16 Celebrity Palm Readings, Annotated and Explained

Between HD cameras and ultrahigh-resolution photography, modern audiences have unprecedented access to the pores, wrinkles, and mascara clumps of stars. Today we zoom in on a more innocent body part that is, according to some, even more revealing: the palms of celebrities’ hands. From Bynes’s troubled head line to Kanye’s ambitious index finger to Michelle Obama’s divided mind, New York palmist Mark Seltman explained it all to the Cut.

The author of Real Palmistry, Seltman believes hand reading is both an art and a science. He has examined tens of thousands of hands, including those of Martha Stewart and Katie Couric. A proper hand reading requires IRL interaction, he says, for tactile features like flexibility and textures, kinetic features like gesture and movement, and dialogue. Shape, size, lines, and proportions play an important part, too, so Seltman zoomed in on the waving dominant hands of seventeen notable figures, from politicians to musicians to royalty. Click to read his analysis, zoom in on details, and compare their hands to your own.

For more Seltman, check out his blog for palmistry explainers and real stories about the people he’s met in 35 years of hand analysis — all illustrated with palm pictures, of course.