Ghostly encounters of the A-list kind
Love a good ghost story? Well, we've goosebumps galore this Halloween, courtesy of these spooky shenanigans of the stars…
Rex FeaturesAriana Grande
This is, like, super-creepy. The lovely Ariana had a particularly terrifying supernatural experience when visiting Stull Cemetery in Kansas City, known as one of the seven gates of hell on Earth. GAH. "I felt this sick, overwhelming feeling of negativity over the whole car and we smelled sulphur, which is the sign of a demon." Later, Ariana spoke of "weird things" occurring, like "whispers" in the night, along with "disturbing images with, like, red shapes" and this "massive black matter."
Rex FeaturesLady Gaga
Lady G doesn’t want some spook upstaging her. The kooky popstar once paid $5,000 for a ghost-busting machine, including an electro-magnetic field reader, to do a "spirit-seeking sweep" of the venues on her Monster’s Ball tour. Who ya gonna call?
Rex FeaturesKate Hudson
This starlet's had her fair share of ghostly encounters. Kate’'s revealed that she once saw a "ghost of a woman with no face" in a London pad her mother, Goldie Hawn, rented, and that she's also felt her late grandmother's presence: "[she] came to me and I woke up and felt amazing that she was around me." "I've seen ghosts plenty of times," she said, rather blasé. We don’t know that we'd be quite so cool...
Rex FeaturesMatthew McConaughey
One of our favourite star spook stories by far, Magic Matt has spoke of a 'Madame Blue' – his chosen moniker for his pervy spectre – who haunts his Hollywood home and enjoys his frequent nudity. "She has no qualms with me. We get along just fine. She's a cool ghost. Maybe me being nude all the time is why we get along!" Indeed. He admits he freaked out at first, however, stating that upon hearing noises in the night, he leapt from his bed butt-naked (natch) and ran around the house like a madman with a baseball bat.
PA PhotosDemi Lovato
"I totally believe in ghosts," Demi said. "I saw a little girl, and she was dressed like she was from the 1800s. And [she] was just standing in my closet." Creepy, right? Well get a load of this: the starlet then claimed that after speaking to her mother about the incident, mum revealed that she’d once walked in on little Demi at the age of five talking to herself and clutching a photo of a little girl in period costume. When she asked who she was talking to, Demi replied: "She's my best friend, Victoria". GAH!
Rex FeaturesAngelina Jolie
Famously close to her late mother, Ange believes the spirit of Marcheline Bertrand has remained close to her even after her 2007 death. She says she’s still "in contact" and that she’s "there, present all the time" around her and Brad's brood of six. "I feel in contact with my mother when I look at my children. I can feel her influence over me then."
Rex FeaturesElvis Presley
Everyone, from famous folk to nut-jobs off the street, has claimed to have seen the ghost of Elvis. He’s not only the world's most famous spook, but possibly its busiest. Presley is believed to haunt Graceland as well as appearing to stagehands in his famous white sequined getup at the Vegas Hilton, where he used to headline in the '70s. It's also thought he regularly appears at the old RCA recording studios from the '50s, where he famously recorded his first hit Heartbreak Hotel. Many workers have reported strange occurrences anytime someone brings up Elvis, such as unexplained noises on the sound system and the lights going out.
PA PhotosGirls Aloud
Remember when Girls Aloud went Ghost-Hunting? The group took part in séances with Yvette Fielding in various notoriously haunted locations in North Wales, experience many a' paranormal activity such as objects thrown around the room - before calling it a night when a basement spook scared the bejeezus out of them by throwing stones at them all. Not a fan, eh?
Rex FeaturesHalle Berry
When the Oscar-winning actress was working on a Dorothy Dandridge TV movie, she said she once heard the plastic covering the late actress' dresses rustle. "I did have a couple of experiences on Dorothy Dandridge," Halle revealed. "Her spirit or some spirit was around me all the time. I knew it, so did the crew and everybody around me. Nothing outlandish happened; it was just a feeling that we would all get. Strange things would happen that couldn't be explained other than by saying, 'OK, something supernatural has got to be happening here.'"
PA PhotosNicolas Cage
The Ghost Riderhimself has a whole arsenal of spook encounters to share. Although, to be fair, he does seem to encourage them... One, he actually lived in what’s considered the most haunted house in America ("Some people have beach-front property, I have ghost-front property" he once said of his New Orleans pad). Two, he once willingly spent the night in Transylvania's infamous Bran Castle (known as Dracula’s castle, no less). And three, while staying in the attic (yes, attic) of uncle Francis Ford Coppola’s home, he saw a "big-haired woman" who scared the bejeezus out of him. Before you question Beyoncé’s whereabouts that night, Nic says it was, in fact, a ghost.
