By Paul Miller
It’s said that insurance cost Quentin Tarantino an Academy Award.
After filming of Inglourious Basterds had completed, a production still showed the character Shosanna running across a field wearing a pair of Nike running shoes. When the error was spotted, an observer said ‘Well, there goes any hopes of Best Picture’. Whilst her character was meant to be running barefoot, it was described how: “Your completion insurance company representative would walk over, politely tap you on the shoulder and say – Sorry, you can’t risk one of your leads slicing her bare foot open on a rock or a root for no good reason. Melanie, go get your Nikes!”
Caged is an Academy Award nominted film-noir from 1950 that is set inside a women’s prison. Before filming commenced, its writer, Virginia Kellogg, spent several weeks inside a real prison as research so that the film would include realistic slang. The risk was assessed by Warner Bros. who subsequently insured her for $250,000 against ‘the possibility of her being identified as a stool pigeon (police informer) and attacked by prisoners’.
Warner Bros. had originally asked Bette Davis to take a lead role in Caged, but she declined. She was also insured at Lloyd’s with a rather strange insurance that covered her production company against the risk of her waistline increasing. The $28,000 policy read that a claim would be paid to the production company if her weight increased to 120lb. Upon hearing of the cover, a restaurant owner called the studio and said he’d make her heavier, but only if they split the insurance money.
When Oscar winner Will Smith wanted to celebrate his 50th birthday, he was told that he must first take out a $200 million insurance policy at Lloyd’s. He’d decided to bungee jump out of a helicopter from 1,000 feet into the Grand Canyon and took out a policy that covered against loss of earnings if he were to be injured or killed. The premium for that single event was set at $500,000.
