The Most Unexpected Stories About Nostalgic Celebrities We Heard In 2021

Bruce Willis broke into the spotlight with his 1985 role on the TV series Moonlighting, playing David Addison. But few people know that he spent the first 20 years of his life grappling with a severe stutter that affected his ability to communicate. Even more interesting: Acting seemed to be his solution. He discussed his speech impediment in an interview with The Stuttering Foundation: I could hardly talk. It took me three minutes to complete a sentence. It was crushing for anyone who wanted to express themselves, who wanted to be heard and couldn't. It was frightening. Yet, when I became another character, in a play, I lost the stutter. It was phenomenal. Willis has also shared how much he struggled with his speech as a teenager, becoming the class clown in an attempt to distract from it. He's since had an incredibly successful career, with major roles in more than 70 films.

Some girls dream of having a rockstar father, but Liv Tyler ended up growing up with two. Her mother, Bebe Buell, was a singer and Playboy model who had a brief fling with Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler in 1976. Liv was born the following year. While she knew there was a chance Steven was the father of her daughter, Buell named her boyfriend, Utopia singer Todd Rundgren, as the father on the birth certificate. Buell was concerned about Steven's drug use at the time, and said that she and Rundgren "made a pact that he would be Liv's father and if it ever became an issue, we'd tell her at 18." But it didn't take Liv that long to connect the dots. She recalled meeting Steven at Rundgren's concert around age 8 or 9, where he bought her a Shirley Temple: It must be chemical somehow - DNA and genes... I felt a connection in a very strong way when I met him as a little girl and I didn’t know why at first, but I figured it out rather quickly. Liv eventually confronted her mother and discovered Steven was her biological father. She later changed her last name from Rundgren to Tyler and appeared in an Aerosmith music video along with Alicia Silverstone. Aerosmith later debuted their hit "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" for Liv's film Armageddon. While Buell and Rundgren later broke up, Liv still counts Rundgren among her "eclectic mix of parental figures." As she put it, "I’m so grateful to Todd for choosing to be a father figure to me. It's a big thing for a man to say, 'I know this kid might not be mine, but I still want to be her father.'"

Rob Lowe struggled with substance abuse before achieving sobriety in 1990. He celebrated 31 years clean in 2021, and discussed his personal journey in an interview with Variety: This was just how the business was back then... You’d go on the set and figure out which department was selling the coke on the set. It was no different than craft services. Where are the Red Vines, and where is the great Peruvian blow?... Those days are long, long, loooong gone. Lowe said he was finally ready to get sober in 1990. His sex-tape scandal and a call from his mom made him reevaluate his way of life: One day back in the days of answering machines my mother called me and I could hear her voice on the answering machine. I didn’t want to pick up because I was really, really hungover and I didn’t want her to know. She was telling me that my grandfather, who I loved, was in critical condition in the hospital and she needed my help. And I didn’t pick up. My thought process in that moment was, "I need to drink a half a bottle of tequila right now so I can go to sleep so I can wake up so I can pick up this phone." Lowe said he'd kept in his wallet a card for a counselor that a friend had given him. The next day, he called.

A lifelong wrestling fan, Freddie Prinze, Jr. was attending WrestleMania circa 2007 when he started chatting with someone about his ideas. After the higher-ups got wind of said ideas, Prinze found himself commuting to Connecticut for his full-time job on the World Wrestling Entertainment writing team. He worked closely with WWE chairman Vince McMahon, pitching storylines and seeing his ideas through to the production side. Prinze recounted the details to GQ: Afterwards your wrestler comes up to you and looks at you like a puppy dog, even though they are six foot ten and outweigh you by 200 pounds, and say, "Did I do a good job?" And it makes you feel very strange and weird. Prinze eventually left the gig to pursue another passion: fatherhood. And there he lives happily ever after with Sarah Michelle Gellar in a perfect 1990s dream world.

