22 Facts I Learned This Week That Are Surprising, Shocking, And Just Plain Fascinating

22 Facts I Learned This Week That Are Surprising, Shocking, And Just Plain Fascinating
Trending badge Trending Rewind · Posted 3 hours ago 22 Facts I Learned This Week That Are Surprising, Shocking, And Just Plain Fascinating In 2002, Mila Kunis filmed a movie called The Girl Who Wouldn't Die. When the film went into post-production, filmmakers decided they wanted to turn the movie into a sequel to American Psycho , and ended up adding several flashback scenes connecting Kunis's character to the original film's lead character, Patrick Bateman. by Madison McGee BuzzFeed Staff Facebook Pinterest Twitter Mail Link 1.
In a very interesting twist, the Church of England technically owns a stake in some of the world's biggest songs, including Rihanna's "Umbrella," Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack," and Beyoncé's "Single Ladies. " The church is one of several investors in Hipgnosis, a company that has spent over $1 billion to acquire the rights to tons of beloved songs. Every time a song owned by Hipgnosis plays, the church earns royalties from the track.
According to Merck Mercuriadis, the founder of Hipgnosis, the music the company owns is "more valuable than gold or oil. " He added that the purchase of music is one of the most stable investments, adding that buying a hit song can result in 30–40 years of reliable income. Tap to play GIF Tap to play GIF Apple Music / Columbia Music / Via giphy.
com 2. While Dirty Dancing is considered a classic today, filmmakers had pretty low expectations ahead of the movie's 1987 release. The movie was reportedly turned down 43 times before coming to fruition.
In 2017, screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein revealed that she was asked to remove several controversial plot points, including an abortion storyline and commentary about race, war, and politics, from the film. The movie's producers had allegedly secured a sponsorship from an acne cream company, who reportedly tried to back out after learning there was a scene with an illegally performed abortion. Bergstein said she refused to remove it because without it, the movie's entire plot would "fall apart.
" Hulton Archive / Getty Images The movie also was almost renamed I Was a Teenage Mambo Queen in the lead-up to its release, after Canadian authorities reportedly held up the film's dailies at the border, believing it was pornography. Dirty Dancing initially received bad reviews from test audiences. During one screening, 39% of audience members claimed they didn't even realized that the movie had an abortion subplot.
As a result, it was decided that the movie would only run in theaters for a week, then would go straight to home video. To everyone's surprise, the movie went on to become a massive success, bringing in $214 million at the box office. The movie's theme song, "(I've Had) The Time Of My Life" even won the Oscar for Best Song.
Hulton Archive / Getty Images 3. Turns out that Apple founder Steve Jobs was quite the prank caller! In 2007, Jobs made the first public call from an iPhone, during which he called a San Francisco Starbucks and ordered 4,000 lattes. The call took place in front of a huge audience at Apple's iPhone unveiling.
Jobs immediately told the barista who answered the call — "Hannah" Zhang — that he was just kidding. Zhang said she had no idea that Jobs was the prank caller. "I feel very happy and lucky that I had a chance to actually talk to him," she told Fast Company.
"It means a lot to me that he picked our Starbucks. " Zhang also added that the call inspired hundreds of copycat pranksters over the years. David Paul Morris / Getty Images 4.
Crazy Rich Asians , written by Kevin Kwan , began as a bestselling book series, then went on to become one of the biggest films of 2018. The movie, which was notably comprised of an all-Asian cast, made headlines for the way the film finally centered Asian stories. In 2013, shortly after the first novel in the trilogy was released, the film rights were bought by a production company called Color Force.
Instead of attaching the movie to a mainstream studio, they instead tried to secure funding from Asian sources in order to stay as true to the source material as possible. Kwan told the Hollywood Reporter that he was disheartened when he learned that some studios were interested in "whitewashing" the film by casting white actors to portray Asian characters. Gilbert Carrasquillo / Getty Images, Patti McConville / Alamy Stock Photo When it came to determining who would control the film's release, it started a bidding war between major studios and streaming services.
In October 2016, it came down to a competition between Warner Brothers and Netflix to decide who would distribute the movie, which was the first film with an all-Asian cast since 1993's The Joy Luck Club . Warner Brothers had beaten out all of the other major studios, while Netflix was reportedly offering massive salaries for the cast, a fully green-lit trilogy deal, and complete artistic freedom. After learning this, Warner Brothers reportedly told Kwan, director Jon M.
