Which celebrity claimed to no longer be famous after a plagiarism scandal? Who gave up acting
for rap, only for it all to be revealed as a joke? Keep watching for those weird stories and more.
In 2000, Barbra Streisand announced a farewell tour, and tickets sold like hotcakes. According
to ABC News, she told the audience at her sold-out, final Madison Square Garden show:
"It feels like time to say goodbye to this part of my life."
Instead, Streisand planned on building a barn house,
spending more time with her husband, James Brolin, and focusing, quote, "on acting,
directing and recording albums." But as it later turned out, the singer
was not yet done with live entertainment. When Streisand went back on tour in 2006,
Daily News columnists Rush & Molloy reported that angry fans who paid top dollar for Babs' 2000
shows were considering, quote, "a class-action suit against the legend for tricking them into
thinking they were seeing her for the final time." It's unclear if any such lawsuit arose,
but since then, Streisand hasn't advertised any of her concerts as her swan songs.
And the legendary icon continued selling out her concerts in a heartbeat. After all, her fans can't
be sure which one of her tours will truly be the last before she retires for good. Considering the
fact that her compilation, "Release Me 2," hit shelves and streaming services in 2021,
it's safe to say Streisand isn't actually retiring any time soon.
Early on Christmas Day in 2013, Beliebers all around the world lost their holiday
spirit when they read Justin Bieber's tweet: "My beloved beliebers I'm officially retiring."
According to E!, the "Baby" singer hinted at quitting the music industry a few weeks
before as well. It could be that his sudden decision to retire at the young age of 19
had something to do with the rough patch he was going through in his private life. His
on-and-off relationship with Selena Gomez—which was speculated to be an elaborate publicity stunt,
too—was especially turbulent around the time he made his shocking holiday announcement. Just a few
short weeks later, he also got a DUI in Miami. Of course, it soon became clear that The Biebs
never intended to actually retire on that fateful Christmas morning. And as years went by,
the "Let Me Love You" singer started using a much more thoughtful voice on social media.
JB's lifestyle doesn't lend itself to publicity stunts. Instead, he cleaned up his bad boy
act and appears focused on music. He released two albums, "Changes" and "Justice," and the
EP "Freedom" in the span of 13 months and planned a 2022 world tour for the latter.
In 2002, Stephen King told the Los Angeles Times that he was done writing books
as soon as he finished his then in-progress projects—five books and an ABC miniseries.
"You can either continue to go on, or say I left when I was still on top of my game."
Since he's one of the most prolific authors of our time, he also pointed out the danger of ending up
repeating himself and recycling his old material. The sudden decision to retire came three years
after King's nearly-fatal accident when he was hit by a van while taking a walk.
He once recollected the experience on Twitter, "As I lay unconscious in the hospital, the docs
debated amputating my right leg and decided it could stay, on a trial basis. I got better."
Fans of the legendary scribe know that he continued churning out literature for decades.
"I can't figure it out. I mean, it's kind of masochistic, but hey,
it pays the bills. You know what I'm saying?" And, his entire outlook on when he'll put away
the pen for good seems to have changed. He told Stephen Colbert on
"The Late Show" in 2019, "God'll tell me when to retire."
He added, "But until then,
I mean, this is the best job in the world, because nobody can make you retire at a mandatory age."
In 2008, Joaquin Phoenix and other A-listers attended a charity event in San Francisco, where
he told an Extra reporter he was retiring from acting to pursue a career in rap music. He said,
"I want to take this opportunity [...] also to give you the exclusive
and just talk a little bit about the fact that this will be my last performance as an actor."
Little did the world know that he was actually in character for a role
in "I'm Still Here," a mockumentary directed by his celebrity friend, Casey Affleck.
Not only was it a genius publicity stunt that ultimately served to promote the mockumentary,
it was also an elaborate, Borat-like prank that didn't stop there.
In 2009, he visited "The Late Show with David Letterman," wearing sunglasses and
mumbling incomprehensibly. And while Phoenix is no stranger to making controversial TV appearances,
even Letterman bought the act. "You're not gonna act anymore?"
"No." "Oh. Why is that?"
"Hmmm. I don't know." In 2010, Affleck cleared the air when he explained
to The New York Times that he, quote, "never intended to trick anybody" and that his former
brother-in-law gave the performance of his career. Miley Cyrus rose to fame as a child star, most
notably on "Hannah Montana," portraying a teenage superstar. But as the show crept to its end, the
"Wrecking Ball" singer started transforming her public image. After releasing two studio albums
with her own music, "Breakout" in 2008 and "Can't Be Tamed" in 2010, the multi-hyphenate boldly told
E! that she was "done" after the latter, adding, "I just want to work in movies. That's what
I like and that's what I want to be doing." Cyrus took the Hollywood plunge with a leading
role in "The Last Song." Although the film was a critical flop, Cyrus did meet her ex-husband
Liam Hemsworth on the set. She starred in two more bombs, "LOL" and "So Undercover," before
deciding to go back to singing and performing. "I'll never be who I was yesterday. In a way,
every night before I go to sleep, I say goodbye to myself, in a way."
She said in "Miley: The Movement,” a documentary about her return to the music industry,
"I thought after my show I was going to act. I went and I did one movie and I came back and said,
'I'm never doing that again. I'm going to do music for the rest of my life.'”
Never say never, Miley! Her second retirement claim turned out to be premature, too. In 2019,
the "Malibu" singer starred in a "Black Mirror" episode titled "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too."
When asked about his decision to retire in 2013, director Steven Soderbergh told Vulture,
"I won't be directing 'cinema,' for lack of a better word. But I still plan to direct—theater
stuff, and I'd do a TV series if something great were to come along."
