Award season is in full swing, but forget the Golden Globes and the Grammys — this year’s most coveted prize is a Guinness World Record! The following stars are acknowledged, not for achievements in acting or singing, but for feats in video gaming in the Guinness World Records 2012 Gamer’s Edition, out in stores now.
Helen Mirren – Greatest fee paid for an appearance in a videogame advert
Mirren was paid a reported £500,000 ($800,000) to appear in a series of television adverts for Wii Fit (Nintendo, 2008) during from October 2010.
Maria Menounos – First Woman to Win the Madden Bowl
The First Madden Bowl took place in 1995. Held every year during the Super Bowl weekend, it features some of NFL’s top athletes battling it out on the virtual playing field. In February 2011, for Madden Bowl XVII, the competitors used online Team Play to form groups of three. Among the winning trio was TV presenter Maria Menunos, who triumphed alongside San Francisco 49er Patrick Willis and then Cincinnati Bengal Chad Ochocinco. After over 15 years of the competition, Maria became the first woman to lift the trophy.
Lady Gaga – First Album to Debut in a Social Network Game for Born This Way
Flamboyant pop star Lady Gaga decided on an eye-catching and original launch for her second album in May 2011. In collaboration with Zynga she arranged for a special, glitzy modification of Farmville, known as GagaVille, which contained quests to unlock individual Born This Way tracks a week before the album’s release. By May 20th, three days before the album went on sale in the UK, it could be unlocked and heard in its entirety in GagaVille. Upon retail release, Born This Way went straight to No. 1 in 23 countries, including the UK and the USA, where it sold 1.1 million copies in its first week alone.
Guinness World Records 2012 Gamer’s Edition is now on stands in the US and UK