Celebrity Controversies Everyone Forgot About

Long before her massive scandal involving her married Wicked co-star, Ethan Slater, Ariana Grande faced public backlash and a Lake Elsinore police investigation for licking donuts at a bakery. In July 2015, footage of the artist visiting Wolfee Donuts with her then-boyfriend, Ricky Alvarez, circulated online. Beyond the licked pastries, she drew outrage for looking at a freshly baked tray and saying: What the f*** is that? I hate Americans. I hate America! That's disgusting. Mortified, Grande released the following apology via the Associated Press: I am EXTREMELY proud to be an American, and I’ve always made it clear that I love my country. What I said in a private moment with my friend, who was buying the donuts, was taken out of context, and I am sorry for not using more discretion with my choice of words. The “7 Rings” singer later stated on Good Morning America: As human beings, we all say and do things that we don’t mean at all sometimes. And we have to learn from it.

John Travolta may be keeping a low profile today, but he was at the center of several scandals in previous decades. In 2012, the Pulp Fiction star was accused of sexually assaulting male masseurs at hotels in Beverly Hills and Atlanta. His attorney, Martin Singer, dismissed these allegations as “ridiculous” and predicted his client would soon put this period behind him when he confidently stated: Our client will be fully vindicated in court on both of these absurd and fictional claims. In 2014, Travolta’s former co-pilot, Doug Gotterba, dropped a bombshell claiming he had a six-year affair with the actor while he was in his employ back in the 1980s. Gotterba wanted to publish their story in a tell-all book but was tied to the confidentiality clause in his termination agreement. After Travolta accused him of being motivated by greed, he said: Our dispute is purely about declaratory relief and will be a non-monetary judgment. …This is about the truth and my right for a court to decide who is telling the truth, not for Mr. Travolta to make a judgment. Gotterba eventually dropped his lawsuit, and the matter was resolved privately.

In fraternities and sororities, hazing refers to a series of humiliating and even dangerous activities as a condition of membership. In 1991, back when he was at the University of Texas, Jon Hamm was named in a lawsuit filed by Mark Allen Sanders, a 20-year-old Sigma Nu pledge. The latter claimed his November 1990 hazing ritual involved severe beating and that Hamm also set his jeans on fire. As Sanders recalled in the lawsuit, which was dismissed in 1993: He rears back and hits me left-handed, and he hit me right over my right kidney, I mean square over it. Good solid hit and that, that stood me right up. The fraternity was later disbanded, and the Mad Men star completed a probation period.

In 1988, at the age of 16, Mark Wahlberg physically and verbally attacked a Vietnamese refugee named Johnny Trinh during an attempted robbery in Boston. Wahlberg was sentenced to two years in prison, but he only served 45 days. Although some reports claimed he had caused Trinh partial blindness, the latter clarified that his left eye had already been injured in the Vietnam War. Trinh said: He was not responsible for that. I would like to see him get a pardon. He should not have the crime hanging over him any longer. Two years earlier, Wahlberg had yelled racial slurs at a group of predominantly black fourth-grade students on a beach. According to student Kristyn Atwood, he also threw rocks at them, and she firmly believes he shouldn’t be pardoned for that incident. In her words: I don't really care who he is. It doesn't make him any exception. If you're a racist, you're always going to be a racist. And for him to want to erase it, I just think it's wrong. Atwood’s former teacher, Mary Belmonte, thinks otherwise. She stated: I believe in forgiveness. He was just a young kid -- a punk -- in the mean streets of Boston. He didn't do it specifically because he was a bad kid. He was just a follower doing what the other kids were doing.

Anne Hathaway, who has been married to actor, producer, and jewelry designer Adam Shulman since 2012, was once in a tumultuous relationship with Italian real estate developer Raffaello Follieri -- who later turned out to be a prolific swindler. She was openly smitten with him and his charity work and even reportedly paid for his rent. Nevertheless, the actor’s suspicious father, Jerry Hathaway, had him investigated, and for good reason. In June 2008, the couple’s romance crumbled when Follieri was arrested for posing as a financial officer of the Vatican and spending about $6 million from unsuspecting investors on his extravagant lifestyle. He eventually pleaded guilty to money laundering, conspiracy, and wire fraud, and the judge sentenced him to four years and six months in prison. Hathaway quickly tried to distance herself from the scandal and focus on her work commitments. She shared with W Magazine: As soon as I found out about the arrest, I had to get on a plane to Mexico to do a press tour for Get Smart. And then I spent a week in shock at a friend’s house. And then I had to go back and do more press, and I haven’t stopped since.