Rex FeaturesJessica Alba
"I felt this pressure and I couldn't get up, I couldn't scream, I couldn't talk, I couldn't do anything!" This one rated about a 9.5 on our scare-ometer. During a press junket for her horror flick, The Eye, Jess revealed that she was terrorised by a ghost as a teen. "Something definitely took the covers off me and I definitely couldn't get off the bed, and then, once I did, I screamed, ran to my parents' room and I don't think I spent many nights in that house ever again." She went on to explain that they later had the house blessed.
Rex FeaturesJoan Rivers
Trust the late, great Joan to make pals with a ghoul – albeit after a frosty start. When the comedienne purchased her New York apartment in the 90s, there were a number of spooky shenanigans. Upon speaking to the doormen, Rivers was told that the place was haunted by a Mrs Spencer, a previous owner who wasn’t happy with the building’s recent renovations and had been doing stuff, such as tearing the heads off the cherubs on a neighbour’s chandelier, no less! Rivers hired a voodoo priestess who communicated with Mrs Spencer and carried out an exorcism for her and all the residents. However, she revealed the spirit continued to visit her almost every night and she eventually felt comforted by her presence, stating: "We’re friends... It’s nice to know I have Mrs. Spencer to say good evening to every night."
PA PhotosPatrick Stewart and Ian McKellan
When the British thespian legends were performing classic play Waiting for Godot at the Haymarket Theatre in London, Patrick froze on stage for a moment in the first act. Not something a seasoned great like Patrick would do, non? Well, when Ian asked him what had happened, Patrick revealed: "I just saw a ghost onstage during Act I" The pair later discovered that the spectre is believed to be that of John Baldwin Buckstone, a late actor/manager with a penchant for 'attending' comedies at the Haymarket.
PA PhotosAlyson Hannigan
Willow ain't afraid of no ghost! The Buffy star even lives happily with one. He’s been spotted several times. "I have a ghost in my house. My friend saw him first one night. She said, 'I don't mean to alarm you, but I just saw a man follow us out of the house.' And I said, 'Well, at least he's gentlemanly, he let us go first.'" Alas, Hannigan didn't catch the fellow's name. "I'm thinking of putting a little chalkboard where I think he lives," she admitted, "to see if he will write his name down." How civil.
Rex FeaturesKeanu Reeves
He of dreamy eyes and surfer-bum brogue claims that at aged five, he and his sister encountered an exceptionally-dressed spectre at their New Jersey home. "I felt this ghost...I remember just staring at this suit, which had no body or legs in it as it came into the room before disappearing. It was a double-breasted suit in white, and I looked at my nanny, who was just as shocked as me. I just couldn't get back to sleep afterwards, and I still see the figure in my dreams." Whoa! Creepy, dude.
Rex FeaturesKe$ha
The quirky popstral claims to have had several ghostly encounters of the sexy kind. Ke$ha revealed she went "to the bone zone" with a spirit who started "caressing" her in her house. "I don't know his name but...it was a sexy time." she declared. Whilst she wasn’t too bothered then, turns out her horny ghoul was one of those clingy types, and Ke$ha was eventually forced to have a "vaginal exorcism". We won’t go into details. Because we can’t bring ourselves to do the research.
PA PhotosLily Collins
Lily once had a run-in with a hotel ghost in Dublin, saying she woke in the night and felt standing beside her bed, then heard a giggle and felt a rush of air over her body. Creepy. Upon asking staff, they told her it was the ghost of Mary Masters, a little girl who had died in the building in the 18th century and had been using the sixth floor of the hotel as her playground ever since.
Rex FeaturesMarilyn Monroe
Screen goddess Marilyn is said to haunt the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood and likes to spook poor unsuspecting guests by appearing to them in a full-length mirror. And it’s not just there, Monroe’s busy spirit has also been spotted hanging out by her grave in LA’s Westside Memorial Cemetery and the very house where she died in '62.
Rex FeaturesMichelle Williams
In the most tear-jerking of our tales, Michelle believes she’s been visited by ex-fiancé Heath Ledger’s ghost on several occasions, and once he spoke to her, apologising for not helping to raise their daughter, Matilda. Sob.