As noted by the Los Angeles Times, the Oscar-winner casually mentioned calling
"Cut!" on his film directing career in 2008, but rumors about his retirement
really picked up steam in 2010 when Matt Damon said the director was, at the time,
"kind of exhausted with everything that interested him in terms of form." Damon's foreshadowing came
true when Soderbergh retired from directing movies after 2013's "Behind the Candelabra."
He told EW that after his retirement, he focused on painting. He also picked up a TV project:
"The Knick," a period drama that ran for two seasons. But four years later,
the director made a spectacular return to the big screens with "Logan Lucky," another heist movie..
Country music star Garth Brooks decided to retire at the height of his career. In 2000,
he announced he was hanging up his guitar until his three daughters graduated high
school—a timeframe of approximately 14 years. The retirement announcement also
took attention away from the fact that he was divorcing his first wife, Sandy Mahl.
In 2014, when his youngest child decided to go to college in Nashville, he got the band back
together and started touring again. But it wasn't his first time back on stage. Not only did Brooks
continue playing charity shows throughout his near-retirement, but he also "recorded
a project for Walmart" in 2005, The Tennessean reported. He also performed 187 shows as part of
his residency at Wynn Las Vegas from 2009 to 2014. The ever-so shady Shia LaBeouf's fake retirement
came following accusations of plagiarism in late 2013.
"I just feel judged and like I'm an outsider." According to The Guardian, it all started when he
was accused of plagiarism by comic artist Daniel Clowes. In 2012, LaBeouf directed and starred
in his very own short movie, called "Howard Cantour.com," but it turned out to be awfully
similar to Clowes' comic, "Justin M. Damiano." Rather than making peace with the author,
LaBeouf escalated the conflict by tweeting a series of apologies that were originally written
by other celebrities. The whole thing seemingly culminated with his January 10, 2014 tweet:
"In light of the recent attacks against my artistic integrity,
I am retiring from all public life." Days later, LaBeouf returned to public life,
to attack Jim Carrey for his joke about the plagiarism scandal at that year's Golden
Globes. EW reported that series of tweets, and apologies, ended with another odd Tweet:
"I AM NOT FAMOUS ANYMORE." Of course, LaBeouf was also
gearing up to promote the scandalous indie flick "Nymphomaniac" at the time.
Nicki Minaj wrote in since-deleted tweeted in 2019,
"I've decided to retire & have my family. I know you guys are happy now."
Fans and haters alike instantly started wondering whether she meant what she wrote or if it was a
publicity stunt. The "Chun-Li" rapper wasn't at her most popular at the time, and was on the heels
of postponing the North American dates of her 2018 tour. Critics claimed Minaj delayed the tour
due to low ticket sales. But Minaj explained on Twitter that with the delay of the album,
so came the delay of the tour to perform it. Whether the explanation about her 2018 tour was
true or not, Minaj headed back to Twitter the next day with an apology, saying,
"I'm still right here." She called the retirement tweet, quote,
"abrupt & insensitive" and promised a bigger explanation at some point. That explanation came
a month later in a chat with The Shade Room, when she admitted she was only musing about
whether or not she would record a fifth album. While the star has yet to release side album,
tentatively titled "NM5," the family part of her retirement tweet was true; she got married
to husband Kenneth Petty in October 2019. Minaj gave birth to their baby boy in September 2020.
Jay-Z released his first studio album, "Reasonable Doubt," in 1996 and kept releasing one record per
year until 2003. But then, with eight studio albums under his belt, Jay-Z announced he was
retiring from making hip-hop studio albums. Asked by The New York Times if it was all a
marketing ploy, the rapper got defensive, saying, "Give me a little more credit than that. I could
think of other ways to get attention." And so, he went out with a bang,
putting together an outstanding farewell show at Madison Square Garden.
Throughout the night, fellow superstars including Missy Elliot and Beyoncé joined him on the stage.
Still, Jay-Z remained busy after his alleged retirement from making albums;
he became the CEO of Def Jam Recordings and partial owner of the New Jersey, now Brooklyn
Nets. But a few years later, he got the bug again, and headed back into the studio. In 2006,
he released his comeback album, "Kingdom Come," and in hindsight, is well-aware of how ridiculous
his initial decision to retire looked. He told Entertainment Weekly,
"It was the worst retirement in history." Emma Watson has been a movie star since she
was 11 years old, so it's no wonder that she claimed she was ready to leave acting behind
by the time 2009 rolled by. She told Teen Vogue,
"Until something comes along that I feel as strongly about as I did Hermione—like, I felt that
it was life or death—I don't want to act again." It turned out that it didn't take long for the
"Harry Potter" star to be called to her craft again. In 2012, she starred in "The Perks
of Being a Wallflower." While she never completely abandoned her acting career,
she did put it on the back burner. Instead, she focused on humanitarian activism. In 2014,
she was named a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador. Following Watson's own retirement stunt,
the media seems to have picked up the ball for her, with speculation of her exiting the industry
repeatedly circulating, even as she headlined huge projects, including "Beauty and the Beast" in 2017
and the award-winning "Little Women" in 2019. In May 2021, Watson tweeted,
"Dear Fans, Rumours about whether I'm engaged or not, or whether my career is 'dormant or
not' are ways to create clicks each time they are revealed to be true or untrue."
In a follow-up tweet, she reassured her followers that "no news" doesn't
automatically mean that she's retiring. Check out one of our newest videos right
here! Plus, even more Nickie Swift videos about your favorite celebrities are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.