History OvershadowedByControversy / RealLife

* The Booth family was an English American theatrical family in the 19th century, with its members including Junius Brutus Booth, the patriarch of the family; Edwin Thomas Booth, one of the foremost American Shakespearean actors of his day known for his role as Hamlet; and UsefulNotes/JohnWilkesBooth, a brother of Edward's who starred in less serious fare and achieved infamy for being the assassin of UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln. After Lincoln's assassination, the infamy associated with the Booth name forced Edwin to take a break from the stage for many months. He also had been feuding with John Wilkes before the assassination (Edwin was a Unionist while John Wilkes supported the Confederacy) and disowned him afterward, refusing to have his brother's name spoken in his house. He even wrote a public letter apologizing for the actions of his brother.
** Junius Brutus Booth wrote a series of angry drunken letters to UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson. In one of his letters, he demanded the release of two pirates, lest he cut the President's throat while asleep. He recanted the letter, and given that he and Jackson were good friends, the "threat" was very likely Booth's clumsy attempt at a joke.

* Nowadays, most discussions about UsefulNotes/{{Cambodia}} out of the country itself are less likely to be about how it is as a country, but more likely to be about the infamous Democratic Republic of Kampuchea/Khmer Rouge genocides that happened from 1975 to 1979.

* Nowadays, most discussions about UsefulNotes/{{Cambodia}} are less likely to be about how it is as a country, but more likely to be about the infamous genocide by the Democratic Republic of Kampuchea/Khmer Rouge that happened from 1975 to 1979.

* Nowadays, most discussions about UsefulNotes/{{Cambodia}} are less likely to be about how it is as a country, but more about the infamous genocide by the Democratic Republic of Kampuchea/Khmer Rouge that happened from 1975 to 1979.

* Creator/MikeHaimoto - a voice actor for anime dubs at Creator/{{SentaiFilmworks}}, Creator/{{Funimation}}, and Creator/{{Netflix}} - saw his relatively short-lived voice acting career effectively nuked when fellow voice actress Creator/AverySmithhart released various forms of evidence of him committing DomesticAbuse towards her.

** Then there is the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rising_Sun_Flag Rising Sun flag]], which people closely identify with UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan. The flag is actually still officially in use by Japan's navy, while a more stylized version is used by its ground forces. While the flag isn't particularly controversial in the West compared to the Nazi flag, that is decidedly ''not'' the case in Asia, ''especially'' in China and Korea, thanks to the horrific atrocities carried out by the Japanese under that banner during their colonization of the continent. The controversy even extends to generic sunburst and radiating line patterns if they too closely resemble the flag's rays. In 2021, [[https://news.yahoo.com/school-mural-transformed-original-offended-120001711.html a mural]] in Los Angeles' Koreatown had to be revised because of this.

** The [[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:North_Virginia_Third_Bunting.svg Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia]], better known as the "[[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar Confederate battle flag]]" or just the "Confederate flag" (leading to it being sometimes confused as the flag of the Confederacy as a whole), remains a highly, ''highly'' divisive symbol in the U.S. because of its adoption as a symbol by white supremacists, and more recently its association with racist incidents like the 2015 Charleston church shooting (the gunman had posed in photos with the battle flag). Flags of Southern states which feature the battle flag as a canton (like Mississippi's, which changed their flag after the killing of Geroge Floyd) or a saltire design clearly inspired by the battle flag (Florida's and Alabama's) are also an issue. Some have also called for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Georgia_(U.S._state) Georgia's state flag]] (which had ''already'' been changed in 2001 to remove the battle flag) to be redesigned again, since it draws its design from the first flag used by the Confederacy, the "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America#First_flag:_the_%22Stars_and_Bars%22_(1861–1863) Stars and Bars]]". The controversy surrounding the flag has spread across the Atlantic, as some European far-right groups began using it to get around bans on displaying symbols associated with fascism. The flag has become so controversial that even UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} has banned it, first banning any employee of NASCAR or one of its teams from displaying it in 2015 while asking fans not to bring it to races, then completely banning it from any NASCAR event in 2020.

** Then there is the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rising_Sun_Flag Rising Sun flag]], which people closely identify with UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan. The flag is actually still officially in use by Japan's navy, while a more stylized version is used by its ground forces. While the flag isn't particularly controversial in the West compared to the Nazi flag, that is decidedly ''not'' the case in Asia, ''especially'' in China and Korea, thanks to the horrific atrocities carried out by the Japanese under that banner during their colonization of the continent.

** UsefulNotes/{{Nero}}'s very name has become synonymous with profligacy, paranoia, and decadence of an extreme nature. He distrusted anyone near him and had them executed - both those close to him or dissenting him. Many Romans believed that he started the Great Fire of Rome to build the Domus Aurea for himself, and blamed the fire on Christians. These acts angered the citizens so much that they started to revolt against him. Unrest spread throughout the Roman Empire and turned the tables on Nero. Facing being reviled as a public enemy who was about to be executed, the Emperor took his own life.

* Creator/HPLovecraft is generally regarded as one of the most influential figures in the horror genre, but his legacy in modern times suffers greatly because of his racism and anti-Semitism (even though ''his own wife'' was Jewish), which by all accounts was extreme even by the standards of his day,[[note]]some of his personal letters actually suggest that he sympathized with Hitler[[/note]] and bled into some of his work. While the idea that his various monsters were allegories for non-Aryans is debatable, what's not is the fact that many real ethnic groups were frequently subject to demonization in his stories.[[note]]For example, in "Medusa's Coil", the fact that Marceline had some black ancestry is used as a horrifying twist ending.[[/note]]

* George W. Bush's December 14, 2008, press conference in Iraq, where he explained how the withdrawal of all U.S. combat forces would proceed, was overshadowed by an angry Iraqi journalist named Muntadhar al-Zaidi who [[ShoeSlap threw his shoes at him]], which Bush hastily dodged.

