Fame is precarious: you never know how much of it you are going to have and when it can run out on you. With some people, it can transpire in the blink of an eye.
Practically all people are apt to make important decisions on the spur of the moment. Sometimes we carry them through, but at other times they fall down on us. But when a person is famous, a scandal can go far with them. While some scandals blow over, get erased from the public mind, allowing their creators to regain their former status, there is faux pas that blows reputations into such small pieces that to restore the dignity forfeited is plumb impossible.
As we consider celebrities, we are lured into believing that they are larger than life and hold the world in the palm of their hand. We think we could all hold their positions, which is the summit of aspirations – although we are aware that glory has its side effects. For celebrities, their fame carries a darker side with it. Stress leads to deviations and these can be ruinous for even the brightest career. Besides, there are those who don’t wait for the downfall but jump down from the Gravy Train from sheer exhaustion.
Fame arrives, burgeons, but there’s no guarantee that it will hold. Celebrities are known who have never lost their radiance; meanwhile, others get run over by the wheel of life. No matter how high they can climb, a mere few seconds can bring about complete devastation of their careers. Listed below are some examples of celebs who fell quick and hard.
Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan grew up in the limelight – at three she was already doing model work for Ford Models. Smoothly she slid her way into acting, at 10 she was on the soap opera Another World and then on Disney’s remake of The Parent Trap that created such a stir in 1998. In her teens she rose from heights to heights, appearing in successful movies every year (Freaky Friday in 2003, Mean Girls in 2004, Herbie: Fully Loaded in 2005). And then, in the first half of 2007, it all blew up.
In late May Lohan had a road accident and was subsequently taken to a Beverly Hills hospital. At the time she had just been out of a Los Angeles rehabilitation center where she checked for unknown reasons. A pretty good guess of the reasons can be made since it turned out to be a clear case of DUI and ensuing misdemeanor hit-and-run. As if it wasn’t enough, she allowed for a further compromise of the same nature to occur within two months having undergone another rehab stint that apparently did her no good at all.
Her poor state was immediately evident as she started receiving Golden Raspberries for worst acting. Her next movie I Know Who Killed Me brought as many as eight of them as proved to be a box-office bomb. Lohan’s performance of two main parts in the film was called a “career nadir.”
Amanda Bynes
Another prominent child star, Amanda Bynes seemed to be firm on her way up. Yet the success of The Amanda Show and She’s The Man was soon overcast by her growing addiction to alcohol and substances. OK, people live with that, but following her arrest, she seemed to have gone crazy on Twitter, and that proved to be her undoing.
In the compilation of her Twitter messages made by E! Online in 2012, there were statements aimed at rapper Drake (which he chose to turn his back on) and Rihanna. Miley Cyrus and Jay-Z were called downright “ugly,” and then she herself was proclaimed to be the same. Besides those outbreaks, she is believed to have caused a fire in a stranger’s driveway. All these frolics earned her a suspicion of having mental issues, a mental-health evaluation hold and a hiatus that went on and on. Bynes did try to get control of her life again as she entered the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Irvine. According to her, she felt acting wasn’t really her cup of tea, and she certainly slipped at it. Nevertheless, lately, she has been speaking of a comeback to be attempted soon.
Brendan Fraser
People can still be heard wondering why Brendan Fraser doesn’t appear in movies any longer. The American-Canadian actor who showed his prowess in drama, fantasy and comedies, got himself remembered for his portrayal of adventurer Rick O’Connell in the action fantasy movie The Mummy in 1999. By the third part of the trilogy (2008) The Mummy’s charms had petered out, which couldn’t be said about Fraser who had already appeared in another hit movie. 2008’s 3-D science fantasy movie Journey to the Center of the Earth featuring Fraser brought four times its $60 million budget. The actor was clearly getting a bright spot on the map.
It was at this moment that Fraser made his gross mistake through declining to participate in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island however logical it may have seemed at the time. Probably he was too exhilarated by his performance in other movies of the time (like Extraordinary Measures and Furry Vengeance) to be really interested and was replaced by Dwayne Johnson. How he must have regretted his decision when the sequel of The Journey proved to be even more successful than the beginning, exceeding its budget by five. You can’t do well without the ability to choose a good part – which Fraser learned through experience.
Wesley Snipes
Martial artist Wesley Snipes earned recognition owing to his appearance in Demolition Man, White Men Can’t Jump, Mo’ Better Blues, and playing Blade in the famous film trilogy. He was getting on fast when he got on the wrong side of the tax people. What’s more, it was not a simple case of neglecting your tax duties – that could have been settled by paying a fine for which he just had to appear in another blockbuster. No, Snipes’ position was so critical that he found himself in jail. The actor had omitted to file taxes for three years and was sentenced to so many years – that’s beside having to stump up $17 million of taxes and fines. Unfortunately for him, jail is not a place where one can get busy working on the next Blade movie. The offense cost him his career, and, things going from bad to worse, Snipes appears to have gotten slower than he was when his star was on the ascendant. That’s what comes from trying to get one (or three) over tax people – you lose the good impetus.
Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson knows from firsthand experience what it is to have your career interrupted roughly. He had it back in 2006 when he was detained by the County Sheriff’s Department (Los Angeles). He was charged with driving while holding a container of hard drink, and he succeeded in blowing this incident out of proportion. He tried to evade arrest and drive away, but the police wouldn’t let him to and got the cuffs on him. That seemed to have triggered Gibson off, and he started to explain to the arresting officer what he was going to do. These indiscretions are what he must have been regretting ever since.
