Oprah Winfrey once said, "If you were a jerk before the fame, you just become a jerk with a bigger spotlight." There are plenty of examples of pretty big jerks with massive spotlights, like these.
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00:00:00Oprah Winfrey once said, if you were a jerk before the fame, you just become a jerk with
00:00:04a bigger spotlight.
00:00:06There are plenty of examples of pretty big jerks with massive spotlights, like these.
00:00:12Some musicians just have a freakish amount of talent.
00:00:15But it's easy to forget that behind all of the music is a very ordinary person, and sometimes
00:00:20that ordinary person is a terrible human being.
00:00:24There's a lot of dark stuff in Johnny Cash's life, but let's talk about just how horrible
00:00:29Vivian Cash's book, I Walked the Line, My Life with Johnny, was a heartbreaking tell-all
00:00:35detailing how she continued loving her husband, even through the drugs and the affair with
00:00:39his more famous second partner, June Carter Cash.
00:00:42It was Vivian who gave him four daughters, raised them, and who stuck with him through
00:00:46the worst, but June gets all the credit.
00:00:49Behind closed doors, June Carter didn't actually have it any easier, in spite of the storybook
00:00:53romance performed for the public eye.
00:00:56According to biographer Robert Hilburn, Cash had cheated on her when she was pregnant with
00:01:00her son, John Carter.
00:01:01They were more than a few women, but the one that had to hurt the most was June's own sister,
00:01:06Anita.
00:01:07John Carter has also gone on record talking about his parents' less-than-perfect marriage,
00:01:11and has said his mother's drug addictions and descent into paranoia came from a near-constant
00:01:16fear he was cheating yet again.
00:01:18That fear spread to their son, who grew up well aware his family could fall apart at
00:01:22any time because his father couldn't stay faithful.
00:01:26Elvis was only 21 when he became ridiculously famous with the success of Heartbreak Hotel,
00:01:32and after that, all bets were off when it came to how far he would go.
00:01:35Along with the fame and fortune came the admiration of countless women, but according to biographer
00:01:40Joel Williamson, there was a particular type of woman Elvis liked — the really, really
00:01:45young ones.
00:01:47When the newly-made megastar went on those early tours, he took along a group of 14-year-old
00:01:52girls, and Williamson says he was a huge fan of tickling and pillow fights.
00:01:57Future wife Priscilla was 14 when they met, and just what went on behind closed doors
00:02:02is debated.
00:02:03What's not debated is that he lost interest in her after Lisa Marie was born, and went
00:02:08on to court another 14-year-old.
00:02:10There was the potential for violence in Elvis, too.
00:02:13Years later, he was engaged to 21-year-old Ginger Alden, who claimed he once pulled out
00:02:17a gun and put a bullet in the headboard of the bed she was sleeping in.
00:02:21He called it an attention-getter.
00:02:23Johnny Paycheck was one of the grand old opry's most respected members, and was known as something
00:02:29of a country music outlaw, too, as his entire career was colored by drug and alcohol use.
00:02:34His difficulty staying out of trouble started way before he was a star, though, and when
00:02:38he was still a teenager, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, punched a superior officer, and
00:02:43spent a few years in prison.
00:02:45The record deal came after that, and so did the check forgery and the attempted murder.
00:02:49Johnny Paycheck, one of the outlaws of country music, is now singing the blues behind bars."
00:02:55Paycheck was on his way home for the holidays in December 1985, when he stopped off at a
00:03:00Hillsborough, Ohio bar for a drink.
00:03:02He was recognized by a local named Larry Wise.
00:03:05They got to chatting, and no one's entirely sure what happened next.
00:03:09Whatever offenses were caused, it ended with Paycheck grazing Wise's head with a bullet,
00:03:14and he'd later testify the music legend had, quote,
00:03:17"...blowed my hat off."
00:03:19The case dragged on, and Paycheck was sentenced again.
00:03:23Chuck Berry was a legend who helped shape rock and roll.
00:03:26He also once punched Keith Richards in the mouth, and what could Richards have done to
00:03:30deserve that?
00:03:31"'His guitar was laid out in his case, and I went, ah, come on, Keith, you know, just
00:03:36a touch.'"
00:03:37Berry's attitude got him into all kinds of trouble, and he even had a name for those
00:03:42incidents, his Naughties.
00:03:44It started when, as a teenager, he did three years in a reform school for stealing cars
00:03:49and a bit of armed robbery.
00:03:50Fast forward to 1962, when Berry was 36 years old.
00:03:54He was tossed in the clink for violating the Mann Act, a law that prohibits taking a woman
00:03:59across state lines with immoral intentions.
00:04:01Oh, and she was 14.
00:04:03"'You are under arrest for transporting a minor across state lines for the purpose of
00:04:07prostitution.'"
00:04:08"'I did not touch, first of all, I didn't transport anyone, I didn't solicit anything.'"
00:04:12That's not all.
00:04:13In December 1989, Berry was accused of videotaping women in the not-so-private privacy of the
00:04:19bathroom of one of Berry's restaurants.
00:04:21The following June, his property was raided, with law enforcement finding weapons, pot,
00:04:26and the videotapes in question, placing him at the center of a class-action lawsuit.
00:04:30Berry's camp eventually settled, but that seriously tarnished his legacy.
00:04:35Brian Jones passed away when he was 27, not long after the Rolling Stones had made the
00:04:40decision to move on without him.
00:04:42It wasn't a surprising choice — Jones made Keith Richards look like the one you'd choose
00:04:46to bring home to meet your parents.
00:04:48There were, of course, the drugs and the pills, but his troubles started long before that.
00:04:52How long?
00:04:53He was kicked out of his grammar school for inciting rebellion, and it sort of spiraled
00:04:57from there.
00:04:58In public, he got in the face of anyone who didn't understand their music, and behind
00:05:02closed doors he had a violent streak a mile wide.
00:05:05Anita Pallenberg was one of the original muses for the Stones, and she'd eventually go on
00:05:10to have a long-term relationship with Richards.
00:05:12But she started out with Jones, and Rolling Stone magazine says it was an abusive relationship
00:05:18that ended when he hit her so hard he broke his hand on her face.
00:05:21"'Cause by then Brian had become very abusive and very kind of envious, and Keith couldn't
00:05:27bear the way Brian treated me."
00:05:30Sympathy for the devil, indeed.
00:05:32There are two sides to every story, and really, both sides to this one are uncomfortable.
00:05:37When Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler wrote his 2011 memoir, Does the Noise in My Head
00:05:42Bother You?, he talked a bit about early girlfriend Julia Holcomb.
00:05:46Tyler wrote he had nicknamed her Little Bo Peep, said they liked to get it on in public,
00:05:50and left out a lot of other details.
00:05:53Holcomb wanted to clear the air about what she says really happened, so she took to LifeSite
00:05:57to tell her side of the story.
00:05:59According to her, she was a 16-year-old from a broken family when she met Tyler and kicked
00:06:03off a relationship with him that really started when her troubled mother signed documents
00:06:08making Tyler her legal guardian.
00:06:10Holcomb says she was already pregnant by the time he asked her to marry him, and plans
00:06:13for a family started to fall apart when his grandmother refused to pass on her ring.
00:06:18Five months into the pregnancy, Holcomb was trapped in a house fire and sent to the hospital,
00:06:22where she says Tyler convinced her to have an abortion.
00:06:25Holcomb left him and returned to her parents.
00:06:27Tyler returned to the rock star life, but has since spoken openly about regretting the
00:06:31decisions he's made in the past.
00:06:34Even people completely unfamiliar with classical music know the work of Wagner.
00:06:46Wagner died in 1883, decades before the rise of Hitler and his Nazis.
00:06:51That means he wasn't around to see his music heralded as the soundtrack of the rise of
00:06:54anti-Semitism, but he probably wouldn't have hated the association.
00:06:58Wagner wrote a ton of jaw-dropping hate, including the idea Jews could only mimic
00:07:04art they'd seen and heard.
00:07:05When he struggled as an up-and-coming composer, he even blamed Jewish critics for keeping
00:07:10him from success.
00:07:12Frank Sinatra was iconic on stage, but there was a lot of shady stuff that happened offstage.
00:07:17According to The Telegraph, his temper was so bad that one of his wives once described
00:07:22him as a sort of Jekyll and Hyde character, and there's a whole list of physical altercations
00:07:26he was involved in.
00:07:27First, the ones where someone got seriously hurt.
00:07:31According to legends about the man who did things his way, he punched a reporter in 1948,
00:07:36but eventually settled the assault and battery charges filed against him.
00:07:39In an unrelated incident, he threw a phone at a random businessman who was staying at
00:07:43the Beverly Hills Hotel and cracked the man's skull.
00:07:47Keeping with the theme of throwing things, he nearly killed then-wife Ava Gardner by
00:07:51throwing a champagne bottle at her so hard it cracked the bathroom sink.
00:07:55Sinatra destroyed an insane amount of stuff, too, usually in fits of rage.
00:08:00Further legends say that he took a knife to a friend's Norman Rockwell painting, threw
00:08:04a malfunctioning TV out of a window at the Sands Hotel, and smashed a car radio when
00:08:09the door's light-my-fire came on.
00:08:11So he must have really loved it when his daughter Nancy covered the song on her 1969 album.
00:08:16Not a gentleman, to say the least.
00:08:19News anchors are great in theory, but despite being champions of information, news anchors
00:08:24have secrets, too, and some of them have hid just how terrible they really are.
00:08:28The harassment accusations that tore through newsrooms in 2017 and 2018 brought down seemingly
00:08:34untouchable men.
00:08:36Charlie Rose had 45 years of journalistic experience, and rolls on 60 Minutes, CBS This
00:08:41Morning, and his own prestigious show.
00:08:43But in 2017, eight women told The Washington Post that Rose crossed the line with accusations
00:08:48including groping, nudity, and lewd phone calls.
00:08:52Then in 2018, 27 more women came forward for another Washington Post story.
00:08:57How did Rose take it?
00:08:58He now reportedly wants to have a TV show interviewing other men accused of similar
00:09:03crimes.
00:09:05Legendary anchor Tom Brokaw was the face of NBC nightly news for 22 years, until accusations
00:09:10against him dating back two decades surfaced in 2018.
00:09:14According to reports of an incident occurring during the 1990s, Brokaw reportedly asked
00:09:18a correspondent to come to his hotel room in the middle of the night.
00:09:21When she refused, he allegedly then went to her room and forcibly kissed her as she
00:09:25tried to break free.
00:09:26Another woman alleged that Brokaw offered her help with her job, but made clear there
00:09:30would be physical favors involved.
00:09:32Brokaw denied the allegations, and a letter was published in April 2018 signed by over
00:09:37115 female colleagues of his saying,
00:09:39"...we know him to be a man of tremendous decency and integrity."
