# What's your favorite celebrity rumor (that does not involve Richard Gere or Rod Stewart)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 25, 2025, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-celebrity-rumor-that-does-not-involve-richard-gere-or-rod-stewart/1020100 "2025-06-25T00:04:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-celebrity-rumor-that-does-not-involve-richard-gere-or-rod-stewart/1020100/61 "2025-06-27T05:08:24Z")
But Ms. Carpenter would have had to actually EAT that sandwich to benefit from it. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-celebrity-rumor-that-does-not-involve-richard-gere-or-rod-stewart/1020100/62 "2025-06-27T10:27:07Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > There continues to be a long-standing, and false, rumor that the guy who played Eddie Haskell was later the porn star John Holmes. > [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > The one I’d heard is that he became Alice Cooper. I heard the rumor that Jerry Mathers (Beaver) grew up to Alice Cooper. It seemed to have legs because it was so far-fetched: innocent little Beaver becomes that creepy weirdo. My mother focused on the gender change: she brilliantly asserted that Mathers had been ‘warped’ by the LitB scripts in which he said he didn’t like girls. The miscomprehension, it burns. Later, I heard the rumor that it was Ken Osmond (Eddie Haskell) who grew up to be John Holmes. There was a resemblance, in appearance and voice. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-celebrity-rumor-that-does-not-involve-richard-gere-or-rod-stewart/1020100/63 "2025-06-27T13:55:46Z")
But Alice wasn’t a creepy weirdo. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-celebrity-rumor-that-does-not-involve-richard-gere-or-rod-stewart/1020100/64 "2025-06-27T14:00:23Z")
Of course not, but his image was. This was in the early 1970s, it wasn’t as well known that it was all an act to shock people and get attention. That’s why they called it shock rock. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-celebrity-rumor-that-does-not-involve-richard-gere-or-rod-stewart/1020100/65 "2025-06-27T14:07:58Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > I like eclipses (see my profile pic), so when I hear _You’re So Vain_ I wonder if Carly Simon was really referring to Warren Beatty taking his Learjet to Nova Scotia to see the total eclipse of the sun. If not, who was it? I think I heard that she gave an interview where she said that the song was actually based on four different individuals, so that if any of them actually thought the song was about them, they were still 75% mistaken. Beatty might have been one of them. ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-celebrity-rumor-that-does-not-involve-richard-gere-or-rod-stewart/1020100/66 "2025-06-27T14:49:21Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > that if any of them actually thought the song was about them, they were still 75% mistaken Meta. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-celebrity-rumor-that-does-not-involve-richard-gere-or-rod-stewart/1020100/67 "2025-06-28T00:26:49Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > I like eclipses (see my profile pic), so when I hear _You’re So Vain_ I wonder if Carly Simon was really referring to Warren Beatty taking his Learjet to Nova Scotia to see the total eclipse of the sun. If not, who was it? I think last year’s eclipse was total in some part of Nova Scotia. I remember wondering if anybody flew their Lear Jet there to see it just for the irony. ---
**Author:** ![teelabrown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teelabrown/32/8412_2.png) [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-celebrity-rumor-that-does-not-involve-richard-gere-or-rod-stewart/1020100/68 "2025-06-28T01:33:12Z")
That Jeff Goldblum has a poop fetish, and that’s why Geena Davis divorced him. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-celebrity-rumor-that-does-not-involve-richard-gere-or-rod-stewart/1020100/69 "2025-06-28T02:18:30Z")
The theory that in the 1980s, Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue got into a bad car accident, but the band was so big that they had to hire a look alike to replace him on tour. Once Nikki Sixx got better, he took over his old job in Motley Crue again. Who knows whats true. I don’t think there’s any evidence of it though. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-celebrity-rumor-that-does-not-involve-richard-gere-or-rod-stewart/1020100/70 "2025-06-28T02:27:08Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I think I heard that she gave an interview where she said that the song was actually based on four different individuals, so that if any of them actually thought the song was about them, they were still 75% mistaken. Beatty might have been one of them. Simon has been cagey over the years about the subject (or, possibly, plural subjects) of the song, but [as per Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You're_So_Vain#Subject): > [@](#): > > In November 2015, Simon, promoting her memoirs, said, “I have confirmed that the second verse is Warren … Warren thinks the whole thing is about him … Now, that doesn’t mean that the other two verses aren’t also about Warren. It just means that the second one is.” ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-celebrity-rumor-that-does-not-involve-richard-gere-or-rod-stewart/1020100/71 "2025-06-28T04:03:44Z")
