Celebs Whose Career Should’ve Been Ruined By These Moments

#1 Kanye West

Kanye is a special case. We can’t say that social media has ruined Kanye’s career when, in fact, it may have even made it better. Although his insane Twitter rants (that he sometimes does on the toilet) have made him more famous, it doesn’t mean it brought him more respect from his fans. He has tweeted extremely controversial things like, “BILL COSBY INNOCENT !!!!!!!!!!” He admits that “Sometimes I get emotional over fonts.” And tweets like, “Have you ever thought you were in love with someone but then realized you were staring in the mirror for 20 mins” make him less than unlikeable. He has gone after T- Swift, Amber Rose, and Wiz Khalifa, and so much more celebs over and over again. He even begged Mark Zuckerberg to give him money more than once. So, yes. Social media has made him a joke, but it also has made him a very famous and popular joke.

#2 Randy Quaid

Randy Quaid doesn't always get the credit he deserves for being a solid comedic actor. Sure, not all his movies were prestigious (just try to watch Pluto Nash, we dare you), but his work in the Vacation films, Kingpin, and even Independence Day is pretty great. Plus, the guy was nominated for an Oscar in 1974, so how did it all go so wrong?

In September 2009, Quaid and his wife, Evi were arrested for not paying a $10,000 hotel bill. They have arrested again for squatting in a home they used to own, so the two skipped town and headed up to Canada. Now, not paying bills and squatting is odd behavior for a well-known actor, but nothing too crazy. But in Canada, things got weird.

Though people assumed the Quaids were on the run from the law, they claimed they'd fled to the North was to avoid the "Hollywood Star Whackers," a secret organization that took celebs out or manufactured scandals to discredit them. Why 2009 Quaid would be on the top of their list, who knows, but the Quaids felt threatened and ran for the hills. Quaid told the Vancouver press about the mysteries behind the Star Wackers and claimed that Heath Ledger, David Carradine, and Chris Penn were the cabal's latest victims. Since those bizarre claims, the Quaids were arrested and released once more in 2015.

The two have some bizarre videos. The craziest of them all features Randy Quaid in a full "get off my property" mountain man beard pretending to have sex with his wife while she wears a Rupert Murdoch mask. After that YouTube gem, it's unlikely a lot of big roles will be coming his way.

#3 Tracy Morgan

Tracy Morgan earned a tremendous amount of sympathy when in 2014 he was involved in a six-vehicle crash that led to the death of Morgan’s mentor and fellow comedian, James McNair.

But it’s amazing his career was still going after you read the comments he made in 2011 regarding homosexuals,

“Gays need to quit being p***ies and not be whining about something as insignificant as bullying,” and when asked what he would do if his son was gay, Morgan said

“He better talk to me like a man and not in a gay voice or I’ll pull out a knife and stab that little n***er to death.”

A spokesperson for Morgan admitted that he had used extremely poor judgment.

#4 Meek Mill

Meek Mill was like a dog chasing his own tail, just running around in circles, while Drake held his head high and never responded to the online drama. After releasing his second album, “Dreams Worth More Than Money,” Mill was so sick of people comparing him to Drake that he went off. In a series of manic tweets, he accuses Drake of not writing his own songs and of having a ghost writer. Drake stayed quiet, but he was witnessing it all. With the internet going crazy, he let the whole controversy take care of itself. Battle rapper Hitman Holla posted a screenshot of his direct message conversation with Drake during the whole debacle, where we see the Toronto rapper simply respond with, “I signed up for greatness. This comes with it.”

#5 Jennifer Grey

When someone's resume lists starring roles in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Dirty Dancing, you'd figure that '80s darling would go on to have a fantastic career. Matthew Broderick and Patrick Swayze did just fine, but whatever ever happened to Jennifer Grey? In case you haven't brushed up on your '80s starlets in a while, Grey was Bueller's sister in the John Hughes film and Baby of "Nobody puts Baby in a corner" fame. You've definitely seen her be snarky and get lifted in a lake. But if you saw her today, you'd have no idea it was the '80s idol.

Grey was known for her nose, but as her career slowed down a touch in the early '90s, she got a nose job. On the good side, she left the operating table with a smaller nose. On the bad side, she looked completely different. The plastic surgery left her unrecognizable, which made casting all the more difficult. Having to go to auditions with an old headshot, government ID, and proclaiming, "I swear, I'm Ferris's sister" didn't make it easy to book roles.

