Celebs Who Had Blowout Fights In Public
We've all been there: you're minding your own business in a public place — be it a restaurant or a bustling party — and a fight breaks out. The ensuing drama causes many an eye roll, and is usually dismissed as the antics of unsociable ruffians. However, when a renowned celebrity is revealed to be the culprit of said scuffle, we recoil in horror at their outlandish behavior.
We often hold public figures to a higher standard than our peers. Many stars are viewed as role models, people to be idolized; subsequently, fans emulate their fave celebs, buy their merchandise, and have set expectations when it comes to their public conduct. While it's certainly the case that some A-listers are renowned for their aggressive and violent tendencies, it can come as a shock when good boys and girls turn bad.
It turns out that celebs are only human, too, and thus aren't immune to partaking in the occasional public quarrel. But violence is not the answer to any conflict, and these stars learnt that the hard way. A public fight can really hit a celeb where it hurts; contracts are annulled, sponsorships disappear, and they soon fall out of favor with fans — all for the sake of a private vendetta. They might be stars, but one day they could be looking in the gutter. We're pulling no punches when giving the lowdown on celebs who had blowout fights in public.
The Slap: Will Smith and Chris Rock edition
Of all the scandals that have rocked Hollywood over the years, it's hard to believe that Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars has been treated as the most heinous event that ever befell the industry. Yet, it's the incident on everyone's tongues.
It all started when Rock took the stage to present the award for Best Documentary Feature. The comedian made a bizarre joke about "G.I. Jane," a movie that's older than the funnyman's children, telling the bald Jada Pinkett that he's really looking forward to the sequel. Smith retaliated by walking up on stage and giving the comedian an almighty slap. As many have pointed out, Rock has apparently long had beef with the Smiths. For instance, when he hosted the Oscars in 2016, he likened Pinkett boycotting the ceremony to himself "boycotting Rihanna's panties," per ET.
Anyone and everyone shared their two cents on the matter. Comedians warned against the dangers of stifling free speech in stand-up comedy, with Bill Maher telling TMZ that the incident was "cancel culture encapsulated." Others defended Smith, arguing that they would do the same if confronted with a man ridiculing their partner (British Conservative politician Simon Hoare tweeted that he would "lamp" Rock if he offended his wife). Meanwhile, when it was announced that Smith would resign from the Academy following the slap, some accused the industry of hypocrisy, since that same institution allowed convicted pedophile Roman Polanski and sex offender Harvey Weinstein to keep their Academy Awards.
Paris Hilton claims Shanna Moakler attacked her in a nightclub
Back in the mid 2000s, Paris Hilton, who was hot off the success of "The Simple Life," was feuding with fellow reality star Shanna Moakler. According to reports, Moakler was irate after discovering that the father of her kids, Blink 182's Travis Barker, was locking lips with Hilton. Subsequently, Moakler lamented that she felt "betrayed" by Hilton and her former beau.
The conflict between the two stars erupted in a violent brawl at Hyde Lounge in 2006. As reported by People, Hilton was vibing at the swanky venue with her billionaire guy pals Paris Latsis and Stavros Niarchos, while Moakler was chilling with Cheryl Burke. Once the two stars set their eyes on each other, however, a quarrel ensued. Onlookers recalled the moment in which the pair's beef turned ugly, with some claiming it was Hilton's ex, Niarchos, who initiated the conflict. "You could hear a collective gasp around the place — Stavros had an empty cocktail glass in his hand and Shanna was standing there wet," a club goer recalled.
Meanwhile, Hilton had a very different recollection of the events, alleging that Moakler assaulted her. Per Today, the socialite claimed that Moakler threw expletives at her and then punched her in the jaw. Both parties filed police reports following the heated confrontation, though it seems that nothing ever materialized out of this brutal moment straight out of "The Real Housewives."