Vince Neil was definitely in a bad car accident, but he wasn’t replaced by a body double. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-celebrity-rumor-that-does-not-involve-richard-gere-or-rod-stewart/1020100/72 "2025-06-28T12:09:19Z")
Some guy on the internet created a false rumour that Avril Lavigne was replaced by a doppelganger to study the effect of false rumours, but then people started believing it and it became self-perpetuating. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-celebrity-rumor-that-does-not-involve-richard-gere-or-rod-stewart/1020100/73 "2025-06-28T12:51:31Z")
How about Led Zeppelin’s mud shark incident at the Edgewater Inn in Seattle? ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-celebrity-rumor-that-does-not-involve-richard-gere-or-rod-stewart/1020100/74 "2025-06-28T13:18:12Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Simon has been cagey over the years about the subject (or, possibly, plural subjects) of the song, but [as per Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You're_So_Vain#Subject): > > > [@](#): > > > > In November 2015, Simon, promoting her memoirs, said, “I have confirmed that the second verse is Warren … Warren thinks the whole thing is about him … Now, that doesn’t mean that the other two verses aren’t also about Warren. It just means that the second one is.” It’s been rumored that one of the titular subjects of the song is Mick Jagger, which would be interesting if true, since he sings backup on the song (once you know that, you can never again not hear his voice during the chorus). I wonder, if he was one of the vain ones the song is about, did he agree to sing backup knowing that, or was it kind of a private joke on Simon’s part, having him unknowingly sing backup to a song dissing him? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-celebrity-rumor-that-does-not-involve-richard-gere-or-rod-stewart/1020100/75 "2025-06-28T13:48:07Z")
Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster - I think that’s my favourite. It was the front page of the Sun. [![](https://pressgazette.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2016/04/The-Sun-Freddie-Starr-Ate-My-Hamster-1-e1574080247536.png) ](https://pressgazette.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2016/04/The-Sun-Freddie-Starr-Ate-My-Hamster-1-e1574080247536.png) ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-celebrity-rumor-that-does-not-involve-richard-gere-or-rod-stewart/1020100/76 "2025-06-28T14:08:07Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > Nancy Reagan (nee Davis), in her years as a young actress, was renowned in Hollywood for her fellatio skills I never believed that she had a torrid affair With Frank Sinatra. Her hair would have broken: his would have fallen off. ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-celebrity-rumor-that-does-not-involve-richard-gere-or-rod-stewart/1020100/77 "2025-06-28T14:17:09Z")
And there’s the rumor that the Grateful Dead’s May 8, 1977 Cornell University concert, which has been extensively shared among tape traders, [never took place and was, in fact, fabricated by the CIA as part of a mind-control experiment](https://archive.org/post/1074509/cornell-conspirancyanybody-heard-of-this-or-am-i-late-to-the-party). ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-celebrity-rumor-that-does-not-involve-richard-gere-or-rod-stewart/1020100/78 "2025-06-28T14:27:46Z")
> [@solost](#): > > It’s been rumored that one of the titular subjects of the song is Mick Jagger… I always thought that song was about me. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-celebrity-rumor-that-does-not-involve-richard-gere-or-rod-stewart/1020100/79 "2025-06-28T14:46:02Z")
> [@solost](#): > > I wonder, if he was one of the vain ones the song is about, did he agree to sing backup knowing that, or was it kind of a private joke on Simon’s part, having him unknowingly sing backup to a song dissing him? Kind of hard for it to be “unknowingly”, if he’s so vain that he thinks the song is about him. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-celebrity-rumor-that-does-not-involve-richard-gere-or-rod-stewart/1020100/80 "2025-06-28T16:30:14Z")
You know, that reminds me. I never understood the words of the chorus: _You’re so vain_ _You probably think this song is about you_ _ **Isn’t** _ the song “about you”? Whoever the “you” is? Like, every single line of it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-celebrity-rumor-that-does-not-involve-richard-gere-or-rod-stewart/1020100.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-celebrity-rumor-that-does-not-involve-richard-gere-or-rod-stewart/1020100.md?page=5)