Meryl Streep seems to have been almost dragged into a career in acting. Although she was a school play regular whilst she was growing up, she was never interested in taking performing arts seriously until she was cast in 'Miss Julie' at Vassar College and the bug finally bit her. From then on, she was a natural. She graduated from Vassar with a Bachelor of the Arts cum laude and went on to obtain a Master of Fine Arts from Yale.
Even despite all that, she almost walked away from the profession again a few years later. Having to balance waitressing with a number of stage roles that weren't paying the bills, she almost quit and went back to school to study law. It was only by working with Jane Fonda in 'Julia' that she was finally able to turn her hobby into a career, and she still credits Fonda with 'opening doors for me that I never even knew about'.
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.