Multiple arrests, alcohol-fueled diatribes, and shocking allegations. The terrible
things these people did definitely did not slap. Well, except once…
"Get out."
At the 94th Academy Awards ceremony, Will Smith made all the wrong kinds of history.
After Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith walked on stage
during Rock's monologue and slapped him in the face. Then he sat back down and yelled:
"Keep my wife's name out of your f—ing mouth!"
In the immediate aftermath, many thought the incident was a pre-arranged gag,
but it soon became clear there was nothing staged about it.
Celebrities began speaking out, particularly people from the comedy world. When the smoke
cleared, Smith was hit with a decade-long ban from any and all Academy events, including the Oscars.
To anyone who enjoys seeing a celebrity continue to dig their own grave, Gina
Carano is the gift that never stops giving. In February 2021, Carano was fired from her
signature role of Cara Dune on "The Mandalorian." In an Instagram post that has since been deleted,
Carano shared a post that compared those who criticized her political views to Nazis. That
was the final straw for Disney and Lucasfilm, who were reportedly already incensed with
Carano after two controversial November 2020 tweets — one implying that President Joe Biden
had committed voter fraud, and another mocking people wearing masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Carano has continued to double down on the same kind of social media posts that
got her booted from "Star Wars." Since then, she's appeared in a couple films
from Ben Shapiro's production company, but seems to be permanently out with Disney.
Tom Cruise has said and done some questionable things over the years, but 2005 was a particularly
memorable year for the actor. For example, right after actor Brooke Shields' pregnancy,
Cruise trashed her for using antidepressants in an infamous interview with Matt Lauer.
"And she doesn't understand the history of psychiatry. She doesn't
understand in the same way that you don't understand it, Matt."
But nothing cemented Cruise's image more than when he jumped on Oprah Winfrey's couch.
When Cruise appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to promote "War of the Worlds," the actor was in
rare form. Asked questions about his month-old relationship with his now ex-wife Katie Holmes,
Cruise often wordlessly responded by clasping both of Winfrey's hands in his, pumping his
fists in the air, or — most famously — jumping on her couch while Winfrey was mid-sentence.
"And the internet, of course, hasn't let it go since."
In the long term, the incident didn't hurt Cruise's career in the least.
He's continued to make hit films, but it forever changed the public's view of him.
In the summer of 2020, "The Flash" lost its Elongated Man. Not long after the
close of the show's sixth season, CNN Entertainment and others reported that
Hartley Sawyer had been fired from "The Flash" for a number of homophobic, racist,
misogynistic, or otherwise offensive tweets posted between 2009 and 2014.
A number of cast and crew from "The Flash" made public statements about the firing, and while
there were few attacks directed at Sawyer, no one was rushing to defend him. Grant Gustin of "The
Flash" and Stephen Amell {uh-MELL} of "Arrow" both publicly supported the decision to fire Sawyer.
Sawyer posted a lengthy apology at the end of May 2020, admitting that his tweets were
unacceptable. As far as the world of celebrity entertainment is concerned, Sawyer has completely
fallen off the radar ever since. "The Flash" remains his most recent credited screen work.
From a certain point of view, Mel Gibson seems to be the luckiest actor alive. His
career has been stronger than ever lately, from taking the lead in the
John Wick prequel series "The Continental" to reported plans for him to step into the late
Richard Donner's shoes to direct "Lethal Weapon 5" — in which he'll also star.
And yet, as Joshua Malina pointed out in a lengthy op-ed for The Atlantic,
Gibson's continuing career seems to singlehandedly disprove the existence of "cancel culture."
In 2006, Gibson was pulled over for alleged drunk driving and let loose an anti-Semitic
rant on the officers. Four years later, audio tapes leaked of threatening and racist
statements the actor made to ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva {ok-SAH-nuh grih-gor-ee-EH-vuh}, and
in 2011 he pleaded no contest to domestic abuse charges against her.
