1. BATFLECK IS CANCELLED
After the shenanigans in 2017 with Ben Affleck, I can’t help but hope that Warner Bros. ditches him as Batman/Bruce Wayne in future DCEU because he’s a) not that great of an actor and b) his scandals drag him down.
It all started off when he got divorced from his wife of 10 years, Jennifer Garner, and the rumors began flying around that he sneaked around on her with his new flame, Lindsay Shookus. The new couple denied that there was any wandering eyes going on and Fox News pointed out that they claimed they only started dating last year.
Affleck also came under fire when he made a statement that condemned disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. The Daily Beast pointed out that actress Rose McGowan revealed on Twitter she allegedly confided in Affleck about what happened to her.
According to McGowan, Affleck supposedly said to her that he “told Weinstein to stop doing that.” The Daily Mail then leaked an email to Weinstein where the Justice League star allegedly denied that McGowan had said anything to him about what she went through at the hands of the disgraced former Hollywood mogul.
To add fuel to the fire, actress Hilarie Burton alleged on Twitter that Ben Affleck had acted VERY inapt with her when she was hosting MTV’s Total Request Live back in 2003. Even though Affleck issued an apology on Twitter, his scandals and his lack of caring about his role in the DCEU definitely played a role in why Justice League flopped. Time for Warner Bros. to replace him!
2. NOT EVEN NEVERLAND COULD HIDE HIS DOWNFALL
MJ was known as the “King of Pop,” but when he passed away, he had been knocked off his throne and was left in crushing debt.
All throughout Jackson’s adult life, there were rumors swirling about his alleged misconduct with the children he’d invite over to Neverland, addiction, tax issues, plastic surgeries, and mental illness.
Inside Celebs points out that gossip hounds also chatted incessantly about Jackson’s love life, including whether or not his former marriage to Lisa Marie Presley was a sham or if they only got hitched so that everyone would stop speculating about his romantic inclinations.
The gossip hounds also kept talking about his children; I remember hearing about many hurtful rumors that implied Jackson wasn’t the biological father of his three children.
Many of his fans (and detractors) believe that Jackson’s erratic behavior and the scandals that plagued his life and career were due to the fact that he was a child star and that his father, Joe Jackson, allegedly physically jar,ed his children if they happened to make a mistake during rehearsals.
Despite all the scandals, Jackson still had loyal fans and was truly mourned by them when they found out that he had passed away.
3. PEPSI CURES ALL ILLS, ACCORDING TO KENDALL JENNER
Pepsi pulled their advertisement with Kendall Jenner after social justice advocates basically told them that you can’t fight injustices by giving someone a can of soda.
The advertisement featured Jenner participating in a photoshoot when she notices that there’s a group of protestors coming down the street. She is invited to join the march by some random dude with a cello of all things (I want to know who wrote this, because no social justice advocate that I know of would bring an expensive instrument to a PROTEST). At one point during this event, Kendall grabs a can of Pepsi from an ice bucket, as one does at something like this...
NBC News added that the real uproar occurred after the advertisement had Jenner walk up to a police officer during the march and give him a can of Pepsi. He takes a drink while people cheer and take photographs.
Pepsi, and by association, Jenner, were accused of trivializing the VERY important Black Lives Matter protests and for many activists, their apology rang hollow, since they did not mention the advocates for social justice that have worked their butts off for the movement.
Of course, in true Internet fashion, Jenner and Pepsi became hilarious memes as people on social media began inserting bottles of the soda into historical protests.
4. DEPP'S CAREER SANK FASTER THAN THE R.M.S. TITANIC
For years, everyone loved Johnny Depp because he was the quirky actor that brought beloved pop culture figures such as Captain Jack Sparrow from Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean and Edward Scissorhands to life, but his star is waning after his scandal with regards to his ex-wife Amber Heard.
In 2017, Glamour notes that the world of celebrity gossip was rocked when Heard and Depp filed for divorce after only one year of marriage due to “irreconcilable differences.” The actress also filed a restraining order against Depp because he allegedly put hands on her in a violent way and submitted a photo of herself where she had a bruise over her eye.
Depp wound up paying his ex-wife $7 million and Heard dropped her case against her ex-husband.
Even though Depp still has his fair share of die-hard fans that claim he didn’t do anything wrong and his ex-wife was lying, his career has sunk faster than the Titanic.
Instead of being box office gold, Harry Potter fans were outraged that he landed the role of Gellert Grindelwald in the spin-off series Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. Despite the fact that the director and J.K. Rowling herself defended Depp, the casting controversy spawned an epic backlash on Twitter that made waves in the media.
5. WHEN YOUR CHILD WANTS YOU BANNED, YOU KNOW THINGS ARE BAD
Courtney Love may have been well-known for her band Hole, but she’s also equally well-known for being INCREDIBLY appaling.
Where to start? The former singer has long battled both addiction and mental illness, but she made waves in the celebrity gossip circuit when it was revealed that she was estranged from her and Kurt Cobain’s daughter, Frances Bean Cobain.
The Daily Mail writes that Love’s daughter filed a restraining order against her own mother at the tender age of 17 because of alleged domestic violence and she went to live with other relatives.
The two also had a spat on social media when Love erroneously believed rumors that claimed her daughter was asked out on a date by Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, despite the fact that he is HAPPILY MARRIED WITH CHILDREN.
Cobain was quick to dismiss such ridiculous gossip, and despite the fact that Love apologized on Twitter, her daughter pointed out that the social media website should ban her mother’s account.
