Does anyone have the time? Oh, never mind, we see it. Here's Flavor Flav wearing one of his trademark timepieces backstage at the 1989 American Music Awards. We don't know who's holding the camera, but he doesn't look all that happy to see them. His friend, Tupac Shakur, looks a little happier though.
Still making their names back in the late 80s, both Flav and Shakur would become icons of the West Coast rap music scene, Shakur in his own right and Flav as part of the iconic group Public Enemy. Truly breaking through into the mainstream in the early to mid-1990s, both acts were hugely influential in bringing social and political content into rap music and popularizing it to the point it became part of the national conversation. Whilst Shakur's life was tragically cut short in 1996, Public Enemy continue making music to this day.
To insure one’s house, one’s car or to underwrite a life insurance policy, that is common practice. But who would pay an insurance premium for his/her thumb, legs or smile? Stars, of course.
At the top of the ranking are the legs of Mariah Carey, worth 810 million USD: The diva became, in 2006, the Gillette brand muse for the advertising campaign «Legs of a Goddess». She then took out an insurance policy with London Lloyds to protect her legs, a decision that is far from being insignificant. Among its customers, the London insurer then included several icons of music, such as Bob Dylan or Rod Stewart.
David Beckham’s body insured for 195 million USD: European champion with Manchester United in 1999, David Beckham was in 2006 the most renowned footballer of the planet. In relation to his sporting activities, he took out an insurance cover for his legs. The huge amount paid for his insurance would reportedly exceed the 103 million USD disbursed by Real Madrid for the cover of Christiano Ronaldo in 2009. The fashion model would later extend his insurance cover to his entire body.
15 million USD in insurance for Kim Kardashian’s curves: The curves of Kim Kardashian are her number one beauty asset. The reality TV star, who is crazy about plastic surgery, has underwritten an insurance policy worth 15 million USD to protect her famous butt.
The culinary critic Egon Ronay assured his taste buds: The famous Hungarian culinary critic has insured his taste buds since 1957, for the amount of 400 000 USD. An original insurance policy which allows him to cover his sense of taste without which he will no longer be able to practice his job.