When it comes to celebrities, people really will believe anything about them, no matter how bizarre or patently untrue it is. Because of the private, gilded lives that the rich and famous lead, it's pretty easy to imagine a whole lot of secrets that they'd like to keep clandestine. These tall tales and urban legends are the very things that PR agencies dread having to face. Furthermore, even once they've been proven to be false, the negative associations can ruin careers.
Now I love gossip and speculation as much as the next guy, but I draw the line at believing every "I heard it from a friend" story that's fed to me. In Hollywood, rumours that have been widely reported for years often turn out to have a firm basis in reality, but some of these purported "truths" seem far-fetched. Scroll down to check out some of the most ridiculous examples.
1. Richard Gere and the gerbil
Richard Gere has been plagued with a rumour that he once inserted an innocent rodent up his anus. It has become totally ingrained in Gere-based hearsay and has probably led to him being banned from Californian pet shops. The issue is, however, that it's totally and utterly untrue. Despite the nauseating number of objects that surgeons have extracted from asses over the years, none of them have ever dealt with a gerbil, or any kind of small furry animal. When gossip columnist Mike Walker attempted to verify the rumours in the 90s, he came back empty-handed. "I've never worked harder on a story in my life," he stated, adding: "I'm convinced that it's nothing more than an urban legend".
[[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/BXMNPJbB3SB/]]
2. OJ Simpson is Khloe Kardashian's real father
As portrayed in Netflix drama American Crime Story,
Kim Kardashian's father Robert Kardashian and OJ Simpson were close friends prior to OJ's criminal conviction. Robert was a big part of the so-called "Dream Team" of attorneys who represented Simpson in the Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman murder trial. But how much of a friend was OJ? Some people believe that he may have had an affair with Kris Jenner, and cite her daughter,
Khloe Kardashian's, resemblance to the former football star as evidence. As far as we know, this is complete bunkum and OJ has publicly denied the rumours, even going so far as to state that he will go through a paternity test to prove that Khloe isn't his child.
[[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/BdYhszPFh_w/]]
3. Beyoncé faked her pregnancy
Beyoncé is one of those artists who everyone knows has a pretty tight lid on her public image; but even her media-manipulation couldn't stop the public getting weird about her baby bump. The rumour goes that Queen B wasn't actually pregnant with her daughter Blue Ivy and that a surrogate actually carried her child to term. Adding fuel to this rumour was footage of Bey in an October 2011 interview which seemed to show her pregnant belly folding in on itself, prompting fevered speculation that she was wearing prosthetics. The prosthetics theory has never been verified, and for some reason, none of the people who claimed that Beyoncé faked Blue Ivy's birth have had anything to say about the subsequent birth of two young twins. Hmmm, I smell something that rhymes with "toolkit".
[[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/BP-z-ABDiSv/]]
4. Louis Tomlinson's baby is fake
If you thought that the Beyoncé conspiracy was overly-elaborate, then just wait until you hear this. This theory, which has been dubbed "Babygate," claims that former One Direction member, Louis Tomlinson, faked the birth of his baby, Freddy Tomlinson, so he could distract fans from an ongoing affair with Harry Styles. Supporters of this theory point to shaky evidence such as inconsistencies with tweets announcing Freddy's birth, as well as that the child allegedly seemed photoshopped or superimposed in an image of Louis holding his newborn. Some claimed that it was just the pregnancy that had been faked, others believed that baby Freddy was actually a doll or some kind of elaborate animatronic. The fact that Freddie is now two years old, and growing like a human does, has done a lot to kill Babygate off.
[[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/BCZO4IOFUTl/]]
5. Taylor Swift is a professional beard for gay men
We've written before about how
Taylor Swift seems to inspire paranoia and suspicion in the media, as well as numerous conspiracy theories. Taylor's many dalliances with male celebrities have been well reported on thus far, but is there another reason why she never stays single for long? Some folks believe that Swift is actually acting as a beard for closeted gay celebs who want to fly under the radar. Tay-tay has apparently been pretending to date these dudes in public, allowing them to pursue their true sexual predilections elsewhere. Many gay men, including famous musicians such as
Elton John and George Michael, have stayed in relationships with heterosexual women; but Taylor would have had to be involved with a statistically improbable number of famous and secretly-gay men. Plus you have to ask: what's in it for her? It's not like she needs the publicity or anything.
[[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watchv=3tmd-ClpJxA]]
6. Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer
This rumour is probably the most ridiculous so far, and yet there are people out there who genuinely believe that Ted Cruz once terrorised the population of San Francisco back in the 70s. You know when a stupid joke gets out of hand and people take it seriously? That's pretty much what happened here. On March 14, 2013, the Twitter feed "RedPillAmerica" posted a tweet claiming that an upcoming Cruz speech began with him stating “this is the Zodiac speaking”, in the same manner as the infamous serial killer. The tweet went viral and soon people all over social media were out claiming, unironically, that Cruz was the Zodiac killer. The joke was acknowledged by Cruz after he tweeted an image of one of the Zodiac's cyphers and since then, the rumours have ceased. Obviously, Cruz is not the Zodiac: he was born in 1970, two years before the first murders attributed to the Zodiac killer.
[[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watchv=bHbk7EKWDmM]]
7. Marilyn Manson had his bottom ribs removed
This rumour has been around since I was a kid: that metal rocker Marilyn Manson had two of his bottom ribs removed to make him more flexible, so he could orally pleasure himself. Unsurprisingly, this rumour is completely untrue. In his official autobiography, The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell, he writes: "If I really got my ribs removed, I would have been busy sucking my own d*ck on The Wonder Years instead of chasing Winnie Cooper." This was a reference to another rumour that Manson was a child actor in the TV series, The Wonder Years. He continued: "Plus, who really has time to be killing puppies when you can be sucking your own dick? I think I'm gonna call the surgeon in the morning."
8. Oprah is gay
Oprah Winfrey is probably one of the most powerful women working in the media today, and now that there's talk of her running for POTUS sometime in the near future, she's been in the news even more than usual...and so have the dirty rumours about her, not one of which have been proven to be true. Amongst these rumours is the story that Oprah is actually a closeted lesbian, that she once harboured a pretty serious crush on television journalist Diana Sawyer and had an affair with her friend Gayle King. King herself was forced to quash these rumours in 2009, when she stated: "If we were gay, we would tell you ... We wouldn’t try to keep that a secret because there’s nothing wrong with being gay. So if we were, we would tell you. The truth of the matter is we’re not. It’s hard enough for me to get a date on a Saturday night as it is." I have to say that she's probably right: I can't see Oprah of all people feeling that he has to hide his sexuality.
But if there's one celebrity who has inspired more rumours than anyone else, then it's definitely US president
Donald Trump. Ever since the release of the scandalous, tell-all book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, the conspiracy theories surrounding the Republican leader have gotten more and more ludicrous. If you don't believe me then check out
these 11 bizarre theories surrounding Trump's presidency.