* Henry Ford was and remains an iconic engineer, industrialist, and philanthropist, founding the automaker that bears his name and being the chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production, which converted the automobile from an expensive curiosity into an accessible conveyance that profoundly impacted the landscape of the 20th century. But his promotion of anti-Semitism (to the point of buying [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dearborn_Independent his own newspaper]] to publish his views)[[note]]Though if one source is to be believed, Ford was reportedly so horrified by the atrocities of the Nazi regime that he collapsed with a stroke after being shown newsreel footage of the aftermath of UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust. Even more ironic was that he was a Freemason, a secretive fraternal society often if not always alleged to have been plotting for a New World Order amongst other conspiracies, with which the Jewish elite are recurring subjects of such canards; further fueling the irony was the fact that the Nazis were also anti-Masonic.[[/note]] and his staunch opposition of labor unions have left a dark stain on his legacy that's very hard to ignore.

* It's hard to talk about Cecil Rhodes without discussing his racist and pro-imperialist views, as well as the infamous [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jameson_Raid Jameson Raid]] that resulted his forced resignation as prime minister and the debate over whether it's appropriate for universities to pay tribute to him (as he was the founder and namesake of the Rhodes Scholarship).

** Even before Mike Lindell's turn towards politics, he was a controversial figure due to having designed the pillow during insomnia caused by his decade-long crack cocaine addiction, which was so bad that his own dealer staged an intervention. Despite framing it as an inspirational story about being liberated from his addiction by God, his account came off as romanticising the crack lifestyle due to his claims that God commanded him to start [=MyPillow=] in a vision he had after a two week sleepless crack binge, giving him the entire product design, including the logo, and that he would often talk about how [[DrugsAreGood much fun crack is]] in interviews. This led to public concern that he was not a "sleep expert", but a guy with cocaine and insomnia-induced psychosis selling an untested product. This was borne out when the pillow company faced restrictions from industry watchdogs for promoting false health claims, using misleading pricing and selling poor quality products that consumers disliked. Lindell argued that this response was due to the government trying to censor him for his political beliefs.

* Ornithologist Alan Feduccia is a genuinely celebrated individual for his extensive and comprehensive research on modern birds (including having a number of bird species named after him), but he is far more well-known for spearheading the [=BANDit=] (Birds-Are-Not-Dinosaurs) movement, which opposes the otherwise overwhelming consensus that birds are a subgroup of theropod dinosaurs. As a result, the fact he was ever once a widely respected researcher is overshadowed by his virulent opposition against an otherwise widely accepted theory (to the point many creationists cite his works and other palaeontologists label him pseudo- or anti-scientific).[[note]]Indeed, the idea is so undeniable that certain feathered non-avian dinosaurs such as oviraptorosaurs and dromaeosaurs [[MovingTheGoalposts are now considered]] by Feduccia as being weird birds and not dinosaurs.[[/note]] Notably, the section on his Website/{{Wikipedia}} [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Feduccia article]] about his opposition to dinosaur-bird relation and its criticism is far larger than the rest of the page.

** UsefulNotes/{{Hadrian}} is the Roman Emperor associated with the longest period of peace and often labeled as one of the ''"Five Good Emperors''". Nevertheless, it is true that his reign witnessed the brutal [[UsefulNotes/JewishRevolts Bar-Kokhba Revolt]] in Judea, which resulted in over half a million victims and the majority of Judea's Jewish population getting killed, exiled, or enslaved. Hadrian himself forbade Jews and Christians from entering Jerusalem and changed Judea's name to Syria-Palestina to erase any relationship between Jews and their homeland. Some view his actions as so brutal that they should be classified as genocide, and theorize that Hadrian became the prototypical antisemitic "Evil King" in Jewish lore and rabbinic teachings, which often mention Hadrian with the epitaph "may his bones be crushed".

** Caracalla was not insane but spiteful and sadistic because he started his reign by killing his brother Geta and lying to the Senate that Geta wanted him dead. Nobody believed him at all, so he started an old-fashioned purge targeting most of his brother's supporters. According to Cassio Dio, the citizens of Alexandria, Egypt, ridiculed his actions with a public play. When Caracalla found out about it, he traveled there with an army ordered to perform the systematic slaughtering, plundering, and raping of Alexandrians.

** Maximinus Thrax was the very first ''auxilium'' (a non-Roman legionary) to become an Emperor and never to set foot in Rome. Despite this, modern historians mostly know Thrax for consolidating power by resorting to violence; assassinating political rivals or advisors, and thrusting Rome into a warring era that led to social instability. As a result, Maximinus doubled the pay of legionaries while raising taxes to the point that tax collectors had to use violence when collecting taxes, making Maximinus unpopular amongst overtaxed subjects and the Senate, leading him to undertake an ill-fated march on Rome that ended in his death.

* UsefulNotes/TheDukeOfAlba is mainly remembered for his repression of the Dutch revolt that eventually snowballed into UsefulNotes/TheEightyYearsWar. Although his tenure as governor of the Netherlands was undoubtedly iron-handed, enemy propaganda inflated his bloodthirst over the years until attributing him a borderline depopulation of the land.

