Some may see it as intrusive, others as the price of fame, but the world of celebrity scandals clearly sparks curiosity among millions. Maybe it's because some idolize celebrities and find relief in knowing they, too, deal with personal troubles. Or perhaps it's because people feel a sense of familiarity with them—almost like they're friends going through a difficult time.
Many celebrity scandals have been swept under the rug as new ones take over the spotlight. Though social media—and its controversial child, cancel culture—didn't exist when many of the following incidents occurred, they would surely be trending on X if they happened today.
Read on to discover 20 celebrity feuds, arrests, infidelities, and other events that once made jaws drop but have since been largely forgotten.
#1 Neil Patrick Harris And David Burkta’s Amy Winehouse Food Platter
Three months after Amy Winehouse’s tragic passing in 2011, Neil Patrick Harris and his husband, David Burkta, hosted a Halloween party and featured a buffet platter assembled to look like the singer’s corpse.
The How I Met Your Mother actor apologized for the incident in 2022 when photos of the platter resurfaced on social media.
"It was regrettable then, and it remains regrettable now," he told Entertainment Weekly.
“Amy Winehouse was a once-in-a-generation talent, and I'm sorry for any hurt this image caused."
Image credits: Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images
#2 Angelina Jolie Kissing Her Brother On The Lips
Angelina kissed her brother James on the lips after winning her first Oscar for Girl, Interrupted.
"I’m so in love with my brother right now,” she said during her acceptance speech. “He just held me and said he loved me, and I know he’s so happy for me. And, um, thank you for that.”
When asked about the controversial moment during an interview with People, Angelina said, “We’re the best of friends. And it wasn’t some odd open-mouthed kiss. It was disappointing that something so beautiful and pure could be turned into a circus.”
Angelina and her older brother have kissed on other occasions.
Image credits: Ron Galella, Ltd./Getty Images
#3 Ben Affleck’s Slave-Owning Ancestor
Ben asked PBS to remove his relative, Benjamin Cole, from a TV program exploring his family tree. Cole was his great-great-great grandfather, who owned at least least two dozen slaves in the mid 19th century.
“I didn’t want any television show about my family to include a guy who owned slaves,” the Argo star wrote in a Facebook post in 2015. “I was embarrassed. The very thought left a bad taste in my mouth.”
He continued: "We deserve neither credit nor blame for our ancestors and the degree of interest in this story suggests that we are, as a nation, still grappling with the terrible legacy of slavery.”
In 2022, he sparked controversy again when he married Jennifer Lopez at his $8.9 million Georgia mansion, built in 2000 and designed to resemble a southern plantation.
Image credits: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
#4 Alec Baldwin Calling His Daughter A “Little Pig”
In a leaked voicemail, Alec called his 11-year-old daughter, Ireland, a "rude, thoughtless little pig” for not answering his call at the time they had arranged.
Alec made the shocking comments amid his bitter divorce and custody battle with Kim Basinger.
In 2019, Ireland joked about the incident when she took to the stage during her father’s Comedy Central Roast.
“Dad, I’m Ireland,” the model introduced herself to the 30 Rock actor. “I almost didn’t even know about it, because I haven’t checked my voicemails for the last 12 years.
“Mission: Impossible is what I call getting my dad to apologize,” she added.
Image credits: Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images
#5 Orlando Bloom And Justin Bieber’s Feud
In 2014, Justin and Orlando had an altercation when they ran into each other at a restaurant in Ibiza, Spain. The singer reportedly approached the actor, shouting "What's up b*tch?”
Orlando threw a punch at Justin, and then Justin fled the restaurant.
Before the incident, Justin had reportedly gotten close with Orlando’s then-wife, model Miranda Kerr, after the 2012 Victoria’s Secret fashion show.
Following the fight, the Canadian star threw gasoline on the fire by posting, then quickly deleting, a photo of Miranda, as per TMZ.
Image credits: Bruce Glikas/Getty Images
#6 Jon Hamm Assaulting A Student In College
In 1991, the Mad Men actor was charged with assault after participating in a violent group attack at the University of Texas-Austin.
The victim, a Sigma Nu pledge named Mark Allen Sanders, claims that Jon and six other fraternity men beat him, shoved his face in the dirt, lit his pants on fire, and led him around “with the claw of a hammer beneath his genitals.”
The pledge mentioned that Jon participated “till the very end."
The lawsuit was ultimately dropped in 1993.
When Jon addressed the incident during an 2018 interview with Esquire, he referred to it as a “bummer” and said it had been “sensationalized.”
Image credits: Robert Smith/Getty Images
#7 Kristen Stewart Cheating On Robert Pattinson
Few people remember that Kristen Stewart cheated on her Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson with director Rupert Sanders, who was married at the time.
