Celeb body secrets revealed!

Think you need to be perfect to rule the hearts of millions? Think again. From seven-inch scars to mismatched eyes, and even partial paralysis, some of the best loved stars in the world have battled challenges posed by their own bodies to come out on top.

According to recent reports, a hand double was used in raunchy new advertisement featuring Hollywood actress Megan Fox. She suffers from a genetic condition called brachydactyly, characterised in Megan's case by clubbed thumbs. In the ad, she can be seen reclining in a bubble bath in the promotional clip for Motorola which was aired on television in the US during the Super Bowl. Despite drafting in a replacement pair of hands for the advert, experts have previously said Megan's problem is not serious. Leading New York hand surgeon Steven Bendner said last year: "Literally what it means is short finger. The nail of the thumb in this condition is often very short and wide. It is usually hereditary."

Despite his Greek God looks, Hrithik Roshan also didn't have a smooth ride to stardom. He has an extra digit on his right hand. The additional thumb is a small extension which curves inwards towards his main thumb. That wasn't the only prank fate played on Hrithik. He also had to fight hard to overcome a stammering problem. Being the son of a famous father didn't help. "I had this extra thumb...I stammered and in school - you know what kids are like - well, it was hell most of the time," Hrithik has been quoted as saying. Then at the age of 21, he was also diagnosed with scoliosis, a medical condition in which a person's spine is curved from side to side. Truly, for Duggu, there has been much grit behind the glamour.

"Bipasha Basu is one of the sexiest women in the world. Her eyes make her sexy. The rest can't be captured by the camera," director Sanjay Gadhavi was quoted as saying about the Bengali Bombshell. Ironic, given that Bipasha's eyes are not perfectly matched. The 'Beedi Jalaile' girl was herself conscious of the fact once upon a time. "One eye is small, there's a dimple happening somewhere. I don't really know how to judge my looks," Bipasha said in a 2004 interview. "But I think I am an interesting package," she added. Her legion of fans would certainly agree.

Pooja Bhatt has always taken pride in breaking the mould - first as an actress and now as a filmmaker. Her unconventional looks - Pooja's eyes are slightly different in size - and her unconventional roles in films like Daddy and Zakhm - made her stand out in an industry that places great value on stale formulas and jaded clichés.

Not many would dare make fun of Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan's big ears. No one perhaps, except Aamir himself. "Absolutely thrilled with the response I am getting to my new look. My ears REALLY stick out though. Big Ears, that is what I was called as a kid," that is what the actor wrote on his blog in 2008. He again referred to his prominently shaped organs while replying to a fan on his blog the same year: "Ha ha. Well I'm glad you liked it (the film Ghajini) Praf. And I do hope our big ears bring us luck. Cheers."

There is another man who takes almost as much pride in his big ears as Aamir. In fact Will Smith claims his ears are the secret to his success. "It's right here. That's the key. America loves ears, you know? Mickey Mouse started it; Goofy and Dumbo followed behind. And America just loves the ears," is what the Men in Black actor told MTV.

Czech supermodel and former Victoria's Secret Angel Karolina Kurkova does not seem to have a fully formed belly button. According to her agent, she had an operation as a baby that left her with a strangely smooth tummy. "It's a fact and just thank God she's healthy," he was quoted as saying. Doctors have suggested umbilical hernia as a possible cause for her condition.

While King of Pop Michael Jackson was alive, there was a great deal of interest in the deteriorating condition of his face that had reportedly been ravaged by too many plastic surgeries. In one of his courtroom appearances, MJ's nose actually seemed to be crumbling. The popstar's numerous medical problems resulted in his death on June 25, 2009.

Many rumours used to circulate about the half-moon scars under soul singer Seal's eyes. While some said it was a form of 'tribal scarring', others attributed even more sinister reasons. The truth however is that as a child, Seal suffered from the skin disease discoid lupus erythematosus, which causes inflammation, scarring and hair loss. In an interview, Seal admitted the scars had bothered him at first, but he had grown to like them as some kind of 'omen of stardom'. "If I could design something, I don't think I could do it better," he was quoted as saying.

Socialite Paris Hilton's drooping left eye is reportedly the result of an eye lift surgery gone wrong. The surgery is believed to have left the muscles of her left eyelid damaged, making it droop more than the right one. But some believe the condition is congenital and the use of coloured contacts could have made it worse. Paris often uses glamorous hairstyles and makeup to disguise the condition of her lazy eye. According to some unconfirmed reports, she's planning surgery to get make the left eye appear normal.