Foreign accent syndrome is a phenomenon that happens when someone recovers from a brain injury with a different accent or manner of speaking from the one they've always had. George Michael, lead singer of the 1980s band Wham!, went into a coma from a life-threatening case of pneumonia. When he awoke five weeks later, he had a West Country accent, even though he hails from North London. West Country accents in the UK are associated with farmers and pirates, unlike George Michael's typically "posh" London accent. While doctors were alarmed, fearing that Michael had FAS, the singer had a different explanation. Before his illness, he'd been watching the BBC sitcom Nighty Night and discussing it every evening with a friend, doing the West Country accent featured on the show. When he awoke, he had the TV show on the brain and for two days spoke with the accent - to his sisters' delight and to his doctors' concern. Fortunately for his voice-dependent career, Michael eventually returned to his normal accent. In an interview with a London radio station, he described the humorous side of the alarming incident: The first thing I said when I woke up... They said, "Do you know who you are?" and I said, "King of the World?"

In his 2014 memoir Love Life, Lowe described meeting his idol, Hollywood legend Warren Beatty, as an 18-year-old. Lowe wrote that he had been dating a "young, successful actress" who was friends with Beatty and spent a lot of time at his house, though he doesn't name her. One night he accompanied his girlfriend to Beatty's house to watch a movie. According to Lowe, Beatty told Lowe that he reminded him of himself at a similar age. Beatty then remarked that Lowe's girlfriend reminded him of his own former girlfriend Natalie Wood: "It’s funny," [Beatty] continued. "Natalie was always getting asked by Frank Sinatra to come up to his house and lay by the pool. I never paid much attention to it, but years later, just a few years before Natalie died, I asked her, 'Hey, we’re both adults now, what exactly were you doing all those days at Sinatra’s?' "And she looked me right in the eyes and said, 'Oh Warren, what do you think we were doing? We were f***ing!' "Isn’t that funny?" He smiled at me, shaking his head at the memory. I looked over at my girlfriend who looked away, ashen-faced. And the penny dropped. Thanks for the heads up, Warren Beatty. You’re my hero to this day.

Brad Pitt may be dreamy to many fans, but he wasn't the man for Christina Applegate. The two dated in 1989, when she was only 18 and he was 25. Their relationship was short-lived; Applegate ditched Pitt for someone else during the MTV Movie Awards that year. She refused to reveal the mystery man's identity. Later, however, Sebastian Bach, front man of the heavy metal band Skid Row, revealed he was the one for whom Applegate left Pitt. The two never officially dated, though, and Applegate seems to have some regrets. According to Bach: [Christina] was interviewed recently on... Entertainment Tonight or something, and they said, "What was the dumbest thing you ever did?" And she goes, "One night I ditched Brad Pitt for this other dude." And that dude would be me. When prodded further by Andy Cohen, Applegate still refused to answer, saying "I have to say it?... I don't have to do nothing." She did confirm the man wasn't an actor, but was someone known to the public. Since she's never backed up Bach's claims, however, there may always be some mystery here.

Before Kate Moss became "The Face" of the 1990s fashion industry, she was just a girl, standing in front of a counter at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, as her father argued with airline personnel about their repeatedly delayed flight. Meanwhile, Sarah Doukas, who had recently started her own modeling agency, was on her way back to England from a scouting trip. According to Doukas, she was always on the lookout for who might be the next big thing: "Wherever I was going, I was looking. I found a great girl outside a garage in Battersby, in her school uniform." The model-hunter spotted 14-year-old Moss before their flight. On the plane, she rushed over to talk to her as soon as the seatbelt sign switched off. The next day, despite her initial reluctance, Moss's mother Linda accompanied her daughter to a meeting at Storm Management agency. Doukas and Moss didn't find immediate success together. While their chance encounter occurred in 1988, Moss's career didn't pick up steam until the mid-'90s. At 5 feet, 7 inches tall, Moss was shorter than typical for the modeling industry, and her "waifish" look didn't fit with the curvier supermodels of the time. "Nobody was interested," Doukas recalled. Eventually, though, Moss left school and committed full-time to modeling. While Doukas certainly had an eye, even she couldn't have guessed just how famous Moss would become. "Every day I said, 'I'm going to make you a star.' I didn't know I was going to make her a superstar."

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Goldie Hawn (@goldiehawn) Although they didn't become a couple until the 1980s, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell initially met on the lesser-known 1968 Disney musical The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band. As Hawn described to BBC Radio 4: I was 21 I think, and he was 16... I thought he was adorable, but he was much too young. And then, years later... I remembered that I liked him very much when I first met him. The actors, who would go on to star in more films together, were both early in their careers. Hawn appeared in the primarily dancing role of "Giggly Girl" as "Goldie Jeanne Hawn." She included her middle name after the producer asked her to change her name because it sounded like she was a stripper. She didn't oblige.

