The Titanic drug poisoning: one of the strangest mysteries in film history.
In 1996, during Titanic’s shoot, around 80 people, including James Cameron and Bill Paxton, were sent to hospital after lobster chowder was spiked with PCP. Reports said Cameron yelled, “There’s something in me! Get it out,” while crew members fled screaming from a floating Matthew McConaughey playing bongos and others started a fight with a two‑legged dolphin.
The caterer blamed “the Hollywood crowd bringing in the psychedelic shit… a party thing that got carried away.”
Police investigated, but never definitively identified the culprit. The case was closed in 1999 with no arrests.
Rumours pinned it on a disgruntled crew member angry at Cameron’s brutal, grueling, and physically punishing work ethic. Even English Rose, Kate Winslet waded in saying, "You’d have to pay me a lot of money to work with Jim Cameron again." Two points here,
1. I'm assuming she got paid a lot of money to work on Avatar: The Way of the Water
2. I've been instructed by my lawyers to explicitly state that Future Dame Kate Winslet didn't spike the crews' crustacean soup with hallucinogens.
In 2023, Cameron denied the "disgruntled crew member" theory: “Of course, the operating theory was that I was such a psycho maniac that (the perpetrator was) trying to get back at me… but I reject that theory out of hand.” And this is from a man who once allegedly attempted to suffocate a Fox studio exec on the set of The Abyss for trying to tell him how to run the production. So I'l take his word for it.
As for any long-term drug side effects: aside from trying (solo) to reach the bottom of the ocean, Cameron has spent the last 17 years making multiple films about 10‑foot‑tall blue alien hippie tree-huggers who have orgasms by plugging their hair into each other. You decide.
Quentin Tarantino slams Hollywood as a "flavorless sausage factory" where miscast actors and "audience pandering" are ruining new movies.
“Flaws, implausibilities, audience pandering, miscast performers or just plain stupid s*it usually torpedoes every new movie coming out of the flavorless sausage factory that used to call itself Hollywood. These days, the entire concept of what is a movie is more inclined to inspire contempt in me than generosity... I’ve seen movies I liked since – ‘West Side Story’ (2021); ‘Horizon: An American Saga’ Chapter 1 and 2 (both 2024), a few others, but nothing that really held me in its grip and swept me away to the magical land of enjoyment that I use to visit regularly and was the reason I loved movies above all other artforms. These days I’d rather read a book." (via Sight & Sound)
https://t.co/Kslpbd4uoN
- 169,000 children are living in temporary accommodation.
- House prices are still 7.6x the average annual full time salary.
- Food prices keep rising.
- Unemployment is climbing.
And they’ve decided to use over 1 billion on a theme park.
You simply cannot hate them enough.
SUMMER SALE! 20% OFF CHOOSE BRUM TEE
Celebrate summer in all its sun-dappled optimism and honey-soaked beauty with a discounted ICB tee: the gloriously retro CHOOSE BRUM.
The design is a lovingly cheeky riff on one of pop culture’s most iconic shirts: George Michael’s CHOOSE LIFE number from Wham’s Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go video. Except this time, the message is proudly, unapologetically local.
Printed on a soft cream tee — never white, because we’re respecting the source material here — it’s a slice of earth-shaking ‘80s energy fused with modern Brummie swagger. The sort of shirt that says “I know my roots and my roots involve at least one emotional rant about the A38.”
It’s breezy. It’s oversized. It's 20% off! So instead of £20 plus postage it's £16 plus postage. It will never be cheaper.
A big thank you to civic treasure, Mr Bite Your Brum, the Moose himself, Ian '@mozi78' McEwan for modelling.
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@BillTheKid1603 The ballsiest hero in all of Star Wars.
This guy walks into a company meeting, tells his space wizard boss who is one of the galaxies most powerful, ruthless beings that his religion is bullshit right to his face, and does so with a vape pen sticking outta his pocket. Huge balls.