* Charles Trevelyan's governance of Ireland remains tainted by his questionable handling of the UsefulNotes/IrishPotatoFamine in the 1840s, causing one million deaths and forcing the emigration of another two million people to avoid starvation. While the failure of the potato crop due to blight triggered the famine, the continued exporting of food out of Ireland and Trevelyan's apathy to the Irish's sufferings exacerbated it. To make matters worse, Trevelyan had a history of making racist remarks about the Irish, and in one such statement, he outright stated they deserved the famine. This led Irish nationalists and a small but vocal minority of historians to think that Trevelyan engineered the famine to exterminate the Irish people.

** UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush's reputation as president is almost entirely defined by his poor handling of the Iraq War, largely due to the rationale behind it later being debunked as false and due to the political turmoil it caused in the Middle East. Even in the face of other negative events during his tenure that led to a record-breakingly-low approval rating, his mishandling of Iraq continues to be the most defining element of his political legacy. He is now retroactively seen as at best a fool whose unfortunate combination of good intentions and lack of foresight led to disaster (and according to some people he was really a puppet for members of his administration like his even more unpopular Vice-President UsefulNotes/DickCheney), and at worst a vile war profiteer who destabilized a significant region of the world in the name of a quick buck for himself and various crooked friends.

* The career of UN Secretary-General and Austrian president Kurt Waldheim will forever be eclipsed by the 1986 revelations that he had lied about his military record and may have participated in Nazi war crimes. While nothing was ever proven, the scandal effectively made him ''persona non grata'' on an official or informal basis in nearly all foreign countries outside the Arab world.

* Creator/AdamBaldwin has become better known since 2014 for his staunch support for [[{{Scandalgate}} Gamergate]], most notably creating its namesake hashtag and using his following to spread the harassment campaign far wider than before, and his outspoken right-wing political views, such as claiming that ""leftists" were imposing "political crap" on gamers". The ensuing controversy was likely why he has received progressively less work since, most notably Creator/WarnerBros recasting him for Hal Jordan/Green Lantern in ''VideoGame/Injustice2'' and having Creator/GeorgeNewbern take over from him as Superman in ''VideoGame/DCUniverseOnline''.

* ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'': Voice Actor Elliot Gindi has had his reputation damaged following allegations of him grooming underage girls (mostly teenagers), among other things (such as mocking Chloe Eves, the VA of Rukkhadevata and Haypasia, for playing [=NPC=]s, as well as being a general piece of work to deal with). This resulted in various voice actors, both in and out of the Genshin community, denouncing and removing any mention of him. Creator/{{miHoYo}} themselves eventually cut ties with Gindi and [[TheOtherMarty recast his character]], Tighnari, with Creator/ZacharyGordon. Any mention of his short-lived voice acting career is eschewed in favor of discussions about his predatory behavior, and how he used his fame to abuse unsuspecting fans for his own gain.

* Actor, author, and filmmaker Creator/DerekSavage is known less for the content of his output and more for his heavy-handed responses to anybody criticizing or parodying ''Film/CoolCatSavesTheKids'', one of the movies he made. Taking down web reviews of the movie, getting into fights with his detractors on Website/{{Twitter}}, impersonating a nonexistent law firm to intimidate people, threatening to have somebody who made a YouTubePoop of it murdered by terrorists and generally harassing anybody who mocks or pans his movie in any way all saw his reputation go from an incompetent but harmless and somewhat endearing figure to a jackass and (ironically) a bully with an overinflated opinion of himself and his work.

* Creator/JussieSmollett of ''Series/{{Empire}}'' fame is best known for allegedly staging a racist and HomophobicHateCrime against himself due to a salary dispute with the show's producers, leading to his subsequent arrest in Chicago. The fact that Smollett claimed that the two people who attacked him were Trump supporters didn't help matters, leading to outright condemnation from both Trump supporters for smearing them all by association and Trump detractors for casting doubt on actual Trump supporter crimes. Although Smollett and some of his family and friends continue to insist that he is innocent and that the Chicago Police Department is lying, even the crowd who were sympathetic to him at first have long conceded that the hate crime was almost certainly faked, and while Smollett could be able to continue his career, it is unknown if he could recover from the controversy surrounding him.

* Creator/JimSturgess is a difficult actor to discuss without mentioning his taking on, and loudly defending his decision to take on, not one but two roles deemed extremely offensive by the Asian community, specifically ''Film/TwentyOne'', where he plays a [[VeryLooselyBasedONATrueStory heavily fictionalized version of]] [[RaceLift a person who was Asian in real life]], and ''Film/CloudAtlas'', where his character appears in {{yellowface}}.

* These days, Creator/JoshTrank is known less for his aspirations to become the "next Creator/StevenSpielberg" and more for his egotistical, brash and volatile (if not outright unstable) personality. This is primarily thanks to ''Film/FantasticFour2015'''s [[TroubledProduction hellish production]], which saw Trank turn into an abusive PrimaDonnaDirector who [[HostilityOnTheSet clashed with his cast and crew on set]] or [[DearNegativeReader detractors online]]. After the film was released, Trank found himself becoming a pariah within Hollywood as a result of getting imprisoned in Movie Jail due to the film's poor financial performance and overwhelmingly negative critical reception, which led him to drop out of/get fired from a Boba Fett-centric ''Franchise/StarWars'' spin-off project. Trank made something of a comeback with Creator/TomHardy vehicle ''Capone'', which received [[SoOkayItsAverage lukewarm reviews at best]].

