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Modern Times- Weird Hollywood Week

Everyone knows that Tom Cruise is a little eccentric; possibly very eccentric. His allegiance to his atomic era religion of Scientology has made his eccentricities stand out, even in an eccentric town like Hollywood. It was his bizarre behavior surrounding the production and release of War of the Worlds that brought him extra scrutiny, however.

While the couch jumping and spacey YouTube videos were the more public parts of his meltdown, the cast and crew of War of the Worlds were witness to even more bizarre behavior, which included Tom’s attempts to convert them to Scientology. Not even director Steven Spielberg was immune, though he was able to resist Tom’s attempts to lure him to a Scientology Org. Tom’s contract required the studio to allow Scientology tents on the set that could recruit new members. Apparently, they didn’t get many signups.

Forbidden Planet - Weird Hollywood Week

The Creeping Terror was a grade Z horror flick in which a giant carpet monster terrorizes a rural community by ingesting its victims, often with the help of the victims themselves. 

The film’s titular ‘Terror’ was more of a laughable disgrace. Sadly, a real life Terror would engulf one of the film’s shooting locations- the notorious Spahn Ranch, which harbored the loathsome Manson Family during its reign of terror in 1969.

A Star is Born- Weird Hollywood Week

Harrison Ford is a worldwide super star, whose films have grossed billions of dollars. In the mid-1970’s, however, his Hollywood career had stalled. After showing great promise in American Graffiti, he hadn’t been able to book much work for some reason. He had all but abandoned his acting career and had begun taking jobs as a carpenter. When George Lucas was casting for Star Wars, one of his consultants had suggested Harrison Ford for the role of the rebellious Han Solo. George Lucas wanted fresher faces, however, and balked at hiring Harrison for the role. The clever consultant, however, decided on a bit of subterfuge to change George’s mind; he arranged for Harrison to get hired to install a door at George Lucas’ offices on the day that casting was underway on the film.

When someone was needed to read Han Solo’s lines to the various actors and actresses auditioning for the parts of Princess Leia, the casting consultant suggested that Harrison, who was already there, would be the best person to do it. Over the course of the auditions, George Lucas became sold on Harrison Ford and history was made.

Hooray For Hollywood! - Weird Hollywood Week

Despite her reputation for being hostile to children as campily depicted in the film Mommie Dearest, millions of children from around the world have her to thank for her role in bringing the classic attraction it’s a small world to life.

How did such a bizarre event come to be? Joan Crawford was married to the Chairman of Pepsi. After her husband passed away, the board of directors expected her to just sit back and collect her dividend checks. Joan had other plans, insisting on taking her husband’s seat on the board. 

Pepsi’s board went into an all out war between those who supported and those who were against Joan Crawford. One casualty of this war was the company’s planned World’s Fair  fundraiser for UNICEF. Neither side was willing to yield to the other until Pepsi’s marketing team stepped in to express their concern that if the already publicized deal with UNICEF fell through it would give the company a black eye. The board reluctantly came together to authorize Joan to approach the one person she was certain could put something together quickly- Walt Disney. it’s a small world was the result.