Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
60 Celebrity Moves That Backfired Spectacularly And Might Change How You See Them
Celebrities are just like us, regular people—they can’t always see the consequences of their actions. Even the most sociable stars, with the best teams to advise them, end up doing or saying things that are so tone-deaf and narrow-minded that they instantly regret them.
Entertainment fans rounded up some of the most epic celebrity fails when their behavior backfired in the worst way possible. These are public disasters that would make any PR rep facepalm. Scroll down to read what to never do if you ever end up becoming famous.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Sinead O'Connor ripping up a picture of the Pope at the time.
The sad thing is she was right about the Catholic Church and their cover ups and it basically cost her a career.
Spittnimage 1 hour ago (edited)
Back then high profile people were shown respect no matter what they did.
RELATED:
#2
Barbara Streisand, for creating The Streisand Effect. The act of trying to stop something but inadvertently giving it so much exposure.
SweetCosmicPope:
I can't believe this isn't the top choice! The whole topic is literally named after her. lol
For those who don't know, she got a bunch of bad press because she tried to bully a photographer into taking down photos of her house that happens to be on a public beach.
Loosey Goosey 1 hour ago (edited)
Another example of the Streisand effect: In the UK there was a very famous footballer called Ryan Giggs. He got an injuction from the High Court to prevent a tabloid newspaper from printing a story about an extramarital affair. This led to an even bigger story as people tried to work out his identity. People soon worked out who it was and took to sharing his identity on Twitter. The injuction only applied in England and Wales, and with Twitter being an American company there was nothing he could do about it. The Scottish Herald also published it on their front page. Then an MP used their parliamentary privilege to reveal his identity, effectively making the injuction pointless. In the end he cancelled the injuction that he'd paid a fortune for and now he's still remembered more for his extramarital affairs than he is for his footballing ability.
#3
Gal Gagot and her celeb friends singing Imagine by John Lennon during Covid.
FranciscoGarcia69:
That was the most tone deaf, cringey thing I’ve ever seen.
Loosey Goosey 3 hours ago
Chris O'Dowd was on Louis Theroux's podcast, and Louis asked him about it. I think you can see it on YouTube. I'm glad Chris at least admitted it was tone deaf and the backlash was justified.
The legendary Streisand Effect basically refers to the fact that hiding information makes it more popular, instead, because it attracts more attention and curiosity. The antidote to it is openness and honesty, if there’s a genuine problem you’re trying to tackle.
The term itself was coined in 2005 by Techdirt founder Mike Masnick and was the result of singer and actress Barbra Streisand suing photographer Kenneth Adelman for a whopping $50 million back in 2003. Adelman had taken photos for the California Coastal Records Project, one of which accidentally featured Streisand’s mansion in Malibu.
At that point, the image had been downloaded a mere 6 times. Later, it got over a million views and was reprinted many times. Meanwhile, Streisand lost the lawsuit. Though Streisand had had bad experiences with being stalked, in this particular case, it would have been better for her if she hadn’t escalated things.
#5
Idk if it had a big effect on him, but Will Smith slapping Chris Rock definitely didn't help his image.
Jambonito:
It had a big effect imo. The general public seems to have lost all respect for him, and Will Smith is completely blacklisted now. I’m pretty sure he hasn’t been in a movie or a show eversince. And if he has, it clearly hasn’t been promoted to the level it would have been if he was still in the good graces of the industry. I believe from time to time he goes on a radio show or releases music to try to regain his image, but imo it’s done in such a cringey way that he has become a laughing stock now :/
T'Mar of Vulcan 3 hours ago
He needs to get his balls out of Jada's purse and start using them again.
#6
Elon buying Twitter to stop people from being mean about him.
Bartlet for world domination 2 hours ago
Elon bought Twitter so that people could be mean about trans people.
Another example of the Streisand Effect has to do with Beyoncé. After she performed at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2013, BuzzFeed shared some photos from the middle of her routine. The star’s publicist reached out to the outlet, demanding to take down some of the “unflattering photos.” This prompted BuzzFeed to publish a second article titled, ‘The Unflattering Photos Beyoncé’s Publicist Doesn’t Want You To See.’ The photos went viral on social media and led to the creation of memes.
The Streisand Effect can impact individuals as well as companies, damaging the reputations that they have carefully constructed over the years. Trying to suppress certain information can leave a lasting impression, painting the person or business as dishonest and untrustworthy. The result is a tarnished public image, media scrutiny, regulatory attention, decreased sales, and lower customer loyalty as your brand has been affected.