Chu, and the movie's producers that they had 15 minutes to decide, otherwise their offer was taken off the table. Michael Kovac / WireImage / Via Getty Images Kwan ultimately decided to turn down Netflix's offer, because the streamer reportedly did not want to grant the film a theatrical run. "We wanted to have that cinematic experience," he said.
"We wanted to have a huge premiere and an opening, and we wanted to play in theaters where families, friends, people could really come together as communities and see this movie. " He told CNN that the filmmakers were aware that his decision was a huge gamble, but he ultimately believed the movie could be more impactful if it had a theatrical run. Kwan also revealed that if he had taken the Netflix deal, he "could have moved to an island and never worked another day.
" Turns out, his gamble paid off! Crazy Rich Asians went on to make $239 million at the box office and was widely praised for bringing Asian representation to the big screen. Tap to play GIF Tap to play GIF Warner Brothers / Via giphy. com 5.
Pelicans became extremely popular in medieval art because they were seen as symbols of sacrifice, and were often used in Christian allegories. When the birds were unable to find food for their young, they would peck flesh from their own breast in order to nourish their babies. As a result, depictions of this process were often seen on liturgical crosses, church doorways, and altars.
Geography Photos / Geography Photos/Universal Images Group via Getty Images 6. I wouldn't expect Princess Diana to be an American football fan, but in 1991, she was spotted sporting a Philadelphia Eagles jacket. The photos recently resurfaced in the lead-up to the Super Bowl, where the Eagles lost to the Kansas City Chiefs.
So, how did a British royal with no apparent connection to Philly end up with the coat? Legend has it that Diana met Jackie Edelstein, a former statistician for the Eagles, at Grace Kelly's funeral. Although Kelly, who was the Princess of Monaco, and Diana were acquainted because of their royal connections, Kelly was actually born and raised in Philadelphia. Princess Diana Archive / Getty Images Diana and Edelstein reportedly got to talking, and the royal confessed that silver and green (the colors of the Eagles), was her favorite color combination.
Edelstein took that as a sign and decided to send Diana some Eagles merch. The problem? According to Marnie Schneider, the daughter of a former Eagles owner, the team wanted to send Diana Eagles apparel fit for a royal. "My grandfather said, 'She’s the princess! You can't send her just T-shirts,'" she said.
"'We gotta do something special for this woman. '" The team ended up sending Diana a gift box, which included the classic Eagles jacket. Diana was later spotted wearing it while dropping Prince Harry off at school.
Princess Diana Archive / Getty Images 7. In 2002, Mila Kunis starred in American Psycho 2 , in which she played a college student studying criminology by day, and an aspiring serial killer by night. Patrick Bateman, the star of the original American Psycho , even made several appearances in flashback scenes, although he was not portrayed by Christian Bale, who played the character in the first film.
The issue? Kunis had no idea the movie was going to become a sequel to American Psycho . She filmed it under the impression that it would be a completely different film called The Girl Who Wouldn't Die . After shooting was completed, filmmakers decided to link it to the original film and filmed additional scenes featuring Bateman that are supposed to be told from Kunis's character's memories.
Lions Gate / courtesy Everett Collection 8. The Ronettes' " Be My Baby " inspired Brian Wilson to revamp the Beach Boys' music. Wilson, who estimates that he's listened to the song over 1,000 times, told the New York Times that he was so shocked the first time he heard the song that he had to pull his car over.
At the time, Wilson said he was discouraged by the surf music the Beach Boys had been putting out, so he bought a copy of the single and began studying it to determine exactly why he loved it so much. "I started analyzing all the guitars, pianos, bass, drums and percussion," he said. "Once I got all those learned, I knew how to produce records.
" Gab Archive / Redferns / Via Getty Images Despite his intense studying, Wilson said he believes he has never been able to produce a record as good as "Be My Baby. " "It’s the greatest record ever produced," he said. "No one will ever top that one.
