24 Of The Biggest Celebrity Scandals That Rocked 2017

When the Grammy nominations were announced on December 6, 2016, fans knew the big awards battle would be between Beyoncé's Lemonade and Adele's 25. Both artists were nominated for the biggest awards of the night: Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year. By the end of the night, Adele won in each of the big three categories and thanked Beyoncé multiple times during her speeches, highlighting the cultural significance of Lemonade, especially for black women around the world.

After Beyoncé’s loss stunned viewers, many pointed out that Grammy votres are usually older, white males who may not be as inclined to vote for artists like Beyoncé. Neil Portnow, president of the Recording Academy, told Pitchfork, “I don’t think there’s a race problem at all," but many viewers asked for a revamping of the awards and for more diversity among Grammy voters. Nominees for next year’s Grammys, which will take place on January 28, have already been announced and are more diverse than ever, with many crediting a new online voting system for the new changes. According to theWashington Post, the 2018 Grammys will be the first time in 19 years that a while male has not been nominated for Album of the Year

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It was a first in Oscars history. On February 26, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway presented the Oscar for Best Picture. After first announcing La La Land as the winner, it soon became clear that something was wrong, with the film's producer, Justin Horowitz, taking the microphone to officially announce Moonlight as the winner. Instead of the “Best Picture” envelope, a duplicate of the envelope for “Best Actress in a Leading Role” was accidentally given to Beatty and Dunaway instead, causing the historic mix-up.

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Back in April, Pepsi released their latest ad video starring Kendall Jenner. The video begins with protesters in the streets meeting up with police in riot gear. Jenner, modeling by the march, proceeds to take off her wig, join in, and give a police officer a Pepsi to make amends. Per the New York Times, many viewers thought the ad was too controversial, especially since Jenner is not a person of color and wouldn’t necessarily be a subject of police brutality, a reason for a lot of protests this past year. Pepsi later announced on Twitter that they were pulling the ad and Jenner and the company since apologized.

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In early 2017, many social media influencers including Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski promoted a new music festival called Fyre Festival. It was marketed as the most luxurious and high-end festival of the 2017 season, with tickets starting at $1,500 a day and VIP packages starting at $12,000. The lineup included big names like Blink-182 and Major Lazer.

But upon arrival, guests found the festival site nothing like what they were promised. There were disaster tents instead of high-end canopies, cheese sandwiches instead of food prepared by a celebrity chef, and lockers with no locks. Festivalgoers were later stranded on the grounds when flights at the island were canceled. The festival organizers, Ja Rule and Billy McFarland, are now facing several lawsuits, per Billboard. The festival announced, however, that it would return for 2018, and Ja Rule issued a statement saying that, “the event was not a scam…I truly apologize as this is not my fault…but I’m taking responsibility,” making everyone wonder who exactly was running the event in the first place.

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While promoting Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’s latest trailer on Instagram, Chris Pratt received backlash for asking his followers to ignore captions on his video and instead turn the sound up on their phones to enjoy the clip. Many fans commented on the video to remind Pratt that while many viewers would follow his instructions, there are many deaf and hard-of-hearing fans who rely on captions to enjoy the trailers and videos he posts. Pratt later took down the original post and posted a new video featuring him using American Sign Language to apologize to viewers and fans, while also asking for the creators of Instagram to make closed captions available to all their members throughout the app.

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While many Met Gala attendees are notorious for breaking the “no selfie” rule, there was another rule that was broken this year. Celebrities and attendees like Bella Hadid, Rami Malek, Dakota Johnson, and others smoked cigarettes while hanging out in one of the women’s bathrooms inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art. According to the New York Daily News, the New York City Health Commissioner sent a letter to the museum after photos of the well-dressed celebs circulated all over social media. Page Six also reported that museum donors were unhappy with the photos and worried about the damage the smoke could have caused to the museum’s collection.

