Celebrity meltdowns
Alec Baldwin went on a homophobic, profanity-laden online rant in late June before shutting down his Alec Baldwin Foundation Twitter account, all in defense of his pregnant wife, Hilaria, whom a Daily Mail reporter had apparently errantly accused of tweeting while the couple attended James Gandolfini’s funeral.
Baldwin called Daily Mail writer George Stark a “toxic little queen” and “lying little bitch,” and suggested Stark would enjoy forcible sodomy -- specifically a foot up the rear. The actor also threatened to find the writer and mess him up, only in more profane terms.
All this against the backdrop of the tweeting story being off-base in the first place: Hilaria and Alec had left the funeral discreetly through a side door about 45 minutes in, after the eulogies but before Communion. The yoga instructor hadn’t even had her phone with her, she said on Twitter. Turns out the writer didn’t consider time zones when looking at time stamps on the tweets.
MORE: Alec Baldwin loses it in Twitter rant, hurls homophobic slurs (Andrew Burton / Getty Images)
Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong headed to rehab just days before the band was to release the first of three new albums. The revelation came less than 48 hours after Armstrong ranted and smashed his guitar at Clear Channel’s iHeartRadio Festival in Las Vegas.
The rant, or as much of it as we can print: “Give me a ... break,” Armstrong shouted. “One minute left. One minute ... left. You’re gonna give me ... one minute? Look at that ... sign right there. One minute. Let me ... tell you something. Let me tell you something. I’ve been around since ... 1980 ... 8 and you’re going to give me one ... minute? You gotta be ... kidding me ... I’m not ... Justin Bieber.”
MORE: Billie Joe Armstrong joins long list of badly timed pop meltdowns (Christopher Polk / Getty Images for Clear Channel)
Lindsay Lohan made a whirlwind 2010 visit to Cannes, France, where the problem-plagued actress said she lost her passport -- meaning it would have been mighty tough for her to show up for a scheduled court appearance back in Southern California. Her inability to hold on to official documents coincided with an appearance at a Belvedere vodka party -- and her meeting with the judge was to touch on her possibly slipshod attendance at alcohol education classes.
More: ‘This was not a planned scheme,’ says mom Dina Lohan. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
Actor Rip Torn pleaded guilty in 2010 to reckless endangerment, criminal trespass, criminal mischief and the illegal carrying of a firearm after he was found drunk and with a loaded gun after breaking into a Connecticut bank, apparently thinking it was his home.
More: Torn, amid reprising his “Men in Black” role, is sentenced for break-in (Jim Shannon / Associated Press)
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In 2009, Kanye West notoriously seized the stage during Taylor Swift’s acceptance of the best video award at the MTV Video Music Awards, proclaiming, “I’m sorry, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.”
More: Kanye West ruins Taylor Swift’s MTV VMA victory | Kanye West apologizes to Taylor Swift | Unhappy Kanye West: ‘Taylor never came to my defense in any interview’ (Jason DeCrow / Associated Press)
In 2008, actress Sean Young entered herself into rehabilitation for alcohol abuse after a weekend outburst in which she heckled from the audience at the Directors Guild of America Awards. She joined the cast of “Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew” for its fifth season three years later.
More recently, Young had an altercation with security at the 2012 Academy Awards and was placed on citizen’s arrest. She said she did nothing wrong.
More: Actress Sean Young blames Oscars security guard in her arrest | Sean Young coming to ‘Celebrity Rehab’ party | It’s alcohol rehab for Sean Young (Toby Canham / Getty Images)
On Feb. 16, 2007, pop idol Britney Spears walked into hairstylist Esther Tognozzi’s salon with a single request: shave her head.
“I tried to talk her out of it,” Tognozzi told The Times. Spears’ shocking new hairstyle followed a string of well-chronicled struggles after splitting with husband Kevin Federline (above), the father of her two sons, in 2006.
Full story: Tarzana salon has a close shave with Britney (Danny Moloshok / Associated Press)
With a pistol in his pocket, comedian Martin Lawrence ran into traffic on busy Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks on May 8, 2006, cursing and screaming at oncoming cars until he was taken away by police and hospitalized, authorities and witnesses said.
A witness said Lawrence was cursing, waving his hands and yelling, “Fight the establishment!” The actor tried to fight off the police when they attempted to restrain him, the witness said.
Police said Lawrence may have had a seizure because he failed to take a prescribed medication, but Lawrence’s publicist said the actor was “suffering from a case of complete exhaustion and dehydration.”
Full story: Comedian Martin Lawrence runs into street, yells at cars (Jon Farmer / Los Angeles Times)
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After two incredibly successful seasons of “Chappelle’s Show” on cable network Comedy Central, comedian Dave Chappelle suddenly quit and fled to South Africa for a “spiritual retreat.” Chappelle cut off contact with family members and advisors, leaving Comedy Central to cancel the third season of the show.
Chappelle later told Time magazine that he was “definitely stressed out” but wasn’t crazy or “smoking crack.”
“You hear so many voices jockeying for position in your mind that you want to make sure that you hear your own voice,” he said. “So I figured, let me just cut myself off from everybody, take a minute and pull a Flintstone -- stop a speeding car by using my bare feet as the brakes.”
More: Dave Chappelle says he’s not crazy | Timing of comic’s flight is bad for Comedy Central (Tina Fineberg / For the Los Angeles Times)
Actress Anne Heche, who had secretly struggled with mental illness, reached a breaking point after splitting with comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. The day after the breakup, Heche drove from her home in Los Angeles to Fresno and wandered into a stranger’s house, where she showered, put on Mickey Mouse slippers and then tried to persuade the children there to board a spaceship to heaven with her.
In her 2001 memoir, “Call Me Crazy,” Heche explained the cause of her strange behavior: Sexual abuse she said she suffered as a young girl led her to block most of her childhood memories and fill them in with delusions of flying and being the reincarnation of God herself.
“It’s a benefit that I did all those things because I have them to draw on as an actress,” Heche told the Los Angeles Times in 2004. If you’re looking for someone with a well to explore emotionally on the screen, I can do it.”
Full story: Anne Heche: There is life after Fresno (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