Jim Everett didn't hold back against Jim Rome's jibes
NFL quarterback Jim Everett had grown accustomed to talk show host Jim Rome trolling him, but things reached boiling point in 1994. Everett appeared on Rome's show, "Talk2," where the host repeatedly called the quarterback "Chris," in reference to female tennis star Chris Evert. Everett reminded Rome that he'd been calling him "Chris" for years, apparently as a means of questioning the footballer's prowess on the field. Explaining the rationale behind the name switch, Rome claimed that Everett's career had faltered and he "ceased being Jim and... became Chris."
Accordingly, Everett gave the host a firm warning, cautioning that he would be in big trouble if he taunted him one more time. But Rome was unrelenting in his antagonism, maintaining a Cheshire Cat grin, before he uttered the dreaded moniker again. Thereafter, Everett slammed the table over and began beating up a startled Rome.
ESPN, "Talk2's" network, condemned Rome, claiming that the fight was inevitable considering the host's tactics, per the The Washington Post. Meanwhile, Everett apologized for his outburst, but said he had no regrets. "I really don't condone my actions, but I was put in a position that I thought was going to be in a journalistic-type interview and, instead, I was put into what I felt was a taunting attack," he said. "I don't regret what I did." Years later, Rome appeared repentant in an interview with Beaver County Times, lamenting that his antagonism got in the way of conducting an important interview.
A VMAs bust-up for Kid Rock and Tommy Lee
Pamela Anderson hasn't been the luckiest in love, and her quarreling ex-husbands are testament to what the "Baywatch" beauty has had to put up with throughout the years. Famously, she was married to Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, who horribly abused her. Then, she set her sights on another musician, 2000s rap-rocker Kid Rock. The Detroit cowboy similarly mistreated Anderson, reportedly becoming violently jealous due to her rib-tickling appearance in "Borat." So, when Rock and Lee met at the VMAs in 2007, tensions were high.
At the time, Rock and Anderson called it quits after a brief marriage and Lee took the divorce as an opportunity to apparently send Rock offensive messages, per The Sun (via The Guardian). As reported by Today, this culminated in Rock assaulting Lee at the awards ceremony, with one onlooker claiming that Lee antagonized the rapper before the argument came to blows. "I never hit nobody for nothing before," Rock reasoned after the incident.
During an appearance on "The Kevin & Bean Show" (via People), Rock explained that there had been bad blood between the pair for years, so a blowout was just waiting to happen. "This was unavoidable. I had to do what I had to do because this was a long time coming," he confessed. Meanwhile, Lee said he hardly felt a thing when Rock hit him, declaring that he was "b**** slapped" and branding the musician a "wuss" in a blog post (via NME).
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.
Solange Knowles' infamous assault on Jay-Z
Of all the public celeb altercations, Solange Knowles attacking Jay-Z is probably the most infamous — and memeworthy. In 2014, Queen Bey attended the Met Gala with her husband and little sister. All appeared to be going smoothly until the trio hit an afterparty.
In footage published by TMZ, Solange epically attacked her big sister's hubby in an elevator. Solange can be seen confronting her brother-in-law before launching a full-scale assault on him. At first she repeatedly slapped the rapper and when a bodyguard pulled her away, she threw a few kicks in his direction. Alas, a lack of audio in CCTV recordings means that whatever words Solange hurled at Jay will forever remain a mystery, sort of like Bill Murray's whisper to Scarlett Johansson at the end of "Lost in Translation." Beyoncé mostly stood idly by during the assault. Amid the chaos and tumbling stilettos, one thing was for certain: Bey's little sis had her back.
The altercation spawned many a meme and a deluge of conspiracy theories, including the unverified claim that Solange was infuriated after discovering that Rachel Roy is Becky with the good hair, per Hollywood Life. Saturday Night Live parodied the incident, explaining away the fight as Solange's attempts to bat a spider off an arachnophobic Jay-Z. During an appearance on the Rap Radar podcast, Jay-Z claimed that the fight was an anomaly, the first and only disagreement he and Solange, whom he termed his "sister," ever had.