* As the head of Creator/MiramaxFilms and Creator/TheWeinsteinCompany, Harvey Weinstein oversaw the production of some of the most acclaimed films since the '90s like ''Film/PulpFiction'' and ''Film/ShakespeareInLove''. While some earlier controversies were surrounding him,[[note]]His cutting of films, his often petty and incompetent handling of releases, and his lobbying of Academy voters for his OscarBait films all come to mind[[/note]] these were overshadowed when allegations of his history of sexually harassing women such as Creator/AshleyJudd and Creator/RoseMcGowan came to light in an October 2017 article in ''The New Yorker'' and ''The New York Times''. The article encouraged several women to come forward with similar allegations against him, including Creator/LeaSeydoux, Creator/CaraDelevingne, Creator/AngelinaJolie, and Creator/GwynethPaltrow.[[note]]The latter starred in Weinstein's BreakthroughHit ''Shakespeare in Love'', which she noted was very much TeethClenchedTeamwork on her part, while Jolie straight-up admitted that she went out of her way to never work with Weinstein ever again.[[/note]] Then a ''New Yorker'' article by Ronan Farrow (ironically, the son of Woody Allen, who has also been hit with sexual misconduct allegations) had many actresses, including Creator/AsiaArgento, accuse him of rape, alongside an audio recording of him admitting to groping women. Soon, many of Weinstein's friends and clients began siding with the victims and refused to associate with him any further; he was fired from his own company by a board of directors that included ''his own brother'', Bob Weinstein, who later described Harvey as "a sick man" and "a world-class liar" (Bob would later be accused of sex offenses himself, albeit much less severe than Harvey's); his wife announced that she was leaving him; TWC began scrubbing his name away from any further projects and was sold to Lantern Capital and renamed Lantern Entertainment. The fallout also [[DisasterDominoes led to a wave of accusations against other celebrities and powerful individuals]] - some of whom are also on this page - which became known as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weinstein_effect Weinstein effect]] or the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_Too_movement "Me Too" movement]]. In 2020, he was finally found guilty on two counts of rape and sexual assault and was sentenced to 23 years in prison (and later 16 years), but was found not guilty on counts of predatory sexual assault, which would have led to a life sentence. Nevertheless, most were pleased with the outcome, with fellow Weinstein victim Creator/MiraSorvino admitting that she was at least grateful that justice was finally served.

* George W. Bush's December 14, 2008, press conference in Iraq, where he explained how the withdrawal of all U.S. combat forces would proceed, was overshadowed by an angry Iraqi journalist who [[ShoeSlap threw his shoes at him]], which Bush hastily dodged.

* The island of Little Saint James, a small private island in the US Virgin Islands, is best known for involvement in child sex trafficking case surrounding its former owner Jeffrey Epstein. Under his ownership it earned nicknames such as "Island Of Sin", "Orgy Island", "Pedophile Island", etc and everyone who visited it, including celebrities and politicians, are suspected to have used his services.

* The island of Little Saint James, a small private island in the US Virgin Islands, is best known for involvment in child sex trafficing case surrounding it's former owner Jeffrey Epstein. Under his ownership it earned nicknames such as "Island Of Sin", "Orgy Island", "Pedophile Island", etc and everyone who visited it, including celebrites and politicians, are suspected to have used his services.

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* Creator/VanessaRedgrave is revered as one of the greatest actresses of the 20th and 21st centuries. She is equally known for her pro-Palestinian activism, including support of the PLO. When accepting her Academy Award for ''Film/{{Julia}}'', Redgrave gave a speech decrying "a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums whose behavior is an insult to the stature of Jews all over the world." Three years later, Redgrave was cast as Holocaust survivor Fania Fenelon in the TV movie ''Film/PlayingForTime'', which brought more outcry, including from Fenelon herself.

* Reality show personality Josh Duggar of ''Series/NineteenKidsAndCounting'' had his reputation tainted by the revelation that he molested four of his sisters as well as their babysitter. Consequently, TLC fired Duggar and re-tooled ''19 Kids'' as ''Counting On.''
** And then, in 2021, ''Counting On'' was cancelled in the wake of Josh Duggar's arrest for possession of child pornography; he would be convicted in December of that year. It is safe to say that TLC has severed all ties with the Duggar family after that.

* Creator/JeffreyJones has seen his reputation permanently tarnished by his conviction of soliciting an underage boy to pose for nude photographs, especially since he was required to register as a sex offender. Not helping matters is the fact that after said conviction, he was twice arrested for failing to update his sex offender status. Ever since it happened, it's been very hard to talk about him without bringing up his legal troubles.

* Creator/VanessaRedgrave is revered as one of the greatest actresses of the 20th and 21st centuries. She is equally known for her pro-Palestinian activism, including support of the PLO. When accepting her Academy Award for ''{{Film/Julia}}'', Redgrave gave a speech decrying "a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums whose behavior is an insult to the stature of Jews all over the world." Three years later, Redgrave was cast as Holocaust survivor Fania Fenelon in the TV movie ''Film/PlayingForTime'', which brought more outcry, including from Fenelon herself.