Sylvester Stallone who immortalised such action figures as John Rambo and Rocky Balboa, suffers from partial paralysis. Complications his mother suffered during labor forced her obstetricians to use pairs of forcepses during his birth; these severed a nerve and caused paralysis in parts of Stallone's face, resulting in his signature slurred speech and drooping lower lip.

Gap-toothed Madonna proves you don't have to have an ultra-white, ultra-straight smile to be a pop icon. In fact Madonna is so proud of her gapped front teeth, that any attempt to meddle with them attracts her ire. Glamour magazine learnt that the hard way when they decided to airbrush the quirky dentures out of a 1990 cover shoot. An incensed Madonna refused to accept the magazine's 'Woman of the Year' award.

Another woman who loves showing off her gap-toothed smile is Dutch model Lara Stone. Some of the world's leading fashion magazines, including Vogue, Elle, The Journal, V magazine, i-D, and W, have found Lara hot enough to feature on their covers. (Photo Courtesy: i-D magazine)

Other famous gap-toothed beauties include actress Brigitte Bardot, former American model Lauren Hutton, the winner of Australia's Next Topmodel Tahnee Atkinson, Australian model Abbey Lee Kershaw and French singer and actress Vanessa Paradis.

While a facial mole may be annoying for lesser mortals, the one above Marilyn Monroe's lip, along her dimple line, became her beauty mark. The mole was probably erased with make-up in her early career but appears consistently in all her later photos.

Other famous celebrities with prominent facial moles include Robert DeNiro, Sherilyn Fenn, and Cindy Crawford.

Actress Kate Bosworth, who played Lois Lane in Superman Returns (2006), was born with sectoral heterochromia, resulting in a hazel section at the bottom of her right blue eye, while the left is completely blue. She was spared having to wear uncomfortable contact lenses throughout the making of Superman Returns because director Bryan Singer decided her odd eyes were perfect for her role as Lois Lane.

According to some, Lily Allen's third nipple has now become more famous than Lily Allen herself. The English recording artist, talk show host, and actress has a supernumerary nipple just below her left breast. Allen is proud of this little oddity that she didn't mind showing it off during an interview on Dutch TV.

American actress Marlee Matlin has been deaf since she was 18 months old. In 1986 she became the youngest woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, which she won at the age of 21 for Children of a Lesser God.

American actress, comedienne, writer, and producer Tina Fey has a scar a few inches long on the left side of her chin and cheek. Responding to questions about its origin, Fey was quoted in the November 25, 2001, New York Times article as saying: "It's a childhood injury that was kind of grim. And it kind of bums my parents out for me to talk about it". But in an interview with Fey and Richmond in the January 2009 issue of Vanity Fair, Richmond revealed the scar resulted from a slashing incident, which happened when she was five. (Wikipedia)

Former Pussycat Dolls singer Carmit Bachar was born with a cleft lip and cleft palate. It has been reported that she wishes to form a non-profit organization called 'Smile With Me': "I want to have my own charity for children and adults who are born with a cleft palate. I was born with one and I want to educate and inspire people by saying that inner beauty is more important than looks." (Wikipedia)

Gorgeous Indian American cookbook author, actress, and model Padma Lakshmi was involved in a horrific car accident when she was just 14. Although surgery mended a fractured right hip and shattered upper right arm, it left a 7-inch scar between her elbow and shoulder. In an interview to Vogue, this is what Padma Lakshmi had to say about the scar: "In my career as an actress, the scar is no longer an issue. I cover it when necessary, but I prefer not to, especially in my private life. I love my scar. It is so much a part of me. I'm not sure I would remove it even if a doctor could wave a magic wand and delete it from my arm. The scar has singled me out and made me who I am."

American film actress, fashion designer, and former model Chloë Sevigny is one of the several celebrities who suffer from Scoliosis, a condition where the spine curves to one side or the other. This causes the ribs attached to the vertebrae to protrude, usually on the right side.

Bond Girl Gemma Arterton is exceptional not just because of her beauty, but also because she was born with six fingers in each hand. "It's my little oddity that I'm really proud of," she told Esquire magazine. "It makes me different." The condition, called Polydactyly, occurs in 1 of every 500 births. As a child, the surplus digits were 'tied', and this caused the boneless protrusions to fall off with time. But she still has bumpy scars where her extra appendages once were. Gemma, who played Agent Fields in the Bond movie Quantum of Solace, also had a crumpled ear at birth. It was later corrected with surgery.