00:09:43The problem was some of the women reportedly felt forced into signing.
00:09:46One source told Page Six,
00:09:48"...we had no choice, particularly the lower-level staffers.
00:09:51The letter was being handed around the office and the unspoken threat was that if your name
00:09:55was not on it, there would be some repercussions down the road."
00:09:58Regardless of whether you share political views with Bill O'Reilly, the O'Reilly factor
00:10:06was unbelievably popular.
00:10:08But O'Reilly is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a big ball of anger.
00:10:12This was his schtick when he was on Fox, but it wasn't just an act, as evidenced by his
00:10:16Inside Edition meltdown years earlier.
00:10:18"...We'll do it live.
00:10:19We'll do it live!
00:10:20F---- it!
00:10:21Do it live!"
00:10:25And like many other newsmen, O'Reilly is accused of being a serial harasser as well.
00:10:29According to the New York Times, he would get close to women who worked with him or
00:10:33came on his show, often offering to help them with their careers.
00:10:36Then he crossed the line.
00:10:38In the five lawsuits he settled for $13 million total, accusations included lewd comments,
00:10:43unwanted flirtation, and other advances, as well as verbal abuse.
00:10:47He finally lost his Fox job after advertisers started fleeing.
00:10:52It might be hard to imagine, but there was a time when Geraldo Rivera was a respected
00:10:56newsman.
00:10:57These days, that isn't what he's known for.
00:10:58Rivera and one of his producers were accused in 1991 of assaulting Bette Midler before
00:11:03an interview in the 1970s.
00:11:05"...They broke two poppers and pushed them under my nose and proceeded to grope me."
00:11:11As more and more harassment allegations came to light in 2017, Rivera tweeted out that
00:11:16maybe the women involved were just confused.
00:11:18After all, news is a flirty business, and maybe they were criminalizing courtship.
00:11:23He later backpedaled, but come on, Geraldo.
00:11:26Seriously?
00:11:27It's not every news anchor who has a section on controversies that takes up half of their
00:11:31Wikipedia page.
00:11:33But Nancy Grace is not every news anchor.
00:11:35She once reported on true crime and had a bit of a problem of assuming absolutely everyone
00:11:39was guilty.
00:11:40Rushing to judgment means she often gets things wrong.
00:11:43She was humiliated when the Duke lacrosse team was acquitted of rape charges and was
00:11:47wrong about who kidnapped Elizabeth Smart.
00:11:49"...You were afraid, I assume.
00:11:52Yeah."
00:11:54But perhaps the biggest stain on her reputation is her dealings with Melinda Duckett.
00:11:58The 21-year-old mother came on Grace's show just two weeks after her 2-year-old son had
00:12:02been kidnapped.
00:12:03Grace automatically assumed she was guilty and berated her with aggressive questions
00:12:07for 20 minutes.
00:12:08The next day, Duckett shot herself.
00:12:10Grace did not feel the least bit bad about what she did.
00:12:13"...But to suggest a 15- to 20-minute interview caused someone to commit suicide, I feel,
00:12:20is focusing on the wrong thing."
00:12:22Grace even went so far as saying it was guilt and not the interview that drove Duckett to
00:12:26take her own life.
00:12:28After being with CNN for six years, Rick Sanchez derailed his career when he made bigoted remarks
00:12:33on the radio while going after Jon Stewart, after Stewart made fun of him on The Daily
00:12:37Show.
00:12:39Sanchez said the comedian was just bigoted against everybody else who isn't like him.
00:12:42Then it got worse.
00:12:43When the radio host pointed out that Stewart was part of a minority group since he's Jewish,
00:12:48Sanchez went all in, denying Jewish people are a minority group.
00:12:51"...And to imply that somehow they, the people in this country who are Jewish, are an oppressed
00:12:56minority?
00:12:57Yeah."
00:12:58It unsurprisingly didn't go over well, and Sanchez was fired from his show.
00:13:03Nobody's perfect, but some people aren't even close.
00:13:06This includes some of the most beloved figures in all of history.
00:13:09They look great at first glance, but a closer look reveals the deeply flawed, kinda terrible
00:13:14people they really were.
00:13:16It's borderline blasphemous to criticize Mother Teresa, who became Saint Teresa in 2016.
00:13:21No one did more to help the poor and the sick, right?
00:13:24Well, not quite.
00:13:25According to reports, Mother Teresa's true mottos were actually kinda selfish, with less
00:13:29focus on helping people and more on boosting the numbers of her own religion.
00:13:33"...Right from the very beginning, I wanted to serve the poor purely for the love of God."
00:13:39Mother Teresa's missions rarely actually helped poor, sick people become healthy.
00:13:43In fact, most of these places were dirty, short on doctors, low on food, and largely
00:13:48bereft of painkillers.
00:13:50Nevertheless, Teresa found the suffering beautiful, like it was making the world a better, holier
00:13:55place.
00:13:56We know this because she said it herself.
00:13:58There's something beautiful in seeing the poor accept their lot.
00:14:01To suffer it like Christ's passion, the world gains much from their suffering.
00:14:05Naturally, this didn't apply to Teresa herself, who received ample medical treatment when
00:14:09she needed it.
00:14:11We all know Winston Churchill for his efforts in fighting the Nazis during World War II.
00:14:15But as it turns out, he was a white supremacist who had way more in common with his enemies
00:14:19than history wants to let on.
00:14:21"...We are the chosen few."
00:14:23According to Richard Toye's book Churchill's Empire, young Churchill took part in what
00:14:27he called a lot of jolly little wars against barbarous peoples in Africa.
00:14:31He believed Africans were violent against the British not because the Brits were invading
00:14:35their land, but because they had a, quote, "...strong aboriginal propensity to kill."
00:14:39Later, when he joined Parliament, Churchill advocated more war against minorities, claiming
00:14:44that,
00:14:45"...the Aryan stock is bound to triumph."
00:14:47Of the Kurds who tried to gain independence from Britain, he said,
00:14:49"...I am strongly in favor of using poisoned gas against uncivilized tribes.
00:14:54It would spread a lively terror.
00:14:56Jolly little wars?
00:14:57A lively terror?
00:14:58Who knew Churchill spoke exactly like a 1980s cartoon villain?
00:15:01"...Oh no, Thundercat, I am not so easily disposed of."
00:15:09Churchill also wasn't a fan of Gandhi's effort to rid India of British rule, admitting,
00:15:13"...I hate Indians.
00:15:15They are a beastly people with a beastly religion."
00:15:17He didn't mellow out as he got older, either.
00:15:19In 1943, in between rousing speeches about never surrendering, he refused to help India
00:15:24survive a severe famine that ultimately killed around three million people.
00:15:28Churchill blamed the Indians, saying it was all their fault for "...breeding like rabbits."
00:15:32No wonder President Obama didn't want that man's bust in the White House.
00:15:35"...All of you will be damned.
00:15:38There is no place in heaven for you."
00:15:42If you own anything apple aside from an actual apple, you owe a debt of gratitude to Steve
00:15:46Jobs.
00:15:48That said, he probably shouldn't be put on the lofty pedestal he so often is.
00:15:51He was ruthless.
00:15:53According to the documentary Steve Jobs, The Man in the Machine, Jobs was basically a jerk
00:15:57through and through.
00:15:58He fathered a daughter, but denied she was his, so she didn't see him for years.
00:16:02"...Well, after the paternity test, he then pays for her schooling and upbringing."
00:16:07He also contracted Apple with Chinese factories, whose conditions were so bad they drove the
00:16:11workers to exhaustion.
00:16:13Several wound up committing suicide over the breakneck pace they were expected to churn
00:16:17out iPads and iPhones, among other devices.
00:16:19"...And they run to the press, and they tell the press the story about oppression, and
00:16:25it gets written up, and they get their 15 minutes of fame."
00:16:28Speaking of the iPhone, a prototype model once went missing, and a journalist returned
00:16:32it to Jobs.
00:16:33Rather than be grateful, Jobs instead had the journalist's home raided, and his files
00:16:37and computers were all confiscated in the process.
00:16:39"...You can please some of the people some of the time."
00:16:44No word on whether any backup turtlenecks were lifted during the raid.
00:16:48Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse.
00:16:49How bad could Walt Disney really be?
00:16:52Plenty bad, as it turns out.
00:16:53He was more Wicked Witch than Snow White.
00:16:56As Neil Gabler exposed in his biography, Walt Disney, The Triumph of the American Imagination,
00:17:01Walt had a racist side, and not just because he let Song of the South happen.
00:17:07He was reportedly the kind of person to refer to the Seven Dwarves as an N-word pile, which
00:17:12isn't just terrible, it doesn't make any sense.
00:17:15He also used terms like pickaninny in meetings, which was an old-timey and offensive term
00:17:19for black children.
00:17:20Then there was his issue with women.
00:17:22As Ward Kimble, one of Disney's associates, said, he didn't trust women.
00:17:26Or cats.
00:17:27Keep the faith, sweetheart.
00:17:29In a letter Disney sent a woman named Mary Ford, who wanted to work as an animator, he
00:17:33confirmed that suspicion by rejecting her outright simply because of her gender.
00:17:37In a letter he wrote,
00:17:38"...women do not do any of the creative work, as that work is performed entirely by young
00:17:43men.
00:17:44For this reason, girls are not considered for the training school."
00:17:47He may have been a highly respected Renaissance artist, but Caravaggio was also a murderer.
00:17:51A 2002 exposé revealed why it was that Caravaggio killed a man named Renucio Tomassani.
00:17:57It's been long accepted that Caravaggio killed Tomassani in 1606, but most thought it was
00:18:02due to an argument over a tennis match.
00:18:08According to new evidence, however, the issue wasn't Caravaggio being a bad sport.
00:18:12It was a woman.
00:18:13Specifically, a prostitute.
00:18:15Apparently, Caravaggio had a woman named Fellati Melandroni over for a painting session and
00:18:19fell for her.
00:18:21Problem was, Tomassani was her pimp, and Caravaggio took umbrage to this.
00:18:25He felt inclined to fight for her honor, which meant castrating Tomassani.
00:18:29The problem, as it turned out, was that Caravaggio's steady painting hand wasn't very good at castration,
00:18:37and he severed his opponent's femoral artery instead, causing him to bleed out and die.
00:18:42So, there you have it.
00:18:43Caravaggio killed a pimp by slashing an artery, when he meant to slash his baby maker.
00:18:47And that's why they never named a ninja turtle after him.
00:18:51The great Greek philosopher Aristotle was a wise man for sure, but when it came to women,
00:18:55he was like a lot of other ancient philosophers, a total misogynist who pretty much had zero
00:18:59idea what they were talking about.
00:19:01"'Philosophize with him."
00:19:02"'All we are is dust in the wind, dude.'"
