Shell Programming and Scripting

i have a script in which i need to skip comments, and i am able to achieve it partially...
IN text file:

Code:

{****************************
{test : test...test }

Script:

Code:

while (<$fh>) 
	{
	  
	  push ( @data, $_);	
	  
	}
if ( $data[0] =~  m/(^{\*+$)/ ){
}

With the above match i am able to identify the comment and skip it to get the next line..
Out:

Code:

{test : test...test }

If the same comment consists of any space or any character in the place of *, my match fails..
IN:
{** ***** or {* abccd or {*abce
All the above cases are failed to skip ... What might be worng in the match,...can any one help me out..