The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals

by Michelle Morgan

  “From the bottom of my heart,” he said. “I wish you nothing but the best for this upcoming season.” He then went on to say how they had all spent “eight wonderful years together and I know you will continue to make great television”.

  Meanwhile, season nine of Two and a Half Men premiered in September 2011 with Kutcher playing the character of Walden Schmidt, a heartbroken billionaire. Walden buys the late Charlie Harper’s beach house and finds himself soon sharing it with two companions – Charlie’s brother Alan and his son Jake.

  The format was successful and attracted a whole new audience, but unfortunately for the programme makers, Ashton Kutcher’s reputation hit the skids somewhat when it was alleged he had been cheating on his wife, Demi Moore. However, the show weathered the storm and on 12 May 2012 it was renewed for a tenth season, shortly before one of its other stars – Angus T. Jones, who plays teenager Jake – made the headlines himself.

  The story was that Jones, who was earning $300,000 an episode at the age of just eighteen, had recently found God and no longer wanted to play the role of Jake. Not only that but he then decided to launch a scathing attack in a video rant, calling the programme “filth” and urging fans not to watch it. He described how he no longer wanted to be involved in the series; lectured about the effects of television on a person’s brain; and declared the medium “bad news”. The video was then posted online for the entire world – including CBS executives – to see.

  They refused to comment about the video, though after the debacle of the Sheen scandal, it was clear to everyone that they would not be in the least bit pleased. An apology quickly came from the Jones camp in which he said sorry for any remarks that “reflect me showing indifference to and disrespect of my colleagues”. Charlie Sheen was quick to jump to his former co-star’s defence, however, and told newspapers that he could completely understand what the young actor was going through and said he was fairly certain the show was cursed. He then reached out to Angus and offered him a role in his new show, Anger Management, though whether or not the young actor will ever accept the offer is unknown.

  In the meantime it remains to be seen if Two and a Half Men can struggle on much longer, given the scandals and negative comments that have been associated with its stars over the past few years. But for Sheen his life and career continues, living fairly quietly and starring in Anger Management, a comedy where he plays – of all things – an unconventional therapist specializing in controlling anger. The show attracted a record 5.74 million views for its debut episode, though reviews were mixed and it is not yet known if it will match the success of Two and a Half Men.

  Still, there is no denying that the show proved to be a new beginning for Sheen, and it looked like he had set about moving up and away from the memories of his very public meltdown. This included deleting his highly successful Twitter account on 13 July 2012 with a photograph showing a bottle of Tabasco sauce on the dashboard of a plane. It was accompanied with a heartfelt but mystifying message which read: “Reach for the stars everyone. Dogspeed cadre. C out.”

  The reason Sheen gave for deleting the account was that he was not getting “anything out of the social network”. However, fans need not have worried, as just a month later he was back, promoting his Anger Management show; welcoming back his 7.7 million followers; urging them to follow him on Facebook; and giving away signed scripts and other items. A week after rejoining Twitter, he posted a tweet thanking everyone for their support and ending with the catchphrase which is set to be with him forever: “Winning!” Let’s hope for his sake that this time he really is.

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  The Relationship of Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher

  When Demi Moore married Ashton Kutcher in 2005, it created quite a stir. The bride was fifteen years older than her groom, but while they seemed to laugh in the face of their critics by making their marriage a good one, it ultimately ended in scandal, disgrace and very nearly tragedy.

  Demi Moore is no stranger to controversy. In 1986 the actress starred in About Last Night with actor Rob Lowe, which not only showed her nude, but included an abundance of graphic sex scenes, the likes of which had very rarely been seen in a mainstream Hollywood film. Her love for pushing the envelope when it came to films continued in 1993 when she co-starred in Indecent Proposal with Woody Harrelson, playing a woman who sleeps with a playboy (Robert Redford) for the sum of $1 million.

  Both films raised eyebrows, but in 1991, two years before Indecent Proposal, it was her personal life that was causing sharp intakes of breath. Completely at ease with her body and while seven months pregnant with her daughter, Scout LaRue, Demi took to the cover of Vanity Fair, completely naked with a hand placed strategically over her breasts. The cover caused scandal the world over and all hell broke loose with discussions over whether or not it was appropriate to see a pregnant woman in such a revealing pose.

  The photo session succeeded in breaking down barriers in terms of how pregnant women’s bodies are perceived, and indeed various celebrities have shown off their nude bumps since then. But in 1991 it had never been done before and has gone down in history as being the most talked-about Vanity Fair cover ever created.

  Other “body-related” scandals erupted when Demi stripped on an episode of the Late Show with David Letterman and starred in a controversial movie entitled Striptease (1996), but while all this was fodder for the tabloids, her relationship with the much younger actor Ashton Kutcher provided much more than that. While Demi’s films were sometimes physically revealing, she had a good reputation as an actress in movies such as Ghost (1990), A Few Good Men (1992) and The Juror (1996). However, Kutcher was the madcap star of Dude, Where’s My Car (2000) and TV show Punk’d, so when they began dating in 2003, it did not seem as though the pair would have anything much in common.

