11 Actors With Strange And Unexpected Side Businesses: Bee Venom Therapies, Crystal Skulls, Avocado Farming

It is common to read headlines from time to time about famous actors and actresses opening restaurants or giving their names to everyday products. And then there are the other celebrities, the ones who decide to sell bee venom therapy, grow avocados, or teach aerobic striptease. Here's a curious look at the side businesses of some of your favorite actors.

Gwyneth Paltrow and the scented candles that smell like her

Today it is perhaps more correct to say that Paltrow runs a health and wellness empire and then, as a side job, she acts in movies.

Goop is the controversial company of the actress, whose name will surely sound familiar to you because of The Goop Lab, a Netflix documentary series about the business. It is no coincidence that each episode of the documentary begins with a warning indicating that what will be seen should not be considered medical advice. And it is that Goop promotes at least dubious health methods and strange products such as vaginal steam baths or candles that in theory smell the same as the actress's sex (they sell out quickly).

More weird examples of Goop: bee venom therapy. Paltrow assured in an interview for The New York Times that being stung by bees helped her completely eliminate past wounds, both physical and mental. The problem is that in 2018 a woman died as a result of following Paltrow's advice; After two years of being stung by bees, her body developed a severe reaction that ended her life.

Leaving aside the specific cases, Paltrow's business receives the same criticism as other similar projects: selling alleged samples of happiness at excessively high prices.

The Crystal Skulls of Dan Aykroyd

Dan Aykroyd has gone from hunting ghosts to collecting skulls. The Canadian actor entered the business of alcoholic sales a few years ago. Specifically, he sells tequila and vodka inside skulls reminiscent of those in the fourth Indiana Jones movie. In addition to the presentation, Crystal Head Vodka drinks stand out for being filtered through semi-precious crystals known as Herkimer diamonds. The actor claims that this process achieves a smoother taste compared to rival vodkas.

And where does this fascination with crystal skulls come from? Aykroyd is a die-hard fan of the paranormal and UFOs (part of the Ghostbusters script comes from there). And one of the legends that he likes the most revolves around 13 crystal skulls that have powers such as transmitting positive energy or epiphanies. His vodka crystal process is his way of honoring these artifacts.

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Susan Sarandon, queen of table tennis

The actress discovered that she loved table tennis thanks to her son Miles from her. Months later, in 2009, she went to shoot Leaves of Grass together with Edward Norton, and it turned out that he was also a fan of table tennis. Result: Sarandon invested part of her savings in creating Spin New York, a club-bar for fans of table tennis.

Today, there is already Spin in San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto… There are organized leagues, private celebrations on weekends, a bathtub full of ping-pong balls, and this business has even spawned sketches on late night shows.

What the actress is most proud of is the demographic variety of her club: she assures that there are members well into their 80s, boys and girls aged 7-10 who try table tennis for the first time...

Jared Leto, technology investor

The actor has spent about 12 years investing in popular technology brands such as Reddit, Airbnb, Uber, Stripe, Slack, Zenefits or Snapchats. The complete list would be very long: he claims that he has invested in more than 50 startups and is an advisor to some of them.

What is his advice if you want to follow in his footsteps? You are looking for ideas that excite you. "I also look for businesses that are changing the way we behave," explained the actor through ProNetwork. "I'm looking for founders and CEOs who are geniuses, who have passion. I'm also looking for opportunities that teach me something I didn't expect."

Carmen Electra teaches you aerobic striptease

If you casually look for striptease poles on Amazon, you will come across a series of kits with a striking brand: Carmen Electra.

Pamela Anderson's partner in Baywatch bought a stripper pole years ago to practice at home. In numerous interviews she has commented that her friends always try and the bar ends up on the ground.

As with everything in this life, Electra began to take this hobby more and more seriously and has turned it into her own business, with her video tutorials and everything. She even has combined exercise with glamor to create aerobic striptease. You won't find the videos here, but enough clues have already been offered for you to find it on YouTube.

Tom Selleck and his cure for stress

What do you do when you are overwhelmed by stress? What is your strategy to regain peace of mind as soon as possible? To meditate? Exercise? Pilates? Dance? Have you tried growing avocados?