%%* Creator/JonathanMajors gained praise as a versatile actor for his roles in ''Series/LovecraftCountry'' as Atticus Freeman and Film/CreedIII as Damien Anderson. He's perhaps best known for his role as different versions of the Creator/MarvelComics villain Characters/KangTheConqueror when he joined the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse in Film/AntManAndTheWaspQuantumania and Series/Loki2021. He was set to become the new BigBad of the franchise for the upcoming "Avengers: The Kang Dynasty" and "Avengers: Secret Wars" [[https://deadline.com/2023/12/jonathan-majors-marvel-fired-guilty-verdict-1235671790/ until Marvel Studios severed ties with him following his being found guilty of assault on his ex-girlfriend in December of 2023]]%%too early to tell

* Creator/JonathanMajors gained praise as a versatile actor for his roles in ''Series/LovecraftCountry'' as Atticus Freeman and Film/CreedIII as Damien Anderson. He's perhaps best known for his role as different versions of the Creator/MarvelComics villain Characters/KangTheConqueror when he joined the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse in Film/AntManAndTheWaspQuantumania and Series/Loki2021. He was set to become the new BigBad of the franchise for the upcoming "Avengers: The Kang Dynasty" and "Avengers: Secret Wars" [[https://deadline.com/2023/12/jonathan-majors-marvel-fired-guilty-verdict-1235671790/ until Marvel Studios severed ties with him following his being found guilty of assault on his ex-girlfriend in December of 2023]]

* Creator/JonathanMajors gained praise as a versatile actor for his roles in ''Series/LovecraftCountry'' as Atticus Freeman and Film/CreedIII as Damien Anderson. He's perhaps best known for his role as different versions of the Creator/MarvelComics villain Characters/KangTheConqueror when he joined the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse in Film/AntManAndTheWaspQuantumania and Series/Loki. He was set to become the new BigBad of the franchise for the upcoming "Avengers: The Kang Dynasty" and "Avengers: Secret Wars" [[https://deadline.com/2023/12/jonathan-majors-marvel-fired-guilty-verdict-1235671790/ until Marvel Studios severed ties with him following his being found guilty of assault on his ex-girlfriend in December of 2023]]
* Even among people [[DontShootTheMessage otherwise sympathetic to his politics]], Creator/MichaelMoore has long been criticized for seemingly not being entirely honest in his documentaries (with ''Film/Fahrenheit911'' in particular garnering [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_9/11_controversies many controversies]] over its accuracy and ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_of_the_Humans Planet of the Humans]]'', which he produced, getting [[https://news.sky.com/story/planet-of-the-humans-michael-moore-green-energy-documentary-branded-dangerous-by-climate-scientists-11980420 criticized]] as being outdated and misleading), and allegedly not practicing what he preaches.

* The career of Creator/ChrisSavino, creator of ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' and a longtime artist on other shows, has been overshadowed by his history of sexually and verbally harassing female coworkers and his firing from Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} in 2017.

* Creator/OliverStone has made several well-received films, but he is also infamous for a large number of incidents in his personal life, including his belief in various conspiracy theories, his support for authoritarian leaders like UsefulNotes/FidelCastro, UsefulNotes/HugoChavez, and UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin[[note]]the latter of which he would eventually reverse in 2022 amidst Russia's invasion of Ukraine[[/note]], making statements interpreted as anti-Semitic, and allegations of sexual harassment.

* Creator/NickCannon's resume was temporarily eclipsed in the popular consciousness by a podcast he made with Professor Griff where he endorsed anti-Semitic conspiracy theories (saying Jews were in control of world finance and had stolen the identity of black people as "true Hebrews"), called white people inherently evil savages who were "closer to animals", and promoted the Afrocentric and pseudoscientific [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanin_theory melanin theory]]. [=ViacomCBS=] swiftly fired him from his own TV series, ''Wild 'N Out''. That being said, Cannon became [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone ashamed of what he said since then]], and has since taken steps to make amends (this allowed him to keep his job on ''Series/TheMaskedSinger'' and resume hosting ''Wild 'N Out'').
* Creator/GinaCarano has become extremely polarizing for her support of anti-mask and anti-vax movements during the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, conspiracy theories regarding the 2020 US presidential election and being against the LGBT community. However, her already divisive reputation would be fractured even further after sharing an Instagram post comparing the perceived treatment of American conservatives [[GodwinsLaw to the persecution of Jewish people in Nazi Germany]], which resulted in her [[RoleEndingMisdemeanor losing her role]] in ''Series/TheMandalorian''.

* Creator/GinaCarano has become extremely polarizing for her support of anti-mask and anti-vax movements during the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic and conspiracy theories regarding the 2020 US presidential election. However, her already divisive reputation would be fractured even further after sharing an Instagram post comparing the perceived treatment of American conservatives [[GodwinsLaw to the persecution of Jewish people in Nazi Germany]], which resulted in her [[RoleEndingMisdemeanor losing her role]] in ''Series/TheMandalorian''.

* Creator/JeremyClarkson, while famous for his former role as a presenter of ''Series/TopGear'', is infamous for his unruly behavior and numerous accusations of bigotry both on and off-stage. His behavior resulted in him being expelled[[note]]he wasn't ''technically'' fired, but the BBC wouldn't renew his contract[[/note]] from the show in 2015 through an angry outburst where he physically assaulted a producer for serving him cold food.[[note]]Said food was made during the late night, and at the time, only one cook was working at the restaurant where it was made. Some have justified Clarkson's outburst as he had just come back from shooting an extremely unpleasant challenge for the show that involved him accidentally driving into freezing-cold water and having to [[BringMyBrownPants piss himself]] to stay warm.[[/note]]

* Jade Goody, mentioned in the Western Animation section, was once a rather famous British women's gossip icon in the early 2000s, thanks to her role in the third season of ''Series/BigBrother''. However, things took an ugly turn in her re-appearance in the fifth season of the spinoff show ''Celebrity Big Brother'', where she and two other female contestants racially insulted Indian actress Shilpa Shetty (who would later go on to win the season) many times over her incorrect usage of cooking with stock cubes. The incident led to the highest number of complaints ever recorded to OFCOM and caused Goody to quickly be voted off the show. ''Celebrity Big Brother'' lost many of its sponsorships as a result and went on a one-year hiatus after the season ended. She eventually became the butt of many jokes afterward until her death from cervical cancer in 2009. Even though her reputation has slightly improved after her death, her name has still become synonymous with the event. [[Music/SClubSeven Jo O'Meara]] and Danielle Lloyd, the other two contestants involved in the incident, also faced blowback, though not as severe as Goody's.