Carrie-Ann Moss had breakout success from her role as Trinity in The Matrix. But she reportedly wasn't the first pick for the part. The Wachowskis were in talks with Janet Jackson to play Neo's love interest, another fierce and leather-loving lady. Discussing her interest in the role, Jackson said: I want to kick somebody's *ss. Anybody's. As long as I get to kick somebody's *ss. Kick a new hole in their butt. Rip 'em a new butthole. I'd love to do that. And we would have loved to watch her, but Jackson had a lot going on and wasn't able to take the part due to scheduling conflicts. Her film career never quite took off in the way the sci-fi franchise did - a glitch in the matrix if ever there was one.

Paula Abdul was a pop sensation in the 1980s and early '90s before she took a career hiatus, then reemerged as one of the original judges of American Idol in 2002. Abdul has spoken repeatedly about the 1992 plane crash that led her to take a break from the spotlight. On the RuPaul talk show in 2019, she recalled: During the end of my world tour... when I was traveling from one city to the next, in a small seven-seater plane, one of the engines blew up and the right wing caught on fire, and we crash-landed. I didn't have my seat belt on and I hit my head on the top of the plane... I withstood 15 cervical spinal surgeries and I had to take seven years off. She's also discussed some version of the incident with Dateline (in 2003), People (2005), Larry King Live (2006), VH1 (2008), Dave Ryan in the Morning (2009), the Hudson Union Society (2014), Music News (2018), and Yahoo Entertainment (2020), as well as during concerts. But further investigation has led some fans to question her story. While the details have changed somewhat in her retellings, Abdul has often said the incident occurred on her way from St. Louis to Denver, and that the flame-engulfed plane landed in an Iowa cornfield. A Jezebel investigation revealed that Iowa would be a deviation of about 200 miles north from the flight path, and a search of aircraft accidents in the National Transportation Safety Board database found zero reports that fit Abdul's story during the alleged time frame and area. A spokesperson from the Federal Aviation Administration said it was possible a crash wouldn't be investigated if it resulted in minor damages or harm to the passengers, and would be labeled an "incident" rather than an "accident." That led to the theory Abdul was exaggerating the event or mistaken about some details. But even the account of her break due to "excruciating pain" and multiple spinal injuries doesn't fit the timeline of her career. According to Jezebel, she finished the tour and released an underperforming album in 1995, then took a seven-year break. Despite the doubts, Abdul has never wavered about the plane incident, saying she kept it hidden initially because she feared people would view her as "damaged goods." Addressing her skeptics, she told Yahoo Entertainment: It's like, there are seven other people that were on the plane, who were in that plane accident with me. So, I really don't care what people have to say. I don't. It's like, you learn and grow through wisdom and experience of being in this business, especially with the internet. As of 2021, no one has stepped forward to corroborate Abdul's story, and the mystery remains.

Harrison Ford teamed up with rising star Josh Hartnett in the 2003 buddy-cop picture Hollywood Homicide. The film was a critical and box-office disappointment, and apparently it wasn't particularly fun for the stars to make, either. According to Hartnett, things were really awkward between him and Ford at the beginning: There were times we would end up just sitting in the car when we were supposed to be doing a scene and neither of us would say anything for like an hour. I think there was a testing period I had to endure. Fortunately, the relationship warmed as filming progressed. "[We] ended up getting along near the end," Hartnett recalled.

Demi Moore and Emilio Estevez met on the set of St. Elmo's Fire and quickly became a pair. After six months of dating, Estevez popped the question, and Moore said yes. But despite how perfect their love story seemed, there was trouble behind closed doors. In her memoir Inside Out, Moore described why she called off her engagement to Estevez: Emilio and I had, in fact, just mailed out the invitations for our wedding when a friend told me she had seen him out with someone else in LA. He denied it, of course, but I was having a hard time trusting him: During a two-week breakup a few months before, he’d slept with an "ex"-girlfriend, lied about it, and then been forced to tell me the truth when he found out she was pregnant. Despite his unfaithfulness, the two split amicably and remained friends.

