20. Clara Bow and the football team

Clara Bow was the quintessential flapper icon and one of the first Hollywood sex symbols, and the most famous example of the football gangbang rumor — was there one in your high school, too? The original "It Girl" (the star of 1927's hit comedy It) was playful, emotive and endlessly flirtatious. She also had a really shitty life; as a child, she was raped by her father and her prostitute mother tried to kill her while she slept. The movie studios who profited off her charm got tired of her unreliability. She was eventually sent to a mental institution, where she suffered shock therapy and died of a heart attack at age sixty.

The gangbang story originated in Kenneth Anger's sordid expose Hollywood Babylon, and gossip-hungry fans were happy to believe the titillating anecdotes. The always helpful Snopes.com offers a different story about Bow and the football team, citing her more sober biographer, David Stenn. Stenn interviewed the USC Trojans alleged to have slept with Bow and concluded that "the quaint reality of these evenings hardly corresponds with the scurrilous rumors spread about them later." Stern writes that Bow invited the team to her house for occasional parties and went on a date with quarterback Morley Drury, but that according to Drury, "nothing happened." Given how Bow's life turned out, it's nice to see Drury defending her honor. They don't make football players like they used to. — PS

19. James Dean, human ashtray

The rumors swirling around James Dean were reaching a fever pitch when he fatally crashed his car; Dean didn't live long enough to confirm or deny them. As a result, he's rumored to have slept with pretty much every woman — and man — in Hollywood. One of the best bits of hearsay appears in Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon, in which he reveals James Dean's nickname, The Human Ashtray. Why? Some say it's because Dean liked to extinguish cigarettes on his arms, but Anger claims that the nickname comes from Dean's visits to gay BDSM clubs, where he'd ask men to extinguish their cigarettes on his bare chest. True or false, it's an intriguing image — and given Dean's love of extremes, a plausible one. — GW

18. Jennifer Lopez insured her ass

According to tabloids in London (The Sun) and New York (The New York Post) Jennifer Lopez insured her entire body for $1 billion in 1999. According to the Post, Lopez's breasts were valued at $100 million each; her buttocks and legs combined went for $300 million. Finer details overlooked, the rumor soon became that her ample derriere alone had been insured for $1 billion. "The billion-dollar booty" — it's just catchier. Lopez denied the claims, but not very fervently: "I don't know where they got [that story] from. When I heard the story I thought it was very funny." Interestingly enough, Lopez's ass is not the only celebrity body part that is rumored to be financially guarded. Dolly Parton's breasts, male stripper Frankie Jankman's penis and both Bruce Springsteen and Rod Stewart's voices join the ranks as well. — KG

17. Marilyn Manson, sitcom star

Did Marilyn Manson have a rib removed so he could auto-fellate? Did he play nerdy Paul Pfeiffer on late-'80s sitcom The Wonder Years? Could Paul give himself a blowjob? This much we know: Manson was not on The Wonder Years. Josh Saviano played Kevin's best friend, and the ex-actor is alive and working as an attorney in NYC. In 2001 Saviano told Star that he didn't mind being mistaken for the rocker. "What would you rather have, people thinking you're a dorky kid from The Wonder Years or a Satanic rock star?" Saviano did not address the fellatio rumors, but Manson did. In his autobiography, The Long Hard Road Out of Hell (ghostwritten by The Game author Neil Strauss), he remarks, "If I really got my ribs removed, I would have been busy sucking my own dick on The Wonder Years instead of chasing Winnie Cooper." — Sarah Harrison

16. John Lennon had an affair with Brian Epstein

According to Albert Goldman's book, The Lives of John Lennon, the Beatle had an affair with the band's manager and close friend, Brian Epstein, from 1963 until Epstein's death in 1967. Two other authors, Peter Shotten and Hunter Davies, claimed that Lennon and Epstein had sex but not a long-term relationship. Lennon denied the rumor, telling Playboy in 1980 "it was never consummated, but we had a pretty intense relationship." Lennon's ex-wife Cynthia also refuted the claim in her memoir, John, saying, "[Like] most lads at the time, [John] was horrified by the idea of homosexuality." — SH

15. Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo had an affair

Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo may be a match made in lesbian heaven — but not in '30s Hollywood. In fact, Garbo and Dietrich were known as bitter rivals during their respective careers. Is it possible that in the more liberal environment of Weimar Germany, the two young actresses had an affair? Could their later Hollywood "rivalry" have been a PR ploy to keep their past hidden? Or are the stories only wish fulfillment, bolstered by their fiercely guarded private lives and androgynous screen personas? Dietrich's daughter, Maria Riva, addressed the rumors in her 1994 biography. Though she denies an affair, with The Advocate shows that she, like the rest of us, has engaged in some speculation. — GW

14. Admission to Yale's secret society, Skull and Bones, involves various sexual humiliations

Some of the nation's most prominent politicians, including George W. Bush and his father, are members of Yale's secret society Skull and Bones. Bonesmen are sworn to secrecy, so no one knows what really goes on in the Tomb (the group's on-campus headquarters), but rumors about bizarre initiation rituals and connections with shady organizations like the Illuminati and the CIA and have circulated through word of mouth and in publications like Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly and the New York Times. According to these reports, to gain admission to the sect, our future president lay naked in a coffin while masturbating and reciting his sexual history, participated in nude mud-wrestling matches, jumped into a pile of shit, kissed a skull and received $15,000 upon becoming a member. Bonesmen give each other secret names; supposedly Bush Sr. received the title "Magog," awarded to the inductee with the most sexual experience. Bush Jr. was allowed to choose his own nickname, but didn't come up with one, so the elders christened him "Temporary." Given W's infamous facility with comedic handles ("Turd Blossom" for Karl Rove, etc), this seems unlikely. — SH

13. Hitler had one testicle

"Hitler — has only got one ball/ Göring — has two but they are small. . . " That's the classic doggerel verse, set to the "Colonel Bogey March." (MIDI here; thanks, Wikipedia). But what's the truth behind it? While historians generally agree that Hermann Göring's testicles were of average size, the notion that Hitler had but one testicle (or a shrunken testicle, or a retracted testicle, or one smooth blue testicle and one fuzzy green testicle) actually has some grounding in history. A Soviet autopsy report from 1945 written by one Dr. Faust Shkaravski, reports that "the left testicle could not be found. . . " Very interesting, but dubious. First of all, Hitler's body, of course, was burned, removing any kind of testicular evidence. More importantly, Soviet documents are not noted for their untouched authority. In 1945, the Soviets had plenty of reasons to discredit Hitler. As Ron Rosenbaum writes in his fascinating book, Explaining Hitler, "the lost testicle has become a repository for the hope that some singular solution — an explicatory single-bullet theory — exists somewhere to explain everything." — PS

12. Anna Wintour's broken heart belongs to the late Bob Marley

A funny thought, surely; the queen of high-strung hauteur pining away for perhaps the most relaxed musician of all time. In Front Row: The Cool Life and Hot Times of Vogue's Editor-in-Chief, Jerry Oppenheimer claims that in the late '70s, when Marley was on tour in New York, Chris Blackwell of Island Records introduced the two, and Wintour "fell for" the Rastafarian. Wintour's rep gave no comment to "Page Six," but a friend reportedly told Oppenheimer that the editrix acted as if she'd "met God" and she "virtually disappeared for a week" while Marley was in town (presumably, she was back stage puffin' and lovin'.) "When Wintour finally resurfaced, she looked utterly worn out," Oppenheimer writes, "but [she] denied to friends she'd spent the week in Marley's bed." This doesn't seem like the kind of thing you'd deny, even if you were Anna Wintour, but then, who can fathom her frosty heart? — CB

11. Jamie Lee Curtis is intersex

Jamie Lee Curtis was born with a penis! Jamie Lee Curtis was born with an extra chromosome! We remember hearing these lines on the playground before we had any idea who Jamie Lee Curtis was. Curtis has never discussed her genital status, so let's consult a more entertaining source: the CHUD.com message boards. Writes "Cheese Biscuit," "She has two XXs and a Y chromosome. She's all woman physically, but she can't have kids due to the genetic defect." (According to imdb.com, Curtis' two kids with Christopher Guest are adopted. Gosh, this is getting awfully personal.) Replies "Brian Ross," "Her facial features are rather manish [sic]." In conclusion, arguments are strong on both sides of this important issue; judge for yourself. Incidentally, we're grateful for a job that allows us to spend hours Googling "jamie lee curtis hermaphrodite." — PS