Let’s list all our favorite scandals that wrecked, derailed and otherwise put the kibosh on the careers of famous folks. As a ground rule, let’s rule out unverified gossip & urban legends (Such as Richard Gere’s “gerbil” incident.) And we can career-enhancing scandals (Bill Clinton, for example, saw his popularity soar as a result of his impeachment), or folks who weren’t famous before their scandalous behavior (Joey Buttafucco). Let us focus on those celebrity folks who saw a noticeable decline in their public popularity.
Obviously, the list includes O.J. Simpson & Michael Jackson. Others include -
Martha Stewart: Although it’s still a bit early to see if her career really takes a dive. There are still lots of folks out there who are supporting her by “buying her companies’ products, subscribing to her magazine, and using her services.”
Sinead O’Conner: Ripped up a picture of the pope on live t.v. She said (days after doing it) that it was to protest the catholic church’s practice of protecting priests who sexually abuse children. The interesting thing is that recent events have shown that her accusations were genuine, and yet she’s still remembered as 'that bald b*tch."
Eddie Murphy: Busted for picking up a transvestite hustler. This is debatable on the grounds that his career was pretty much stalled before it happened. But, let’s admit him to the list anyway!
So, what’s your favorite shocking, lurid moment of professional suicide?
Not that he had such a stellar career in the first place but I doubt Pee Wee Herman wants to be remembered for jacking off in a theater…
How about good old Gary Condit? I doubt he’s getting a lot of job offers lately. (For those who don’t remember Gary Condit was a politician who had an affair with an intern… until she disappeared. IIRC, no involvement on his part was discovered but it didn’t do his career any good.)
Pete Rose - The most baffling aspect of this whole sad, sordid affair is that he refuses to do the one thing that’ll almost certainly get him into the Hall of Fame…COME CLEAN! Okay, I think he deserves to go in, and even I can’t explain this.
Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder - Rise from humble beginnings to an improbable success doing something no one ever thought you could actually make a career out of…yes, life is good. How to cap it off? I know, why not blather some ludicrous racist BS with a camera on you, and hope that nobody takes it the wrong way or nothing? Jeez…
MC Hammer - Not exactly a scandal, but ludicrous enough. He became phenomenally popular bringing probably the most widely misunderstood music form to mainstream America, something no previous rapper had even attempted. His career is absolutely on fire. So what does he do? Decide that he’s had enough of mainstream success and make a ridiculous, slipshod break into gangsta rap (which was never more than a passing fad). Came across as yet another thug, gangsta rap fans see him as a poseur…career over. Spending like a drunken sailor for several years certainly didn’t help, either.
Marv Albert - Instead of admitting to the charges and working out a plea bargain, hoes on TV forcefully denying all the allegations of sexual assault against him…then gets convicted. Career never the same afterward.
The saddest thing about these cases is that if they did nothing but look out for number one…if they just selfishly, shamelessly did was was best for them and only them…things would’ve gone far better for everyone involved than they actually did.
Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle: He used to be as famous as Charlie Chaplin, but his scandal ruined his life. Although he was found Not Guilty for the killing and raping of the woman, his career was over. All he wanted to do was to entertain and make people laugh and it was all over that night. The complete story
My impression at the time was that his style of rap was essentially dead, and moving into gangsta was the only way to stay successful. His career would have been finished even if he hadn’t changed styles.
I dunno about this one. Granted, he isn’t as visible as he once was, but he is still doing pretty well for himself. As long as there are animated cartoons with wise-ass sidemen like Mushu (from Mulan) and Donkey (from Shrek 1, 2, 3 …), he’s going to have work.
I think you’d be hard pressed to call Eddie Murphy’s career over when he’s been doing 2-3 big budget films a year for the last six years, and still kept up a respectable pace prior to that. Admittedly, he’s been doing “family friendly” movies for the most part, but I’m sure he’s not eat mac & cheese every night in order to make rent.
Recent news: New Jersey’s current governor. In case you missed the news, he just recently confessed to being gay and having an extramarital affair with another man. Resignation effective November 15. Neither his current or his former wife has any comment. The inspiration for the coming out was apparently threats of a sexual harrassment charge by a man who had (until now inexplicably) been given a high-paying government appointment for which he had no obvious qualifications.
There are so many politicans who had their careers killed, the subcategory merits its own Internet – more than just a website. But here are a couple of my long-time favorites.
Wilbur Mills the extremely powerful Congressman caught drunk and avorting in a fountain with a stripper named Fannie Foxe, “the Argentine firecracker”
Wayne Hays another extremely powerful Congressman found to have put an attractive but vapid “assistant” on his staff. She cheerfully admitted that she didn’t even know how to type.
As for show biz scandals, how about Ingrid Bergman and her affair with the director Roberto Rosselini? It didn’t end her career, but it kept her out of the United States (and American movies) for several years.
I’m wondering if we could include Keanu Reeves here. He was one of the biggest young stars around in the early-mid 90s and was touted as the next big action star. Then he was photographed kissing another man somewhere or other and a ‘scandal’ erupted over his sexual orientation. He basically went from the biggest action star in Hollywood after “Speed” to everything he did tanking for the next 5 years until “The Matrix” picked his career up again. It’s hard to say whether the gay scandal was what caused is career to tank or whether it just happened to coincide with everyone realising that he can’t act at all. I doubt that the world is ready for an openly gay action start just yet.
Jim Bakker. Tammy Faye seems to have rehabilitated herself, but Jim’s career as an evangelist is toast.
Aimee Semple McPherson – top evangelical of the 20s and 30s. She vanished while swimming in California, setting off a national frenzy of speculation. She was found a few weeks later in Arizona, claiming she had been kidnapped. Her story fell apart and it looked that she had spent the time in a hotel in the company of a man who worked for her. She was acquitted, but stopped being a national figure.