# Career-killing SCANDALS!!!! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 3, 2004, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/career-killing-scandals/263007 "2004-09-03T19:44:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/career-killing-scandals/263007/21 "2004-09-04T00:20:10Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > **Jim Bakker**. Tammy Faye seems to have rehabilitated herself, but Jim’s career as an evangelist is toast. Jim has a new show: [http://www.jimbakker.tv/](http://www.jimbakker.tv/) Tammy has inoperable lung cancer. Years ago, a lot of my family worked for PTL, and Tammy visited my uncle quite frequently when he was dying of cancer. Nobody talks about Jim anymore, but Tammy is still remembered fondly for her kindness. ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/career-killing-scandals/263007/22 "2004-09-04T01:12:49Z")
Let us remember **Jimmy Swaggart** , who ministered to fallen angels in Louisiana motel rooms until he was found out. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/career-killing-scandals/263007/23 "2004-09-04T01:26:34Z")
Does **Milli Vanilli** count? Ooooh, how about Pee Wee Herman? Got caught exposing himself at a porno theater, no more Pee Wee’s Playhouse (which was a damn cool show) ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/career-killing-scandals/263007/24 "2004-09-04T01:33:29Z")
> [@](#): > > Does Milli Vanilli count? Does it ever. Milli Vanilli is probably the best example given so far. How could I have forgotten them so fast. And Betty Boop form the same era. ---
**Author:** ![NoPretentiousCodename](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/82dd89/32.png) [@NoPretentiousCodename](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoPretentiousCodename)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/career-killing-scandals/263007/25 "2004-09-04T05:39:14Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > 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 have heard the opinion that Hammer’s selling out was what cost him his credibility. He did some huge pepsi thing, the Addams Family rap, and lost his “street cred”. Thus began the fall of the house of hammer… (and probably that style of rap as well). * * * Tanya Harding’s career, such as it was, seemed to vanish in the wake of the olympic scandal. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/career-killing-scandals/263007/26 "2004-09-04T06:42:11Z")
> [@DKW](#): > > 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. Where have you been? He came clean in a new biography within the last year or so. It didn’t help him because it was _completely transparent_ that he was just doing it to sell books and get himself into the Hall. (Let’s not forget that in his previous biography, he denied everything.) It was a cynical move by an egotistical jerk. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/career-killing-scandals/263007/27 "2004-09-04T07:10:07Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > 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. Were there actually photos? I remember the gossip floating around eight or nine years ago, but it seemed to be typical urban legend stuff like “My sister’s friend saw him on some talk show and he said he was gay.” Like you’d have to hear about it from your sister’s friend if a big movie star really came out on national television. I think there are still “Keanu is gay” rumors floating around, and for all I know he actually _is_ gay, but I don’t remember there being any actual scandal…just unsubstantiated gossip. And either way, I don’t think it did his career a bit of harm. Despite my personal vow to avoid all of his movies, he continued to be cast in one big-budget Hollywood movie after another. **Johnny Mnemonic** was a flop, and from what I hear deservedly so, but I think **A Walk in the Clouds** was fairly successful. _Un_deservedly so (that may have been the movie that finally inspired my vow), but success is success. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/career-killing-scandals/263007/28 "2004-09-04T07:22:16Z")
Well I have to admit I never saw the photos myself, but I did see their existence confirmed in several otherwise reliable places. And then there was that whole rumour that he had married some man somewhere, but that apparently had even less basis. I know that he was in a few big budget movies following the scandal but as I said, they all tanked. Even something like “Chain Reaction that wasn’t nearly so bad as Speed. That’s odd when Speed co-star Sandra Bullock was making hit after hit. I don’t think you could call “A Walk in the Clouds” successful. I doubt if it even made the money back. As for whether he is gay, I really couldn’t care less, but the image required for an action star has usually been “the women want to be with him and the men want to be him”. That’s pretty hard to pull off when you are openly homosexual. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/career-killing-scandals/263007/29 "2004-09-04T07:48:06Z")
