12 obsessive celebs - a life less disorder-nary

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or OCD, is just as prevalent in Hollywood, and increasingly stars are admitting they suffer from the disorder which is characterised by obsessive rituals and bizarre compulsions. From David Beckham's fridge fidgeting to Cameron Diaz's knob juggling, it certainly seems that in a world where you can't be too rich or too thin, you can be too obsessed

Cameron Diaz
Obsession: Doorknobs
The sexy In Her Shoes star is arguably Hollywood's most compulsive celeb. Not only does she open doors with her elbows to avoid touching germ-infested knobs - doorknobs, that is - she also admits to scrubbing her Hollywood home scrupulously and washing her hands 'many times' each day. 'I'm not scared of germs,' she explains, 'I'm just not into other people's fluids...'

Jessica Alba
Obsession: Perfectionism
Jessica Alba has revealed she battled OCD during her childhood. The 24-year-old Fantastic Four beauty thinks the mental condition has helped her acting career and feels proud of having managed to control her professional life. 'I can be a little obsessive compulsive about things, but that just means that when I do things, I do them proficiently and I do them to the best of my ability,' says the Sin City star. 'I think a lot of actors have OCD. I think it's part of being creative, whether your outlet is acting or science or maths,' she adds. 'Whatever it is, it takes some sort of drive to get anywhere,' Alba concluded.

Billy Bob Thornton
Obsession: Repetition
Eccentric actor Billy Bob Thornton, whose bizarre rituals during his marriage to Angelina Jolie were well-documented, explains his particular penchant for repetitive compulsive actions. 'I have a little bit of OCD,' he says. 'The simple ones I can explain to you. The more complex ones, I don't even know how to tell anybody.' The Bad Santa star became very close to late rocker Warren Zevon after discovering they both suffered from OCD. 'Warren was one of my good friends dating back to the 1980s,' says the star. 'We met over obsessive compulsive disorder when we were neighbours in West Hollywood. He saw me at the mailbox taking my mail out and putting it back three times, and he said, 'You have that too, huh?' I adored him from then on.'

David Beckham
Obsession: Symmetry
Sven Goran Ericsson isn't the only member of the England team who worries about formations. The England captain and Real Madrid star has his own tactics for keeping the Beckham household in World Cup class. Not only does he insist on lining up his shirts according to their colour, his wife Victoria says he is obsessive about symmetry and order throughout their home. 'He's got that obsessive compulsive thing where everything has to match,' says Posh. 'If you open our fridge, it's all co-ordinated down either side. We've got three fridges - food in one, salad in another and drinks in the third. In the drinks one, everything is symmetrical. If there's three cans of Diet Coke, he'd throw one away rather than having three - because it has to be an even number.'

Alec Baldwin
Obsession: Cleaning
The Aviator star admits that over the years he's developed a huge fixation with cleaning things around his home. 'I'm very OCD, I find,' he says. 'I come home and I'm like, 'Did somebody move that book?' I just notice everything.' Baldwin adds 'I'll have to catch a plane, like I'm in a hurry to go somewhere, and I'm in my kitchen rinsing out the glasses. I have a housekeeper who can do that and I'm sitting there cleaning the glass.'

Jennifer Love Hewitt
Obsession: Closet doors
When asked once what she inherited from her mother, the stunning actress replied: 'Everything. I'm really strong like her, and very stubborn like her when it's something I really believe in,' she says. 'I also have a little OCD like her. Except we have it about different things. My Mom counts steps, while I cannot go to sleep if there are any cabinet doors or closets open in my house. It's very strange and weird.'

Leonardo Dicaprio
Obsession: Cracks in the pavement
Whilst researching for the role of eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes in The Aviator, the Hollywood heart-throb revisited his childhood obsession with cracks in the pavement in order to understand the mind of OCD sufferer Hughes. The star became so immersed in the role, that he was frequently late on set because of the compulsion to re-trace his footsteps avoiding the cracks in the pavement.

Paul Gascoigne
Obsession: Checking doors and lights The troubled ex-England soccer legend, famed for his antics both on and off the pitch has revealed that it is his obsession with his home that drives him to despair. His home must be spotless and he can't leave without repeatedly checking that the doors are locked and lights are off. The towels must also be aligned.

Jane Horrocks
Obsession: Blinking
The British actress tells of how becoming a mother saved her from extreme bouts of obsessive behaviour. The actress went through a phase concentrating on swallowing. Later on, it was on how many times she blinked. She only stopped when she had a child because she realised that when you have children 'you don't have time to be obsessed'.

Natalie Appleton
Obsession: Public toilets
The blonde former All Saints singer and I'm A Celebrity flop who famously broke down in front of British audiences, is also obsessed with cleaning. 'It controls my life and I need to do it now,' she says. 'I have an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder with things like public toilets.'

Fred Durst
Obsession: Unknown
The Limp Bizkit front man famously lives up to his rock and roll image but is also tormented by the condition. He refuses to be drawn on the subject in any depth although he admits that it dominates his life. 'It's tough man, it makes touring hell,' he says. 'It's something I've struggled with for a long time. I'm still coming to terms with it. But I'd actually rather not talk about it.'

Woody Allen
Obsession: Food and death
The infamous director is obsessed with death, but once joked: 'It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens.' It is well-documented that during the making of What's New Pussycat?, he ate potage du jour and sole daily for six months!