Hollywood's Walk Of Shame
The ShowBuzz's Ellen Crean researched and wrote this story.
You can live anything down if you live long enough, according to one old saw. But some deeds seem to leave a deeper imprint on public memory than others, when it's celebrities who do them.
As the fallout continues from Mel Gibson's arrest for driving while intoxicated and his alleged subsequent anti-Semitic and sexist remarks, here's a little walk down the scandal branch of memory lane.
Pee-Wee Herman, whose real name is Paul Reubens, 53, was the host of "Pee-Wee's Playhouse," which was part of Saturday children's programming on CBS. Ostensibly a weekly visit to Pee-Wee's house of fun, the show also drew a large part of its audience from teens and college students who got a kick out of such retro characters as Cowboy Bob (once played by Laurence Fishburne) and Captain Carl (Phil Hartman).
On July 26, 1991, on a visit to his parents in Sarasota, Fla., Reubens went to the movies (the X-rated "Nurse Nancy") and was caught in a police sting, allegedly playing with his private parts. He was arrested, released on $219 bail, and once people realized who it was, everyone went nuts. His TV show was canceled and toy stores took Pee-Wee-related merchandise off the shelves.
His old TV series has just started a new life, in reruns, on the Cartoon Network.
And if you were one of the canny characters who put your Pee-Wee Herman doll on ice, hoping to make a lot of money down the road, be advised that a casual peek at eBay reveals that, these days, you'd be lucky to get your 20-buck investment back.
Eddie Murphy, 45, went for a ride on Santa Monica Boulevard in the early hours of May 2, 1997, and apparently picked up a 20-year-old transvestite, Atisone Seiuli, who went by the name Shalomar. Stopped by police, Murphy said he had only meant to help a woman in distress, but the cops had a warrant out on Seiuli, who they said was a prostitute.
The tabloids had a field day as other transvestites came forward to tell tales on Murphy, who admitted to keeping such company but only so he could offer help to the less fortunate. Murphy sued the National Enquirer and the Globe but eventually dropped both suits. He was never charged with any crime, but was the butt of a lot of jokes, even from his career launch pad, "Saturday Night Live."
These days, Murphy has found career success in family-friendly movies and has gotten raves for giving life to the character Donkey in the "Shrek" movies. He is in the midst of a divorce from model Nicole Mitchell, his wife of 13 years, with whom he has three children.
Seiuli was less fortunate. He was found dead on the street on April 22, 1998, dressed in underwear and a towel, about a year after the incident with Murphy. Police concluded that Seiuli, locked out of his apartment, had tried to swing from a roof into a window and fell to his death.
Woody Allen, 70, has been married for eight years to Soon-Yi Previn, actress Mia Farrow's adopted daughter from her second marriage to composer-conductor Andre Previn. That's a fact that represents the outcome of a scandal that ripped the veil of privacy from the Allen-Farrow relationship and threatened to permanently besmirch the filmmaker's career.
A legal battle supreme followed, as Farrow accused Allen of molesting one of their adopted children and Allen filed for sole custody of three of them. In 1993, Allen lost the custody suit and the charges of molestation against him were dropped.
Allen has continued to make movies and his last two films, "Match Point" (2005) and "Scoop" (2006), have drawn critical acclaim. Farrow, who is 61, continues to appear in movies occasionally. Most recently, she was seen as the nanny Mrs. Baylock in an updated version of "The Omen."
Allen and Farrow have a biological son, originally named Satchel and now called Seamus, who is 18. Farrow has adopted 10 children, some with special needs. Together, Allen and Soon-Yi have adopted two daughters.
Hugh Grant, 45, was arrested June 27, 1995, after police allegedly caught him receiving oral sex in his car from a prostitute who went by the name Divine Brown (real name: Estella Thompson). Faced with a charge of lewd conduct, he pleaded no contest, received two years' probation and was fined $1,180.
