Top 10 Strangest Celebrity Phobias
#10: Dry Paper - Megan Fox
On the surface it doesn’t sound strange that Megan Fox always has to have a glass of water beside her when she reads. But dig a little deeper into the reason why and that’s when the strange side comes out. The water isn’t there for drinking, it’s there for dipping her fingers in so that they’re wet when she goes to touch the pages. And why do they have to be wet you ask? Well, that’s because the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” star hates dry paper. If it isn’t laminated she has to lick her fingers, or wet them in water, before touching the paper.
#9: Porcelain Dolls - Channing Tatum
There are people who love and collect porcelain dolls. Channing Tatum isn’t one of those people. In fact, as he told Ellen, they freak him out. Tatum doesn’t know where this fear of them stems from but it’s definitely real. Just look at how he recoils the second Ellen pulls out one of the dolls she had waiting for him. His fear might sound a little strange to some out there. But there are certainly a whole host of folks who've seen the “Child's Play” movies who can completely understand where Tatum is coming from. Dolls can be creepy - porcelain or otherwise!
#8: Phones - Helen Mirren
If you want to get in touch with someone you’ll probably give them a call or maybe hit them up on Messenger. And while those are generally good options for the vast majority of the population, they’re two terrible choices if the person you're trying to get in touch with is Helen Mirren. The Oscar winning actress tried Facebook once, but within 24 hours she “found it so intrusive... There was something really scary about it and I didn't like it at all.” And as for phones, Mirren has admitted that she’s very frightened of them. They make her nervous and she avoids answering them at all costs and pretty much never returns calls.
#7: Tennis Balls - Elliot Page
We would understand if line judge Laura Clark told us she was afraid of tennis balls after Novak Djokovic accidentally struck her in the throat with one at the 2020 US Open. However, Elliot’s Page’s admission that he’s terrified of green and fuzzy balls was … not expected. And even he doesn’t know why they scare him as much as they do. It isn’t out of fear of being struck by one at a tennis match, because he would never be at one. If he even sees one on TV he has to leave the room.
#6: Metal Clothes Hangers - Kylie Minogue
You know that really awful sound that metal clothes hangers make when you hang them on the bar in your closet? No? Well, according to Aussie music superstar Kylie Minogue, that sound isn’t just awful, it’s enough to make her not hang her clothes up. Minogue has a lot of clothes, as you might imagine. However, in 2010 she told Elle magazine that because of her phobia of the hangers, she lays her clothes out in her wardrobe, rather than hanging them up. That’s an interesting … hang up?
#5: Pigs - Orlando Bloom
We really can’t imagine anyone wanting to run away from George Clooney. However, if Orlando Bloom had run into the “Ocean's Eleven” star back when he still had his pet pig Max, Bloom would have probably headed off in the other direction. At least that’s what happened on the set of his 2005 film, “Kingdom of Heaven.” He hasn’t really talked about his swinophobia publicly, but there were reports of a pig getting loose on the “Kingdom of Heaven” set and Bloom running off set to get away from it.
#4: Talking Food - Kyra Sedgwick
While many of us look back on those “let’s all go to the lobby” movie theater commercials with nostalgic fondness, Kyra Sedgwick looks back at them with abject horror. As her husband Kevin Bacon told Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show” back in 2013, Sedgwick has a fear of talking food. The phobia is so strong she would leave the room if the California Raisins commercial came on the TV. Does anyone else find it ironic that Kyra Sedgwick has a phobia of talking food but is married to a man named ‘Bacon’? No? Maybe it’s just us.
#3: Swimming Pools - Christina Ricci
What do indoor plants and swimming pools have in common? Not much actually, except for the fact that Christina Ricci is afraid of them. When it comes to the plants it's pretty simple. Ricci finds them dirty and touching them really freaks her out. Now, when it comes to the swimming pools, things get a little more complicated. Ricci isn’t scared of the pools themselves, but more the idea that, as she once said, “somehow a little magic door is going to open up and let the shark out.” Honestly, we can’t say that’s something we never, ever thought about.
#2: Giraffes & Owls - Eminem
He’s a “Rap God” but if Eminem had been a real god, he might have told Noah to save two of every animal except for Giraffes and Owls. That’s because Slim Shady has a phobia of both said animals. He may not be afraid to take a stand, but when it comes to owls, Eminem has admitted a serious fear of the silent-flying, nighttime hunters. And as for giraffes, Marshall Bruce Mathers III once told a film crew, “I have a weird thing with giraffes, man… I don’t like their necks…”
#1: Pruney Fingers - Kristen Bell
Some people wear t-shirts when they go swimming, some wear swim caps. But as her husband Dax Shepard revealed in a 2018 Instagram post, Kristen Bell wears gloves. And she does it for her kids. You see, Bell has a very strong reaction when her pruney fingers touch skin. And when we say “strong” we mean it will literally make her gag. But when she’s in the swimming pool with her children and they need help, she obviously has to touch them, pruney fingers or not. So, to help her children, and avoid gagging while she does it, a friend suggested she wear gloves. And as she told USA Today. “It works for me. I’m not ashamed.”