These celebrities had the world in the palm of their hand...and threw it all away. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most infamous times famous faces caused their reputations or careers to nosedive.
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00:00 I kept thinking turn around, just turn around and to my undying shame I didn't.
00:07 Welcome to WatchMojo and today we're counting down our picks for the most infamous times
00:12 famous faces caused their reputations or careers to nosedive. We won't be examining
00:17 any sexual harassment cases as they have their own list.
00:21 I have never with any intention hurt anybody on purpose and I never would.
00:29 Number 10. Jennifer Lopez. The singer and actor is no stranger to problematic PR.
00:35 For starters, while at the 2024 Met Gala, a clip of her telling a journalist who made
00:40 her outfit was considered rude as Lopez gave a short response before walking off.
00:44 Then there are many reports of her being a nightmare to staff at a private airport.
00:53 Throw in the rediscovered footage of Lopez spitting gum into a production assistant's
00:57 hand on set, which caused even more backlash. Finally, there are reports that the celebrated
01:03 reunion of her and Ben Affleck is set to end. And I know that there's some people around me
01:07 here like this is stupid, why is she doing this? She doesn't need to do this and they're right,
01:11 I don't need to do any of it. With all that, it's no surprise social media is awash with
01:18 Lopez hatred, severely damaging her once positive reputation. I want everybody to say this is me now,
01:26 this is me. Love me, leave me, whatever, but I'm good with this person.
01:32 Number 9. Jay Thomas. Trash-talking your co-star is not the best way to keep your job.
01:38 This is something Thomas probably learned the hard way. In 1987, he was cast on Cheers as
01:44 Eddie LeBec, eventually becoming a love interest for Rhea Perlman's Carla.
01:48 Sorry, I'm a little tongue-tied. I guess it's because I'm really a big fan of yours.
01:53 Oh, really? Yeah.
01:54 You know who I am?
01:55 Are you kidding?
01:56 However, in 1989, Thomas was on one of his radio shows when he was asked by a caller about his
02:02 role. Thomas reportedly called it, quote, "brutal" due to kissing Perlman.
02:07 Oh, Eddie.
02:08 Hey, Carla. What you want to talk to me about?
02:14 Word got back to the Cheers producers, who didn't take kindly to their family being publicly
02:20 criticized. So, they fired him. Eddie was slain off-screen on the sitcom, and revealed to be
02:26 a polygamist.
02:27 Can't go to graduation, huh?
02:28 No, he can't.
02:30 What's the excuse?
02:31 He's dead.
02:31 That old one.
02:34 What's the problem?
02:38 Eddie's dead.
02:41 Number 8. Steve Whitmire. As the person to bring Kermit the Frog to life when Jim
02:46 Henson passed away, Whitmire seemed to have a job for life after taking the reins in 1990.
02:51 He sort of wanted different things, you know.
02:53 Yeah.
02:53 Like, you know, it's the usual laundry list, you know.
02:56 With the TV shows and the films, seemingly everything was great for the Muppet star,
03:00 who also performed Ernie. But in 2017, reports came out that Whitmire had been fired from the
03:06 role, and Matt Vogel took over.
03:08 Steve is very difficult to work with, and it's been many years of it being difficult for,
03:16 particularly for the producers. He's not Kermit. He's a performer who was hired to do Kermit.
03:22 There's a difference.
03:23 According to the Henson family, Whitmire was difficult to work with. He was known to send
03:28 messages that insulted the Muppet staff, and he refused to work with some younger performers.
03:33 Whitmire also allegedly declined to have an understudy to help step in for public appearances.
03:38 I had had no advance warning on that, you know.
03:41 Nothing had ever been framed to me as a career-breaking problem.
03:47 Number 7. Roseanne Barr
03:49 ABC's beloved sitcom Roseanne had not seen a new episode since May of 1997.
03:55 Given the success of its revival's premiere in 2018,
03:59 it seemed the fans were eager for the show's return.
04:01 You looked happy. I thought maybe you moved on.