Cardi B and Nicki Minaj square off at New York Fashion Week
Cardi B and Nicki Minaj — two giants of the rap world — took their beef to the streets in 2018. As reported by TMZ, the feud between the pair boiled over into an IRL diss track during a fight at a New York Fashion Week party. Apparently, it was Cardi who launched an assault on Minaj. Footage shows the "WAP" singer being restrained by several people as she attempted to throw more punches at Minaj.
The brawl erupted after Minaj apparently made comments about Cardi's ability to care for her children. "I've let a lot of s*** slide! I let you sneak diss me, I let you lie on me ... But when you mention my child ... Make comments about my abilities to take care of my daughter is when all bets are f***in off!!" Cardi yelled before throwing one of her designer heels at Minaj.
It appears that this wasn't the first time Cardi launched a stiletto attack on her enemies. Per People, she once threw her shoe at "Love and Hip Hop" co-star Asia Davies after the latter was accused of gossiping about Cardi's love life behind her back. Cardi and Minaj's feud didn't end there, with the former's sister chiming in to allege that Minaj leaked her phone number, per NME. Minaj then boasted that her friend Rah Ali had joined in with beating up Cardi during the Fashion Week scuffle. No love lost between these two.
Björk attacked a reporter
Icelandic songstress Björk doesn't seem like the sort of person to throw a mean punch. But all was not full of love when she initiated an attack on reporter Julie Kaufman. In 1996, Björk arrived in Thailand when Kaufman declared, "Welcome to Bangkok!" Seemingly out of the blue, the petite Icelander turned into a fiery ball of anger. She lashed out at the reporter before repeatedly hitting her and eventually pulling her to the ground, as onlookers appeared horrified.
Per Salon, she apologized for the assault, but it turned out that there was more to the story. Although no justification for violence, Kaufman had apparently been following Björk around for days, harassing her and her 9-year-old son, per Time. But Kaufman was adamant that the popster was in the wrong. "All I said was, 'Welcome to Thailand,' and she just hit me, lost control and went crazy," she contended.
As reported by The Mirror, Kaufman ultimately decided not to take legal action, despite the singer banging her head against concrete. "I feel sorry for Björk. She must have a lot of anger inside her. And she did it all right in front of her young son," Kaufman said, adding, "But when Björk rang me to apologize we got on really well." Despite patching things up, Kaufman declined an invitation to attend one of Björk's concerts, admitting, "I am not that crazy about her music, quite honestly." Let's hope Björk didn't take the rejection to heart.
David Schultz was sued after punching reporter John Stossel
If there's one thing you never do to a wrestler, it's question the validity of their profession. But reporter John Stossel didn't get the memo. In a 1984 segment for "20/20," Stossel exposed the theatrical nature of the wrestling biz, namely that the results of fights are predetermined. But there was one fight that even he couldn't predict. That's right, Stossel asked the dreaded, "Is wrestling fake?" question. Not only that, but the person he asked was grizzled vet David Schultz. The wrestler reacted with fury. "You think it's fake?" Schultz asked and proceeded to punch Stossel in the face, knocking him to the floor. He then punched him again, dismissing the whack as an "open hand slap."
The reason why Stossel's question was sacrilege is due to kayfabe, the unwritten rule that wrestling should always be presented as a legitimate fight. A lawsuit ensued, with The New York Times reporting that the assault led to Stossel suffering from potentially permanent ear damage. Ultimately, it was settled out of court for $425,000, as noted in "Wrestling Babylon."
The incident caused nationwide attention and has become the stuff of wrestling folklore, even spawning an entire episode of Vice TV's "Dark Side of the Ring." In response to the doc, fellow wrestler Eddie Kingston tweeted, "Imagine if someone came to your job and called it bulls*** and fake and made it look like a joke ... if you call a grown man a fake well s*** happens."
