Did you know that Jack Nicholson once asked Vladimir Putin to be a co-producer on one
of his movies?
And it turns out the Oscar winner isn't alone!
Keep watching to see what other celebs have cozied up to Russia's president.
Pamela Anderson's love life has been linked to bad-boy rockers like Brett Michaels, Tommy
Lee, and Kid Rock.
But what if the Baywatch alum jumped into the deep end with a true-blue baddie like
Vladimir Putin?
According to Anderson, such an encounter might have happened.
Her involvement with Putin started in 2018, when she sent him a message to stop importing
seal products from Canada.
At the time, Russia comprised 95 percent of global demand for such items, which if blocked,
would end seal hunts in Canada.
Anderson told Piers Morgan:
"He made it actually illegal to import seal products into the country."
The exchange didn't end there.
Anderson recalled Putin asking her — with flowers we might add — to attend his presidential
inauguration, a request she didn't honor.
Still, she hinted that they were at the same location a few times, but didn't let on about
what happened.
"Obviously, we've been in the same place together.
Some times."
A year later, through her foundation, Anderson congratulated Putin for preventing orca and
beluga whales off the Pacific shore of Nakhoda, Russia from being sold on the global market.
Anderson wrote:
"By releasing these animals back into the wild, Russia can further demonstrate its leadership,
which will be welcomed around the world."
One scene from the film epic Titanic had Leonardo DiCaprio shouting:
"I'm the king of the world!"
Who knew that years later, he'd meet Vladimir Putin, someone perhaps better equipped to
make that famous declaration?
The encounter took place in St. Petersburg at a conference addressing the plight of Siberian
tigers, which are currently listed as an endangered species by the World Wildlife Foundation.
DiCaprio attended the event to represent one of his foundations created to protect such
species and ran into Putin, who apparently had the same concerns.
The actor told the German publication Welt am Sonntag:
"Putin and I talked only about the protection of these magnificent animals, not politics."
Still, he found the politician to be intriguing, and said,
"I would love to play him."
Oddly enough, Putin also praised DiCaprio for his manliness, when the actor revealed
his plane endured two incidents on the way to Russia.
Putin mused:
"A person with less stable nerves could have decided against coming."
Later, DiCaprio revealed one of the incidents to Ellen DeGeneres, telling the host:
"I was on a plane to Russia, and the engine exploded.
I was looking out the window, and the entire engine just turned into a fireball."
As a mixed martial arts champion, Conor McGregor comes across as someone who probably likes
folks with a lot of power.
This might explain why McGregor appeared so gobsmacked at meeting Vladimir Putin at a
2018 World Cup match in Moscow.
McGregor posted a picture of himself and the Russian leader on Instagram, writing in the
caption:
"Today I was invited to the World Cup final as a guest of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
This man is one of the greatest leaders of our time and I was honored to attend such
a landmark event alongside him."
McGregor also praised Putin's security team for their diligence, especially when the UFC
celebrity presented the controversial politician with a swig of whisky, which the handlers
inspected first.
Later on at a media conference, McGregor remarked:
"President Putin's security detail is second to none as I'm sure you know, you don't mess
around with Vladimir."
But any plans the fighter had in taking the buddy-buddy encounter to another level were
scuttled when he put his arm around Putin for a photo-op.
The Daily Star reported that security quickly stepped in to prevent McGregor from getting
too close to the Russian leader.
Subsequent photos had the champ posing with his arms folded in front of him.
Before taking top positions in the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin made a career out of shooting
through the ranks of the KGB, until he wound up running the secret police organization.
So it seems hard to fathom Putin working for anyone else, including three-time Oscar-winning
actor Jack Nicholson.
"Here's Johnny!"
However, Putin and Nicholson did in fact meet in 2001 at the Moscow International Film Festival.
Putin apparently approached Nicholson at the festival and told the actor he was a fan of
his work.
Putin reportedly told the Academy Award winner:
"I most like 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.'"
According to The Guardian, Nicholson supposedly replied that he had always wanted to visit
Russia.
He finally realized that opportunity when The Pledge, his latest film at the time, was
slated to screen at the festival.
That's when Nicholson reportedly offered a co-producer gig to the Russian leader.
Whether he made the offer in jest will not likely ever be known.
Obviously, it went nowhere.
Putin also ran into Sean Penn, who directed The Pledge, at the event.
While there's no account on how that chat went, suffice to say that Penn is hardly a
buddy.
Variety reported in February 2022 that Penn was in Ukraine shooting a documentary about
Russia's invasion.
Penn said in a statement:
"Already a brutal mistake of lives taken and hearts broken, and if he doesn't relent, I
believe Mr. Putin will have made a most horrible mistake for all of humankind."
Hockey superstar Alex Ovechkin is hailed as a hero in his native Russia.
Ditto in Washington, D.C., where he plays for the NHL's Capitals franchise.
But in light of more recent events in Ukraine, many fans may believe the player deserves
a lengthy stay in the penalty box.
The controversy surrounding Ovechkin has to do with his support for Vladimir Putin, including
a 2017 Instagram posting of a Team Putin initiative he created to back the president's re-election.
The entry includes a shot of a bearded Ovechkin with Putin along with text translated by USA
Today to read:
"Being part of this team makes me proud and it's similar to the feeling you get when you
put on a Russian national team jersey, knowing that the whole country is rooting for you."
