Sexual assault allegations, toxic tweets – and a cannibalism fetish? Here are some of the most shocking and outrageous celebrity cancellations of 2021.
1. Chris Noth
And just like that … Mr. Big is dead to the Sex and the City fandom. Turns out, Carrie Bradshaw was right not to call 911 when the heart attack hit. Last week, two women accused the actor of sexual assault in a report published by The Hollywood Reporter on December 16. Just a day later, a third woman also came forward with sexual assault allegations against the 67-year-old actor, in a report published by The Daily Beast. Noth has denied the allegations.
Exercise equipment company Peloton has pulled out an ad campaign with the actor and he’s also been dropped from the film The Equalizer.
2. Chrissy Teigen
The queen of Twitter fell hard this year, after some of her earliest tweets came to light in July. They showed that in 2011, Chrissy Teigen cyberbullied TV personality Courtney Stodden – at the time just 16 – for marrying 50-year-old actor Doug Hutchison. Stodden, who announced her divorce from Hutchison in 2020, pointed to multiple tweets Teigen sent to them at the time.
“My Friday fantasy: you. dirt nap. mmm baby,” Teigen tweeted at Stodden in 2011, according to Vox. Stodden also revealed in an interview with The Daily Beast that the 36-year-old model and social media darling had also direct-messaged them offensive remarks at the time.
The toxic tweets led to Teigan, All of Me singer John Legend’s wife, losing lucrative deals with Target, Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s.
3. Shia LaBeouf
With an arrest record related to drugs and alcohol, we already knew Shia LaBeouf had some demons inside him. But when music artist and bona fide queen FKA Twigs filed a lawsuit against the 35-year-old in December 2020, alleging sexual battery, assault, and infliction of emotional distress, LeBoeuf went from troubled actor to problematic personality real quick.
4. Armie Hammer
Call Me By Your Name actor Armie Hammer has had a spectacular downward spiral this year, after disturbing texts were leaked online, revealing apparent fetishes for rape, sadism and cannibalism. It all started when a woman who claims she had a relationship with the actor created an Instagram account and shared bizarre details about her sexual encounters with Hammer. Several other women accused Hammer of emotional abuse, manipulation and coercion.
The woman also shared screenshots of private conversations between Hammer and other women, according to Complex. A woman also accused Hammer of rape and physical abuse throughout their four-year relationship, reported Variety in March. The actor’s lawyer denied the allegations, but he was quickly dropped from multiple projects. However, this week it was confirmed Disney is preparing for a Valentine’s Day release for mystery-thriller Death on the Nile – shot before the allegations surfaced – with Hammer featured in the publicity materials and trailer.
5. Marilyn Manson
Goth rocker Marilyn Manson was dropped from his record label Loma Vista Recordings after multiple women, including Westworld actress and ex-girlfriend Evan Rachel Wood, accused him of sexual assault and sex trafficking. The 52-year-old, whose real name is Brian Hugh Warner, had previously boasted to media about keeping his partners locked up in a “bad girls’ room”.
6. Aaron Rodgers
NFL star quarterback, and fiancé to Shailene Woodley, Aaron Rodgers was widely criticised in November for purposely misleading the public about his vaccine status, and endangering those around him. When asked if he was vaccinated at a press conference in August, the 38-year-old replied, “Yeah, I’m immunised” – only to test positive for Covid-19 a few months later in November. The athlete then joined the Pat McAfee Show on YouTube in November to defend his decision to not get the vaccine.
7. Matt Damon
In an extremely odd tangent during an interview to promote his movie Stillwater in August, Matt Damon talked about using a homophobic slur at dinner with his family. His daughter (rightly) intervened, leaving the table to write a “treatise” to him about why using that particular word was wrong. Nobody was quite sure why – in the year 2021 – the Hollywood actor would still need that explained to him, but here we are.
8. Justin Timberlake
Before she was finally #FreeBritney in November, Britney Spears got another personal victory earlier this year, when the documentary Framing Britney Spears generated fresh scrutiny on how her ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake had manipulated the media to unfairly tarnish the young pop singer’s reputation following their break-up in 2002. Seriously, who can forget the Cry Me a River music video in which he indirectly accused the pop star of cheating? The 40-year-old singer has since apologised following the social media backlash.
9. Ellen DeGeneres
In a case of literally being cancelled, this lauded LGBTQ+ comedian announced in May that she was ending her long-running talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, after 19 seasons. The announcement came only a year after rumours of toxic workplace and sexual misconduct emerged in 2020, and it’s likely that the show – and its once-beloved 63-year-old host – never recovered from it.
10. J.K. Rowling
The Harry Potter creator was TERF-ed out of public favour in 2020, when she tweeted transphobic remarks on Twitter, much to the dismay of her countless LGBTQ+ fans. This year, we were reminded just how cancelled J.K. Rowling remains, after HBO notably left her off the invite list to the Harry Potter reunion, marking the 20th anniversary of the blockbuster franchise the 56-year-old author created.
11. DaBaby
Following a bizarre homophobic rant at the Rolling Loud Festival in July, music festivals across the United States dropped DaBaby from their line-ups. His credit on the remix of Dua Lipa’s hit song Levitating, was also removed, which effectively erased the fallen 30-year-old rapper from some Billboard charts, reports Uproxx.
12. Sharon Osbourne
While defending her friend and fellow cancelled celebrity, Piers Morgan, against charges of racism on The Talk, Sharon Osbourne managed to brand herself as someone with questionable racial views. Osbourne repeatedly interrupted co-host Sheryl Underwood in a fiery exchange, and soon after, left the show permanently in March. Osbourne has since been accused by actors Leah Remini and Holly Robinson Peete of using racial and homophobic slurs.
Note: This story was originally published on SCMP and has been republished on this website.