Speaking with Howard Stern, the actress addressed the photos of her kissing the filmmaker, whom she worked with on the 2012 film Snow White and the Huntsman.
"I did not f**k him," she clarified to Howard, adding that when "you make out with a dude in public, it definitely looks like you did.”
Kristen believes the scandal is the reason she wasn’t cast in the Snow White sequel, The Huntsman: Winter's War.
“They didn’t put me in that movie because I went through such a highly publicized scandal, and so they were scared of touching that."
Image credits: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
#8 Mariah Carey's 2001 Public Breakdown
Mariah Carey appeared seemingly unannounced with an ice cream cart on MTV's Total Request Live. To promote her recently released single, she wrote a long t-shirt that said Loverboy.
Host Carson Daly appeared to not know why the star had arrived on set, and exclaimed "What are you doing?" as she took off her t-shirt to reveal gold shorts and a green tank top.
"Mariah Carey is stripping on TRL right now,” Carson declared. "Is it my birthday and I didn't know about it?"
In 2001, the star’s publicist confirmed she had an "emotional and physical breakdown" after her TRL appearance. (Mariah later attributed the stress to her "relentless” schedule.)
The clip recently went viral on social media, with users being confused as to why Mariah was made to look “unhinged.” Some people accused Carson of setting Mariah up and “pretending that she was crashing” when, in reality, her appearance had been scheduled.
Image credits: MTV
#9 Billy Bob Thornton Dumping Laura Dern For Angelina Jolie
Billy Bob Thornton dated Laura Dern in 1999. The actor ghosted her…and married his Pushing Tin co-star, Angelina Jolie.
“I left our home to work on a movie, and while I was away, my boyfriend got married, and I’ve never heard from him again,” Laura said in 2000.
Billy has been married six times, including to the Lara Croft star from 2000 to 2003.
The couple, known for their eccentric displays of affection, wore clear lockets containing a drop of blood from their fingers.
Image credits: Ron Galella, Ltd./Getty Images
#10 Russell Crowe’s Arrest After Assaulting A Hotel Employee
The Hollywood actor was arrested in a SoHo hotel in 2005 after hurling a telephone at a hotel clerk when his call wouldn't get through to his wife in Australia
The criminal complaint stated that Russell "admitted that he picked up the phone and threw it at an informant because he was angry,” as per the New York Times.
He was charged with assault in the second degree. The star pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and avoided serving prison time.
Image credits: George Pimentel/Getty Images
#11 Sandra Bullock’s Cheating Ex
Sandra’s former husband, Jesse James, was exposed as a cheater after she won an Oscar for the 2009 film The Blind Side. Several women came forward at the time, claiming they had had an affair with the entrepreneur.
"Yeah, I did cheat on my wife," Jesse admitted to The Daily Mail in 2017. "I stood up and took accountability for it and apologized. And that's the end of the story.
“I think it was having 50 or 60 or paparazzi outside my house for five or six months,” he recalled. "That was not a good feeling."
Sandra and Jesse started the process of adopting a son, Louis, before the scandal, but she finalized the adoption alone after filing for divorce.
Image credits: Steve Granitz/Getty Images
#12 Jennifer Grey And Matthew Broderick’s Car Crash
In 1987, Jennifer and her then-boyfriend, actor Matthew Broderick, were involved in a car crash in Northern Ireland that killed a mother and daughter.
Matthew, who was at the wheel of a rented BMW, crossed into the wrong lane and collided with a Volvo driven by the two women. He was convicted of careless driving and fined $175.
The crash took place weeks before Jennifer’s iconic film, Dirty Dancing, was released in theaters.
In 2022, the actress described the car accident as the most traumatic experience in her life. “[Matthew] was a great driver, and nobody was drinking. It was just an accident. And it was tragic, and I think about the family in Ireland all the time."
Image credits: Jim Smeal/Getty Images
#13 Johnny Cash Setting A Forest On Fire And Destroying 53 Bird Species
The singer’s camper erupted into flames in 1965 in Los Padres National Forest in California, “destroying foliage on three mountains and roasting, into near extinction, 49 of the area's 53 endangered California condors,” as per LA Weekly.
When a judge questioned Cash, Johnny, he defiantly said, “I didn’t do it, my truck did and it’s dead, so you can’t question it.”
Asked about the loss of part of the region’s fauna, he snapped, “I don’t care about your d*mn yellow buzzards.”
Johnny blamed the incident on sparks from a defective exhaust system on his vehicle. He eventually settled the case for $82,000.
Image credits: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
#14 Kenneth Branagh Cheating On Emma Thompson With Helena Bonham Carter
Dubbed the “golden couple” by the British press, Kenneth and Emma married in 1989 and worked together on several films, including Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing.
