Kirk Douglas has avoided helicopters ever since escaping from one that crashed in 1991. But the king of Jordan made him an offer he couldn't refuse: A scenic tour of his kingdom by royal chopper.
"I hadn't ridden in a helicopter since the accident, but I had no fear at all," the actor said last week in Beverly Hills, Calif. "I guess I'm a fatalist. I figured, what are the chances that I would have two helicopter crashes in my lifetime?"
Douglas, 83, suffered cuts and bruises when the helicopter he was riding in collided with a small plane over Santa Paula, Calif., in 1991. Two people in the plane were killed.
He was in the Middle East recently to dedicate two playgrounds in Jerusalem.