Celebs With Serious Anger Management Issues
One of the perks of being rich and famous is that you can get away with a lot ... until you can't. Whether caused by alleged prejudices, substance abuse problems, or simple entitlement, Mel Gibson, Courtney Love, and Alec Baldwin are just a few of the stars who've had to undergo anger management counseling with varying degrees of success after getting into trouble with the law.
These famous folks, ranging from Oscar winners, to supermodels, to rock stars, to reality show fixtures, all drove others mad when they got mad. Sometimes their fits of rage resulted in violence, sometimes in property damage, and sometimes in just hellish workplaces for their colleagues (until some of them got fired). Regardless of the degree of severity, it's clear that all of these celebs have serious anger management issues.
And if you feel like you can't control your anger — or if you fear the actions of someone else's rage — you can call SafeHorizon for help 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at 1-800-621-HOPE (4673).
Cardi B's fury can lead to bloody shoes indeed
Cardi B admitted in her feature on Migos' "Drip," "I gotta work on my anger / Might kill a b***h with my fingers." She wasn't kidding: In October 2018, Cardi turned herself in to police and was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment and assault, TMZ reported. The charges stemmed from an alleged incident in August 2018 in which Cardi was accused of ordering a beatdown of two strip club bartenders, one of whom Cardi reportedly believed slept with her husband, rapper Offset. The women denied any affair with Offset and did note that Cardi herself hadn't physically attacked them, but claimed she threatened them on social media. As of this writing, the case is ongoing, and Cardi reportedly rejected a plea deal in April 2019.
In September 2018, Cardi got into an even more infamous scuffle when she threw a shoe at Nicki Minaj at a New York Fashion Week party. TMZ footage reportedly shows Cardi shouting expletives and trying to make her way through a crowd of security and entourage members to get at Minaj. The outlet reported that Cardi approached Minaj's entourage "aggressively," though other sources told the site that she wasn't actually looking for a fight, but snapped after a security guard allegedly elbowed her. Cardi wrote on Instagram after the melee that Minaj had been talking smack about her and trying to sabotage her career, which Minaj later denied on her Queen Radio.
Alec Baldwin still doesn't think he has a problem
Alec Baldwin's temper is the only thing shorter than the lifespan of his MSNBC show. In 1995, Baldwin was placed under a citizen's arrest after he allegedly punched a photographer, per The Los Angeles Times. The paparazzo allegedly argued with Baldwin over snapping his then-wife Kim Basinger and their newborn daughter, Ireland. The photographer accused Baldwin of "possibly breaking" his nose, which Baldwin denied. Baldwin was arrested on suspicion of battery and no charges were filed.
In 2007, in the midst of his nasty custody battle with Basinger, Baldwin left Ireland an infamous voicemail in which he called her a "rude, thoughtless little pig." He issued a public apology, blaming his outburst on "parental alienation."
Baldwin's distaste for paparazzi only grew after his first alleged offense in 1995. He was accused of punching a Daily News photographer in 2012, which he denied. In 2013, he allegedly chased a photographer and called him a homophobic slur (Baldwin denied using the slur). The same year, he called a writer a "toxic little queen" on Twitter, then apologized. He was arrested in 2014 for allegedly berating police officers who ticketed him for biking the wrong way down one-way street. In January 2019, he pleaded guilty to harassment after an alleged altercation over a parking space. He was sentenced to anger management, about which he told Howard Stern, "When you go to anger management, you realize you're not that angry."
Chris Brown's rage has allegedly put women in danger
Chris Brown brutally assaulted Rihanna in 2009. He was sentenced to community service, counseling, and five years of probation for the attack, but his anger issues were far from over. In 2011, Brown reportedly stormed out of Good Morning America and threw a chair threw at his dressing room window after anchor Robin Roberts asked him about the attack on Rihanna. In March 2013, Brown allegedly threatened a valet over a $10 fee. In October 2013, TMZ reported that Brown was arrested for felony assault after allegedly punching a man who photobombed a picture Brown was taking with a fan. He checked into a rehab center for anger management after the incident, but TMZ reported that he got kicked out of the facility after just two weeks because he allegedly went into a "violent rage" and was throwing and breaking items.