"I think it's definitely possible that Mel's career is over from this."
Yet in spite of many former fans swearing off Gibson forever,
his career eventually came back just as strong as ever.
In 2018 the long-dormant sitcom "Roseanne" enjoyed unexpected success with a revival,
with most of the original cast returning for a 10th season. Roseanne Barr hadn't
been much of a presence on television ever since the series first closed up
shop in 1997. All she had to do to remain on top was avoid tweeting a racist joke about
former presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett, but apparently that was too difficult a task.
In May 2018, the offending tweet ended "Roseanne" for good. Barr apologized to Jarrett,
tried blaming the tweet on "Ambien tweeting," and eventually announced she was leaving Twitter. But
it was too little, too late. First fellow actor and comic Wanda Sykes announced she would not
return to her consulting producer job on "Roseanne," and soon afterward ABC fired
Barr and canceled "Roseanne." Later that year "The Conners" premiered minus Barr,
with an announcement that her character had died of an opioid overdose.
"Wait, what? Mom overdosed?"
"It doesn't make any sense."
In a guest column for THR, showrunner Bruce Heldford wrote that the decision
was made to kill her character off "to make her departure clearly permanent."
It is genuinely puzzling that it took the public so long to turn on Ezra Miller. In April 2020,
during a time when so much as a single poorly conceived tweet could end a career,
a video surfaced of Miller appearing to grab a woman by the throat and throw her
to the ground. The video starts out with almost a playful tone,
but a witness told Variety that the incident was indeed serious.
Fans had a harder time ignoring it when Miller was arrested in Hawaii in March 2022. They were
charged with "disorderly conduct and harassment." Not long after Miller was released on bail,
a couple that they were reportedly staying with filed a restraining order against Miller,
accusing them of threatening the couple and stealing some of their belongings.
Only a few weeks later, THR reported Miller had been arrested again, this time in Pāhoa,
Hawaii. They had reportedly been asked to leave a party, and some furniture got thrown.
"Police say Miller became irate after being asked to leave, and reportedly threw a chair."
It only took the news of the first arrest for rumors to begin swirling that Warner Bros.
was considering kicking their "The Flash" and "Fantastic Beasts" star to the curb.
In the wake of Alex Trebek's passing, the question of who could succeed him as
"Jeopardy!" host proved much more controversial than most anticipated. Mayim Bialik of "The
Big Bang Theory" fame was chosen to share co-hosting duties with former "Jeopardy!"
champ Ken Jennings. But in the case of Bialik, a controversial past followed her to the show.
In 2017, Bialik wrote what proved to be an extremely divisive op-ed in The New York Times
about the now convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein. She suggested that, like her, women should "dress
modestly" and not "act flirtatiously" — something many took as victim-shaming. She's also expressed
non-mainstream views about vaccinations for years. In December 2023, she was let go from "Jeopardy!"
What do you remember most from 2009's "Terminator Salvation?" Well,
if you were paying any attention to entertainment news in 2009,
then in all likelihood your most enduring memory of the movie isn't what happened on the screen,
but the infamous audio that leaked a few months before the film's release.
Specifically, TMZ posted a recording of Christian Bale — who played John Connor
in the film — ranting for just under four minutes at director of photography
Shane Hurlbut. Dropping more F-bombs than even SkyNet could coordinate, Bale accused Hurlbut
of walking aimlessly around the set during the filming of a scene and distracting him.
Bale apologized for the rant after the audio surfaced and ensured fans that he
and Hurlbut worked out their differences before the day was through. Still,
although it never affected his career, Bale's never been able
to completely shake the reputation he earned when the rant went public.
"Christian Bale is not the kind of guy you want to piss off." laugh
Dave Chappelle caught flak for a while for making jokes considered transphobic, but he took special
aim at the subject in his 2021 Netflix special "The Closer." Among other things, he invoked his
late friend Daphne Dorman, a trans woman, in a way that many found offensive. For example,
Vox wrote that Chappelle speaks of Dorman as "a trans woman who's proven she deserves autonomy"
but only because she didn't respond negatively to jokes others found offensive. In other words,
Chappelle's acceptance of Dorman as a trans woman...
