Someone added PCP to chowder on the set of ‘Titanic’ in 1996 – and we might finally find out how it happened

• In 1996, 80 cast and crew members of “Titanic” unknowingly ate PCP soup, causing chaos.

• The case was closed after two years and police never named a suspect.

• A Nova Scotia official called for the 10-page report to be made public. It could be released in May.

Twenty-eight years after authorities said someone on the set of “Titanic” laced the cast and crew’s chowder with PCP on the last day of filming in Canada, the public may finally get some answers on one of the oldest mysteries in cinema history. .

Halifax police closed the case in 1999 but never made the findings public. Now, Halifax Police Service Information and Privacy Commissioner Tricia Ralph has ordered that the unredacted report be made public, The Guardian reported.

If Ralph is successful, the report could be available by mid-May and could finally shed light on this incident that has baffled and intrigued moviegoers for nearly 30 years.

Here’s what we know about the incident, which temporarily halted filming on what would become a multibillion-dollar phenomenon.

On the last day of filming in Canada, 80 people from the set of “Titanic” were hospitalized after ingesting PCP

According to a 2017 Vanity Fair oral history of the incident, it was the last day of filming for “Titanic” in Nova Scotia before production moved to Mexico to shoot most of the ship’s sinking scenes in water tanks.

Director James Cameron told Vanity Fair that he felt “suddenly and very distinctly dizzy” after eating chowder provided by a local caterer – although the exact type of chowder is unknown. A police report from the time described it as lobster chowder, while Cameron claimed it contained mussels, and star Bill Paxton told Larry King in 2015 that it was clam chowder.

After feeling ill, Cameron made himself vomit in case the shellfish contained what he called a “paralyzing shellfish neurotoxin.”

He was wrong. Instead, the chowder had been laced with phencyclidine, a hallucinogen also known as PCP or angel dust.

According to the California Journal of Emergency Medicine, PCP can “induce the illusion of euphoria, omnipotence, superhuman strength, and social and sexual prowess.”

Paxton told Entertainment Weekly shortly after the 1996 incident that within 15 minutes of eating, “some people were laughing, some people were crying, some people were throwing up.” He added: “One minute I felt great, the next minute I felt so anxious I wanted to breathe into a paper bag.”

Scenery painter Marilyn McAvoy spoke to Vice in 2017 about her experience. After everyone affected was sent to the local hospital, it became a free-for-all. “People had a lot of energy,” she said. “Some were in wheelchairs and flying in the hallways. I mean, everyone was high!”

Cameron told Vanity Fair that in her memory, cinematographer Caleb Deschanel (father of actors Zooey and Emily Deschanel) started a conga line in the hospital hallway.

Eventually the crew was given liquid charcoal to counteract the effects, and everyone was sent home the next day.

And no, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet were not affected. They did not film any scenes in Nova Scotia and only joined the production when it moved to Mexico.

So who did this? James Cameron has his theories.

Here’s what Cameron thinks happened, according to his interview with Vanity Fair: “We had fired a team member the day before because they were causing problems with the caterers. So we think the poisoning was this idiot’s plan to get back at the caterers, which of course we immediately shot the next day, so it worked.

McAvoy heard a similar story, although he pointed the finger at someone at the catering company: “Among the team, there were rumors that it was a disgruntled chef who had been fired, but It never came to fruition.”

The catering company denied this. In the 1996 Entertainment Weekly article, Earle Scott, CEO of UNAD Quality Foods Ltd., denied that one of his employees caused the incident. Instead, he blamed “the Hollywood mob.”

“It went like a party that got carried away,” Scott said.

The Halifax Police Department investigated for more than two years before closing the case in February 1999 due to a lack of suspects, Vanity Fair reported.

So what will the police report tell us?

We don’t know officially yet. We know that local authorities interviewed everyone on set that day, but parts of the testimony had been redacted – until now.

If police comply, the full report could be available as early as mid-May.

This means that one of the oldest mysteries in cinema history could be solved after almost 30 years.

We will wait.

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