The Roberts family is one of the most impressive living dynasties that Hollywood has to offer,
but with that, comes a shady side, too. We'll take a look at bad relationships, run-ins with
the law, and behavior that annoyed Steven Spielberg, as we examine the Roberts family.
The real apex of the shady side of the Roberts family can be traced back to 1993 when Eric
Roberts was embroiled in a tough custody battle against ex-partner Kelly Cunningham
for two-year-old daughter Emma. As News & Record reported, the actor had served Cunningham with
papers to have her appear in court; however, his ex-partner couldn't afford her own lawyer.
Enter Eric's sister, Julia Roberts, who fronted the money so that Cunningham could get one.
Understandably, the move didn't sit well with Eric, who confirmed to Vanity Fair
that his history with drugs had alienated his sister and messed with their relationship.
Subsequently, the two spent years estranged from each other,
though he downplayed the disagreement during the interview.
A little over ten years later, the two had apparently patched up their
problems. Julia gave birth to twins, and Eric was graciously welcomed back
into the fold to celebrate their arrival, telling Vanity Fair -
"I was ushered into their room and was immediately awash in brotherly and uncle-ly love."
With one tender moment, the siblings had managed to let bygones be bygones.
It's understandable that Julia Roberts reportedly lost the energy to deal with
her brother's addiction issues, given their severity and chronic history.
Eric Roberts was in a catastrophic car accident in 1981, which he confessed to Vanity Fair happened
because he was on cocaine at the time. The car accident left him in a coma for three days.
"I come out of the coma for about like 4 days, and I cannot feel the whole right side of my body."
In 1987, his drug use became so grave that he was eventually arrested.
As reported by UPI, after incidents where he harassed a woman and a run-in with a cop,
Hollywood's most prolific B-movie star was charged with numerous crimes,
including assault, trespassing, and possession of both cocaine and marijuana.
Sadly his dealings with the law didn't end there. In 1995, he was arrested on suspicion of
spousal abuse after he allegedly pushed his wife Eliza into a wall, according to police officers.
Speaking about the incident a year later, both Eric and Eliza, who remain together to this day,
denied that he'd inflicted any physical abuse against her during an interview with SFGate.
On the contrary, the actor's version of events suggests that he'd had a heated phone call with
his agent and subsequently stormed off in his car after yelling at his wife.
By the time he returned home, Eliza had already called for help. As Eric explained it -
"She had dialed 911 to say, 'My husband needs to be stopped.'"
Eric Roberts' well-documented struggles with addiction led him to the inevitable spiritual
landfill of "Celebrity Rehab" in 2010. As his wife and manager Eliza expressed to Vanity Fair,
they were well aware of how, quote, "these shows are sanctioned voyeurism" but did it anyway. It
paid off — casting agents began to look at him more following his appearance, with Eliza saying -
"Some of the best shows he's done, he's done since 'Celebrity Rehab.'"
It probably helped that Eric confessed to having generated
some additional drama on the show for publicity.
The "Stalked By My Doctor" star made the admission while chatting with the hosts of
the charmingly titled podcast "Eric Roberts Is The F***ing Man." Roberts was there to conquer
his dependency on marijuana, amidst a cast of contestants who were dealing with opium addictions
Comparatively, his struggle was mild and it didn't make for great TV, as he quipped -
"Me, marijuana. I'm fine. I have a headache."
Producers subsequently called Eliza to complain that while everyone else had emotional episodes,
Eric had not cracked. Under threat of being ejected for being a bore,
the actor stepped up the drama by faking some tears and having some
serious and inappropriate words with former supermodel Janice Dickinson.
"If it wasn't for me…"
Given the overall drama of the Roberts dynasty, you might think that Eric Roberts would be a
little more thoughtful about how he phrases things in public about his famous kin — but
apparently not. When chatting to Vanity Fair about how happy he was to be back
in the good graces of his family, he made the mistake of crediting the incredible
careers of his sister and daughter to himself, bragging to the magazine -
"If it wasn't for me, there would be no Julia Roberts and no Emma Roberts as celebrities,
as actresses, and I'm very proud of that."
Explaining how he'd set Julia up to get signed when she came to New York, the star reflected
that he was also, quote, "first by a long shot" in terms of making it big and receiving Golden Globe
and Academy Award nominations. Apparently, his success was necessary for Julia's, even if she
left him in the dust by the early '90s. What he did for Emma, however, is anyone's guess.
What we do know is that his daughter told Allure that she credited her auntie Julia
as being the real reason she entered the business.
The "Scream 4" star recalled how she was captivated watching her aunt work
on the set of "Erin Brockovich" — so much so that she didn't want to leave, explaining -
"I remember it feeling like summer camp, just the feeling of creativity."
"Yeah you would have to drag me off set. Like, I would go and visit and my mom would be like
'Aren't you bored, don't you wanna leave?' I'm like 'No, I'm working in hair and makeup now.'"
Though her career was thriving, Emma Roberts sadly also had her own personal troubles to deal with.
In 2013, Emma Roberts was arrested after a violent altercation between herself
and boyfriend Evan Peters. TMZ reported that the incident took place in the
couple's hotel room in Montreal, with Peters allegedly displaying injuries afterward.
Emma was released just hours later when boyfriend Evan didn't want to press charges. Furthermore,
a source confirmed to US Weekly that the couple remained on solid ground and that they wouldn't
break up after the incident. Regardless, the encounter became instant bait for tabloid gossip.
