13 historic Hollywood gaffes that ended a career
We all make mistakes, but not all of our mistakes cost millions of dollars. These thirteen cases vary in intensity and consequences, but they make it clear that not a string of agents and lawyers can prevent a human being from putting the shrimp to the bottom
Everybody makes mistakes, but in Hollywood even mistakes are big. The scandals carried out by these 13 stars could not be more disparate (crimes, unfortunate statements and even an aesthetic mistake) but all were sentenced as such an unforgivable mistake that their authors did not raise their heads again. At least for a few years, because this review also serves to verify that there are two types of people: those who are buried at the first trip and those who receive one opportunity after another despite the fact that they are all dynamited. What they have in common is that, in Hollywood, even screw up is a great show.
Mike Myers: more ego than resume
Who was he? One of the planet's favorite comedic actors, thanks to Wayne's World: Wow, Austin Powers and Shrek, dubbed the new Peter Sellers for his chameleon ability to create characters from his own world. Back then, it was rumored that Myers was, as they say in the diplomatic dialect of Hollywood, "difficult": the director of Wayne's World had to hire her own daughter to supply the actor with snacks whenever she was hungry; he tried to get his co-star Dana Carvey fired because he feared she would overshadow him and when he found out they had brought him butter instead of margarine for the muffin he dropped out of filming. When he had half of Shrek dubbed, he decided that the ogre should have a Scottish accent: restarting the dubbing cost the studio 4.5 million euros.
What did he do? Weeks before starting to shoot a comedy based on one of his own Saturday Night Live characters, Myers canceled his participation on the grounds that he did not want to "scam the public with an unacceptable script" [of which he was a co-author]. Universal sued him for 26.5 million, describing him before the judge as "egomaniac, irresponsible and selfish." The actor responded with another lawsuit for "violation of privacy, abuse and fraud", since according to him the study had traumatized him with a mafia attitude. They eventually reached an agreement to shoot The Cat in the Hat, an adaptation of the classic Dr. Seuss tale. During filming, Myers set up a tent around his trailer so no one would see him, kept the crew waiting for hours without explanation, and hired an assistant whose only job was to follow him around with a tupperware of chocolates just in case at some point it seemed like one. The Cat in the Hat was so vilified by critics and audiences (for its crude, foul and unhealthy humor, a Dallas Observer reviewer pointed out that it should have been titled “Mike Myers: Hairy Asshole”) that Dr. Seuss's widow legally prohibited adapting none of his works in real image ever again.
How did it end? After five years without shooting, his next film, The Guru, caused millions in losses in 2008 and turned the slogan with which it was promoted: “His karma is enormous” into an internal joke of the industry. Then he went a decade without appearing in the movies (until a supporting role last year in Bohemian Rhapsody), during which he signed a deal with HBO that did not translate into a project, divorced, married and had three children (what which, he assures, is the happiest thing ever). In 2013 he confessed that Hollywood barely offered him a job, that they had only sent him 15 scripts in 20 years and that is why all his projects were his. Last year he signed on Netflix, but nothing is yet known about the “six-episode series in which Myers will play various characters” that they promised.
Rob Lowe: the first idol with 'sex tape'
Who was he? A teenage idol thanks to Rebels (the founding work of the Rat Pack, which also gave their careers to Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, and Matt Dillon), he seemed destined to become a Hollywood star with his leap into more adult roles like him. from Teach me to dance, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe for playing (according to the synopsis of the time) "a mentally retarded young man." Lowe hooked up with Nastassja Kinski, Jane Fonda, and Stephanie de Monaco. In 1989 he starred in one of the industry's most infamous moments when he danced with a sexy young lady dressed as Snow White at the Oscars and Disney sued the Academy for sullying her princess. It seemed that 1989 could not get any worse for Lowe. But he could.