Vince Neil and Izzy Stradlin exchanged blows at the MTV Awards
What happens when two glam rock giants end up in the same room? Blows are exchanged and the glitter and cigarettes go flying. When Mötley Crüe frontman Vince Neil attended the MTV Awards in 1989, he sought to settle his beef with Guns N' Roses guitarist Izzy Stradlin.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Neil and Stradlin had a heated exchange backstage, which was apparently initiated by the former. Though Neil sought to scare the bejeezus out of his enemy, the Mötley Crüe singer turned out to be the one truly hurt from the altercation, as Stradlin reportedly packed a mighty punch. A statement from Geffen Records revealed that "Stradlin's lip was cut by Neil's rings but he was otherwise unhurt. Neil, on the other hand, found himself on his back; he scrambled and ran for his limo."
The fight was the pinnacle of a long beef between the pair, which was precipitated by Stradlin apparently assaulting Neil's wife at a rock club, per Ultimate Classic Rock. Subsequently, Neil felt he had no choice but to resort to violence. "I was waiting for him," he revealed in Mötley Crüe's autobiography "The Dirt" (via Ultimate Classic Rock). "'You f***ing hit my wife!' 'So f***ing what?' he spat. All my blood rushed into my fist, and I decked him. I decked him good, right in the face. He fell to the ground like a tipped cow."
Grace Jones' attack on TV host Russell Harty
In the 1980s, an era in which anti-Blackness and homophobia pervaded the media, singer and model Grace Jones was a proudly queer and Black icon, as argued by Pitchfork. Unfortunately, Jones' uncompromising nature led to mistreatment from the British public, as the singer didn't adhere to mainstream sensibilities.
This became resoundingly clear during her now infamous interview on British talk show "The Russell Harty Show." Throughout the interview, the titular host demeaned Jones, ridiculing her unique sense of style, questioning whether she could comprehend his questions (to which she hilariously replied, "Your accent's a bit foreign"), and mocking her speech patterns. Jones put up with Harty's patronizing tactics for a good while before reaching breaking point. After Harty repeatedly turned his back to Jones and referred to her in the third person, she snapped and began slapping him.
In her autobiography, "I'll Never Write My Memoirs," she explained what led to the heated confrontation. During the initial rehearsal, Harty faced her throughout the interview as the guests all sat in a semicircle, so she was surprised to see the seating arrangement had changed when they filmed the live show. Jones said that she was utilized as an object of ridicule, arguing that the outburst was provoked. "I was meant to sit next to Russell Harty and keep still and quiet," she wrote. "I was ... treated like the hired help. I thought, 'This is no way to treat a guest.' This wasn't at all like what we'd rehearsed."
Jason Priestley squared up to Harvey Weinstein
When movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was exposed as a violent sexual predator, there was no shortage of horror stories relating to his horrific treatment of women. While Brad Pitt reportedly threatened to kill Weinstein after he discovered that the Miramax founder harassed his then-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow, one actor took those threats to the next level.
"Beverly Hills, 90210" star Jason Priestley revealed that he once punched Weinstein at a party in 1995. Replying to a tweet by his friend Tara Strong, who was horrified by Mira Sorvino's revelation that Weinstein blacklisted her from the industry, Priestley revealed that he, too, possibly had his career derailed after the altercation with the big shot producer. "Harvey was powerful, my team STRONGLY ADVISED me to write him an apology the next day," he wrote. In an interview with Access, the actor joked that punching the disgraced movie mogul probably didn't help his career prospects in Hollywood.
Speaking with Us Weekly, Priestley discussed the incident in depth. He explained that he was sitting at the party when another celeb came in, demanding to have his seat. "I didn't know who he was ... I thought he was a big bully that was working for somebody else and using his position to bully him and my friend," he divulged. "I don't even want to be around this person. And then he grabbed me. He got physical with me. And so that's when I hit him."