04:03 However, star and comedian Roseanne Barr single-handedly jeopardized the project's
04:10 trajectory with a controversial tweet, directed at President Barack Obama's senior advisor.
04:16 After the public responded negatively to her words,
04:18 Barr recorded an apology video that only seemed to make things worse.
04:22 That's what my tweet was about!
04:24 I know, you've explained this literally 300 times.
04:26 I thought the b**** was white!
04:30 Her various explanations for the social media post varied from sleeping medication
04:34 to misinterpretation of the staff member's race, but it all seemed irritated and insincere.
04:40 ABC promptly cancelled Roseanne and rebranded the new series The Conners,
04:44 removing its association with both Barr's name and character.
04:48 Number 6. James Corden
04:50 In 2015, funny British actor Corden was given the chance to host his own
04:55 US series with The Late Late Show with James Corden.
04:58 I know what you're thinking, you're like, "Oh look, Andy Richter's got his own show!"
05:01 Welcome to The Late Late Show, everybody!
05:06 But then, rumors about his dodgy behavior started to leak out.
05:10 It got much worse in 2022 when he was accused of berating servers at New York restaurant Balthazar.
05:16 This resulted in him getting banned, apologizing and then changing his mind,
05:21 annoying the owner once more.
05:23 I made a rude comment, and it was wrong. It was an unnecessary comment.
05:27 It was ungracious to the server.
05:30 On top of that, there were reports that he refused to help his wife with their baby on an airplane.
05:36 All of this turned his amusing public image into an entitled rude one.
05:40 A year after all the scandals, Corden's talk show ended.
05:43 Thank you so much for your time, everybody. I will miss you.
05:47 Good night.
05:48 Number 5. Katherine Heigl
05:55 As Izzy Stevens on the acclaimed Grey's Anatomy,
05:58 Heigl was supposed to be the next breakout TV star to move to movies.
06:02 Her high-profile gig in 2007's Knocked Up just confirmed that impression.
06:06 Oh my God, this is the best news ever. Thank you so much. This is great.
06:10 Congratulations.
06:11 Thank you.
06:12 I'll take that smile as a yes, I'll do it.
06:15 Absolutely.
06:16 But then, in a 2008 Vanity Fair interview,
06:19 Heigl called out the Judd Apatow-directed film as, quote, "sexist."
06:23 Both Apatow and co-star Seth Rogen defended the project.
06:26 The same year, Heigl decided she didn't want to be in the Emmy race
06:30 for her work in Grey's Anatomy after criticizing the material on the medical show.
06:34 You didn't feel good about the writing or you didn't feel good about your performance?
06:37 I didn't feel good about my performance and I didn't feel,
06:41 there was a part of me that thought, because I had won the year before,
06:44 that I needed juicy, dramatic, emotional material and I just didn't have that that season.
06:49 In 2010, after reports that Heigl didn't turn up on the show's set,
06:53 the producers let her out of her contract.
06:55 Since then, the actor has developed a reputation as being difficult to work with.
07:00 Really? I know, I was so surprised, too.
07:03 Number 4. Will Smith
07:05 At his peak, Smith's stellar reputation contributed to his standing as one of
07:09 Hollywood's hottest stars.
07:10 You know what the difference is between you and me?
07:12 I make this look good.
07:18 Then, 2022's 94th Academy Awards happened.
07:22 After comedian Chris Rock came on and made an ill-judged reference to Smith's wife,
07:26 Jada Pinkett Smith, he yelled his displeasure, then got on stage and slapped Rock,
07:31 shocking everyone. And then, Smith ended up winning an Oscar the same night.
07:36 He resigned from the Academy afterward and was banned from their events for 10 years.
07:40 That's not who I want to be, man. I'm trying to, you know, I'm trying to put...
07:44 I also think that's not who you are, I'll be honest with you.
07:46 I think it's not who you are. I think everybody can make a mistake.
07:50 The incident is thought to have damaged Smith's career, although not fatally.
