Weirdest things celebs have done with their awards

By Bryanne Salazar 8:06am PST, Jan 2, 2018

It's almost time for a new year of award shows. Beginning with the Golden Globes on Jan. 7 and going all the way through to the People's Choice Awards and its new, later date on Nov. 11 — with the Emmys, Oscars, Grammys and more in between — there are dozens of opportunities for our favorite celebrities to win coveted statues for their work. In honor of the coming award season, Wonderwall.com wanted to know what weird things celebs have done with their statues… starting with Beyonce. According to GQ, Queen Bey keeps all her awards in a room dedicated to herself. Along with her many statues — which include numerous Grammys, MTV Video Music Awards, BET Awards and more — Beyonce displays thousands of photos of herself too, going all the way back to her Destiny's Child days, as well as hundreds of videos and even her old diary entries. Think that's a little strange? Keep reading for more…

Speaking of Beyonce, at the 2017 Grammy Awards, Adele's "25" won album of the year. The only problem? Adele didn't think she earned it. "I can't possibly accept this award. And I'm very humbled and I'm very grateful and gracious. But my artist of my life is Beyonce," she said. When it appeared that Adele broke her Grammy in two, the internet lit up with stories claiming it was a gesture meant to show how she was sharing her win with Beyonce. The truth, however, was that the break was nothing more than an accident. Video of the singer showed her backstage swapping the broken trophy for a new one.

RELATED: 29 reasons we love Adele

Unless you have an Oscar, you probably don't have to worry about where you'll display the iconic statue. For many celebs who've taken home the award, the perfect place to keep their hardware just happens to be in their bathroom. One such star is actress Kate Winslet, who won an Oscar in 2009 for her work in "The Reader." Kate's said she keeps her statue in the loo so that eager friends and family could take their time "posing with it" in the bathroom mirror (hopefully with clean hands!).

After Russell Crowe won the 2001 best actor Oscar for his performance in "Gladiator," he took it to his ranch in Australia. According the The Guardian, he put it in his chicken coop because he believed it made his hens lay bigger eggs.

Emma Thompson is another actress who thinks the bathroom is the best place to show off her Oscars. The British star won two Academy Awards, first in 1993 for her performance in "Howard's End" (seen here) and again in 1996 for the screenplay for the film adaptation of "Sense and Sensibility." Of her decision to put the awards by her toilet, Emma told Time magazine, they looked "far too outré anywhere else."

Sean "Diddy" Combs keeps his many awards — which include three Grammys — on a shelf in his house in a special room he calls his Sunday Room. What's a Sunday Room, you ask? Diddy told Us Weekly it's "this room that just feels intimate, that just feels like it would be the perfect place to do a photo shoot reading The New York and L.A. Times on a Sunday." In other words, it's a room that makes Diddy feel even more sophisticated and cool. We dig it.

Richard Dreyfuss (seen here in 1978) won an Oscar for "The Goodbye Girl" and apparently was really worried someone would tamper with it when he wasn't around. Since his new Brooklyn apartment was being redecorated at the time, Richard decided the safest option was to carry his Oscar everywhere he went, in a brown paper bag. In 2017, he revealed he now keeps it in his fridge. "I don't like to brag, but I like everyone to know about it," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "Sooner or later, I know they are all going to go to the refrigerator."

Jodie Foster is another actress who decided the bathroom was the best place to keep the Academy Awards she won in 1989 and 1992. Her reasoning was fairly simple: "They looked good with the faucets." However, Jodie later switched things up. "When they started getting corroded on the bottom, I had to move them to a trophy case in my den."

In 1994, Anna Paquin became the second-youngest actress to ever win an Academy Award and followed that achievement with more statues, including a Golden Globe in 2009. Does Anna have her awards displayed in a fancy case or high on the mantel of her Los Angeles home? Nope. Anna has said she keeps them next to her books and shoes in the back of her closet. That's prime real estate for book nerds and shoe divas.

Kanye West has an astounding 21 Grammys to his name and that doesn't include the other impressive awards he's earned. Where does he keep them all? Stashed with his laundry! In a 2014 interview his wife, Kim Kardashian West, gave to BBC Radio 1, she shared that Kanye's awards were kind of everywhere, including in the laundry room and his sock drawer (as well as other random places). According to Kim, Kanye's "not big on putting his Grammys up."

Legendary actress Shirley MacLaine (who happens to be the big sister of another Hollywood legend, Warren Beatty) won an Oscar in 1984 for her performance in "Terms of Endearment." When InStyle asked her in 2000 what she's done with her statue, she indicated she uses it as a paperweight, saying, "many of my awards are in drawers or in storage… [The] Oscar serves a very practical purpose: When the winds blow through my New Mexico ranch, he keeps The New York Times from blowing away."

Timothy Hutton made history in 1981 when he won a best supporting actor Oscar for his work in "Ordinary People" at just 20 years old, making him the youngest male actor to take home the prize. He also might just hold the record (along with Richard Dreyfuss) for the coldest Oscar, because his shiny gold statue is in his fridge. He once said that his sister "thought that [it] would be kind of funny to put the Oscar in the refrigerator [so] when people would go grab a beer or something [they'd see it]… It's still there."

Kevin Costner was so worried about theft that he hid both of his Academy Awards in his underwear drawer. The actor, who won two Oscars in 1991 for best director and best picture for his film "Dances with Wolves" (he also has several Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards and even a Primetime Emmy) eventually built a theater in his house that includes the statues in proper, secure display cases alongside posters from some of his favorite movies like "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Gone with the Wind."

