De Laugh & Smile

5 Richard Gere And The Gerbil

Poor Richard Gere has been plagued by rumors since the early ’90s that claim he had sexual relations with a gerbil. According to the story, the LA Times ran a report claiming that Gere checked into the Cedards-Sinai hospital to have a troubling cavity removed from his furry friend, but nobody seems able to track down such a report. According to Sylvester Stallone, Gere blames him for starting the rumor after a falling out, but he denies it.

4 The Goldfinger Death

In a rumor about 1964’s Goldfinger, the actress who played the woman killed by being covered in gold paint really did die the same way. As Bond explains, covering the skin entirely in the paint will cause suffocation—because people breathe through their skin.
Obviously, that’s not how it works. Sometimes people refer to letting their skin “breathe,” but no, all real breathing is done with the lungs. Blocking your pores like that still isn’t a great idea, and you can be slowly poisoned if the paint contains toxic elements, but it won’t cause instant death. The actress in the film, Shirley Eaton, is alive and well.

3 Brandon Lee’s Final Moments Captured On Film

The promising career of Bruce Lee’s son came to an abrupt and tragic end while shooting 1993’s The Crow. In an opening scene in which his character is murdered, a series of events led to a stunt gun being loaded with real bullets, and Lee was really shot and killed. Fans claimed this gruesome moment stayed in the film for all to see, but it’s not true. The scene was re-shot with a double, and it was decided that Draven would be murdered by knife—presumably by filmmakers not wanting to tempt fate a second time.

2 The Haunting Of The Amityville Horror Really Happened

The fact that it was a true story was a huge selling point for the book—and later, the movie—about the terrifying events that plagued the Lutz family after they bought a haunted house in Amityville, New York. But when the movie was released, the lawyer defending the original murderer, William Weber, was livid.
The Lutzes originally agreed to write the book with him, and according to him, they made up the entire story together. The Lutzes eventually ditched him for a better deal; apparently they hadn’t fled the house in terror so much as an inability to pay for it. A long paper trail of lawsuits and back-room deals is on his side, as well as the sequel, which was based on the book he was writing with the Lutzes.

1 Jayne Mansfield Was Decapitated

The beheading of the Girl Can’t Help It star is one of the most notorious pop culture references. Everyone knows she died in a car accident, and some even claim that it was her signature scarf that pulled her head off when it got stuck in the accident. It’s all a big misunderstanding though—Mansfield was wearing a wig when the accident happened. It flew off and was mistaken by witnesses for her head. An employee of the funeral home informs us, rather creepily, that her head was very much attached when he . . . attended to her.