someone specific. But what happens when that someone is iconic, famous - or worse - totally obscure? Gaining rights clearances for a likeness can be difficult when you're trying to produce something on time and on budget.

Enter Corbis Rights & Music Clearances. Functioning as a division of stock imagery company Corbis since 2001, the Rights & Music Clearances group is dedicated to securing clearances for virtually any type of intellectual property you could fathom.

Through a combo of industry connections, research and good old-fashioned sleuthing, Corbis Rights & Music Clearances has secured rights for everything from celebrities, music and movie clips to long-forgotten photos, early 20th century animation clips and a former game show contestant not seen since 1978.

Intrigued by their breadth of scope, we asked Corbis Rights & Music Clearances VP Curtis Bowden to unearth some of the more unusual requests. At no loss for a revealing tale, Bowden pulled out some classic gems.

Comcast "Pyramid" - Goodby Silverstein & Partners, SF (2005)

For Comcast's "Pyramid", Corbis was tasked with securing four must-have clearances, one each from Sony, Dick Clark Productions, actress Loretta Swit (of M*A*S*H fame) and a contestant from a 1978 episode of $20,000 Pyramid named Mike Gillooly.

The concept for the commercial involved altering the original game show exchange between the actor and contestant so it appeared they were discussing Comcast's product attributes. Goodby found themselves in a jam early on when Sony, which owns the rights to many game show franchises, said 'No way!' when asked for permission to alter their program.

"Goodby came to us asking us to talk to Sony," says Bowden. "We went to Sony and worked on them pretty hard. It's hard to turn a no into a yes, so in parallel we found other game show formats not owned by Sony, like Match Game and Family Feud, and started looking into reworking the concept in case we couldn't turn Sony around. It could have gone either way."

In order to sweeten the pot for Sony, Corbis had already lined up Dick Clark Productions (with which they were in the process of wooing as a client), and Loretta Swit, who re-dubbed her original show dialogue to fit Goodby's creative. They even tracked down the elusive contestant: Mike Gillooly, a minigolf course owner from Ohio who'd since relocated to Las Vegas.

"All we knew about him was his name because Dick Clark introduced him at the beginning of the show," says Bowden. "We use the Internet quite a bit and we'll [also] go to fan sites and blogs to find people. [With Mike] it came down to calling every name in the book - it can get that weird."

In the end, Sony acquiesced, taking pains to note that granting such a clearance marked a "non-precedential exception". Says Bowden: "the negotiations were intense and [took] longer than trying to find Gillooly."

Trivial Pursuit 20th Anniversary "Thank You" - Arnold McGrath, New York (2001)

This spot starts with the line "Thank you Mr. Buttofucco, Thank you Mr. Kaelin..." and proceeds to unveil a host of bygone pop cultural icons. To say that the project for Trivial Pursuit's 20th Anniversary Edition was a rights clearance bonanza would be an understatement. Between the commercial and the DVD accompanying the game, there was no end to the personalities that needed to give their stamp of approval.

For the commercial, there were dozens of pseudo-celebs to choose from but some, like Tonya Harding, were absolutely integral to the creative idea. Trouble was that Harding was nowhere to be found. That's when Bowden's team was employed to track down the notorious ice skating villainess.

"She was really hard to find. She had just fallen out of favor with, well, the world. She'd been kicked out of the skating federation... She'd kind of fallen off the face of the planet," says Bowden, adding that Harding didn't even seem to have a permanent place of residency. "We went to reporters who had written about her, court reporters, coaches, agents... nothing."

An Internet search revealed that two fan sites still existed and, serendipitously, one of the webmasters who actually knew Harding's godmother was able to confirm she was living in a hotel. "We found her there, negotiated her appearance in the commercial, sent messengers to her hotel room and she signed the papers," Bowden says. Her only request: that her ex-husband be excluded from any image or footage used. In one clip, the client was able to black him out without compromising the shot.

Tips to clearing the IP you really, really want
Timing is everything: Depending on the person, music or image you want to secure the rights to, you may end up getting caught in the bureaucracy of estates and corporate legal departments. Bowden points to the Martin Luther King Jr. estate as a prime example. "We had a client that wanted an image of Martin Luther King Jr. Of course the deadline was in two weeks. We knew that his organization had millions of requests and they probably wouldn't return our calls for a month, so we recommended Gandhi and they went for it."

Be flexible: Sometimes you just can't get what you want. Neil Armstrong? No way. Buzz Aldrin, however, is accessible. "Sometimes there are alternatives that could still fulfill the creative just as well. We might say, 'Look, you're not going to be able to afford Julia Roberts but what about Audrey Hepburn?'" says Bowden noting, "I always like to remind people that Ronald Reagan was the first choice for Casablanca before Bogart." Imagine that.

When in doubt...: "People and clients ask if we need to be like lawyers," says Bowden. "What we really say is that if there is any doubt or any reason why you could be sued, there's a very simple solution. You go and get permission. So to the extent that most agencies have zero tolerance for any risk whatsoever, it's sacred to get the clearance."

Don't bank on it: Cary Grant, Winston Churchill, Marie Curie and Alexander Graham Bell's estates all say no to advertising.