The Australian-American actor claimed he actually owned Malibu and that he would use all his sway and money on taking vengeance on the officer. He finished with offensive remarks about Jews (the officer turned out to be a Jew). Later he acknowledged his transgressions and offered apologies for his behavior. Nevertheless, he was blacklisted for a decade.
Getting over his disgrace, the actor is getting his comeback into shape. First, he was extolled by critics for his thriller Blood Father and then returned as a director with the war drama Hacksaw Ridge which made it into top ten Movies of the Year as chosen by the American Film Institute and received a number of various awards and nominations.
Kendall Jenner
The “Instagirl” Kendall Jenner is known for her impressive modeling career, a popular fashion line and being in the top list of most followed celebs on Instagram. What she did to mar all that was participating in an ill-fated Pepsi commercial – you must know which, the one where her character joins a protesting crowd and then gives a police officer a can of Pepsi from which he quenches his thirst. The commercial gave rise to a tornado of criticism for being totally untrue to the reality of the issues involved. Pepsi had to pull the video, and Jenner hastened to remove all mentions of Pepsi from her Internet resources.
She can be heard commenting on the incident in one of the Keeping Up With The Kardashians episodes. According to Jenner, she never realized anything was wrong until she heard people discussing the video. Then she was aghast and “completely shut down.” She said she wanted to “bounce back from it” but she had no idea how to. To add to her concern, Caitlyn made it known that she had been shown the script well in advance. Well, this is the way the cookie crumbles. Now Jenner has to do things to restore her reputation.
Charlie Sheen
Charlie Sheen is known for his rough-diamond humor that got him in movies and shows as a character who doesn’t really want to spoil the party but isn’t just up to the mark. His earlier roles included the hilarious Charlie Sheen as he appeared in The Three Musketeers, but it was his performance in Two and a Half Men that earned him the country’s reputation.
As he added pleasure to the show for seasons depicting the musician Charlie Harper, brother to Alan Harper (played by John Cryer) whose good intentions generally prove his undoing. Maybe there was a lot of Charlie Sheen in Charlie Harper because he set about ruining his reputation through outlandish videos and attempts to come across as a wizard, wielding a samurai sword, which he was seemingly meaning to use against his superiors.
Now Sheen is trying hard to bring himself up to his mark, including his appearance in a car commercial where he makes fun of his house arrest. But he still has a long way to go before he regains the height he has fallen from.
Justin Bieber
When Justin Bieber got round to making a sequel to Never Say Never, it proved to be a great flop. Dubbed Justin Bieber’s Believe, it grossed a dismal sum and was panned by many critics. It is widely suggested that the reason for it is that fans begin to stay away because of Bieber’s behavior lately. He has been showing his spoiled child side and making everyone think that fame went to his head. The Love Yourself singer might find himself on the verge of losing his reputation irrevocably if he keeps with his pranks.
Actually, the hit maker’s behavior including his 2014 arrest for driving under influence is nothing unheard-of in the music industry, but it went so much counter the public image that he managed to shock parents and turn away teen girls. His jail picture displayed an expression that told the world of his total refusal to accept the situation properly. No wonder the army of “beliebers” is diminishing as Bieber doesn’t seem to mind collecting negative publicity. He appears to amuse himself by assaulting paparazzi, indulging in vandalism and hurling eggs at people’s houses.
Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods used to be golf’s driving power; with his mellow attitude and spectacular performance he attracted to golf many new viewers among those who believed golf to be something dull and uninteresting. His fame grew, but so did his love affairs. Finally, his extramarital life got so active that it toppled his career, sending Woods firmly into the file tagged “Past heroes.”
As soon as his far-from-discreet behavior was publicly admitted, many women turned up with stories of sexual relations with the famous golfer. Woods had to retire in order to maintain his marriage. Naturally enough it impaired his performing ability and the public began to lose interest. Woods had put himself across as a model family man who stayed above the temptations strewn around celebrities. It all came into the limelight following Woods’ driving into a fire hydrant in his SUV. According to him, his wife Elin Nordegren helped him get out of the car. But his followers speculated whether Elin, aware of Tiger’s problems, decided to teach him a lesson by causing the accident.
Britney Spears
The pop star actually showered her fans and the public in general with various misbehaviors starting from shaving off her hair and fighting the paparazzi off with her umbrella to losing custody of her kids. She ended up in taking a break in a psychiatric facility. Spears started off at an early age in Disney productions and appeared in The Mickey Mouse Club in a glorious company including Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake: a typical instance of a child star who just didn’t have it in her to withstand the pressure.
Having gained a name with Disney, Spears decided to conquer the stage – and succeeded, releasing her first hit Baby One More Time and then waking up a global star. Dressed like a schoolgirl, the 16-year-old made her statement a bit too early to be comfortable in the part. From then on she was subjected to media scrutiny, and the pressure kept growing. Driven to distraction, Spears thought of nothing better than locking her home against her estranged husband who was to take their children away. The police had to intervene to help husband Kevin Federline take care of the kids while the pop diva was found to be heavily under the influence. The paparazzi got her photographed lying down before she was transported to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Thus Spears yielded to destructive behavior that is the bane and undoing of many an early starter.
