For a movie that seems to have a whole load of outdoor scenes, including a tornado, the fields of Kansas and an entire emerald city, you'd have expected most of the work to be shot on location. That just wasn't all that practical in the era the movie was made in. In fact, almost all of it was filmed in studios.
Only two scenes in the entire picture were shot outdoors - the cloud scenes that appear at the very beginning, and the other cloud scenes that show up at the very end! This wasn't exactly comfortable for the cast - the new color filming process required a lot more lighting than the old black and white movies did, and all those studio lights together generated a lot of heat. Temperatures got as high as 100 Fahrenheit on set, with actors in heavy costumes fainting, and some cast members saying that the intense brightness caused permanent damage to their eyes.
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.