wifeless periods coincided. I remember an interview with someone who was a starlet at the time who found the idea laughable. She said something along the lines of that the amount of young starlets they where both schtupping meant they were horrible at being gay. Maybe it was Dyan Cannon who he was married and fathered a child with but I don’t remember. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legendary-apocryphal-or-just-plain-untrue-stories-of-celebrities/769270/10 "2016-10-21T20:46:25Z")
Alice Cooper / Ozzy Osbourne / Marilyn Manson would throw live puppies into the audience and demand that they be killed before continuing the show. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legendary-apocryphal-or-just-plain-untrue-stories-of-celebrities/769270/11 "2016-10-21T20:47:09Z")
I was hoping for a few storied that were a lot less middle school but oh well. I heard all of those storied too. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legendary-apocryphal-or-just-plain-untrue-stories-of-celebrities/769270/12 "2016-10-21T20:49:26Z")
No, Mikey was a Soviet sleeper-cell agent who the government ‘disappeared’. Same thing happened to the little kid on the Waltons. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legendary-apocryphal-or-just-plain-untrue-stories-of-celebrities/769270/13 "2016-10-21T20:56:13Z")
Mama Cass Elliot died choking on a ham sandwich. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legendary-apocryphal-or-just-plain-untrue-stories-of-celebrities/769270/14 "2016-10-21T21:00:08Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > There were rumors when I was a teen in the 80s that Jody Foster was a lesbian. > > Oh, wait 🙂 > > There’s the very sad story about Fatty Arbuckle and the “Coke bottle rape” that essentially ruined his career. Much of what I’ve read exonerates Arbuckle. > > Cary Grant and Randolph Scott are rumored to have been long-time lovers. It’s nigh impossible to separate the truth from the chaff at this point, but I’ve always hoped it was true. [reverent tone] Randolph Scott![/reverent tone] ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legendary-apocryphal-or-just-plain-untrue-stories-of-celebrities/769270/15 "2016-10-21T21:28:32Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > No Marilyn Mason was [Josh Saviano](http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/marilyn.asp) from the Wonder Years. I never heard that about Mikey. > [@Gordon\_Urquhart](#): > > And no, the kid who played Mikey was killed when he mixed Pop Rocks and Coke. Damn, that’s right, I was confounding my middle-school memories. As punishment I will now eat a Mars bar out of Marianne Faithfull’s vagina. ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2016, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legendary-apocryphal-or-just-plain-untrue-stories-of-celebrities/769270/16 "2016-10-22T00:24:50Z")
> [@Southern\_Yankee](#): > > That’s what I heard too. > > Back in the early '80s when I was a young teen, Rod Stewart had to have his stomach pumped for drinking an entire Coke can amount of semen. :rolleyes::dubious::smack:☹ No, that was Jimi Hendrix. Or Jim Morrison. I can’t keep my rumors straight. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2016, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legendary-apocryphal-or-just-plain-untrue-stories-of-celebrities/769270/17 "2016-10-22T00:52:33Z")
I buried Paul. Turns out that his replacement was a quick learner. Picked that Beatles shit right up. You would almost never know that he is not the original. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2016, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legendary-apocryphal-or-just-plain-untrue-stories-of-celebrities/769270/18 "2016-10-22T00:56:39Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > Alice Cooper / Ozzy Osbourne / Marilyn Manson would throw live puppies into the audience and demand that they be killed before continuing the show. Ozzy DID bite the head off a dead bat that someone tossed onstage. I was not at that legendary show, but I knew a LOT of people who were. 🆒 The next day, the newspaper reported that younger employees of the ER where he was taken after the show for a rabies shot “were explaining Ozzy to older staffers, who didn’t believe the story” (paraphrasing). Were something like that to happen nowadays, it would probably be the older employees who explained him to disbelieving younger workers. :o On a related note, Motley Crue once performed the ritual sacrifice of a live baby at one of their shows. :dubious: Oh, yeah, sure, and they got away with it in front of, what, 35,000 fans? Interestingly, I first heard that story from a caller on Christian talk-show host Bob Larson’s show. He reassured the caller that the story was NOT true. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2016, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legendary-apocryphal-or-just-plain-untrue-stories-of-celebrities/769270/19 "2016-10-22T00:59:04Z")
> [@cwthree](#): > > No, that was Jimi Hendrix. Or Jim Morrison. I can’t keep my rumors straight. I never heard that rumor about anyone except Rod Stewart. :rolleyes: It wouldn’t have surprised me about Hendrix or Morrison, who both come across to me as having been the ultimate pansexuals. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2016, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legendary-apocryphal-or-just-plain-untrue-stories-of-celebrities/769270/20 "2016-10-22T01:11:45Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > It does raise the question if semen is toxic in Coke can amounts . . . It’s not. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legendary-apocryphal-or-just-plain-untrue-stories-of-celebrities/769270.md?page=2)