My, What Big Feet You Have!

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With four gold medals, one bronze, and two world records set at the London Olympics, 17-year-old Missy Franklin is America’s Great Wet Hope now that Michael Phelps has retired. But Franklin isn’t so sure. “I don’t think his shoes will ever be filled,” she said this week. “I think his footsteps are huge.” And she should know. The 6’1″ swimmer has size 13 feet, which her father calls her “built-in flippers.” And as she told NBC’s Michelle Beadle, “I’m proud of my size 13 feet. They’re definitely hard to find shoes for, which isn’t the best, and I absolutely hate going shoe shopping—because everything is so cute, but nothing ever fits.”

Elle Macpherson
Size 12

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If Elle Macpherson is self-conscious about her reported size 12 feet, she didn’t show it when she hosted Saturday Night Live in 1996. During a sketch with Jim Breuer, the 6-foot-tall supermodel played an unappealing blind date who complains of “a corn or a blister or something” and shoves her bare foot in his face. “What, this here?” Breuer asks, trying to be a good sport with his beautiful companion. “No, that’s my wart.” But he still has eyes of love. “You know what,” he tells Macpherson, “you have really nice feet.” She scowls and sniffs them. “Yeah, nice and smelly.”

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Kate Winslet: Size 11

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When Kate Winslet appeared on The View to promote her film, Romance & Cigarettes, Joy Behar came right out and asked it: “What’s with the obsession with your feet?” And so Winslet told her: “Well, they’re big, aren’t they?” In fact, the Oscar winner wears a size 11 shoe, which co-host Whoopi Goldberg revealed is her shoe size as well. “I wear a big ol’ 11!” Goldberg proclaimed. But Winslet admitted she doesn’t have the biggest feet in her family—her mother wears a size 13. “See, but she’s 5’11”, Winslet added. “I’m 5’6″—so it’s entirely unfair that I ended up with these huge feet.”

Uma Thurman: Size 11

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Quentin Tarantino isn’t exactly shy about his foot fetish. For Pulp Fiction, he famously wrote a whole scene about a foot massage for his muse Uma Thurman, and he included extreme close-ups of her not-so-little piggies in Kill Bill. So when the Friars Club roasted the director in 2010, Thurman, who wears size 11 shoes, had a special treat for Tarantino. Stepping up to the podium, the 5’11” actress removed her black velvet Christian Louboutin pumps, filled them with wine, and let him drink from them. He was head over heels.

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Paris Hilton: Size 11

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In her 2006 autobiography, Paris Hilton confessed: “Okay, I admit it—I desperately hate one thing about my body: I have size 11 feet.” But it’s really a fashion problem. “It sucks,” she wrote, “because I see all these super-cute shoes in the stores: Guccis, YSLs, Manolos. And when they’re brought out in my size, they look like clown shoes on me! I can’t wear flats because my feet are too long. At least high heels shrink how long my feet look. But forget ever seeing me in ballet slippers or tennis shoes; I’d look like I was wearing canoes!” Perhaps that’s why the 5’8″ hotel heiress started her own footwear line. And true to her word, there are no flats.

Oprah Winfrey: Size 11

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Many have dreamed of walking in Oprah’s shoes, and in 2010, she gave her fans the opportunity. While doing a “closet clean-out” with O magazine’s creative director, Adam Glassman, the talk-show host discovered that she had been wearing the wrong shoe size. So, being Oprah, she put her size 10 shoe collection up for auction on eBay. As she wrote of one pair: “I did love these boots. I wore them one time, and they killed my feet—but now I know it was the fit. I’ve since learned I wear a size 11, not 10.”

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Meg Ryan: Size 11

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In a July 1996 interview with ELLE, Meg Ryan revealed the secret to great acting. “It’s in the shoes,” said the 5’8″ actress, who wears a size 11. “It’s all in the shoes.” Ryan went on to explain how for Sleepless in Seattle, she wore “the ultimate sensible flats and white loafers—real virgin shoes,” but in Courage Under Fire, it was her combat boots that gave her strength. “You put on those boots and it was, ‘Hello!’ You feel like this solid force because you’ve got the incredibly attached-to-the-ground shoes on.”

Audrey Hepburn: Size 10½

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For one of Hollywood’s great beauties, Audrey Hepburn was rather critical of her looks. “I’d like to be not so flat-chested,” she once said. “I’d like not to have such angular shoulders, such big feet, such a big nose.” Despite looking down on her feet, the 5’7″ Hepburn did nothing to diminish them. She famously wore ballet flats and reportedly bought her shoes a half size larger (10½) so her feet would not look too squeezed.

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Cindy Crawford: Size 10

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Even a supermodel is not above performing a Stupid Human Trick for David Letterman . “Well,” Cindy Crawford said as she slipped off her boot to reveal her bare, size 10 foot, “this is more stupid than a trick.” Crawford then explained that when she was a kid and got into trouble, she used to be sent to her room for an hour. “So,” she said, proudly pointing to her second toe, “I can wave this toe.” And sure enough, she can. “Wow,” the talk-show host said, clearly impressed. “Nice feet, by the way.” Crawford aw-shucksed it: “I didn’t even have a pedicure.”

Jacqueline Kennedy: Size 10

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In 1962, Chicago Daily News reporter Keyes Beech broke a story of national importance: “This reporter is now able to lift the veil of secrecy from Jacqueline Kennedy’s feet. I can state with absolute authority that she wears 10-A size shoes—not 10 double-A as previously reported.” Beech’s scoop came after he “did a sneaky thing” and looked inside the first lady’s shoes when she visited the Mahatma Gandhi memorial in India and had to put on sandals. But in fact, Mrs. Kennedy’s big feet left quite the impression on many women in the 1960s. As Susan J. Douglas wrote in her book Where the Girls Are: “The fact that Jackie Kennedy’s foot would never have fit into Cinderella’s size 4-A glass slipper seemed highly symbolic at this moment in history. Jackie had these traditionally ‘masculine’ qualities—she was smart and loved intellectual pursuits, she was knowledgeable about history and the arts, she wore pants, and she had big feet—yet she was still completely feminine.”