A gerbil stuffed… where? Lying paparazzi? A child
trafficking ring? These stars almost lost their careers due to big fat lies.
As a member of hip-hop band the Fugees and as a solo artist,
Lauryn Hill is one of the most influential musicians of all time. But for years,
she was dogged by rumors that, in an MTV interview, she said something to the effect of,
The gossip first circulated in 1996, thanks to someone who called into The
Howard Stern Show lambasting Hill for her supposedly anti-white rhetoric. Except,
she said nothing of the sort. Rather, Hill's initial comments were a celebration of Black
people enjoying her music, with no mention whatsoever of white people. She told Stern,
The dissemination of the tattle was essentially a racist smear campaign against the immensely
talented musician, who was understandably distressed by the lie. She told MTV,
Although the gossip has been debunked,
it damaged Hill's reputation for a time. In recent years, however,
she has had a career resurgence thanks to her soundtrack work on a number of acclaimed films.
British TV presenter Matthew Kelly rose to fame as the host of Stars in Their Eyes,
a karaoke competition in which contestants dressed up as their musical heroes and gave
their best interpretations of signature songs. In 2003, Kelly was investigated by police over
allegations of child sex abuse, according to The Telegraph. During the investigation,
he lost his job as host and was replaced by Davina McCall. However,
he was soon cleared of all charges and reinstated as the show's presenter. He said at the time,
Despite there being no evidence against Kelly, tabloids ran with the story and began accusing
him of all manner of sordid behavior. He was also mocked by comedian and TV host
Frank Skinner, who accused him of looking like a pedophile; a visibly angry Kelly confronted
Skinner on his eponymous show, failing to see the funny side of such gags.
Subsequently, he lobbied parliament in an effort to protect the anonymity
of the accused until they're charged with crimes.
Speaking to The Times, Kelly said he's still haunted by the claims, telling the publication,
Though Kelly's career initially took a hit, he has since bounced
back with numerous performances on the London stage and in TV dramas.
One of the most popular and unproblematic celebrities,
Keanu Reeves is sort of like the internet's BFF,
loved by all for his altruism, unassuming nature, and cohabitation with an age-appropriate woman.
"We're all familiar with sad—"
"I'm just eating a sandwich!"
"Sad Keanu. Sad Keanu, right there."
Accordingly, he is arguably the least likely celeb to incur accusations of assault. But
that's exactly what happened to the star in the late 2000s, with the very serious allegations
threatening to damage his pristine reputation. In 2008, paparazzi photographer Alison Silva
alleged that Reeves hit him with his car and seriously injured him. Subsequently,
he sued the Hollywood actor, claiming that the injuries he sustained left him unable to work.
He lamented that the elusive Reeves was making it impossible to snap a good photo of him,
so he admitted to continually approaching the actor. However, Reeves maintained that he was
attempting to drive away from the photographer, who was unrelenting in his pursuit of him.
After a year and a half of litigation, Reeves won the case after the photographer was exposed for
lying. The wrist injury that Silva supposedly suffered as a result of Reeves' alleged attack
was revealed to have actually been caused by a childhood soccer injury. Moreover, he was
shown exerting himself following the incident, despite his purported career-ending injury.
For years, Richard Gere was plagued by an absurd rumor that he used a gerbil as a
sex toy. The gossip began in the '90s after a tipster purported that they saw Gere being
treated in hospital with an unidentified furry object in his anal cavity. There are claims that
a disgruntled Sylvester Stallone may have started the rumor as a means of tarnishing Gere's career,
though Stallone denies this. Stallone told AintItCoolNews,
The story has been thoroughly debunked. Even a journalist for the National Enquirer,
an outlet that isn't exactly known for its reputable reportage,
admitted that the whole thing is an urban legend. Despite this,
the gossip has followed Gere around for decades. Addressing the rumor in an interview with Metro,
the actor admitted that his faith in the press has all but been extinguished.
As the writer and LGBT activist Dan Savage argues in The Coast, the gossip was rooted in homophobia:
straight people are rarely, if ever, asked if they put foreign objects in their orifices,
but the gerbil question has been imposed upon gay men ever since the rumor first started.
The Hollywood blacklist ruined the lives of countless actors, filmmakers,
and writers in the 1940s and '50s. The witch hunt against left-wing individuals
was precipitated by the "Red Scare," with Senator Joseph McCarthy vowing to
rid Hollywood of communists. Accordingly, a myriad of high profile celebrities were
forced to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities and name names.
One such victim of McCarthyism was the actor Zero Mostel, who had an illustrious Broadway
career and appeared in numerous comedy films in the '40s and very early '50s.