PA PhotosMick Jagger
A ghost once put Mick off some impressive real estate. The Rolling Stones rocker was so spooked by a bell-ringing 18th Century spook when house hunting at a £3.5 million Gothic mansion, that he hot-footed it out of there. "He seemed to change his mind rather suddenly after we told him about the ghost," housekeeper Anna-Maria Sliwinski revealed. "I have heard the ghost first hand. I heard strange chimes on a windless night. The bells were ringing in the tower, but there was nobody else in the house."
Getty ImagesJohn Lennon
Paul McCartney has said that he's seen his former Beatles band-mate John during studio rehearsals. The legend was believed to have had a premonition about his untimely death, once telling his son Julian, "If anything ever happens to me, and you see a white feather floating evenly across the room, you'll know that's me." Julian has since spoken of his father visited him in the form of said feather.
PA PhotosMiley Cyrus
The twerk queen once saw a child ghost while staying in her old London pad: "I thought I had seen a little boy sitting on the sink watching me take a shower, so I felt really freaked out," she said. "Three or four more things happened after that. I will never stay there ever again." We’ve all seen Miley naked, why should the spirit world be denied?
Rex FeaturesNeve Campbell
Famed for her roles in modern Hollywood horror, is it any wonder that she’d become a beacon for local spooks? Neve claimed she once lived in a house in which a woman had been murdered, and would often see doors slamming, objects flying off dressers and windows opening, as well as the dead woman’s ghost walking around the house late at night. However, the Screamqueen was unperturbed: "After a while it felt normal. I’d pass her in the hallway and casually wish her good morning."
PA PhotosReese Witherspoon
Reese believes the spirits of her grandparents are often with her and finds the experience a comfort: "I had grandparents who I was really close with and sometimes I thought I saw them. I think I saw them maybe once when I was giving birth to my son, my grandparents were definitely there with me."
PA PhotosRenee Zellweger
Renee was forced to call in a psychic expert after a spook reportedly climbed into bed with her! "My first experience was sensing a presence... And one night, when I was lying in bed, it felt like there was a large block of ice next to me." The clairvoyant revealed that a ghost named Lillian had been living in her house in the Hamptons for yonks. How rude.
PA PhotosSalma Hayek
The actress says she found her 16-month-old daughter Valentina talking to a ghost. "She woke up and her eyes were open. And she's looking at one specific point and she's going, 'No no no no, au revoir,' which means goodbye in French... And she's looking at someone, but there's no one there. I was so scared, and I'm like, 'Yes, au revoir, whoever you are, get out!' And then she started saying it in English: 'Bye bye, bye bye!' I guess she was trying different languages to see what nationality this ghost was to go away. It was terrifying!" To be frank, we’re more gobsmacked by her bi-lingual baby!
Rex FeaturesTaylor Momsen
Taylor 'I see dead people' Momsen has not only seen ghosts, but actively gone in search for them, solo. The actress-turned-rock chick has stated that after her mother’s elderly neighbour died, a young Taylor went into the deceased lady’s home on a mission and snapped two ghostly photographs: One of a disembodied hand on a typewriter and one of the old woman's whole body visible in a window.
Rex FeaturesUma Thurman and Ethan Hawke
When this Hollywood power couple were still married, rumour has it they once fled their NY home in Sneden's Landing after a paranormal experience that they refuse to talk about. One neighbour remarked he wasn't surprised because "all the houses in Sneden's Landing are haunted." Natch.
Rex FeaturesEmma Stone
Now, we adore Emma – who doesn’t? – but we’re not convinced of her flair for the clairvoyance. The actress claimed in a July 2014 interview with David Letterman that her dead grandfather was haunting her and actually leaving her pocket money. "My grandfather leaves quarters. It's just amazing," she claimed. "It's him! It's absolutely him!" Before adding that she had never actually met her late relative, Emma added to the somewhat sceptical audience "it's exactly like that. It's that... But it's him! You guys, it's him." We love her.
Rex FeaturesBritney Spears
According to Hollywood medium, James Van Praagh, pesky spooks were to blame for the demise in Britters’ music career and her breakdown a few years back. Yes, he claims two ghastly ghouls were "attached" to her; feeding off her energy and influencing her bizarre behaviour. "Britney has two very low-level, skanky-looking ghosts attached to her. One is a short guy with tattoos and the other is a guy with a beard. They influence her to drink, do drugs, and other weird things." He even said that Brit may have picked up the ghosts during a wild outing to a bar or a club, which are typical hangouts for "lower ghosts who haven’t evolved." Let's hope they’ve since moved on...
