12 Random Bits of Pop Culture Trivia We Keyed Into Our Ex’s Car

Damian Kulash says he was struggling with the lyrics to “Going Home,” but they came to him very suddenly when the train he was on came to an unexpected stop. He later learned that the train had struck and killed a person, and he got the feeling “it was almost like the song was a strange parting gift.”

Since Walter White has joined the pantheon of bad dudes that your high school bully thinks are cool as hell, the Breaking Bad creator has decided that protagonists need to become a bit more heroic. He says that when people idolize the Walters White of the world, “fictional bad guys stop being the cautionary player that they were created to be. God help us, they’ve become aspirational.”

When Savage started making The Wonder Years money in the 1990s, he threw some of it at vintage watches. One of his first big investments was a fake Rolex, a disaster he hasn’t gotten over all these decades later. He’s launched a luxury watch authentication service to help other baby-faced rich guys avoid his mistake.

Since the 1970s, the Yankees have had a grooming code that didn’t allow players, coaches or staff to have beards. They’ve finally loosened up a bit, amending the policy to allow for “well-groomed beards.”

While in town for a speaking engagement, Alex Rodriguez dropped by a Bucknell basketball game, and was invited to compete in a half-court shot competition. He banked it in, winning $10,000 for a student.

MrBeast LLC is valued at $5 billion, but Jimmy Donaldson recently said that life is “so much easier when you’re broke.”

In the midst of a hamfisted revamp of censorship and moderation on social platforms, Meta shat the bed catastrophically, showing Instagram Reels users video after video of murders, gore and other violence that had been marked “sensitive content.”

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield sold Ben & Jerry’s to Unilever for $326 million 25 years ago. Since then, the brand has become worth possibly multiple billions, and the pair are seeking financial partners to help get it back.

Madame Web lost big at this year’s Razzie Awards, picking up Worst Screenplay, Worst Picture and Worst Actress (Dakota Johnson). Jerry Seinfeld won Worst Actor for his turn in Unfrosted.

Brad Pitt, Will Smith and Nicolas Cage all turned down the role of Neo. Val Kilmer said no to both Neo and Morpheus. Sandra Bullock was considered to star as a female Neo as well.

The siblings who owned some of the rights to the Bond franchise (and have been keeping Amazon from turning it into an MCU-like cinematic sludge) have finally thrown in the towel. Barbara Broccoli, who has recently called Amazon “idiots,” and her step-brother Michael G. Wilson have given up creative control, with rumors they’ve been bought out for a combined $1 billion.

Blue Origin is sending Katy Perry, Gayle King and Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sánchez up into space for 11 minutes some time this spring.