The photos exist and are related to a play he was in back in Toronto (_Wolfboy_, small non-kiss photo at the bottom of this [page](http://www.reevesdrive.com/newsarchive/1995/ppl9506.htm)). The photos surfaced around 1990. A few years after that the “he married David Geffen” rumor started. Given that Reeves has appeared in over 25 movies in the time since the rumors started, I don’t think this can be counted as a career-killer, or even something that had any impact on his career at all. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/career-killing-scandals/263007/30 "2004-09-04T07:50:36Z")
[Keanu plays kissy-face](http://www.keanu.ru/actor/stage/images/wolcov_.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/career-killing-scandals/263007/31 "2004-09-04T15:11:13Z")
GW Bush, for invading Iraq over non-existent WMDs. (A man can dream…) ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/career-killing-scandals/263007/32 "2004-09-04T15:22:48Z")
Newt Gingrich- went from Speaker of the House to occasional news-channel policy analyst by adulterously ending second marriage in the wake of his pursuit to impeach Clinton. If it wasn’t for that, he could well be on his way to the Republican Presidential nomination for 2008. ---
**Author:** ![Nightwatch\_Trailer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9dc877/32.png) [@Nightwatch\_Trailer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightwatch_Trailer)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/career-killing-scandals/263007/33 "2004-09-04T16:02:37Z")
Of course, word in the papers is that Keanu’s getting [married](http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=keanu&btnG=Search+News) (to a female). ---
**Author:** ![Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krisfer_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/career-killing-scandals/263007/34 "2004-09-04T16:08:12Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > “the women want to be with him and the men want to be him”. That’s pretty hard to pull off when you are openly homosexual. Thats what being an actor is all about… Now then how about **Jerry Lee Lewis** as I recall he pretty much tanked when his underaged wife finally admitted to being his wife not his cousin(?). For awhile there it looked like **HUgh Grant** was on his way back to reperatory theater but he seems to have worked that out a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/career-killing-scandals/263007/35 "2004-09-04T16:44:36Z")
**Woody Allen**. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/career-killing-scandals/263007/36 "2004-09-04T17:32:02Z")
Let’s look at the semi-monde of disgraced cartoonists. **Percy Crosby** wrote and drew _Skippy,_ the most beloved strip of its day (and the subject of a [movie starring Jackie Cooper](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022397/) ). Flush with professional success and too much alcohol, the man started to get extremely wiggy in the early 1930s. He bouht full-page ad space in newspapers for his scattershot political rants, accusing Franklin Roosevelt of being a Communist, J. Edgar Hoover of exceeding his mandate and the Ku Klux Clan of evil bigotry (Okay, hard to dispute at least the last two of those, but most other cartoonists of the Depression era kept a much lower public profile). Eventually, his paranoid politics crept into his strip, which was cancelled in December 1945. He spent his final years suing a peanut butter company for trademark infringement (The suit, concluded last year 43 years after Crosby’s death, eventually favored the peanut butter company; Crosby’s heirs are reportedly considering an appea). He died in 1961. **Ham Fisher** created _Joe Palooka_, the archetypal Prizefighter with a Heart of Gold and the top sports-themed comic strip of all time. The strip was launched in 1930, peaked in popularity during the war (Joe Palooka enlisted in the army, which was great PR for the War Department) and remained a top draw trough Fisher’s death in 1955; subsequent versions of the strip crept along until 1984. And yet, a mere two years into the strip’s development, events were set in motion that discredited Fisher among his peers and culminated in his suicide. Fisher, you see, could neither write nor draw a comic strip and relied heavily on his assistants to produce the strip while he gallavanted around New York’s posh watering holes and the sights of Europe. One early assistant was Al Capp. During Capp’s time on the strip, a rival boxer named Big Leviticus was introduced into the strip. Whether this hillbilly boxer was Capp’s invention or Fisher’s was a matter of some contention, but Capp wanted to galavant around to watering holes himself for a change instead of doing grunt work for someone else. He took his hillbilly, renamed him _Li’l Abner,_ and created an even more stratospherically popular strip around him, cutting Fisher out of the equation. This started a long and bitter feud between the two cartoonists. Fisher went before the National Cartoonists’ Society (Not sure what year, but since Mort Walker was president at the time, I’d guess around 1953) and demanded that Al Capp’s membership be terminated. Fisher brought with him some obviously trumped-up and falsified evidence of sexual imagery barely