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The release of Justin Bieber’s remix of the Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee hit, “Despacito,” helped it become the song of the summer. But this doesn’t mean that the artist necessarily knew all the words to his hit song. During a club appearance, Bieber started to sing along with the song, only to openly forget the words and proceed to use words like “burrito” and “Dorito” in the middle of a string of “blah, blah, blahs.” Soon after, Spotify dubbed Bieber a “Latin King” in one of their ads and many took to social media to call out the streaming platform. Fans pointed out that Bieber is not Latin, and there are other artists, including Daddy Yankee and Luis Fonsi, that could have been named in the ad instead. Spotify later apologized for featuring Bieber in the ad in an email to the Huffington Post, saying, “We made a creative decision to feature Justin Bieber in our ad because we wanted to celebrate ‘Despacito’ as a key cultural moment when music genres crossover,” a Spotify spokesperson said. “We realized that this could be seen as culturally insensitive so we have pulled those ads.

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Comedian Kathy Griffin lost sponsorships and jobs due to a photoshoot that took place back in May. The photos, taken by celebrity photographer Tyler Shields, featured Kathy Griffin holding a bloody Donald Trump mask, making it seem like she had cut off his head and was holding it up for the photo. Griffin received instant backlash from both sides of the political spectrum and, according to CNN, has lost several sponsorships and jobs including being replaced by Andy Cohen as co-host for CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live show that she co-hosted with Anderson Cooper. During an interview with the Australian morning show Sunrise, Griffin revealed that she is no longer sorry about posting the photo.

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While promoting her album, Witness, Katy Perry stayed in a Big Brother­-style house, living there for three days straight and allowing her fans and viewers all over the world to watch her life through a live stream. Many guests also stopped by to do some activities with Perry, including James Corden, who played a game of “Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts.” Corden asked Perry to rank her past lovers based on their performance in bed. Although she initially refused to answer the question, Perry eventually gave in and ranked them. Cordon automatically put Diplo in third, saying, “there’s a reason people become DJs.” Perry then ranked Orlando Bloom as second while John Mayer was ranked first. While it was all fun and games, many viewers believed that questions like that should be asked in private and that it’s not okay for people to publicly rank their previous lovers, no matter if they’re famous or not. Perry never responded to any of the backlash, but Diplo responded by tweeting, “I don’t remember having sex.” Mayer brushed off a question about it during an interview with Rolling Stone saying, “I don't have a cool-enough thought for you."

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Kim Kardashian’s makeup line, KKW Beauty, was one of the most highly-anticipated beauty releases of the year. But fans were shocked byone of the promotional photos she posted on Twitter. Many pointed out that Kardashian’s face looked much darker in the photo than it normally appears. Some believed that she purposefully used darker makeup in the photo and accused her of blackface. Others pointed out that she might’ve used self-tanner or improper lighting. Kardashian decided to take the photo down and has since replaced it with another photo of her with lighter skin.

During an interview with the New York Times, Kardashian responded to the backlash saying, “I would obviously never want to offend anyone. I used an amazing photographer and a team of people. I was really tan when we shot the images, and it might be that the contrast was off. But I showed the image to many people, to many in the business. No one brought that to our

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In June, Kendall and Kylie Jenner released a "vintage" tour merch t-shirt collection featuring artists like Metallica, Pink Floyd, Notorious B.I.G., and Tupac Shakur. The shirts featured the artists’ logos or photos of the band, with a photo of Kendall or Kylie or their name superimposed over the original picture in various bright colors. Soon after the shirts were revealed, many pointed out that the Jenners were appropriating black culture by using hip-hop legends’ likeness to sell clothes. In addition to that, Biggie’s mom, Voletta Wallace, revealed that the sisters did not reach out to her or anyone else at her son's estate to get permission to use his likeness on the shirts. Soon after, the sisters pulled the shirts from their collection and apologized, saying, “it was not our intention to disrespect these cultural icons in anyway (sic)…we will use this opportunity to learn from these mistakes."