* Model and actress Creator/JennyMcCarthy is primarily known today for her staunch support of the anti-vaccination movement, being credited with using her fame to bring the fringe ideology to mainstream prominence. She has also become infamous for using quack treatments to "cure" her autistic son, even though the idea of a "cure for autism" is considered impossible and unethical towards autistic people, on the same level as the idea of [[CureYourGays curing homosexuality]], and the methods that she claimed to have used havebeen scientifically shown to either [AllNaturalSnakeOil do nothing]] or [[WorstAid can result in death]].

* Elon Musk's purchase of Website/{{Twitter}} in 2022, and subsequent mismanagement of the website, has eclipsed his other achievements as founder of [=SpaceX=] and owner of Tesla. Arguably, the most scandalous decision was the one in which he allowed users buy verified checkmarks without actual proof of identity, which opened the floodgates to trolls buying the checkmark and using it to impersonate various celebrities and companies.[[note]]Most notably, a prankster pretending to be pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly announced that insulin will be free, leading to the corporation losing ''$15 billion'' in market capital.[[/note]] Compounding this are Musk's other controversial decisions like reinstating accounts previously banned for hate speech and fraud, firing the entire moderation team, and rebranding the site to "X", all of which led to a mass exodus of advertisers and users. And even before acquiring ownership of Twitter, he was already controversial for being a ConspiracyTheorist and [[DisappearedDad an absentee father]] to many of his children.

* Elon Musk's purchase of Website/{{Twitter}} in 2022, and subsequent mismanagement of the website, has eclipsed his other achievements as founder of [=SpaceX=] and owner of Tesla. Arguably, the most scandalous decision was the one in which he allowed users buy verified checkmarks without actual proof of identity, which opened the floodgates to trolls buying the checkmark and using it to impersonate various celebrities and companies.[[note]]Most notably, a prankster pretending to be pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly announced that insulin will be free, leading to the corporation losing ''$15 billion'' in market capital.[[/note]] Compounding this are Musk's other controversial decisions like reinstating accounts previously banned for hate speech and fraud, firing the entire moderation team, and rebranding the site to "X", all of which led to a mass exodus of advertisers and users. And even before acquiring ownership of Twitter, he was already controversial for being a ConspiracyTheorist, [[DisappearedDad not keeping in touch with his eleven children]], and people starting to notice many design flaws in his inventions.

* Actor Creator/JennyMcCarthy is primarily known today for her staunch support of the anti-vaccination movement, being credited with using her fame to bring the fringe ideology to mainstream prominence.

* Elon Musk's purchase of Website/{{Twitter}} in 2022, and subsequent mismanagement of the website, has eclipsed his other achievements as founder of [=SpaceX=] and owner of Tesla. Arguably, the most scandalous decision was the one in which he allowed users buy verified checkmarks without actual proof of identity, which opened the floodgates to trolls buying the checkmark and using it to impersonate various celebrities and companies.[[note]]Most notably, a prankster pretending to be pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly announced that insulin will be free, leading to the corporation losing ''$15 billion'' in market capital.[[/note]] Compounding this are Musk's other controversial decisions like reinstating accounts previously banned for hate speech and fraud, firing the entire moderation team, and rebranding the site to "X", all of which led to a mass exodus of advertisers and users.

* The long, successful, historically significant, and inspirational career of Creator/BillCosby has forever been overshadowed by the fact that he was eventually accused of sexual assault by many women and would later be convicted of three counts of aggravated indecent assault. NBC and Netflix dropped projects they had with Cosby like hot potatoes, and he was all but erased from popular culture à la Creator/JimmySavile. One of the things that have been cited in terms of the public backlash against Cosby is his long-standing HolierThanThou image as a straight edge comic and social critic.[[note]]Which occasionally led to some more minor controversies, such as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_Cake_speech "Pound Cake Speech"]] where Cosby [[StopBeingStereotypical discouraged African-Americans from engaging in behavior that he felt was giving black people a bad name]].[[/note]] As such, Cosby set himself up for a greater fall from grace than more "edgy" and "eccentric" figures accused of sexual misconduct such as Woody Allen and Creator/RomanPolanski. Further controversy erupted in 2021 when Cosby was released from prison on a technicality after he was originally convicted for his assault allegations.

** Around the same time, numerous other revelations about Hartman started coming to light, such as a poor taste "joke" he made on his podcast stating that Creator/MaryKayBergman died by suicide because of Creator/TaraStrong,[[note]]this was especially tasteless, considering the two women were close friends before the former's suicide[[/note]] several comments that mocked a fan with LetsSeeYouDoBetter, alleged transphobia, and liking videos promoting pro-alt-right themes. All these factors combined with his other controversies quickly turned Hartman from being one of the most beloved animators in the industry to one of the most hated. While he released a letter on Twitter stating that he did not intend to make OAXIS Entertainment to be religious propaganda and apologized to [=DuelingDuelistDrew=] for mocking him on Stream, he already lost the respect of many. Most notably, Butch Hartman had begun [[PromotedFanboy working with]] Kuro the Artist, the creator of ''WebComic/FiveYearsLater'' (a crossover comic featuring one of Butch's shows, ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom''), but his controversies on top of not paying him [[BrokenPedestal devastated]] Kuro and led to him excising a cameo appearance from Butch from the motion comic adaptation of ''5 Years Later''.

