Roles Stars Regret Turning Down

Roles stars turned down

Lester Speight, the muscle-bound comedian of "Transformers: Dark of the Moon", recently shared with his hometown newspaper his regrets about dropping out of drama class. Let's look at other film stars and the roles they probably regret passing up.

Morgan State University 

Morgan State University, formerly Centenary Biblical Institute (1867–1890), Morgan College (1890–1939) and Morgan State College (1939–1975), is located in residential Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Morgan is a historically black college and Maryland's designated public urban university. It is the largest HBCU in the state of Maryland. As Maryland's "public urban university", Morgan is committed to providing opportunity of higher education to all persons regardless of socio-economic status. Though it is a public institution, Morgan is not a part of the University System of Maryland; the school opted out of becoming a part of the system and possesses its own governing Board of Regents.

Denzel Washington

Washington thought it was too dark a film for him, but upon seeing the final version, he reportedly said, "Oh, shoot."

Denzel washington turned down detective david mills in se7en

Bette Midler

The role was reportedly written for Midler, yet she turned it down, quipping, "My fans don't want to see me in a wimple."

Bette midler turned down sister mary clarence in sister act

Jake Gyllenhaal

Gyllenhaal flexed his pecs in a certain film and turned down one of the biggest hits in movie history.

Jake gyllenhaal turned down Avatar

Sarah Polley

An idealistic and very talented Polley walked away from a film that might have made her famous.

Sarah Polley turned down Penny Lane in almost famous

Will Smith

Smith has said the actor who got the role was perfect for it, which doesn't necessarily mean he has no regrets for passing on this sci-fi franchise.

Will Smith turned down Neo in Matrix

Bruce Willis

Ironically, Willis thought playing this type of role would hurt his career, yet he found success doing it a few years later.

Bruce Willis turned down Sam Wheat in Ghost

Melanie Griffith

Griffith had received an Oscar nomination for "Working Girl" when she turned down the role that may have propelled her into even more nominations.

Melanie Griffith Thelma & Louise

Michael Madsen

Madsen had the option to be in another Quentin Tarantino film but couldn't escape the rehearsals for a '90s western.

Michael Madsen turned down Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction

Kate Winslet

Coming off "Titanic" in 1997, Winslet turned down a role that gave its actress her first Oscar win.

Kate winslet turned down viola de lesseps in shakespeare in love

John Travolta

Travolta was starring in a hit sitcom when he was asked by a legendary filmmaker to play the lead in what some consider a cinematic masterpiece.

John travolta turned down bill in days of heaven

Halle Berry

Just imagine Halle Berry starring in this hit thriller -- you might also have some regret that she turned it down.

Halle Berry turned down Annie Potter, Speed

Ralph Macchio

If he could go back in time, Macchio might have chosen this role in addition to his own karate trilogy.

Ralph Macchio turned down Marty McFly back to The future

ulia Roberts

Let's face it, Roberts has been in some great films but turning down this Oscar-winning role for the less than acclaimed "Valentine's Day" earns a spot on the regrets list.

Julia roberts turned down leigh anne tuoy in the blind side

Dave Chappelle

When asked by a red-headed TV host about turning down a role in a film that earned six Academy Awards. Chappelle remarked.

Dave chappelle turned down pvt. benjamin buford 'bubba' blue

Sean Connery

Maybe if Connery had read a few more books, the former Highlander would have understood the script and gone on to make some serious coin with the profit sharing offered for this epic role.

Sir sean connery passed up gandalf in lord of the rings

Molly Ringwald

Ringwald was pretty in pink while capturing the hearts of millions throughout the '80s, but she turned down this film, which may have extended her career into the '90s.

Molly ringwald turned down pretty women role

Different Colored Eyes Day

Different Colored Eyes Day
What do David Bowie, Jane Seymour, Christopher Walken, Mila Kunis, Dan Aykroyd and Aidan Quinn's character (Officer Gary Hallet) in "Practical Magic" have in common? They all have Heterochromia, or two different eye colors. While choosing an eye color for a driver's license must be a challenge for anyone with this trait, it's otherwise a pretty cool physical feature.
On Different Colored Eyes Day, celebrate diversity of eye color. You can figure out hypothetical (or a future child's) eye color using this eye color calculator .