At the time of his arrest, his career was on an upswing ("Four Weddings and A Funeral" had made him a big star just the year before) and he and actress-model Elizabeth Hurley had been a couple for eight years, which caused a lot of head scratching and wink-nudge jokes.
He has continued to enjoy prosperity as a movie actor, although he and Hurley eventually broke up. She has recently said she plans to marry boyfriend Arun Mayer, a businessman.
Divine Brown enjoyed a run of good fortune after getting caught with Grant, making the round of talk shows and even starring in an adult film titled "Sunset & Divine" (1996). But she's fallen off the radar screen since, most recently having appeared on the syndicated "Judge Judy" courtroom reality show.
Winona Ryder, 34, got into some trouble Dec. 12, 2001, when the folks at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills called the cops and accused the actress of shoplifting clothes and hair accessories worth about $5,000. Then she was also charged with carrying illegal pharmaceutical drugs without a prescription. She was released that same evening on $20,000 bail.
But, courtesy and good humor notwithstanding, on Nov. 6, 2002, Ryder was convicted of two of three charges against her: theft and vandalism (she had removed security tags from some of the merchandise). She was acquitted of a burglary charge. She got three years' probation and a fine of $2,700. She also had to pay $6,355 in restitution to Saks and $1,000 in court costs.
Lately, she hasn't starred in any Hollywood blockbusters, but she has her own film production company and continues to work steadily, this year in "A Scanner Darkly" and "The Darwin Awards."
Zsa Zsa Gabor, 89: It was the slap heard 'round the world when the aging glamour queen gave a shot to a cop on June 14, 1989. He had stopped her for a routine traffic check and was writing her up for driving with an expired license.
Gabor made quite a media meal out of the whole thing, accusing the Beverly Hills Police Department of acting like the authorities in Nazi Germany. The following Sept. 29, she was convicted of slapping the police officer and driving with an expired license, and was sentenced to 72 hours in jail, in addition to having to pay $13,000 in court costs. She began serving her three-day jail sentence July 27, 1990.
Taking a typical showbiz tack, Gabor poked fun at herself by slapping a police light in the movie spoof "The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear" (1991).
She suffered a stroke in July 2005 and had surgery to clear one of her carotid arteries. Since then, she is said to be recovering at home, with help from her ninth husband, Frederick Prinz von Anhalt.
Nick Nolte, 65, was arrested Sept. 11, 2002, by the California Highway Patrol on the Pacific Coast Highway, the same road where Mel Gibson was stopped. Nolte faced a charge of driving under the influence and his became one of the world's most famous mug shots. (He looked like he had just stuck his head in a blender.) Lab tests indicated he'd taken GHB, a "date-rape" drug.
He went into rehab four days after his arrest, which he called "a wake-up call." The following December, he pleaded no contest to one count of driving under the influence of drugs. He was sentenced to three years probation, including counseling and drug testing.
Since that time, Nolte has become an outspoken proponent of good nutrition and exercise. He keeps an organic garden at his home in Malibu and takes daily doses of vitamins and hormones.
He continues to appear in movies, and even provided the voice of Vincent the Bear in the animated feature "Over the Hedge" (2005).
Robert Downey Jr., 41, went through drug and alcohol problems throughout the '90s, drawing prison time and probation that ended in 2002, not to mention being repeatedly put into rehab through court rulings.
In June 1996, he was stopped for speeding on the Pacific Coast Highway (again, the same road where Mel Gibson was arrested) and cops found cocaine, heroin and a gun in his car. Just a month after that, a neighbor found him passed out on a child's bed. Only three days later, he was arrested for leaving a recovery center.
Throughout all this, he was turning in performances, many of which drew praise from critics and added to his fan base. He was even nominated for an Oscar for playing the title role in "Chaplin" (1992).
In the '80s, he lived for several years with actress Sarah Jessica Parker, and he was married from 1992 to 2004 to Deborah Falconer, with whom he has a son, Indio. In August 2005, he married producer Susan Levin.
Downey recently signed a deal to write a memoir, with publication expected in 2008.