Celebs Who Can't Stand Bijou Phillips
The following article includes mention of allegations of sexual assault and addiction.
Long known as the other half of disgraced actor Danny Masterson, Bijou Phillips was perhaps always destined to become an agent of provocation. Daughter of The Mamas & the Papas leader, John Phillips, and South African model mother Genevieve Waite, Bijou was essentially left to her own devices at just 14 years old after working as an actor and a model from a young age. She subsequently moved into her own apartment in New York City and reportedly developed addictions to drinking, partying, and various illegal substances, including heroin, within the span of a few years.
Of course, as a Hollywood wild child, Bijou got to make both friends and enemies within the showbiz elite. While former boyfriends like Leonardo DiCaprio and Elijah Wood have kept quiet about their times together with the rebel, many other exes, former friends, and co-stars have called the "Almost Famous" actor out for her behavior over the years. Amidst her divorce from Masterson after he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for sexual assault, all eyes are on Bijou and her troubled past. Here's a look at some famous faces who Bijou has incurred the wrath of.
Daniel Franzese accused Bijou Phillips of body shaming
Bijou Phillips was outed as a real-life mean girl in 2017 when "Mean Girls" star Daniel Franzese accused her of essentially making his life a misery on the shoot of the teen drama, "Bully," 16 years prior. In a damaging Facebook post, the actor alleged that Phillips had not only mocked his sexuality and body-shamed him during filming in 2001 but that she also resorted to physical violence.
Franzese wrote that in one particular scene, Phillips "kept rubbing her dirty feet on my neck. I kept swiveling the chair to move away from her and she kicked me as hard as she could in the back of the head. To this day I'm not even sure if she gave me a concussion because I was light-headed and dizzy for a while." He added that although Phillips did apologize for her behavior, it was only under pressure from her then-boyfriend Nick Stahl and she had proceeded to "[grab his] nipples and [twist]" them after the lackluster apology.
Following the Facebook post, Phillips offered another apology via TMZ, although it's not clear whether Franzese believed this to be any more sincere. She wrote, "I don't remember that time well, those years are a blur. I was a teenager and reckless in my behavior. I know Daniel to be a trustworthy and honest person, and to find out through social media that I was not the friend I thought I was to him made me so sad."
Heather Matarazzo claimed Phillips choked her
Daniel Franzese isn't the only actor who felt the full force of Bijou Phillips's mean girl side. During an episode of her podcast "Shut Up and Listen" with Franzese as a guest, actor Heather Matarazzo revealed that she had also been subjected to similar treatment from Phillips while filming 2007's "Hostel: Part II."
Matarazzo recalled one particular incident during a pre-shoot get-together in Prague in which she was physically assaulted by her co-star: "[Phillips] had thrown me up against a wall and put her hands around my neck and started choking me and choked me for a good 15, 20 seconds." If that wasn't enough, Phillips threatened Matarazzo — who had previously struggled with an addiction to pills — that she would be made to fall off the wagon.
"We'd been offered pills by one of the producers to help us sleep, from the jet lag and the time difference," Matarazzo said. "And I was like, 'No, I don't ... nope.' I kept on getting offered and offered until I was like, 'I'm sober, I don't do that.'" However, instead of supporting this decision, Phillips allegedly told her, "I'm going to make sure you relapse on this film." Matarazzo didn't tell anybody about her castmate's behavior at the time, and unlike Franzese's ordeal, the woman at the center of these allegations has never addressed them publicly.
Phillips reportedly cheated on Sean Lennon
Bijou Phillips was immortalized in musical form in 2006 when ex-boyfriend Sean Lennon delivered his second studio effort, "Friendly Fire." Unfortunately for "The Door in the Floor" actor, the only son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono didn't always paint her in the most positive light.
"The title, 'Friendly Fire,' refers to being betrayed by people on your own team," Lennon told Rolling Stone while promoting the record and accompanying film. But the person felt he most betrayed by was his ex-girlfriend Phillips. That comes as little surprise when you learn that the actor cheated on him with his BFF, Max LeRoy. "The film and CD are not criticisms of their behavior," Lennon explained. "But an investigation into the dynamics and consequences of that sort of love triangle."
Yes, two years earlier, Lennon learned that Phillips had been two-timing him with New York restaurateur Warner LeRoy's son, a longtime pal whom he had grown up with in the same Dakota building where his father was shot outside. An insider told the Daily Mail at the time in 2004, "She's history. He's told Bijou that if she comes anywhere near him she'll be met by armed security guards."
She tried to 'corrupt' Patrick Fugit
Many moviegoers' first introduction to Bijou Phillips was as groupie Estrella Starr in 2000's "Almost Famous." And it seems as though the ex-model used the method acting technique while trying to capture her character's rock and roll spirit. In fact, she spent much of the shoot trying to corrupt the film's young lead.
In a 20th anniversary piece for Vulture, Patrick Fugit revealed: "Bijou Phillips was hell-bent on corrupting me." Referring to one phone call, he recalled how the actor tried to take him for a night out on the town under false pretenses: "I said, 'Mom, Bijou and a couple people are going out. Can I go?' And I didn't really want to go, but I thought, 'My mom will say no for me.' Mom was like, 'Ask Bijou where they're going.' So I said, 'My mom wants to know where we're going.' Bijou was like, 'We're going out for ice cream.' My mom laughed and was like, 'No, tell her you'll see her at set tomorrow.'"