Listen to songs inspired by eye color: "Don't it Make My Brown Eyes Blue," "Brown Eyed Girl," or "The Bluest Eyes in Texas."
Stop wearing contacts that change your eye color and be happy with color your parents passed on to you.
National Pecan Pie Day
While pecan pie can't count as a diet food, pecans do add some nutritional qualities to the sweet dessert. Pecans can help lower bad cholesterol. The tasty nut also contains Vitamin E, "which may provide a key element to neurological protection" according to a study cited by the National Pecan Shellers Association.
Spanish colonists were among the first to cultivate pecan trees in northern Mexico according to University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and the first known mentions of pecan pie are from Texas according to the Foodtimeline. One theory attributes the first pecan pie to French settlers in New Orleans. The old recipes resemble modern day ones, with ample pecans, eggs, sugar, pie crust and a heavy reliance on Karo syrup.
Henry David Thoreau Birth Anniversary
Concord-born, Harvard-educated philosopher, writer and tax-resistor Henry David Thoreau built his own small hut near Walden Pond, on land owned by fellow Transcendentalist and essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Essays of Thoreau are available to read for free on Bartleby , and July 12, his birth anniversary (July 12, 1817), is a perfect day to delve into his works. Walden Pond State Reservation is open to visitors year round, from 8 a.m. until sunset (time varies).
Read more: Yahoo

Pecan Pie Day July 12th

Different Colored Eyes Day

What do David Bowie, Jane Seymour, Christopher Walken, Mila Kunis, Dan Aykroyd and Aidan Quinn's character (Officer Gary Hallet) in "Practical Magic" have in common? They all have Heterochromia, or two different eye colors. While choosing an eye color for a driver's license must be a challenge for anyone with this trait, it's otherwise a pretty cool physical feature.

On Different Colored Eyes Day, celebrate diversity of eye color. You can figure out hypothetical (or a future child's) eye color using this eye color calculator .

Listen to songs inspired by eye color: "Don't it Make My Brown Eyes Blue," "Brown Eyed Girl," or "The Bluest Eyes in Texas."

Stop wearing contacts that change your eye color and be happy with color your parents passed on to you.

National Pecan Pie Day

While pecan pie can't count as a diet food, pecans do add some nutritional qualities to the sweet dessert. Pecans can help lower bad cholesterol. The tasty nut also contains Vitamin E, "which may provide a key element to neurological protection" according to a study cited by the National Pecan Shellers Association. 

Read more: Yahoo

snails survive bird digestion

Snails survive bird digestion- Snail Survives Digestion By Bird. Snails are able to survive intact after being eaten by birds, according to scientists. Japanese white-eyes on the island of Hahajima, Japan feast on tiny land snails.
Researchers found that 15% of the snails eaten survived digestion and were found alive in the birds' droppings.
This evidence suggests that bird predation could be a key factor in how snail populations spread.
It is well known that plant seeds are dispersed by birds that eat fruit.
But in findings published in the Journal of Biogeography, researchers from Tohoku University, Japan investigated whether invertebrates could also spread in this way.
Previous research has shown that pond snails can survive being eaten by fish but the same was not known for land snails.
Studies of the diets of birds on the island of Hahajima identified the Japanese white-eye's preference for the tiny land snail Tornatellides boeningi.
In the lab scientists fed the birds with the snails to find out whether any survived the digestive process.
"We were surprised that a high rate, about 15 percent, of snails were still alive after passing through the gut of [the] birds," explained researcher Shinichiro Wada.
They also studied the genetic differences of T. boeningi populations found across the island and discovered considerable variation.
Rather than only mating with nearby snails, these results suggested that different populations made contact despite their geographical isolation.
Read more: BBC

Chicago Power Outage

Chicago power outage- A powerful front of thunderstorms packing winds as strong as 75 miles per hour raked Chicago during the morning commute on Monday, knocking out power to a near-record 817,000 customers.
"It's one for our record books," said Tony Hernandez, a spokesman for the utility company, ComEd.
While the nation's third largest city was recovering from the sudden storm, much of the rest of the country was experiencing stiffing heat, with one man dying of heat stroke on Sunday night in southern Illinois.

Madison County, Illinois Coroner Stephen Nonn said the body temperature of the Man, Mitsunari Uechi, of Granite City, Illinois, was 104 degrees when he arrived at the hospital. The air conditioning at his home was not operating.
In Nashville, where the heat index -- which takes into account relative humidity as well as air temperature -- was expected to hit 110 on Monday and Tuesday, the parks and recreation department turned many of its facilities into cooling stations and the police department said it was conducting welfare checks.
The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for most of the state of Kentucky and for parts of Ohio, Missouri, Mississippi, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, Indiana and Illinois, as well as Tennessee. It said the dangerously high temperatures and humidity would last through Tuesday.
Thermometers will hang around the 100-degree mark in the central and southern plains and middle and lower Mississippi Valley, according to the National Weather Service.
Read more: Yahoo

Cia Plot Bin Laden Fake Vaccination

Cia plot bin laden fake vaccination- The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) organised a fake vaccination programme in Pakistan's Abbottabad town, where it believed Osama bin Laden was hiding, in an elaborate attempt to obtain DNA from the fugitive al-Qaida leader's family, a British newspaper's investigation has found.

