Ten Things You Never Knew About John Travolta

Something’s up with John Travolta at the moment, but we can’t quite put our finger on it. Has he agreed to star in a sequel to Battlefield Earth? Thankfully not. Has he been mouthing off about Scientology? Nah, not this time. Has he been spotted kissing a man again? We wouldn’t like to comment. Ah, that’s it – John’s looking a little bit different these days, isn’t he? But - aside from the fact that he’s done himself up like the lovechild of Rik Waller and Ricki Lake for his role in the remake of Hairspray - how much do you know about John Travolta? Read on to learn more about Hollywood's most hipshakin' star.

1. John’s family name means ‘high voltage’ in Italian.

2. Is John responsible for the success of Tom Hanks’ career? He turned down the roles in Splash, The Green Mile and Forrest Gump that made tenacious Tommy a superstar. Clever Mr. Hanks even nabbed an Oscar for the last one – whoops!

3. Before his acting career took off, John worked as a supermarket check-out boy, a luggage handler and a shelf-stacker.

4. John is Oprah Winfrey’s favourite movie star. It must be nice to have the world’s most influential woman on side, mustn’t it?

5. Have you ever wondered how John managed to nail those Saturday Night Fever moves? Well, he spent nine months – yes, a whole pregnancy’s worth of time – learning to disco dance for the role.

6. John is a self-confessed aviation obsessive who flies his own Boeing 707. He also pilots three Gulfstream jets and a Learjet.

7. How far will John go to indulge his passion for flying? “I called my son Jett," he admits. "And I wanted to call my daughter Qantas, but my wife wouldn't let me."

8. What does John say about his association with the Church of Scientology? "I have to believe there's some other life force out there," he insists. "I don't know in what form. But we can't have all these galaxies and universes without something going on."

9. John is a published author. We’re guessing that the whole Hairspray thing - well, John's Hairspray image, to be precise - might have postponed the reprint of 1984’s John Travolta: Staying Fit. Sob!

10. John's sister Ellen played Chachi's mum in Happy Days.