Entertainment

In 1999, David Phillips spotted a Healthy Choice promotion: 1,000 airline miles for every 10 barcodes. During the bonus window, that doubled. He found pudding cups at 25 cents each, bought 12,150 of them for $3,140, and donated them all to the Salvation Army — earning an $815 tax deduction. Total haul: 1,253,000 frequent flyer miles and lifetime Gold status. His story inspired the Adam Sandler film Punch-Drunk Love.

Pharrell Williams was fired from three different McDonald's locations. His reason: "I was eating the chicken nuggets." Years later, McDonald's hired him to produce "I'm Lovin' It" — the most successful fast food jingle in history.

Michael Larson was an unemployed ice cream truck driver who recorded episodes of Press Your Luck on his VCR and played them back frame by frame. He discovered the "random" game board only had 5 repeating patterns. He memorized them all. On the show, he hit 45 consecutive winning spins without a single Whammy and walked away with $110,237. CBS investigated and couldn't do a thing.

A memorial tree was planted in Los Angeles' Griffith Park in honor of Beatles guitarist George Harrison. It was killed by an infestation of beetles.

Eminem's mother sued him for $10 million in defamation over one line in "My Name Is." A judge ruled in her favor — for $25,000. Her lawyer took $23,354.25 in fees. She walked away with exactly $1,645.75.

Pepsi ran a commercial showing a Harrier jet for 7 million Pepsi Points. A business student named John Leonard did the math, raised $700,000, and mailed Pepsi a check demanding the jet. Pepsi said no. He sued. A judge ruled "no objective person could reasonably have concluded" the offer was real. Pepsi re-aired the ad with the price changed to 700 million points and a "Just Kidding" disclaimer.

In 1987, American Airlines sold a lifetime unlimited first-class pass for $250,000. Steven Rothstein bought one. He flew over 10,000 flights. Breakfast in London, dinner in Tokyo. He even booked a fake passenger named "Bag Rothstein" to keep the adjacent seat empty. American Airlines estimates he cost them over $21 million before they revoked his pass — and handed him the termination letter at the gate.

James Van Der Beek spent six years starring in Dawson's Creek, filming over 120 hours of television. The internet reduced his entire career to a 3-second crying GIF. Instead of fighting it, he embraced it — launching jamesvandermemes.com with Funny or Die.

While filming Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides at Greenwich's Old Naval College in 2010, Johnny Depp received a letter from a 9-year-old girl at a nearby school asking Captain Jack Sparrow for help with a "mutiny" against her teachers. With just ten minutes' notice, Depp arrived at the school in full pirate costume — but advised against the idea of mutiny.

French street artist Le CyKlop has been transforming ordinary anti-parking bollards into bright yellow LEGO-like characters across France since 2014. His 'Angry L'éGO' series started as guerrilla art — painting the posts at night in just two minutes using custom stencils — and has since grown into both unauthorized installations and official city commissions.

Rupert Grint became an ice cream man after Harry Potter — not for publicity, but because it had been his childhood dream all along.

A man bet $50,000 that someone would streak at the Super Bowl — then did it himself. He claimed he cashed out $374,000 and walked away with a $1,000 fine.

A TV reporter in the Philippines brought her puppy to the studio because no one was home to watch him. During the live broadcast of TV Patrol Southern Mindanao, she kept the sleeping puppy hidden at her feet — with only her upper half visible on camera. Behind-the-scenes photos later surfaced and went viral, showing the little golden pup curled up on the studio floor while she delivered the news without missing a beat.

In 2012, Walmart ran a Facebook contest to send Pitbull to the store with the most votes. The internet hijacked it and voted for a tiny Walmart in Kodiak, Alaska — a remote island only reachable by plane or boat. Everyone expected him to back out. He didn’t. He flew to Alaska, performed for the whole town, took photos with fans, and called it "the greatest thing ever."

The entire cast of 'The Lord of the Rings' got matching tattoos after filming. The nine actors who played the Fellowship got the Elvish word for 'nine' inked on them, a pact made by Viggo Mortensen.

A completely silent song on Spotify called "Sleepify" earned a band over $20,000 in royalties before being removed. Fans played it on repeat overnight while sleeping to support the band Vulfpeck, who used the money to fund a free tour.

Oasis star Noel Gallagher once took cocaine in a toilet reserved for the Queen in Downing Street.

During development at Pixar, Toy Story 2 was accidentally deleted, but was recovered by an employee who saved the movie to her computer at home while on maternal leave.

The cat featured in the popular internet meme "grumpy cat" has a permanently grumpy face due to feline dwarfism. Her real name is Tardar Sauce.

Michael Crichton, author of Jurassic Park, felt his literature professor at Harvard was giving him unfair grades. To prove it, he turned in a paper by George Orwell and received a B-.