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- Everyone loves
a little gossip now and then.
Tabloids have been making bank
off scandal stories for years.
So it's time we count down the biggest scandals
through the decades.
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What happens when you mix corrupt politicians
with lots of oil?
You get one of the greasiest scandals
of all time,
Teapot Dome.
In 1920,
Warren G. Harding won the presidency
after receiving financial backing
from oil tycoons in exchange for influence
in the president's cabinet.
Their pick: Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall,
who accepted bribes from oil companies
to allow them exclusive rights
to drill on federal land.
Talk about slimy.
"The Wall Street Journal" broke the scandal in 1922,
and soon, the Senate launched its first-ever investigation
of government corruption.
Fall was convicted and became the first
former presidential cabinet member in history
to go to prison.
History books would remember
Harding and his cronies
for decades to come
for all the wrong reasons.
♪ ♪
Turn up the dial and tune in.
The world is ending.
When Orson Welles began reading a radio play
of "War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells--
no relation--in 1938,
his radio show accidentally caused chaos.
Some listeners mistook the science fiction tale
to be a real news broadcast
reporting explosions on Mars,
meteor crashes, and aliens with long tentacles.
Totally possible, right?
The confusion and chaos caused traffic jams,
swamped emergency phone lines,
and over a dozen people to be treated for shock.
Soon people realized that they had simply missed
the first few minutes of the radio play,
which explained that the program
was a work of fiction.
Whoopsie.
Recent media studies suggest
that the panic was far less widespread
than newspapers reported at the time.
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Unfortunately, now is the time
where we must tell you that the expression
"in like Flynn"
was inspired by a pedophile.
Hollywood actor Errol Flynn
allegedly touted the gag-worthy catchphrase...
which is also a long-winded way of saying
"I am an alcoholic pedophile."
In 1943, Flynn was taken to trial
for the statutory rape of two 17-year-old girls.
To make matters worse, during the trial,
he hit on another young woman
who worked at the courthouse
and later got her pregnant.
The two eventually married,
but to make matters worse again,
Flynn then cheated on his young bride
by beginning a long affair with a 15-year-old girl
named Beverly Aadland.
Two years later, Flynn died in Aadland's arms,
not the arms of his wife,
further scandalizing his legacy.
Yikes.
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What screams "scandal" more than a love triangle?
A Hollywood love triangle.
In the 1950s, Eddie Fisher,
the most popular recording artist
of the decade,
was married to starlet Debbie Reynolds.
When Reynolds' best friend, Elizabeth Taylor,
married Mike Todd in 1957,
Eddie and Debbie were the best man
and maid of honor.
Within a year, Mike died suddenly,
and Eddie dropped everything to console Liz,
including his wife and kids.
The tabloids erupted,
labeling Eddie as a philandering loser,
Elizabeth as a homewrecker,
and Debbie as the sympathetic victim.
Gossip rags ate up the drama,
and though the marriage eventually ended
and Liz and Debbie reconciled,
Eddie's career remained as dumped as dumped could be.
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Scandals aren't all fun and games
like oil tycoons and celebrity love triangles.
Often, they are tragic moments
of historical significance.
The 1960s were defined by a number of such moments,
including the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,
and Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
The scandal around each of their deaths
is linked to the public shock
of three important cultural and political leaders
losing their lives because of their political significance,
especially in regard to the civil rights movement.
Conspiracy theories swirled regarding each of their deaths
as the public desperately tried
to make sense out of such senseless acts of violence.
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The summer of love ended abruptly
in August 1969,
when cult followers of Charles Manson
committed a series of brutal murders
at his behest
in the hills of Los Angeles.
Nine victims in total,
those slain include actress Sharon Tate
and coffee heiress Abigail Folger.
News of the high-profile murders
sent a shockwave across the nation,
and the ensuing trial scandalized the public
in the early 1970s.
Manson's followers caused chaos
by screaming in the courtroom
and antagonizing the press,
and Manson himself made his lunacy known
by arriving in court
with an X carved into his forehead
and spouting nonsensical conspiracy theories
in his own defense.