What did? After attending a rally by the Democratic White House candidate Michael Dukakis, who surrounded himself with young stars to alleviate the beating George Bush was giving him in the polls, he took a couple of girls to his hotel and recorded them while they kept sexual intercourse. "When you're done, put the tape on and see how well you've done," he told them as he walked to the shower. The girls chose to take the tape, steal money and leave the hotel. Days later, the video was being shown in various nightclubs in the United States and, at a price of $ 29.95, it became the first home porn video in history to be marketed. Since the girl who slept with Lowe was 16 years old (two years older than the age of legal consent in Atlanta, but two years younger than the age to appear in a porn video), her mother sued the actor for half of his fortune. he. In the end she settled for 265,000 euros. "What if this will hurt his career?" an anonymous Hollywood executive said, “What career? He's not a big star, all this attention is only going to get more people to know him. If it had been a gay porn video, it would have been deadly. "
How did he end up? Lowe's attorney painted the mother and daughter as two unscrupulous gold diggers. The actor defended that he had not asked his age because what interested him in people was his personality and criticized that the media spoke more about his scandal than about the hundreds of deaths in the Tiananmen protests. After a decade stumbling over direct-to-video byproducts, Lowe resurrected his career playing politicians in The West Wing of the White House, Five Brothers and Parks & Recreation. Since then, other erotic home videos such as those of Pamela Anderson, Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian would turn their protagonists into stars that defined an era.
Winona Ryder: and at night she got out of hand
Who was she? Not for a trite it is less true: Ryder was the muse of Generation X. But also, at just 20 years old, one of the most powerful stars in Hollywood capable of defining the vital apathy of young people towards capitalism in Reality Bites, to make people fall in love. all the weirdos on the planet (Lucas, Bitelchús, Heathers, school of young assassins, Eduardo scissorhands, Innocence interrupted) and build entire projects adapting classic works (Dracula, Little Women, The Crucible) thanks to the fact that she wanted to star in them.
What she did? In December 2001, she left the Sacks Fifth Avenue store with several paid items and several unpaid items (with a value of 4,400 euros) for which she had triggered the burglar alarm. Weeks after the scandal, the “Free Winona” t-shirts became a turn-of-the-century pop culture icon despite the fact that, when searching for the image on Google, its creator had mistakenly downloaded the image. photo of a model from the 70s. She was convicted of vandalism, although not of theft, and paid with three years of probation, 480 hours of work for the community and a fine of 11,000 euros.
How did she end up? In 2002, the actress herself posed for the cover of the W style magazine wearing the Free Winona shirt and, when she was finally able to talk about the matter in 2007, she expressed her amazement at the media attention received: “If I had physically hurt someone It would have been totally different, I didn't publish a statement, I did absolutely nothing, I just waited for people to forget it ”. But everyone remembered it and Ryder's career plummeted, partly because of the embarrassment of her kleptomaniac image of hers and partly because the actress was so 90s that the 21st century didn't know what to do with her. . In 2016 she returned with Stranger Things, turned into everything a woman like her can be today: a fetish for nostalgia.
Mel Gibson: nothing happened to him until he offended the wrong group
Who was he? The Mad Max and Lethal Weapon sagas made Gibson one of the most popular types of public during the eighties and nineties. Already then he was messing with her with reflections like “Who is going to think with this look that I am gay? Do I speak like a homosexual? Do I move like them? " (to then get up, point to his butt and clarify that it was a single exit hole, during an interview in 1990 with EL PAÍS promoting Hamlet) or "I will apologize to the homosexual associations when hell freezes over", when they accused him of effeminate the villain of Braveheart. The world cared so little that he was awarded five Oscars for the film, including two for him as producer and director.
What did he do? Offending groups that did have power in Hollywood. In 2006 a police officer arrested him for drunk driving and, for some reason, Gibson got out of the car shouting "You Jews are to blame for all the wars of humanity, what is it, you are a Jew?" That same year, when the agent who arrested him was a woman, he threatened to "screw her life" because he was "the owner of Malibu" and settled her attack of anger with "what are you looking at, sweet tits?" . The actor was ashamed and blamed his alcoholism ("I had drunk eight double tequilas," he said), but criticized the police filming it illegally. In 2010, another anger from Gibson leaked, in a voice message to his ex-wife Oksana Grigorieva in which he referred to a struggle in which he had broken two of her teeth while she was holding her newborn daughter in her arms: you deserved. And if you were raped by a pack of blacks, you would deserve it. I'm going to go there and I'm going to set your house on fire, but first you're going to suck it off me ”. Gibson defended himself by clarifying that the audio was taken out of context.
