Not all stars and public figures are created equal. While there are plenty of genuinely great people out there in the entertainment industry, not everyone quite measures up. And though everyone is human and we all make mistakes, some celebrities can, unfortunately, be quite toxic and nasty.
In a handful of brutally honest online threads, fans expressed their frustrations with the entertainment world. People revealed who the rudest, most unpleasant celebrities they’ve ever met are, and we’re featuring their stories below. Scroll down to find out what happened.
#1
Dame Judi Dench once headbutted me at the stage door for asking for an autograph. She then lifted me over her head and threw me into an alleyway dumpster and told me nobody would ever love me.
Wonderful actress though. National treasure.
Image source: james-fahy, Caroline Bonarde Ucci
#2
Bill and Hillary Clinton (when he was candidate Clinton, I think the year was 1992). He was creepy and pompous. She was really warm and friendly. It was the opposite of what I would have expected with them.
We owned a small hotel in a weekend vacation town in California. John Travolta was a huge jerk also Sharon Stone was an jerk. (They were there at different times). They were both demanding and very, very entitled. Woody Harrelson was really nice, kind to staff and paid his own way the entire stay.
Image source: wrappedlikeapurrito, Photographs Relating to the Clinton Administration,
#3
I worked in a business for 35 years that dealt with celebrities, mainly music and movie, but authors, as well. Many of them were in our offices multiple times. Like any human being, one may have been a little off on a particular day, but all except one were generally friendly, down-to-earth and accommodating.
Only one was consistently rude, even to the point of being a complete jerk. Every time. Any time. That would be Robert James Ritchie (Kid Rock). Total waste of space.
Image source: shouldiknowthat, kidrock
#4
Chevy Chase is an insufferable tool.
Image source: Otherwise_Front_315, chevychase
#5
Bobby Flay. Rude if people even recognize him. He was in line at Ben & Jerry’s and 2 older ladies were looking at him smiling and he said , “what are you looking at” in the rudest tone. They were crushed.
Image source: Few-Fish3954, bobbyflay
#6
Nick Jonas. Was working as a hostess in Hells Kitchen and pretty much saw celebrities daily. Nick entered the restaurant and sat outside w who I believe was his manager? He was extremely rude to the staff and was just waiting/looking at passerby’s to be noticed. Just had such an air of arrogance. Loser!
Image source: FrequentDot6076, nickjonas
#7
I used to work Postmates on weekends and during the summer when I lived in LA for school. I ended up delivering to a lot of celebrities, and they were always really sweet to me, probably because I was bringing them food. My usual tactic is to act like I don’t know who they are and just treat them with my usual politeness.
Sarah Silverman is a total sweetheart, and has a cute little dog too. Chace Crawford is really nice — I had a chat with him about where to get good pizza in our neck of the woods, because he was new to town back then. Kristen Bell is also a total sweetheart, and all of them were good tippers.
And I would deliver anything anytime to the Reznor family. I met Mrs. Trent Reznor one evening delivering food, and asked her: “It’s a distinctive last name, any relation to Trent?” She started laughing, and said “Yes, he’s my husband! When he gets home I’m going to tell him our delivery lady was a fan, he’ll get a kick out of that.”
But Conrad Hilton is a smarmy jerk and a total cheapskate. He’s one of the worst tippers I’ve ever seen.
Image source: MizWhatsit, Harry Pot
#8
Louis Walsh. Utterly despicable man.
Image source: horseskeepyousane, Andymiah
#9
Bob Hope – complete jerk to kids the just wanted to say hello. I was shocked, they were crushed.
Image source: OK_Roamer, NBC Television
#10
James Corden. We don’t need to go in to details as it was a friend’s party. Needless to say.. utter jerk.
Image source: ComprehensiveAd8815, j_corden
#11
Donald Trump. In the late 80s/early 90s I had a job in NYC where I interacted with him regularly. Just a total jerk. I have stories.
Image source: Ok_Teacher2895, Shealeah Craighead
#12
J Lo. Worked in the industry. We were doing a commercial for her perfume or something. Her and Mark Anthony were pains in the a*s. He got a PA taken off set. because he didn’t like the way he looked. It was racial I suspect as he was the only one that was a different color than the rest of us. But that’s just my assumption. Maybe our best PA for that shoot too. She was just a general PIA.
At the end when we were wrapping, her entourage (a bunch of her weird cousins and s**t) pulled an Escalade up to her trailer and threw on one of her songs really loud. Then they lined up to sort of form this gauntlet like a red carpet for dignitaries. Mind you, this is on the back lot at Universal or WB. I don’t remember. So there’s nobody around. A few grips and PAs picking up some gear. A janitor maybe. Then these weird girls in like prom dresses lined up with one of her bad songs playing. Waiting for her to come out of the trailer and then walk 15 feet to the car. She doesn’t come out and one of them breaks rank, runs to the car and restarts the song. Then runs back to wait. I was sitting on the back for a cube truck smoking a cigarette with my production manager just blown away.