00:19:06According to Charlotte Witt's essay, Feminist History of Philosophy, Aristotle held views
00:19:10of women that went beyond typical sexism.
00:19:12In his mind, women were hardly even human beings.
00:19:15At best, they were deformed men.
00:19:16For some reason, he decided that women have fewer teeth than men, rendering them incomplete,
00:19:21which obviously isn't true.
00:19:23And even though they give birth, they contribute only matter and not form to the generation
00:19:27of offspring.
00:19:28In other words, they birth a kid, but only men can shape them into actual human beings.
00:19:32Of course, that can only happen if the child is a man, because, in these are his direct
00:19:36words, a woman is, perhaps, an inferior being.
00:19:39It seems like there was no, perhaps, about it in his mind, however, because he was just
00:19:43a jerk like that.
00:19:45Writers live through their work, and if a book is good enough, an author can achieve
00:19:48immortality.
00:19:49If you want to know which of your favorite novels were written by monsters, then brace
00:19:52yourself as we look at some respected writers who are actually terrible people.
00:19:56"'It's our country, it's not theirs, it's not a bunch of used car dealers from Southern
00:20:02California.
00:20:03Democracy, you have to be a player.'"
00:20:06Fear and loathing in Las Vegas writer Hunter S. Thompson was a literary rock star, both
00:20:10when it came to fame and his out-of-control lifestyle.
00:20:13The father of gonzo journalism, Thompson hung out with the Hells Angels, went to war with
00:20:17Richard Nixon, and consumed every drug known to man.
00:20:21But while he's a colorful character, you wouldn't want Thompson as your friend.
00:20:24Sure, he's a larger-than-life icon, but he was also a first-class jerk.
00:20:29Need proof?
00:20:30According to authors Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad, Thompson allegedly tied actor Bill Murray to
00:20:34a chair, tossed him into a pool, and nearly let him drown.
00:20:37During the 80s, Jack Nicholson was celebrating his birthday with his family when Thompson
00:20:41showed up at his home in the middle of the night and shot a super-powerful flare into
00:20:45the sky.
00:20:46Next, Thompson aimed a military-style spotlight at Nicholson's home and fired a pistol in
00:20:51the air.
00:20:52Then he capped the whole thing off by leaving an elk's heart and some bullet casings on
00:20:55Nicholson's doorstep as a joke.
00:20:58Very funny, Thompson, but you're definitely the only one laughing.
00:21:02Although George Orwell was a socialist, he was open about his distaste for the Soviet
00:21:06Union.
00:21:07Just take a glimpse at his two classic works, Animal Farm and 1984.
00:21:11These two novels absolutely tore the USSR a new one.
00:21:14But even though Orwell hated dictators and overbearing bureaucracies, that didn't stop
00:21:18the English author from selling out his fellow writers and artists to a powerful government
00:21:23agency.
00:21:24In the 1940s, Orwell did some work for a group called the Information Research Department.
00:21:29In true Orwellian fashion, that innocent-sounding name belonged to a department that specialized
00:21:34in churning out propaganda.
00:21:35The IRD's job was to smear the Soviets, so Orwell wanted to make sure they didn't hire
00:21:40anyone with communist sympathies.
00:21:42Taking aim at some high-profile names, Orwell drew up a list of writers and influential
00:21:46people he believed sided with the Soviets.
00:21:49He then handed his blacklist over to the IRD.
00:21:52In bird culture, this is considered a d---- move.
00:21:55Yep, it was a pretty skeezy move, especially for a man whose entire career was about taking
00:21:59down Big Brother.
00:22:00The sad truth was that Orwell proved himself to be a first-class jerk and a horrible hypocrite
00:22:05who might have done a fine job working for the Thought Police.
00:22:08Chisel the Mount Rushmore of American writers, and you've got to include Ernest Hemingway.
00:22:13Papa Hemingway typed out some all-time great novels like A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the
00:22:17Bell Tolls, and The Old Man and the Sea, and even nabbed a Nobel Prize.
00:22:21But when he wasn't churning out classics, you could find him getting drunk and going
00:22:25on crazy adventures.
00:22:26He patrolled the Cuban coast in his fishing boat, hunting for Nazi subs.
00:22:30He drove an ambulance during World War I and worked as a journalist during the Spanish
00:22:34Civil War.
00:22:35However, things took a dark turn when Hemingway joined the KGB, the notorious Soviet spy agency.
00:22:40Part secret police, part intelligence organization, the KGB made its name jailing political opponents
00:22:46and murdering enemies of the state.
00:22:48When it comes to digging up dirt and hunting down dissidents, the KGB is right up there
00:22:51with the Stasi and the Gestapo.
00:22:53In other words, if you get a job with the KGB, you're automatically not cool.
00:22:58Boo!
00:22:59Not cool!
00:23:00And according to books like Spies, The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America, and Rider-Sailor-Soldier-Spy,
00:23:06Hemingway actually volunteered to do a bit of espionage for the Soviets.
00:23:10He was given the codename Argo, a ship from Greek mythology, fitting for such a nautical
00:23:14guy.
00:23:15Argo was the granddaddy of modern badassery, but it turned out Hemingway was a lousy spy.
00:23:20According to official KGB files, Argo never delivered any political information, and the
00:23:24Russians soon gave up on their undercover author.
00:23:28When it comes to writing, J.D. Salinger was no phony.
00:23:30The reclusive author was The Man Behind the Catcher in the Rye, one of the most beloved
00:23:34and debated novels of all time.
00:23:36But while Salinger's work has attracted legions of fans many don't know, or overlook, his
00:23:41controversial history with teenage girls.
00:23:44As it turns out, Salinger was kind of a creep when it came to manipulating young women.
00:23:48He would often lure these young girls into romantic relationships by writing them letters,
00:23:52using both his pen and his power to seduce and trap teenagers.
00:23:56When he was 53, he spotted a teenage Joyce Maynard on the cover of The New York Times
00:24:00and soon drew her into a relationship.
00:24:03She would later write about her interactions with the author, describing him as more than
00:24:06a tad predatory.
00:24:08Of course, when it came to people his own age, Salinger was far less seductive.
00:24:12On one occasion, a woman showed up at his house collecting for the Red Cross, and he
00:24:15responded by pulling a gun and threatening to shoot her.
00:24:18Sure, the man was reclusive, but taking shots at the Red Cross is going a little too far
00:24:22with the whole angsty writer angle.
00:24:25White Fang is one of the most famous 19th century American novels, and one of the best
00:24:29stories ever written from a canine's point of view.
00:24:31But there's a lot more going on here than a simple story about a wolf dog making its
00:24:35way in the world.
00:24:36Pick up a copy of White Fang and skip to the part where the heroic beast encounters white
00:24:40people for the very first time after living with a tribe of Native Americans.
00:24:44As compared with the Indians he had known, they were to him another race of superior
00:24:48gods.
00:24:49The novel then goes on to say that White Fang's Native American master was a child god among
00:24:54these white-skinned ones.
00:24:55Yeah, it seems White Fang is a really racist wolf, probably because author Jack London
00:25:00is one of the biggest bigots in American literature.
00:25:03If you think the superior gods stuff is bad, then check out London's essay called The Salt
00:25:07of the Earth, which argued that whites are a race of mastery and achievement.
00:25:12London even wrote that genocide was just a part of natural selection, something that's
00:25:16perfectly acceptable when lesser breeds encounter Anglo-Saxons.
00:25:20And don't even get us started on his anti-Chinese 1910 short story, The Unparalleled Invasion.
00:25:25Here's the abridged version.
00:25:27China starts taking over the world so the U.S. and Europe wipe it off the map with biological
00:25:31weapons.
00:25:32Real uplifting stuff, London.
00:25:34Doesn't remind us of evil aliens at all.
00:25:36Exterminate!
00:25:37Exterminate!
00:25:38It might come as a surprise that Roald Dahl, author of James and the Giant Peach, Matilda,
00:25:45and the BFG, was a bit of a monster in real life, not unlike the ghoulish characters that
00:25:50populate his stories.
00:25:52Dahl was reportedly a horrible person who made life miserable for everyone who worked
00:25:55at his publishing company, Alfred A. Knopf.
00:25:58According to one account by editor-in-chief Robert Gottlieb, whenever Dahl dropped by
00:26:02the office, he treated secretaries like servants and threw tantrums when he didn't get his
00:26:06When the company finally told Dahl to get a grip or get out, everyone in the office
00:26:10supposedly got on their desks and cheered.
00:26:13Dahl was so bad that his first wife nicknamed him Roald the Rotten.
00:26:16In addition to being generally ill-tempered, he was allegedly racist.
00:26:20In the original versions of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Oompa Loompas weren't
00:26:24eerie-looking orange dwarves from a mystical island.
00:26:26Instead, they were actually black pygmies.
00:26:29As pointed out by the BBC, in James and the Giant Peach, the character of the grasshopper
00:26:33proclaims,
00:26:34"...I'd rather be fried alive and eaten by a Mexican."
00:26:37But worst of all, Dahl went on the record in 1983 during an interview with New Statesman,
00:26:42saying,
00:26:43"...there is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity.
00:26:46Even a stinker like Hitler didn't just pick on them for no reason."
00:26:49That's right.
00:26:50According to Roald Dahl, the Jewish people deserved what they got during the Holocaust,
00:26:55which is definitely not a story you want your kids to hear.
00:26:58"...you can quote Oscar Wilde and say, when I am gone, I hope it will be said, my sins
00:27:03were scarlet but my books were red."
00:27:06Game shows have been around almost as long as TV itself.
00:27:09However, it's worth remembering that the host you see on TV is just a persona.
00:27:14In real life, some of these hosts are as awesome as they are on TV, but others, like the following,
00:27:19are just awful.
00:27:21Wheel of Fortune has been on TV since 1975, with Pat Sajak hosting since 1981, while his
00:27:26on-screen chemistry with both Vanna White and the contestants is mostly innocuous stuff.
00:27:31Off-screen, things have gotten a little contentious.
00:27:33On Twitter, he has loudly and aggressively espoused his disbelief in the science behind
00:27:37climate change.
00:27:38In a since-deleted post from May 2014, he wrote,
00:27:41"...I now believe global warming alarmists are unpatriotic racists, knowingly misleading
00:27:46for their own ends."
00:27:47How racism factored into this is anyone's guess.
00:27:50Sajak later tried to backtrack his comment, saying it was just meant as a joke.
00:27:54The racist part tossed in to highlight the name-calling directed at those who don't believe
00:27:58in science.
00:27:59Either way, he's been denying climate change for quite some time.
00:28:03Back in the 70s and 80s, Chuck Woolery was the quintessential game show host.
00:28:07From his stint as the original host of Wheel of Fortune to his runs on Love Connection
00:28:11and Scrabble, he came across as a good and reliable guy.