The Russian president also sent the hockey hero and his wife a tea set that same year
as a wedding gift and a note wishing them both success.
At a media conference that took place a couple of days after Russia's invasion of Ukraine
in February 2022, Ovechkin appeared to downplay his support, telling reporters:
"Well, he's my president.
But, how I said, I'm not in politics.
I'm an athlete."
While he technically didn't speak out against Putin, the hockey star did note,
"I have lots of friends in Russia and Ukraine.
And, it's hard to see another war.
I hope it's soon going to be over and there's going to be peace in the whole world."
Like the title character he played in The Wrestler, Mickey Rourke has endured an endless
series of body slams and tap-outs on the canvas that's been his career.
In speaking about a previous fall from grace, Rourke told CNN:
"It was too much hard work to get it back and too lonely and too dark.
I've worked too hard for it.
It would be too hard to take."
So it likely goes without saying that Rourke appreciates every chance to be seen at a red-carpet
function.
The same probably goes for a bit of chin-wagging with really important people like Vladimir
Putin.
Rourke said at a 2014 Moscow media conference:
"I had a good feeling about him and I liked him.
We got along very well."
Rourke, who took up boxing in the '90s during a lull in his acting career, was in the Russian
capital to compete in an exhibition match, where he defeated fellow American Elliot Seymour.
While in the city, Rourke showed off his fondness for Putin when he purchased a t-shirt bearing
the Russian president's image.
The actor told Sky News:
"I think he's a good guy.
If I didn't, believe me, I wouldn't wear the T-shirt."
Since the beginning of the century, relations between Russia and the U.S. have been so strained,
even the most unflappable warriors on either side have probably been downing stomach medication
by the truckload.
Despite the ongoing tension, Vladimir Putin still has a healthy relationship with former
action hero Steven Seagal.
The two have been pals since 2012, when they first met for lunch in Novo-Ogarevo, Russia.
And before they knew it, they were bonding like two bros in a pod.
The relationship prompted Putin to suggest appointing Seagal as an honorary consul to
Russia, with hopes of bridging diplomatic gaps with the U.S.
What this post did for relations remains a mystery, but Seagal certainly benefited from
it.
By 2016, Putin personally gave Seagal his own Russian passport and started working on
getting citizenship for the star.
By 2021, Seagal, now a Russian citizen, was accepted into a pro-Kremlin party, where he
revealed his environmental mandate to clean up polluting businesses.
Seagal said at the event:
"Without being able to arrest people, when we just fine them, they are probably making
more money off the production of the things that are defiling the environment."
But any chance to bridge U.S. ties seemed to disappear when Seagal supported Putin's
invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, calling both warring nations "one family" in an interview
with Fox News Digital.
For years, producer and director Oliver Stone has often tried to deliver thought-provoking
drama aimed at the American establishment's moral superiority with several controversial
outings.
Some critics only wished Stone would have done the same thing to Vladimir Putin in the
Showtime four-part documentary The Putin Interviews when it debuted in 2017.
The Daily Beast called it "nothing short of hero worship," while The Hollywood Reporter
dismissed the usually fiery Stone as, quote, "demure and coquettish."
But Stone wasn't apologetic over his apparent kid-gloves treatment of Putin and his abilities
as a leader, telling The Guardian:
"The Russian people have never been better off.
But of course in America, [the Russians are] miserable, dictated to, in stalags, in gulags,
they're all being chopped up by this monster.
It's just crazy."
It should be noted that Stone also produced the documentary Ukraine on Fire in 2016 about
the country's revolution to dethrone its pro-Russian president only to see Russia annex Crimea
in response in 2014.
The Hollywood Reporter lambasted the film for appearing to take the side of the Kremlin
in presenting its version of events.
The Wrap also reported that Revealing Ukraine, Stone's follow-up released in 2019, was removed
from Ukraine's TV schedules due to a rash of complaints, roughly around the same time
the director allegedly asked Putin to be godfather to his adult daughter.
Let's face it.
A compilation of the fawning accolades that Donald Trump uttered about Vladimir Putin
would enjoy a word count higher than Tolstoy's War and Peace.
"Yesterday, reporters asked me if I thought President Putin was smart.
I said, 'Of course he's smart.'"
Normally, politicians would be suspicious of a foreign leader engaging in nefarious
activities that might affect other nations.
Not Trump.
At the 2018 Helsinki Summit, after a private meeting with Putin, Trump went against his
own intelligence forces by siding with the Russian leader regarding interference in U.S.
elections.
"I have President Putin, he just said it's not Russia.
I will say this, I don't see any reason why it would be."
Trump also defended Putin when asked by Fox News over allegations that the Russian president
killed members of his own opposition, saying,
"There are a lot of killers.
What, you think our country's so innocent?"
Trump remained unrepentant about his support for Putin, even when much of the Western world
was enraged over Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Calling the move "genius" and "savvy" on The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, Trump added,
"Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine — Putin declares it as independent.
Oh, that's wonderful.
[...] He's gonna go in and be a peacekeeper."
After all these years, Putin's assessment of Trump has come across as more studious
in comparison.
Putin told NBC News:
"He is a colorful individual [...] He had not been part of big-time politics before,
and some like it, some don't like it but that is a fact."
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