Grey once said, "It was the nose job from hell. I'll always be this once-famous actress nobody recognizes because of a nose job."

#6 Mel Gibson

When you think of controversies around Mel Gibson, your mind might immediately go to his racist drunken rant from a few years ago. But what may be even more despicable was tapes that were released that included Gibson telling his now ex-wife, Oksana Grigorieva, that she deserved to be r*ped.

“You look like a (expletive) b*tch in heat, and if you get r*ped by a pack of (N-word), it will be your fault. You provoked it. You are provocatively dressed,” screamed Gibson at Grigorieva.

That’s not even kind of an okay thing to say, and when asked to defend himself Gibson said

“You have to put it all in the proper context of being in an irrationally, heated discussion at the height of a breakdown.”

While he also denied the allegations that he hit her, Grigorieva also had Gibson arrested on a battery charge.

#7 Noah Trevor

When they announced that Noah Trevor was going to be the new Daily Show front runner, he didn’t stand a chance. The supporters and fans of Jon Stewart are so loyal and so strong, that those were definitely big shoes to fill. But, to make matters worse, Twitter followers went and found old tweets that Noah Trevor wrote making fun of Jews and women. He tweeted things like, “Almost bumped a Jewish kid crossing the road. He didn’t look b4 crossing but I still would have felt so bad in my german car!”

Or, how about, “Originally when men proposed they went down on one knee so if the woman said no they were in the perfect uppercut position.” Eh. If you are going to shock, it better be good!

#8 Wesley Snipes

Wesley Snipes was a big star with roles in White Men Can't Jump, To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, and the Blade trilogy. He was doing pretty great. Then Snipes decided to not pay his taxes.

Now, it's obvious that not paying your taxes is bad, but what's the worst that could happen? You pay it back plus some fines and maybe have to make Demolition Man 2 to get some cash? Nope. Snipes's tax offenses were bad enough that they sent him to jail. Snipes was found guilty of willfully not filing taxes for three years and got a year in the slammer for each year he failed to make a trip to H&R Block. Plus, he had to pay back $17 million in taxes and penalties. Since it's pretty hard to make a Blade sequel from jail, his tax evasion put a complete stop on his career. Let that be a lesson to all you movie stars out there: if you want a career, don't try to get tricky with the tax man.

#9 Terrence Howard

Terrence Howard‘s first marriage had some serious issues, but none was worse than when Howard kicked the door down and punched her several times. His second marriage was even worse and included him threatening his then-wife Michelle Ghent several times, including once with a butcher knife, trying to throw her off a balcony and beating her.

Their relationship did not last, but they tried to re-kindle things several years later which led to Howard beating her again as well as choking her.

We suppose his constant pattern makes this more than “one moment” though!

#10 Perez Hilton

Perez Hilton is the king of controversy, but he took it way too far in 2010 when he tweeted a photo of Miley’s privates, making him the ultimate troll of all the trolls. Seriously, dude? First of all, she was underaged at the time; second of all, it’s just sick and wrong and gross and a complete violation of privacy. It’s her VAGINA for crying out loud. Well, he lost advertisers, got tons of criticism in the press, and was threatened with jail time for the tweet. He later claimed that the picture was “fake,” and it was all just a silly joke! Hilarious, right? Because of all the backlash he received, he posted a video pledging to be a better person and asking for forgiveness and has definitely toned it down since then.

#11 Rip Torn

Rip Torn is one of those "oh that guy" character actors who've been acting since the '50s. Best known for his role as Zed in Men in Black, his appearance in Albert Brooks's Defending Your Life, and his great turn in The Larry Sanders Show, Torn has been around. But in 1967, he had the chance to become a star, and a fateful dinner ruined it all.

Torn went to dinner with Peter Fonda, writer Terry Southern, and Dennis Hopper to talk about Torn taking a role in their new film Easy Rider. He was very interested in the part, but Torn and Hopper got into a fight. According to Torn, Hopper pulled a knife on him. According to Hopper, Torn was the knife puller. Peter Fonda claimed they were both trying to fight each other with butter knives and forks. Whoever got the knife first didn't really matter, since the altercation lost Torn the job. Later, the part went to Jack Nicholson, and it took him from struggling actor to superstar overnight.

Hopper told the story of a knife-happy Torn around town, and it definitely hurt his career. Then, years later, when Torn gained success with the Larry Sanders show, Hopper brought the story up one more time on a 1994 episode of The Tonight Show. Hopper again accused Torn of pulling a knife and getting fired from Easy Rider, but this time, Torn wasn't having it. He sued Hopper for defamation and won. Torn got $475,000 from Hopper's pocket 30 years after the fact, but he never got Jack Nicholson's career.

