I think it was pretty much what she didn’t do after her initial claim to fame. 
Back in the day, VH lost me mostly due to Eddie’s crash into alcoholism and asshattery to his wife Valerie Bertinelli. He was an idol to me in my younger teen days, and a lot of VH posters were torn down from my wall in the mid eighties.
Traci Lords made a zillion porno’s before the age of 18 and only 1 afterward. Therefore, the vast majority of her life’s work is impossible (and illegal) to find*.
*I say this never having tried to find an early TL film. I would assume that some of them probably are out there on the web.
Seconded Anne Rice, she went from writing books about beings that want to drink your blood to a single being that wants you to drink his.
Between that (even people who didn’t like the baby arc were mad because they saw it as suffering through a baby plot for no reason) and killing off all three the gunmen he already had fans fuming in the month before the stupid finale.
Yeah, 'cause you couldn’t be a Christian and a Beatles fan, like, say, me. I don’t think Lennon’s comment was either smart or accurate, but that doesn’t matter, because I also don’t think he was trying to make any huge statement; it was just a toss-off line about how popular the band was. A joke, in other words.
And my nominee for the OP would be the Offspring.
RR
Mel Gibson lost many (if not most) of his fans earlier, with the whole Passion of the Christ think. The Sugar Tits (Jews Control the World) episode cost him the remainder.
She personally annoyed me by making one of the “Talk Dirty To Me” sequels unobtainable and I’ve always been quite the fan of John Leslie’s body of work.
Bitch. 
I can’t find it online any more, but I’ve read the transcript of what he said, and in context, he was pretty insulting. This should not be a shock to anyone who’s read the unsanitized histories of the Beatles. Basically, he said, “Christianity will die out, mark my words. I mean, we’re already more popular than Jesus.” Considering his attitude through all the rest of his life, I can’t believe that he meant this in some professorial and dispassionate manner. This is the guy who is reported to have put condoms on crucifixes to irritate the people (Germans?) passing by.
Here’s the relevant part:
“Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first — rock and roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.”
After all this time I finally get why so many people were offended by that quote. The whole thing is pretty offensive. It wouldn’t me, but then I’ve never been particularly churchy.
Speaking of Beatles, I think McCartney alienated his fans when he hooked up with Michael Jackson to create some of the most wretched music ever written.
I agree with Laurell Hamilton. Her novels started out interesting and then devolved into some sort of twisted porn. It was inevitable that her “heroine,” Anita Blake became less sympathetic as she became more involved with the underworld, but there’s nothing redeeming about an angry slut.
I finally get why people could have been offended by that. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the hysteria was aroused by people reading the full quote. (There’s a parallel with the Dutch Mohammed cartoons…)
This is the first time I’ve ever heard the full quote…I’d only heard the version referred to in Cardinal’s link about the Beatles being “bigger than Jesus”.
What didn’t help is that a lot of what she was spewing on the view was 9-11 conspiracy nonsense
Ah, right, I do recall that getting discussed here. It’s sad, really, she used to be so, well… nice.
Speaking of 9-11, Dennis Miller seemed to flip from semi-conservative libertarian to panicked authoritarian following the attacks. Did that cost him much of his fanbase? It certainly lost me.
That’s when I stopped watching Dennis Miller or reading his books. It must have cost him something, since he’s had two shows cancelled since then.
Fiona Apple with the whole “Listen don’t try to be like me because its all a lie” crap at a grammy award or something.
So very enlightened of ya chick, just take your freaking statue and get off the stage.
Oh an Julia Roberts and her “I’ve worked so hard for this Bill Conti so put your little wand down cause mama’s got sumpn to say” crap acceptance speach which she then followed up by attempting to stuff Denzel Washington up her vagina head first as he was getting hsi award.
Oh wait the Halle Berry “I am the first and the door’s been opened” stupidity like she was receiving an award for the underground rail road or something rather than just for playing typical stereoptype of a black crack whore, “way to represent honey”