Celebs Who Aren't As Innocent As They Seem
A star's image is everything. It's how they land roles and maintain a certain fan base. Should this image be tarnished, everything is on the line — especially if you work for Nickelodeon or Disney, who has notoriously strict ethics standards (lest us forget the controversy surrounding Miley Cyrus' Vanity Fair photo).
Though the Jonas Brothers managed to shed their promise rings without so much as a dent in their reputations, not every celebrity has been as lucky. Drake Bell is just a shell of his former Nickelodeon image — with DUIs and a litany of sketchy photos floating around the net. On the other hand, Vanessa Hudgens may have actually helped her career by showing us that she's got a bad (see: human) side.
From Emma Roberts, who shocked fans everywhere when she was arrested for domestic violence, to Reese Witherspoon, whose disorderly conduct arrest was a blip that we barely remember, these stars have a hush-hush naughty side hiding underneath their squeaky clean surface.
Emma Roberts is no longer a Nickelodeon star
Emma Roberts' big break was a starring role on Nickelodeon's Unfabulous as the awkward, guitar-wielding pre-teen Addie Singer. Though she's nabbed some notably dark roles in recent years (see: Madison Montgomery in American Horror Story), she's failed to completely shake her girl-next-door image. She is, after all, Julia Roberts' niece, and there are few things more wholesome (and painfully early aughts) than her past pop music career.
Emma ended up shattering the illusion in 2013 when she was arrested for domestic violence. According to TMZ, police responded to reports of a fight between Emma and her American Horror Story co-star-slash-boyfriend Evan Peters. Cops arrived to find Peters "with a bloody nose" and "bite mark," so Emma was cuffed. The pair allegedly both got physical, but only Peters had obvious injuries. Since he didn't press charges, the Nerve star was released hours later.
Maybe American Horror Story's intensely dark themes got the best of Emma or maybe it was just a bad day. We don't really know what went down that led to her arrest. Either way, the girl isn't anywhere near as innocent as she seemed while strumming a six string in her childhood bedroom.
Daniel Radcliffe was drunk on-set
We watched Daniel Radcliffe grow up in the Harry Potter film franchise — from awkward teen wizard to full-fledged movie star. Little did we know that the actor behind the beloved character had demons bigger than Voldemort, and he couldn't just evanesco them away.
In 2010, Radcliffe quit alcohol in fear that he was becoming an alcoholic. Though he claimed he never drank on the set of Harry Potter, he did admit to coming into work still drunk. The star told Heat Magazine (via The Telegraph), that he could pick out the scenes where he was "just gone" and "dead behind the eyes."
"The drinking was unhealthy and damaging to my body and my social life. That's beyond question," he told Shortlist. "I was living in constant fear of who I'd meet, what I might have said to them, what I might have done with them, so I'd stay in my apartment for days and drink alone. I was a recluse at 20. It was pathetic — it wasn't me. I'm a fun, polite person and it turned me into a rude bore."
Radcliffe, who's more recently known for embodying a farting corpse than a boy wizard, might not be as innocent as he was during his early days at Hogwarts, but he did manage to overcome his demons. As for which horcruxes he had to destroy in the process, we're not really certain. Can you even get a DUI on a broomstick?
Reese Witherspoon was a little disorderly
Big Little Lies gave us our first glimpse of Reese Witherspoon as a bad gal. As it turns out, the Sweet Home Alabama star actually had some real-life practice. In 2013, America's sweetheart was thrown in jail for disorderly conduct, and according to The Washington Post, it might have saved her career as she geared up to play the gritty lead in 2014's Wild.
According to CNN, Witherspoon was ultimately cuffed because she tried to interfere with the arrest of her husband James Toth, who was being charged with a DUI. So, what exactly did she do? A wealth of insane things like get out of her car when the officer told her to sit down, claim she was pregnant when she wasn't actually pregnant, tell the officer he was going to be on "national news," and yell proudly that she could get out of her vehicle because she was American and had the right to "stand on American ground." Oh dear. Where is Elle Woods when you need her?
"I think it was a moment where people realized that I wasn't exactly what they thought I was," Witherspoon said of the incident (via The Hollywood Reporter). "I guess maybe we all like to define people by the way the media presents them, and I think that I showed I have a complexity that people didn't know about ... I made a mistake."
Martha Stewart and her white collar crime
Before Donald Trump ever considered pardoning her, and before the homemaking guru began aligning herself with edgy, cannabis aficionados like Snoop Dogg, Martha Stewart was the queen of domesticity. She built an empire of perfectly folded linens and not-too-sweet lemonade recipes after retiring from her life as a stockbroker. Who knew the domestic goddess was basically living in a real-life reenactment of Billions?
