9 Wild Celebrity Collections: Does Johnny Depp Really Collect Insects?
Sure, collecting is a pretty common hobby. Lots of people collect coins or stamps or even trading cards. But celebrities, with their inflated resources and money, can go above and beyond when accumulating their favorite things. We’ve found a few examples of stars’ interesting collections, from macabre to childlike to just plain weird.
Jay Leno – Cars
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Leno is famous for his serious car collection and even has a popular CNBC show called Jay Leno’s Garage where he shows off some of his carefully handpicked cars. The collection (as of 2018) consists of around 169 automobiles and 117 motorcycles.
Rod Stewart – Trains
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Almost the entire third floor of Stewart’s L.A. home is devoted to his 1,500-square-foot model train set, which features a big city of skyscrapers inspired by New York City in the 1940s. The set is said to have over 100 structures, some more than 5 feet tall. Railroad Modeller Magazine featured it in their December 2019 issue and since then Sir Rod Stewart has spent 10 months relocating it to his home in the UK.
Nicolas Cage – Comic Books
The only thing more MASSIVE than the a$$hole who stole Nick's comics is our excitement for #MassiveTalent April 22. Get your ticket now: https://t.co/24Ew36xJnt pic.twitter.com/sXwJUnJGdj
— Massive Talent (@NickCageMovie) April 14, 2022
Cage is a giant comic book fan, taking his stage name from the Marvel superhero Luke Cage (he also named his son Kal-El after DC Comics’ Superman) and was known to hold one of the rarest comics of all, the Action Comics No. 1. Sadly this issue and much of his collection were stolen in 2011. Although the 9.0 graded Action Comics No. 1 was recovered and sold at auction for 2.1 million dollars the rest of the collection is still missing and had this to say about it in April of 2022
Penelope Cruz – Coat Hangers
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Cruz is said to have over 500 hangers in her collection, with a notable exception — the actress hates wire hangers and refuses to keep them in her house! It’s unknown whether Cruz actually hangs her clothes on them, or if they’re in a special place of their own.
Elton John – Glasses
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In 2010, John told BBC Radio, “I do have a quarter of a million pairs of glasses.” No image of Elton John is complete without him wearing one of his signature sets of shades — the more colorful, the better!
Johnny Depp – Insects
Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for The Red Sea International Film Festival
In an early interview, Depp claimed his interest in bugs started with him reading the Kafka classic The Metamorphosis and relating to the main character. Not only does Depp collect insects of all types, but he also collects limited-edition Barbies, rare books and animal skeletons!
Tom Hanks – Typewriters
Gravitas Ventures/courtesy Everett Collection
Hanks owns a variety of vintage manual typewriters and is known to take one with him while traveling. He uses them to write letters, wrote a book of short stories that all feature typewriters (appropriately titled Uncommon Type) and even created an app, the Hanx Writer, which simulates writing on a typewriter. He also appears in the documentary California Typewriter (pictured below).
Demi Moore – Dolls
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
Moore is said to have amassed thousands of vintage dolls, a collection that started with then-husband Bruce Willis gifting her the very first one. She reportedly keeps them in their very own full-size house.
Jane Seymour – Costumes
Tony Esparza/CBS/courtesy Everett Collection
“I’m the only actress that I can think of who had in her contract that she could keep the costume,” Seymour shared in an interview. “So, I have costumes from almost everything I’ve ever done. I have all the best Dr. Quinn costumes right here in my closet, including some of Sully’s pieces, and I have costumes going back to The Sun Also Rises, which I did way back. Karl Lagerfeld personally designed and created four dresses for that through the house of Chanel. I even have the waistcoat that Christopher Reeve gave me that had the penny in it in Somewhere in Time.”
The Collectibles Issue
August 2019
Take a tour of the collectible world, from celebrities with unusual acquisitions to regular folks who have turned playthings into a profitable passion.
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