Fame is a crazy drug whose highs can cause some stars to lose touch with reality.
Here are some famous celebrities who let their star status go to their heads.
Bieber's a bad egg
After one of his YouTube cover songs caught the eye of a talent manager in 2009, 13-year-old
Justin Bieber found himself with a record deal and Usher as his mentor.
Bieber handled his early fame well, but once he reached the other side of 18, things started
to change for the worse.
Bieber earned the ire of music fans in a 2011 Vanity Fair interview when he compared himself
to pop culture icons like The Beatles, Tupac, and Michael Jackson.
From there he slowly transformed from squeaky clean pop star to bad boy wannabe.
Even his once adorable relationship with songstress Selena Gomez suddenly turned into sleazy tabloid
fodder, complete with cheating rumors and paternity suits.
In 2014, Bieber's antics graduated from obnoxious to criminal.
"Deputies descended upon Bieber's upscale neighborhood this morning searching for evidence
involving the egging of his neighbor's home.
You heard me right."
Less than two weeks later, Bieber was arrested for drag racing while allegedly drunk.
More scandals and accusations would follow involving drugs, racist jokes, public urination,
and assault.
Not to mention a habit for storming off stage and leaving fans hanging if he's in a bad
mood.
If you want a case study on the pitfalls of fame, you can't go wrong with the Biebs.
Mariah is lamb-tastic
Mariah Carey defines diva, and she acts every bit the part.
From her rivalry with Whitney Houston, to her epic shade of Jennifer Lopez, this is
clearly Mariah's World, and we're all just living in it.
Among other things, Carey has a reputation for being late, and while that might fly with
fans at her concerts, it can wreak havoc for others.
When Will Ferrell stopped by Watch What Happens Live in June 2017, he revealed Carey lost
her chance at a cameo in The House after showing up four hours late and refusing to do a scene
that was approved ahead of time.
When host Andy Cohen asked Ferrell if Carey made any crazy demands for her trailer, Ferrell
had a strange answer.
"Stuffed lambs."
"Stuffed lambs!"
"For her lambies."
"For her lambies!"
"Right?"
"Which are her people!"
We're pretty sure Carey's career will survive missing out on The House.
She's the same woman who demanded a $50 million inconvenience fee from her ex-fiance James
Packer because they had a bad break-up.
We doubt she's losing beauty sleep over a cameo.
Legend in his own mind
Kanye West's ego is legendary at this point, and the rapper seems to think it's just one
of many legendary things about him.
According to Newsweek, for example, West enjoys comparing his success to that of Steve Jobs
and Walt Disney.
Though that success hasn't stopped him from making insane demands of the wealthy, like
his 2016 twitter rant where he tried to convince Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg to give him $1
billion for what he called, quote,
"... Kanye West ideas."
"Um… uh, no."
Among other things, West's attitude may have cost him his closest friend and supporter.
In November 2016, West went on an unhinged rant about best bud Jay Z and Jay's wife,
Beyoncé during a concert, then stormed off stage.
Kanye was hospitalized for psychiatric evaluation a few days later, but insiders allege that
stay was purely for insurance purposes.
Jay remained quiet until June 2017 when he dropped his new album, 4:44, which included
a direct shot at Kanye.
According to Page Six, the real reason for the feud was West continuing to try to force
his wife Kim Kardashian and Jay Z's wife Beyoncé into a friendship the latter wanted no part
of.
An unnamed source told to Page Six,
"It’s not organic.
It’s not real.
Beyoncé is a Southern, God-fearing woman, despite what you may see when she’s entertaining.
She may not have much in common with Kim."
What does the Fox say?
Thanks to the blockbuster success of Transformers, Megan Fox quickly became one of the hottest
actresses in Hollywood.
Unfortunately for her, comparing director Michael Bay to Hitler didn't go over well
with executive producer Steven Spielberg, and her time with the survivors of Cybertron
came to an end.
Her career languished for years thanks to her acid tongue and an open letter from Transformers:
Rise of the Fallen crew members that detailed her diva-like behavior on set.
Fox and Bay eventually patched things up and the director graciously cast her as April
O'Neil in the 2014 live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot.
Apparently no one heard Fox comparing any of the crew to European dictators this time
around, but she still found herself in hot water after negative reviews touched a nerve.
At a press conference, Fox said,
"Those people can complain, they all go to the theater.
They're gonna love it, and if they don't love it, they can f--- off, and that's the end
of that."
Caged by debt
Following a string of hits in the '90s, Nicolas Cage became one of the biggest stars in Hollywood
and was scoring paydays of $20 million per movie.
At one point, the actor was worth $150 million, which seems like more money than one person
could spend in a lifetime.
Not Nicolas Cage.
Cage owned 15 multi-million dollar homes across the globe.
His real estate portfolio included a $3.4 million haunted mansion in New Orleans.
Oh, and by the way, it's not true he owned one castle in Europe.
He owned two castles in Europe.
And just to be safe, he bought a deserted island.
Cage also famously purchased a dinosaur skull and routinely dropped money on cars, comic
books, and shrunken pygmy heads.
Unfortunately, while Cage was blowing through his massive fortune, he was learning that
his real estate investment skills weren't the greatest.
He also kind of forgot to pay the IRS for a couple of years, which never ends well.