How did he end up? Hollywood turned his back on him for a decade, in which he only starred in five low-budget action films, but in 2016 he returned to directing with Until The Last Man. The critics, the public and the industry (with Oscar nominations for him and for the film) applauded her, despite generating a new scandal when she attacked and spat on an Israeli journalist, and since then she has announced several high-budget projects such as director. Among them is the sequel to The Passion of the Christ, Resurrection.
Pee-wee Herman: the most expensive relax ever
Who was he? Paul Reubens' HBO show, portraying the eccentric Pee-wee Herman, caused such a sensation that he starred in his own movie (Pee-wee's Great Adventure, Tim Burton's 1985 debut) and his CBS children's show, Pee- wee's Playhouse. Herman was a naive and always cheerful character who dressed like a fifties dinky and talked to all the animated objects in his house. The program won 15 Emmys, generated millions of dollars in official products and was applauded by parents' associations for instilling values of racial reconciliation, healthy living and civic decency. And so Reubens took a year off, in which he did what anyone would do on vacation: visit his parents.
What did he do? And as anyone in his town would do, he went to the movies. That night the billboard was Police Tiger Shark Catalina, Turn Up the Heat and Nurse Nancy. Going to a porn theater is not illegal in the United States, but masturbating in it is. Reubens was arrested for that very abstract crime they have there, "indecent exhibitionism", and the next morning the whole country woke up to the mugshot that revealed the artist's best kept secret: the real appearance of him. Although he denied masturbating, the policeman had no doubts about his crime but he did have doubts about how he spelled himself. Reubens' mugshot would remain forever on file under the crime of "masterbate."
How did it end? CBS canceled reruns of Pee-wee's Playhouse, toy stores recalled their official toys, and television shows interviewed psychologists explaining the best way to tell children that "Pee-wee was gone forever." The incident happened in the middle of summer, so the media clung to the scandal to generate content. The ever-confused collective memory and the sordid treatment of the press caused the public to vaguely remember over the years that Pee-wee had done something rugged but not exactly what. That misrepresented perception sank his career, which has since focused on dubbing work. So no one has to look him in the face.
Shannen Doherty: She Invented Lindsay
Who was she? The most famous of the Sensation of Living cast when the most famous teenage series of the nineties began airing, of course, in 1990. Doherty had appeared in The New House on the Prairie and Heathers, a school for young killers and took advantage of its popularity to reach late to filming every day, partying every night, and punching anyone who got in his way. That included Jennie Garth, with whom she got into a physical fight during filming. Doherty denied that she had punches. Garth admitted there were scratches.
What she did? The entire series team, led by Jason Priestley (who played her brother Brandon hers), asked to be fired from her after the fourth season. By then Brenda was already the most hated character in the 90210 district, partly because viewers associated her with her actress and partly because when she lost her virginity to Dylan, the network's protests led the producers to impose a punishment on her: she had to repent of her indecency and break up with Dylan. The audience considered Brenda to be a capricious and repellent little girl. "If you consider that 'being difficult' means being a strong woman and capable of fending for herself yes, I admit it" defended the actress after her dismissal. She was 22 years old.
How did she end up? The producer of Sensation of Life, Aaron Spelling, gave her a second chance with Charmed but after three seasons (during which Doherty could not bear that her partner Alyssa Milano had more fans than her) she left the series through a statement. Her character, Prue Halliwell, died off-camera and Milano threw a party with a large banner that read "Ding, dong, the witch is dead." Despite her attempts, such as the reality show Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty ("Breaking up with Shannen Doherty") in which she was a messenger for people who wanted to break up with their partners but did not dare to do it personally, the actress has not Retained a job for more than a couple of weeks. Even when she participated in the Look Who Dances American, she was the first expelled. The public reconciled with her, yes, for a much less frivolous cause: the breast cancer that she overcame in 2015 and that she has suffered again since last February.
Hugh Grant: The Wandering Englishman
Who was she? In Four Weddings and a Funeral he fell in love with Hollywood, who borrowed him for one of those romantic comedies that they churned out in the nineties, Nine Months. Grant's appeal was that, beneath his giddy English charm, he concealed a certain mischief. On June 27, 1995, he himself stopped hiding it.
What did he do? At one in the morning, Grant started the white BMW the studio had rented for him and drove around the Sunset Strip. When he approached the prostitute Divine Brown, she told him that bringing her up to her room would cost him $ 100, but he only had $ 60 in cash. For that price she offered to give him a blowjob inside the car, but during the act Grant accidentally started stepping on the brake pedal and the movement alerted police officers who arrested them both. The agents would later testify that the actor cooperated willingly at all times. After all, he was, above all, English.