In 2003, Stewart shocked housewives everywhere when she was "indicted on criminal charges," according to the New York Times. Most of us somehow remember her insidious actions as insider trading, but according to CNN, she was actually only found guilty of "four counts of obstructing justice and lying to investigators about a well-timed stock sale." So, where does the insider trading come in?
In 2001, the star sold almost 4,000 shares of ImClone Systems stock, but the company was helmed by her friend Samuel Waksal. Stewart mysteriously unloaded the shares the day before the company announced an FDA ruling that caused the stock price to drop. She ended up paying $195,000 to the Securities and Exchange Commission in a civil suit, but her criminal case focused on lying to investigators. She ultimately was sentenced to five months in a minimum security prison. As for her life in prison, Stewart described it on Katie Couric's podcast (via TODAY) as "horrifying." Do they even use fabric softener on prison uniforms?
Pat Sajak got a little tipsy on TV
Wheel of Fortune is arguably one of the most wholesome TV shows around. You spin a wheel, you pick a letter, you guess a phrase. There's not much to it. That very well could be the reason that beloved, longtime host Pat Sajak decided it'd be okay to work while totally blitzed.
In an ESPN interview, Sajak admitted that in the earlier days of Wheel of Fortune, he was sometimes drunk on the show. This was before the series had real stakes. Contestants won fake money that they spent on cheesy prizes (How many hot tubs and jet skis do people need?). Sajak claimed that during this era, he and Vanna White would frequent a Mexican restaurant near NBC's Burbank studio and indulge on some margaritas during their dinner breaks.
"Vanna and I would go across and have two or three or six and then come and do the last shows and have trouble recognizing the alphabet. They're really good tapes to get a hold of," he said.
We suppose that means the wheel was spinning in more ways than one for Sajak, though to be fair, he did claim he would be "hesitant" to drink anything now (he really has grown into a true, wholesome professional). Would it really impact his performance, though? After working his way through 7,000 episodes, we're pretty sure he could host while passed out on the floor.
Welcome to the Taylor Swift is over party
Even though she's the kind of celebrity who crashes fans' weddings and donates thousands to LGBTQ advocacy groups, Taylor Swift sure has a lot of enemies. Before the singer reclaimed the snake upon the release of Reputation, her reputation was nearly destroyed by Kim Kardashian and Calvin Harris, who unearthed a never-before-seen side of the star (from their perspective, at least).
In February 2016, Kanye West released his infamous track "Famous" that contained the lyrics "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that b***h famous." According to BBC, West claimed to have Swift's "blessings," but her representatives insisted she wasn't told about the "b***h" line, and "cautioned [West] about releasing [the] song." Cue: Kim Kardashian swooping in to defend her man. The reality star posted a series of snapchats (via Cosmopolitan) showing a phone call where the "Bad Blood" singer gave the rapper the okay.
Swift's public image took an additional hit later that year when she revealed that she helped ex-boyfriend Calvin Harris write the Rihanna collaboration "This Is What You Came For" under the pen name Nils Sjoberg. According to Rolling Stone, Harris confirmed via Twitter that she helped with the lyrics, but claimed she only took credit because she wanted to "tear her ex bf down" and needed "someone new to try and bury like Katy [Perry]." #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty started trending on Twitter, and snake-era Swift was born.
Tim Allen: to infinity and a prison cell
It's hard to imagine the voice of Buzz Lightyear or the charmingly clumsy host of Tool Time spending a lifetime in jail for trafficking cocaine, but that's a reality Tim Allen almost faced. According to CBS News, the sitcom dad "was arrested at Kalamazoo-Battle Creek International Airport" in 1978 "for possession of over 650 grams of cocaine." The star "pleaded guilty to drug trafficking," gave some names of his fellow dealers, and landed a reduced sentence of three to seven years instead of life. He ended up serving two years and four months.
In an interview with Closer Weekly, Allen opened up about his stay in prison. Without it, he might have never gotten the shake-up he needed to pursue a career in comedy. "It was a watershed moment," he said. "It put me in a position of great humility, and I was able to make amends to friends and family and refocus my life on setting and achieving goals."
In 1991, a decade after his release, the star debuted his sitcom Home Improvement.
Aunt Becky has been busy since Full House
Actress Lori Loughlin, who's starred in such wholesome productions as Full House and more Hallmark movies than a person can feasibly stomach in a lifetime, is looking at some serious jail time — and law enforcement might not have mercy. In March 2019, Loughlin was among the dozens charged in a massive money laundering and fraud-filled college admissions scam in which parents allegedly faked their children's athletic prowess, bribed coaches, and facilitated cheating on their SATs.
According to CNN, Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli (of Target fame) allegedly agreed to pay $500,000 worth of bribes to help their two kids get into the University of Southern California as crew recruits. Neither of the actress' daughters competed in the sport, but Loughlin and Giannulli allegedly faked it by sending in photos of their daughters on a rowing machine. Both parents, who were initially charged with conspiracy to commit fraud, were slapped with an additional charge for money laundering in April 2019 after refusing an initial plea agreement from prosecutors.