  Critics determined that the relationship wouldn’t last, and when they married on 24 September 2005, many journalists made reference to the age gap and predicted the end would be soon in coming. However, as the marriage went on, it looked as though the couple were going to prove their critics wrong, and it wasn’t long before the age gap made no difference to anyone but reporters.

  Moreover, the couple also seemed to have a great deal in common: Demi was a follower of the Kabbalah faith and Kutcher joined too; they both had an active interest in raising awareness of child sexual slavery; and always looked extremely comfortable with each other while out and about in public. They even showed how diplomatic they could be towards Demi’s ex-husband, Bruce Willis, when they were all photographed together – with children – on the red carpet and holidayed frequently as one big happy family.

  However, it was on Twitter that the couple received the greatest attention, and in 2009 Kutcher became the first person to reach a million followers. The two seemed to enjoy reporting every detail of their personal lives online; chatted to each other on the site despite frequently being in the same room, and posted many pictures. One of those photos – of Demi bending over in her underwear – was flashed around the world at an incredible rate in 2009. Kutcher accompanied the picture with a caption, “Shhh don’t tell wifey”, while she responded by tweeting, “He is such a sneak” and told followers that the picture was snapped while she was steaming his suit.

  It all seemed jovial enough, but it was also on Twitter that one of the first tremors was detected in the marriage. It apparently all happened one weekend when the couple were out together and a young woman took it upon herself to slip Kutcher her phone number. It would seem that Ashton showed the note to Demi, who was incensed and immediately took to Twitter, berating the girl and then posting her number online for all to see. Unfortunately for Demi, many of her followers started to ring the number and then report the outcome on the social networking site. Many more decided to bombard the actress with messages, telling her how irresponsible she had been to post the woman’s number in the first place. Demi must have thought twice about her knee-jerk reaction: the tweet was taken down within m
inutes and never reported in the press.

  The couple continued their relationship until autumn 2011, when Kutcher landed the plum role of Walden Schmidt in the sitcom Two and a Half Men. The star enjoyed the infamy that came with involvement in the production, but unfortunately for him, it was for all the wrong reasons that he started to make headlines, shortly after shooting began. It was alleged that on the day before the couple’s sixth wedding anniversary, instead of spending time with his wife, Ashton was partying in Las Vegas with a bevy of young women. Pictures soon emerged of the actor at the Hard Rock Hotel surrounded by the ladies in question; then Sara Leal, the woman at the centre of it all, came forward to tell her story of the “fling” she had enjoyed with the actor.

  Things were made no better when rumours surfaced that Kutcher and Moore shared an “open” marriage and that he had previously been involved with a woman called Brittney Jones. This was denied by the couple, but it seemed that by this time the damage was already done.

  Demi was heartbroken that her marriage was falling apart, but still the couple battled on, attending Kabbalah meetings and then deciding to go on a camping trip to Cachuma Lake near Santa Barbara. They were not alone, however, as they were accompanied not only by their Kabbalah teachers, but also members of the paparazzi who hid in bushes to take photos of the couple together.

  The resulting pictures did little to assure the public that all was well, failing to show any intimacy between Demi and Ashton at all. In fact, the couple hardly seemed to know each other existed, and Demi – who had always been slim – was depicted stirring food over a camp fire looking extremely gaunt. Kutcher, meanwhile was photographed standing near to his wife, unshaven and visibly unhappy.

  It came as no real surprise then, when Demi released a statement in November, announcing the end of the marriage. In it she said: “It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I have decided to end my six-year marriage to Ashton.” She then went on to describe how as a woman, a mother and a wife there were particular things that she had held sacred, such as values and vows. “It is in this spirit that I have chosen to move forward with my life,” she said. The actress then begged the public and press for privacy and compassion, stating that it was a terribly trying time for both herself and her family, and that she would like to be given the same amount of privacy that anyone else would be afforded in that same situation.

  Ashton meanwhile released his own statement through his favourite networking site, Twitter, which said that he would forever cherish his time with Demi. “Marriage is one of the most difficult things in the world,” he said, before going on to say that, unfortunately, sometimes relationships fail.

  After the announcement, Kutcher appeared to move on easily with his life – filming Two and a Half Men and being seen out with several different women. But Demi’s life seemed to stall. She was reluctant to change her Twitter name – @ MrsKutcher – and chastised fans who asked her why. It would take over five months before she was finally ready to change. Asking fans to send in ideas, Demi finally chose @JustDemi and revealed the new handle in May 2012.

  But back in November 2011, Demi was photographed looking even skinnier than she had been in the recent past, and “friends” told the press that she had not been eating or taking care of herself. Then in December, she was devastated to learn that her friend Patsy Rugg had passed away. Rugg had been Demi’s sponsor at AA meetings and the two were exceptionally close. Unfortunately her death seemed to affect Demi in an acute way, and in the weeks ahead, she appeared to be going from one extreme to the other – one minute depressed, then at other times, according to friends, partying as if there were no tomorrow.

