Being rich and famous has a way of making people feel untouchable, but some celebrities found out the hard way that things can fall apart when they take their privileges too far.
The partnership he thought was untouchable
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Rapper Kanye West seemed to think that no company would ever get rid of him, and especially not Adidas. He mentioned during an October 2022 podcast appearance that he could make antisemitic comments, and Adidas wouldn’t do anything. But they did.
Adidas ended its partnership with West on October 25 following his repeated antisemitic remarks. That was despite the fact that its Yeezy collab had been highly successful. Forbes then removed him from its billionaires list, and other fashion companies also cut ties with him.
The comeback that lasted two months
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In early 2018, everything seemed to be going so well for comedian Roseanne Barr. Her hit sitcom, Roseanne, had returned to ABC after two decades, and the premiere actually got around 27 million viewers. But then came May 29.
Roseanne shared a racist tweet about former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, in which she compared her to an ape. ABC canceled the series within hours. Even though Barr apologized, it was too late, and the network continued the show without her. They created The Conners, which featured her character’s family, but killed off Roseanne herself
The college admission shortcut
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The ordinary college route apparently wasn’t enough for actress Lori Loughlin and her husband. No, the pair of them decided that they wanted their two daughters to get into the University of Southern California. They believed they were entitled to it. So, they paid $500,000 to arrange false athletic recruitment credentials, claiming the girls were rowing recruits.
Neither girl had ever been recruited for it. The news eventually broke in 2019, and Loughlin pleaded guilty to fraud conspiracy charges, receiving two months in prison the following year. She was also given a $150,000 fine and 100 hours of community service.
The opera house dispute
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The Metropolitan Opera had had enough of Kathleen Battle’s behavior by February 1994. During rehearsals for La Fille du Régiment, management decided to fire the famous soprano on the spot. But it wasn’t out of nowhere.
She’d apparently had arguments over rehearsals and working arrangements, despite the company making numerous accommodations for her. Battle did return for concerts decades later in 2016. Still, losing her place at the Met would definitely have been humiliating.
The Marvel role that disappeared
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Jonathan Majors was cast as Kang, one of Marvel’s major villains in 2020. Turns out, he was a villain in real life, too. He was arrested in March 2023 after an incident involving his former girlfriend, Grace Jabbari.
A New York jury convicted him of misdemeanor assault and harassment that December, leading to Marvel dropping him almost immediately. He’s struggled to make any major appearances ever since then.
The trouble behind the smiles
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People used to know Ellen DeGeneres as a quirky television host. It was a very different story behind the scenes. In July 2020, former employees came out with allegations of bullying and racism, along with other workplace problems, during The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
WarnerMedia decided to investigate, and three senior producers left. Ellen apologized to her staff, but two years later, the show ended after nineteen seasons. Sure, Ellen said it had nothing to do with the scandal. The timing was a little too convenient for it not to be, though.
The former coworker who spoke out
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Actress Lea Michele probably thought she was doing a good thing when she posted a message in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in June 2020. It backfired. Her former costar, Samantha Marie Ware, responded by saying that Michele had made her time on their show (Glee) miserable. She claimed that Michele had committed many racial microaggressions.
That was enough for other stars to also talk about how unpleasant it had been working with Michele. It led to meal-kit company HelloFresh dropping Michele as a partner. While Michele did apologize for her behavior, she also mentioned that she couldn’t remember making some of the comments Ware had mentioned.
The exit nobody expected
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There are many ways you can leave a football game, and Antonio Brown probably chose one of the worst ones. The former Tampa Bay Buccaneers star was playing against the New York Jets on January 2, 2022, when he removed his jersey and shoulder pads after a disagreement with his coach about an ankle injury.
He threw some of his clothing into the crowd and walked off the field. He was shirtless. What made him seem so entitled was the fact that the game wasn’t even finished, and that’s why Coach Bruce Arians announced that Brown was kicked off the team. He never played another NFL game again.
The social media post that ended a role
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Social media is bad news for the rich and famous, too. Just look at what happened to Gina Carano, one of the lead actors in Star Wars spinoff The Mandalorian, after she shared an Instagram post in February 2021. It said hate towards people with different political opinions was similar to how Jews suffered during the Holocaust.
The backlash was immediate. It wasn’t the first controversial post she’d made on social media, but still. Lucasfilm announced that Carano wouldn’t be employed on future projects, and she lost what was easily one of the biggest roles of her career.
The director who lost Hollywood’s trust
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As the director behind The Avengers, Joss Whedon was pretty popular in Hollywood. At least, he was for a short time. But then Justice League actor Ray Fisherhis made allegations in 2020 that Whedon had been abusive on the set of the 2017 movie.
Things only got worse for Whedon the following year, when Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Charisma Carpenter accused Whedon of mistreating her during her pregnancy. Gal Gadot also said he’d threatened her career. Despite Whedon denying the allegations, the damage was done, and he left HBO’s The Nevers in November 2020. His last Hollywood project was in 2021.
The attack that became a criminal case
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Actor Jussie Smollett reported in January 2019 that he’d been attacked in Chicago. Naturally, the case got a lot of attention. He claimed that two men had targeted him in a racist and homophobic assault, but all that changed once investigators looked into it.
They said Smollett had actually arranged the incident himself and had paid two brothers $3,500 to attack him. He denied staging it, yet in December 2021, he was convicted of five disorderly conduct charges.
The arrest that became a Hollywood scandal
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Mel Gibson was already an established Hollywood star and Oscar-winning director by July 2006. That was when police stopped him in Malibu. What began as a routine traffic stop soon turned into Gibson making numerous antisemitic remarks that became international headlines.
He later apologized repeatedly. Yet the controversy followed him for years, and he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor drunken-driving charge. He was ordered to receive alcohol treatment, but his career suffered for years afterward.
The expensive lifestyle and the fraud scheme
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Jen Shah was known on The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City for her designer clothes and expensive parties. But there was something unpleasant going on behind all that. Turns out, she was involved in a nationwide telemarketing fraud scheme that sold worthless business services.
Some of the victims included elderly people. In March 2021, police arrested her, although she initially denied doing anything wrong. She changed her tune in July 2022, and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She received a 78-month prison sentence the next year.
The argument that ended an eleven-year run
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Sharon Osbourne appeared on an episode of The Talk on March 10, 2021, where she defended Piers Morgan over his criticism of Meghan Markle. Another host, Sheryl Underwood, questioned her position. She argued that Osbourne was ignoring the racial side of the criticism. Osbourne hit back, and the whole thing ended up being less than pleasant.
CBS temporarily suspended the program while it investigated the incident, as well as other complaints about a toxic workplace environment. The network announced Osbourne was leaving the show on March 26. She’d been there since the show debuted in 2010, but one incident was enough to end things.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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