hidden in the artwork of _Li’l Abner_. The National Cartoonists’ Society decided that Ham Fisher was a disgrace even by their lax standards and kicked him out. He fell into a miasma of alcohol and paranoia, drove away his assistants and found himself suddenly unable to produce a strip. When his most reliable former assistant, Moe Leff, refused to come back to him, he killed himself. **Al Capp** may have been the best artist ever on a humorous comic strip (although like his embittered mentor, he sometimes over-relied on assistants, most notably one Frank Frazetta). For the first 25-30 years of his long-running strip, _Li’l Abner_, he wrote from the position of populist everyman; from the mid-60s on, he morphed into the role of cranky right-wing asshole (A famous confrontation with John Lennon is archived in the film _John Lennon: Imagine_; incredibly, Lennon comes off as an even bigger asshole). Still, he was generally respected as a craftsman among his peers until an ill-advised affair with a college girl brought him down in 1977; he quit the strip and died two years later. **Berke Breathed** , cartoonist of _Bloom County_ and its two spinoff strips, _Outland_ and _Opus_, began his career as a painfully-obvious tracer of Garry Trudeau. While he eventually found his own voice, he was held back for years by the “derivative” label (_The Comics Journal_’s reviewer R. Fiore famously said that “Calling Berke Breathed a master stylist is like complimenting a shoplifter for being a snappy dresser”). Later in his career, he nominated himself for a Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning, and won, despite the fact that he wasn’t, by most people’s reckoning, an editorial cartoonist. This earned him the enmity of Pat Oliphant, but otherwise had no effect on his career for good or ill. **Greg Brooks** , artist of the retro-styled _Crimson Avenger_ comic book for DC Comics in the mid-80s, killed his girlfriend with a ball-peen hammer. Presumably still in prison, he hasn’ been heard from since. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/career-killing-scandals/263007/37 "2004-09-04T19:30:17Z")
Why Richard Nixon screwed up on this I’ll never know. He was elected in a landslide, so why did he need “CREEP”? And, after the scandal erupted, how comme he never made a public speeche, apologized, and fired the miscreants? The public would have forgotten the whole thing in 15 minutes! ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/career-killing-scandals/263007/38 "2004-09-04T19:56:42Z")
> [@Krisfer the Cat](#): > > Now then how about **Jerry Lee Lewis** as I recall he pretty much tanked when his underaged wife finally admitted to being his wife not his cousin(?). Shw was his wife _and_ his cousin, I thought. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/career-killing-scandals/263007/39 "2004-09-04T20:30:31Z")
**Erroll Flynn:** Career tanked after his statutory-rape trial, even though he was acquitted. **Charlie Chaplin:** Lost a paternity suit in 1945 (even though blood tests showed he was not the child’s father). Authorities may have seized on this to bar him from re-entering the U.S. while he was in Switzerland in 1952 (he was also accused of Communist sympathies). His career never recovered. > [@MLS](#): > > 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. And don’t forget **Congressman Ed Schrock (R.-Va.),** a far-right social conservative, who opposed Clinton’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays in the military and supported the anti-gay-marriage amendment. He just announced his retirement after gay activist Michael Rogers outed him as gay on his website [http://www.blogactive.com/](http://www.blogactive.com/). We’ve been discussing this case in a GD thread: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=274200](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=274200) Meanwhile, Rogers announces he will be outing even more “gay homophobes” in Congress and in the Bush Admin. 😃 BTW, is Tom Cruise gay or not? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/career-killing-scandals/263007/40 "2004-09-04T20:34:13Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > **Berke Breathed** , cartoonist of _Bloom County_ and its two spinoff strips, _Outland_ and _Opus_, began his career as a painfully-obvious tracer of Garry Trudeau. While he eventually found his own voice, he was held back for years by the “derivative” label (_The Comics Journal_’s reviewer R. Fiore famously said that “Calling Berke Breathed a master stylist is like complimenting a shoplifter for being a snappy dresser”). > > Later in his career, he nominated himself for a Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning, and won, despite the fact that he wasn’t, by most people’s reckoning, an editorial cartoonist. This earned him the enmity of Pat Oliphant, but otherwise had no effect on his career for good or ill. That’s an uninspiring career arc, perhaps, but I don’t see any actual scandals in it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/career-killing-scandals/263007.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/career-killing-scandals/263007.md?page=3)