People notes that Love was also accused by Cobain’s ex-husband Isaiah Silva of allegedly trying to do him in, so that she could get a priceless guitar that had been owned by the late Nirvana singer. Who needs reality television when we have the world of celebrity gossip?
6. TONY STARK CLEANED UP HIS ACT
It seems hard to believe now, since Robert Downey Jr. is the highest-paid member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and is beloved by fans all around the world for bringing Tony Stark/Iron Man to life, but there was a time when he was at rock bottom and his career was going nowhere.
Vanity Fair writes that Downey Jr. battled mental illness and drug addiction for years, and he was in and out of both prison and rehab. Some of his more memorable stunts include being stopped for speeding in 1996. When he was pulled over by the cops, they found a whole bunch of drugs AND an unloaded gun underneath the passenger seat. He also escaped from not one, but TWO facilities.
After going through another bout of rehab in 2001, Downey Jr’s fortunes started to rise when he landed a role in the small film The Singing Detective after Mel Gibson (another wild star) personally vouched for him in front of the insurer for the production.
His big break came in the form of Jon Favreau taking a chance on a troubled star and giving him the role of Iron Man; it has been uphill for Downey Jr. ever since.
7. ALIENS, PRINCESSES, AND ROM-COMS, OH MY
I was never a huge fan of the movie E.T. because the thought of aliens scared me even as a child. I DESPISED that ugly-looking creature, but I loved Drew Barrymore as Danielle de Barbarac in Ever After. I wore out my VHS copy because I used to watch it over and over again.
I only knew Barrymore as an accomplished actress, so it was certainly eye-opening to read about her past exploits. Her father was actor John Drew Barrymore and he struggled with alcoholism, while her mother Jaid was her manager.
The Guardian notes that her parents divorced when she was only 9 years old; after that, Jaid would encourage her daughter’s addictions and take Drew out dancing when she decided to go clubbing with her friends.
Poor Barrymore was admitted into rehab at the tender age of 12, but she relapsed a year later and stayed 18 months in a hospital where she was treated for addiction and alcoholism. Once she was released, she was legally emancipated from her parents at age 14; it was too young to be out on her own, but it was probably better for her considering the fact that they didn’t have a clue as to how to be good parents.
Her comeback started when she was 17, and now at the age of 43, she’s both an accomplished actress AND director.
8. FIST PUMP FOR SNOOKI
I had a love/hate relationship with MTV’s show Jersey Shore. I absolutely despised that stupid reality television series because I thought all of the “stars” were utterly vapid and as an Italian-American, I loathed that they were playing up the stereotype of my people being dumb drunks that liked to fist pump and start fights.
I did love watching the episodes with my mother and my little sister though, because the three of us used to have a FIELD DAY laughing hysterically at their antics and making fun of them.
Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi was always the one I loved to mock the most, especially since her behavior was pretty darn deplorable. Among her constant partying, getting arrested for being totally wasted in public, and the fact that she got punched in the face after telling some fool off (I did feel bad for her in that instance), she was definitely a wild child.
I do respect her for growing out of her party girl ways after she got married to Jionni LaValle and became a mother.
I did hear that with the new Jersey Shore Family Vacation series, MTV tried to play up the drama by releasing a clip where it made Snooki seem like she was worried about her marriage, but I give her kudos for explaining to ET that the scene was filmed when she had a bit too much to drink and she was worrying over stupid stuff, hence why she was rambling about her husband.
9. FROM VAMPIRE TO HUMANITARIAN
I remember when Angelina Jolie was considered EXTREMELY controversial back in the day because she decided to wear a vial of then-husband Billy Bob Thorton’s BLOOD, like she was some sort of vampire from an Anne Rice novel.
Thorton told E!Online that Jolie came up with the idea because the two actors were constantly working and never really had a chance to be with each other; so she thought wearing a little bit of each other’s blood in a flippin’ vial was oh-so-romantic.
(Someone should’ve told her to stop reading so many fantasy books about vampires back then, yeesh.)
Jolie and Thorton divorced back in 2003; she then made headlines after falling in love with Brad Pitt on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which lead to TONS of gossip about the relationship between Jolie, Pitt and Pitt’s ex-wife Jennifer Aniston.
The Guardian notes that she also came under fire in 2017 for how she went about casting the children’s roles for her film First They Killed My Father for allegedly taking away real money from a needy child, although she denied it and affirmed that no one was hurt in the making of the film.
Despite the recent controversy, Jolie managed to clean up her image over the years thanks to becoming a mother and her humanitarian works.
10. ALL HAIL SPACE MOM
Carrie Fisher will live on forever as Princess Leia, but I’ll always love and honor her for being a tireless advocate for mental illness.
Despite the fact that Fisher was born to two famous parents (Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds) and that she achieved fame after starring as Princess Leia Organa in George Lucas’s hit trilogy Star Wars, she’s always been open about her struggles with both mental illness and addiction.
Rolling Stone notes that Fisher was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder when she was in her mid-20's, but it wasn’t until she became sober at the age of 28 that she accepted the diagnosis. She also almost passed away from an overdose at that age, and checked into a 30-day rehabilitation facility, which sparked the inspiration for her first novel Postcards From The Edge.
Fisher also revealed in her memoirs The Princess Diarist that she had a secret relationship with Star Wars co-star Harrison Ford, an admission that certainly made waves amongst fans of Lucas’s beloved film series.
Even though Fisher wasn’t shy about regaling people about her own struggles, many fans (myself included) loved her for it and we were heartbroken when she died. I do take comfort in knowing that her works and advocacy will always live on, since she pretty much inspired an entire generation of girls to stand up for themselves and never be afraid to be weird.