Contract Killers
Rational thought and common sense goes out of the window when the all important paperwork's drawn up in the land of make believe. Check out the small print and get ready to weep.
Former Olympic swimming champion Johnny Weissmuller became so portly in later life that he was dropped from the Tarzan series. When he signed up to star in the Jungle Jim movies, he had to promise that he would never weigh more than 190lbs. For each pound over that weight, he would be fined $5,000.
Surly short-arse Mickey Rooney's contract with MGM included a list of foods the tubby teen was forbidden from eating. Besides the usual cookies and cakes, Rooney was also obliged to steer clear of those popular childhood snacks, "liver, venison, lard and preserved fish".
Midway through World War II, a clause was added to Veronica Lake's contract demanding that she trim her famous 'peekaboo' hairdo since similar hairstyles were maiming women in factories and mills across the country.
Back in the 1920s, Douglas Fairbanks Sr's producers were so concerned with the welfare of their star, he was forbidden from travelling by air.
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