The Mammoth Book of Useless Information. Noel Botham

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СКАЧАТЬ Wild-living rocker Ozzy Osbourne has installed a 20ft (12m) water jet at his Los Angeles home in order to deter potential thieves. It will soak anyone who comes near the house without an invitation.

      • With an empire consisting of Bad Boy Entertainment, Sean John clothing, Blue Flame marketing and advertising, Justin’s restaurants and MTV show Making The Band 2, rap mogul Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs, 32, has been ranked twelfth in Fortune magazine’s Under-40 list, which ranks those below the age of 40 who’ve become multimillionaires.

      • Celebrity parents Will Smith, Madonna, Chris O’Donnell and Kevin Kline are among the many stars who have splashed out on Posh Tots’ mini mansions, castles and chalets for their children to play in. The prices for the little homes range from £29,375 to £54,693.

      • The Karl Lagerfeld-designed Chanel dress that Sex in the City’s Sarah Jessica Parker wore to the 2003 Emmy Awards took 250 hours to make.

      • US talk-show host Oprah Winfrey says her two favourite interviews of all time were with Sidney Poitier and Salma Hayek.

      • Athens-born rocker Tommy Lee’s mother was Miss Greece in 1957.

      • Actress Daryl Hannah’s brother Don is a skydiving instructor.

      • Rocker Simon Le Bon often checks into hotels under the name Shake Yabooty, while rapper Wyclef Jean calls himself Dracula and US singer Brian McKnight opts for Albert Einstein.

      • Michael Caine’s movie Secondhand Lions (2003) was made after the film script topped a magazine list of the ten best scripts never made into a film.

      • US actress Drew Barrymore mixed together cream of mushroom soup and stuffing to make her vomit look authentic on the set of comedy Duplex (2003).

      • Hollywood star Ben Affleck appeared as an extra – playing a basketball player – in the 1992 surprise hit film Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

      • Czech supermodel Karolina Kurkova’s father doubled up as a police chief and a basketball professional when she was a child growing up in Decin.

      • Rapper NAS’s 30th birthday cake was iced with green marijuana leaves, as a nod to his hemp advocacy.

      • Presenters and nominees at the 2003 Emmy Awards received a gift basket worth more than £18,750 featuring speciality phones and a trip to Bora Bora.

      • US actress Rena Sofer, who stars in the American version of saucy British sitcom Coupling, is an orthodox rabbi.

      • Legendary singer Sir Elton John refuses to play white pianos, which he brands ‘tasteless’. He also dislikes white limousines, but he can tolerate one item in white – refrigerators.

      • US rappers Eminem and Wyclef Jean were born on the same day in the same year, 17 October 1972.

      • Rocker Dave Matthews and his wife Ashley have matching wedding bands made out of pressed pennies from the years they were born, 1967 and 1973 respectively.

      • Flamboyant comic Eddie Izzard practically managed to sell out his Sexie show at New York’s City Centre despite having virtually no advertising or promotion.

      • Director Quentin Tarantino was so impressed with the bar from the fictitious House of Blue Leaves, created for his movie Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (2003) he had it installed in his Hollywood home.

      • Funnyman Jim Carrey, comedienne Ellen DeGeneres and Frasier star Jane Leeves were in the same acting class before hitting fame.

      • Actress Uma Thurman carried home rocks from the different locations where she filmed Kill Bill for her children Maya, five, and Roan, one.

      • Everybody Loves Raymond star Ray Romano went to high school with actress Fran Drescher in New York, and refused to be funny in her presence because he couldn’t stand her nasal laugh.

      • Radiohead star Jonny Greenwood has turned composer – he has penned the score for the human life on Earth TV documentary Bodysong.

      • Rapper 50 Cent’s £2.6 million mansion in Farmington, Connecticut, is the largest in the entire state. The pad used to belong to Mike Tyson and boasts eighteen bedrooms, thirty-eight bathrooms and a man-made waterfall.

      • Dublin kebab restaurant Abrakebabra rewarded Westlife singer Bryan McFadden with a gold card to thank him for being their best customer.

      • Rapper Eminem’s parents once fronted a covers group called Daddy Warbucks.

      • Movie funnyman Bill Murray owns a little-league baseball team in St Paul, Minnesota, and helps boost attendances by inviting fans to try out the hot tub he has installed in the stand.

      • Football-mad rocker Rod Stewart’s fourteen-year-old son with model Rachel Hunter, Liam McAllister Stewart, is named after Scottish international sport hero Gary McAllister.

      • Friends star Jennifer Aniston wore underwear with a picture of Brad Pitt on it to the 2003 Emmy Awards.

      • Welsh actress Catherine Zeta Jones’s son Dylan has become so close to his mother’s pal George Clooney that he now refers to the actor as ‘Uncle George’.

      • Reportedly, flamboyant rocker Sir Elton John is having a range of candles made for him with specially designed wicks, as he can’t sleep unless he has personally trimmed them before going to bed.

      • Staff at supermarket Tesco were so impressed with a special extra-large species of South African avocado that they’ve christened it the ‘J-Lo’ after Jennifer Lopez’s impressive curves.

      • US actor Kevin Costner has twice taken on roles after Harrison Ford turned them down – Ford was the original choice to star in Dragonfly (2002) and JFK (1991).

      • The name of 4-LOM, one of the bounty hunters seen listening to Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), stands for: For Love Of Money.

      • Hollywood comedian Jim Carrey voted in 2004 at the Beverly Hills City Hall. He had an assistant wait in line for him, however.

      • Police in Italy had to come to UK supermodel Naomi Campbell’s rescue when a crowd of up to 4,000 men swarmed a beach she was visiting.

      • The Russian Imperial Necklace has been loaned out by Joseff jewellers of Hollywood for 1,215 different feature films.

      • Titanic (1997) star Leonardo DiCaprio says he practised his losing smile for the Oscars – because he knew he wouldn’t win the Best Actor trophy.

      • There is a new television show on a British cable channel called Watching Paint Dry. Viewers watch in real time: gloss, semi-gloss, matt, satin, you name it. Then viewers vote out their least favourite.

      • The BBC asked to interview reggae legend Bob Marley in 2005 for a documentary – despite the fact he died in 1981. They sent the Bob Marley Foundation an email saying it would involve him ‘spending one or two days with us’.

      • Thousands of Britons say they would like Robbie Williams’s song ‘Angels’ СКАЧАТЬ