This week’s Entertainment Weekly takes a look at how celebrity meltdowns are killing careers and hurting Hollywood. Are celebrities shadier than ever, or is their behavior a product of our times? “In the old days, a scandal could be suppressed by a studio lawyer and never reach critical mass,” says one studio executive who insisted on anonymity. “Now, if there’s even an audience of one to something a celebrity says or does, it can become a scandal in a nanosecond.”

From Don Imus to Divine Brown, this week’s cover story counts down the top 25 scandals of the past 25 years and assesses the impact each incident has had on the offender’s career. Below are the top ten:

10.   Mariah Teeters Onto TRL: In a surprise appearance to promote her travesty of a movie, Glitter, the overworked pop tart popped into MTV’s Total Request Live studio pushing an ice cream cart and proceeded to peel off her baggy t-shirt, unveiling gold booty shorts and a tank top.

9. Brad – Jen + Angie = Brangelina: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie teamed up in 2004 for Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which raised the gossip industry alert level to red. By March 2005, Jennifer Aniston had filed for divorce from Pitt, and less than a year later – after months of playing coy – Jolie announced she was bearing Pitt’s love child.

8.  Britney’s Bizarre Buzz Cut (Readers’ Choice): On Feb. 16, a visibly distressed Spears paid an after-hours visit to a Tarzana, Calif., salon. After the owner refused to shave the pop star’s head, Spears buzzed it herself.

7. Dixie Chicks Dis Bush – Country Goes Crazy: When Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks told a London audience on March 10, 2003, that the trio was “ashamed” to share a home state with the U.S. president, it was the gibe heard round the world.

6.  Woody Allen Marries Soon-Yi: During a bitter battle with longtime partner Mia Farrow over custody of their three children, the 56-year-old confirmed that he was in love with 21-year-old Soon-Yi Previn, Farrow’s adopted daughter. In 1997, Allen and Previn married; they now have two kids.

5.  Michael Jackson Dangles Baby: While visiting Berlin, Jacko greeted fans waiting below his fourth-floor balcony by dangling his son, Prince Michael II (a.k.a. “Blanket”), over the railing – as the baby wriggled and kicked under his one-arm grasp.

4.  Hugh Grant’s Divine Drive-By: Two weeks before the release of his 1995 comedy Nine Months, Hugh Grant put a new spin on PR when he was arrested in L.A. after police discovered him engaging in “lewd conduct” with prostitute Divine Brown.

3.  Sinead Rips Into Pope: Lorne Michaels and millions of Catholics were not so pleased when Sinead O’Connor capped her 1992 SNL appearance by rending a photo of the Pope.

2.  Mel(t) Down: On the morning of July 28, 2006, Mel Gibson uttered 13 drunken words to an L.A. County sheriff’s deputy that would alter his career forever. “F—ing Jews…The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world,” said the actor-director, who also reported called a female officer “sugar tits.”

1.  Nipplegate: During the Super Bowl’s halftime show on Feb. 1, 2004, Justin Timberlake tore off part of duet partner Janet Jackson’s leather bodice, revealing a nipple-shield-adorned boob. With nearly 90 million people watching, many of them children, the incident became a flash point for family-values groups who had long argued that Hollywood was polluting kids’ minds – and now they had proof.

What do you think?  Anything missing?

Entertainment Weekly

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