Photo: Kendall + Kylie

While promoting his second memoir, retired tennis player John McEnroe gave an interview to NPR, which asked why he called Serena Williams the greatest female player in the world, rather than the greatest player in the world. He replied, “if she played the men's circuit she'd be like 700th in the world.” Soon after, many called out McEnroe for not giving Williams the respect she deserves. Williams even replied to McEnroe’s comments on Twitter: “Dear John, I adore and respect you but please please keep me out of your statements that are not factually based,” she tweeted. “I've never played anyone ranked ‘there’ nor do I have time. Respect me and my privacy as I'm trying to have a baby. Good day sir."

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Taylor Swift’s Reputation tour is one of the hardest shows to get tickets for thanks to her Verified Fan program with Ticketmaster. Fans who were looking to get tickets to the tour must participate in activities like watching her music video, buying her album multiple times, or spending on merchandise to get a better chance to snag tickets ahead of everyone else. The system is intended to help fight ticket scalpers, but many outlets like Mashable, the Los Angeles Times, andJezebel have noticed it helps Swift gain higher sales numbers, especially when her album comes out. Swift did end up with the best-selling album of the year, but many feel like it came at the expense of listeners. Her fans, however, defended the singer since there were free activity options as well. Billboard reports that all fans who participated in the program and were verified through Ticketmaster will have a chance at tickets. The top five percent of fans also got to participate in a special pre-sale.

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Earlier this year, Gigi Hadid came under fire for a video in which she appeared to be mocking Asian facial features. After facing backlash online, she issued an apology on the popular Chinese social media app Weibo in both Chinese and English. Despite her apology, the incident later led to the model deciding to back out of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in Shanghai without any explanation, right before she was set to leave for China. According to Page Six, rumors swirled that Hadid was unable to get the required visa needed to travel due to the controversial video.

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Shortly before Meghan Markle’s engagement to Prince Harry was announced, her Suits co-star Patrick Adams got into some trouble with fans of Markle and Harry’s relationship. In honor of 100 episodes of Suits and Markle’s birthday, Adams posted a photo of Markle kissing him on the cheek. He told Esquire, “I had this onslaught of people retweeting the thing, people thinking it was a recent picture, and I just thought, ‘What the hell is going on?’ It was such an innocent moment of sentimentality that was twisted into something totally different.” Adams then deleted all his social media accounts but has since made them active again, even posting a funny reaction to her recent royal engagement.

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During Stephen Colbert’s opening monologue at the 2017 Emmy Awards, the late-night host joked that President Trump only cares about ratings, so the night’s goal was to make this year’s Emmy’s the most-watched ever. In came former press secretary Sean Spicer, much to the surprise of everyone including Melissa McCarthy, who portrayed him on Saturday Night Live. Spicer said, “This is the largest audience to witness the Emmys, period. Both in person and around the world.” Emmy viewers took to Twitter to express their disappointment in Spicer’s involvement in the show and calling the joke a low blow for Colbert and the rest of the Emmys team. According to Vulture, celebrities, including Kal Penn and Seth Rogen, called out the Emmy writers for including Spicer in the first place

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As expected, the cast of Big Little Lies swept the Emmys after gaining tons of critical acclaim. But Nicole Kidman confused Emmy viewers and attendees alike after she kissed co-star Alexander Skarsgard on the lips after his Emmy win. Soon after, Kidman appeared on The Graham Norton Show to clear the air. “I've got an amazing, supportive, gorgeous husband, who I love more than anything in the world. And I gave Alex a congratulatory kiss and he's like a mannequin,” she said.

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Sex and the City fans were hoping to hear news about a possible third movie, after Sarah Jessica Parker told E! News about plans for it at the 2017 Golden Globes. But news that the movie will not be moving forward came just a day after The Daily Mail reported that Kim Cattrall made big demands and was the reason for the movie’s cancellation. Cattrall later dismissed these claims while on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories, revealing that she said no for a whole year and wished Sarah Jessica Parker was nicer to her during this situation. Cattrall also mentioned that she simply just wants to move on from the series, saying, “This isn’t about more money, this is not about more scenes, it’s not about any of those things. This is about a clear decision, an empowered decision in my life to end one chapter and start another. I’m 61. It’s now.”