  Finally, in January 2012 it all came crashing down. Demi was hosting a party at her home when she suddenly collapsed after suffering some kind of seizure. A friend called an ambulance and reported that the actress was semi-conscious, burning up, suffering convulsions and barely breathing. She shouted for the ambulance to hurry and reported that friends had to hold Demi down, such were the severity of the seizures. In a 911 tape released later that month, the friend is heard telling the operator that Moore had “smoked something – it’s not marijuana, it’s similar to incense”.

  It was later claimed that the substance could have been nitrous oxide, or laughing gas as it is better known. An ambulance raced to Demi’s home and she was admitted to hospital before entering rehab in order to recover properly. Once she was discharged, a number of friends were seen going in and out of the actress’s home, including first husband Bruce Willis, who had shown obvious concern for the health of the mother of his children.

  The incident was a turning point for Demi, and afterwards she began trying to put her life back together; spending time with friends, putting on weight and embarking on a new TV show. The Conversation was an interview show that seemed to begin where Oprah left off. Talking to women about their experiences of life, the show was executively produced by Demi, and hosted by her friend Amanda de Cadenet. The brand worked and women from around the world began tweeting their delight with the show.

  Demi was thrilled, though her personal life was still a problem, with rumours circulating that her children, Rumer, Scout and Tallulah, had distanced themselves from their mother, saying they needed space after a series of arguments concerning their ongoing friendship with Ashton Kutcher. The estrangement was an eerie reminder of Demi’s troubled relationship with her own mother, Virginia Guynes, as the two did not speak to each other for many years. “Her life has come full circle,” exclaimed friends, who remembered the troubles Demi had with Virginia, “and now her daughters just don’t want to deal with the drama.”

  Other so-called friends declared that she had been an unwanted guest at Tallulah’s graduation ceremony, and that her children had wanted Ashton to attend instead. Demi balked at such a request, and although she did indeed attend the graduation, it seemed apparent that things weren’t going well, and none of the children were publicly photographed with their mother.

  Also adding to the actress’s worries was the media’s continuing prodding into her relationship with estranged husband Ashton Kutcher. The couple – who were still legally married despite their very obvious and public separation – had bumped into each other at a party for their Kabbalah teacher in May 2012. The pair were civil and cordial to each other, but even this politeness was enough to prompt stories of a reconciliation. Immediately friends reported that the couple had hugged for “at least 60 seconds” in view of the other guests, and that they were obviously still comfortable in each other’s company.

  Rumours became rife when Demi “favourited” a tweet by singer Wiz Khalifa that explained how everyone makes mistakes and that shouldn’t be the reason why you would give up on somebody. Then came another one saying that sometimes you have to love people from a distance in order to give them time to “get their minds right”. Could these quotes be cryptic notes to Ashton? The media definitely thought so.

  Unfortunately for them, however, Demi was in no mood to play the reporters’ games and in response to their stories, she sent out a tweeted statement which described her feelings on the subject. In the comment she expressed how she had laughed at the need for the media to twist words and take tweets out of context “so they can create fictitious stories to sell to the public!” Of course, it was only a matter of time before the media jumped on this quote too and gleefully reproduced it in their publications.

  As it later turned out, there was going to be no reconciliation between the estranged couple, as Ashton was soon being photographed kissing and cuddling with new love, actress Mila Kunis. Demi meanwhile was rumoured to be linked to actor Martin Henderson though it would seem that at the time of writing, the actress is far too busy working on the relationship with herself to put much time and energy into a relationship with another person. She is also said to be fairly content with the fact that her divorce from Kutcher is finally going through, showing that while the past few years have been a strain, she is
looking forward to the future.

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  The Rise and Fall of Whitney Houston

  The destruction and death of Whitney Houston is a painful story, made worse by the fact that during the first years of her career, people believed she was a clean-cut performer who could do no wrong. Unfortunately, her image as a gospelsinging good girl was not only exaggerated, but in the end, very much an illusion.

  Born on 9 August 1963, Whitney grew up in a family full of unique talent: gospel singer Cissy Houston was her mother, Aretha Franklin was a close friend (though not her godmother as some have rumoured her to be) while soul legend Dionne Warwick was her cousin. It was, therefore, seemingly inevitable that Whitney would follow in their footsteps and from the moment she sang “Saving All My Love For You” in 1985, she became a star.

  Her initial success was followed up by hits such as “How Will I Know?”, “So Emotional”, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” and “Didn’t We Almost Have it All”, and award followed award as she raced her way quickly up the ladder of fame. It was at an award show on 12 April 1989 that Whitney met soul singer Bobby Brown, who after a long friendship went on to become the love of her life. She later told Rolling Stone magazine that Brown was the first male in show business who she could really talk to and be her real self with, and from the start it became apparent that for Brown, the feeling was mutual.