9. Richard Gere's Gerbil
The Rumour: An urban legend that seems to have attached itself to Gere for some reason, the tale of the actor who showed up at an hospital emergency room with anal bleeding and pain, looking rather sheepish, is one that has circled the internet for almost as long as there have been websites to visit. The examination would later reveal a dead gerbil, coaxed into its unlikely, uncomfortable grave using a cardboard tube, where it would have provided the host with some extreme sensory pleasure as it tried to claw its way out. Oh God,
imagine!
The Truth: Regardless of how many people claim to who someone who knows someone who has seen an XRay of the offending rodent, it's ridiculous, though Gere's silence on the matter for so long added fuel to the silly fires. He did eventually reference it however in an interview, putting an end to speculation (as if it were even needed)...
"I stopped reading the press a long time ago. Lots of crazy things came up about me at first, especially from the tabloids. There is an infamous 'Gere stuck a hamster up his bum' urban myth."
So far, that statement has done very little to extinguish the rumours. Like I said, the fiction is often more appealing than the fact - despite how deeply wrong that sort of speculation is.