Transparency, politeness, professionalism, quick responses, emotional regulation, and avoiding lawsuits are your best strategies if you want to avoid the fallout from this effect.
#7
Jussie Smollett and the hate crime hoax.
_buffy_summers:
Every single part of his story was incredibly stupid. He claimed he was outside and going for a walk at two o'clock in the morning, during the polar vortex. Most businesses were closed because of the late hour, never mind the weather conditions.
Theincendiarydvice:
I literally only know of him because he did that.
#8
Kendall Jenner Pepsi commercial.
xv_boney:
Kendall Jenner resolves institutional racism and police brutality with second-place soda.
OkArmordillo:
Pepsi made an ad during the height of the 2020 BLM protests where Kendall Jenner walks into a protest, hands out pepsis to the protestors and cops, and they all drop what they’re doing to start partying together and have a good time.
#9
Gwyneth Paltrow. Nobody asked for that candle or any of her other stuff.
Roman Arendt 1 hour ago
There are soooooo much things to buy no one would ever ask for till somebody throws them on the market. I wouldn't blame her for trying.
What are the biggest PR nightmares and disasters that you’ve seen stars and public figures construct with their own hands and words?
Have you ever witnessed someone fall prey to the Streisand Effect, where the information they tried to hide ended up going viral?
Who are the biggest celebrities that you love to hate and hate to love?
Share your thoughts in the comments.
#10
For me, it HAS to be Ellen making that joke to Dakota Johnson about not being invited to her party, which led to that very humbling call out and eventual cancellation of her entire career.
#11
The celebrity billionaires who went to space - calling themselves “astronauts” and telling the public that little girls all over the world thought they were heroes.
We’d all go to space and get lots of publicity if we had that kind of money.
I found the whole thing insulting because all it proved was that to go to space you either had to be an astronaut, Rich, a celebrity, or a billionaire.
It mostly affected Katy Perry and her public persona. And possibly ticket sales for her tour.
Dulcinea80:
Katie Perry and her tone deaf trip to space.
#12
Tom Cruise discussing his Scientology beliefs. I his was during the couch-jumping era.
Cruise fired his excellent publicist who told him to keep that weird stuff quiet…. and put his sister in the role. He then went public….
#13
Nicki Minaj joining MAGA in hopes to get her husband a pardon. Didn’t seem like that worked out for her. Absolute fail.
#14
Bill Cosby told the Internet to make a meme of him, which ultimately led to the allegations becoming common knowledge.
#15
Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis writing a letter of character support for their friend Danny Masterson who is serving 30 years.
#16
David Blaine spending a month in a glass box suspended above the River Thames, and discovering in the process that Brits really don't go in for the sort of celebrity worship that he was used to back in the US. Not only were most Londoners distinctly unimpressed by the stunt, they came out in force every evening to openly ridicule and torment him.
#17
Prince Andrew thinking that BBC interview would clear his name is the gold standard for backfires. He really tried to use a Pizza Express in Woking as a legal alibi.
#19
Jennifer Grey changing her nose, never seen again after that….
#20
Sam Smith - weeping openly about being in isolation in his million quid house during COVID while people were dying in droves.
#21
Rita Ora dropping new song, but then claimed she was hacked.
Le-other-boleyn-girl:
Her tweet/re-tweet, a beautiful thing to behold
#23
I wonder if anyone remembers Geraldo Rivera's live Al Capone vault or him drawing a map in the sand on live TV during the invasion of Iraq.
Michael Largey 2 hours ago (edited)
The vault was as empty as Geraldo's noggin. The difference was that the vault could be employed for a useful purpose.
#24
U2 releasing an album on iTunes.
TheRealtcSpears:
forcibly releasing an album on itunes.
You got whether you wanted it or not.
And if I recall correctly you couldn't delete/remove it at first, apple had to come out with an ipod/iphone/itunes update to allow you to delete it.
thingpaint:
If memory serves you could delete it but iTunes just put it back.
This was one of the final straws that made me switch to Android.
C .Hunger 1 hour ago
Oh this was bad. Really bad. Although from what I read, they didn't mean it be bad, more like, "this is what we think the future in music could be - let's give our stuff away for free Let's make a "U2" Ipod.." The big problem was, it was a bear to gid rid of. If they just put up an option in there, " Do you want this for free, yes or no?' it would have been totally fine.