Not exactly a low-profile trial.
Later in the decade, the Watergate scandal
would consume the nation to such an extent
that adding "-gate" to the end of a word,
like Deflategate, or Gamergate,
would become synonymous with scandal
for decades to come.
- The United States will continue to go forward.
♪ ♪
- The scandal that rocked the '80s
was a good old-fashioned affair.
Democratic candidate Gary Hart
dropped out of the 1988 presidential race
after a journalist exposed him
having an extramarital affair.
When the press started trailing him in 1987,
Hart famously said...
Unfortunately, his words
came back to bite him in the ballot box.
A photo of a model-- not his wife--
sitting on Hart's lap surfaced,
and his campaign took a massive hit,
forcing him to drop out of the race
and give up his political ambitions
entirely.
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Political scandals involving affairs
only leveled up in the '90s,
when President Bill Clinton had an affair
with a young White House intern
named Monica Lewinsky.
The most scandalous story of the '90s--
that is, besides the debacle
of the Grammy for Best New Artist
going to lip-syncers Milli Vanilli--
Lewinsky soon became tabloid fodder
and the butt of many tasteless late-night jokes.
Today, we recognize that the affair
was hardly a laughing matter,
as it meant that the president
took advantage of his position of power
by being sexually inappropriate
with a subordinate member of his staff.
Clinton was impeached, but ultimately acquitted
by the Senate
and allowed to serve out
the remainder of his term,
while Lewinsky was forced to retreat
and pick up the pieces of her reputation.
A football star turned actor
is accused of double murder,
leads police on a wild car chase
on live TV,
making the juice synonymous
with the trial of the century?
Scandalous.
In true Hollywood fashion,
the trial became a sensational media event.
Lawyer Johnnie Cochran
and lead prosecutor Marcia Clark
became household names.
It was all anyone could talk about in 1995.
The world tuned in
when the jury read their verdict of acquittal,
making it perhaps the most viewed moment
in American television history at the time.
One thing is certain: the trial received
exponentially more attention
than anything else O.J. Simpson has ever done.
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The tabloids absolutely love to watch a star implode
in chaotic and spectacular fashion.
No celebrity is safe from the paparazzi,
and unfortunately for Britney Spears,
they were there to give the world a firsthand view
at one of the rockiest times in her private life in 2007.
Following the breakdown of her marriage
that resulted in a custody battle,
Britney publicly struggled with the pressures of fame,
mental health struggles, and stress,
most notably shaving her head
in full view of the paparazzi.
Even pop stars go through tough times,
but just a few years later, Britney was back on the charts
with her platinum-selling album, "Circus."
Unfortunately, she is still facing legal challenges today.
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In the late 2010s,
the MeToo movement
brought on a wave of justice
for victims of sexual abuse.
The reckoning outed a number of high-profile men
who had significant histories of sexual abuse.
Hundreds of women came forward
with reports of sexual assault and rape
committed by a list of celebrities
and powerful figures,
including comedian Bill Cosby,
film producer Harvey Weinstein,
and USA gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar.
Each of these criminals has since stood trial,
been convicted and sentenced to a combined jail term
of over 200 years between them,
with more to come, as sentencing
is still not completed in every case.
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The biggest scandal of 2019 and 2020
was the arrest of Jeffrey Epstein
for his decades of alleged sexual assault
and sex trafficking of minors.
Epstein and his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell,
allegedly spent years running a sex trafficking ring
that catered to wealthy and high-profile clients.
Epstein's known circle included celebrities
and politicians,
making the case even more far-reaching,
from Hollywood to Washington, D.C..
In August 2019, Epstein died in jail,
ruled a suicide at the time,
but many believe he was murdered
to keep details of the case from seeing trial.
Maxwell was apprehended in 2020
and is currently awaiting trial.
Not all of these scintillating scandals
are frivolous romps.
Some of them are downright horrific.
But one thing is for sure.
They all captivated the attention of the country
and had the tabloids printing up a storm.
Until next time, keep your bribes to yourself,
beware of love triangles,
and don't let the paps get you down.
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