Fugit also remembered an incident in which Phillips offered him a drive to the set on a golf cart, only for to head down Sunset Boulevard instead: "We're in traffic dressed as hippies from the '70s and Bijou is just pulling doughnuts on Sunset and Fairfax. On the radio in the car, they're calling to try to get ahold of me, because somebody saw Bijou drive off with me. Bijou got in some s*** for that one."
Phillips slapped Nicole Lenz
Bijou Phillips's tendency to get violent was further exposed in 2004 when she was accused of instigating a physical altercation with Nicole Lenz. The drama began when the latter, best known as a Playboy Playmate, got into a fight with heiress Casey Johnson at a club in Los Angeles. SFGate reported at the time that Lenz's poor form as a housemate was the catalyst for the argument that Phillips then waded into.
The "Raising Hope" actor was good friends with Johnson and so, according to a witness, "Bijou turned around and b***h-slapped Nicole Lenz and they started brawling and screaming. Security was called to break the two up and Nicole Lenz was kicked out." The matter didn't end there, though.
Lenz went on to sue both Johnson and Phillips to the tune of $1 million, claiming that her hair had also been dragged by the actor before Matthew Perry managed to break things up. According to Page Six (via The Corsair), the lawsuit also alleged that at an event the following day, "Phillips proceeded to yell obscenities at her and loudly called plaintiff a whore, a prostitute, a thief, and other derogatory terms." The Hollywood star and her new arch-nemesis eventually managed to settle things confidentially six months later.
Larry Clark labeled Phillips as difficult to work with
Bijou Phillips appeared determined to cause trouble on the set of the 2001 teen drama, "Bully," having also repeatedly rubbed its director, Larry Clark, the wrong way. And as proven by an interview 15 years later, he certainly hasn't forgotten.
"She was like the Paris Hilton before Paris Hilton," Clark remarked on "The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast" in 2016. "She was a club kid who was 15 years old out there in all the clubs ... And the first time I met her, she came to me in this club and she sat down next to me, put her arm around me, took the cigarette out of my mouth and started smoking it. And she started talking to me, hugging me, and kinda feeling me up. [She] hadn't acted, but that name — because she was in the paper every day for being a club kid and doing nothing — that name got us the money [to get] financed."
Phillips may have helped fund the movie. But as Clark told Dazed in 2017, her acting skills left much to be desired: "She was very, very difficult to work with and direct. I probably spent 90% of the movie directing her. After the film, I said, you know there are going to be lots of directors wanting to hire her, thinking she's this great actor — because of what I did. And then ... you don't see her around anymore, now do you?"
James Toback dubbed Phillips a 'psychopath'
In 1999, Bijou Phillips landed her first notable screen role when she was cast alongside the likes of Robert Downey Jr., Mike Tyson, and Jared Leto as hip-hop fan Charlie in "Black and White." Interestingly, one-time boyfriend Leonardo DiCaprio helped her bag the part after putting in a good word to director James Toback about her crazy real-life personality. And she certainly lived up to her reputation on set.
Indeed, in a chat with Salon, Toback admitted he was taken aback by just how wild the newcomer was: "Bijou Phillips — you never knew what the f*** she would say or do next. There is no line between her unconscious and her articulation of it and her behavior. She is a genuine psychopath."
Toback claimed that such a label wasn't in any way an insult, adding, "If she were just a psychopath, you wouldn't want to use her; you'd just be bored. But she is always kind of amusing and interesting, and if one thing isn't working, she has a good sense of it, and she just starts on something else." But it's debatable whether describing someone as a psychopath could ever be done with affection.
Elijah Blue Allman called Phillips 'three o'clock slop'
Best known as the son of rock icon Gregg Allman and pop diva Cher, Elijah Blue Allman may have an impressive musical pedigree, but the frontman of industrial band, Deadsy, doesn't appear to have learned much in the way of chivalry, gentlemanly conduct, and all-round decent manners. Just ask Bijou Phillips for proof.
While appearing on "The Howard Stern Show" in 2006, Allman essentially described Phillips as someone only good for a booty call, and in the most degrading way possible. Indeed, "three o'clock slop" was the derogatory term the musician used in an interview in which he also insulted the intelligence of another former conquest, Heather Graham.
Speaking to the same shock jock during a later interview, Allman revealed that, unsurprisingly, he hadn't heard from Phillips since his very public diss. But while appearing on Stern's show herself in 2008, "The Wizard of Gore" star described the nepo baby as a "mean person."
Leah Remini criticized all Scientologists after Danny Masterson's case
Although Leah Remini has never specifically called out Bijou Phillips, it's clear from the statement made in the wake of Danny Masterson's rape conviction that she holds all Scientologists accountable for helping him to get away with his crimes for so long. After attending the 30-year sentencing of the "That '70s Show" star, Remini, one of the most outspoken former members of the church, tweeted, "While Danny was the only one sentenced, his conviction and sentence are indictments against Scientology, its operatives, and its criminal leader, David Miscavige ... These women not only faced the living hell of being raped, having their rapes covered up by the very organization that promised to protect them, but they have also faced ruthless and criminal harassment by Scientology and its agents since they came forward to law enforcement."
Remini left the religious organization in 2013 and later filed a lawsuit against its leader, David Miscavige, for emotional distress and harassment. Phillips, who stood by her husband during the initial allegations and the trial itself before announcing she wanted a divorce, is said to have become a Scientologist after she started dating Masterson, whose close family are also members, in 2004.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault or needs help with addiction issues, contact the relevant resources below:
- Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
- Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).