Unfortunately, Mostel was accused of being a member of the Communist Party by screenwriter
Martin Berkeley. In his 1955 testimony before the HUAC, Mostel insisted that Berkeley was mistaken.
Though he was proudly left-wing, with his activism being central to Berkeley's false accusation,
Mostel always adamantly denied that he was a member of the Communist Party. Unlike a
number of his peers, he also refused to name names. Despite claims of his
party membership being rooted in gossip and speculation alone, Mostel was blacklisted.
The actor's career was destroyed. But by the late '60s, a savior came in the form of venerated
filmmaker Mel Brooks, who cast Mostel in the now iconic role of Max Bialystock in The Producers.
"Good to see you again, Roger!"
Now enjoying a comeback, Mostel shed light on the atrocity of McCarthyism by playing a fictionalized
version of himself in the 1976 film The Front, directed by fellow blacklistee Martin Ritt.
Chingy was a highly popular rapper in the 2000s,
with his hit track "Right Thurr" becoming a roaring 2003 anthem. But Chingy's career
was negatively impacted by false gossip. In 2010, transgender model Sidney Starr purported
that she and the rapper were in a sexual relationship, claims that Chingy denied.
Two years later, Starr confessed that she'd made the whole story up. She told WorldstarHiphop,
"To be honest, if I could change the hands of time, I would have never did that s---."
She also apologized profusely to the rapper. The
gossip resulted in Chingy losing a record deal. He told VladTV.,
"And they didn't have not one piece of evidence."
Though Starr shouldn't have lied, the damage to the rapper's career is reflective of the rampant
transphobia of the era; Starr is, after all, not the first woman to have lied about having sex with
a celebrity, but the fallout was unusually severe. Despite the brief negative press,
Chingy has continuously made music over the past decade. In 2022,
he released his track "Can't Blame Me," which, incidentally, addresses false gossip.
Mitski is a singer-songwriter who has received much acclaim for her unique brand of uplifting
electropop. The sensitive singer thus seems like an unlikely candidate as the ringleader of a
child sex trafficking ring. But some fake Tumblr gossip almost cost Mitski her livelihood. In 2019,
a Tumblr user accused Mitski of sexually abusing her from the age of 11, and claimed that she was
running a sex trafficking ring with her family. In a since deleted Tumblr post, Pitchfork
journalist Peyton Thomas revealed that he received a tip-off from the accuser. However, he noted that
the details of the allegations made little sense and subsequently doubted their veracity, writing,
On Twitter, fellow musician Greg Rutkin said the alleged assault was impossible, explaining that
he was on tour with Mitski when it supposedly occurred and spent the entire night with her.
In a since-deleted Twitter statement, Mitski adamantly denied the allegations; she suggested
that her accuser was likely going through a mental health crisis and urged them to seek help.
Unsurprisingly, the story was revealed to be a hoax. Though things could have panned out very
differently, Mitski's career has thankfully not been affected by the pernicious gossip:
the musician collaborated with David Byrne on the soundtrack to
the award-winning film Everything Everywhere All at Once in 2022.
"What's happening?"
In a very rare case of a false sexual assault allegation, Conor Oberst, frontman of indie band
Bright Eyes, was wrongly accused of rape. In 2013, a commenter on the site xoJane alleged that Oberst
had raped her when she was 16, when the musician was in his 20s. The comment spread like wildfire,
with other users claiming that they also witnessed the indie star's shady behavior. Though false
sexual assault allegations are extremely rare, with most rapes going unreported,
Oberst's accuser did admit that she was lying. The following year, the woman, revealed to
be Joanie Faircloth, released a statement regarding the gossip she'd spread, writing,
The hoax could very nearly have destroyed Oberst's career. Speaking with Vice in 2017,
he emphasized that he did not want his experience to undermine those of
the many women who have been sexually assaulted. He told the publication,
As a gay man in the 1980s, Elton John often found himself subjected to homophobic
insinuations by the press. In the late '80s, British tabloid The Sun published
an inflammatory article claiming that John was using the services of various young male
sex workers and plying them with cocaine. The "source" was exposed as Stephen Hardy,
a con artist who was paid $4,000 for his dubious story. When Hardy's
assertions were revealed to be a hoax, the newspaper paid Elton John over $1 million.
It could have destroyed John's career. At the time,
homophobia was rampant and The Sun contributed heavily to this;
the newspaper published a number of anti-gay headlines in the '80s. Subsequently,
the outlet's linking of John to supposedly sordid behavior was nothing short of a homophobic smear.
Writing for the Evening Standard, The Sun's then editor, Kelvin Mackenzie, later admitted
that he didn't fact check any of the claims made against John, or investigate the sources, saying,