Luckily for Emma, her father was a man with his own tabloid experience,
and Eric Roberts leaped to his daughter's defense, telling TMZ -
"Here's the thing about couples. Unless you're one of those people,
you do not know what happened. It's their business […] they're grown-ups."
The relationship between Emma Roberts and Evan Peters remained on and off for years.
The two started dating in 2012, got engaged in 2014, and had reportedly ended their engagement
by 2015. Just a year later, the two were apparently giving each other a second chance,
with US Weekly reporting that they were dating once again.
It's unclear what their relationship status was a year later, when tabloids began to speculate that
Roberts had caused the breakup between Hayden Christensen and "The O.C." alum Rachel Bilson.
According to US Weekly, Bilsen reportedly found text messages between her beau and his "Little
Italy" co-star, which led her to conclude that there was something going on between them.
As Perez Hilton questioned the timing of Roberts' alleged involvement with Christensen,
it's unknown whether she and Peters were together during all this.
Whatever the case, following their split, speculation was rife that the two didn't
exactly have the healthiest or most stable of relationships.
Alleged domestic dispute and affair rumors aside,
there were further rumblings that Emma Roberts and Evan Peters' relationship was unstable,
to such a degree they were rumored to be difficult to work with. In 2015, OK! published a report
from an "American Horror Story" on-set source, who alleged that the couple was a distraction,
with their conspicuous cycle of fighting and making up. The source alleged to the publication -
"As soon as the director yells, 'Cut,' Emma and Evan are making out.
That is, if they're not screaming at each other."
Their relationship might have had a sour impact on-set,
and Peters notoriously left the hit show not long after his breakup with Roberts,
despite being a fan favorite of the cast's core stars. The actor confirmed he was to skip his
first season of the horror anthology in the nine years since the show began. Peters wound
up sitting out two subsequent seasons of the show, both of which happened to star his ex.
Skip ahead to 2020, and the roles were reversed. While Peters confirmed he was set to return to
"American Horror Story" for "Double Feature," Roberts was now due to sit this one out.
Julia Roberts suggested she was anything but "America's Sweetheart" when she
generated headlines for her relationship with married cinematographer Danny Moder in 2000.
The two met on the set of the critically panned crime drama "The Mexican," and had
reportedly shacked up together six months later — much to the understandable chagrin
of Moder's wife Vera Steimberg, who MSN reported was reluctant to give her blessing to a divorce.
Julia's answer? She wore a t-shirt bearing the brazen handmade slogan "A low Vera," in reference
to her beau's wife, and rocked it in the middle of Beverly Hills in prime sight of paparazzi.
However, Julia told Oprah that she didn't cause the breakup of her partner's marriage,
and shared that the intent of her fashion statement was not something she regretted.
Over time, the "Pretty Woman" star must have reflected on her prior behavior,
as she told Harper's Bazaar that she was, quote, "a selfish little brat" back then.
More importantly the couple remain together,
at least at the time of this video’s release, and have been married since 2002.
In 1991, tabloids threw every column inch they had to spare into the
mysterious fallout of Hollywood's most beloved couple at the time:
Kiefer Sutherland and Julia Roberts. The "Mystic Pizza" superstar had left
her "The Lost Boys" husband-to-be just days before their wedding — and shadier still,
she appeared to have left him for Sutherland's friend and "The Lost Boys" co-star Jason Patric.
People reported that the couple had been experiencing problems in the lead-up to
the wedding, with Sutherland's penchant for heavy drinking and an alleged dalliance with a
go-go dancer being at the heart of industry gossip. Meanwhile, Roberts and Patric were
said to have gone to Dublin together. Finally, a source suggested to People
that Sutherland found out that his relationship was over from a mutual friend over the phone.
It was the end of a love affair, sure, but it was also the end of
a friendship — something that Patric and Sutherland reflected on, and apparently mended,
30 years later via the podcast "Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum." Sutherland joked that
he was more cut up about losing his pal than he was his wife-to-be. Patric, meanwhile,
offered a heartwarming appraisal of what survived the drama - his and Keifer's friendship.
According to speculation at the time, the tabloid-chronicled love triangle between
Sutherland and Patric also impacted Julia Roberts' work. The star had just started
filming Steven Spielberg's "Hook" when her romantic life publicly imploded,
and the legendary filmmaker was not impressed with her subsequent work ethic or attitude.
A Premiere Magazine report about the film's production described Roberts as being allegedly
so difficult to work with that the star was dubbed "Tinkerhell" by the crew.
Discussing Roberts on "60 Minutes," Spielberg mused that the actor was going through a tough
time and that it was not a great moment in time for the two to work together.
When asked if he'd work with her again, the director hinted that he would not.
"Do you have any hesitation about working with her again?"
"...This is a 60 Minutes question isn't it?"
Understandably, Roberts wasn't too thrilled to discover that she'd earned herself the
unflattering nickname on-set, and also defended her behavior, telling Entertainment Weekly -
"I have normal frustrations like everybody else, but I don't consider myself temperamental."
Worse still, she was horrified by Spielberg's comments about her on "60 Minutes" and shared
her sense of betrayal to Vanity Fair, saying - "I couldn't believe that this person that
I knew and trusted was actually hesitating to come to my defense."
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