* Creator/StevenSeagal has always been polarizing as an actor (with many criticizing his prima-donna behavior and calling his acting wooden), but as he has aged, he has become far more notable for his scandal-ridden personal life than his film career. He has been accused of sex crimes dozens of times, up to and including patronizing sex-slavery rings. He is also well-known for defending world leaders generally regarded as dictators, such as UsefulNotes/FidelCastro and in particular UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin, with whom he is a personal friend. Seagal even defended Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, an action condemned by the international community.

* Creator/JussieSmollett of ''Series/{{Empire}}'' fame is best known for allegedly staging a racist and HomophobicHateCrime against himself due to a salary dispute with the show's producers, leading to his subsequent arrest in Chicago. The fact that Smollett claimed that the two people who attacked him were Trump supporters didn't help matters, leading to outright condemnation from both Trump supporters for smearing them all by association and Trump detractors for casting doubt on actual hate crimes. Although Smollett and some of his family and friends continue to insist that he is innocent and that the Chicago Police Department is lying, even the crowd who were sympathetic to him at first have long conceded that the hate crime was almost certainly faked, and while Smollett could be able to continue his career, it is unknown if he could recover from the controversy surrounding him.

* Canadian journalist Jan Wong is best known for "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Wong_controversy Get under the desk]]", an article she wrote for ''The Globe and Mail'' that many found inflammatory. She claimed in the article that there was a link between three school shootings in Quebec and purported alienation brought on by Quebec's linguistic struggle, even going so far as to accuse Quebecois culture of being overly concerned with "racial purity". The problem is, this assertion was based solely on the fact that the shooters weren't French Québécois; their motivations had nothing to do with "''pure laine''". There was an enormous backlash against her article and her as a person, leading her to be dismissed from the ''Globe'', and her subsequent work has been haunted by the specter of "Get under the desk". Less known, is her trip to [[RedChina China]] to join the UsefulNotes/CulturalRevolution, where she denounced a fellow student who sought her help to defect to the West. Her friend was sentenced to hard labor, while some years later, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Wong made a return to the West]].

* Creator/GinaCarano has become extremely polarizing for her support of anti-mask and anti-vax movements during the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic and conspiracy theories regarding the 2020 US presidential election. However, her already divisive reputation would be fractured even further after sharing an Instagram post comparing the perceived treatment of American conservatives [[GodwinsLaw to the persecution of Jewish people in Nazi Germany]], which [[RoleEndingMisdemeanor resulted in her losing her role in]] ''Series/TheMandalorian''.

* Creator/KathyGriffin, no stranger to controversy herself, got herself in even bigger trouble in May 2017, when a picture of her holding up a "bloody" mask of President Creator/DonaldTrump's head surfaced on Twitter. Griffin claimed in a caption below the picture that it was a reference to Trump's putdown of one of his detractors, Megyn Kelly, where he said that "blood was coming out of her eyes, out of her 'wherever'," which was widely derided as sexist, but the general public, unaware of the context, took it as a call for Trump to be assassinated. Griffin lost her co-hosting duties on CNN's annual New Year's special as a result. The right-wing media's continued attempts to portray her as symbolic of everything wrong with Hollywood (which is located in a blue city) has helped contribute to her losing more jobs; in particular Creator/DebraMessing, a very staunch Trump critic, vowed never to speak to her again, let alone work with her, [[https://instinctmagazine.com/kathy-griffin-reveals-she-debra-messing-made-up-after-her-2017-trump-incident/ although they have since reconciled.]]

* ''Series/FullHouse'' co-star and former Hallmark Channel regular Creator/LoriLoughlin has had her reputation tainted by being one of the many people accused of using their wealth and fame to bribe prestigious colleges to accept their children despite their low SAT scores, in one of the biggest college admission scandals. Hallmark subsequently terminated their contract with her, plus Loughlin and her husband/collaborator Mossimo Gianulli might face jail time. This is especially shocking considering Loughlin was previously identified with playing the sweet, lovable Aunt Becky. Loughlin's daughter Olivia Jade Gianulli also found herself thrust into being the public face of all the recipients of the scam, due to her highly popular beauty tip vlogs, in which she had earlier stated that she didn't even take her classes seriously at all. She and her sister quickly dropped out of the University of Southern California without even waiting for a decision on whether they could stay, and she is now estranged from her parents in the wake of the permanent damage done to her reputation.

* Actress Creator/AllisonMack has been eclipsed by her involvement in NXIVM, a multi-level marketing company that was later discovered to be a front for a sex-trafficking cult.

* Juliane Snekkestad, Norwegian model was previously an uncontroversial figure, but due to her statement in 2019-2020 of "I'm actually a boy in a female model's body" which had people questioning if she was really transgender due to how she said it especially due to her GirlyGirl behavior, with many questioning if it was a PublicityStunt to boost talkability and her image. However, in some countries, it becomes the first thing she's known for, and has tarnished her reputation in some circles.

* Creator/JohnOsborne is generally viewed as one of the most important British playwrights of TheFifties, with his 1956 play ''Theatre/LookBackInAnger'' revolutionizing British theatre. However, he is very controversial due to his sexist and misogynistic views and the fact he was frequently abusive towards his wives, mistresses and children. Backlash against him increased when he re-edited his autobiography ''A Better Class of Person'' (originally released in 1981) to wrote a whole new chapter where he ''celebrated'' his fourth wife's suicide in 1990.