Although devoid of the classic Friends-isms, "The One After The Superbowl" helped launch the show into sitcom fame. To make the episode worthy of such a prime spot, it featured a host of special guests: Brooke Shields, Julia Roberts, Chris Isaak, a monkey, and Jean-Claude Van Damme. According to the crew, it was a toss-up between the monkey and Van Damme in terms of who was more difficult to work with. Executive producer Kevin Bright, co-writer Mike Sikowitz, and director Michael Lembeck recalled having Van Damme on set in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter: Bright: He arrived at the set three or four hours late and went straight to his trailer. So David [Crane] and I thought we'd introduce ourselves and ask him if he had any questions. We went over and he says, "No! First, I memorize lines. Then you give me the feeling." Sikowitz: I think that when Jean-Claude showed up, he asked through his manager or some other person who came to the set with him for Cocoa Puffs. I believe a P.A. ran out and got them. Lembeck: Having completely blown up our shooting day, we had to scramble. Then he's unprepared and arrogant! But this is the story I want to share: We shoot him and Jennifer [Aniston] first. Then she walks over to me and says, "Lem, Lem, would you do me a favor and ask him not to put his tongue in my mouth when he's kissing me?" I tell him everything is great but it's a tight shot so maybe let's not do that. Then we're shooting a scene later with Courteney [Cox]. Here comes Courteney walking toward me saying, "Lem, can you please tell him not to put his tongue in my mouth?" I couldn't believe it! I had to tell him again, but a little firmer.

Oprah Winfrey and David Letterman had a quasi-feud for 16 years that was strange because neither seemed to know if or why they were feuding. After appearing on Late Night with David Letterman in 1989, Winfrey instituted a self-imposed ban, refusing to go on the show despite Letterman publicly prodding her. In 2005, Winfrey finally came on to address the issue, but the feud was still shrouded in mystery. Winfrey asked Letterman, "Could you tell me please what has transpired? I have never for a moment had a feud with you." Still, things didn't seem resolved. In 2010, Letterman speculated to Jon Stewart about what he considered the origins of the animosity. While many assumed it had something to do with Letterman's "Uma, Oprah" joke at the 1995 Oscars, Letterman told Stewart that Winfrey "hated" him because he once made her pay for his lunch. Apparently, Letterman spotted Winfrey having lunch at the same place he was on vacation and told his server that Winfrey would be picking up the tab. The saga seemed to reach some closure in 2013, when Letterman appeared on Oprah's Next Chapter. Winfrey described that what prompted her self-banning was actually her first appearance on Late Night: [I]t was a terrible experience for me. The guy in the audience started yelling, "Get her, Dave!" You were sort of baiting the audience, and there were a bunch of drunk guys down the front. I was trying to like, you know, mitigate the whole thing, and it felt so uncomfortable to me. I didn't want to have that experience again. Letterman apologized.

Thandiwe Newton and Tom Cruise worked together on Mission: Impossible II. She was intimidated and nervous at the thought of working with the Tom Cruise, and unfortunately he didn't do much to assuage her anxiety. Of the experience, Newton said: I was so scared of Tom. He was a very dominant individual. He tries super hard to be a nice person. But the pressure. He takes on a lot. And I think he has this sense that only he can do everything as best as it can be done. She recalled a scene that wasn't going well, so Cruise suggested they rehearse it, but reverse roles: And he gets so frustrated with having to try and explain that he goes, "Let me just - let's just go do it. Let's just rehearse on-camera." So we rehearsed and they recorded it, and then he goes, "I'll be you. You be me." So we filmed the entire scene with me being him - because, believe me, I knew the lines by then - and him playing me. And it was the most unhelpful... I can't think of anything less revealing. It just pushed me further into a place of terror and insecurity. It was a real shame.

Many people didn't expect the marriage between Madonna and Sean Penn to last. As it turns out, Madonna herself was doubtful even before the marriage was official. As she explained before the wedding: We have so much in common that he's almost like my brother. His temperament is also similar to mine. That doesn't always make for ideal relationships, but I don’t know what will happen. As it turns out, Madonna should've listened to her intuition. The pair chose to tie the knot after only six months together. The marriage lasted just two years before Madonna filed for divorce. During that time, she tried to make it work, but there were too many issues from the start. Nicknamed the "Poison Penns" and "S&M," the relationship was known for being turbulent. According to Madonna's spokesperson at the time: There was no one direct incident leading up to this. It was a series of cumulative pressures. There were many moments in their marriage when it was shaky, and Madonna was finally forced to face the reality of the situation - that they weren't happy together.