Brown's allegedly violent temper didn't tone down. In February 2017, Brown's ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran filed a restraining order against him, alleging that he physically abused her throughout their relationship and threatened to kill her after she broke up with him, TMZ reported. Brown was arrested on battery charges in Tampa, Fla., in April 2017 for allegedly punching a photographer. In June of that year, Tran's restraining order was extended to five years. Sources close to Brown told Billboard that the singer struggled with anger issues and drugs and was violent with his own team.
Naomi Campbell has ugly phone etiquette
Naomi Campbell is almost as famous for her hot temper as she is for her signature strut. In 1998, she was accused of assaulting her assistant with a phone. In 2000, another assistant accused Campbell of assault, but the case was dismissed. An assistant sued Campbell in 2003 for allegedly assaulting her and throwing a phone at her. A housekeeper and an assistant each accused Campbell of assault in 2004. The stunner was accused of assaulting another housekeeper in 2006, The New York Times reported; she later pleaded guilty. Another assistant sued Campbell in 2006 for allegedly assaulting her and hitting her with a phone in 2005. In October 2006, Campbell reportedly spent 10 hours in jail after allegedly assaulting her drug counselor, an allegation her reps denied.
Campbell's alleged rages weren't limited to just her own hired help. In 2008, the Daily News reported that the supermodel was banned from British Airways for allegedly berating flight attendants and spitting at a police officer. Campbell was also accused of attacking model Yvonne Scio in 2005.
Campbell, who once said that her "anger is a manifestation of a deeper issue ... based on insecurity, self-esteem and loneliness," was eventually sentenced to anger management. She told CNN in 2010, "I had to look in the mirror and face [my demons] and until I did there wasn't going to be a change in my life and I didn't want to be the way I was."
Did Russell Crowe take notes from Naomi Campbell?
Russell Crowe was arrested in June 2005 after he allegedly threw a phone at a New York City hotel desk clerk, cutting him under his eye. The New York Times reported that Crowe was frustrated that he couldn't reach his wife in Australia. He apologized for the incident days later on The Late Show With David Letterman (via People), calling it "spectacularly stupid" and "possibly the most shameful situation I've ever gotten myself in in my life."
The phone incident wasn't his first tantrum. E! News reported that in 1999, Crowe got into a fight at a hotel, with footage of the kerfuffle making it to Australian airwaves. In March 2002, Crowe berated a BAFTAs producer after his speech was cut short from the broadcast, but later apologized, according to The Guardian. That November, Crowe reportedly got into a fight with a New Zealand businessman in a restaurant restroom.
In 2004, Crowe got into a scuffle with his own bodyguard, the BBC reported. Crowe admitted he and his muscle, "Spud," got into a "push around" over on-set gossip, but they reconciled afterward. Though he seemingly kept his nose clean for over a decade, in September 2018, the Daily Mail reported that Crowe lashed out on the set of The True History Of The Kelly Gang (2019) because craft services ran out of rice.
Azealia Banks is a biter
One of Azealia Banks' most infamous moments was actually at one of Russell Crowe's dinner parties in October 2016. TMZ reported that the oft-troubled rapper was a guest of rapper RZA and allegedly threatened several guests with violence, at which point Crowe reportedly "grabbed her in a bear hug and carried her out of the suite." Banks alleged that Crowe spit on her and called her a racial slur. RZA later told The Breakfast Club that Crowe did "spit at her," but denied he said anything racist. He also wrote on Facebook that Banks was the instigator and that Crowe was defending other guest from her "obnoxious erratic" behavior. Banks later filed a police report and allegedly started a GoFundMe to sue Crowe, who denied any wrongdoing.