#26
For Australia it would be Ben Roberts Smith. Newspapers and television programs raised points about the possibility of him committing war crimes. He sues them and loses. He appeals the decision and lost again.
He was then arrested and formally charged with committing war crimes.
#27
Ja Rule dissed Eminem's daughter and drowned his entire career.
Loosey Goosey 1 hour ago
Don't get into a battle with Eminem unless you want to be publicly humiliated. Especially stay away from anything to do with his daughter. Machine Gun Kelly tried that. It went about as well as you'd expect.
#28
Remember when John Travolta mispronounced Idina Menzel's name at the Oscars? The internet never let him live that down.
#29
Jonah Hill texting his girlfriend a list of rules about what she could and couldn't post, who she could hang out with, what she could wear. He'd spent years building this wholesome 'therapy bro' image talking about boundaries and mental health. The screenshots went viral and basically ended his public career overnight.
#31
When Ned Fulmer tried to restart his career with a podcast that was just 2 hours of his ex-wife ripping into him for being an adulterous jerk.
#32
Drake making a diss track against Kendrick Lamar probably couldn't have gone any worse for him/better for Kendrick.
#33
Metallica siding with the label companies in the whole Napster controversy. Back in the ancient days of the early 2000s, a website like Napster where you could listen to music and download it for free without any kind of subscription service was revolutionary. Up until then, you either had to buy the whole album, or wait for it to come on either the radio or for the music video to play on one of a handful of music TV channels that were quickly getting rid of music videos. And most artists were cool with it, because the record company are the ones who made money off of record sales, especially in the rap genre. Recording artists made their money off of tours and appearances. So Napster was free advertising for people to come to shows, because no one had to pay for royalties to play it on the radio or on TV.
The suits at record companies were against it because it cut into their profits. And James Hetfield was against it because he was a massive jerk at the time. They lost fans over it, because you don't side with the corporations. Napster ultimately died, but Metallica eventually walked everything back, and the next couple albums didn't do as well. Music piracy continued, and while it comes with a subscription fee today, the ability to download and listen to music whenever you want without needing to buy an album lives on. I haven't paid for a single album since 2009. Pyrrhic victories.
Cuppa tea? 51 minutes ago
Not so much James Hatfield as Lars Ulrich was most prominent in war against Napster. He even said that downloading album from Napster is same as stealing CD from store. All while trying to find new audience, with music than was so much different from their early era. Let's say, Metallica didn't really find new audience that time.
#34
Michael Jackson did the Bashir interview.
#35
I think the newly minted Ethan Slater “I’m leaving my marriage for a pop star and fame, never mind it’s just loss of my family and career” debacle is appropriate.
hannahbahngswife 3 hours ago (edited)
Didn't they just break up too? Left his wife and baby for his pop star girlfriend only for them to end things.
#36
Lea Michele's tweet to support George Floyd. Then her black costar accused her of being a racist bully. And it broke the dam of other costars and extras claiming she's a POS. A different costar defended her by saying she's not racist because she bullies everyone regardless of race.
#37
When Colleen Ballinger was accused of grooming and harassment, she released an ill-advised, self-pitying and mocking video of her playing the ukulele and singing about her deniability.
#38
Neil Gaiman trying to explain that his exploitation of his nanny was totally consensual. Also trying to blame it on his autism.
Few-Gap-2350:
He blamed it on his AUTISM! I was such a huge fan of his work and when the news dropped, I packed my collection all away but to blame it on autism. I don’t know how that makes it worse, but it does.
#40
Ashley Tisdale and the mom drama. She wrote that essay thinking everything would feel bad for her, and while she got a little of that, I don’t think it was the majority opinion.
#44
Blake Lively and her lawsuit against Justin Baldoni.
bachelorandcats:
What she did to ruin his life with the lawsuit was diabolical and it ended up tanking her career. No director will work with her for fear of being accused of god knows what and sued by her and Ryan, she’s finished in Hollywood.
#45
Gina Carano. All she had to do was shut up on social media and she could have had a career as an actor.
#46
Ja-Rule and the Fyre Festival.
On a level, I get it. He's got music connections, his business partner had the funding and the customer base - Putting together a festival should have been.. I won't say straightforward, but certainly do-able.
