Celebrity Insurance - How Much Is It Worth To You?

I remember my mother talking about Betty Grable insuring her legs for $1 million dollars. That got me thinking about the business of insuring body parts, which further got me thinking about who would do something like that.

Thinking it was very rare, imagine my surprise to find that not only isn't it rare, it is, in fact, pretty common for celebrities to insure that which is considered a benefit to their career.

I did some research on the subject and what I found was pretty interesting. Not only did Betty Grable
insure her legs for $1 million, so did Mary Hart, co-host of Entertainment Tonight. Not to be out-done, super-model Heidi Klum, insured her legs for $1.96 million, according to the Washingtonpost.com, who wrote, "Phillips, de Pury and Co. made the assessment based on length, shape, rarity and commercial value". Hum. My legs certainly don't rate a $1 million dollar insurance policy. Sometimes life is not fair.

So I looked at other celebrities to see what they insured and I found some pretty interesting body parts. According to Bankrate.com, these celebrities have all insured body parts:


Jimmy Durante's nose? $50,000
Marlene Dietrich's voice? $1 million
Dolly Parton's breasts? $600,000
Michael Flatley's (Lord of the Dance) legs? $25 million

Bruce Springsteen's voice? $6 million

Again, according to Bankrate.com: "Surprisingly, one category where you would expect lots of insured parts -- the world of sports -- yields none. While one would expect that superstars like Kobe Bryant, Randy Johnson or Roger Clemens would have more insured arms that the United States military, it turns out that the sports world finds little time to quibble with details"

It seems that if the athletes want to insure parts, they have to do it themselves. Well, except Tiger Woods, whose insurance premium would be more per year than he makes from the game of golf. Most of his income is from endorsements. Ballplayer Juan Gonzalez insured himself as a free agent with a $50 million disability policy.

People have insured their taste buds, their teeth, their hands (Keith Richards), a moustache, their eyes, policies against weight gain, fingers, even buttocks.


One can only hope that Clay Aiken has insured that glorious voice of his.





Thanks to Tasapio for the picture the extraordinary Clay Aiken.

Technorati tags: Clay Aiken, Celebrity, Insurance, Betty Grable, Bruce Springsteen, Keith Richards, Tiger Woods

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