We never really expected Aunt Becky to be wrapped up in the largest college admissions scam the justice department has ever dealt with, yet here we are. According to ABC News, both Loughlin and Giannulli pleaded not guilty and face a maximum of 20 years in prison, as of this writing.
Vanessa Hudgens' scandalous oops
Living up to Disney's strict standards is basically impossible, especially if you're a teen coming into your own. Poor Vanessa Hudgens shed her pristine High School Musical image in an instant with a single, raunchy photo leak. Hey, it's the digital age — but this was back when the Internet wasn't so kind about stars being humans.
In 2007, photos of the then 18-year-old star leaked online. Hudgens almost immediately took responsibility (as if it was her fault the hacked, private photos ended up on the Internet) and issued an apology to her fans. According to The Huffington Post, Disney was going to revoke her starring role in High School Musical 3 if she didn't say sorry, and Hudgens cites the moment as a career low years later.
"That was just a really sh***y situation that sucked," she told Paper. "That was by far the worst moment of my career."
Though Hudgens' scandal was indeed embarrassing, it might have actually helped her career like how Reese Witherspoon's arrest catapulted her into grittier roles. Hudgens was able to put Disney in her past, a leap many child stars don't ever manage to make, and dive into the world of indie flicks. Since then, she's played a homeless teen in Gimme Shelter and a bikini-clad bad gal in Spring Breakers.
Hannah Montana's BFF drove drunk
For a time, the most controversial thing about Mitchel Musso was how he'd mix argyle sweaters and pinstripe pants. Seriously, what was Disney thinking? Most of us remember the star as Hannah Montana's BFF Oliver Oken. Unfortunately, Oliver couldn't have the best of both worlds. His squeaky clean Disney image was shattered by his real-life actions. If only he had a blond wig to cover it up.
Following the demise of Hannah Montana, Musso landed a starring role in Disney XD's Pair of Kings. The show garnered two Emmy nominations, but Musso ended up leaving after some controversy. The issue? A DUI, the child star classic. According to TMZ, Musso was arrested in 2011 (the same year Hannah Montana ended) for drunk driving after failing to "slow down for cops who were directing traffic." He reportedly took a breathalyzer that showed he was way over the legal limit for a 21-year-old human being, but the star was still under age, so anything would have gotten him booked. According to E! News, Musso took a plea deal in 2012 and was "sentenced to 36 months of informal probation."
Drake Bell's Nickelodeon days are long gone
Most of us haven't really kept up with Drake & Josh star Drake Bell in recent years, and it's probably for the best. The star's life now will completely shatter your childhood image of the Nickelodeon heartthrob. He isn't anything like his boy-next-door character on the long-running series — he's a total baddie.
According to TMZ, Bell spent "less than two days" in jail in 2016 following a DUI arrest. Of course, the star still managed to have a dreamy, wholesome-looking mugshot, but don't be fooled. This was the actor's second DUI. Yes, he apparently didn't learn when he was charged with the same crime in 2009.
Beyond his DUI arrests, Bell has made some questionable choices in recent years that kind of soured his entire image. In 2015, the star posted — then deleted — an insensitive tweet about Caitlyn Jenner's transition. Fans were outraged. By 2018, he was leaning into his new bad boy image and posed nude for People to promote a racy new music video. More alleged nude photos leaked of the star later that year. Basically, the Drake Bell of our childhood can't come to the phone right now because he's probably busy doing more naked stuff.
Could Constance Wu be a major diva?
Constance Wu made a name for herself as the compassionate matriarch in ABC's Fresh Off the Boat. However, following her breakthrough success with Crazy Rich Asians, it looks like the star's image might not match up with her actual personality. Word on the street is that Wu's a total diva.
In 2019, the star made the ill-advised choice to tweet her reaction to her sitcom not get cancelled. "So upset right now that I'm literally crying. Ugh. F**k," she tweeted, in apparent reference to the news of the renewal. According to The Daily Mail, she even wrote "dislike" in the comments of a post announcing the renewal on the show's official Instagram account. Was she trying to get fired?
Following the backlash, Wu released a statement claiming she was only "temporarily upset" because she "had to give up another project that [she] was really passionate about." It makes sense, but according to The Daily Mail, this behavior is par for Wu's course. An anonymous source who spoke to the tabloid claimed Wu was the "most hated person on set," adding, "She is rude to everybody, but most of all the crew." The star reportedly "won't agree to do anything" like "interviews" or having "visitors on set," and one anonymous source even called her "the new Katherine Heigl," an insult clearly reserved for Hollywood's most egregious divas.