Mega Millions gets a Hollywood twist, with ‘Lost’ numbers

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The two winning Mega Millions tickets may have been sold in Idaho and Washington, but the game took on a distinctly Hollywood twist as four of the ‘Lost’ numbers showed up on about 40,000 tickets, making each of those $150 winners a minor celebrity.

The ‘Lost’ numbers, of course, are 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 -- the digits Jorge Garcia‘s character Hurley played to win the lottery on the ABC series. The numbers recurred with the Dharma Initiative, the plane crash and more as the story got weirder, and they were actually bad news from the get-go for Hurley, but that’s a whole ‘nuther story.

We think it’s weird enough that 4, 8, 15 and 42 hit in real life on Tuesday (the six winning Mega Millions were filled out by 25 and 47, with 42 taking Mega honors).

Weird also that fans play the ‘Lost’ numbers.

‘When will you people learn?’ actor Garcia wrote on his blog. ‘The numbers are bad!’

‘A tabloid news show just showed up at our FRONT DOOR hoping to get an intvw with Jorge about last night’s lotto #s. Is this really our life?’ Garcia’s girlfriend, Bethany Shady, tweeted on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, back among the little people: The two winners will split the $380-million jackpot, getting either $190 million paid in 26 annual installments, or an $81-million lump sum.

We don’t even want to know what’ll happen if we mess with the numbers 16 and 23 in the future. Because they’re probably pretty darned angry at the world right about now ...

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Winners picked ‘Lost’ numbers because ‘Hurley is awesome,’ says ‘Lost’ executive producer

-- Christie D’Zurilla

The Associated Press contributed to this report.