00:28:14Fast forward to the age of social media, and Woolery began sharing his political opinions
00:28:18online.
00:28:19While there's nothing wrong with that, some feel he took things too far with some of his
00:28:22more outlandish and aggressive views, such as his belief that minorities don't need civil
00:28:27rights.
00:28:28Furthermore, he believes everyone gets discriminated against, citing his own experiences with ageism.
00:28:33So what's the big deal?
00:28:34On Twitter, Woolery's comments have garnered him accusations of anti-Semitism and prejudice
00:28:38against Islam as well, while he's also claimed ignorance of past racism in politics.
00:28:44Few game show hosts are as memorable as Family Feud's Richard Dawson.
00:28:48He would occasionally make fun of contestants, which is still a staple on the Feud over 40
00:28:52years later.
00:28:53He also had a penchant for locking lips with almost every single woman who appeared on
00:28:56the show, which likely wouldn't fly these days.
00:28:59But despite all that, he was charming and funny and seemed like a likable enough guy,
00:29:03but that was on camera.
00:29:04Behind the scenes, rumors of Dawson's behavior were a little less than complimentary.
00:29:08The book Television Game Show Hosts details how Dawson's ego began to grow as the show
00:29:13blew up.
00:29:14He would clash with producers over whether contestant answers qualified, and he'd tell
00:29:17long stories that ate up screen time and jokes that needed to be edited out.
00:29:21He'd get angry when light bulbs were burned out.
00:29:24At one point, he even forbade a show producer from coming on set and hired his own daughter-in-law
00:29:28to fill the role.
00:29:29In a number of ways, he became the parody of a game show host he ended up playing in
00:29:33the movie The Running Man.
00:29:35As charming and fun as Steve Harvey can be on camera as the host of Family Feud, he's
00:29:39no stranger to controversy behind the scenes.
00:29:42A staff email Harvey sent to the crew of his daytime talk show was leaked to the press,
00:29:46and it demonstrated the level of control Harvey expects to have over his employees.
00:29:50Variety reprinted the message, and it includes instructions like,
00:29:54"...my security team will stop everyone from standing at my door who have the intent to
00:29:57see me or speak to me."
00:29:59Harvey has also joked on his show about how women would never want to date Asian men.
00:30:03Other highlights of his least respectable views range from blatant sexism to homophobia
00:30:08to his belief that atheists have no morality.
00:30:10Survey says Steve Harvey isn't as nice as he plays on TV.
00:30:14I mean, you know, if a guy is out for one thing, it's best to go for shallow, unintelligent
00:30:19women."
00:30:20Most people know Ben Stein from one of two places, Ferris Bueller's day off or as the
00:30:25host of Win Ben Stein's Money.
00:30:27But he has actually been in law and politics for years, including stints as a speechwriter
00:30:31for Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.
00:30:33That said, he is also known for having some pretty questionable ideas.
00:30:37Stein made a documentary called Expelled!
00:30:39No Intelligence Allowed that was critical of evolution.
00:30:42It goes so far as to portray anyone who supports evolution as un-American, and it also links
00:30:46evolution to eugenics and the Nazi Party.
00:30:49The Anti-Defamation League actually released a statement denouncing the film for its misappropriation
00:30:54of the Holocaust.
00:30:55Stein once also wrote a defense of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a French politician who's been
00:30:59accused of numerous sexual assaults.
00:31:01Stein's defense rested on the idea that Strauss-Kahn was either too important to sexually assault
00:31:06someone or that it's just not a thing people like him do.
00:31:09Yes, if we've learned anything in our modern era, it's that rich, powerful men never use
00:31:14that power to harass women.
00:31:17Somebody might be remembered as a great statesman or a beloved national treasure, despite being
00:31:21totally undeserving of their reputation.
00:31:23These are the respected politicians who are actually terrible people.
00:31:27Woodrow Wilson wasn't just the 28th president of the United States, he was also a straight-up
00:31:32racist.
00:31:33And sure, American attitudes towards race were generally backwards back in the late
00:31:3619th and early 20th century, but Wilson really was something else.
00:31:40Under his leadership, the federal government was resegregated, despite having actually
00:31:44made some decent progress toward racial integration.
00:31:47He also fired almost all of his Black employees and unilaterally defeated an amendment at
00:31:51the Versailles Convention recognizing the principle of racial equality.
00:31:55On top of this, he wrote a history book that was sympathetic to the KKK — so much so,
00:31:59in fact, that it was even quoted in the infamous film Birth of a Nation.
00:32:03Wilson also had a problem with women — specifically, women who wanted to vote.
00:32:07It's actually pretty ironic that the 19th Amendment was ratified while he was in office.
00:32:11He certainly wasn't one of its most enthusiastic proponents.
00:32:14Indeed, Wilson once told his staff that,
00:32:16"...I am definitely and irreconcilably opposed to woman's suffrage."
00:32:20One of Wilson's aides later remembered that Wilson had once insisted,
00:32:23"...a woman's place was in the home."
00:32:25And the type of woman who took an active part in the suffrage agitation was totally abhorrent.
00:32:30Even a woman who simply spoke in public made him feel, in his words,
00:32:33"...chilled and scandalized."
00:32:35As far as politicians go, Nelson Mandela is considered by most as close to a saint
00:32:39as you can possibly get.
00:32:41As it turns out, however, his wife — and later ex-wife — Winnie Mandela was less
00:32:44saintly, to say the least.
00:32:46Their marriage survived almost three decades of Nelson's imprisonment, but fell apart in
00:32:501996 when it was revealed she had cheated on him with her younger bodyguard.
00:32:55Like her husband, Winnie was a bona fide revolutionary and even earned herself the title of Mother
00:32:59of the Nation, but her methods were downright horrific.
00:33:02Winnie was known for her involvement in the so-called necklacing of police informers and
00:33:05apartheid collaborators, a method of execution in which a gasoline-soaked car tire is placed
00:33:10around the victim's neck and set on fire.
00:33:13She even once famously said,
00:33:14"...with our boxes of matches and our necklaces, we shall liberate this country."
00:33:18Over the course of the 1980s and 90s, Winnie was implicated in a number of kidnappings
00:33:22and killings, and was also convicted of theft and fraud in 2003.
00:33:26When she went before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the 90s, the Archbishop Desmond
00:33:30Tutu said of her role in the fight against apartheid,
00:33:33"...she was a tremendous stalwart of our struggle, an icon of liberation.
00:33:37Something went wrong, horribly, badly wrong."
00:33:39Winnie, for her part, apologized to the commission for her actions.
00:33:43"...it is true.
00:33:46Things went horribly wrong.
00:33:48For that, I am deeply sorry."
00:33:51Many of Lyndon B. Johnson's more unsavory exploits are pretty well-known, such as his
00:33:55penchant for exposing himself in an attempt to assert his dominance over others.
00:34:00But Johnson's power games went so much further than that.
00:34:03Johnson's relationships with the women in his life were particularly mired by abuse
00:34:07and control.
00:34:08One biography of the 36th president claims that he would pick out his wife's clothes,
00:34:12select her haircut, and force her to wear lipstick.
00:34:14His secretaries received the same treatment, being made to do their hair certain ways,
00:34:18with Johnson even picking out their bathing suits.
00:34:20He even told them how much hairspray to use.
00:34:23And, of course, there was the fact that he frequently got naked in the presence of his
00:34:26colleagues.
00:34:27One writer once said that
00:34:28"...what would be sexual harassment today was part of the everyday atmosphere of Johnson's
00:34:32office."
00:34:33Men had it almost as bad, too, with Johnson frequently abusing his Secret Service staff,
00:34:37forcing colleagues to follow him into the bathroom, and even exposing himself to journalists
00:34:41when he couldn't answer their questions.
00:34:43Although his name is practically synonymous with peace, freedom, and civil rights, many
00:34:47of Gandhi's beliefs were backwards, even for his time.
00:34:50For example, his sexual proclivities were risque enough that one political rival once
00:34:54referred to him as a, quote, "...dangerous, semi-repressed sex maniac."
00:34:58Despite practicing celibacy for much of his life, Gandhi often had young women sleep and
00:35:02bathe with him, even when his wife was still alive.
00:35:05That's not nearly the worst that Gandhi got away with.
00:35:08Having lived in South Africa for over two decades, Gandhi was given more than ample
00:35:12opportunity to indulge in his own deeply racist beliefs.
00:35:15In short, he hated the country's Black population, and wanted them to be segregated in pretty
00:35:19much every public space, from hospitals to trains.
00:35:23He almost always referred to Black people by a racial slur, and believed it was desperately
00:35:27important that whites remain in charge of the country.
00:35:30Gandhi's views on women were also abhorrent.
00:35:32He believed that menstruation was, quote, "...a manifestation of the distortion of a
00:35:35woman's soul," and proudly wrote that women should be held responsible for any attacks
00:35:39they suffered.
00:35:40He even went so far as to say women who were assaulted had, quote, "...lost their value
00:35:44as human beings," and that a father was well within his rights to kill a daughter who had
00:35:48been assaulted so as to restore honor to their family.
00:35:51Many U.S. presidents have cheated on their wives, but John F. Kennedy might well be the
00:35:55most notorious, having been described by historians as a compulsive womanizer.
00:35:59JFK slept with movie stars, secretaries, and plenty of people in between over the years,
00:36:04including Mimi Alford, one of his own interns.
00:36:07Was he exploiting you?
00:36:08Well, it certainly was an incredibly imbalanced relationship, and not a good relationship
00:36:14in hindsight, looking back.
00:36:16And on top of all that, he seemed to pay little mind to the hurt it caused his own
00:36:19wife.
00:36:20Jackie Kennedy is remembered today as having been the perfect first lady and an ever-dutiful
00:36:24spouse.
00:36:25But Jackie was fully aware of many of John's affairs, always making it perfectly clear
00:36:29to him that she wasn't happy about it, and even considered divorce on two occasions.
00:36:34One of these took place in 1956, when JFK left his pregnant wife at home to go on a
00:36:38Mediterranean cruise.
00:36:39Then, when Jackie gave birth to a stillborn daughter, her husband couldn't even be bothered
00:36:43to cut his vacation short and come home to her.
00:36:46Every time she thought of ending her marriage, however, Jackie was talked out of it by her
00:36:49family.
00:36:50Her sister pointed out that their father had cheated on their mother, and that had worked
00:36:53out all right.
00:36:54Meanwhile, her mother said it was simply the price Jackie must pay for being married to
00:36:57a powerful man.
00:36:59Strom Thurmond was so beloved by his constituents that he was a continuous presence in the Senate
00:37:04for 49 years, making him the longest-serving senator in United States history at the time
00:37:08of his retirement.
