Celebrity turkeys of 2017

By Mark Gray 8:22am PST, Nov 20, 2017

It's that time of year again. The time when we are all thankful for what we have. In Hollywood, they, too, are thankful. Some people, however, seem to have forgotten their manners and instead made some really boneheaded moves. In honor of Thanksgiving, we're listing 17 of the biggest celebrity turkeys of 2017, starting with James Corden. Pretty much ever since Donald Trump got elected, the late-night host (like so many others) has taken the president to task. He also blasted White House staffers, including (now former) White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. However, at an Emmys afterparty in September, James got all sorts of chummy with Sean and kissed him on the cheek. He lost fans that day. You can't blast the guy and then become BFF with the guy. Twitter let James know it, calling him everything from a "fascist kisser" to a "spineless hypocrite." This wasn't about political beliefs — it was about not practicing what you preach.

It's one thing to get arrested, but it's another thing to do what Shia LaBeouf did. The oft-troubled actor was arrested on July 8 in Georgia for public intoxication, disorderly conduct and obstruction. In the process of being arrested, he went on a homophobic and racist tirade. Police bodycam video showed Shia yelling at an officer. "I have rights! I'm an American. You got me in my hotel, arresting me in my hotel for doing what, sir?" he shouted. A video from inside the police car was also released. In it, Shia did more of the same, shouting at a white police officer for putting his "own kind" in jail. He also ranted about paying his taxes. Inside the police station (in yet another video), he told a black police officer that he was going "to hell" and said what he did was "savage" because of the color of his skin. He told a white officer that his wife preferred men of other races (of course, he said this using NSFW language). Over the course of the arrest, he called officers "cowards," "pirates" and "slimy," among other things. On July 12, Shia apologized and said he had hit a "bottom." "My outright disrespect for authority is problematic to say the least, and completely destructive to say the worst. It is a new low. A low I hope is a bottom," he said. "I have been struggling with addiction publicly for far too long, and I am actively taking steps toward securing my sobriety and hope I can be forgiven for my mistakes."

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"Counting On" star Derick Dillard, who's married to Jill Duggar Dillard, attacked transgender teen Jazz Jennings, whose reality show is also on TLC, in a series of tweets starting on Aug. 2. Jazz was just 16 years old when Derick, 28, decided to share his unpopular opinion. So what happened? After TLC tweeted about Jazz's show, Derick tweeted, "What an oxymoron… a 'reality' show which follows a non-reality. 'Transgender' is a myth. Gender is not fluid; it's ordained by God." Fans blasted Derick (many equated it to cyberbullying) and told TLC to take a stand. As fervor built, Derick responded, "I want to be clear. I have nothing against him. I only have issue with the words and definitions being propagated here." Yes, he said "him." That, of course, made more people angry since he used the pronoun "him" and not "her." One of the more savage responses to Derick's posts read, "I think you should consider transitioning into a real man." But Derick had more to say. On Nov. 9, he zeroed in on Jazz again. "I pity Jazz 4 those who take advantage of him in order 2 promote their agenda, including the parents who allow these kinds of decisions 2 be made by a child. It's sad that ppl would use a juvenile this way. Again, nothing about him, just unfortunate what's on tv these days," Derick wrote. Two days after his tweet, TLC announced it had cut ties with the father of two. "We want to let our viewers know that Derick Dillard has not participated in 'Counting On' for months and the network has no plans to feature him in the future. We want to reiterate that Derick's personal statements do not reflect the views of the network," TLC tweeeted. "TLC is proud to share the story of Jazz Jennings and her family and will continue to do so."

Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner had a really bad idea in June. They decided to plaster their faces over iconic images of legendary bands and musicians like The Doors, Ozzy Osbourne, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur. They did this without permission from anyone. On June 30, The Doors revealed plans to sue the reality stars for using the band's likeness. Biggie's mom, Voletta Wallace, took to Instagram to blast the women, calling their shirts "disrespectful, disgusting, and exploitation at its worst!!!" Ozzy's wife, Sharon Osbourne, took to Twitter to scold the reality TV stars. "Girls, you haven't earned the right to put your face with musical icons," she wrote. "Stick to what you know…lip gloss." The sisters eventually apologized and pulled the shirts. "These designs were not well thought out and we deeply apologize to anyone that has been upset and/or offended, especially to the families of the artists," they said in a statement.

Mike Epps did one of the dumber things of the year on March 31. While performing a comedy show in Detroit, a man came on stage with a kangaroo on a leash. Mike seemed to egg on the handler to make the kangaroo a part of the show, and the animal appeared to attempt to get off the stage several times, looking like it was in distress. Video showed Mike and the handler both roughly yanking on the animal's leash. A few days later, Mike was apologizing. He said he meant no harm and realized it was a terrible decision to allow the kangaroo on stage. He said he's really upset not only by the backlash, but by how he handled the situation. He planned to donate cash to a kangaroo foundation as a mea culpa.

