Andrew Lloyd Webber Once Had a Poltergeist Problem

Andrew Lloyd Webber once had to call on a priest to rid his home of a pesky spirit. In a recent interview with the Telegraph, the Phantom of the Opera composer was asked whether any of the six London theaters he owns are haunted. The Guardian reports the question wasn't an entirely wild one, as ghosts are said to frequent a number of London's theaters. (It gives examples including that of the Adelphi Theatre, where actor William Terriss was fatally stabbed by a "deranged" fellow actor as he entered through the stage door and is said to linger to this day.) As for Webber, he said he had never encountered a ghost at any of his venues, but that he had once dealt with a poltergeist at his 19th-century home in central London.

"I did have a house in Eaton Square which had a poltergeist," he explained. "It would do things like take theater scripts and put them in a neat pile in some obscure room. In the end we had to get a priest to come and bless it, and it left." As the BBC explains, his description syncs with how poltergeists are usually defined. Per the Oxford English Dictionary, a poltergeist is "a ghost or other supernatural being supposedly responsible for unexplained physical disturbances such as loud noises and the movement of objects." (This woman thought a ghost was taking her clothes. Not quite.)