" In fact, "Be My Baby" is such a beloved song that it has memorably appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows, from Baby Mama to The Wonder Years . The song has since been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and was even sampled in Eddie Money's 1980s hit "Take Me Home Tonight," which helped to reinvigorate Ronettes member Ronnie Spector's career. It's estimated that the song has played on the radio so frequently, that it has the equivalent of 17 years of continuous airplay time.
View this video on YouTube Sony Records / Via youtube. com 9. Ever wondered why MTV always uses space motifs in their branding, including their signature Moonman trophies? It all started when the channel launched on August 1, 1981, and used space mission footage acquired from NASA, juxtaposed with MTV co-founder John Lack announcing, "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll.
" The space theme was supposed to represent the way the channel was conquering "unchartered territory" by broadcasting music videos. The space footage went on to air at the top of every hour for the next five years. When developing a trophy for the VMAs in 1984, the channel echoed its space roots with the Moonman trophy.
The astronaut's lifted foot was supposed to represent the way the awards were "one small step for man, but a giant step for all music. " Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images 10. While you likely have heard of Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal, have you ever learned about the Teapot Dome Scandal , which has been dubbed the Watergate of the early 20th century? Albert Fall, the secretary of the interior under President Warren G.
Harding, used his position to illegally give his friends in the oil business government-owned land in exchange for money. During Harding's campaign, he received financial support from many influential men in the oil business. Fall was friends with many of them, and his appointment to Harding's cabinet was likely influenced by these connections.
Library Of Congress / Corbis/VCG via Getty Images Prior to joining Harding's administration, Fall worked as a lawyer for the logging and mining business. In 1922, he attempted to use his political power to grant these businesses the use of public lands, which was shot down by Congress. Fall then set his sights on using public lands as storage sites for oil reserves.
This had been attempted by William Howard Taft during his presidency, but Fall was finally able to push it through. He ended up granting only his own business contacts use of the land, which included Teapot Dome in Wyoming. Bettmann / Bettmann Archive / Via Getty Images Fall eventually ended up receiving gifts from many of the men in exchange for granting them use of the land.
The gifts caused the Senate to take attention, and they soon launched an inquiry under suspicion of bribery. Fall was found guilty of accepting the bribes, and became the first Cabinet member to ever go to prison. Harding unexpectedly died in 1923 before facing any repercussions from his own alleged involvement in the scheme.
As a result of the scandal, he has gone down in history as one of the worst presidents of all time. The Teapot Dome scandal also changed the Senate forever: it marked the first time Congress was able to subpoena witnesses in investigations. Bettmann / Bettmann Archive / Via Getty Images 11.
Things looked pretty dire for the bald eagle population in the United States for a long time. In the late 1960s, there were reportedly less than 500 breeding pairs of the birds left. This decline was attributed to both hunting and the use of DDT, an insecticide that made eagle eggs so fragile that they often broke during the incubation period.
In 1972, DDT was banned, and soon, the bald eagle populations started to trend upwards. Now, bald eagles are no longer facing extinction. In 2021, NPR reported that there are over 70,000 breeding pairs of bald eagles in the United States.
Despite this success story, about two-thirds of native bird species are now endangered due to rising temperatures. Tap to play GIF Tap to play GIF BBC / Via giphy. com 12.
Have you ever noticed that on tons of TV shows, characters all drink beer from the same fictional brand? Heisler Beer has appeared on pretty much every show under the sun, from New Girl to Brooklyn 99 , Stranger Things to True Detective . In fact, Heisler is so ubiquitous that it's been dubbed the "Bud Light of fake beers. " The brand was developed by Studio Graphics, a branch of Independent Studio Services, a company that creates tons of movie and TV props.
Freeform Heisler first appeared on-screen in the 1990s, and its origin story is a bit of a mystery. According to Molly Rummel, the assistant manager of Studio Graphics, no one quite knows who ended up designing the label, which has since grown to include the original Heisler, Heisler Lite, and several different vintage labels from the 1940s to the 1980s. They also can't pinpoint the first time it appeared on-screen, although it's now a TV staple.
It's estimated that the production team for New Girl bought over 40 cases of Heisler over the show's run. Studio Graphics has actually developed about 40 fictional beer brands, but Heisler has stood out as the most enduring. The wide use of the labels has even contributed to fan theories that their favorite shows are somehow connected.
Fox Rummel said that developing fictional alcoho