Everyone knows that you can't threaten the president of the United States. You can't joke about threatening the president of the United States. You can't infer that harm might befall the president of the United States. Kathy Griffin must have forgotten. On May 30, photos taken by controversial photographer Tyler Shields were released showing Kathy holding what looked like the bloodied, decapitated head of Donald Trump (it was actually a mask). Almost immediately, she was condemned for the photo. Her pal, journalist Anderson Cooper, even called it "disgusting" and "completely inappropriate." Kathy apologized. "I'm a comic. I cross the line. I move the line, then I cross it. I went way too far," she said. "The image is too disturbing. I understand how it offends people. It wasn't funny. I get it. I've made a lot of mistakes in my career, I will continue." She was investigated by the Secret Service (as always happens when you even pretend to harm the president). Backlash forced promoters to cancel her comedy shows. Trump, not surprisingly, wasn't pleased. About three months after the photo and the apology, however, Kathy told Seven Network in Australia, "I am no longer sorry. The whole outrage was B.S., the whole thing got so blown out of proportion and I lost everybody."

Rob Kardashian was really mad at his baby mama in July. But rather than letting things pass or talking to her privately, the reality star decided to take to social media and post nude images of her for all the world to see. Remember, this is the mother of his child. Twitter and Instagram took the images down pretty quickly. Chyna, as you can imagine, was not pleased and was granted a restraining order against Rob a few days later. She told ABC News that she was "devastated." Rob's attorney, Robert Shapiro (yes, THAT Robert Shapiro) spoke to reporters after the restraining order was granted. "I personally on Mr. Kardashian's behalf apologized and offered our regrets for what has taken place in the past couple of days," he said. Rob didn't attend the hearing. Chyna still reportedly plans to go forward with a revenge porn case and in the meantime, she and Rob are suing one another.

Many Houston residents were left displaced and seeking shelter after Hurricane Harvey made landfall in August and record flooding followed. Celebrity pastor and televangelist Joel Osteen has a massive church — a former NBA stadium — in downtown Houston that seemed to be relatively unharmed by the flood (in fact, it's elevated). With floodwaters rising, the megachurch sent out a tweet that said, "Lakewood Church is inaccessible due to severe flooding!" Several people recorded videos of themselves approaching the church. It was wet, but very accessible. People approached the doors, which were locked. Videos emerged showing it was dry inside. After Joel and his church began getting blistered in the media, he said, "We have never closed our doors." But somewhere along the way, he all but acknowledged the doors were closed, claiming the state asked him to close them. He also said he was a victim of "misinformation." In October, he offered yet another response, telling the Houston Chronicle, "The city set up a shelter about four miles from [Lakewood] that can house 10,000 people… they didn't need us as a shelter at that point." You know you messed up when you're still defending your non-action months later. Just sayin'…

Ellen DeGeneres felt the wrath of social media in late October. She sent out a tweet that, in terms of words alone, was seemingly harmless. "Happy birthday, @KatyPerry! It's time to bring out the big balloons!," the daytime host wrote. But along with the tweet, she posted a photo of herself, wife Portia de Rossi and pop star Katy Perry. In the image, Ellen is staring at Katy's breasts. While most agreed that the message was in jest, the tweet didn't sit well with many because, at the time, Hollywood was still reeling from the Harvey Weinstein sexual misconduct scandal. Many saw a double standard. This was just a bonehead move based on the timing. "If a man made this joke, Ellen would lead the cries of 'SEXIST PIG!,'" Piers Morgan said. Others stated similar things and some began calling her "Ellen Weinstein."

Kim Kardashian West should probably have just stayed quiet when it came to makeup artist Jeffree Star. In August, Kim was promoting her new powder contour kits when Jeffree implied publicly that he wasn't impressed. Kim's fans blasted him, bringing up the fact that he has made racist comments in the past. Kim, rather than ignoring him or bringing up his previous comments, defended him and even thanked him. Fans then turned on Kim, who walked it back with an apology. "So I really wanted to apologize to you guys and my fans for defending a situation yesterday that I really didn't know enough about," she said on Snapchat. "I just feel a bit naïve, and I do want to really apologize for me feeling like I had the right to say 'get over it' in a situation that involves racism. I just don't really feel like I have the right to speak on that, and I really, really, really am sorry. From the bottom of my heart, I've always been about positivity and I've never been a negative person, so my whole thing was: 'Hey guys, I don't want to see negativity in my timeline or my mentions, let's just move forward — let's be positive and move past this.'" This was just poorly played on so many levels.

