Lifestyle Magazine

The Vanity of Insuring Body Parts

By Cathyrin @CatherineBaleda
Yesterday I've read an article which talked about the famous hair of Troy Pulamalu. It was insured for worth $1 million! Whew! So I happened to research about those people who have somehow insured special part of their bodies. You woudn't believe what I've found out. Celebrities from old up to date are fond of insuring those body parts they have that can be considered as their best assets (or is it?).
Let's start from the lower extremities of the human's body:
Feet
Michael Flatley – He is a step dancer, choreographer, musician and occasional television presenter. He became internationally known for creating Irish dance shows Lord of the Dance, Feet of Flames, and Celtic Tiger. He insured his dancing feet for $39 million.
The Vanity of Insuring Body Parts
Legs
David Beckham
– Beckham is a footballer who currently plays in midfield for Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer, having previously played for Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Milan, as well as the England national team, for whom he holds the all-time appearance record for an outfield player. His legs are insured for $70 million.
The Vanity of Insuring Body PartsFred Astaire - An American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute. Fred insured his legs for $150,000 – that’s $75,000 each.
The Vanity of Insuring Body PartsJamie Lee Curtis – An American actress and author. Although she was initially known as a "scream queen" because of her starring roles in many horror films early in her career such as Halloween, The Fog, Prom Night and Terror Train, Curtis has since compiled a body of work that covers many genres. Her 1998 book, Today I Feel Silly, and Other Moods That Make My Day, made the best-seller list in The New York Times. Her legs were insured for $2 million.
The Vanity of Insuring Body PartsAngie Dickinson – Insured her legs for $1 million. She is an American actress. She had appeared in more than 50 films, including Rio Bravo, Ocean's 11, Dressed to Kill and Pay It Forward, and starred on television as Sergeant Suzanne "Pepper" Anderson on the 1970s crime series Police Woman.
The Vanity of Insuring Body PartsMariah Carey – An American Pop/R&B singer-songwriter, record producer and actress. She made her recording debut, in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola and became the first recording artist to have her first five singles top the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. She insured her legs for a billion. Gosh!
The Vanity of Insuring Body PartsRhianna – An English R&B singer.Insured her legs for $1 million.
The Vanity of Insuring Body PartsHeidi Klum – A German American model, actress, television host, business woman, fashion designer, television producer, artist, and occasional singer. She is married to English singer Seal. Her legs are insured for $2.2 million.
Vanity Insuring Body PartsTina Turner – An American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have earned her the title The Queen of Rock 'n' Roll.Her legs are insured for $3.2 million.
The Vanity of Insuring Body PartsBetty Grable – Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the LIFE magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World". Grable was particularly noted for having the most beautiful legs in Hollywood and studio publicity widely dispersed photos featuring them. Hosiery specialists of the era often noted the ideal proportions of her legs as: thigh (18.5") calf (12"), and ankle (7.5").She insured her legs for $1 million.
The Vanity of Insuring Body PartsMary Hart – Insured her legs for $1 million.She is an American television personality and has been the host of the syndicated gossip and entertainment round-up program Entertainment Tonight since 1982.
The Vanity of Insuring Body PartsBrooke Shields – An American actress, author and model. Some of her better-known movies include Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon, as well as TV shows such as Suddenly Susan, That 70's Show and Lipstick Jungle. Her legs are insured for an undisclosed amount.
The Vanity of Insuring Body Parts
Sperm
David Lee Roth
– An American rock vocalist, songwriter, actor, author, and former radio personality, best known as the original and current lead singer of Van Halen. He was widely respected and emulated as one of the greatest frontmen of hard rock during his early career with Van Halen. He took out a million dollar policy against his sperm.  The insurance was just in case Roth fathered a child and a paternity suit ensured.
The Vanity of Insuring Body Parts
Posterior
Suzana Alves
- A major Brazilian sex symbol. The issue of the Brazilian Playboy that featured Alves is one of the best-selling ones of all times for the Brazilian edition of the magazine. The Playmate allegedly insured her knees, ankles and derriere for a cool $2 million in exchange for posing in billboard advertisements for the insurer.
Vanity Insuring Body Parts
From the Waist to the Head:
Waist
Bette Davis
– An American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres; from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comedies, though her greatest successes were her roles in romantic dramas. Her waistline was insured for $28,000 – a tidy sum back in the day.
The Vanity of Insuring Body Parts
Breast
Dolly Parton
– Insured her breasts for $600,000. She's an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best-known for her work in country music. In the four-and-a-half decades since her national-chart début, she remains one of the most-successful female artists in the history of the country genre which garnered her the title of 'The Queen of Country Music".
The Vanity of Insuring Body PartsOrnilla Muti- Muti modeled as a teenager and made her film debut in 1970 in La moglie più bella (aka The Most Beautiful Wife). She has primarily worked in Italian films but she made her British film debut as Princess Aura in Flash Gordon in 1980. American movies she appeared in include Oscar (1991) and Once Upon a Crime (1992). She is mostly known to the French for appearing in a TV commercial of Giovanni Panzani pasta. Her breasts were insured for $350,000.
The Vanity of Insuring Body Parts
Chest Hair
Tom Jones
–  Jones is particularly noted for his powerful voice and overt sexuality. Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung nearly every form of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel. Since 1965, Jones has sold over 150 million records. His chest hair is insured for $7 million. 
The Vanity of Insuring Body Parts
Hands/Fingers
Keith Richards
– Insured his hands for $1.6 Million. He is an English guitarist, songwriter, singer, record producer and a founding member of The Rolling Stones. As a guitarist, Richards is known for his innovative rhythm playing. In 2003 he ranked 10th on Rolling Stone magazine's "Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
The Vanity of Insuring Body PartsJeff Beck-  Jeff Beck was ranked 14th in Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". MSNBC has called him a "guitarist's guitarist" and Rolling Stone magazine has described him as "one of the most influential lead guitarists in rock". Much of Beck's recorded output has been instrumental, with a focus on innovative sound and his releases have spanned genres ranging from blues-rock, heavy metal, jazz fusion and most recently, an additional blend of guitar-rock and electronica. No wonder he insured $1 million policy — on each talented finger he has.
The Vanity of Insuring Body Parts
Voice
Marlene Dietrich
– Took out a $1 million policy in case she lost her voice. Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself. In 1920s Berlin, she acted on the stage and in silent films. Her performance as Lola-Lola in The Blue Angel, directed by Josef von Sternberg, brought her international fame and a contract with Paramount Pictures in the US. Hollywood films such as Shanghai Express and Desire capitalised on her glamour and exotic looks, cementing her stardom and making her one of the highest paid actresses of the era.
The Vanity of Insuring Body PartsRod Stewart – With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with The Jeff Beck Group and then Faces. He launched his solo career in 1969 with his debut album An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down (US: The Rod Stewart Album). His work with The Jeff Beck Group and Faces proved to be influential on the formation of the heavy metal and punk rock genres, respectively. His raspy voice is insured for $6 million.
The Vanity of Insuring Body PartsBruce Springsteen – Springsteen is widely known for his brand of heartland rock infused with pop hooks, poetic lyrics, and Americana sentiments centered on his native New Jersey. His voice is insured for $6 million.
The Vanity of Insuring Body Parts