No matter how excited Gwyneth Paltrow was to win the 1999 best actress Oscar for her work in "Shakespeare in Love," it wasn't enough to convince her to give her statue a place of prominence in her house. The reason? The award scares her. No, really. "[I] keep it tucked away at the back of the bookshelf in my bedroom because it weirds me out. For weeks after I won, I kept it in storage," she told Contact Music in 2005. "I won't even put it on the mantelpiece, the thing freaks me out. For some reason, I haven't been able to feel really good about it. I just feel sort of embarrassed and it brings up weird, traumatic feelings. It's associated with a tough time in my life."

Geena Davis's 1989 best supporting actress Oscar for "The Accidental Tourist" has lived an exciting life since coming home with the star. For a while, Geena claimed she kept the statue "enshrined in a pagoda" and later placed it "behind velvet ropes." At one point, when the award was on her fireplace mantle in Los Angeles, it fell and was dented after an earthquake struck. She also told InStyle magazine that the dented statue "looks like a slalom skier" and she's considered adorning it with tiny ski poles.

Hollywood's most famous bromancers, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, shot to fame when they won their first Academy Award in 1998 for co-writing the film they also starred in, "Good Will Hunting." Ben reportedly gave his statue to his mom but later stashed it in the office he and Matt shared. Matt, on the other hand, lost his Oscar sometime in 2007 after his apartment flooded and all the items were boxed up and sent to storage.

Meryl Streep has won a lot of awards and has the distinction of being the most nominated actress in history. While we're not sure what she does with all those shiny statues (her collection includes three Oscars and nine Golden Globes, to name just a few), we do know she's forgotten most of them. When Ellen DeGeneres asked the acclaimed actress in 2014 how many awards she'd won, Meryl claimed she didn't know, but (of course) Ellen did. At the time, it was 119. Since that day, Meryl's total has gone up to 156 (and counting).

After singer Carly Simon won an Oscar in 1989 for best original song for "Let the River Run" from "Working Girl," she originally placed the statue in a protective glass case on a mantel in her New York apartment. However, a move to the country gave her the inspiration to move her beloved award to the bathroom. Carly said that she put the Oscar on the shelf above her bathtub next to her soaps, shampoos and pumice stones, telling InStyle magazine, "The Oscar looks as if it belongs there — like I could remove its head, pour its contents on top of my hair and have a nice wash."

Our girl Reese Witherspoon has a whole bunch of awards and had a quirky idea about how to best display her 2006 best actress Oscar for her work in "Walk the Line." Initially, Reese joked that she wanted to turn her Oscar into either a really fancy door knocker or a necklace. "But neither one of those options was very practical," she told People magazine. Instead, "I just keep it in my living room."

There's a sweet and somewhat sad story about what happened to the best supporting actress Oscar Angelina Jolie won for her performance in the movie "Girl, Interrupted." After taking home the statue in 2000, Angelina sent it to her mom, Marcheline Bertrand. When Angie's mom passed away in 2007, her belongings were packed away and with them, her daughter's only Oscar. In 2009, The Telegraph reported that Angelina had said she "didn't lose it" but that "nobody knows where it is, at the moment."

Nicole Kidman, who won the 2003 best actress Oscar for her performance in "The Hours," pulled an Angelina Jolie and gave her award to her mom, Janelle. For Nicole, the award reminded her of a difficult point in her life when she was alone and "emotionally flailing." However, when Nicole took home two Emmys in 2017 for her acting and executive producing on HBO's "Big Little Lies," she was much happier, sharing that she gave them to her two youngest daughters, Sunday and Faith.

In 2014, JAY-Z made the audience laugh when, after winning his 20th and 21st Grammy Awards for "Drunk in Love," he said "I wanna tell Blue [Ivy] that look, Daddy got a gold sippy cup for you!"

Acclaimed actor Jeff Bridges is one of the few celebrities to have won three separate awards for the same performance. In 2010, he took home the Oscar, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for his portrayal of Bad Blake in "Crazy Heart." According to Jeff, it wasn't long after his impressive win that he misplaced his Oscar. In 2011, he told reporters he thought he lost it. Apparently, Jeff moved the statue around from one house to another during the year and eventually, it went missing. Ever optimistic, Jeff added that he hoped it would "turn up" since he couldn't exactly replace it.

At the 1973 Academy Awards, movie legend Marlon Brando won the best actor Oscar for his performance in "The Godfather." What made his win so memorable was that Marlon himself didn't attend the ceremony — instead, he stayed away to protest the treatment of Native Americans in Hollywood. In his place, Native American actress Sacheen Littlefeather (also known as Maria Cruz, seen here) spoke on his behalf. Sacheen informed the audience that Marlon "very regretfully" couldn't accept his award and then read from a statement the actor wrote, saying, "The motion picture community has been as responsible as any for degrading the Indian and making a mockery of his character, describing his as savage, hostile and evil." In later years, Marlon claimed he had no idea what happened to the Oscar that he refused.

After Robin Williams died in 2014, his children and third wife were embroiled in a bitter dispute over his estate. Nearly a year after his passing, the division of assets was resolved by the courts with Robin's three children inheriting a majority of his possessions (as per his will) including their dad's numerous awards, like his 1998 best supporting actor Oscar for his work in "Good Will Hunting."

While comedy musical group Lonely Island doesn't have a weird story about where they keep their Emmy (at least we haven't heard it yet), they do have a funny story about their actual Emmy statues. The trio, which includes Akiva Schaffer, Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone, are the only Emmy Award winners who have the word "dick" inscribed on their statues. The reason? They won the prize for best original music and lyrics for their hit "Saturday Night Live" sketch song "Dick in a Box" in 2007.