STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Scientists at NASA are eager to get their hands dirty while examining the dust scraped off an asteroid.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Touchdown. SRC has touched down.
INSKEEP: OSIRIS-REx came home after sampling the surface of a big rock in outer space and traveling more than 1 billion miles with a little help from a rock star.
(SOUNDBITE OF QUEEN SONG, "WE WILL ROCK YOU")
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
That's Brian May, the lead guitarist for Queen. And he's an astrophysicist who worked with NASA on the mission.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BRIAN MAY: This asteroid can tell us untold secrets of the origins of the universe and the origins of life itself.
INSKEEP: Mr. May's experience got us thinking about other celebrities with side hustles, like Tom Selleck.
(SOUNDBITE OF WILLIAM MOORE'S "MAGNUM (HIGGINS GENTLEMEN)")
MARTIN: Selleck is famous for TV shows like "Magnum P.I." and "Blue Bloods." Now he farms avocados on his estate in Southern California even though, he says, avocados make him gag.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DISHONORED LADY")
HEDY LAMARR: (As Madeleine) I'm trying to be honest. But you won't believe me, will you?
PAUL CAVANAGH: (As Victor) No, my dear.
INSKEEP: Hedy Lamarr personified Hollywood glamour in the 1930s, '40s and '50s.
MARTIN: She was also an inventor who developed a way to use radio signals to steer torpedoes during World War II. Her work actually helped lay the foundation for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
INSKEEP: Wow. Well, Ronald Reagan, another actor, along with Arnold Schwarzenegger, gave up acting for politics. Fred Thompson tried politics and acting at the same time.
MARTIN: He joined the cast of "Law & Order" and played a district attorney named Arthur Branch. And that's while he was winding up a term as a U.S. senator from Tennessee.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "LAW AND ORDER")
FRED THOMPSON: (As Arthur) You know, one day, this chair is going to be empty.
SAM WATERSTON: (As Jack) I'm no politician, Arthur.
THOMPSON: (As Arthur) Everybody says that.
(LAUGHTER)
INSKEEP: Pundits, of course, raised the question, which was the side hustle, the politics or the acting?
(SOUNDBITE OF MIKE POST'S "THEME OF LAW AND ORDER") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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