In 1995, the pair announced their separation. While they initially cited work schedules as the cause of the split, it was later revealed that Kenneth had an affair with Helena Bonham Carter.
Kenneth and Helena worked together on the 1994 film Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and began dating publicly following his divorce from Thompson.
“I was utterly, utterly blind to the fact that he had relationships with other women on set,” Emma said in 2022.
“What I learned was how easy it is to be blinded by your own desire to deceive yourself.”
Image credits: Ron Galella/Getty Images
#15 Matthew Mcconaughey’s Midnight Bongo Scandal
In 1999, Matthew was arrested and charged with resisting transportation after police officers arrived at his home following a noise complaint.
Looking to unwind, the star had decided to undress, open the windows, and smoke mari*uana.
He began listening to “the beautiful African melodic beats of Henri Dikongué," as he described, and playing along on bongo drums. The time was 2:30 a.m.
“What I didn’t know was that while I was banging away in my bliss, two Austin policemen also thought it was time to barge into my house unannounced, wrestle me to the ground with nightsticks, handcuff me and pin me to the floor.”
The actor would eventually only have to pay a $50 fine.
Image credits: Kypros/Getty Images
#16 Owen Wilson’s Being Absent From His Daughter's Life
Owen’s ex-girlfriend, Varunie Vongsvirates, has claimed that it’s “ironic” that the 56-year-old actor “keeps getting these father roles, he’s playing a father in his new movie, and he’s never met his own daughter.”
An insider told Us Weekly that Owen "does not want to visit and does not want custody of her.”
In addition to Lyla, born in 2018, Owen has two sons: Robert, whom he shares with Jade Duell, and Finn, whom he welcomed with Caroline Lindqvist.
Speaking with Esquire in 2021, he said that he has the boys on a “single-dad schedule”.
Varuine said in 2019 that Owen “helps financially but it’s never been about that,” adding that “Lyla needs a father.” She and Owen reportedly dated for five years before their split.
Image credits: Zak Krill/Getty Images
#17 Vanessa Williams Resigning Her Miss America Title
In 1983, Vanessa became the first African-American to win the Miss America pageant. However, she was forced to resign her title 10 months later after Penthouse published photos of her without her consent that showed her in her birthday suit.
The photographer had promised the then 21-year-old that the pictures would not be published.
Vanessa rebounded from the scandal with a decades-long career in TV, film, and music, receiving multiple Grammy nominations with her albums The Comfort Zone and The Sweetest Days.
In 2016, the beauty pageant offered an apology for the way the organization treated her.
“I want to apologize for anything that was said or done that made you feel any less the Miss America you are and the Miss America you always will be,” expressed Sam Haskell, the former CEO of the Miss America pageant.
Image credits: Yvonne Hemsey/Getty Images
#18 Christian Slater’s Arrest For Harassing A Woman
In 1977, Christian spent 100 days in rehab followed by three months in prison for assaulting his then-girlfriend and a police officer, as per Complex.
He was sentenced to 10 days in prison for driving under the influence and assault in the 1980s. The next decade, he spent 90 days in prison, three months in rehab, and a year in a treatment program for beating his girlfriend.
Finally, in 2005, the actor was arrested for harassment after allegedly grabbing a woman’s behind while he was intoxicated.
When a reporter asked Christian about his conduct in the wake of the Me Too movement, he called him a “salacious c*nt” before adding, “The question of regret is hard for me to reckon with.”
Image credits: Kypros/Getty Images
#19 Jussie Smollett’s Hate Crime Hoax
The 42-year-old actor claimed to be a victim of a hate crime, but police later found he had orchestrated the assault for publicity with two work acquaintances.
Jussie alleged that he was physically attacked outside his apartment and insulted with racial and homophobic slurs.
He was treated at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago on January 29, 2019, and was released "in good condition" later that day.
The Empire star was sentenced to serve 150 days in county jail and two and a half years on probation after being indicted for making false police reports.
He has repeatedly denied making up or staging the attack.
Image credits: Chicago Police Department
#20 Winona Ryder’s Shoplifting Incident
In 2001, Winona was accused of stealing $5,500 worth of designer clothes and accessories from the Beverly Hills Saks Fifth Avenue.
“I didn’t have this tremendous sense of guilt, because I hadn’t hurt anyone,” said the Golden Globe winner, who was convicted of grand theft and shoplifting.
“Had I physically harmed someone or caused harm to a human being, I think it would have been an entirely different experience.”
Winona said the painkillers she was taking at the time left her in a state of confusion.
The Age of Innocence star shared that incident “in a very weird way, was a blessing, because I couldn’t do that [painkillers] anymore.”
After her legal issues were resolved, Winona moved to San Francisco near her parents and began a four-year career hiatus.
Image credits: Steve Grayson/Getty Images
