Jennifer Aniston as an artist? Neve Campbell a ballet dancer? These are just two of the stars who reveal their secret talents - and what might have been if they had never made it big on screen.

e all know that Keanu Reeves is also a talented musician and plays bass in the band Dogstar; that Russell Crowe has sung professionally under the name Rus Le Roc and made a couple of singles in the 1980s; that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon write films as well as act in them; that veteran Paul Newman has always been a capable race car driver having once come second at Le Mans; and that Sophia Loren is an award-winning cook and has written best-selling recipe books.
  But what are the little-known hidden talents of some of your other favorite stars?
Leonardo DiCaprio:
"I'm good at impressions. It's a gift I've always had. I enjoy fooling my friends on the phone when they ring me by answering in someone else's voice!"

Jeff Bridges: "I've written so many pop songs I can't keep count, and you might have heard my work in such movies as John and Mary, the King Kong remake and The Contender. In 2000 I released my first album, Be Here Soon."

Billy Bob Thornton: "My other career is music. I formed my first band when I was nine, and spent my teen years playing music. But a funny thing happened to me on my way to making it in the music industry - I became an actor. I love acting. I love singing. I love writing songs. It's all one thing to me."

Jennifer Aniston: "I would have loved to have been a great painter. I did a lot of it at high school and they told me to make it my career. I didn't of course, but I have had some of my work on display at New York's Metropolitan Museum. And I still paint whenever I can."

Minnie Driver:
"My first aim was to be a singer. In fact, long before making my name in acting, I signed a recording contract. I'm still very keen, and have written songs and lyrics and hope to start a pop career soon."

Billy Crystal: "As a kid I loved painting pictures. Still do. We've fantastic views from our farmhouse home set high in a canyon outside L.A. To unwind, there's nothing better I like to do than capture the scenery on canvas."

Lisa Kudrow:
"I've been playing pool for as long as I can remember and have perfected a great many trick shots. I sometimes wonder why so few of my friends want to play with me."

Neve Campbell: "If it wasn't for acting, I'd be a ballet dancer. I was a member of the National Ballet of Canada until I was 16, and I still love to dance. I have a mirrored ballet studio at home, and I practice for 90 minutes a day when I'm not working."

Robbie Williams: "It may surprise you to know that I enjoy cooking. So much so that I'm trying to compile a cook book. I've picked up some unusual tips and recipes in my travels."

Sarah Michelle Gellar: "I was a champion figure skater in New York and once toyed with the idea of becoming a pro. And I'm very proud of my brown belt in the martial art, Tae Kwon Do."

Denzel Washington:
"Some of my friends are surprised to learn that I often go to watch ballet whenever I can. I love the ballet and I trained when I was younger. I can still do many of the tricky movements and it's probably because of ballet that I'm such an agile actor today."

Jennifer Love Hewitt: "I envy those actors who have also made it in the pop world. I have always wanted to sing and more recently have been doing some recording. I have already had a hit record in Japan!"

David Bowie: "Children's stories have always interested me and, now that I have actually had one published, I'm going to try another. It was all about rats, and I got the idea when I stumbled across a family of them near my holiday home in Bermuda."

- Max Hardy