Real or wax? Celebrities and their doubles

For many celebrities, the invitation to be immortalised in wax is a huge deal - it means that they have made it.

Once you have reached a level of fame, Madame Tussauds will come knocking at your door to create a figure in your likeness.

Each year, Madame Tussauds makes approximately 40 to 50 figures, with each figure taking months to complete.

Each single strand of hair has to be inserted individually, taking near five weeks to complete a whole head. From the first private sitting with a celebrity to completion, it takes approximately four months to create a figure.

All the loving attention pays off when viewers can't tell the real from the fake.

Can you? Flip through the gallery to see who has been given the gift of immortality.

Click on thumbnail to view (Photos: AFP, Reuters)

Horrible wax figures of celebrities

Having a statue or wax figure erected is usually an honour, but these poorly-done wax figures seem to be a mockery rather than a salutation.

A reader who came across some photos online wrote in to citizen journalism website Stomp saying: "I'd rather not be famous than to have an awful-looking wax figure in 'honour' of me.

"How can you pay tribute to someone if the wax figure is a horrible representation of that person?

"Then again, I did have a good laugh after seeing these photos.

Click on thumbnail to view (Photos: Stomp)