He Did What?!: Beloved Stars With Scandalous Pasts [Photos]
Over the last few weeks, Bill Cosby has been getting killed in the media due to his mishandling of various rape allegations. Cosby has had appearances on the Late Show With David Letterman and The Queen Latifah Show canceled, and he had an embarrassing appearance on NPR Weekend Edition.
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Depending on how you view it, the general public’s ignorance of past allegations can be attributed to public relations wizardry or collective stupidity. Either way, Cosby is on a regrettable list of beloved celebrities with scandalous pasts. Keep reading to see if forgiveness or a collective public shaming is in order.
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Photo: WENN
photo: WENN
As he was crowned Hip-Hop’s first billionaire, nobody bothered to mention the time Dr. Dre slammed rapper and Pump It Up host Dee Barnes against a wall and kicked her down a flight of stairs.
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Forbes fawns over Sean Combs’ earning prowess, and everyone follows suit. Somehow the allegedly shady business deals and leaving Shyne hanging during the 1999 shooting at Club New York gets forgotten.
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Woody Allen continues to enjoy commercial and critical success despite kicking his girlfriend Mia Farrow to the curb and falling for her 20-year-old adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn. Farrow’s daughter, Dylan, has also publicly accused Allen of child molestation.
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Before he was a successful standup comic and actor, Tim Allen was busted in Kalamazoo, Michigan with 650 grams of cocaine. He avoided a life sentence for drug trafficking by turning states evidence against his co-defendants and other drug dealers.
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In 1977, director Roman Polanski fled to France before he could be convicted on charges of sexual assault for allegedly drugging and raping 13-year-old Samantha Gailey at Jack Nicholson’s Hollywood home. Polanksi has continued working abroad and won an Academy Award for 2002’s The Pianist.
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He’s since cut a record with The Roots, so one can assume the proverbial hatchet has been buried. But back in 1979, Elvis Costello dropped the N-word in reference to both James Brown and Ray Charles. Fellow singer Bonnie Bramlett decked him in the face and leaked Costello’s drunken rant to the press.
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Eric Clapton infamously supported conservative Enoch Powell, and made numerous remarks about keeping Britain white during the ‘70s. Clapton would later say the statements were about Britain using its individuality and uniqueness, although his explanation was kind of still filled with racially insensitive terms.
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Thanks to Dave Chappelle and Charlie Murphy, Rick James spent the last few years of his life as a beloved caricature. Few, if any, were laughing in 1991 when the Funk singer and his girlfriend Tanya Anne Hijazi were arrested for allegedly imprisoning and torturing a 24-year-old woman with a hot cocaine pipe in their Hollywood home.
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Kobe Bryant is the NBA’s highest paid player, and his jersey remains one of the top-sellers. Clearly he’s been forgiven in the court of public opinion for his 2003 sexual assault case in Colorado and for unabashedly dropping a dime on Shaq in the process.
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Justin Bieber has narrowly escaped DUI charges, feuded with neighbors like a petulant child, and been filmed happily singing a song full of racist slurs. Apparently, none of the above matters to his dedicated throng of tween fans known as “Beliebers.”
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Bill Clinton lied under oath, unsuccessfully attempted to use executive privilege in the Monica Lewinsky trial, and picked a petty feud with Public Enemy affiliate Sister Souljah, but he’s still generally loved for what he did during and after his two terms as President of the United States.
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Despite illegally eloping with Aaliyah and being caught on film having sex with an underage woman, R. Kelly remains one of the more popular R&B artists active today.
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Bill Cosby was smoothly sailing into his golden years as everyone forgot decades of allegations of sexual misconduct. Then Hannibal Burress called him a rapist, and all hell broke loose.
