Inspired by this thread.
Which celebrities would surprise you if it turned out they were NOT assholes? That is, based exclusively on their public persona; not on personal experience or inside information?
Mine would be David Lee Roth. I don’t know him, but he sure seemed like a schmuck throughout his Van Halen and solo careers. If I found out he was NOT an annoying frat-boy diva, I would be shocked.
Who else appears to be 100% jerkish, strictly based on their public image?
Trump.
Jimmy Kimmel springs to mind.
Lindsay Lohan.
Ted Nugent
Bill O’Reilly
Keith Olbermann (as much as I like him)
Keith Olbermann, Donald Trump, Joan Rivers, Jerry Lewis, Paris Hilton, Jeremy Piven, Bill O’Reilly, Chevy Chase, Mel Gibson, Barbra Streisand, Ashton Kutcher and Madonna.
That was the first dozen who sprang to mind.
I would be floored if Dane Cook turned out not to be a massive douchebag.
Same for Bobby Flay.
You might want to sit down…
Not an asshole, but I’ve heard her nickname so if Helen Hunt isn’t a complete bitch, I’d be very surprised.
Not exactly what you’re looking for but …
In the UK there’s a TV magician called Paul Daniels. For one reason or another, he got a reputation for being a dick. I’m not even sure why, his relationship with his assistant, “the lovely Debbie McGee” coming in for a lot of scorn, but he pretty much disappeared off TV when the mid 90s hit after being ones of the biggest names on TV in the 80s.
Anyway, Louis Theroux started a series of documentaries where he spent a few days with celebrities, living in their homes and just generally hanging out. He did one with Paul Daniels and the UK was stunned to find out that not only was he a likable guy who but he seemed to genuinely love his wife and, well, care.
Not that he’s been back on TV much. But his reputation was massively repaired by people finding out that he wasn’t actually a dick. It surprised a lot of people, me included.
Bill Maher
Dennis Miller
Roseanne
Joan Rivers
Ann Coulter
Newt Gingrich
I know Bobby Flay. He is a chef and some amount of dickery is hard to avoid in that field. I’ve been kind of a dick at work too. Overall though he is a pretty decent guy.
Read the new ESPN tell all book. Olbermann is colossal asshole. While he was respected for his abilities and his intelligence, it was pretty much acknowledged that he was a jerk at the best of times.
I would be surprised if James Franco isn’t every bit the asshole he seems to be.
Russell Crowe
Bam Margera
LeBron James
Terrell Owens
I only know Flay from his cooking shows but he comes across to me as a self-assured but basically OK guy.
Richard Burton. Not the actor (he strikes me as a potential dick, but being an actor I tend to distrust his public persona … could be acting, y’know?) the 19th Century explorer. He was a man of incredible daring and bravery, an outspoken opponent of slavery and a voice for understanding people in the Middle East rather than just ruling them (at a time when the British Empire was in full, arrogant swing) but in person, I’d say he was probably kind of a dick, based on the biography of him I’ve been reading.
Randall and Evi Quaid.
Val Kilmer- his reputation is almost legendary, it’d be a shame if it weren’t deserved.
Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck- all need an ass whoopin’ regardless, but I’d hate to know either is a nice guy.
Ryan O’Neal (mentioned in another thread)- if this guy weren’t rich I think he’d have been locked in a padded room decades ago.
Faye Dunaway- see Val Kilmer, change the gender.
Gore Vidal- many decades ago he went from snob to asshole without curmudgeon in between and now he’s a literary Norma Desmond so the bitterness is in overdrive.
Nancy Grace- the surname is proof God likes irony.
He seems less an asshole to me than perpetually baked and living in what Liz Lemon on 30 Rock terms “The Bubble” (i.e. a sense of entitlement and inflated self esteem that comes from people bowing down because you’re gorgeous).