Here’s proof that Andy Warhol was right when he said that “in the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.”
THE STAR: Dennis Tito, a millionaire businessman
THE HEADLINE: Money Talks; Man Become’s World’s First Space Tourist
WHAT HAPPENED: Tito, a former NASA aerospace engineer, had always wanted to be an astronaut, but engineer was about as far as he got…until he switched careers. He became a financial consultant, made millions of dollars, and then decided to buy his way into space. He found a willing seller: the cash-strapped Russian Space Agency agreed to blast him into space for $20 million, which covered nearly the entire cost of the launch.
NASA and its counterparts in Europe, Canada, and Japan all opposed Tito’s trip, but Tito started his training in Russia anyway. Everything went smoothly until about a week before the launch, when he and his crew went to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for a week of preflight training and NASA refused to admit him to the facility. When the Russian astronauts announced that they wouldn’t train either, NASA blinked—and let them in.
In April 2001, Tito rocketed into orbit aboard a Russian spacecraft. He spent six days aboard the International Space Station and then returned to Earth. “They might not know it,” Tito told reporters after the trip, “but this is the best thing that’s happened to NASA.”
THE AFTERMATH: Tito must have been right, because in February 2002, NASA adopted a set of guidelines for selecting future “guests” to the Space Station. Since then, a South African Internet tycoon named Mark Shuttleworth became space tourist #2, and ’N Sync star Lance Bass nearly became #3, but his trip was canceled when sponsors couldn’t come up with the cash.
THE STAR: Kate Shermak, a fifth-grader at Jamestown Elementary School in Jamestown, Michigan
If you live an average lifespan, you’ll spend a total of about six months on the toilet.
THE HEADLINE: Ask and Ye Shall Receive…Forever, for Free
WHAT HAPPENED: In 2002 Kate’s fifth-grade teacher John Pyper gave the class an unusual assignment, designed to teach kids that letter-writing can be fun: he told them to write to a local business and make an “outrageous request.” Kate wrote to the Arby’s franchise in nearby Hudsonville. “My outrageous request is to get a lifetime supply of curly fries for free,” she wrote. “They’re my favorite fries. If you can’t meet my outrageous request, I understand.”
To Kate’s surprise, Arby’s said yes, and presented her with a certificate good for a lifetime supply of free curly fries.
THE AFTERMATH: The Grand Rapids Press printed the story a few days later; it was picked up by the Associated Press and soon appeared in newspapers all over the world. Not everyone in Kate’s class was as lucky with their requests—one student wrote to his future sixth-grade teacher asking to be excused from a year’s worth of homework. (Request denied.)
THE STAR: An unknown Star Wars fan
THE HEADLINE: Phantom Phan Phixes Philm
WHAT HAPPENED: In 1999 the fan, whose identity has never been revealed, went to see Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. Like a lot of people, he was disappointed by what he saw; unlike anyone else, he decided to do something about it. When the movie came out on VHS, he used his computer to re-edit it, as he (or she) put it, “into what I believe is a much stronger film by relieving the viewer of as much story redundancy, pointless Anakin action and dialog, and Jar Jar Binks as possible.” He called his new, 20-minute-shorter version of the film The Phantom Edit.
The Phantom Editor never tried to sell his version of the film, but he did give it to friends…and they gave copies to their friends…and soon thousands of copies of the re-edit were circulating all over the Internet, making it arguably the most successful bootleg in Hollywood history. Many who saw it thought The Phantom Edit better than the original.
THE AFTERMATH: The popularity of the first re-edit prompted scores of wannabes to do their own versions with names like Episode 1.2 and The Phantom Re-Edit. The phenomon began to get covered by the mainstream press; newspapers as prestigious as the Chicago Tribune even began printing movie reviews of the bootleg versions.
So that’s why they call him King of the Jungle: Lions can mate more than 50 times a day.
Lucasfilm had initially chalked the re-edits up to fans having fun, but as the craze continued to grow, the studio threatened legal action against bootleggers. Ultimately the Phantom Editor—or someone claiming to be him (or her)—e-mailed an apology to Lucas via a website called Zap2it.com, calling his film “a well-intentioned editing demonstration that escalated out of my control.” If you look hard enough, you can probably still find the film online.
THE STAR: Randee Craig Johnson
THE HEADLINE: Can-do: Candidate for Sheriff Brings Unique Qualifications to the Race
WHAT HAPPENED: When Crawford County Sheriff Dave Lovely took early retirement in February 2002, the panel of three county officials invited applications from the public to fill the position of interim sheriff until the next election. One person who wrote in to apply was Randee Craig Johnson, 41, who cited his military experience and his “familiarity with the law” as things that made him a good candidate for the job.
What did Johnson mean, exactly, by his “familiarity with the law”? Johnson wrote his letter from a cell inside the Crawford County Jail, where he’d been held since July 2001 while awaiting trial for murder. In his letter, Johnson predicted that he would be acquitted and asked the panel to look past his current circumstances when they made their choice. “I believe everyone deserves a chance to prove themselves,” he wrote.
The Traverse City Record-Eagle ran a story on Johnson’s candidacy; it was picked up by the national wire services. The contest for Crawford County Sheriff wasn’t actually a real election, it was just three panel members appointing a temporary sheriff; but even so, when Johnson entered the race, newspapers all over the country ran the story, making it the most widely covered sheriff’s race in the United States.
THE AFTERMATH: Johnson lost his bid for sheriff—the panel promoted Undersheriff Kirk Wakefield without even considering Johnson’s application. But he did prove himself in the end: On May 24, 2002, a jury unanimously acquitted him of murder and after 307 days in jail he walked out a free man.
SUV drivers are twice as likely to talk on a cellphone as drivers of other kinds of cars.