As part of extensive preparations for the US raid that killed bin Laden on May 2, CIA agents recruited a senior Pakistani doctor to organise the vaccine drive in Abbottabad, the Guardian reports.

They even started the "project" in a poorer part of Abbottabad to make the vaccine drive look more authentic, according to Pakistani and US officials and local residents.

The doctor, Shakil Afridi, has since been arrested by the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) for co-operating with American intelligence agents, the report said.

The doctor's arrest has exacerbated already strained relations between the United States and Pakistan. The US is understood to be concerned for the doctor's safety, and is thought to have intervened on his behalf, the report added.

The vaccination plan was conceived after US intelligence officers tracked an al-Qaida courier, known as Abu Ahmad al-Kuwaiti, to what turned out to be bin Laden's Abbottabad compound last summer, the report said.

The agency monitored the compound by satellite and surveillance from a local CIA safe house in Abbottabad, but wanted confirmation that bin Laden was there before mounting a risky operation inside another country, it added.

DNA from any of the Bin Laden children in the compound could be compared with a sample from his sister, who died in Boston in 2010, to provide evidence that the family was present, the report said.

So agents approached Afridi, the health official in charge of Khyber, part of the tribal area that runs along the Afghan border.

It is not known exactly how the doctor hoped to get DNA from the vaccinations, although nurses could have been trained to withdraw some blood in the needle after administrating the drug, it added.

A nurse known as Bakhto, whose full name is Mukhtar Bibi, managed to gain entry to the Bin Laden compound to administer the vaccines, the report said.

According to several sources, the doctor, who waited outside, told her to take in a handbag that was fitted with an electronic device. It is not clear what the device was, or whether she left it behind. It is also not known whether the CIA managed to obtain any Bin Laden DNA, although one source suggested the operation did not succeed, it added.

Mukhtar Bibi, who was unaware of the real purpose of the vaccination campaign, would not comment on the programme.
Source : Yahoo

Black Eyed Peas

Black eyed peas- Positive messages and breakdancing are integral parts of hip-hop culture, but by 1990 those elements had been temporarily eclipsed by the tough gangsta image and bleak but compelling lyrics of West Coast groups like N.W.A. However, despite sharing a zip code, Black Eyed Peas' vision goes beyond the cracked-sidewalk vignettes and sampled gunfire of Los Angeles' gangsta style.

The socially conscious group's earliest connections go back to high school, when will.i.am and apl.de.ap were part of Tribal Nation, a breakdancing crew. Eventually the pair focused more on music -- hip-hop, specifically -- and split off into their own as Atban Klann, their esoteric name an acronym for A Tribe Beyond a Nation. Eazy-E's Ruthless Records signed the group in 1992, but many in the Ruthless camp were puzzled by the group and the enthusiasm of Eazy, who had no problem reconciling his own gangsta style with the peace-minded breakdancing of Atban. Although an album was recorded, Ruthless shelved it, unsure how to market a group whose style wasn't dependent on violent braggadocio like N.W.A.
The death of Eazy-E in 1995 signaled the end of any further deals with Ruthless. Undaunted by the experience, will and apl recruited another dancer/MC, Taboo, and reappeared as Black Eyed Peas. BEP began playing shows around L.A., impressing hip-hop fans with their mike skills and dazzling them with their footwork as well. In 1998 their debut, Behind the Front, was released to critical acclaim -- not only for the trio of MCs, but for their live band and backing vocalist Kim Hill as well. Featuring guest appearances from Jurassic 5's Chali 2na, De La Soul, and Macy Gray, BEP's sophomore effort, Bridging the Gap, was released in 2000. The group's third album, 2003's Elephunk, featured a new member (Fergie, who replaced Kim Hill) and became their biggest hit yet, storming the Top 40 with three singles ("Where Is the Love?," "Hey Mama," "Let's Get It Started"). Two years later, the quartet returned with a heavily crossover date, Monkey Business, which pushed them into the stratosphere courtesy of the hit single "My Humps." ~ Wade Kergan, All Music Guide
Source : Yahoo