Fun Facts That Are

NBC offered Jerry Seinfeld $5 million per episode for a 10th season of Seinfeld — $110 million total. He turned it down because he wanted to "end on a high note." He then went back to performing stand-up comedy in small clubs.

Nicolas Cage got into a bidding war with Leonardo DiCaprio over a 67-million-year-old Tarbosaurus skull. Cage won with a bid of $276,000. Seven years later, the skull was identified as having been illegally smuggled from Mongolia. Cage had to return it to the Mongolian government. He got nothing back.

50 Cent was offered a flat $5 million to be the face of Vitamin Water. He turned down the cash and negotiated for a minority equity stake in the company instead. When Coca-Cola bought Glacéau (Vitamin Water's parent company) for $4.1 billion in 2007, 50 Cent walked away with an estimated $100 million.

In 1975, advertising executive Gary Dahl invented the Pet Rock. Each one was a smooth stone from Rosarito Beach, Mexico, packaged in a cardboard box with air holes and a 32-page instruction manual. He sold 1.5 million of them at $3.95 each and became a millionaire within six months.

In Iceland, construction projects have been delayed or rerouted to avoid disturbing rocks believed to be inhabited by "hidden people" (Huldufólk). In 2013, a major highway project was halted after activists argued it would destroy an "elf church" — a large rock formation. The road was rerouted. Surveys show over 50% of Icelanders say they won't deny the existence of elves.

After being traded to the Phoenix Suns, Shaquille O'Neal went to Walmart at 2 AM to furnish his new apartment. He spent $70,000 on TVs, laptops, and appliances in a single trip. His credit card was declined because the bank flagged it as fraud — they couldn't believe someone was spending that much at Walmart.

In 1998, Google's founders offered to sell their search engine to Yahoo for $1 million. Yahoo said no. In 2002, Yahoo had another chance to buy Google for $5 billion. They negotiated it down to $3 billion, and Google walked away. Google is now worth over $2 trillion.

In 1324, Mansa Musa — ruler of the Mali Empire — made a pilgrimage to Mecca with a caravan of 60,000 men and thousands of pounds of gold. When he stopped in Cairo, he gave away so much gold that he crashed the local economy. The price of gold didn't recover for twelve years. He is widely considered the wealthiest person who ever lived.

Arnold Schwarzenegger agreed to star in the comedy Twins for a $0 salary. Instead, he negotiated for 20% of the film's backend profits. The studio agreed, convinced the movie would flop. It grossed $216 million worldwide. Arnold's cut came to roughly $35 million — more than he'd ever made for a Terminator film.

Donald Miller Jr. of Ohio disappeared in 1986 and was declared legally dead in 1994. In 2005, he showed up very much alive and asked the court to reverse his death certificate. The judge denied it — Ohio's 3-year statute of limitations to reverse a death ruling had expired. The judge told him: "I don't know where that leaves you, but you're still dead as far as the law is concerned."

On May 22, 2010, programmer Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 Bitcoin for two Papa John's pizzas — the first real-world Bitcoin purchase. At the time, those coins were worth about $41. At Bitcoin's peak, they would have been worth over $700 million.

In 1925, con man Victor Lustig forged government documents, posed as a ministry official, and convinced six scrap metal dealers that the French government was secretly selling the Eiffel Tower for scrap. He "sold" it to the highest bidder. The victim was so humiliated he never went to police. So Lustig went back to Paris and sold it a second time.