Hollywood’s Worst Kept Secrets

Roberta @ Gone Hollywood | Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Hollywood gossip is something that has become so pervasive in our culture that we tend to take it all for granted. Whether we tend to listen to it all or shun it like the plague, we end up hearing more than our fair share, and stowing it away in memory without even realizing it.

Sometimes, the really good gossip slips through the mainstream and get slowly forgotten by the few people that ever knew about it to begin with. These are some of those bits of information; these are ten of Hollywood’s worst kept secrets.

1. Tim Allen served time

In 1978, Tim “the Toolman” Taylor was caught at an airport trying to smuggle 1.4 pounds of cocaine in his luggage. He was busted after plea bargaining his way out of the life sentence to a few years. He gave up the dealers and got out on parole.

2. Sylvester Stallone starred in a porn flick

The trailer for “Italian Stallion” was made in 1970, which was a full six years before Sly Stallone would be more well known as Rocky Balboa. The movie was originally titled as “The Party at Kitty and Stud’s”, but was renamed after he became a huge box office success as the famed boxer. As for why he did it? He was starving and needed the money.

3. Jack Nicholson’s sister was really his mother

Jack Nicholson was born in 1936 to a showgirl, but his mother wasn’t known to him as that for the longest time. His grandmother raised him as her own and his real mother was allowed to continue her work. A journalist from “Time” magazine broke the news in an interview in 1974, but by that time, they had both passed away.

4. Eric Stoltz was the original Marty McFly

Eric Stoltz had some pretty decent movie hits in the eighties, but the part he landed would surprise all of us. Apparently the actor filmed part of the “Back To The Future” movies as the character we’ve all come to know and love – Marty McFly. The part went to Michael J. Fox after Stoltz got the axe from the movie.

5. Don King killed two men, did time

Don King gets a lot of press for being, well, Don King. He’s got the support of some heavy-hitters (pun intended), but he’s also come to be known as something of a bastard by those who know him best. One of the little stories that tends to get forgotten involves two incidents in King’s past: he shot one guy in the back as he was trying to rob one of his gambling houses back in 1953, and then stomped another guy to death because he owed him $600. Nice guy, eh?

6. Winona Ryder is a natural blond

You gotta love Winona. She’s the bad girl who’s not the bad girl; she’s cute, bubbly, dark, light, shoplifts with the best (and worst) of ‘em and rolls with the punches. She played roles in some of the best movies of our time, including Edward Scissorhands and BeatleJuice. What most of us never stop to think about, given the fact that she’s nearly always appeared as a brunette (and a good one at that), is that Winona is actually a blonde. For those who never had an inkling, watching Edward Scissorhands again with this knowledge is like flipping the world upside-down.

7. Nicole Richie’s real dad was a member of Lionel’s band

Nicole Ritchie being Lionel Ritchie’s kid was always one of those things you just tend to forget about. The names match up, but little else does, and we sort of just make it work in our heads. Most people never stop to question it, and when they do, they find ways to justify it in their heads that they’re father/daughter instead of checking to be sure. Fact is, Nicole is Lionel’s adopted daughter; her mother was a bit of a deadbeat who worked wardrobe for Prince, and her biological father was actually a former percussionist in Lionel’s own band.

8. Janet Jackson was secretly married for eight years

People elope all the time; it’s much more common than most of us realize. When an individual as famous as Janet Jackson does it, and manages to keep it a secret for eight years; well that’s an accomplishment. Apparently she had to keep her marriage a complete secret because she wanted to keep it from her father, who we all know is not the greatest guy on earth. She and her husband, Rene Elizondo, had to act like “close friends” the entire time. It was his hands in the photo shoot above. In 2000, Rene had officially had enough of the secret life, and since Janet wouldn’t budge, he filed for divorce. It got pretty ugly after that point, and since he was suing her for millions, we’re pretty sure her father found out anyway.

9. Charlize Theron watched her mother kill her father

Charlize Theron is South African by birth, and lived there her entire young life. She led a somewhat normal life into her pre-teens, but then things changed a bit. Her father was an abusive alcoholic, and her mother was the chief punching bag around the house. When Charlize was 15, her father came home especially drunk one night. A scuffle broke out and she witnessed her mother pull a gun and shoot her dad dead. At least this makes it a bit easier to understand how she can play such messed up roles so well — and if the picture of her from Monster scared you a bit, here’s a nicer one to reset the memory.

10. Mark Wahlberg is living on borrowed time

It’s pretty common knowledge that Mark Wahlberg is either blessed or just among the luckiest guys on earth by natural circumstances. Either way you cut it, the guy has made out pretty well time after time, despite beginning his public life as Marky Mark (an unforgivable sin). What most people don’t know is that the morning of September 11, 2001, Wahlberg was a ticket-holding passenger on one of the planes that struck the World Trade Center. He, on the other hand, was miles away attending a film festival in Toronto. He was invited at the very last minute by some friends who happened to be there, and he missed his flight. Lucky is an understatement for this guy.

These are all surprising to me except for the one about Eric Stoltz, I thought that one was common knowledge.

source: Hollywood’s 15 Worst Kept Secrets – [manolith]