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  • 2019-05-01 (xsd:date)
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  • Were Cast and Crew on the Film 'Titanic' Sickened by PCP-Laced Seafood Chowder? (en)
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  • On 30 April 2019, the Facebook page Historical Pictures renewed interest in an old news story involving the movie Titanic, seafood chowder, and the drug PCP (Phencyclidine, or angel dust): The Facebook page reads: On the last night of filming Titanic, someone laced the cast and crew’s food with PCP. 80 cast and crew members, including James Cameron and Bill Paxton, started hallucinating and had to be hospitalized. This Facebook post recounts a genuine news story from the set of Titanic. However, some of the details are misleading or inaccurate. For instance, this incident occurred during the final day of shooting at one specific location but not the final day overall for the film: More importantly, the included image in this Facebook post is misleading, as neither of the movie's stars, Leonardo DiCaprio or Kate Winslet, were on set at the time of the incident. On 26 August 1996, the Canadian press reported that nearly 80 people were taken to the hospital from the set of Titanic for what was initially thought to be food poisoning. However, the Halifax regional police investigated the incident and found that someone had laced the seafood chowder with PCP: Thu, Aug 29, 1996 – 30 · Star-Phoenix (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada) · Newspapers.com Though the movie's lead stars were not on set during this incident, other big names attached to the film, such as actor Bill Paxton and director James Cameron, were on set and did eat the PCP-laced chowder. Paxton was quoted by Entertainment Weekly in 1996 saying that he typically didn't eat the catering on the set but on that night, for whatever reason, he decided to join Cameron for a bowl of the chowder: Paxton also recounted the experience during an interview with Larry King: Several other people who were on set that day have given their own versions of this story. Marilyn McAvoy, who was a standby painter on the set, spoke with Vice in May 2017: This incident is also mentioned in a biography of DiCaprio. In it, actor Lewis Abernathy was quoted describing how Cameron allegedly looked after eating the drug-laced chowder: Cameron confirmed that he had eaten the chowder but said that he avoided a trip to the hospital by forcing himself to throw up the contaminated food. While police confirmed that numerous people on the movie set were sickened after eating PCP-laced seafood chowder, investigators never found out who was responsible. Some suspected that the culprit was a disgruntled chef, while others believed that a crew member was attempting to get revenge on Cameron, who has a reputation for being a tyrannical director. As far as we can tell, the person who put drugs in the chowder was never identified and no charges were ever filed over the incident. In 1998, the Calgary Herald published an article entitled Titanic Mystery: Who Spiked the Chowder? In it, both Paxton and Cameron expressed their anger (as well as confusion) over the incident, saying that whoever laced the chowder put everyone on set, including elderly people and children, in danger: Thu, Jan 15, 1998 – 63 · Calgary Herald (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) · Newspapers.com Some disagreement exists over the exact number of people who were sickened or the type of chowder (lobster, clam, or seafood?) that was laced with PCP. However, it is undoubtedly true that dozens of people unknowingly took angel dust on the set of Titanic after an unidentified person spiked the food with it. (en)
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