Mustache
Merv Hughes
– A right-arm fast bowler, he represented Australia between 1985 and 1994 in 53 Test matches, taking 212 wickets. His trademark is his long mustache and he had his whiskers insured for $317,000.
The Vanity of Insuring Body Parts
Nose
Jimmy Durante
– His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s. His jokes about his nose included referring to it as a "Schnozzola", and the word became his nickname. Thus he insured his nose for $50,000.
Vanity Insuring Body Parts
Smile/Teeth
America Ferrer
– Insured her smile for $10 million. She's an actress who is known for playing the lead role in the television series Ugly Betty. She also starred in the movies Real Women Have Curves, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, its sequel Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, and The Dry Land.
The Vanity of Insuring Body PartsKen Dodd – A British comedian and singer songwriter, famous for his buck teeth, frizzy hair, feather duster (or "tickling stick"), and his catchphrases, often playing on the 'tickled' motif, ex: "How tickled I am!".His famous buck teeth are insured for $7.4 million.
The Vanity of Insuring Body Parts
Taste Buds
Egon Ronay
– The world-renown food critic insured his taste buds for $400,000. He is a Hungarian-born food critic who wrote and published a famous series of guides to British and Irish restaurants and hotels in the 1950s and 60s. He was an innovator when Britain had little appreciation of foreign cuisine.
The Vanity of Insuring Body PartsAngela Mount-  Angela is highly experienced in the wine industry and is widely credited with revolutionising wine on the high street, making quality wine accessible to the masses. 16 Million is the cost of her insured taste buds.
Vanity Insuring Body Parts
Eyes
Ben Turpin
-  He is best remembered for his work in silent films and of course on his crossed eyes. According to Time.com the crossed eyes of Ben Turpin, cinemactor, were insured for $100,000, the money payable to his producer, Mack Sennett, if the eyes become normal.
The Vanity of Insuring Body Parts
Hair
Troy Polamalu
- Polamalu is of Samoan descent and was raised by his mother's family. Born Troy Aumua, he petitioned in 2007 to change his legal name to his mother's maiden name of Polamalu, which he had been using for the previous fifteen years. Procter & Gamble decided to take out a $1 million policy on the football player's long locks.
The Vanity of Insuring Body Parts
I can't imagine why celebrities spend their money for this kind of insurance. Oh well, its their life. However many people in simple workwear uniforms find it hard to buy those things  that they really needed in order to live, ironically, those celebrities  spent  ample amount of money for an insurance that you can't even eat nor wear. The irony of life isn't it?

Back to Featured Articles on Logo Paperblog

Magazine