I was listening to a recent podcast of one of my favorite NPR shows, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me. On this particular broadcast, their guest was Philippe Petit. If you don’t know who Philippe Petit is, you obviously didn’t read my review of the 81st Annual Academy Awards. Philippe Petit was the guy that walked on a high wire (illegally of course) stretched between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. A film about his feat, Man on Wire, won an Oscar for Best Documentary at the awards ceremony this year.
Anyhow, I found it funny when the guys on the show were giving Petit a hard time about not being scared when he took that first step out onto the wire. He said that didn’t scare him, however, he was frightened of, as he put it, things that have “too many legs or not enough legs.” Spiders and snakes? Thirteen hundred feet plus in the air doesn’t scare him, but spiders and snakes do?
Like all of us, celebrities have their share of phobias. What are some of them? How about:
Jennifer Aniston, Cher, Michael Jackson, Billy Bob Thornton, John Madden, Colin Farrell, and Whoopi Goldberg all have a fear of flying.
Billy Bob Thornton has quite a few fears – he is also scared of antique furniture and bold colors.
David Beckham has a fear of disorder. I’ve read that all his clothing is organized by color.
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Pamela Anderson has a fear of mirrors.
Christina Ricci has a fear of houseplants.
Alfred Hitchcock had an egg phobia.
Johnny Depp, Daniel Radcliffe, and Diddy all really, really dislike clowns.
Nicole Kidman has a fear of butterflies.
Uma Thurman is claustrophobic, that is, she is afraid of small spaces.
Sarah Michelle Geller has a fear of graveyards.
Matthew McConaughey is frightened by revolving doors.
Then, there is perhaps the oddest celebrity phobia of all – Walt Disney had a fear of mice. Strange since it was a mouse that made him a tremendous amount of money!