Former NBA rebounding champion (and all-around weirdo) Dennis Rodman recently made headlines during an ill-advised trip to North Korea to meet its “Supreme Leader,” Kim Jong-un.

While this sounds like a PR stunt or an article from The Onion, Rodman isn’t the first American celebrity to associate themselves with dubious elements. Here are a few more examples.

Patty Hearst yelling commands at bank customers

Patty Hearst. After being kidnapped by a far-left revolutionary group calling itself the “Symbionese Liberation Army,” newspaper heiress Patty Hearst succumbed to the effects of brainwashing and Stockholm Syndrome and willingly helped the SLA rob a San Francisco bank in 1974. Hearst was arrested in 1975 and imprisoned for two years before her sentence was commuted by President Carter.

Oliver Stone. The movie director (JFK, the Doors, Born on the Fourth of July) went to Cuba to meet Cuban dictator Fidel Castro for the HBO documentary Comandante in 2003, just as “El Presidente” was rounding up dissidents and having them executed. HBO then deemed Comandante too pro-Cuba and refused to air it. So Stone went back to Havana to film more footage for another film, Looking for Castro, which was only released on DVD. Not knowing when to say when, the director hung out with Castro again for a third film, Castro in Winter.

Jane Fonda. Younger readers might know Fonda only as a workout video star. Older readers will remember her Oscar-winning turn in Klute, as well as her outspoken support for the Black Panthers, the Civil Rights movement, and her opposition to the Vietnam War. She got the nickname “Hanoi Jane” after she visited the city in July 1972. During a two-week tour of North Vietnam, she met with American POWs, hung out with members of the North Vietnamese Army and denounced U.S.’ military leaders as “war criminals” in a series of radio broadcasts. The most controversial part of her trip, however, involved a photo of Fonda seated on an NVA anti-aircraft battery next to a soldier. Over the past few decades Fonda has frequently apologized for the trip, but antagonism against the actress persists; in 2005, a Navy veteran spit chewing tobacco in her face at a book signing.

NBC:

The inventor of the beloved Etch A Sketch toy, Andre Cassagnes, has died at age 86, the toy’s manufacturer confirms to NBC News. Cassagnes died Jan. 16 in France.

“Etch A Sketch has brought much success to the Ohio Art Company, and we will be eternally grateful to Andre for that,” said Larry Killgallon, president of The Ohio Art Company. “His invention brought joy to so many over such a long period of time.”

Cassagnes, a French electrician, created the product in the late 1950s when he “stumbled upon the idea of creating a drawing toy with a joystick, glass and aluminum powder,” the Ohio Art Company says on its website. Cassagnes originally called the item the Telecran, and it went into production in Bryan, Ohio in 1950. Owners create art by turning dials that scrape off the alumninum powder that coats the screen, leaving dark lines to outline the picture desired.

Many histories of the Etch A Sketch (including one we wrote many years ago!) give the name Arthur Granjean as the inventor. But…as this article notes…that was due to a mixup:

Since he couldn’t afford to pay for a patent, he borrowed money from an investor who sent his treasurer, Arthur Granjean, to complete the paperwork.

But Mr. Granjean’s name ended up on the patent, helping to obscure Mr. Cassagnes’ role.

When the New York-based National Toy Hall of Fame inducted Etch A Sketch in 1998, it wrongly listed Mr. Granjean as the toy’s creator.

An official history on Ohio Art’s website gives Mr. Cassagnes credit for the invention.

Image of the Etch a Sketch Animator from here.

Etch A Sketch artist Tim George

Etch A Sketch artist Jeff Gagliardi

Etch A Sketch artist George Vlosich III (You may have seen him on Oprah, or Jimmy Kimmel.)

Thank you Andre Cassagnes, for inventing one of the coolest toys eve dreamed of.

Update: Comedian Tom Shillue has made a tribute Etch A Sketch pic of Andre Cassagnes – he gave us permission to post it here (thank you sir!). (Here’s a photo of Mr. Cassagnas for comparison.)

We’re right in the middle of Awards Season. Last month Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes were awarded, followed by the Golden Globes, and in the next few weeks, we’ll see the Emmys and Oscars. And while most artists and performers would be thrilled to get any one of these awards, there’s always the occasional grump who gets a prize from his/her peers and says “no thanks.” Here are a few prize examples of people who rejected awards.

Ving Rhames. In 1998, the actor won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a made for TV movie or miniseries for his title role in HBO’s Don King: Only in America. When he went on stage to receive his award, he turned it down, and, in the spirit of “giving,” gave the trophy to fellow nominee Jack Lemmon, nominated for 12 Angry Men. Lemmon said it was “one of the sweetest moments of his life.” Rhames insisted Lemmon keep the award; the Globes’ governing body later quietly had a second trophy sent to Rhames.

George C. Scott. The actor has won two Oscars, one for Best Supporting Actor in 1962 for The Hustler and in 1971 for Best Actor for Patton. By then, he felt that actors shouldn’t be in competition with each other. He sent Patton producer Frank McCarthy to accept the award on his behalf…which he then tried to donate to a Patton museum (which the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences wouldn’t allow).

Sinead O’Connor. The Irish pop singer was as famous for starting controversy in the early ‘90s as she was for her hits like “Nothing Compares 2 U.” One of those controversies: she refused to attend the 1991 Grammys, where she won (and later rejected) an award for Best Alternative Album because she thought the ceremony was “too commercial.”

Jean Paul Sartre. The French author and philosopher was best known for existentialist works such a No Exit, Nausea, and The Flies. In 1964, the Swedish Academy awarded him a writer’s highest honor: the Nobel Prize for literature. Always the downer, Sartre declined, saying that “no writer should allow himself to be turned into an institution.”

Boris Pasternak. Another writer turned down his Nobel, but it wasn’t his idea. The Soviet government forced Pasternak to reject his prize in 1958, because of intense Cold War politics. He died two years later; his family was given his medal in 1989.

Marlon Brando. The star won and accepted an Oscar for his 1954 performance in On the Waterfront, but he won again in 1973 for his starring role in The Godfather. Instead of taking the podium, he sent an actress and civil rights activist named Sacheen Littlefeather to the stage. Littlefeather rejected the award on Brando’s behalf as a statement against poor treatment of Native Americans.