07:54 Pinkett Smith has also seen her reputation decline.
07:57 After admitting to a relationship with August Alsina,
08:00 she also claimed Smith slapping Rock saved their marriage.
08:04 You became the bad guy. Look what Jada made him do. Jada rolled her eyes and look what he did,
08:10 he ran up there and hit Chris. Poor Will. That's what the narrative became.
08:14 Yeah.
08:15 Number 3. Chevy Chase.
08:17 He was one of the biggest comedians and actors around in the 80s,
08:21 but Chase's star then began to fade. Fortunately,
08:24 community came calling and Chase regained momentum in the industry.
08:28 Jeff, it's a pleasure. My name is Pierce Hawthorne and yes, that is Hawthorne as in
08:32 Hawthorne wipes the award-winning moist towelette. I was just gonna ask.
08:36 Unfortunately, his ego got in the way and he criticized the show's content
08:40 and his character's direction. In 2012, Chase reportedly exploded in an angry rant on set,
08:47 uttering racial slurs about co-stars characters.
08:49 Now you can all hang out in suspended humiliation and think about what you learned today.
08:54 One, don't screw with me. Two, invite me to your crap.
09:01 As a result of this terrible tirade, Chase was dropped from community,
09:05 and his character met his demise. Since then, Chase has struggled to get mainstream work
09:10 and continues insulting community when asked about it in interviews,
09:14 which hasn't improved his dire PR.
09:17 As you, as you may or may not have followed the saga, he did not want to be there. I mean,
09:23 he said in every interview that he doesn't like the writing and he doesn't like the hours.
09:28 Number 2. Jussie Smollett.
09:30 In 2015, Smollett began his rise to fame thanks to his work on Empire,
09:35 opening the door for what would potentially be a notable career.
09:38 Then in 2019, Smollett recounted his experience as the victim of a hate crime,
09:53 telling police he was attacked by people using racist and homophobic slurs.
09:57 I was just jumped and I then I looked down and I see that there's a rope around my neck,
10:01 which I hadn't noticed it before.
10:04 No, because it was so fast, you know what I'm saying? It was so fast.
10:07 How long did this all take?
10:08 It felt like minutes, but it probably was like 30 seconds.
10:12 Immediately, people were horrified that this could happen to Smollett.
10:15 Then, the truth started to come out. Smollett had seemingly paid two brothers to stage the attack,
10:21 perhaps to boost his publicity. While the actor has denied the charges,
10:25 he was sentenced in 2022 for making a false police report and received 150 days in jail.
10:32 And you will spend the first 150 days of your sentence in the Cook County Jail,
10:37 and that will start today, right here, right now.
10:40 In 2023, Smollett's appeal was rejected.
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11:00 Number 1. Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin
11:03 Acclaimed for her performances on Desperate Housewives and Transamerica,
11:07 Huffman was never short of work.
11:08 What else is new?
11:09 I made my sales quota for the month on Tuesday.
11:15 Loughlin was also well-known thanks to Full House and 90210.
11:19 Then, the 2019 Varsity Blues scandal was discovered.
11:22 Parents had bribed officials or otherwise used their wealth to get their kids accepted
11:27 at certain colleges. Both Huffman and Loughlin were involved.
11:30 It seemed like, and I know this seems crazy at the time,
11:34 that that was my only option to give my daughter a future. And I know hindsight is 20/20,
11:41 but it felt like I would be a bad mother if I didn't do it.
11:46 Huffman was sentenced to 14 days in jail and Loughlin to two months.
11:50 After her release, Huffman claimed this was the only way to give her daughter a, quote,
11:54 "future." While the actors have had brief gigs since,
11:58 their careers are shadows of what they were in their heydays.
12:00 "How'd you get that?"
12:02 "Oh, you know."
12:03 Who's the most entitled celebrity who also had their career or reputation suffer badly?
12:09 David Geffen? Faye Dunaway? John Rhys-Davis or someone else? Let us know below.
12:13 "Yeah, that was a horrific night, as you can imagine."
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