'Saving Private Ryan' is believed to have cost $70m to make; that would still be considered a fairly large budget now, but in 1998 it was huge. It therefore seems astonishing that $11m of that budget was spent on one scene, but that's what happened. You may even have guessed which scene it was already; that month-long shoot at Omaha Beach.
There were over 1000 extras involved in shooting the scene. That goes some way to explaining the cost, but then we have to factor in that these weren't just any extras. They were soldiers from the Irish Army Reserve, who had to be paid appropriately for their time. On top of that, around 30 of the extras were amputees, who were given purpose-built prosthetics to wear for their scenes, all in order for the prosthetics to be destroyed during battle scenes. The idea was to show the audiences graphic depictions of the kind of injuries real soldiers received in battle.
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.