With the news that Macquarie Dictionary has chosen “milkshake duck” as its word phrase of the year, it seems that all too often we hear that our heroes aren’t quite what we had hoped. A “milkshake duck” is the celebrity - or person in the public eye - who we idolise and assume can do no wrong until information comes to light which damages their reputation.
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A notable example would be the red-sweatered, undecided voter Ken Bone - a self-proclaimed “huggable, likeable guy” - who famously quizzed Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on their energy policies. Having agreed to an “Ask Me Anything” session, the Reddit community was able to scrutinise his previously anonymous account. According to the Washington Post, he wrote about “preggoporn” and forging insurance documents and also argued that the killing of Trayvon Martin - an African-American teenager who was fatally shot - was “justified”.
Whether it’s old tweets, leaked messages, or a hidden criminal past, it seems that an increasing number of celebrities and media personalities have got secrets to hide. So with that in mind, let’s take a look at 13 unfortunate truths behind your favourite famous faces.
1. Dog the Bounty Hunter
Duane "Dog" Chapman is a convicted murderer. Anyone who's seen his show will know how much he is opposed to drugs. However, in 1976, Jerry Oliver was shot to death by one of Dog’s friends when they went to buy marijuana from him. Dog was outside in the car at the time but was still convicted of first degree murder. He served 18 months of a five-year sentence and is barred from the UK.
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2. Mark Wahlberg
Mark Wahlberg once beat a Vietnamese man unconscious while swearing at him and shouting racial slurs. Wahlberg was 16 while the victim was middle-aged. He then attacked a second Vietnamese man, punching him in the eye. He was arrested when he returned to the scene and continued to be belligerent and racist. Wahlberg has always said that he blinded the second man but the victim, Hoa "Johnny" Trinh, has since stated that he lost his eye during the Vietnam War. Wahlberg was charged with attempted murder but only served 45 days of his sentence. Since finding fame, he has requested a pardon for his crimes. However, a victim of another incident - where Wahlberg threw rocks at black people - argued: “a racist will always be a racist”. In an unprovoked attack, Wahlberg also broke a man’s jaw - by repeatedly kicking him in the face - while his friend held him to the ground. The pardon was never granted.
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3. 50 Cent
“Even when my daughter walked in the room he still was hitting me,” states 50 Cent’s ex Shaniqua Tompkins about a time when the rapper “lost it”. In 2008, she accused him of setting fire to the home where she lived with their son, Marquise Jackson. He also assaulted his other son’s mother, reportedly attacking model-actress Daphne Joy before causing more than $7,000 worth of property damage. He fled the scene before police arrived but was later charged with one misdemeanor count of domestic violence and four misdemeanor counts of vandalism. He denies being the father of her son.
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4. Jon Hamm
Mad Men star Jon Hamm once beat a man so brutally that he suffered a fractured spine and nearly lost a kidney. Why? Because he had failed to recite an article that Hamm had given him to memorise. It was part of a ruthless college hazing incident after which the fraternity disbanded and thankfully - as far as we know - Hamm hasn’t shattered any spines since.
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5. Sean Connery
James Bond actor Sean Connery believes it’s OK to slap women. In a 1965 interview with Playboy, he stated “an open-handed slap is justified - if all other alternatives fail and there has been plenty of warning. If a woman is a bitch, or hysterical, or bloody-minded continually, then I'd do it.” More than 20 years later, he was interviewed by Barbara Walters and stated that his standpoint had not changed. Following the segment of the interview in the clip below, Connery went on to say that he’s “quite strong” and has a “violent temper” but has never stuck his wife, who is “tiny anyway” and is “totally absorbed” with him. Incredible.
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6. Tupac Shakur
Tupac Shakur was a rapist. In 1993, Shakur and others were charged with sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room. The victim had recently had sexual relations with Shakur but claimed that, in this instance, it was far from consensual. Shakur was convicted of first-degree sexual abuse, the judge describing his actions as "an act of brutal violence against a helpless woman".
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7. Laura Bush
Laura Bush killed a guy. That’s right - the wife of the 43rd President of the United States is responsible for an innocent man’s untimely demise. Two days after her 17th birthday, Bush ran a stop sign and hit another car, killing the other driver. The victim was her close friend and classmate, Michael Dutton Douglas. Both Bush and her passenger were only treated for minor injuries. Almost 40 years later, an open-records request showed that she was never charged.
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8. Don King
Famed boxing promoter Don King stomped an employee to death over $600. He was consequently charged with second-degree murder. Known for his happy grin and wayward haircut, this seems out of character. However, this wasn’t his first rodeo. He had already killed a man years earlier - supposedly in self-defence - by shooting him in the back as he tried to break into King's gambling outfit.
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9. John Lennon
The Beatles star John Lennon beat his wife and kids. The All You Need Is Love singer constantly cheated on his first wife, Cynthia Powell, and would smack their son Julian for things like bad table manners although - according to the Lennons' housekeeper Dorothy Jarlett - they were “if anything, better than average”. He then went on to cheat on new wife Yoko Ono. He admitted to hitting "any woman" explaining: "That is why I am always on about peace, you see. It is the most violent people who go for love and peace." In the same interview, he explains the rationale behind coupling a macrobiotic diet with habitual smoking by stating that he didn’t believe in cancer.
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10. Keith Richards
Rolling Stone guitarist Keith Richards once snorted his dad. As weird as that sounds, it happened. "The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father," he told NME magazine. "He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared, he didn't give a shit. It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive."
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11. Mathew Broderick
Mathew Broderick killed two people in 1987. During a holiday in Ireland with Ferris Bueller's Day Off costar Jennifer Grey, Broderick ignored advice from an off-duty police officer on his unusual route - and subsequently crashed his BMW 316 into an oncoming car. Broderick is thought to have been on the wrong side of the road. The two victims, mother and daughter, were pronounced dead on arrival.
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12. Caitlyn Jenner
Caitlyn Jenner drove into car and consequently killed its driver. According to eyewitnesses, her SUV rear-ended a white car - sending it careering into oncoming traffic. The car was struck by a Hummer and the driver died, a further seven sustaining injuries. Jenner voluntarily submitted to have her blood drawn for a blood-alcohol test. Police said that she wasn’t speeding at the time but didn’t believe her claim that she was being chased by paparazzi.
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13. Samuel L Jackson
Samuel L Jackson once held Martin Luther King Snr hostage. While the ubiquitous actor has been in a number of hostage-related scenes, his first experience of kidnap was the real thing - back in 1969. Along with fellow students at the historically black Morehouse College, he decided to protest the lack of black representation on the governing board and in the curriculum. This was achieved by holding the board of trustees hostage for two days. Somewhat ironically, one of these trustees was Luther King Snr, whose son’s funeral Samuel L Jackson had been an usher at. Jackson was expelled as a result, but the college did eventually change its ways.
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It seems that no matter how much we idolise our favourite celebrities, they aren't the perfect people that one might hope they are. So if you're on the path to fame, remember: drive carefully, respect others, don't hit people and don't be racist. However, if you kidnap the father of a deceased national hero, you'll probably hit the big time as a Hollywood actor.