00:37:09But for all his many electoral successes, Thurmond had a serious dark side.
00:37:14In 1948, Thurmond ran for president on a states' rights and segregationist platform, and even
00:37:18managed to get over a million votes.
00:37:21He then continued his fight against equality after getting elected into the Senate.
00:37:25In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed a handful of basic civil rights laws, but
00:37:30Thurmond was having none of it.
00:37:32He filibustered all on his own for a whopping 24 hours and 18 minutes, which to this day
00:37:36is still the longest speech in Senate history.
00:37:39But what makes Thurmond much worse than your run-of-the-mill racist was that he was also
00:37:42a raging hypocrite.
00:37:44The whole time that he was declaring that Black people and white people should be separated,
00:37:47he was hiding a mixed-race daughter of his own.
00:37:50Thurmond was 22 years old when he had impregnated a 15-year-old Black domestic worker.
00:37:55He ignored his child right up until she was 16, after which he started giving her money,
00:37:59partially to keep her quiet since he knew the scandal could end his political career.
00:38:04The truth of Thurmond's hypocrisy wasn't fully revealed until after his death in 2003, when
00:38:08his daughter, Essie Mae Washington Williams, finally came forward.
00:38:13Nicolas Sarkozy was president of France from 2007 to 2012, and perhaps one of his most
00:38:17infamous traits was his love of all things glamorous.
00:38:20Known as the Bling Bling President, Sarkozy frequently wore Rolexes and custom-made Italian
00:38:25suits.
00:38:26He also divorced his second wife and quickly married the wealthy model Carla Bruni.
00:38:30Perhaps inevitably, then, it was money that eventually led to Sarkozy's political downfall.
00:38:35Liliane Bettencourt was the heiress to the French cosmetics company L'Oreal.
00:38:38She was also absurdly wealthy.
00:38:40When she died in 2017, she was the wealthiest woman in the world, with a net worth of nearly
00:38:45$40 billion.
00:38:47But Bettencourt was also accused of secretly giving hundreds of thousands of euros in illegal
00:38:51campaign contributions to Sarkozy and another government minister.
00:38:54This, however, was far from the only illegal money Sarkozy was accused of snapping up.
00:38:59In 2018, he was questioned by the police after taking cash from the late Libyan dictator
00:39:03Muammar Gaddafi to finance his 2007 electoral campaign.
00:39:08And $6.2 million was allegedly handed over in three suitcases stuffed full of cash.
00:39:13Overall, Sarkozy was thought to have received 50 million euros.
00:39:16This, of course, wasn't just incredibly shady, it was also outright illegal.
00:39:21As such, in 2021, he and two co-defendants were convicted of corruption and sentenced
00:39:25to three years, two suspended, and one in prison.
00:39:29Everyone knows about Bill Clinton's dealings with Monica Lewinsky, which is perhaps one
00:39:32of the most famous affairs of all time.
00:39:34I did not have sexual relations with that woman."
00:39:39But although there was a severe power and age imbalance between the two, that affair
00:39:43was at least consensual.
00:39:44According to a number of women, however, that wasn't the case with many of Clinton's other
00:39:48encounters.
00:39:49In 1991, Clinton was attending a conference in Little Rock as the governor of Arkansas.
00:39:53Afterwards, he invited a woman named Paula Jones back to his suite.
00:39:57After talking for a few minutes, Clinton allegedly reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling
00:40:01her close.
00:40:02He then ran his hand up her thigh and tried to kiss her neck when she tried to stop him.
00:40:05After Clinton undressed and started making demands, Jones refused and fled.
00:40:09Kathleen Willey is another of Clinton's accusers.
00:40:12In 1993, she went to the Oval Office for professional advice, where Clinton groped her, grabbed
00:40:16her crotch, and rubbed himself on her.
00:40:19But the worst accusation of all comes from Juanita Broderick.
00:40:22In 1978, Broderick was volunteering for Clinton's gubernatorial campaign when he invited her
00:40:26to have coffee in his hotel room.
00:40:28Once there, she claims he assaulted her.
00:40:31Clinton was never charged for the incident, however, and to this day, it has largely been
00:40:34forgotten.
00:40:36Sometimes it seems like the world has far too many jerks and not enough geniuses.
00:40:40However, it turns out that being a jerk and being a genius aren't mutually exclusive.
00:40:45In fact, some of the most famous minds in history have belonged to some of humanity's
00:40:48most colossal creeps.
00:40:50Here's a look at some geniuses who are actually terrible people.
00:40:54Sir Isaac Newton is up there with the greatest scientists of all time.
00:40:57Among his many accomplishments, he managed to invent calculus, figure out the three laws
00:41:01of motion, and discover gravity.
00:41:03He was also constantly involved in petty disputes with other scientists about just how much
00:41:07credit he should get.
00:41:09Mathematician Gottfried Leibniz is perhaps his most famous adversary, but that's partially
00:41:14because Newton allegedly went out of his way to completely erase another rival from the
00:41:18history books, Robert Hooke, a brilliant scientist called the English Da Vinci.
00:41:23Hooke and Newton disagreed on many things, including whether or not Hooke should get
00:41:26credit for his contributions to the theory of gravity.
00:41:30Once Hooke died, though, the argument was over, as Newton went on a smear campaign to
00:41:34tarnish Hooke's reputation.
00:41:35Newton allegedly may have been behind the destruction of the only known contemporary
00:41:39painting of Hooke to ensure history would forget Hooke's face, a move known in scientific
00:41:43circles as the Theory of Total Pettiness.
00:41:47If you're not familiar with eugenics, it's the idea that mankind should be bred for specific
00:41:51mental and physical traits in order to create what some might term a master race.
00:41:56At least, that's what the Nazis were aiming for with their program of eugenics.
00:41:59But Hitler wasn't the only one in favor of the idea.
00:42:02Genius inventor Nikola Tesla was all about it, too.
00:42:05Yep, that's right.
00:42:07In 1935, right as the Nazis were coming to power, Tesla wrote an article for Liberty
00:42:11Magazine predicting that by the year 2100, eugenics would be all the rage.
00:42:16He wrote,
00:42:17"...in past ages the law governing the survival of the fittest roughly weeded out the less
00:42:21desirable strains.
00:42:22Even man's new sense of pity began to interfere with the ruthless workings of nature.
00:42:26As a result, we continue to keep alive and to breed the unfit.
00:42:30The only method compatible with our notions of civilization and the race is to prevent
00:42:35the breeding of the unfit by sterilization and the deliberate guidance of the mating
00:42:39instinct."
00:42:40Tesla went on to applaud the sterilization of criminals and people with mental health
00:42:43disorders, but wanted governments to make marriage more difficult to ensure only people
00:42:48viewed as desirable parents would be allowed to breed.
00:42:51Yikes.
00:42:52Einstein is pretty much required to be on any list of geniuses, but one person who probably
00:42:57didn't think Einstein was all that was his long-suffering first wife, Mileva Marich.
00:43:02In 1912, Einstein began a relationship with his cousin Elsa.
00:43:06Needless to say, Mileva wasn't pleased.
00:43:08In 1914, Einstein delivered a letter to his wife detailing a list of demands she had to
00:43:13meet if she wanted to stay married to him.
00:43:15She was required to make his meals and clean his house, but wasn't allowed to talk to him
00:43:19unless given permission, and was prohibited from requesting any kind of affection or intimacy.
00:43:24What a great deal!
00:43:26Instead, the couple separated later that year, and once the divorce was finalized, Einstein
00:43:30just went ahead and married his cousin.
00:43:32Oh, and some people think he took credit for her work, too, so that pretty much stinks
00:43:36all around.
00:43:38The brilliant director behind classics like On the Waterfront, East of Eden, and A Streetcar
00:43:42Named Desire, Elia Kazan also helped found the prestigious Actors Studio, so you'd expect
00:43:47him to be beloved in Hollywood.
00:43:49In reality, though, he ended his life an outcast.
00:43:51Why?
00:43:52Well, at the height of the Red Scare in 1952, he was called before the House Un-American
00:43:57Activities Committee and asked to give up the names of suspected communists in Hollywood.
00:44:01He happily complied, and even took out an ad in the New York Times urging other people
00:44:05to participate in the witch hunt.
00:44:07The eight people he named were blacklisted from Hollywood, their careers destroyed.
00:44:11Kazan, on the other hand, won the Oscar for Best Director three years later for On the
00:44:15Waterfront, a movie about how being a snitch is totally cool.
00:44:18You're a cheap, lousy, dirty, stinking mug, and I'm glad what I've done to you!
00:44:25Times change, though, and in 1999, Kazan was given the Oscar for Lifetime Achievement.
00:44:30Actors including Sean Penn took out an ad decrying the decision.
00:44:33On the night, hundreds of protesters were outside the broadcast.
00:44:36When he received the award, actors like Ed Harris and Nick Nolte refused to stand up
00:44:40for him or even clap.
00:44:42In the last circle of hell are all the traitors, right?
00:44:45And there's one down there for Eddie Kazan.
00:44:48For his part, though, Kazan never regretted his actions, writing in his 1988 autobiography
00:44:54that it was an example of his, quote, true self.
00:44:56Do you regret the decision now that you did that?
00:44:58No, I don't.
00:44:59I'm the opposite.
00:45:00Athletes who make it to the Olympics are expected to be the best of humanity, and that includes
00:45:05acting as role models for the rest of us.
00:45:07That doesn't always work out, however, and sometimes once-respected Olympians turn out
00:45:10to be truly terrible people.
00:45:12Here are a few of them.
00:45:14Scott Miller is an Australian athlete who took home the silver for the 100-meter butterfly
00:45:18at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, as well as a bronze as a member of the 4x100-meter
00:45:22medley relay team that same year.
00:45:25Outside the Olympics, he was the 1995 world champion in the 100-meter butterfly at Rio
00:45:28de Janeiro.
00:45:30But being really good at swimming doesn't always pay the bills, something Miller himself
00:45:33apparently realized.
00:45:34In 2021, he was arrested for allegedly breaking bad when police found $2 million Australian
00:45:39dollars' worth of methamphetamine concealed in candles at his house.
00:45:43At a news conference, Detective Superintendent John Watson discussed the scale of the drug
00:45:46selling operation.
00:45:47They were well set up, and they were intent on delivering death and misery right throughout
00:45:53the state.
00:45:54This was far from the first drug arrest for Miller.
00:45:57In 2009, he pleaded guilty to five charges.
00:45:59He received 100 hours of community service, a slap on the wrist that obviously didn't
00:46:03teach him much of anything, since he was later apprehended with large quantities of meth
00:46:07on two separate occasions in June and July of 2013.
00:46:11Cleek Keller was once a standout swimmer for Team USA, competing at the Summer Olympics
00:46:15in 2000, 2004, and 2008.
