Curated playlist
American people of Romanian-Jewish descent
- Stanley KubrickAfter copycat crimes and death threats, Stanley Kubrick pulled A Clockwork Orange from release in the United Kingdom.
- Natalie PortmanNatalie Portman turned down a $2,000,000 prize in 2018. She skipped the Genesis Prize ceremony, and it was canceled.
- Stan LeeStan Lee used a pen name because comic books embarrassed him. He wanted his real name saved for a novel he never wrote.
- Larry LieberLarry Lieber could not say where he found the word uru, the name of the mystical metal from which Thor's hammer Mjolnir is made. It first appeared in the debut of Marvel's thunder god, in Journey into Mystery #83, cover-dated August 1962.…
- Alan GreenspanIn October 2008, Alan Greenspan told Congress his faith in free markets had a flaw.
- Winona RyderWinona Ryder once believed that a hit film would rescue her from the school playground. In 2017 she recalled her thinking when Beetlejuice topped the box office: "Ooh, it's like the number one movie. This is going to make things great at…
- Herb AlpertHerb Alpert is the only musician to top the Hot 100 as both a singer and an instrumentalist.
- Dolph SchayesDolph Schayes played almost a full season with his right arm in a cast. He learned to shoot left-handed instead.
- Bernie MadoffBernie Madoff told his own sons in December 2008 that the fund he ran was "just one big lie." Bernard Lawrence Madoff was an American financier, born in 1938, who had once served as chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange. He admitted to…
- Rob ReinerRob Reiner, the American filmmaker, actor and political activist, once joked about how firmly a sitcom nickname had attached itself to him. "I could win the Nobel Prize and they'd write 'Meathead wins the Nobel Prize.'" The remark came…
- David BenioffDavid Benioff was a club bouncer and a high school wrestling coach before Game of Thrones. He later co-ran the show.