* Creator/OrianaFallaci was an Italian journalist and author who, after being a partisan during World War II, became famous worldwide for her earnest interviews with many world leaders during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s (including one with UsefulNotes/HenryKissinger, in which Kissinger describing himself as "the cowboy who leads the wagon train by riding ahead alone on his horse", which Kissinger would later regret as "the single most disastrous conversation I have ever had with any member of the press."). However, after retirement, she returned to the spotlight after writing a series of controversial articles and books critical of Islam that aroused condemnation as well as support. While criticism of conservative aspects of Islam was nothing new for her (to interview the Ayatollah Khomeini following the Iranian Revolution, she was required to wear a chador, which she wore only to remove it during the interview before attacking the obligation of women to wear it), following the 9/11 attacks her criticism was viewed as having become much more inflammatory, including claiming that "the sons of Allah breed like rats", that Europe was no longer Europe but "Eurabia", and when rumors began of the construction of an Islamic center in Siena, saying that she would "blow it up with the help of [her] friends," to the point Creator/ChristopherHitchens (not a friend of Islam himself) criticized her books as "a sort of primer in how not to write about Islam." As a result, it's hard to talk about her accomplished career as a journalist without bringing up her anti-Islam views.

** The [[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:North_Virginia_Third_Bunting.svg Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia]], better known as the "[[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar Confederate battle flag"]] or just the "Confederate flag" (leading to it being sometimes confused as the flag of the Confederacy as a whole), remains a highly, ''highly'' divisive symbol in the U.S. because of its adoption as a symbol by white supremacists, and more recently its association with racist incidents like the 2015 Charleston church shooting (the gunman had posed in photos with the battle flag). Flags of Southern states which feature the battle flag as a canton (like Mississippi's, which changed their flag after the killing of Geroge Floyd) or a saltire design clearly inspired by the battle flag (Florida's and Alabama's) are also an issue. Some have also called for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Georgia_(U.S._state) Georgia's state flag]] (which had ''already'' been changed in 2001 to remove the battle flag) to be redesigned again, since it draws its design from the first flag used by the Confederacy, the "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America#First_flag:_the_%22Stars_and_Bars%22_(1861–1863) Stars and Bars]]". The controversy surrounding the flag has spread across the Atlantic, as some European far-right groups began using it to get around bans on displaying symbols associated with fascism. The flag has become so controversial that even UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} has banned it, first banning any employee of NASCAR or one of its teams from displaying it in 2015 while asking fans not to bring it to races, then completely banning it from any NASCAR event in 2020.
** The Charleston shooter also embraced the former [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_South_Africa_(1928-1994) flag of South Africa]] (associated with UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra) and the former [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Rhodesia flag of Rhodesia]], both of which were used by racist, repressive white minority governments and have been adopted by white supremacists in recent years. As of 2019, public display (that is non-historical or non-artistic display) of the former South African flag is legally considered hate speech in South Africa.

* Robert Barker co-printed (with John Norton) the [[Literature/TheBible King James Bible]] of 1611, one of the most important and influential books in the history of the English language. Barker's reputation was completely tarnished in 1631 when he co-printed (with Martin Lucas) the infamous "Wicked Bible", named after a [[StealthPun crucial]] typographical error in the Ten Commandments that omitted the word "not" from "Thou shalt not commit adultery", turning it into "Thou shalt commit adultery". There was no way such an error found in the Ten Commandments would go unnoticed, and 17th century England saw this unfortunate blunder as a ''very'' serious crime; almost all copies of the edition were recalled and burned by order of [[UsefulNotes/CharlesI King Charles I]] (it is believed that ''less than twelve'' copies exist today, and as you can imagine [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes they sell for outrageous prices]]), and both Barker and Lucas were fined £300 (equivalent to approximately £71,490 in 2021) and [[RoleEndingMisdemeanor had their printing licenses revoked]]. Four years later, Barker was imprisoned for debt, where he remained until his death in 1643. Even centuries later, while the King James Bible itself is highly regarded as a pivotal moment in English history, it's still very difficult to talk about its co-printer without mentioning that he also co-printed the "Wicked Bible".

* The foam pillow manufacturer [=MyPillow=] has now become known for its founder/owner Mike Lindell using the company as a platform to promote right-wing conspiracy theories. One notable claim he propagated was insisting that his friend Creator/DonaldTrump was re-elected as President in 2020 and that year's election was rigged in UsefulNotes/JoeBiden's favor. Lindell also claimed that the riot at the U.S. Capitol committed by believers of this conspiracy theory during a pro-Trump protest he co-sponsored was actually committed by far-left anarchists disguised as Trump supporters. His support for far-right conspiracy groups such as [=QAnon=] (who participated in the riot) hasn't helped, either. Consequentially, [=MyPillow=] was dropped from some stores and Lindell was subsequently blocked from Twitter, followed by the company when he used the corporate Twitter account to ban-evade. Lindell would make a direct-to-video movie titled ''Absolute Proof'' to try to back these claims further. It would win Worst Picture at the 2020 UsefulNotes/{{Golden Raspberry Award}}s.

* English artist Eric Gill was infamous for depicting sex in his works, but was still praised as one of the greatest craftsmen of the 20th century. However, in 1989, several decades after his death in 1940, it was revealed that he was a sex offender who committed rape, incest, paedophilia and bestiality, with his two eldest daughters among his victims, causing his work to be highly contested. The fact that a statue of his depicting a child is still outside BBC Television Centre is still a sore spot for many people.