Dentist in Georgia gives away toothpaste when Julia Roberts wins

June 7, 2001
Julia Roberts' childhood dentist in Georgia had to be true to his promise when the actress won an Academy Award.

Twenty-six years before Julia Roberts won an Oscar, her hometown dentist made a pledge to his young patients: If any of them ever won a major prize, he would give every child in Smyrna, Ga., a tube of toothpaste.

It was payoff time for Dr. Ted Aspes earlier this year when Julia Roberts grabbed an Oscar for playing the title role in Erin Brockovich. Aspes said he had two families waiting for him in the parking lot when he arrived at work the morning after the Academy Awards, and had given away hundreds of tubes of mint-flavored toothpaste by the time mid-afternoon came.

The dentist had expected Roberts to win the Oscar and had ordered 10,000 tubes of toothpaste the week before the Academy Awards.