Michelle Shocked, John Mayer: Stars' Outrageous Comments

Publish date: 2024-06-07

Michelle Shocked
Punk folk-rocker Michelle Shocked, a onetime gay icon turned born-again Christian, shocked a crowd in San Francisco on March 17, 2013, when she cited Old Testament verses condemning homosexuality and told the crowd she hoped California's Proposition 8, banning gay marriage, would be upheld. “I live in fear that the world will be destroyed if gays are allowed to marry,” Shocked said, then added, "“You can go on Twitter and say ‘Michelle Shocked says God hates f–s.” Most of the audience walked out on the performance, and when Shocked persisted in playing, the manager pulled the plug on her microphone. At least four dates on the tour were canceled following the incident.
John Galliano
Fashion designer John Galliano was fired from Christian Dior after being captured on video in 2011 insulting patrons at a Paris cafe, telling a table of Italian women, whom he assumed were Jewish, "I love Hitler … people like you would be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers would all be f—ing gassed." He was later made to stand trial in Paris for "making racist comments to customers in a cafe" and was found guilty and sentenced to pay 6,000 Euros in fines.
Brett Ratner
Brett Ratner, director of blockbuster fare like X-Men: The Last Stand and the Rush Hour films, found himself the subject of much outrage when, shortly after being named Oscars producer in 2011, he told a Q&A audience that "rehearsal is for f–s." Two years later, Ratner accepted a GLAAD Award, where he said that he "learned a valuable lesson" after using the gay slur in a joke.
John Mayer
An infamous interview with Playboy magazine was deemed misogynist and racist for boastful comments John Mayer made about ex-girlfriends like Jennifer Aniston and Jessica Simpson (whom he likened to "crack cocaine" and "sexual napalm") and African-Americans ("My d–k is sort of like a white supremacist. I've got a Benetton heart and a f–kin' David Duke c–k…"). He also used, and then apologized for using, the N-word in consecutive Twitter posts. Mayer has since apologized repeatedly for the run of questionable judgment, both on stage, and, most recently, in an interview on CBS This Morning, in which he copped to being "a jerk."
Donna Summer
Disco queen Donna Summer never quite recovered from comments made that were critical of the gay community who worshipped her. A born-again Christian in the 1980s, the Village Voice reported in 1983 that Summer told an audience in Atlantic City that "it was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve … I've seen the evil homosexuality come out of you people … AIDS is the result of your sins." In a letter written by Summer in 1989 and addressed to the AIDS activist group ACT UP, Summer expressed frustration over the incident, writing, "I did not say God is punishing gays with AIDS, I did not sit with ill intentions in judgment over your lives."
Mel Gibson
Starting in the 1990s, Mel Gibson offended just about every minority group, beginning with gays and lesbians, after an interview with a Spanish newspaper in which he opined, "They take it up the a– . This is only for taking a s–t … With this look, who's going to think I'm gay?" He was arrested in Malibu for DUI in 2006, during which he delivered an angry, alcohol-fueled tirade in which he said, "F–king Jews … the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," and called a female arresting officer "sugar tits." Taped phone messages left for his ex, Oksana Grigorieva, released in 2010, contained multiple offensive statements, including a suggestion that if Grigorieva were to be "raped by a pack of n—-rs," she would be to blame.
Michael Richards
Michael Richards, beloved to millions as Seinfeld's Kramer, was suddenly a public enemy after a 2006 incident in which he responded to a heckler at the Laugh Factory by repeatedly shouting, "He's a n—-r!" and making reference to a lynching. The incident was caught on video and posted to TMZ.com. Richards later apologized via satellite on Late Show with David Letterman, claiming he wasn't at all a racist but was trying to defuse a group of latecomers' heckling with ever more outrageous behavior.
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot, the blonde bombshell of the '50s and '60s, was repeatedly fined by the French government for inciting racial hatred against Muslims throughout the 1990s and 2000s. In one letter, addressed to France's then-interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy, Bardot, an outspoken animal rights activist, wrote that Muslims were "destroying [France] by imposing their ways." She was specifically referring to the the slaughter of sheep for the Muslim festival of Eid. The comments earned her a fine of 15,000 Euros ($20,000 U.S.).
Paris Hilton
In 2012, an audio recording made in a cab carrying Paris Hilton was released online. In it, the hotel heiress and reality TV star told a friend, "gay guys are the horniest people in the world … They're disgusting. Dude, most of them probably have AIDS … I would be so scared if I was a gay guy. You'll like, die of AIDS." The same day the audio was released, Hilton issued a statement through GLAAD in which she said she was a "huge supporter of the gay community" and called gay people "the strongest and most inspiring people I know."
Tracy Morgan
Tracy Morgan incited outrage after an audience member in Nashville reported that the comedian "said if his son [told him] that [he] was gay he better come home and talk to him like a man and not [he mimicked a gay, high pitched voice] or he would pull out a knife and stab that little n—-r to death." Morgan embarked on a apology tour, but the joke drew criticism from his 30 Rock costar Tina Fey and NBC head Bob Greenblatt, who said, "we do not condone hate or violence of any kind …Tracy's comments reflect negatively on both 30 Rock and NBC."
Victoria Jackson
Former SNL star Victoria Jackson has long offended for her anti-gay, neo-conservative views. In 2011, she turned on the Fox hit Glee, calling a kiss between two male stars on the show, Chris Colfer and Darren Criss, "sickening! And, besides shoving the gay thing down our throats, they made a mockery of Christians — again! I wonder what their agenda is? Hey, producers of Glee – what’s your agenda? One-way tolerance?" She later dismissed accusations that she was homophobic, calling it a "cute little buzzword."
Eminem/50 Cent
Eminem and 50 Cent have both made anti-gay comments over the years. A tweet perceived as mocking a rash of gay suicides was later defended by 50 Cent as being "a joke about oral sex." And Eminem's lyrics have frequently employed the gay slur "fa—t," which the rapper defended to Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes in 2010 by saying, "That word was thrown around so much, you know? Fa—t was, like, it was thrown around constantly, to each other, like in battling, you know what I mean?" Both musicians have since come out in favor of same-sex marriage, however.
Kirk Cameron
Grown-up Growing Pains star Kirk Cameron was asked in 2012 about his views on homosexuality on Piers Morgan Tonight, and after some reluctance, he offered them, calling it "unnatural … detrimental, and ultimately destructive to so many of the foundations of civilization." Asked later that week about the exchange on Today, Cameron offered, "I love all people. I hate no one. When you take a subject and reduce it to something like a four-second sound bite and a check mark on a ballot, I think that's inappropriate and insensitive. The truth is that these are issues that are very personal."