00:46:17He was a teammate of Michael Phelps, and together they won gold as members of the 4x200-meter
00:46:21freestyle relay team in both Athens and Beijing.
00:46:24Keller also won a silver in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay in 2000 and two bronze medals
00:46:29in Athens and Sydney.
00:46:30But once he stopped competing professionally, Keller's life went downhill.
00:46:33At one point, he was homeless, living out of his car in rest stops and Walmart parking
00:46:37lots.
00:46:38By early 2021, however, those who knew him thought things were getting better for the
00:46:41former Olympian.
00:46:42He'd started a career in real estate, and had even gotten engaged.
00:46:45Keller's friends and acquaintances also knew he was a pretty big supporter of President
00:46:49Donald Trump, but they were still shocked when they saw him appear in video footage
00:46:52taken from inside the U.S. Capitol during the insurrection on January 6th.
00:46:56He was even wearing his Team USA jacket.
00:46:58Members of the swimming community exchanged messages and contacted the authorities.
00:47:02In January, just days after the riots, Keller was charged with violent entry, obstructing
00:47:06law enforcement, and disorderly conduct.
00:47:08And the next month, a grand jury added civil disorder, obstructing an official proceeding,
00:47:12entering a restricted building, and disorderly conduct in a restricted building.
00:47:16The charges could mean 30 years or more behind bars.
00:47:19Perhaps the most notorious fall from grace of any Olympian was that of Oscar Pistorius.
00:47:23Born missing parts of his feet and lower legs, Pistorius' legs were amputated below the knee
00:47:28before he was a year old.
00:47:29Nonetheless, he took home eight medals, six of them gold, across three Paralympic Games
00:47:33in 2004, 2008, and 2012.
00:47:36He made history in 2012, becoming only the third Paralympian to compete against able-bodied
00:47:41athletes at the London Olympics.
00:47:43Other accomplishments include setting world records in the 200-meter and 400-meter events,
00:47:47and twice being named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World.
00:47:51Then, in what a South African judge called a,
00:47:53"...human tragedy of Shakespearean proportions," Pistorius killed his girlfriend, Reva Steenkamp.
00:47:58"...Oscar Pistorius is appearing in a South African court right now,
00:48:02being charged with the murder of his girlfriend."
00:48:04Steenkamp had only been dating the Olympian for three months when Pistorius killed her
00:48:08after firing four gunshots through the bathroom door of his home.
00:48:11Pistorius defended his actions by saying that he didn't mean to kill her, that he woke up,
00:48:15heard noises, and fired his gun because he thought she was an intruder.
00:48:18This explanation fell apart, however, when neighbors testified that they had
00:48:21heard the couple screaming at each other right before Pistorius opened fire.
00:48:24His first trial in 2014 resulted in only a five-year sentence,
00:48:28and a second one in 2016 replaced that with a six-year sentence. Finally,
00:48:32the South African Supreme Court got involved in the case in 2017,
00:48:36sentencing Pistorius to 13 years and five months behind bars.
00:48:40Luka Klasins represented Slovakia in the men's singles figure skating event at the
00:48:441992 Albertville Winter Olympics, where he came in 26th. After his career ended,
00:48:49he started a company that put on ice-themed amusement park-style events.
00:48:52Then, in 2021, Klasins was charged with bank fraud and aggravated identity theft for trying
00:48:57to scam almost $1.5 million out of the relief fund the U.S. set up for struggling small businesses
00:49:02during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the wake of Klasins' arrest, the U.S. attorney for the
00:49:06Southern District of New York laid out his crimes in a statement, which read,
00:49:09As alleged, Klasins used false documents to try and obtain over a million dollars in funds
00:49:14intended to help hardworking Americans, but thanks to the diligence of the FBI,
00:49:17his plans have been put on ice. He will now be held accountable for his alleged brazen lies.
00:49:22Klasins has yet to be convicted of the crime, so this is another case in which anything could
00:49:26happen. But if he really did try to steal $1.6 million worth of taxpayer money that
00:49:30should have gone to small businesses in need, he might not be able to skate on the charges.
00:49:35When it was reported that wrestler Sushil Kumar would miss the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics,
00:49:40ESPN referred to him as arguably India's greatest Olympian. And that's probably a
00:49:44fair estimation. He's the only person from his country to win individual medals in two different
00:49:48Olympic Games — a bronze in Beijing in 2008 and a silver four years later in London.
00:49:53So why won't Kumar make Tokyo? Because he's in prison.
00:49:56Kumar was the instigator in a fight that saw three men, fellow wrestlers at an academy in
00:50:00Delhi, beaten so badly that one of them died. Afterward, Kumar went on the run across India
00:50:05for three weeks before being apprehended. Kumar hasn't yet been convicted of the charges as of
00:50:10August 2021, but if the case against him is as strong as it seems, it could spell trouble for
00:50:14the famous Olympian. On top of fleeing after the incident, one police officer said,
00:50:18We have recorded statements of all the victims and they all made allegations against Sushil Kumar."
00:50:22The former Olympian's lawyers have accused the police of bias, but if anything, their bias might
00:50:27be towards the wrestler, as a viral photo showed a group of cops posing with Kumar after his arrest,
00:50:31with wide smiles on all their faces.
00:50:34Australian Olympic kayaker Nathan Bagley took home two silver medals at the 2004 Athens Games.
00:50:39But shortly after that, it seems, he decided his real calling was drugs. First,
00:50:43he tested positive for steroids in 2005 and was hit with a 15-month suspension. While he said he
00:50:48would aim to be back for the 2008 Games in Beijing, his own drug business got in the way.
00:50:53In 2007, Bagley was found with 800 Ecstasy tabs in his car, plus some weed and cash.
00:50:58In 2009, he was jailed for his involvement in an Ecstasy manufacturing ring.
00:51:02After his release from prison, he said,
00:51:04I just asked for an opportunity just to give me a chance, see what I can do,
00:51:08and I know I won't be making the same mistakes again."
00:51:11A year later, he was arrested for possessing 84 Ecstasy tablets and pill press components.
00:51:16Not slowing down, 2015 saw him face charges of operating a full-blown drug ring.
00:51:20But 2018 was Bagley's true masterstroke. Alongside his brother, he tried to get 650 kilos of cocaine,
00:51:27worth over 200 million Australian dollars, into the country. Bagley bought a speedboat
00:51:31and instructed his brother and another man to go 200 miles off the coast and pick up the drugs.
00:51:36Unfortunately for them, the pair was caught by the naval authorities. The men tried to get away,
00:51:40speeding off in the boat and throwing kilos of cocaine into the ocean as they went,
00:51:44but to no avail. Bagley was convicted in 2021 and is currently awaiting sentencing.
00:51:49Known as the Flying Scott, David Jenkins competed in three Olympics for Great Britain,
00:51:53winning the silver in the 4x400-meter relay with his team at Munich 1972,
00:51:57as well as making the individual 400-meter finals at Montreal 1976 and Moscow 1980,
00:52:02although he finished seventh in both of those appearances. Between his two final Olympics,
00:52:07he was often injured, to the point that it was surprising when he managed to qualify for the
00:52:10Games in Moscow. Seven years later, after Jenkins had retired and moved to California,
00:52:14he was busted for his new job — making and smuggling illegal steroids.
00:52:18He was one of the main producers behind the facility in Mexico that made the drugs and
00:52:22then trafficked them into the U.S. At one point, Jenkins and his crew were reportedly
00:52:26responsible for more than two-thirds of all the illegal steroids circulating in the U.S.
00:52:30Jenkins also admitted he'd used steroids later in his running career,
00:52:33which puts his amazing recovery for the Moscow Games in a wholly different light.
00:52:37It's worth noting that no athletes were actually drug-tested at the Moscow Games.
00:52:41Jenkins was sentenced to seven years for his crimes, but only ended up serving nine months.
00:52:45When he got out, he set up a supplement company with another convicted drug felon and is now
00:52:49thought to be worth millions.
00:52:51These days, Lance Armstrong's reputation as a doper seems to have eclipsed his reputation
00:52:56as an athlete. In fact, many people might not even be aware that he was an Olympian — and
00:52:59a medalist — at that, despite being most famous for his domination of the Tour de France.
00:53:04The cyclist also competed in the 1996 Atlanta Games, where his highest placement was sixth,
00:53:08and the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where he got a bronze in the time trials.
00:53:12In between the two games, he'd gotten cancer, which made it all the more impressive — seemingly,
00:53:16anyway. Plenty of Olympic athletes have been caught doping over the years,
00:53:19but Lance Armstrong didn't just dope a little — and he didn't dope on his own, either.
00:53:23He took the art of passing drug tests to another level, somehow producing clean urine while using
00:53:28essentially all the banned performance enhancers available to him. When his activities were finally
00:53:32discovered, the United States Anti-Doping Agency declared in their report that Armstrong was a
00:53:36prolific doper, and that he ruthlessly made those around him, his teammates, dope just as much.
00:53:41Essentially, he bullied people into risking their jobs and their health,
00:53:44just so he could get the glory. In 2013, after Armstrong admitted his crimes to Oprah,
00:53:49the International Olympic Committee asked for the bronze medal back. It took him eight months
00:53:53to return it.
00:53:54Most talk show hosts seem pleasant when the cameras are on, but it's a different story
00:53:58when no one's watching. These TV hosts were completely different people when the cameras
00:54:02were off. Tucker Carlson built one of the most loyal followings in Fox News history as the host
00:54:07of Tucker Carlson Tonight. The show launched in 2016, which was also the year that Donald Trump
00:54:12won the presidency. As a result, Carlson's show became a major platform for the new president,
00:54:16with Trump granting Carlson exclusive interviews throughout his time in office.
00:54:20However, Carlson has been criticized throughout his career for his hateful commentary,
00:54:23which included aspects of white nationalism.
00:54:26The combined membership of every white supremacist organization in this country,
00:54:30were they able to fit inside a college football stadium?
00:54:32In countless segments on his show, Carlson called for major changes to the government.
00:54:36And according to The Guardian, some of these changes equated to fascism.
00:54:39Carlson's heavy-handed commentary eventually led to his downfall.
00:54:43In 2023, the Fox star was dropped without warning after the network lost a $787 million
00:54:48defamation case. Since then, Carlson has largely existed as an online presence,
00:54:52with a new show that's streamed exclusively on Axe, formerly known as Twitter.
00:54:56Carlson has pushed conspiracy theories on his new show,
00:54:59including one segment where he claimed Barack Obama had a gay affair and smoked crack cocaine.
00:55:03Thankfully for Carlson, even in exile, he's remained one of Trump's favorite interviewers.
00:55:08When the former president decided to skip the GOP primary debate in August of 2023,
00:55:13he set up a simultaneous interview for himself on Carlson's X show.
