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3. Johnny Depp: Clourophobia

A fear of clowns is no laughing matter, especially to Johnny Depp and Sean "P. Diddy" Combs.

"Something about the painted face, the fake smile," Depp told reporters while promoting Sleepy Hollow. "There always seemed to be a darkness lurking just under the surface, a potential for real evil."

Combs is also said to suffer from clourophobia. But he has repeatedly denied that his performance contracts call for a "no clown" clause, perhaps because it doesn't fit his bad-boy image.

Several years ago, Depp purchased a painting by John Wayne Gacy, the children's clown turned serial killer who tortured and killed 33 boys and young men.

The painting was a self-portrait of Gacy as "Pogo the Clown."

"They told me when I got it that the proceeds went to a charity or to the victims' families or something, but I found out that wasn't the case," Depp told the San Francisco Examiner.

Depp still finds clowns vexing. "Something must have happened when I was a kid," he recently told Entertainment Weekly. [Next: David Gest]