OCDs: Obsessive Celebrity Disorders

Chris Martin can’t go on stage without his 18-step ritual and Hillary Clinton needs chilli peppers to fire her up. Katie Stalker rounds up the strange habits of the stars
Katie Stalker30 October 2014

Christopher Nolan

The enigmatic director of Interstellar bans chairs on set. Matthew Modine of The Dark Knight Rises confirmed: ‘He gets out of his car and goes to the set. He stands up until lunchtime. And then he stands up until they say “Wrap”.’

Chris Martin

The consciously uncoupled Coldplay frontman has 18 rituals that are ‘too ridiculous to repeat’, to make sure he feels ‘smart enough’ for the crowd before performing. One of these involves aggressively brushing his teeth… so they’re not ‘all yellow’.

Hillary Rodham Clinton

The former First Lady’s biographer revealed that eating chilli peppers helps to fuel Clinton’s crazy travel schedule. She started eating them in 1992, claiming, ‘It keeps my metabolism revved up and keeps me healthy.’ Hot on the heels of Obama in more ways than one.

David Beckham

Becks suffers from (actual) OCD. He has to line up his Pepsi cans in the fridge, and rearranges entire hotel rooms, calling it a ‘tiring’ ritual to go through. Victoria claims ‘everything has to match in the house’, which could explain Gordon Ramsay’s recent Beckhamesque haircut when he went for dinner.

Prince

The purple one reportedly requests that there are ‘no stairs’ at his hotels while on tour, and bans paintings or photos of animals from his dressing rooms. He also doesn’t like ‘obstructive rugs’ in his room — but then, who does?

Anna Wintour

US Vogue editor Anna Wintour is a keen tennis player, rising at 5am to fit in a game before work. ‘She’s so fast,’ says her coach Byron Spence. ‘She’s like a retriever, she’ll chase down everything.’ No wonder she has a fierce reputation.

Haruki Murakami

‘Writing a long novel is like survival training,’ says the bestselling author. He gets up at 4am and works for five to six hours on his book. He then squeezes in a 10km run or a 1,500m swim — or both. He keeps to this regime for six months to a year when writing a novel. Might explain why IQ84 was such a marathon.

Rafael Nadal

The tennis ace has a 12-step routine he goes through before every serve. His other quirks on court include towelling his face after every point, left side then right, and lining up his water bottles with the labels facing the baseline he’s playing from. If only that was all it took to be a 14-time Grand Slam champion.

Simon Cowell

As if he’s not uptight enough already, the TV judge has ‘really good attention to detail’. He checks every part of the studio and can ‘see if a light bulb is out at 100 metres’. Shame his knack for spotting duds doesn’t extend to The X Factor.

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