In today's world of social media and tabloids, it's harder than ever for celebrities to maintain
their carefully crafted public images.
But when the truth finally comes out, it's not always bad - sometimes, stars are actually
nicer than people thought.
Not every time, though.
So what's the truth behind your favorite celebrity?
Here's a look at some stars who are much different than they seem.
Michael Jordan
In the '80s and '90s, millions of kids wanted to be "Like Mike."
"Oh, if I could be like Mike!"
"Like Mike!"
"If I could be like Mike."
"If I could be like Mike!"
And why wouldn't they?
After all, Michael Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA titles and was one of the
most famous, well-liked, and well-paid athletes on Earth.
He even helped Bugs Bunny save the world from alien invasion!
"Hey everybody, look at your hero now."
Since then, clues have leaked out suggesting that Mike might actually be kind of a jerk.
When he was a player, for instance, Jordan punched multiple teammates at practice.
During a game, he once called Muggsy Bogues – the shortest player in NBA history — a
"f---ing midget."
And when he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009, he used most of his
speech to call out different people in his life who had pissed him off.
"Thank you, Hall of Fame, for raising ticket prices, I guess."
Stay classy, Mike!
Stephen Colbert
With a background that includes The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert
is the most politically-minded of the network late-night hosts, using a cuttingly sarcastic
wit to tackle the issues of the day.
He's certainly not perceived as being nearly as warm and fuzzy as genial hosts like Jimmy
Fallon or James Corden.
So it might surprise you to learn that from 2003-2005, while still a correspondent on
the Daily Show, the devoutly Catholic Colbert doubled as a dedicated Sunday School teacher,
volunteering to lead religious education courses at St. Cassian Church in Upper Montclair.
So whatever you do, don't challenge him on bible knowledge, or he will literally school
you.
"Obviously, you learned well in Sunday school."
"I TEACH Sunday school, motherf---er!"
John Lennon
The Beatle who penned "All You Need is Love" and "Give Peace a Chance" didn't always practice
what he preached.
Behind the scenes, John Lennon was reportedly abusive toward women, unfaithful to his first
wife, and an absentee father to his first born.
In 1980, just three months before he was slain outside his Manhattan apartment, Lennon claimed
in a Playboy interview that his years with second wife Yoko Ono had left him a changed
man.
"It is the most violent people who go for love and peace.
Everything's the opposite.
But I sincerely believe in love and peace.
I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence."
Carroll O'Connor
Perhaps no single character in pop culture has more convincingly sold the role of an
ignorant racist windbag better than Archie Bunker.
That's a solid testament to the acting skill of All in the Family star Carroll O'Connor,
who was considered to be a very kind and thoughtful man by those who knew him.
In his memoir, showrunner Norman Lear wrote that O'Connor nearly quit the show several
times because he found the material so personally offensive.
Lear said,
"It was understandable to a degree.
He was, after all, at the beginning of a process where he was to shed the gentle Irish intellectual
Carroll O'Connor to become the poorly educated, full-of-himself blowhard Archie Bunker, spewing
a kind of rancid, lights-out conservatism for a television audience that grew quickly
to more than 50 million people."
Dean Martin
Legendary Rat Pack star Dean Martin built his whole act around being a fun and flirty
drunk, always just a little bit amusingly tipsy whenever he'd take the stage in Las
Vegas or in a TV studio to film an episode of The Dean Martin Show.
"'I'll get us another drink!"
But according to his son, Ricci, the drunk act was just that - an act.
Ricci wrote in his memoir That's Amore: A Son Remembers Dean Martin that the legendary
entertainer was much more of a sipper than a guzzler, writing,
"Dad usually had a J&B scotch and soda he nursed through the performance.
It was almost always a weak scotch and soda.
Other times it was just apple juice."
Flavor Flav
On reality shows like The Surreal Life, Flavor of Love, and Strange Love, star Flavor Flav
didn't necessarily come across like the sharpest tool in the shed.
And that played right into the crazy, weird persona that he developed as a member of the
iconic rap group Public Enemy, when the kid named William Drayton, Jr. turned himself
into wackadoo legend Flavor Flav.
But don't be fooled by the act: Flav is actually something of a prodigy.
Teaching himself to play piano at the age of five, Flav went on to learn 15 different
instruments without a scrap of instruction.
He told The Daily Beast,
"…the way that I was able to accomplish that was by cutting my classes, hanging out
in the band room all day, and going from one instrument to the next to the next, until
I learned how to play everything by ear."
Nine one one might be a joke, but Flavor Flav is the real deal.
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