Stars Who Got In Legal Trouble Over Something Stupid
They say no one is above the law. But sometimes celebrities seem to believe that the old axiom doesn't quite apply to them. Here are a few instances where stars had run-ins with the law for some really stupid reasons.
Bai Ling Stole Batteries
Remember Bai Ling? She had a memorable role in The Crow and did a super weird guest spot on Lost back in the day. Maybe we're stretching the credibility of the term star here, but it's worth it when you consider her legal troubles stem from the fact she stole a pack of batteries. Who the hell does that? Back in 2008, Ling was at a gift shop in LAX and apparently neglected to bring her wallet, so she opted to just grab the batteries and a couple of magazines—all worth a whopping $16—and make off with them like a bandit in the night. Unfortunately for her, airport security is there for any situation great or small so she was caught pretty quickly and arrested. Her excuse? A bad breakup before Valentine's Day had messed with her head.
Judge Joe Brown In Contempt
File this one under ironic. Former TV judge Joe Brown apparently still dabbles in practicing law, such as when he showed up in Tennessee to represent a client in a custody case. Once he was in the court he was informed that his case was not on the docket for the day and Brown lost it, calling the court a circus and calling the judge out for not knowing how to run a courtroom. The judge gave brown a few chances to quiet down before finally holding him in contempt and sentencing him to a day in lock up. By the time brown finished ranting he'd racked up a total of five days behind bars.
Matthew McConaughey Got A Naked Bongo Noise Complaint
Matthew McConaughey personifies an odd sort of nonchalant cool many would aspire to. Word is he became an actor simply because he was in a bar when a producer stopped in for a drink. Maybe that's why he's always been a bit left of center when it comes to how he looks at life. In any event, the man likes to play bongos. In 1999, police were called to McConaughey's Austin home on a noise complaint. When they arrived they found the star naked and playing the bongos with a friend. Unsurprisingly. when the house was searched, the cops found marijuana, and Mr. McConaughey was booked. Let that be a lesson to you to keep the bongo noise down.
Winona Ryder Shoplifts
Back in the 1990s, Winona Ryder was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, which is why it perplexed a lot of people when, in 2001, she was arrested for shoplifting about $5,000 worth of loot from Saks Fifth Avenue. Prosecutors at the time decided to really give Ryder the gears, and no plea deal was reached. Instead she was taken to trial on charges of grand theft, shoplifting and vandalism and was sentenced to three years probation, nearly 500 hours community service, a few thousand in fines, and more money in restitution to Saks Fifth Avenue than the stuff she tried to steal was even worth.
Shia Labeouf Heckled Cabaret Performers
These days if Shia Labeouf is in the news, it's generally not for a brilliant acting performance. He's gone from plagiarism to drunkenness to fighting to weird and head-scratching performance art, but one of his most memorable turns was in 2014 when he was arrested at a Broadway performance of Cabaret. In a move that most Broadway actors probably aren't used to, a drunken LaBeouf stood up in the middle of the play, cigarette in his mouth, and began to heckle the actors on stage. Police had to be called and Shia was arrested at intermission.
Jose Canseco Smuggled Fertility Drugs
At one time, Jose Canseco was considered a hell of a ball player. These days he's a bit of a sideshow act, but he's never one to shy away from a crazy story, like this one about the time he was detained at the Mexican border for drug smuggling. Now drug smuggling is a fairly serious deal and probably wouldn't make this list if not for the fact Canseco wasn't smuggling your average, everyday drugs. Canseco was smuggling human chorionic gonadotropin, a fertility drug extracted from pregnant women's urine. Why would a ball player need lady pee drugs? Turns out HCG, as it's known, encourages testosterone production, so people cycling off of steroids can take it instead to boost their own testosterone production when they stop the 'roids. It also requires a prescription and is banned by anti-doping agencies.
Dave Grohl Drunk On A Moped
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl has proven himself time and again to be a pretty cool guy, whether that's just spending time chatting with fans after inviting them on stage, or showing up for spur of the moment concerts. The biggest criticism you could make is that Grohl maybe doesn't always have the best judgment. After a 2000 show in Australia—and a couple of beers—Grohl decided to return to his hotel room on his own, on a moped. Australian cops, however, will stand for no man drinking and driving, no matter how silly his vehicle of choice is. Grohl blow a 0.95 on the breathalyzer, nearly double the limit, and was forced to spend the night in the drunk tank after they removed his shoe laces so he couldn't hurt himself.
Wiz Khalifa Arrested For Hoverboarding
Rapper Wiz Khalifa really doesn't seem to think a lot of airport security. About a year after being arrested on drug charges in an airport, Khalifa was back, this time at LAX, riding a hoverboard (not the cool one from Back to the Future...one of those dumb ones with wheels). For whatever reason, the rapper felt it was his right to ride the hoverboard wherever and whenever he wanted and refused to get off the toy when asked. If you've ever been to an airport you'll know security is not hired for their patience or sense of humor, so this didn't go over well. Khalifa, who posted extensively about it on social media, was taken down by several officers and arrested for refusing to comply with their orders.
Alec Baldwin's Wrong Way Biking
Alec Baldwin's had a history of legal issues over the years, but none are quite as lame as the time he was caught riding his bike the wrong way down Fifth Avenue. Of all the potential ways to run afoul of the police, wrong-way cycling seems like maybe the lamest of all. Nonetheless, cops pulled Baldwin over at ten in the morning one day in 2014 and asked him to produce ID. Naturally, instead of just being amenable, Baldwin started arguing with police and ended up being taken into custody on charges of disorderly conduct and riding the wrong way on a one way street.