"As hard as it is to hear a joke like that,
I'm telling you right now, Daphne would have loved that joke."
...was conditional.
The same month "The Closer" began streaming on Netflix, a group of Netflix employees
staged a walkout to protest not only Chappelle's special on the platform,
but what they saw as an unhealthy work environment it was helping to create.
While nobody's forgotten, the backlash certainly didn't hurt Chappelle's career,
seeing as he released a new Netflix special in December 2023.
Jussie Smollett appeared in over 80 episodes of "Empire" before it all came crashing down.
In January 2019, the actor claimed that two men attacked him, "poured an unknown
substance" on him, and put a noose around his neck in a racially motivated attack.
"I noticed the rope around my neck, and I started screaming, and I said,
'There's a f—ing rope around my neck.'"
But by the following month, the Chicago PD became convinced that the incident was
staged and that Smollett had hired two brothers to stage the attack as
a bid to negotiate a higher rate on "Empire." Smollett was arrested and
charged with disorderly conduct and filing a false police report.
As more and more evidence came out, the same fans and celebrities who initially showered Smollett
with support now showed him nothing but disdain. Smollett's first trial was dismissed, but he was
still let go from "Empire," and new charges were brought against him in 2020. In late December
2021, Smollett was found guilty on five out of six charges of disorderly conduct. The actor
was ordered to spend 150 days in jail, spend 30 months on probation, and pay a fine of $145,000.
Jared Leto's Method acting already became somewhat legendary after behind-the-scenes stories surfaced
from the production of 2016's "Suicide Squad" — in which Leto played the Joker — including reports of
the actor apparently sending a dead hog, among other things, to the cast as a twisted present.
"I got so many weird things. I can't even begin to tell you the weird things I got."
But while the "Suicide Squad" stories were just weird, something a bit more objectionable happened
on the set of the long-delayed "Morbius." In an April 2022 interview with Uproxx,
"Morbius" director Daniel Espinosa confirmed that Leto pretended to be
disabled — like his character — in between takes. He used a set of crutches to get
himself to and from bathroom breaks, for example, until that took too long and it
was decided crew members would bring him back and forth in a wheelchair.
The story has done nothing to help Leto's reputation. Along with drawing out accusations
of ableism, the story prompted other actors to take indirect potshots at Leto. Though he
didn't mention Leto by name, Mads Mikkelsen was blunt about his opinion on Method acting, saying:
"It's bulls—. [...] What if it’s a s— film? What do you think you achieved?
Am I impressed that you didn’t drop character?"
"Dr. Morbius is in trouble." "I'm in trouble."
It is an absolutely horrific truth that if we were to give each celebrity accused
of sexual assault and/or harassment their own section, this video would be nothing
but those stories. But to not mention them would almost be a crime itself.
The list of alleged sex criminals in Hollywood seems to get at least a little
longer every few months. In December 2021, allegations of sexual assault
were made against Chris Noth by two women, and soon a third accuser surfaced. By 2018,
Kevin Spacey had over 30 allegations of sexual assault and harassment made against him,
including many by men and women who were underage at the time of the alleged abuse. Although he was
found not guilty in July 2023, those types of allegations are impossible to forget about.
Then there's Louis CK. According to Vox, allegations of sexual harassment
were made about CK for years before they were made public,
including allegations that CK coerced, or attempted to coerce,
women he worked with. In 2017, he admitted that allegations by five women were true.
And of course, in 2018, Bill Cosby was sentenced to serve three to 10 years in prison after being
convicted of assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand — one of more than 60
women who made assault allegations against the former comedian and actor. In 2021,
that conviction was overturned. These examples, sadly, only scratch the surface.