Celebrity Romantic Gifts
10 Most Romantic Gestures of All Time (continued).....
By Dan Bova
6. Eric Clapton's Love Song Layla Talk about annoying neighbors: When guitarist Eric Clapton moved into best friend George Harrison's neighborhood, he fell in love with Harrison's wife, fashion model Pattie Boyd.
Clapton pleaded for her to leave her Beatle, but Pattie tuned out his requests. Despondent, he began recording a song, fueled by the words of the ancient Persian love poem, The Story of Layla and Majnun. The resulting tune, Layla—which included the lyric "Please don't say, we'll never find a way, and tell me all my love's in vain"—was a hit in more ways than one. Pattie soon left her husband and got hitched to Clapton. Even though they divorced nine years later, the popularity of "their song" will probably last forever.
7. Ben's Sweet Toilet Seat for J.Lo During their much-publicized courtship, Ben Affleck took it upon himself to pamper J.Lo's most prized attribute: Her butt. That's right, he bought her a $105,000 gem-encrusted toilet seat. "Jennifer is my princess and she deserves only the best—even when it comes to toilets," was Ben's explanation.
And J.Lo's reaction? "I never thought I'd say this about a toilet seat, but it's beautiful—almost like a piece of art," she said. Sitting on a john bedazzled with rubies, sapphires, and diamonds might not sound comfortable, but don't worry, Ben thought of everything. Explained an anonymous pal, "The stones are set inside plastic, so Jennifer's behind won't get scratched."
8. Wagner's Symphony to His Wife Some lovers bring their ladies breakfast in bed; others, like Richard Wagner, bring them symphonies. To celebrate his wife Cosima's 33rd birthday, the famed composer had written Siegfried Idyll for her—and, to boot, hired a fifteen-piece orchestra to play the tune on their staircase as he conducted them.
Recalled Cosima in her diary: "When I woke up I heard a sound. What music!" Wagner kept this intimate ditty private until 1877, when financial strains forced him to publish. Their loss, our gain.
9. Carole Lombard's Car for Clark Gable Hollywood hunk Clark Gable loved fancy cars, and screen siren Carole Lombard could afford to buy him the best. Ain't it quaint, then, that on their first official date in 1936, she bought him a beat-up Model T Ford for just fifteen bucks?
Quainter still that she had it painted white with red hearts all over it, delivered with a note saying, "You're driving me crazy?" Thoroughly swept off his feet, Gable got to return the favor to his future wife that evening when he picked her up in his newest set of wheels to go dancing at the legendary Trocadero Ballroom.
10. The Garbage Disposal Architect and inventor John Hammes wanted to bestow a nice birthday gift on his wife—who, we imagine, had a sink full of dirty dishes and a disinclination to scrape the leftovers into the trash. Thus was born the world's first garbage disposal in 1927.
Called the In-Sink-Erator, it soon swept households across the country. Might not sound as romantic as a dozen roses, but what says "I love you" better than an invention that cuts down on crappy housework?
Dan Bova is deputy editor at Stuff magazine. The best gift his wife has ever given him is their son, Henry.
Article courtesy of Happen magazine, www.happenmag.com.