It was far from Banks' only incident. She's spewed so much vile hatred on Twitter that she was suspended after sending Islamaphobic and racist missives to Zayn Malik. Her behavior offline was even worse. In September 2015, Banks was caught on camera lashing out at fellow Delta Airlines passengers and staff. In April 2018, Banks pleaded guilty to biting a security guard's breast in December 2015. During the trial for that case, it was revealed that Banks once slashed her own sister (and outside court, she berated the press). She was later sentenced to anger management, but her sometimes erratic behavior hasn't entirely ceased.
Charlie Sheen's temper isn't a #winning one
Charlie Sheen literally got a show called Anger Management after his bad behavior on the set of Two And A Half Men got him fired, but his off-set behavior was even worse. A quick timeline of Sheen's alleged offenses (via the Daily Beast): In 1994, when Sheen was married to first wife Donna Peele, a UCLA student accused him of hitting her after she refused to sleep with him. Two years later, Sheen was arrested for allegedly beating and threatening Brittany Ashland, who had to get seven stitches after the incident. Sheen pleaded no contest and was sentenced to probation, though he claimed he was defending himself at the time. In 2004, Denise Richards alleged that Sheen had "guns under the coffee table;" in divorce court documents two years later, Richards accused Sheen of threatening her life and got a restraining order against him. His next wife, Brooke Mueller, accused Sheen of threatening her life twice. Sheen denied one incident and pleaded guilty to third degree domestic violence in the other and was sentenced to 30 days in rehab, 30 days of probation and 36 hours of anger management.
Whatever he learned in anger management didn't seem to stick: There was also his 2010 hotel meltdown, his alleged death threats against a former associate, and former fiancee Scottine Ross, the sexual battery and assault lawsuit from a dental technician, and his alleged firing of Selma Blair via abusive texts.
Porsha Williams got help for her hair-pulling
Porsha Williams came clean in a January 2017 episode of The Real Housewives Of Atlanta (via People) that she was being treated for anger management. She brought her sister along as emotional support — with a letter from her therapist — on a group glamping trip with her castmates, who promptly argued with her about her alleged openness regarding the therapy.
Leading up to that, Williams was involved in three separate physical altercations on the Bravo staple (per People): She fought Cynthia Bailey, and scrapped off-camera with her marketing manager, but her most famous fracas was with Kenya Moore. During a 2014 reunion special, Williams dragged Moore to the ground by her hair, ending up with an arrest for battery. Williams later revealed in an on-camera anger management session that she thinks her anger issues stemmed from being bullied relentlessly as a child and as a teen.
On a different reunion special in which she didn't get violent, Williams blamed the reality TV environment, in part, for her struggles with anger. "You get judged, this and that, there's a lot of pressure ... What I went to anger management to learn is how to deal with people who may not respect you, who may even go so far as to spread lies about you."
Sean Penn pummels paparazzi
Sean Penn was sentenced to three years probation and 36 hours of anger management classes in 2010 after an October 2009 scuffle with a photographer. Accused of damaging the photographer's camera and kicking him, Penn pleaded no contest to misdemeanor vandalism and got a battery charge dropped. It was far from his first offense. According to Mirror, Penn served 33 days of a 60 day jail sentence in 1987, after he allegedly punched an extra on the set of Colors. He was also ordered "to undergo at least six months of psychotherapy for his violent behavior."
The Daily Mail reported that after Penn and Madonna's wedding ceremony in 1985, he was so furious at media helicopters overhead that he actually tried to shoot at them, and allegedly pinned one paparazzo to the ground. The tab also claimed Penn hit Madonna with a baseball bat in 1987, and terrorized her after she filed for divorce in December 1989.
However, the Daily Beast reported that Madge actually came forward in Penn's defense in 2015 during a defamation lawsuit Penn filed against director Lee Daniels, who referenced Penn in comparison to convicted domestic abuser Terrence Howard. In her testimony, Madonna stated, "Sean has never struck me, 'tied me up,' or physically assaulted me, and any report to the contrary is completely outrageous, malicious, reckless, and false." Daniels also later apologized for his remarks, and paid a hefty donation to Penn's J/P HRO charity.
