Lawsuits That Revealed Too Much About Celebrities

For most of her career, celebrity chef Paula Deen did a pretty good job of hiding the true secret ingredient of her fortune-earning down-home Southern cooking. But in 2013, it finally came out that in addition to copious amounts of butter and lard, Deen's recipes contain a dash of good-ol', down-home racism. That June, former employee Lisa Jackson filed a lawsuit against Deen, accusing her of racial discrimination, among other things. Rather than denying it until the bitter end, Deen "admitted to using racially charged language" during her deposition, according to CNN. And although the lawsuit was ultimately dismissed, Deen's reputation took quite a hit. Apparently she didn't realize there's only so much cultural authenticity people like with their biscuits and gravy.

Mid-level crooner and son of Alan Thicke, Robin Thicke provided the public with a huge revelation when he was sued over his song "Blurred Lines" by the estate of Marvin Gaye. According to Rolling Stone, Thicke, most likely in an attempt to get out of trouble, claimed that he had next to nothing to do with writing the hit song. Thicke had previously told GQ that Pharrell Williams wrote the entire tune. But during the lawsuit, Thicke further admitted he was jealous of Pharrell's talent and did what he could to take as much credit for the song as possible. He also admitted to being intoxicated during its writing. So this comes as either an admission of an alcohol problem for Thicke, or he's a weasel who'll do anything to keep from getting in trouble. Too bad it didn't work, as the jury found him guilty of copyright infringement. He'll probably write an album to try and win the jury back at some point.

In 2000, heavy-metal mainstays Metallica proved they weren't the tough guys they profess to be—well mainly drummer Lars Ulrich. In July of that year, Ulrich famously accused the file-sharing service Napster and three universities of copyright infringement because it allowed peer-to-peer MP3 file exchanges, according to CNET. In addition to monetary compensation, the band demanded that all of their songs be removed from the site and anyone who shared their songs be banned from the site as well. The lawsuit not only proved that Metallica, and Lars Ulrich in particular, are a bunch of cry-babies, but it also showed they're a bunch of hypocrites. That's because tape sharing, file sharing's analog ancestor, helped them build their fan base to begin with. And for that, we dub them unforgiven.

In a civil lawsuit, always-controversial-yet-always-entertaining Kanye West revealed a dark family secret: his father was a paparazzo. While being sued by a paparazzo he assaulted, West said during his deposition, "My father was a paparazzo himself. My father was a medical illustrator, a Black Panther, a Christian marriage counselor." West went on to say many more things, with some curse words peppered in because that's what you do during a court deposition. Like with most of the words that come out of West's mouth, it's a little unclear why he said this. He could've been trying to gain some sympathy. He could've been trying to dazzle everyone with his upbringing. But maybe he's just dealing with some unresolved daddy issues.