June 5th 2008

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE star ABIGAIL BRESLIN refuses to watch medical TV shows - because she is a hypochondriac.

The child star admits the programmes make her fear she will be struck down by an illness.

She tells New York gossip column Page Six, "I'm not allowed to watch medical TV shows. (Once), I was worried that I was going to step on glass, so I wore shoes even in bed... I thought I had bird flu, so for a long time I wouldn't go near any birds."

And Breslin, who recently filmed Nim's Island in Australia, feared she had been bitten by a poisonous spider, so she made sure she was pals with the set's first aider.

She adds, "My best friend on the set was the medic."