While fame and all the baggage that comes with it creeps up on other celebrities, Lindsay
Lohan ran at it full speed.
The Mean Girls star aggressively courted paparazzi, which only cemented her reputation as an out-of-control
party girl.
The studios couldn't explain her strange behavior as a simple case of exhaustion when the Internet
was filled with photos of Lohan partying hard.
Lohan earned two DUI arrests and was publicly called out by Georgia Rule costar Jane Fonda.
"Lindsay Lohan, one piece of advice: Come live with me for a while…"
"Oh, nice."
"...and get a sense of what normal is supposed to be like."
Lohan's career went down the drain.
While she was handed opportunities for a comeback, Lohan continued to be an unpredictable nightmare
to work with.
The message was loud and clear to Hollywood: Lohan isn't worth the risk.
Insurance companies wouldn't touch her, and directors who cast her were guaranteed days
of screaming matches and mysterious disappearances.
Captain Jack needs to chill
Thanks to the blockbuster success of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, Johnny Depp became
one of the biggest movie stars on the planet.
Depp used to have a reputation as a family man, but in 2013 he made headlines when he
broke things off with longtime partner Vanessa Paradis and quickly tied the knot the much
younger Amber Heard.
Depp's marriage to Heard become a hotbed of controversy and led to numerous reports that
the actor was spinning out of control.
In 2016, the couple went through a messy divorce that included Heard accusing Depp of domestic
abuse.
On top of that, Depp got caught up in a nasty lawsuit with his business managers, who accused
the actor of racking up $2 million in expenses on top of blowing through $30,000 a month
on wine alone.
"But why is the rum gone?"
To make things worse, Depp was reportedly a mess on the set of the fifth Pirates movie,
and the scuttlebutt is he needed his lines fed to him through an earpiece.
In July 2018, he found himself in more trouble when a location manager claimed the actor
punched him.
Despite all that bad press, Depp is still starring in blockbusters, so either he's learned
his lesson, or he's hired one heck of a publicist.
Chasing Success
Chevy Chase was the first breakout star from Saturday Night Live.
He left the show a few episodes into the second season, looking to parlay his charm and celebrity
into a film career.
In 2018, he told The Washington Post that SNL started to go south right around the time
he left, saying:
"I'd have to say, that after the first two years, it went downhill.
Why am I saying that?
Because I was in it?
I guess.
That's a horrible thing to say."
Speaking of horrible things to say, Chase's comments about some other SNL actors have
ranged from insulting to absolutely offensive.
Disagreeing with pretty much everyone ever, Chase said Will Ferrell wasn't funny at all.
He did heap praise on fellow SNL veterans Dana Carvey, Dan Aykroyd, and Gilda Radner.
He thought Eddie Murphy was funny, though he seemed to think Murphy had it easy.
Speaking of Murphy's famous impression of Stevie Wonder, Chase said,
"It's not that hard…
Your skin's the same color.
You just put on some sunglasses and do this."
Wow.
There was apparently chatter in Chase's post-SNL days that he could one day take over for Johnny
Carson as host of The Tonight Show.
Chase arrogantly said that he'd, quote,
"...never be tied down for five years interviewing personalities."
Carson's response?
He said Chase, quote,
"... couldn't ad-lib a fart after a baked-bean dinner."
Citizen Witherspoon
When most people think about out-of-control celebs, Reese Witherspoon probably doesn't
come to mind.
But in 2013, the actress let her fame get the best of her when her husband and agent
Jim Toth was pulled over for drunk driving in Atlanta.
Instead of cooperating with the police, Witherspoon allegedly began arguing with an officer and
found herself charged with disorderly conduct.
Even worse, the whole thing was captured on dashcam video in which Witherspoon can be
heard yelling the now infamous line,
"I'm an American citizen.
I'm allowed to stand on American ground!"
What she should've done is let the police arrest her husband for drunk driving, which
is exactly what Toth told her.
To her credit, the Legally Blonde actress apologized for her actions and hasn't shied
away from addressing the embarrassing incident.
Witherspoon said at a press conference,
"I guess maybe we all like to define people by the way the media presents them, and I
think that I showed I have a complexity that people didn't know about...
I made a mistake.
We all make mistakes.
The best you can do is say sorry and learn from it and move on."
Bad blood
While rising up through the country music ranks and pulling off the difficult transition
to pop stardom, Taylor Swift's initial fame was refreshingly free of controversy.
However, Swift's ego began to reveal itself when she ignited a Twitter feud with Nicki
Minaj by needlessly injecting herself into Minaj's criticism of the 2015 VMAs.
The two eventually made nice, but The Guardian called Swift, quote,
"... at best patronizing and ignorant; at worst vacuous and self-absorbed."
Swift courted the spotlight more than ever in 2016 thanks to her now-infamous summer
fling with Tom Hiddleston as well as #Taymerica, her in-your-face star-studded Fourth of July
party that dominated headlines with its professionally shot Instagram photos.
But just two weeks later, Kim Kardashian would bring Swift's star crashing down by releasing
a series of Snapchats that showed recordings of Swift mostly approving of the lyrics to
Kanye West's "Famous," despite acting blindsided and hurt by them in the press.
Swift laid low for most of 2017 until the November release of Reputation.
That album sold nearly two million copies in just six weeks, so it would seem that any
brewing Taytay backlash has died down… for now.