00:55:16During Trump's appearance, Carlson wildly claimed that the 45th president was an assassination
00:55:20target.
00:55:21So do you think it's possible that there's open conflict?
00:55:25We seem to be moving towards something.
00:55:27I don't know.
00:55:28In November 2017, Matt Lauer, the long-running co-host of The Today Show, was fired by NBC.
00:55:34As I'm sure you can imagine, we are devastated, and we are still processing all of this.
00:55:39Lauer's abrupt firing came after an internal investigation following a
00:55:42complaint from a female colleague. Variety later published an exclusive feature that
00:55:46claimed Lauer had sexually harassed multiple female colleagues. According to the piece,
00:55:50Lauer had allegedly exposed his genitals, made lewd remarks, and in one incident,
00:55:54bought a co-worker a sex toy. Then, in 2019, investigative journalist Ronan Farrow published
00:55:59his book Catch and Kill, Lie, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators. In the book,
00:56:04Farrow shared testimony from Lauer's former NBC colleague Brooke Nevels,
00:56:08who claimed that the Today star had raped her. Lauer later admitted publicly to having an
00:56:12extramarital affair with Nevels while covering the 2014 Sochi Olympics, but said that all
00:56:16physical contact was consensual. Farrow's book also claimed that Harvey Weinstein used his
00:56:21knowledge of Lauer's sexual misconduct to keep stories about himself from being broadcast.
00:56:26In America, Piers Morgan is known as a one-time judge on America's Got Talent and as the former
00:56:31host of CNN's Piers Morgan Live, which was dropped from the network in 2014. Before his TV career in
00:56:36the States, however, Morgan had a remarkable and controversial career as a print journalist in his
00:56:40native UK. It was there that he made a name for himself at the age of 28 by becoming the editor
00:56:45in chief of the now-defunct News of the World tabloid. While Morgan's unorthodox editorial style
00:56:50meant that he was able to supply his readers with bombshell stories day after day, he gained a
00:56:54reputation for bending rules and ignoring journalistic standards. For instance, Morgan
00:56:58attempted to purposefully smear rival journalists, including Private Eye editor Ian Hislop, with whom
00:57:03he had clashed on the British TV show Have I Got News for You? In his newspaper, Morgan advertised
00:57:08openly for people to contact him with any dirt they had on Hislop that might cause him embarrassment.
00:57:12But worst of all are claims that Morgan oversaw the systematic phone hacking of public figures to
00:57:16uncover stories. As of 2023, an investigation is ongoing into how much Morgan knew about the
00:57:21hacks on major celebrities, as well as the families of murder victims.
00:57:25I said, I've never hacked a phone. I've never told anyone to hack a phone.
00:57:29Don Imus, who died in 2019, set the template when it came to over-the-top radio broadcasting.
00:57:34During the decades his widely syndicated show Imus in the Morning was on the air,
00:57:38Imus' unpredictable style never wavered. However, the broadcaster seemingly showed
00:57:42his true colors in 2007, when he used a racial slur to refer to the Rutgers University women's
00:57:47basketball team. Imus apologized, but for his critics, that wasn't enough.
00:57:51Imus was often compared in the later part of his career with Howard Stern,
00:57:54a fellow radio shock jock. However, when Imus' career seemed ready to implode,
00:57:58Stern condemned Imus. On his radio program, Stern discussed Imus' history of using racist language,
00:58:04telling his listeners,
00:58:05If there's a blackened core of a human being, that's Imus."
00:58:08He then suggested Imus' popularity with the public was exaggerated.
00:58:11Nonetheless, Imus was back on the air within months.
00:58:15David Letterman became a huge cult figure following the debut of NBC's Late Night with
00:58:19David Letterman in 1982, and one of the biggest names on Late Night after his move to CBS in 1993.
00:58:25Letterman was known for his ironic sense of humor and was also an acerbic interviewer.
00:58:29In 2009, however, Letterman's bad behavior came to light when it was revealed that he
00:58:32had been having affairs with young women on his staff. Letterman came clean by admitting
00:58:36to the affairs on his show, and also apologized to both his wife and the women involved.
00:58:40At the time the scandal broke, Letterman received far more support than criticism.
00:58:44But, as noted by Vice, his behavior appears deeply problematic in retrospect,
00:58:48particularly because he practiced sexual favoritism by promoting the women he had liaisons with.
00:58:53As the current host of NBC's The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon maintains a consistently
00:58:57cheerful tone in nearly every interview and segment. But a 2023 bombshell report
00:59:02in Rolling Stone magazine tells a different story, suggesting that Fallon is a completely
00:59:06different person off-camera, especially when interacting with his co-workers.
00:59:09In the piece, journalist Christy Lee Andoli shared the testimony of two
00:59:12Tonight Show staffers and 14 former employees, who claim that Fallon is a difficult and erratic star.
00:59:18Though the show's remained a runaway success since Fallon took over in 2014,
00:59:22those interviewed claim that The Tonight Show has a toxic work environment,
00:59:25with much of the tension dependent on the type of mood the star is in.
00:59:28Outsiders have pointed to the turnover of nine showrunners in as many years as evidence of the
00:59:33chaos. One interviewee told the magazine,
00:59:35"'Nobody told Jimmy no. Everybody walked on eggshells, especially showrunners.
00:59:39You never knew which Jimmy we were going to get and when he was going to throw a hissy fit.
00:59:43Look how many showrunners went so quickly. We know they didn't last long.'"
00:59:47Rolling Stone later reported that Fallon had since apologized to those involved.
00:59:51The Ellen DeGeneres Show began airing in 2003 and was notable for being as friendly as it was funny,
00:59:57with be kind being the show's recurring mantra. However, the show received an unexpected blow in
01:00:012020, when BuzzFeed News reported that the atmosphere of kindness promoted on screen
01:00:06wasn't present when the cameras were off. The outlet alleged that DeGeneres and her
01:00:09show's producers did nothing to address the toxic work environment that negatively impacted the
01:00:13mental health of several staffers. DeGeneres later apologized on air, but the show lost viewers and
01:00:18never fully recovered. In 2022, the Ellen DeGeneres Show came to an end after 19 seasons.
01:00:24In the early years of his career, CNN's Don Lemon was lauded for the quality of his reporting,
01:00:28but Lemon's career took a hit in February 2023 that he never recovered from. While co-hosting
01:00:33CNN This Morning, Lemon claimed that Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley was no longer
01:00:38in her prime, even though Haley was 51 at the time.
01:00:41"'Nikki Haley is in her prime.'"
01:00:42Lemon then went on to pronounce that a woman's prime years were their 20s, 30s, and 40s.
01:00:47Lemon's comments quickly drew outrage, resulting in his absence from the next day's show.
01:00:51But the bad press against Lemon only got worse, and in April 2023, Variety ran a story detailing
01:00:56numerous problematic incidents from throughout his career, particularly acts of aggression toward
01:01:01women. In one instance, Lemon was accused of sending threatening text messages to his former
01:01:05CNN co-anchor Kira Phillips. Shortly after the Variety piece was published, CNN announced that
01:01:10Lemon had been fired. However, since Lemon still had three years left on his contract,
01:01:15it's believed he will still receive a substantial payout from the network.
01:01:18The British comedy actor James Corden was a respected stage and screen performer in the
01:01:22early 2000s, but only made a huge splash in the U.S. when he became the host of The Late Late Show
01:01:27in 2015. Under his stewardship, the show maintained the silly style that viewers had grown accustomed
01:01:31to, and segments such as carpool karaoke often went viral. In 2022, Corden announced that he
01:01:36would be leaving the show in 2023 to spend more time with his family. However, the announcement
01:01:41coincided with a seismic reputational shift for Corden. In recent years, lurid stories about
01:01:46Corden's off-screen behavior began shaping how the public perceived him. One in particular,
01:01:50in which the owner of a popular London restaurant accused Corden of being an abusive customer,
01:01:54spread across the internet like wildfire. Corden was also criticized as being difficult
01:01:58by a former colleague, according to the News International.
01:02:01The name Jeremy Kyle isn't particularly well-known in the U.S., but ask any Brit,
01:02:06and they will tell you that Kyle is known for a trashy form of daytime programming that makes
01:02:09The Jerry Springer Show look light-hearted. The Jeremy Kyle Show involved members of the
01:02:13British public discussing infidelity, betrayal, addiction, and various other scandalous topics.
01:02:18However, the added appeal of the show was Kyle himself, who would often chastise his guests for
01:02:22their moral failings. As a result, The Jeremy Kyle Show felt less like public therapy and more like
01:02:27a kangaroo court. The infamous show was a constant presence on British TV for many years. But amid
01:02:32sustained criticism that the show intentionally courted participants' distress for pure
01:02:36entertainment, tragedy struck when a former guest committed suicide. Accounts of mistreatment by
01:02:41the show's producers and news of another death related to the show convinced the broadcaster ITV
01:02:46to drop Kyle in 2019.
01:02:48From the mid-1980s until he died in 2021, the conservative radio broadcaster and commentator
01:02:53Rush Limbaugh enjoyed a huge following. Toward the end of his life, he mingled with some of the
01:02:57biggest figures in the Republican Party, including President Trump, who awarded Limbaugh the
01:03:01Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2020. But not everyone agrees that Limbaugh was a worthy voice
01:03:06in American public life. Numerous critics have characterized the talk radio host as sexist and
01:03:11racist. One particularly egregious moment in Limbaugh's career occurred in 2012, when he
01:03:15decided to attack Sandra Fluke, a student at Georgetown Law. Fluke, a campaigner for women's
01:03:20rights, had advocated for easier access to contraception for students. In response, Limbaugh
01:03:25called her several slurs before adding,
01:03:27"...she's having so much sex, she can't afford the contraception."
01:03:30This is historically the kind of language that is used to silence women."
01:03:35However, even some conservative commenters admitted that they were uncomfortable with
01:03:38the effect Limbaugh's legacy had on the political right. Former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh
01:03:43told NPR that he blames Limbaugh for normalizing misinformation in the Republican Party, stating,
01:03:47"...Rush Limbaugh began this. Rush Limbaugh's legacy,
01:03:50sadly, because he was immensely talented, but his legacy will be primarily lying to his audience."
01:03:55Tyra Banks is undoubtedly a big personality. Banks' charm and charisma were responsible for
01:04:00the Tyra Banks Show winning back-to-back daytime Emmys in 2008 and 2009. But the thing Banks is
01:04:05most famous for is America's Next Top Model, which she created and executive produced. The
01:04:10show was a network smash for both the United Paramount Network and The CW,
01:04:14and remained a cult favorite after its 2018 finale. However, in recent years,
01:04:18former fans have looked back at the show, and Banks' role in particular,
01:04:21and have been forced to re-evaluate. Despite being a talent show, America's Next Top Model
01:04:25featured countless moments in which Banks — and the other judges — criticized contestants for
01:04:29their weight and sexuality. As reported by Business Insider, some allege that Banks' show
01:04:33also exposed contestants to unsafe working conditions and emotional trauma.
