O.k., so Mariah Carey’s very public leg-insurance policy is old news. But Carey’s attention-grabbing stunt does bring up an interesting blog post topic: The Body-Part-Insurance Publicity Stunt. (We’ll get to how this relates to your insurance needs later.)

According to Slate’s Daniel Engber, among the more popular body-part insurance ploys are the purported million-dollar policies on Michael Flatly’s legs, J-Lo’s posterior, and somewhat recently, Mimi’s legs.

The celebrity world and the insurance world usually run along two parallel paths (the point being that they don’t intersect, not that they’re similar). The Insurance Publicity Stunt is the rare occasion when the twain bend to meet each other.

It’s an exciting thing for a person in the insurance business. Think about it: stars using insurance (insurance) to get the attention of the press! Who says insurance is boring?!

According to Engber, the practice of taking out an insurance policy on a specific body part began when vaudeville villain Ben Turpin took out a policy on his cross-eyed eyes. (Had they gone straight he would have collected.) Later, Bette Davis insured her waistline for $28,000. It has been downhill from there.

According to this story from the Guardian, a Hollywood agent once expressed an interest in buying a policy for the chest hair of one of his furrier clients.

You’re probably asking: What does this post have to do with my insurance needs? (And when did this blog become a tabloid?)

Believe it or not, there is something relevant to you in this post. Here goes: The thing that lends the body-part-insurance publicity stunt a modicum of credibility is that these stars really do owe a chunk of their paychecks to certain anatomical assets. Although it smacks of self-promotion, the practice has a certain amount of logic behind it.

The famous wine taster’s taste buds are inextricably linked to his livelihood, so he’s smart to prepare for the day when a freak fondue accident leaves him with damaged taste buds, right?

Most of us, however, don’t need to take out policies on specific body parts, but we do need to protect ourselves from loss of income resulting from an untimely accident (wait, are there timely accidents?). Many smart folks do this by buying disability insurance.

According to the Insurance Information Institute, this kind of insurance “pays an insured person an income when that person is unable to work because of an accident or illness.” The Institute says premiums depend on your age, the nature of your work, and how much money you would need to replace your lost income. III, helpfully: “So, for instance, an accountant working in an office would have much lower disability premiums than a construction worker.”

Learn more about disability insurance from the III.