Shane , Marlon Brando Disney/Erica Hernandez ; Paramount/Getty Images
Claim to Fame season 3 contestant Shane Brando knows he confused some people with his chicken wing necklace.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for season 3 of Claim to Fame.
Shane wore a realistic-looking chicken wing on a chain around his neck throughout the competition, but it had nothing to do with his secret celebrity relative, his grandfather Marlon Brando.
“I wore it on the show just as a joke,” Shane exclusively told Us Weekly after his elimination during the Wednesday, August 28, episode of the ABC reality series. “I wish I was smart enough to say, ‘Oh, yeah, this is gonna be a fake clue that people are gonna be so confused about.’ For me, it was just a little part of my personality, my sense of humor, and it just kept me grounded. It was a constant reminder every day [not to] take this game too seriously.”
Shane noted that he’s had the unusual accessory for about six years, and it’s a wardrobe “staple” when he goes to musical festivals and concerts.
“It’s just a fun little conversation starter,” he said.
Even without his chicken wing bling, Shane was well-liked in the Claim to Fame house, and his wine bottle clue was the last to be pulled. However, once Shane’s clue was in Mackenzie’s possession, she and Hud quickly worked out that Shane is related to Marlon, who died at age 80 in 2004. Mackenzie targeted Shane during the guess-off, and he was eliminated.
Shane Disney/Chris Willard
After Shane’s celebrity relative was revealed, there were inevitably several Godfather references made by his castmates and Claim to Fame cohosts Kevin and Frankie Jonas. Although Shane has heard a lot of “terrible” impressions of his grandfather over the years, he told Us it doesn’t bother him at all.
“I think it’s very funny. … It’s like, ‘Let me see every rendition of the worst Marlon Brando impression.’ And I love it,” he joked. “There’s only a few people in this world that I actually have heard do a really good Marlon impression.”
Shane said that actor Ed Begley Jr. does “probably the best rendition” of his grandfather because “they were really close friends.”
“Johnny Depp does a really good one as well. … And whoever played my grandpa on the show The Offer did an amazing job,” he continued, referring to Grey’s Anatomy alum Justin Chambers.
Shane’s grandfather had a connection to his castmate Dedrick’s secret celebrity relative, unbeknownst to him. Dedrick, whose real name is Siggy Jackson, is Michael Jackson’s nephew. Marlon and Michael, who died at age 50 in 2009, were friends for years, and Shane’s dad, Miko Brando, worked for Michael.
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“Right when the show finished [taping], we probably spent a good two hours just shooting the s–t, like, ‘Have we run into each other? How could we have possibly missed this?” Shane said of the moment he and Dedrick realized their connection. “We honestly had no idea, and just throughout the shooting of the show, me telling stories all day about being [at Michael’s property] Neverland [Ranch], and him sitting there like, ‘Oh, that’s great. That’s a cool story, man.’ … When I actually found out who he was related to, I kind of felt so stupid for a little while.”
As for his own celebrity relative, Shane said that Marlon was “funny” and fond of playing pranks.
“He was a huge practical jokester. You never knew if there was gonna be a whoopee cushion under your seat when you’re sitting down or he would pop up and scare you,” he recalled before sharing a memory of Marlon that he recounted at the actor’s funeral.
“There was a time we were swimming in his pool and there was a bee that just landed on the edge of the pool. … My grandpa goes up to the bee [and] kind of brushes it onto his hand. Then, he’s like, ‘Shane, watch this,’ very calmly,” Shane said. “[He] sticks his tongue out, places the bee onto his tongue, and then sticks his tongue in his mouth [and] closes his mouth. A little while later, [he] opens his mouth [and] sticks his tongue out … and then he just lets out a little breath and the bee flies away.”
Claim to Fame is now streaming on Hulu