01:04:37But perhaps the most damning episode in the ongoing backlash against America's Next Top
01:04:41Model is the story of Angelee Preston, who had told producers she had previously worked as an
01:04:45escort. Preston later sued Banks and the show, claiming that she had been disqualified because
01:04:50of her past, though the suit was later dropped in 2018. Furthermore, when old clips of America's
01:04:55Next Top Model took the internet by storm in 2020, Banks took to Axe to apologize for the
01:05:00show's insensitivity.
01:05:02The Catholic Church and its popes have been around a long time,
01:05:05but you know what they say about power. Unfortunately, not every pope has been
01:05:09incorruptible. Here are popes who were actually terrible people.
01:05:13Of all the Holy Fathers to be notable for their less-than-sterling morality,
01:05:18Alexander VI is unquestionably the most famous. In his nine years as pontifex,
01:05:24Alexander VI was accused of murdering his political enemies with poison,
01:05:28unchecked nepotism, and various other things that popes are definitely not supposed to do.
01:05:33As for why he's so notable, you really only need to look at his name.
01:05:36Before ascending to the papacy, Alexander VI was Rodrigo Borgia. On the off chance that
01:05:42name doesn't ring a bell, the Borgias were one of the most powerful families in Rome during
01:05:47the Renaissance and were so well-known for their criminal exploits that Showtime made
01:05:52a prestige drama about them that ran for three seasons. Alexander VI in particular was considered
01:05:58so power-hungry and evil that he's literally the final boss of Assassin's Creed II,
01:06:02one of the only video games we can think of that ends with the hero getting into a fistfight with
01:06:07the pope. Pope Stephen VI held a special kind of grudge. He hated his predecessor Formosus
01:06:13so much that he dug him up and put his dead body on trial. Stephen propped the former pope's body
01:06:19up in a chair, assigned a deacon to speak for it, and, by all accounts, started screaming at the
01:06:24corpse about how Formosus was an illegitimate pope. Formosus was found guilty on all counts,
01:06:30so Stephen meted out the very logical punishment of chopping off the skeletal fingers that Formosus
01:06:36had used for blessings, buried him in an unmarked grave, then dug him up again and had his body
01:06:42thrown in the Tiber River. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this didn't sit well with the population of Rome,
01:06:48especially once the cadaver washed up on the banks of the Tiber and the holy skeleton began
01:06:53performing miracles on the townsfolk.
01:07:01Stephen VI was deposed, imprisoned, and strangled to death. As for Formosus,
01:07:05a few of Stephen's successors had him re-buried with full honor, and also made a new rule that
01:07:11officially prohibited putting dead bodies on trial, which was the kind of rule that
01:07:14no one thought they actually needed to write down until then.
01:07:18You've probably heard of The Divine Comedy, an epic poem from the 14th century that's
01:07:22best known for its depiction of Hell. Dante's Inferno consists of nine circles,
01:07:27which get worse and worse until you finally get to the bottom. If you back up a little
01:07:31and check out the eighth circle, however, you'll find a mention that Hell is eagerly
01:07:35awaiting the arrival of Pope Boniface VIII, who it seems was not exactly Dante's favorite person.
01:07:41The reasons? Well, Boniface is largely remembered for his downright authoritarian
01:07:46view of the Church's role in the world. After taking over from Celestine V,
01:07:50Boniface attempted to raise money to start a new crusade. When that failed,
01:07:54he just went to war with Cardinal Jacopo Cologna instead. It was during this conflict that Cologna's
01:08:00last holdout, the city of Palestrina, peacefully surrendered after promises by Boniface that they
01:08:05would be spared. Surprise! The city was actually razed to the ground, and the earth salted so
01:08:12nothing could grow there. It's not often that you can compare a pope to Darth Vader, but with
01:08:16Palestrina as his personal alderan, Boniface VIII certainly qualifies.
01:08:22I find your lack of faith disturbing."
01:08:25While Rome had been the traditional home of the Catholic Church since about 33 A.D.,
01:08:29there was a period of about 70 years in the 14th century where the popes ruled from Avignon,
01:08:34France, instead. Eventually, however, Gregory XI decided he wanted to regain control of the
01:08:40Papal States, which kicked off the truly Game of Thrones-sounding War of the Eight Saints against
01:08:46Florence. Sadly, this particular conflict did not involve the Mother of Dragons. Instead,
01:08:51Gregory relied on some equally non-traditional tactics, including excommunicating every member
01:08:56of the Florentine government and banning all religious services in the city. When the Florentine
01:09:02citizens continued to hold religious services, Gregory instead authorized his armies to seize
01:09:07their properties and enslave the citizens themselves.
01:09:10Scientists are way smarter than most people, but sometimes they change the world for the worse.
01:09:15We hear about the discoveries of some of the world's most famous scientists,
01:09:18but we don't hear about the terrible stuff. Here are respected scientists who were terrible people.
01:09:24Erwin Schrödinger is most famous for a thought experiment about putting a cat in a sealed box
01:09:30and rigging it up with a device that has a 50-50 chance of killing the cat. As he argues,
01:09:34until you open the box and check for yourself, the cat exists in an uncertain state where it is
01:09:39both alive and dead at the same time. It turns out that's a pretty fitting legacy for this guy,
01:09:44since he proved you could be a brilliant physicist and also a complete scumbag.
01:09:48Saying he had numerous affairs is putting it lightly. According to his biographer,
01:09:52Schrödinger kept a series of little black books to record the names of the women he had affairs with
01:09:57and to rate each of them. At least three of his mistresses gave him children,
01:10:01and one provided him with the inspiration to develop his famous wave equation. They were all
01:10:06adults, and that's fine, but it gets much worse. Schrödinger also did some tutoring with students
01:10:11that included 14-year-old twins that he was prone to fondling while they worked on their math
01:10:16lessons. One of them, Ithy Junger, became pregnant three years later, and Schrödinger quickly moved
01:10:21on.
01:10:22Brothers John and William Hunter aren't household names, but they're credited with major discoveries
01:10:27about human anatomy and the interactions between organs. Unfortunately, they developed all of those
01:10:31discoveries through literal grave robbing. Both anatomists were connected to a shady assistant who
01:10:36procured cadavers for them to dissect. William's personal Igor was his unfortunately named
01:10:42assistant William Smelly, and some historians believe the two were linked to a series of London
01:10:46murders between 1749 and 1755, which would likely make them responsible for the deaths of 40 pregnant
01:10:53women. By the time the brothers were done, they had dissected more than 2,000 bodies gathered up
01:10:57through straight-up Frankenstein tactics. Oh, and John? He also pioneered the idea of taking teeth
01:11:03from the poor and giving them to the rich as transplants. Robin Hood he was not.
01:11:08James D. Watson turned his love of birdwatching into a career in research and genetics,
01:11:13and then won a Nobel Prize for discovering the shape of DNA. Unfortunately, there are more than
01:11:18a few people who believe he took credit for the work of another scientist, Rosalind Franklin.
01:11:22That's just the tip of this terrible iceberg, though. Watson has gone on record as saying
01:11:27genetic engineering should be used to make all girls pretty, and he's spoken freely on his
01:11:31beliefs that there's a connection between race and intelligence. He ultimately retired in 2007
01:11:37after giving an interview where he stated he was inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa
01:11:41because he disagreed with the premise that their intelligence is the same as ours.
01:11:45This is the same guy who spoke out in 1997 in favor of allowing genetic testing to determine
01:11:51whether a baby was going to be gay, adding that homosexuality should be a reason for abortion.
01:11:55In 2014, he also became the first person to sell his Nobel medallion because he didn't
01:12:00like the way the scientific community shunned him after his racist remarks.
01:12:05Without Jack Parsons, or to use his original and staggeringly awesome name,
01:12:09Marvel Whiteside Parsons, there would be no space shuttle, not to mention the military
01:12:14applications of his developments in rocketry. He was an aeronautic genius, and he also believed
01:12:19he had summoned Satan when he was 13 years old. Parsons was a huge devotee of occultist Alistair
01:12:24Crowley and did a lot of dancing naked by the moonlight. That's not particularly terrible,
01:12:29but his attempts to summon the Antichrist through weird sex magic rituals he performed with the help
01:12:33of L. Ron Hubbard aren't exactly good, either. Without going into too much detail, the basics
01:12:39are that Parsons and Hubbard performed a series of rituals to incarnate a goddess named Babylon.
01:12:44Babylon would be the mother of the Antichrist, and they absolutely believed they had summoned
01:12:48her in the body of Margery Cameron. Cameron joined in on all the bedroom fun, and while
01:12:53she did become pregnant, we'll never know if it was really the Antichrist since she had an abortion.
01:12:59You probably recognize John Harvey Kellogg's name, even if you don't know who he is.
01:13:03He's the cereal guy, and he was also a surgeon and a pioneer in the field of nutrition who
01:13:08promoted healthy foods like peanut butter, yogurt, and soy milk, making him pretty much responsible
01:13:12for everything on your breakfast table. If you've ever been disappointed by the lack of flavor in a
01:13:16bowl of Corn Flakes, there's a reason for that. Kellogg believed that tasty food led to rampant
01:13:21fornication and told people that soy milk was the only thing they should be thirsty for. He even
01:13:26went as far as suggesting the use of spiked tools and acid burns to discourage masturbation. And
01:13:31Corn Flakes? He invented those to be so bland they couldn't possibly arouse any kind of desire
01:13:37in anyone. He did most of his research into the relationship between nutrition and the soul at the
01:13:41Battle Creek Sanitarium, where he also became one of the founding members of the Race Betterment
01:13:46Foundation. Through that, he started a eugenics registry that helped to push the supposed
01:13:51superiority of anyone of a Nordic background. So maybe just go ahead and stick to pancakes from now on.
01:13:57William Buckland was a 19th century geologist at Oxford University, and he documented geological
01:14:02phenomenon, wrote papers on fossils and the dinosaurs, and made major strides in mineralogy.
01:14:07He also made it part of his life's work to eat anything and everything. And we do mean everything.
01:14:12He ate moles, crocodiles, hedgehogs, and, worst of all, he was even known to have cooked up some
01:14:18puppies. He never said why he felt it necessary to eat puppies, but we do know he passed his
01:14:23weird obsession onto his son, Francis. When the boy was a child, his father encouraged him to
01:14:28ride and then eat a turtle that he was allowed to behead for the cook, as a treat. Much later,
01:14:33of course, that experience would lead Francis to grow up and found the evil ninjas of the Foot Clan.
01:14:42you