#12 Dr. Dre Severely

Musicians definitely care a lot about how they are perceived in public. Following Ice Cube‘s departure of N.W.A, he conducted an interview with reporter Dee Barnes.

The interview, understandably, did not paint Dr. Dre in the best light. When Dre later ran into Barnes, the following happened:

“He picked her up by her hair and began slamming her head and the right side of her body repeatedly against a brick wall near the stairway as his bodyguard held off the crowd with a gun. After Dre tried to throw her down the stairs and failed, he began kicking her in the ribs and hands. She escaped and ran into the women’s rest room. Dre followed her and grabbed her from behind by the hair again and proceeded to punch her in the back of the head.”

Dre later downplayed the incident saying,

“Somebody f*ck with me, I’m gonna f*ck with them. I just did it, you know. Ain’t nothing you can do now by talking about it. Besides, it ain’t no big thing—I just threw her through a door.”

#13 John Mayer

After a controversial, and just all-around obnoxious interview with Playboy in 2010, people couldn’t look at John Mayer or his penis the same way again. But what put the final nails in the coffin were his apology via Twitter when the story broke.

When he was asked in the Playboy interview if he had black women throw themselves at him, he called his penis, a “white supremacist.” Gross. And his apology on Twitter just made things worse.

“Re: using the ‘N word’ in an interview: I am sorry that I used the word. And it’s such a shame that I did because the point I was trying to make was in the exact opposite spirit of the word itself. It was arrogant of me to think I could intellectualize using it because I realize that there’s no intellectualizing a word that is so emotionally charged.” Blah blah blah. What are you even saying?

His stream of Twitter BS continued: “And while I’m using today for looking at myself under harsh light, I think it’s time to stop trying to be so raw in interviews … I wanted to be a blues guitar player. And a singer. And a songwriter. Not a shock jock. I don’t have the stomach for it.”

Since this Twitterversy, he is back on Twitter and seems to be behaving himself. But because of his public DBaggery, we will never hear “Your Body is a Wonderland” quite the same way again.

#14 Paz de la Huerta

With her role as Nucky's girlfriend in Boardwalk Empire, Paz de la Huerta was about to become a sensation. The actress excelled at sexy, mysterious characters and was more than happy to take off her clothes for a role. When New York Magazine did an article about her before the launch of Boardwalk Empire, they recounted a story. De la Huerta went into a sauna naked, the only one unclothed, rubbed honey all over her breasts, then proceeded to point at the bulge in a guy's pants and laugh. The guy said, "What are you, crazy?" She replied, "No. I'm Paz. It means peace. Get it, got it, good." It seemed clear that this slightly nutty actress would either use her eccentricity to make great art or go full blown Sean Young. She chose the Young path.

While she was on the show, she got a reputation as a party girl. TMZ got footage of the star walking super drunk from the Golden Globes. She slipped and fell, not a big deal, but it left her breast hanging out, and she was far too wasted to notice. If that didn't clue people in that she might be intoxicated, her exceptionally slurred speech when answering paparazzi questions made her drunkenness abundantly clear.

Then, De la Huerta was arrested for assault. Allegedly, she threw a glass at a reality star, then punched her in the face. The Hollywood Reporter stated that Lindsay Lohan, also attending the party, spent part of her night picking glass shards from the reality star's leg. When Lohan is the most together person at a party in 2011, you know things have gone terribly wrong.

On set, things didn't seem to be much better. There were many rumors of De la Huerta's erratic behavior, including a predilection for publicly shaving her pubic hair between shoots and showing up to work drugged up and crying. In 2013, Boardwalk Empire had enough and fired her from the show. Turns out coming into the spotlight and immediately becoming a drunken mess isn't the best way to sustain a career.

#15 Johnny Depp Assaulted Amber Heard

There are plenty of people in the world who are huge fans of Johnny Depp. But there is perhaps an even more vocal majority that isn’t so quick to forgive him after it became evident (at least in their eyes) that he had physically abused his now ex-wife, Amber Heard.

The allegations while dominating the tabloid news for a while, definitely don’t seem to have slowed Depp’s career. Especially because he was announced in the Fantastic Beasts franchise not long after the news broke. Not to mention his latest Pirates film while a critical flop, still did well at the box office.