'Speed Racer' reminds me of a time when audiences weren't sick of remakes, reboots, and redos. Now we're used to it. The movie studios have conditioned us to live a Groundhog's Day style of movie-going experience. Every year we see a new Spider-Man movie and a couple of remakes of remakes. 'Speed Racer' came out at a time when I was still hopefully of studios taking beloved properties and turning them into movies.
This spectacles of a movie cost one hundred and twenty million dollars to produce, but made about a third of that at the domestic box office. Fans of the movie still swear by it, but the original audience for the cartoon may have found it too childlike, and kid may have not even known what Speed Racer was. My dad, for example, was a huge 'Speed Racer' fan, but he didn't even see this movie.
To insure one’s house, one’s car or to underwrite a life insurance policy, that is common practice. But who would pay an insurance premium for his/her thumb, legs or smile? Stars, of course.
At the top of the ranking are the legs of Mariah Carey, worth 810 million USD: The diva became, in 2006, the Gillette brand muse for the advertising campaign «Legs of a Goddess». She then took out an insurance policy with London Lloyds to protect her legs, a decision that is far from being insignificant. Among its customers, the London insurer then included several icons of music, such as Bob Dylan or Rod Stewart.
David Beckham’s body insured for 195 million USD: European champion with Manchester United in 1999, David Beckham was in 2006 the most renowned footballer of the planet. In relation to his sporting activities, he took out an insurance cover for his legs. The huge amount paid for his insurance would reportedly exceed the 103 million USD disbursed by Real Madrid for the cover of Christiano Ronaldo in 2009. The fashion model would later extend his insurance cover to his entire body.
15 million USD in insurance for Kim Kardashian’s curves: The curves of Kim Kardashian are her number one beauty asset. The reality TV star, who is crazy about plastic surgery, has underwritten an insurance policy worth 15 million USD to protect her famous butt.
The culinary critic Egon Ronay assured his taste buds: The famous Hungarian culinary critic has insured his taste buds since 1957, for the amount of 400 000 USD. An original insurance policy which allows him to cover his sense of taste without which he will no longer be able to practice his job.