STAGGERING DESCENTS










The Decade's Top 10 Celebrity Falls From Grace
By Neil BulsonAMERICANS ARE ADDICTED TO CELEBRITIES. We love them. But what we love even more than celebrities is tearing them down and destroying them and watching them squirm under the harsh light of fame.
We lap that stuff up and when we are done gnawing on their bones, we move on to the next victim. This decade has seen its fair share of melt-downs, racist rants, obscene whoring and just plain incompetence.
Lives have been ruined, careers have been lost, and in some cases, people have actually died. And it is with that in mind that we here at Heavy bring you the top 10 celebrity falls from grace of the decade.
10. Chris Brown -- How do you derail a promising music career that has people calling you the next Michael Jackson? Easy. You beat down your hot, famous girlfriend and then spend the ensuing weeks and months giving half-assed apologies that no one buys. Seriously, come on dude. Even OJ probably thinks you went a little too far. I mean, it's bad enough to slap a girl around but there were reports that Brown actually bit Rihanna. How out of your own head do you have to be for that to happen? At this point, I'm surprised they don't wheel Brown out in a straight jacket wearing one of those Hannibal Lecter masks every time he needs to make a public appearance.
9. Amy Winehouse -- Believe it or not, there was a brief window where Amy Winehouse was actually a respected musician and not a cracked out shell of a human being. As meltdowns go, hers was quick and spectacular. A taste of success is enough to drive even the most stable people mad, and when you combine that with the taste of the crack pipe, you're pretty much guaranteed to find yourself on the cover of every magazine looking like a junky, zombified version of Marilyn Manson.
8. Phil Spector -- Sure, everyone knew for years that Spector, the revolutionary pop music producer, was a bit of an eccentric. But being an eccentric is one thing. People can overlook that, especially when you are hailed as a genius. But people tend to frown on it when you straight up kill someone. Indeed. It's a little hard to come back from that sort of thing. One day you're known for the Wall of Sound, the next day you're known for the sound of some poor lady's brains hitting the wall.
7. Tom Cruise-- Apparently, at some point this decade, Cruise became tired of being a mere celebrity and decided to try his hand at being insane. Everyone remembers Cruise couch surfing and scaring the holy hell out of Oprah, and then accosting Matt Lauer for not understanding the evils of psychiatry. It was a hell of a coming out party, and though things have quieted down a bit for Cruise in the last couple of years, the damage has already been done. I can just about guarantee you that the next time you are in a movie theater and a trailer for a film starring Cruise comes on that half the audience will laugh.
6. Mel Gibson -- Once upon a time, Mel Gibson was one of the biggest movie stars in the world. And then he decided to make a little movie about the last days of Jesus, and, well, things kind of changed for Mad Max. Of course, it didn't help that Gibson found himself battling accusations that his film blamed the Jews for Jesus' death. That will tend to put a damper on things. So will getting busted for a DUI, calling a female cop Sugartits and then divorcing your wife and knocking up your new Russian girlfriend.
Read the Top 10 Internet Memes Of The Decade.
Read the Top 10 Game-Changing Hip Hop Events Of The Decade.
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