10 Embarrassing Ways Celebs Tried To Regain Lost Fame
Some people just don't know how to let go.
Fame is fleeting. One minute, you're on top of the world, raking in awards for a particular role or a series of them, and the next you're on a celebrity reality show.
Perhaps the most tragic fall from grace was Gary Busey, who was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of the late, great Buddy Holly before becoming the butt of every joke for his eccentricity. We're not saying it isn't easy to laugh at Gary Busey's over-the-top, borderline crazy behaviour on I'm With Busey and, to a lesser extent, Donald Trump's The Apprentice, but it's a long fall from Oscar nominee to being insulted by Meatloaf.
But oftentimes, that fall is well deserved and a long time coming. In those cases, those who taste it fall into the temptations of vanity and fear losing it most of all. "I used to be famous," is a sad thing to say. So they'll resort to anything to get their name and reputation back to what it once was.
Here are the strangest, sometimes disturbing ways people have tried to earn back their fame.
10. O.J. Simpson Wanted To Punk, Not Stab, Strangers
It's hardly controversial to say that a lot of people out there believe O.J. Simpson brutally stabbed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Norm MacDonald made it clear every night during his tenure on SNL.
Simpson started as a running back in the NFL and stayed there for 11 seasons, but non-sports fans remember him best for his acting role as Nordberg in The Naked Gun trilogy. Say what you will about a vicious killer, the man knew how to take a pratfall.
After being publicly disgraced but acquitted of murder, Simpson still wanted to be in the public eye. In 2006, he saw a solution. Ashton Kutcher was Punking people left and right, and it was getting traction. The Juice's straight-man wrote of his experience on the reality show "Juiced". You can imagine how well it went. You're trying to buy a car only to learn that the salesman once put a knife in a woman repeatedly. ZING! Because the one thing O. J. wanted to be remembered for was suddenly surprising people. It aired once on pay-per-view and got a DVD release before fading into obscurity.
Simpson eventually did wind up behind bars briefly, for the much lesser felony of robbery.