Page 7 - Celebrity Facts

Ronald Reagan told Steven Spielberg that 'E.T. the Extraterrestrial' was 100% a true story!

The film "E.T. The Extraterrestrial" is the heartwarming tale of an alien who is left behind on Earth and befriends a boy, Elliot. The two become close before a government unit discovers the existence of E.T. And try to take him away. It is one of Steven Spielberg's most well-known films.

When it first came out, Spielberg screened the film for the White House. Then President Reagan, the First Lady and guests, such as Sandra Day O'Connor were invited to a special viewing of the movie.

At the end, President Reagan addressed the room and thanked Spielberg for the showing. He then said "there are a number of people in this room who know that everything on that screen was absolutely true." He said this with a completely straight face but the room erupted into laughter like it was a joke.

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There were technically 6 Backstreet Boys!

Lou Pearlman was the successful impresario behind some of the biggest bands in the 1990s. He was responsible for both the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync. Turns out, he was also the Backstreet Boy. Well, technically at least.

Pearlman was technically the sixth member of the Backstreet Boys so that he could get paid as a member. He was triple dipping in the BSB venture: As a manager, producer and band member. The 5 members filed a suit when they found out that they had only received $300,000 for their work when Pearlman had made millions.

'NSync, Aaron Carter, LFO, Take 5, Aaron Carter, Natural US5, Smilez and Southstar and others were also represented by him. They all sued him. Pearlman was eventually convicted of perpetrating one of the largest and longest-runnning Ponzi schemes. He was convicted in 2008 and sentenced to up to 25 years in prison.

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Richard Branson bought an Island for $180,000 that is worth upwards of $200 million today!

Richard Branson has become one of the richest people in the world, with an estimated net worth of over $4.6 billion. This incredible wealth was mostly accumulated from the founding of Virgin Records, which eventually became the Virgin Group composed of over 400 companies.

To become so successful, a keen business mind is essential, and Richard Branson has that in spades. One of the best examples of this was the island he bought in 1970, which is also one of the most legendary business deals of all time!

When looking for an island to buy, Branson set his sights of Necker Island, which is part of the British Virgin Islands and was owned by Lord Cobham. Branson hadn’t yet made it to the billions and Cobham demanded a minimum of $5 million for the island, money which Branson was not willing to pay.

He made an offer of $100,000 and was pretty much completely ignored. He kept shopping around the Caribbean for an island, while slowly raising his bid on Necker Island to keep Lord Cobham’s attention. As luck would have it, Cobham was in desperate need for money, and accepted Branson’s offer of $180,000, which was over $4 million under the asking price! Today, the value has shot up exponentially and is worth over $200,000 million!

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Bill Gates bought a Leonardo da Vinci notebook for $30m and made it available for free!

In 1994, Bill Gates bought the Codex Leicester, one of the notebooks left by Leonardo da Vinci. The price? $30.8 million. Gates explained that he bought it because he has always been amazed by Leonardo and how he worked out so much science on his own and understood things that other scientists didn't at the time.

When Windows Vista was launched, the British Library launched a website that let people browse through virtual versions of two Leonardo da Vinci notebooks. One of them was the one that Gates bought.

Seems like a good use of your personal wealth to make humanity better and promote your products at the same time!

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The Automaton from the movie Hugo was real and actually worked!

If you saw the movie Hugo, you know that one of the movie's best and most moving scenes is when Hugo finally manages to turn on the mysterious automaton he found in his dad's apartment.

You might've thought that the machine was all CGI, or at least parts of it were. However, it was an actual working machine that was able to draw in real time. It was created by Dick George Creatives and they made a video talking about how the Automaton was made. Check it out:

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