Kevin Hart did wrong and he knew it. In September, the funnyman apologized and it was no laughing matter. He all but admitted he cheated on his pregnant wife, Eniko, while in Las Vegas a few weeks prior. Kevin didn't actually say he was unfaithful (multiple reports accused him of it though, and a woman later came forward to claim they'd had sex) but he certainly alluded to it. "I made a bad error in judgement and put myself in an environment where only bad things can happen, and they did," he said in an Instagram apology, admitting that he was "wrong." He added that "at the end of the day, I gotta do better." The Blast reported that Kevin apologized profusely and made amends with Eniko, who stuck by him.

First some background… Last year, rapper Azealia Banks claimed that Russell Crowe spit on her at a hotel. Wu Tang Clan member RZA said that Russell spat AT her, not ON her. This October (yes, she was still harping on it), Azealia tweeted, "Nobody understands how bady I wanted to die the moment rza LIED and told the world I deserved to be spat… @RZA I HOPE YOU DROP DEAD." Yup, she said "drop dead." RZA's publicist blasted Azealia's behavior, but said the rapper would still continue to support her. That's called the high road. Azealia doesn't seem to know much about that.

James Woods hasn't been in the news lately, but he made the wrong kind of headlines in May. The actor posted a GIF of Anderson Cooper as the CNN journalist rolled his eyes at Donald Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway during an on-air interview. James captioned it with a very homophobic and boorish message (one that is not fit for print). James didn't apologize and was hardly contrite. In fact, he doubled down. "The scariest thing for #liberals when they have a hissy fit is that moment when nobody cares. For the record I couldn't care less…" he tweeted. It's one thing to stand by your beliefs. It's another to be classless.

"Big Brother" contestant Jason Dent came under serious fire for making idiotic comments on a live Internet feed and laughing about it. The reality TV villain laughed about having sex with a fellow housemate's wife and forcing the guy's kids to watch by tying them up. The reason for the terrible joke? The other housemate broke an allegiance to him. Not only is the joke tasteless and dumb, but the act is also criminal. Jason's family knew he was wrong and went into damage-control mode, tweeting that the comments were "taken slightly out of context" and done in "jest."

Tyrese Gibson had a bizarre year, and much of it was self-inflicted. In September, he took to Instagram to publicly blast his "Fast and Furious" franchise co-star Dwayne Johnson for not returning his calls and for agreeing to star in a "Fast" spinoff based on his character, Hobbs. "If you move forward with that #Hobbs Movie you will have purposely ignored the heart to heart moment we had in my sprinter," Tyrese wrote on the The Rock's Instagram. "I don't wanna hear from you until you remember what we talked about — I'm on your timeline cause you're not responding to my text messages — #FastFamily is just that a family……. We don't fly solo." It came off like sour grapes. The same month, Tyrese's personal life made news. The actor's ex-wife claimed he abused their 10-year-old daughter and was granted a temporary restraining order requiring him to stay away from her and their little girl. In late October, Tyrese and his ex headed to court while she vied for a permanent restraining order. But one day before his daughter was set to testify on the alleged abuse (he was later cleared), Tyrese hired a plane to fly a banner over her elementary school. The banner read: "NO MATTER WHAT, DADDY LOVES YOU SHAYLA." Technically, he didn't go near his daughter, but this was a classic turkey move. Then in mid-November — after publicly claiming pals Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith had given him $5 million to help with his legal fees (which apparently was not true) — he finally got some good news: A judge reinstated 50/50 custody of his daughter beginning in January.

Caitlyn Jenner has done a few boneheaded things this year. First, she released a book in April in which she deeply criticized Kris Jenner… you know, the mother of two of Caitlyn's children. Cait said it was Kris's fault that Caitlyn fell out of touch with one of her sisters. It's Kris's fault that they became friends with O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson. There are others. Again, this is the mother of two of Caitlyn's children. But her biggest blunder could have been this incident from early August: A few days after blasting President Trump for his ban on transgender troops in the military, Caitlyn was spotted wearing a red hat featuring the president's "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan. Remember, she was a supporter of the prez during his campaign, much to the dismay of the majority of the trans community. On July 26, she tweeted, "America's 15,000 trans service members and 134,000 veterans are much braver than you, Mr. Trump; my allegiance is with them and our country, not you." But there she was on Aug. 4 wearing a hat supporting Trump. She said she didn't even realize what she was wearing, only that the hat was red. "I apologize to all of the trans community," she said. "I made a mistake. I will never do it again and I'm getting rid of the hat."