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
Justin Bieber and Orlando Bloom got into a bar fight
Pretty boy actor Orlando Bloom seems like the kind of guy who would invite you to his mom's house for tea and cake, as opposed to the guy who starts bar fights (though he did once threaten to beat up Johnny Depp in a hilarious guest stint on "Extras"). But even British heartthrobs have their breaking points. For Bloom, it was Justin Bieber who really riled him up.
In 2014, both Bloom and Bieber were vacationing separately in Ibiza when they ran into each other at a bar. As reported by TMZ, there are differing accounts of what exactly went down between the two, but the consensus seems to be that the pop star said something unpleasant about the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star's ex-wife, Miranda Kerr, with whom Bieber had reportedly been partying a couple of years earlier. Sources claim that Bieber said he had sex with Bloom's wife, which led to an exchange of blows. In footage posted by the outlet, Bieber can be seen muttering something to Bloom, who then punched him.
An onlooker spoke to The Mirror about the incident, claiming that numerous celeb attendees, including Leonardo DiCaprio and Lindsay Lohan, looked on in horror as the superstars brawled. "Justin said something when he came in which was aimed at Orlando, who then jumped onto a sofa to try and get at Justin ... There were actually two moments when it turned violent, it wasn't just the one punch thrown," the source claimed.
Chris Brown and Drake apparently fought over Rihanna in a club
Drake has long been salty about his break-up with Rihanna (by all accounts, the pair only briefly dated), and he has frequently alluded to her being the one who got away. So, if Drake gets into a club brawl with another man, it's pretty safe to bet they're fighting over RiRi.
In 2012, Drake and Rihanna's ex-boyfriend, Chris Brown, reportedly got into a fight at a nightclub. According to the New York Post, Drake yelled out "I'm f****** the love of your life, deal with it," before punching Brown. "It looked like Drake's entourage started it," a source told the outlet. "Both Chris and Drake had their own security with them." Then, a bottle was thrown. "Once the bottle was thrown, all hell broke loose and there were more bottles thrown," the witness added.
Subsequently, Brown tweeted — and then deleted — a photo of a bloody gash on his face, claiming that the perp was "throwing bottles like girls." It should be noted that Brown himself has a long history of violence, having severely beaten Rihanna three years earlier. Meanwhile, innocent bystanders were harmed during the altercation, with a young woman revealing shocking, bloody cuts she sustained after the bottle was hurled. As reported by TMZ, Drake insisted that he wasn't the one responsible for Brown's gory injuries, and that Meek Mill may have been the bottle-throwing perp, though eyewitness testimony shows that Drake was likely the one who initiated the fight.
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.
Hayden Panettiere and Brian Hickerson's epic bar brawl
Every so often, celebs get into public spats. Although unpleasant, these small scale quarrels prove that the rich and famous are only human. But celebs getting into soccer hooligan-level punch ups? That's not something we see everyday.
In 2022, Hayden Panettiere was at a Sunset Strip bar with her beau, Brian Hickerson, when an almighty brawl broke out. As reported by TMZ, things kicked off when the couple began arguing with a group of people, leading to Hickerson throwing punches before a major fight ensued, seemingly leaving all involved bruised and disheveled. Onlookers told the outlet that Panettiere attempted to pull her boyfriend away from the chaos, warning him that he would land back in jail if he continued brawling. Following the altercation, a rep assured People that Panettiere was doing alright. "That same individual, along with the group he was with, began badgering and shoving Brian ... Brian was attacked by the group, as was Hayden, who in her best effort tried to diffuse the situation," the rep explained.
It seems that Hickerson has a long history of violence, so dealing with the aftermath of the epic public blowout certainly can't be easy for Panettiere, who is a domestic abuse survivor. Although the couple has now reconciled, Panettiere previously called the police on Hickerson after he viciously beat her on multiple occasions. He was arrested and charged with assault in 2020, with the "Nashville" star telling People that she was relieved to have survived the abuse.
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.