Curated playlist
People named in the Paradise Papers
- MadonnaMadonna arrived in New York in 1978 with thirty-five dollars. It was her first plane ride and first taxi.
- Keira KnightleyKeira Knightley stood on a plank for two days and refused a stunt double.
- Justin TimberlakeJustin Timberlake was 11 years old when he appeared on the television show Star Search and sang country songs under the name Justin Randall. The boy from Memphis, Tennessee would one day be dubbed the Prince of Pop. Billboard would name…
- Charles IIICharles III was crowned at Westminster Abbey on the 6th of May 2023, in a ceremony planned for many years under the code name Operation Golden Orb. Reports before the day promised a coronation shorter, smaller and less expensive than his…
- ShakiraAt age four, Shakira climbed onto a restaurant table and danced to a doumbek. It happened in Barranquilla, Colombia.
- StubHubStubHub began when Eric Baker struggled to find a secondhand Lion King ticket.
- BonoBono, the lead singer of U2, took his name from the sign of a hearing aid shop in Dublin. The shop was called Bonavox, and it stood just off O'Connell Street, the city's principal thoroughfare. The word comes from the Latin for good voice.…
- Harvey WeinsteinHarvey Weinstein was thanked by name in 34 Academy Award acceptance speeches. That is as many times as God was thanked, and only Steven Spielberg, with 43 mentions, was thanked more often. The tally comes from an analysis of speeches made…
- Avril LavigneIn November 2000, Avril Lavigne stood in a Manhattan recording studio and sang for Antonio "L.A." Reid, then the head of Arista Records. The audition ran for just 15 minutes. Lavigne, a Canadian singer and songwriter, was 16 years old. She…
- George SorosAt 14, George Soros posed as the Christian godson of a government official to survive the Nazi occupation of Hungary.
- Gary LinekerGary Lineker played 654 competitive games and never got a yellow or red card.
- Petro PoroshenkoPetro Poroshenko, a chocolate maker, won Ukraine's presidency in 2014 without a runoff. He took 54.7% of the vote.
- Michael HutchenceMichael Hutchence, the lead singer and lyricist of the Australian rock band INXS, was 37 years old when he died in a Sydney hotel room. The band was due to open its 20th anniversary tour in Sydney on the 23rd of November 1997. With…
- Jim SimonsJim Simons, born James Harris Simons, once explained his dislike of publicity by borrowing a line from Benjamin the Donkey in Animal Farm. "God gave me a tail to keep off the flies. But I'd rather have had no tail and no flies. That's kind…
- Yuri MilnerIn 2009, Yuri Milner paid $200 million for a 1.96% stake in Facebook. The deal came with no board seat.
- Roman AbramovichRoman Abramovich paid roughly $100 million in 1995 for a stake in the Russian oil company Sibneft. He bought it in partnership with Boris Berezovsky, at a price far below what the asset was worth. A decade later, in 2005, he sold that same…