Kim Kardashian is no stranger to negative press. We all remember how she broke down over a lost diamond earring during a family vacation, or when she was criticized for accusing working women of laziness. There’s another past incident that may have escaped your attention, though. In 2008, she and her siblings were sued for allegedly making $120,000 in unauthorized charges on R&B artist Brandy Norwood’s credit card at their Dash and Smooch shops. The Kardashians’ publicist stated at the time: The charges against the Kardashians are meritless. Both Kim and Khloe were employed [as stylists] by the Norwoods and never used their credit cards without their express authorization. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed with prejudice, meaning it can never be re-opened.

Snoop Dogg may be widely beloved today, but back in the 1990s, he and his bodyguard, McKinley Lee, stood trial for the murder of Ethiopian gang member Philip Woldemariam. The defense argued that Lee had shot Woldemariam in self-defense, and both men were acquitted in 1996. Shortly after, the rapper and hip-hop artist released “Tha Doggfather.” When his label criticized the new album for being more mellow and reflective that his first, he protested: Y'all not feeling what I'm feeling. Y'all didn't sit in that courtroom with your life on the line. Y'all didn't have to go through the agony of watching this man's family look at me as being responsible for this man being dead, like y'all not carrying that weight that I'm carrying.

Former Brat Pack member Rob Lowe was involved in a sex-tape scandal in the late 1980s. While campaigning for Michael Dukakis at the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, the then-24-year-old actor filmed himself in a hotel room with a 22-year-old woman and a 16-year-old girl. The leaked sex tape (in addition to a video involving other people in Paris), prompted the teenage girl’s mother to file a civil lawsuit against Lowe, which resulted in him completing 20 hours of community service. His then-attorney, Dale Kinsella, stated back then: I think Rob has been the subject of a bungled, yet nonetheless deplorable, attempt to extort money. Here’s a young actor who has a very promising career ahead of him and is a bright, reasonable, articulate young man who really found himself at the wrong place at the wrong time with some definitely wrong people. I suppose it could happen to almost anybody. In 2019, Lowe credited this pivotal incident for his eventual victory over alcoholism. As he shared on SiriusXM's The Jess Cagle Show: It's the best thing that ever happened to me. Honestly, I do because it got me sober, sober got me married. I've been married 29 years and I have two great sons. I don't think any of that happens without going through that scandal.

In 2007, Paris Hilton was at the center of intense media scrutiny due to two related incidents. First, she sued ParisExposed.com for auctioning off her personal belongings, which had been stolen from a storage locker. Second, she was criticized over a leaked footage from that same locker that showed her dancing with her sister, Nicky, to Notorious B.I.G.’s “Hypnotize.” She had been captured using the N-word in addition to homophobic slurs and derogatory social remarks. The heiress has partially attributed her actions to the distress she had suffered at boarding school. She also wrote in her memoir: I don't remember half the stuff people say I said when I was being a blacked-out idiot, but I'm not denying it.

Actor Ted Danson of Cheers and The Good Place fame dated Whoopi Goldberg in the early 1990s. The interracial couple met in 1988 and later reconnected on the set of Made in America. They frequently drew media attention, even more so when Danson performed a “blackface” routine during his girlfriend’s 1993 roast at the Friars Club. Although Goldberg defended him at the time (and has continued to do so, much to his mortification), Danson has since repeatedly apologized. In a June 2026 episode of W. Kamau Bell's podcast Who's with Me?, he explained that the event was meant to be semi-private but reached a wider audience when it was aired on Comedy Central. He said: I have no problem talking about this, but I need to and want to apologize for the rest of my life because somebody today can go on the internet, you're right, and go, "What the f***? Wow. I feel betrayed. I feel angry and whatever." And I did that.

In October 1999, following a noise complaint from his neighbors, Matthew McConaughey was arrested at his Austin home. Police found him playing bongo drums in the nude next to a marijuana bong. He almost faced drug and resisting arrest charges but was only fined $50 for causing all that ruckus. In 2025, the Dallas Buyers Club star and his wife Camila Alves poked fun at this past incident in an ad for their liquor brand, Pantalones Organic Tequila. The video mentioned his “glassy and very bloodshot eyes” and concluded with the slogan: Please bongo responsibly.

Matthew Broderick, who’s been married to Sarah Jessica Parker since 1997, secretly dated Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Grey for years. They were already together when they were shooting the 1986 hit Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Their relationship suddenly came to light in 1987, when they had a car accident that left two women dead. The victims were mother and daughter Margaret Doherty, 63, and Anna Gallagher, 28. Grey discussed that painful memory in her 2022 book, Out of the Corner: A Memoir, sharing that Broderick was driving and suffered near-fatal injuries. She told ET Online: The car accident in Ireland was, I would say, top three traumas of my life, maybe top one. It's very hard to describe when you have a near-death experience and are present for the death of other people. Broderick and Grey were never the same again and broke up in 1988.