Kristin Davis, who played Charlotte, expressed her disappointment on her Instagram that a third film will not be made. While Cynthia Nixon, who played Miranda, has not officially commented about the scandal, she was seen with Sarah Jessica Parker just after the news broke.

Photo: New Line Cinema

Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton was stopped at LAX on his way to the second season premiere of the hit Netflix series due to alleged drug possession, per the Associated Press. Deadline reports that Heaton was stopped after traces of cocaine were found on his luggage. Per TMZ, Heaton boarded a plane back to the UK instead of being arrested due to his clean record. Heaton ended up missing the premiere. Heaton later released a statement saying, “My planned travel to the US last week was affected by an issue at U.S. immigration, and I am working to rectify it as soon as possible.” Many fans are wondering if this will affect the shooting of the next season of the show, per Elite Daily, although there has been no word about it yet.

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Riverdale star Lili Reinhart found herself in some hot water after posting a tweet about a Halloween costume idea. The costume in question, featured a young girl as a demon painted all-black, “the color of my soul,” according to Reinhart’s tweet. Soon after, fans of the star started to reply to her tweet saying that the costume may be interpreted as a kind of blackface. Reinhart then took the tweet down and apologized for the image, tweeting, “I did not mean for my tweet to come off that way. I can see how it was interpreted as being insensitive, completely. I saw the pic on a Halloween Instagram and didn't think it would be interpreted as being racially insensitive."

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Kim Kardashian took on a lot of personas this Halloween, including Cher and Madonna. But her costumes in homage to the late singers Aaliyah and Selena Quintanilla drew ire from fans upset that Kardashian dressed up as famous women of color. Backlash came from fans of both artists, who pointed out that she could have dressed up as other music legends. In both instances, Kardashian got support from her own fans who argued she was just honoring the late singers. Kardashian did not respond to any of the backlash from either one of the costumes.

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Music legend Lionel Richie has always publicly supported his famous daughters. But there’s one thing that he apparently won’t openly support: Sophia’s relationship with Kourtney Kardashian’s ex, Scott Disick. During a red carpet interview with E! Online, Sophia told interviewers that her dad is very supportive of her relationship and has no problem with her dating Disick. In the background, however, Lionel can be seen rolling his eyes while turning his hand into a fake gun and pointing it at himself. With a 15-year age difference between Richie and Disick, it’s no surprise why he’s not too into the idea of their relationship in the first place. Us Weeklypreviously reported that Richie joked about Sophia’s and Disick’s relationship earlier in October saying, “I’m scared to death, are you kidding me?"

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The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is always a highlight of the year, and while it usually goes off without a hitch, this year it had several hurdles to go through before, during, and even after the show. Per Vanity Fair, Katy Perry and model Gigi Hadid were reportedly unable to gain visas for the trip to Shanghai and had to drop out. Model Ming Xi’s fall, which many believed was going to be cut during the broadcast, ended up being one of the most talked-about moments when CBS aired it as part of its program. After the show, Women’s Wear Daily reported that Shanghai police broke up the after party just a few hours after it started. Page Six also reported that many members of Victoria’s Secret staff believed that Chinese officials were monitoring their emails leading up to the event. Details about next year’s show are still not available, but hopefully the Victoria’s Secret team has better luck.

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Just when things seemed to be going well for The Weeknd and Selena Gomez, everything changed when she was seen hanging out with ex Justin Bieber again. Soon after, The Weeknd and Selena Gomez confirmed their split. Now it seems that The Weeknd is trying to get back with ex Bella Hadid. Plus, the feud between Hadid and Gomez seems to be nonexistent after Gomez rekindled her relationship with Bieber. While neither of the couples have officially confirmed that they are back together, this is just another piece of the long and complicated story that is the Justin Bieber/Selena Gomez/The Weeknd/Bella Hadid love quadrangle.

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This article originally appeared on Harper's BAZAAR US.