Some celebrities you know and love have done some awful things.
We know. Haven’t we all. But we are talking really awful, beyond youthful mistakes or things that aren’t as bad as they sound in context.
These are acts that venture into the territory where they defy comprehension, and you can arguably consider them horrible human beings.
Are we being too judgmental? Maybe, but we didn’t do any of this …
Sean Penn
Sean Penn would be horrible enough for riding around self-righteously on his high horse or being a pretentious douche, but he was Chris Brown before Chris Brown was Chris Brown. That’s right. Back when he was married to Madonna, he tied her to a chair and beat the living crap out of her for hours. Madonna eventually escaped and had him arrested, but decided later to drop charges in order to avoid a media frenzy. She did get a divorce, too, at least.
Vince Neil
Vince Neil, the lead singer of Motley Crue, was having a house party in 1984. He drove drunk, got into a crash and killed his best friend Razzle in the process; Vince later said “I wrote a $2.5 million check for vehicular manslaughter when Razzle died … I should have gone to prison. I definitely deserved to go to prison. But I did 30 days in jail and got laid and drank beer, because that’s the power of cash. That’s fucked up.†Hey, at least he’s honest.
Jimmy Page
Jimmy of Led Zeppelin is one of the greatest guitarists of all time, and is widely regarded as one of the craziest rock stars … but that stops being cool after a line is crossed. In 1972, he effectively kidnapped a 14 year old, Lori Maddox, had sex with her and stashed her away to avoid prison. Allegedly, his roadie nabbed her for Page, telling her, “You f–king move and I’ll fucking have your head.†Lori actually stayed with him for years, saying the whole thing was “romantic.†Pretty incredible.
Tim Allen
Tim Allen was one of the biggest stars of the 1990s and beyond with Home Improvement, the Santa Clause and the like. But in the late 1970s he was one of the biggest drug dealers you ever heard of. He got busted trying to smuggle 1.4 POUNDS of cocaine on a plane, enough to get sent away for life or close to it. Unless you snitch on every dealer you ever met, which he did; Allen got 3-7 years and only served 28 months before turning his career around in remarkable fashion.
Rick James
Rick James is known for the hit song “Superfreak†and for Dave Chappelle’s hilarious portrayal of him. Good thing, too, because he could be known for assaulting Frances Alley and taking her hostage for stealing his drugs. He tied her up for days, burned her with his crack pipe, and raped her; Rick was convicted of two charges but not torture, which would’ve carried a life sentence.
Michael Jackson
Many Michael Jackson fans believe the late King of Pop was simply misunderstood, and it’s true, he was never convicted in criminal court for any of his alleged crimes against minors. But ask yourself: Would you leave your own kids around MJ? Exactly.
R. Kelly
R. Kelly’s track record of preying on and defiling young women is so extensive, it’s a small wonder he continues to have any semblance of a career. Seriously, go read his Wikipedia page.
Charlie Sheen
Charlie Sheen gets away with a lot because he’s Charlie Sheen, and brings so much entertainment value and unfiltered to the table, but lest we forget he has been arrested multiple times, including for assaulting his third wife, Brooke Mueller. Sheen pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault after Mueller told police that Sheen had pinned her on the bed and held a knife to her throat, “straddling her on a bed with one hand grasping her neck and the other holding the knife, [telling her] ‘You better be in fear. If you tell anybody, I’ll kill you.’†Wow. Sheen was only sentenced to 30 days of rehab, 30 days probation, and 36 hours of (yes) anger management.
Chris Brown
Chris Brown is a thug, and we don’t even mean because he beat Rihanna within an inch of her life (although he did in fact do that, and that would be enough to warrant the designation for many people). We doubt he will hit a woman again, and he does seem like he’s trying to be a good father to daughter Royalty … when he’s not throwing around gang signs and hanging with one lowlife after another. Violence follows Chris wherever he goes, yet he never cleans up his act. That, more than anything, is the bottom line here, and will likely leave him in prison or dead by the end of this decade.
Mark Wahlberg
We know. Mark Wahlberg looks, acts and conducts himself like a standup guy as an adult. It’s probably not fair to judge anyone by how they behaved as a teenager, yet this track record is pretty nuts: By 13, Wahlberg had been in trouble with the Boston Police two dozen times; At 15, he was tied to two separate incidents of harassing African-American school children by throwing rocks and shouting racial slurs; By 16, Wahlberg was charged with attempted murder when he assaulted two separate Vietnamese men. He knocked one unconscious with a wooden stick and, in the same day, punched another in the face. Wahlberg was charged with attempted murder, but pleaded guilty to assault, serving just 45 days of a two-year sentence.
Jared Forgle
Worst. Pitchman. Ever.
O.J. Simpson
No list of terrible celebrities is complete without O.J. Simpson, who proves karma does exist … because he was arrested and imprisoned for kidnapping and robbery in a seemingly ridiculous case years after he beat the rap for obviously killing two people. And yes, that is Kim Kardashian’s father Robert in court as his attorney.
Josh Duggar
At this point, do we even need to explain?