Money may not be able to buy you happiness, but it can buy you a seat in a rocket ship next to Leonardo DiCaprio. One fan won the opportunity of a lifetime with a bid of $1.5 million at the Cannes Film Festival during a charity auction on Thursday, May 23.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the winning bidder will get the chance to travel into space aboard the Virgin Galactic strapped into a seat next to the Great Gatsby actor — while also doing some good for the world.
A portion of the proceeds from the auction will go toward the AmFAR Cinema Against AIDS charity. A second pair of seats was also auctioned off on Thursday for a whopping $2.3 million.
The trip was initially listed in the auction booklet as a "once-in-a-lifetime trip to space with a mystery guest," and Harvey Weinstein later revealed that the mystery guest was DiCaprio himself.
"We're going to get someone to bid on a seat next to him," he told The Hollywood Reporter, adding as a joke that plenty of people in the film business probably wanted to see him fly into space as well, "but only on a one-way ticket."
DiCaprio would not be the first celebrity lined up for a journey into the beyond — it was revealed in March 2012 that Ashton Kutcher was the 500th customer to sign up for Richard Branson's venture to launch tourists into space.
"I gave Ashton a quick call to congratulate and welcome him," Branson wrote on his blog at the time. "He is as thrilled as we are at the prospect of being among the first to cross the final frontier (and back!) with us and to experience the magic of space for himself."