American model, actress, Playboy Playmate, reality television contestant and winner of Dancing with the Stars (Season 1) Kelly Monaco is hard of hearing. A scuba diving accident during a Playboy shoot in 1998 resulted in permanent hearing loss.

Ukrainian actress Mila Kunis, who differently coloured eyes, was named one of Stuff magazine's 102 Sexiest Women In The World in 2002. Her left eye is green and the right one is blue. It's a rare condition called heterochromia iridis.

Actress Daryl Hannah starred in Splash and Blade Runner while missing part of her left index finger. In a 2001 story in The Sunday Times of South Africa, Hannah explained: "I got my finger stuck in the pulley of a well at my grandmother's house when I was three." Good luck spotting the missing digit onscreen: it's almost always hidden behind gloves, coats, guns, etc. (www.who2.com)

Cameron Diaz, Victoria Beckham and Britney Spears, three very attractive women, have all struggled with acne. For Diaz, the problem isn't new. She has had it since she was a teenager in high school. Not only pimples but she has had acne scars too. "I had terrible skin problems. I tried everything--facials, products, medication--but my skin didn't change significantly until I stopped smoking two years ago. And the further away I get from cigarettes, the better my skin keeps getting," she told Self magazine in an interview.

The trademark bump in Hollywood funnyman Owen Wilson's nose is the result of two accidents. Owen broke it twice, once in a high school scuffle and the other time while playing football with friends. "You know, probably my nose wouldn't have been that great even if it hadn't been broken," he told the Los Angeles Times in 2001.

Actor John Travolta finally overcame his fear of balding after learning that fans liked his shaved-head look in new crime thriller From Paris with Love. "I was worried my whole life about losing my hair and now it's a celebratory thing. Everybody's loving it. I'm relieved. It's perfect for the character. I go all the way to make a character work but when you get the audience's approval of it, it's exciting," contactmusic.com quoted Travolta as saying. (IANS)

Kim Kardashian loves who she is, cellulite and all. When Complex magazine airbrushed her cover shot to hide some cellulite, the American celebutante, socialite, model, actress, and television personality hit back by posting before and after shots on her own website. (Photo Courtesy: Ralph magazine)

She may have been one of the most beautiful women to ever grace the silver screen, but Audrey Hepburn, disliked her crooked teeth, large feet, and flat chest. "I never thought I'd land in pictures with a face like mine," she once said. Incidentally she wore a size 10 shoe.

Contrary to popular belief, the scar on actor Joaquin Phoenix's lip is not the result of a repaired cleft lip or palate. It is simply a birth mark. There is even a story behind it. Phoenix has stated in interviews that his mother, while pregnant with him, felt a sharp pain one day and he was born with a scar on his lip.

Pop star David Bowie's two-tone cat eyes are the result of a childhood fight. When Bowie was fifteen years old, his friend, George Underwood, wearing a ring on his finger, punched him in the left eye during a fight over a girl. Bowie was forced to stay out of school for eight months so that doctors could conduct operations to repair his potentially blinded eye. Doctors could not fully repair the damage, leaving his pupil permanently dilated. As a result of the injury, Bowie has faulty depth perception. Bowie has stated that although he can see with his injured eye, his colour vision was mostly lost and a brownish tone is constantly present. Each iris has the same blue colour, but since the pupil of the injured eye is wide open, the hue of that eye is commonly mistaken to be different. (Wikipedia)

Actor Harrison Ford sports a scar on his chin. The scar in fact featured in the third installment of the Indiana Jones' trilogy where River Phoenix, playing the young Indiana Jones, cut his chin in the exact same location as Ford's scar. Ford reportedly picked up the injury in a car accident.

While not many would be able to take their eyes off stunning Welsh beauty Catherine Zeta Jones long enough to notice the depressed vertical scar around her neck, it is certainly there. In several interviews Zeta-Jones has said the scar is a result of a tracheotomy performed when she was a young girl.

There's one more thing noteworthy about Sharon Stone other than her Basic Instinct. It's the dramatic scar around her neck. She is believed to have got the mark after running into a taut cord while riding horseback.

Actor Denzel Washington broke the pinky finger of his right hand during a childhood basketball accident and never had it set correctly, resulting in the finger healing in a crooked position. The finger is still crooked to this day, bent at the bottom knuckle a full 45 degrees outward from his other fingers. (IMDb)