How did it end? The studio canceled the entire promotion of Nine Months and People published a report in which the neighbors of Grant's parents assured that the actor always said hello. "Sean Penn could come out unscathed from something like that," opined one producer, "but not Hugh Grant." His mischievous but kind image was blown up (although the film's director, Chris Columbus, was relieved that "at least he hasn't been caught with an animal") and it looked like Grant's career had crashed before taking off, but The surprise success of Nine Months and a sly apology on Jay Leno's show allowed him, after four years off work, to return triumphantly to Hollywood with Notting Hill.
Katherine Heigl
Who was? Her character on Grey's Anatomy, Izzie Stevens, was one of the series' most beloveds and gave her an Emmy for season three. Heigl immediately jumped into the movies, running as the top pick for America's bridal job vacated by Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan, and Sandra Bullock.
What she did? Talk. In just a couple of years he criticized his own film Embarrassing mess ("portrays women as stretched harpies without a sense of humor, I had a hard time playing such a spoilsport bitch"), the scripts for Grey's Anatomy (he withdrew his candidacy for the Emmy for considering that her character had not had plots to match, later the series team said in a statement that this was because she had asked for a reduction in working hours to dedicate more to the cinema) and the filming schedules of 17 hours that, again, were a consequence of his limited availability to record the series. When it was her turn to return at the end of the sixth season to close the story of Izzie, the actress did not even appear on the set.
How did she end up? Her fame as an impossible professional of hers (she demanded presidential suites in the best hotels and luxuries for her mother / her manager and refused all the clothes or food they offered her) and as an ungrateful actress led to Hollywood. to turn his back on him. A producer claimed to have a perfect role for her but that he finally decided that it was not worth it. One publicist compared that "not even the biggest stars have that attitude or those demands." Since then, she has appeared in three series (she in Suits she replaced Meghan Markle) and in several commercials for cat food, but only in five films. None have had an impact.
Wesley Snipes: A Star Against The Treasury
Who was she? The first black actor to lead a superhero franchise, Blade, and one of the highest paid action stars: between 1999 and 2004 alone he earned 33 million euros.
What did he do? Do not pay taxes. It's not that he evaded them, it's that he didn't pay them at all. His accountant convinced him (and 4,000 other clients) that he was not legally obligated to pay taxes, and Snipes founded a bogus religious non-profit organization to bill his profits. The accountant sent false checks to the tax agency for 13 million and even, in 1997 and 1999, he claimed refunds for 7 million. The trial stipulated that the actor owed 21 million euros in taxes and was sentenced to three years in prison, which he served between 2010 and 2013. Upon leaving, he offered the treasury 4% of what he owed (749,000 euros) and denounced that the The prosecution against his case had racist motivations, but the Treasury claimed at least 8.45 million to forgive his debt. Snipes alleged insolvency.
How did he end up? Since the end of the Blade trilogy, Snipes has appeared in 15 films and 12 of them have been released directly on video. He is one of the celebrities available on Cameo.com, a website where celebrities charge to send recorded messages to their fans and last year Marvel announced that it will relaunch the Blade series with Mahersala Ali. In December, critics praised his performance in Yo soy Dolemite, which, according to experts, was about to give him his first Oscar nomination. This year he will accompany Eddie Murphy in the sequel to The Prince of Zamunda.
Jennifer Gray: the surgery that ruined a career
Who was she? In All in One Day, she was the sister of Matthew Broderick (with whom she had a real-life relationship that made headlines when they both had a car accident that killed the two occupants of the other vehicle), but would go down to posterity as the Baby. from Dirty Dancing: a symbol of freedom, romance and sexuality for every naughty girl on the planet.
What she did? "I went into the operating room being a celebrity and came out anonymous." This is how the actress herself described her decision to have her nose operated in 1989. "It was like being in a witness protection program, like being invisible," Gray confessed about her first months with her new features after undergoing what she herself defined like "rhinoplasty from hell."