Courtney has no love for a certain journalist
In 1992, Vanity Fair writer Lynn Hirschberg reported allegations that Courtney Love used heroin while pregnant with her and Kurt Cobain's daughter, Frances Bean, leading the couple to temporarily lose custody of the little girl. Love later claimed to Entertainment Weekly that Hirschberg was "obsessed" with her, then allegedly threatened to pummel Hirschberg with Quentin Tarantino's Oscar in 1995. She also blamed the writer for her Nirvana frontman husband's death by suicide.
Love's ire wasn't reserved just for the press. In 1995, Bikini Kill singer Kathleen Hanna alleged that Love punched her in the face onstage at Lollapalooza. A decade later, Love was still smack-talking Hanna in an interview with Spin, mocking everything from Hanna's marriage to Beastie Boys member Adam Horovitz, to her feminist activism.
Love was arrested for being under the influence of a controlled substance after she allegedly broke windows in ex-boyfriend Jim Barber's home in October 2003, People reported. Two years prior, she filed a lawsuit against Barber's ex-wife, alleging harassment, according to Rolling Stone. She pleaded no contest in 2005 to assault charges from a 2004 incident in which she allegedly "threw a liquor bottle" at, and "chased" a woman she found sleeping in her ex's home, CBS News reported. The Hole singer was sentenced to three years probation, drug rehabilitation, and anger management classes.
Mel Gibson spews bigoted stuff when he's mad
Mel Gibson was arrested and charged with DUI in summer 2006, but his alleged drunk driving wasn't what made headlines — it was his sexist and especially his anti-Semitic rants at the time, for which he later apologized. To those who'd been paying attention to Gibson through the years, it wasn't exactly shocking: This is the same guy who said he wanted to kill the dog of a critic who dared not worship The Passion Of The Christ (2004).
Still, it was Gibson's treatment of his ex-girlfriend and baby mama Oksana Grigorieva that got really terrifying. Gibson and Grigorieva split in 2010, with the Russian musician accusing him of domestic violence. Audio of Gibson berating Grigorieva hit the Internet, in which he curses at her and uses a slew of racist and misogynist language. Gibson was eventually charged with battery for striking Grigorieva in the mouth and damaging her dental veneers, TMZ reported, but his no contest plea was eventually expunged after he completed three years of probation, 16 hours of community service, and 52 weeks of counseling.
Two years later, screenwriter Joe Eszterhas wrote a lengthy letter obtained by The Wrap describing Gibson's hot temper and alleged anti-Semitism after rejecting Eszterhas' script for a film based on the Maccabees. Eszterhas also released audio of Gibson going on an expletive-filled tirade. The same month, sources told Radar Online that Gibson suffered from severe bipolar disorder, which caused his rage issues.
The Situation knocked himself out
Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino's temper was once a ... situation in itself. During the Jersey Shore cast's trip to Italy in season 4, he got into a screaming match with co-star Ronnie Ortiz-Magro over Ortiz-Magro's relationship drama with Sammi "Sweetheart" Giancola. The fight ended with Sorrentino headbutting a wall and giving himself a concussion. The fist-pumper later told Entertainment Tonight, "I always like to say I have no regrets, but in Italy, somehow, some way, I made a huge miscalculation and I headbutted the wall. It just wasn't a good decision. I would never recommend ... anything like that ever again."
In 2014, the reality star was arrested after getting into a physical altercation with his brother Frank and their mother, the latter of whom actually gave him a black eye, E! News reported. The fight was reportedly over how Frank was supposedly running the brothers' tanning salon business. After the family fracas, Sorrentino was sentenced to 12 weeks of anger management classes. When he completed his courses, he told press, "Any therapy is an improvement."