But watching the various documentaries, he didn't treat it like a business venture - More like an overly ambitious startup director who's never been told 'No' & saw the whole process as a party and then rolled into the very short timeframe.. of course it was going to fold.
Throwing into it, the insane marketing - Getting top models for the videos, giving infuencers free tickets.. I mean, they REALLY got the buzz going but didn't think of the bigger picture.
Woodstock 99 was 18 years before, and there were SO MANY lessons to take from that - like considering infrastructure for that many people. I can't imagine it would have been that hard to get in touch with a few of the companies/people involved in that to help avoid or mitigate any pitfalls really early on.
Obviously it didn't help that the business partner (Billy McFarlane) was then taken to court for all sorts of fraud related to his other ventures.
#48
P-diddy and his parties really was a mess.
TotallyNOTAFox 3 hours ago (edited)
"Wake up in the mornin' feelin' like P Diddy" - That lyric from Kesha's "Tik Tok" didn't really aged well...
#49
James Corden AMA.
Loosey Goosey 1 hour ago
When are you going to stop taking credit for Ruth Jones's work? We all know she's the brains of the outfit.
#50
An oldie: Australian singer/actor Jason Donovan sued Magazine *The Face* for claiming he was gay.
Donovan's action was perceived as homophobic.
#51
Deep cut and very British;
In 2000 Anthea Turner and her husband Grant Bovery used their wedding to promote Cadbury Snow Flake chocolate bars. They claimed it was not a promo but just Google the pics.
Despite their claims that they had no idea it would be a promo and they were just eating chocolate, they also had sold the rights to their wedding to a magazine for a lot of money (Turner claims it was 120k. Other reports say it was up to 300k. Who knows). They claim the magazine made a side-deal with Cadbury without their knowledge. Oh also, said magazine gave people a free Snow Flake with the issue that covered the wedding.
I remember this being huge in the UK at the time and everyone found it really crass and disingenuous. It had a negative impact on her career as a TV presenter at the time, which relied on people finding her trustworthy.
Knowing the British public, I think most people were more bothered that they tried to claim it wasn't deliberate. By all means sell your wedding if you want to but don't insult our intelligence about your selling out.
Loosey Goosey 1 hour ago
Their relationship had already created a big scandal because they were both married and left their spouses for each other. Eventually, he left her for another woman as well.
#52
How th has no one Mentioned Here Logan Paul's Suicide Forest Stunt.
#54
Garth Brooks releasing an album as alter ego Chris Gains.
Renae Dougherty 1 hour ago
It didnt do anything to him. Everyone listened to that in the 90s lol
#56
Oscar Wilde suing the Marquis of Queensbury for libel, which uncovered evidence that put Wilde on jail.
#57
Pewdiepie could've chosen not to release that video where he had a bunch of Indian guys hold up a banner with an offensive slogan he didn't think they would actually make.
#59
Lori Loughlin & Olivia Jade
“Olivia Jade Giannulli was at the center of the 2019 "Operation Varsity Blues" college admissions scandalbecause her parents—actress Lori Loughlin and fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli—paid $500,000 to fraudulently designate her and her sister as recruited athletes for the University of Southern California (USC) crew team, despite neither having any rowing experience.”.
#60
When Jennifer Love Hewitt publicly shared that she had a crush on Adam Levine when she was on the Ellen DeGeneres show.
Ellen vowed to set them up. But when Adam was on the show and Ellen tried to ask him about Jennifer, he basically told Ellen he wasn't interested in her.
Explore more of these tags
What do you think ?
hannahbahngswife 3 hours ago
The dude who r***d people, pulled out racist, misogynistic, and homophobic moves, called his followers stupid, and more, I could go on. Oh wait. People somehow voted for him to become president, and he still is.
TotallyNOTAFox 3 hours ago
If we are counting streamers as celebrities: Hasan Piker - Used a schock collar on his dog Kaya several times on streams, he and his buddies made fun of it which in return made other, worse stuff surfacing.
hannahbahngswife 3 hours ago
The dude who r***d people, pulled out racist, misogynistic, and homophobic moves, called his followers stupid, and more, I could go on. Oh wait. People somehow voted for him to become president, and he still is.
TotallyNOTAFox 3 hours ago
If we are counting streamers as celebrities: Hasan Piker - Used a schock collar on his dog Kaya several times on streams, he and his buddies made fun of it which in return made other, worse stuff surfacing.
Related on Bored Panda
