It can take years to build a reputation, but only a few seconds to ruin it.
These are wise words for anyone, but for celebrities caught behaving badly, they hold a special
sting.
From expletive-filled rants to sordid conversations, these celeb careers were ruined by leaked
footage.
Mel Gibson
Hollywood heavyweight Mel Gibson has had a major uphill PR battle ever since he was arrested
for a DUI in 2006.
After being cuffed and put into the backseat of a police squad car, he was caught on tape
launching into an anti-Semitic verbal rant.
He later announced that he was going to rehab and issued not one but two apologies.
But then in 2010, Gibson was again recorded, this time using racist language while threatening
Oksana Grigorieva, his then-girlfriend and the mother of his child.
After the audio leaked online, he was vehemently denounced by civil rights and anti-domestic
violence advocacy groups.
Despite all that, he might somehow be in position for a comeback.
In 2017, he attended the Oscars as a best director nominee for the war film Hacksaw
Ridge.
The following year, it was announced that the upcoming projects on his schedule included
a remake of The Wild Bunch and, believe it or not, a sequel to The Passion of the Christ.
"It's a big subject."
"Yeah, yeah, I've read the book."
David Hasselhoff
In 2007, an infamous video surfaced that featured Baywatch star David Hasselhoff sloppily eating
a cheeseburger while apparently drunk.
In response, he issued a statement in which he admitted that he was a "recovering alcoholic"
and added,
"Because of my honest and positive relationship with my daughters, who were concerned for
my well-being, there was a tape made that night to show me what I was like.
I have seen the tape.
I have learned from it and I am back on my game."
The incident ended up following Hasselhoff around for years.
"I thought it would go away.
It didn't go away.
It got bigger and bigger and bigger, and um, but I never played into it."
Hasselhoff was eventually able to make fun of his stained public image in the British
mockumentary TV series Hoff the Record, which aired for two seasons in 2015 and 2016.
"I'm going to have beers, burgers, I'm gonna take off my shirt, and I'm gonna have a lie-down.
And guess what else?
You can't film it."
Billy Bush
During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, an old recording was released that featured
Donald Trump making lewd remarks to Billy Bush on Access Hollywood.
"And when you're a star, they let you do it.
You can do anything."
"Whatever you want."
"Grab them by the p-----.
You can do anything."
While Trump went on to become president, Bush was promptly fired from his gig on the Today
show.
In an op-ed written for The New York Times, he revealed that he never thought Trump was
serious, explaining,
"He was performing.
Surely, we thought, none of this was real.
We now know better."
After staying out of the spotlight for three years, Bush told People Magazine,
"I fell completely apart.
I've been through resentment and anger and being inconsolable.
But then I realized I had an opportunity to put one foot in front of the other and get
going."
In 2019, he returned to TV as the host of a revamped version of the syndicated entertainment
show Extra.
Michael Richards
When comedian Michael Richards, best known as Kramer on Seinfeld, took the stage at the
Laugh Factory in Hollywood on November 17, 2006, he got heckled by an African American
audience member.
The moment was surprising, but nobody was prepared for what happened next, as Richards
repeatedly screamed racial slurs at the man in a three-minute rant.
He later apologized during an awkward appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman.
"I'm very, very sorry to those people in the audience, uh, the blacks, the Hispanics, the
whites, everyone that was there."
Since then, Richards has largely stayed out of the public eye, but he later discussed
the incident with Jerry Seinfeld on a 2012 episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.
"It's not about me.
It's about them.
Now, that's a lesson I learned seven years ago, when I blew it in the comedy club."
Tiger Woods
Superstar golfer Tiger Woods made headlines for the wrong reasons in 2009 when his then-wife,
Elin Nordegren, reportedly chased him out of the house with a golf club after discovering
that he'd cheated on her.
Soon after, audio leaked of a voicemail in which Woods begged one woman,
"Can you please take your name off your phone?
My wife went through my phone and may be calling you."
Since the incident, Woods admitted that he'd had affairs with as many as 120 women.
Not only did Nordegren divorce him, but his golf game plummeted and he lost major endorsements.
He endured a cold streak in which he didn't win any major championships for 10 years until
he pulled off a comeback victory at the 2019 Masters.
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