Yes, yes: avocados. Tom Selleck, who will forever be known as Thomas Magnum from the television series, is an avid avocado grower. He doesn't just sell what he gets from his ranch in California; he assures that he himself works there because he says that it helps him disconnect from the stressful life as an actor and ends up relaxing him.

"I'm a very private person," he declared at the time for People. "My relationships and my ranch keep me sane. I do the dirty work. I like to see what I plant grow little by little."

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joker skywalker

Everyone knows Mark Hamill for being Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, but few know that he is one of the best voice actors on the market, and prolific at that!

Long before Heath Ledger or Joquin Phoenix each renewed the character of Joker in his own way, Hamill marked school with his interpretation of the Clown of Crime in the animated series of Batman of the 90s. He gave him a voice for years. He decided to quit recently because his throat was starting to hurt.

Here you can see Hamill combining Luke and Joker for the mythical "Luke, I'm your father" scene.

He has also voiced Lord Ozai, the villain of Avatar: The Legend of Aang, the Hobgoblin in Spider-Man, he has participated in the dubbing of Studio Ghibli films, he is the new voice of Chucky, the evil doll, and, if you have Netflix, you can listen to him in the VO of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance as the Scientist.

Steve Carrell: from the office to the grocery store

In 2009, the actor Steve Carell, known especially for being Michael Scott in The Office, bought the general store in Marshfield Hills (Massachusetts). He didn't do it because he wanted to be a manager after being caught running an office; he did it to preserve the establishment as a local landmark.

"I just want him to keep going as there are fewer and fewer businesses like this, and he wants at least one to stay afloat," the actor confessed to The Patriot Ledger (via Mental Floss). "There are fewer and fewer places that can serve as meeting points for the community... I just think it's nice that people know that they can go there to buy something or have a coffee and talk to others."

Casinoworld (foiled attempt to cleverly mention Waterworld)

In 1990, actor Kevin Costner fell in love with Deadwood, South Dakota during the filming of Dances with Wolves. So the following year he opened Midnight Star, a casino, on his main street.

Unfortunately, the casino closed in 2017. "When I opened the Midnight Star," Costner explained to Casino, "I did it because of my deep love for Deadwood and the Black Hills, because of the historical importance of both places in the history of this country. So It is with great sadness that I have to turn off the lights on the Midnight Star for the last time.

The actor's choice to open a casino in Deadwood loses some of its arbitrariness when it is discovered that the city legalized gambling in 1989. As a result, gambling and betting became a new source of income and a new attraction to attract. tourists.

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Will Ferrell, founder of the first viral videos

Sounds like Funny or Die? It is one of the first websites dedicated to the creation of viral videos. One of its successes when it emerged, in 2007, was to encourage users to vote. Is the video super funny? Funny button. Is it terribly boring? die button In this way, the videos with a lot of Die end up disappearing while those that get 80% of positive votes become Immortals.

Given the comedic side of it, it's not surprising that actor Will Ferrell is one of the founders of Funny or Die. Thanks to his presence, and that of director Adam McKay, it is common for actors, writers or directors like Judd Apatow, James Franco or Zach Galifianakis to participate to a greater or lesser extent on the page.

Ferrell starred in the first Funny or Die video. A short called The Landlady where the actor receives a stressful visit from his alcoholic landlady. They both verbally argue over the rent money.

a brilliant teacher

Many child protagonists do not find their calling in acting and end up looking for other paths. This is the case of Danny Lloyd, who in his day played his namesake Danny in The Shining, Stanley Kubrick's horror film based on Stephen King's literary nightmares.

Lloyd never considered being an actor. What's more: he was surprised when he found out that he was going to appear in The Shining, since it was his father who decided to include him in the casting because he thought that the restless character of his son could translate into being an actor.

The little actor only made one more movie, a telefilm called Will: G. Gordon Liddy, and then he retired permanently from the cameras to do what he was really interested in: being a teacher. He currently teaches anatomy at Elizabethtown Community and Technical Institute.

Anecdotally, he had a small cameo in Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining. He plays the spectator of a baseball game, nothing to do with walking through bloody hotel corridors.