How did she end up? Gray has continued to work in occasional roles on television and her greatest moment of glory, apart from when Patrick Swayze took her into the air and her flight was recorded in the sentimental education of an entire generation of viewers, was when she won the Look Who Dances of United States in 2010. Today, at 59 years old, Gray remains a pop culture icon in his own right but also a parable of the dangers of cosmetic surgery and the best example of that hackneyed phrase of “it seems that no, but your nose changes your whole face ”.
Megan fox
Who was she? With 21 years and a single movie she became one of the most famous actresses in the world: Transformers presented her as an overproduced, lewd and sexually available male erotic fantasy. The world would not let him be anything else.
What she did? Compare the director of the saga, Michael Bay, with Hitler a few days after starting filming the third part. “He wants to earn a reputation as a megalomaniac, he's a nightmare working for him because he's a Hitler on set. But when he comes off the set and he's not in director mode, he's shy and vulnerable. He doesn't have social tools and he's even adorable ”, were her exact words. The producer, Steven Spielberg, fired her from her and replaced her with Victoria's Secret model Rose Huntington-Whiteley.
How did she end up? Fox and Bay made peace for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but the actress's career has been limited to six supporting roles since that clash a decade ago and replacing Zooey Deschanel while she was on maternity leave on New Girl. However, the only leading role in her career, Jennifer's Body, is being claimed for a couple of years now as an example of Hollywood machismo both inside and outside the film: the executives insisted on promoting it as an erotic fantasy about women. sexy unable to make friends without competing. The film was actually a misunderstood satire of the toxic sexualization of women.
Kathy Griffin: never mess with the president
Who was she? One of the most successful comedians in the United States, thanks to her monologues (with twenty specials, she holds the record for monologues broadcast on television) in which she recounts her delusional experiences with famous people.
What she did? In reaction to Donald Trump's phrase about journalist Megyn Kelly, which Charlize Theron played in the recent The Scandal, in which the president exaggerated that "blood was coming out of his eyes, blood was coming out of ... everywhere" , Griffin was photographed holding a recently decapitated-looking Trump mask accompanied by the text "blood was coming from ... everywhere."
How did she end up? CNN terminated her contract as host of the New Year's Eve show, toilet maker Squatty Potty fired her as her brand image, and Sharon Stone told her that she would have no choice but to leave the country for eight. years. Griffin issued a public apology ("I don't think she can have a career after this, Trump has broken me") and canceled her tour in the face of death threats. One of them compared her to Bill Cosby, was glad about the recent death of her sister from her cancer and wished it had been her. The FBI investigated her for conspiring to attempt on the president's life. Interpol put her on her dangerous people list and she was unable to fly for two months. Even during her tour of Europe, with a show called Laugh Your Mind, Griffin was detained for hours at every airport she stepped on. The comedian ended up retracting her apology, considering that she had lost more by that image-protest than any damage that she could have done to the president. A month later, Johnny Depp said during the Glastonbury festival "When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?" In reference to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. "It's been a while and maybe it's about time." His comment was of no consequence.
Randy Quaid: from stars to madness
Who was? He was already known when his little brother, Dennis, reached the doors of fame and married Meg Ryan. Randy Quaid earned an Oscar nomination for The Last Duty in 1974, critical acclaim for The Midnight Express, and public love for A Wacky American Family Vacation. In 1988 he won the Golden Globe for playing President Lyndon B. Johnson on television. When Evi Montolnez, the host who took him to the filming of the Madonna musical Broadway Nights, got lost on her way to the set, the two ended up having dinner at a Chinese restaurant and Quaid proposed to her.
What did he do? Randy and Evi Quaid bought a mansion, which they sold in 1991. In 2009 they were arrested for failing to pay a 9,000 euro bill at the most expensive hotel in the world (San Ysidro Ranch) and, while trying to erect a museum in honor of Randy, the couple denounced that in reality that mansion was never sold, so it still belonged to them. In 2010, they broke into the property and vandalized it until they caused damages valued at 26,000 euros. Before they were arrested, they eloped to Canada.
How did it end? The Quaids claim that they actually fled to Vancouver because a mob linked to the Illuminati, called Star Whackers, is chasing them to kill them as they previously did with Heath Ledger, Chris Penn and David Carradine. The actor is very active on Twitter with disturbing videos that go viral like the one in which Evi simulated fellatio with a Rupert Murdoch mask. Randy Quaid has not worked since 2009.
