It was August 9, 1996. The team celebrated that day. Just after nearly five weeks of work, filming in Nova Scotia was ending and the filmmakers were about to move to Mexico, where a large swimming pool was waiting for them. Since there were still some shots to shoot, there was no question of a traditional party. Instead of alcoholic beverages, shellfish soup was served around midnight. It was so tasty that people even took two helpings. It quickly became apparent that something was wrong with the dish.
Mysterious scandal on the set of “Titanic”. Psychedelic drug soup
“Eighty years later, the curse of the Titanic is still at full capacity. On August 9, about 50 people from the cast and crew of the film ‘Titanic’ by the director, who was just shooting his new project with a budget of over $ 100 million in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, were hospitalized. They all took advantage of the nightly buffet, which served, among others, shellfish. The first suspicion: food poisoning, “the weekly reported in 1996. Relax, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio were not involved in the incident. And for a simple reason – they didn’t have any shots to shoot in Canada.
What actually happened? It didn’t take long for it to come to light that someone had added a psychedelic drug to the infamous soup – commonly called “angel dust” phencyclidine. Even the Halifax police, who conducted an investigation into the matter, issued a statement in this regard. “These people were high. They had no idea what was going on,” explained Dr. Rob Roy, who dealt with victims of mass poisoning. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt.
Phencyclidine, first synthesized in 1956, was originally used for anesthesia before surgery. Due to its psychoactive effects and neurotoxicity, it was withdrawn from medical use. But back in the 1960s, it began to be used as a drug because it had psychedelic effects. In small doses, for example, it often makes people feel insensitive or indifferent to the influence of the environment. It can also cause numbness, speech impediments and coordination problems. Larger doses can lead to severe confusion, delirium, depersonalization, and even immobility. What was it like for the members of the “Titanic” crew?
Actor Bill Paxton, who played a modern-day treasure hunter fixated on finding the Heart of the Ocean necklace in Cameron’s film, recalled back in 1996 that it really was a night to remember. Initially, he planned to eat some Italian food in his trailer, but then decided to join James Cameron and enjoy the eager lobster chowder served to all. People began to feel the first effects 15 minutes after eating the dish. “Some laughed, others cried, and still others vomited.” Paxton thought he had seafood poisoning and sped off in a staged van that was taking people to nearby Dartmouth General Hospital. “At first I felt fine, but then I had such an anxiety attack that I wanted to breathe with a paper bag. Cameron had the same thing,” described ew.com.
Marilyn McAvoy, who was responsible for the set design on Titanic, was one of the people who tried the psychedelic soup. She herself wanted more, and in “Vice” she told years later that how much soup people ate also affected how strong their reactions were afterwards. “Everyone was lost and had trouble finishing their work,” she said. She herself had a hard time doing a really easy task because she only had to age a lab coat, which actually involves dipping it in tea. It just overwhelmed her.
“I heard that as soon as James Cameron found out that something had been added to the soup, he ran to his room and forced himself to vomit,” she revealed. People slowly realized something was going on, as many people suddenly forgot their lines mid-sentence. It was becoming more and more obvious that those who ate the soup were having some strange hallucinations. The reaction of the other members of the team, who did not eat the soup, was quite quick. Buses were placed on the set and everyone was taken to the hospital – at one in the morning everyone was already in the emergency room, and the doctors had no idea what to do with so many patients – describes the set designer.
“It was pretty chaotic. Some people had really harsh reactions,” he recalls. In the end, everyone was put on beds separated by screens. As it turned out, the patients did not want to lie politely in place at all. They were full of energy, jumping between sections, some of them rode in wheelchairs for fun. Doctors gave them a medicine with charcoal so that their bodies could deal with the removal of toxins faster. In the end, the patients had to sleep off this “adventure”, and then quickly return to work and finish what the drug-infused soup could not do.
How did the collective poisoning happen? Even before there was any official information, various conspiracy theories began to form, and rumors were circulating at their best. The most credible one said that this was how the previously fired cook decided to take revenge. The catering company employed by the Titanic crew, however, vehemently denied and pushed the theory that it was “Hollywood people” who decided to have fun. Yet another version said that it was retaliation by one of the crew members who was tired of working with James Cameron.
The director is known for his obsessive perfectionism and the fact that he demands as much from others as he does from himself. Kate Winslet, after the shooting of “Titanic”, laughed that she did not have such money that would encourage her to re-enter Cameron’s set. She kept her promise until the director offered her a role in the second part of “Avatar”. Interestingly, the actress even broke the record for the longest underwater scene and beat Tom Cruise.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