I worked with many, many celebrities in Hollywood but never saw that level of weird self involvement. I know it’s out there but that was the worst I witnessed that comes to mind right now. This was like 20 years ago btw.
#13
I saw Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at LAX. (I mean, how can you NOT see him!) I got a quick pic while he was in line at a restaurant, but the lady next to me decided to approach him and (I suppose) ask for a selfie. He glared at her and said “get away from me lady”. She was a true fan and heartbroken.
I later learned he had just recently been diagnosed with leukemia, so of course that softened my opinion.
Image source: asap_pdq_wtf, kareemabduljabbar_33
#14
Carly Rae Jepsen came into a cafe I worked in in Vancouver at the height of her Call Me Maybe fame. She paid in American cash, which most places accept in touristy places near the border. She then became pissed off at me because I couldn’t *give her change* in American cash. We don’t have American cash in the cash register because…it’s not America?
Carly Rae Jepsen is from Canada btw
(EDIT: I just looked up her Wikipedia page and apparently she used to work as a barista in Vancouver, which makes this whole situation even more maddening!).
Image source: jar_jar_LYNX, carlyraejepsen
#15
Eminem. I write him all the time and he never wrote me back. I even waited in the blistering cold for 4 hours with my little brother to get his autograph and he just said “no” .
Image source: jawndell, Brendan_linden
#16
Willy Mays – He was my dad’s boyhood hero. So he was appearing at a card show. I paid for a couple of items to be signed and a short meet and greet before the general public. My dad was so funny, he was nervous and excited to meet him. Long story short, we got into the room. My dad handed over the ball he wanted to sign. My father then told him about how much he loved him as a kid, etc etc. Mays never looked up, never made eye contact, nothing. Just “next”. My dad didn’t seem to be bothered and as we walked away I said to the top of this jerk offs head “you don’t have to be such a rude jerk about it.” My dad passed last year and he always talked about how he met his hero, we buried him with the ball.
Image source: patsfan5454
#17
Rosario Dawson was rude as hell when I waited on her at a high-end restaurant in Boston years ago. Leslie Bibb, who was dining with her, was sweet as pie. A-Rod came in once after-hours and was such an entitled jerk, just a condescending person who very clearly thought he was better than everyone around him.
Jennifer Coolidge was LOVELY and had great energy. Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer were insufferable and smug and deeply, deeply impressed with themselves. I didn’t recognize Big Papi as Big Papi and the door forgot to say anything to me about it. He thought it was great when I was like hey, I think I know you from somewhere. Did you used to work the door at _______? His wife, however, was PISSED.
Image source: Octopod_Overlord
#18
Sean Penn. Came to eat at the spot I was CDC at while he filmed around the block.
He sat with 4 people, and would ONLY talk to his assistant who would then tell the waitress what he wanted etc, wouldn’t even look at her.
Image source: Brunoise6
#19
Jeremy Clarkson (Top Gear UK), he shoo shoo’d my daughter away like a dirty fly. She was around 5-6 years old at the time and plucked up so much courage to ask for a photograph.
We were guests at a car show event, so everyone was sitting around in the lounge. His co-host Richard Hammond watched the whole thing, was mortified, scooped my daughter up with hugs, made her laugh, and took lovely photos! Richard is a gem. I had a good chance to observe Jeremy Clarkson’s general behavior to servers and staff, etc, and can say he is rubbish. Also, his face in real life looks like a rotten piece of gammon ham, ugly inside and out.
Image source: Tangerina-1367
#20
I worked production for some televised awards shows & other live events for a time.
Terrence Howard. Had to listen to him berate his own assistants and our staff at an awards show (the DAY before the show) because he couldn’t have extra tickets for his friends. Not like the seats are assigned & charted well in advance because they’re on live camera.
Henry Winkler takes the cake for the most engaging and animated person I immediately could tell was so authentic and lovely. He used to bring his mom back stage every year before one of the shows, and after my FIRST year being there and hanging out with them, he remembered my name the next year.
I also once had to help Jonathan Banks from breaking bad out of the staff door to just get a water bottle & a breath of fresh air, and he spent 20 minutes asking really interesting and thoughtful questions me about my life.
Image source: Ok_Cry2848
#21
I have several friends who went to college with Carrie Underwood and none of them have a kind thing to say about her.
Image source: TopBug5766
#22
Jenna Coleman came to a local convention and as you’d expect, people were bringing her fanart and other Doctor Who memorabilia. Stuff they’d put their souls into, that kind of thing.
Almost the minute the con closed, she shoved it all in the bin, almost literally shoving it off her table with one sweeping movement in front of everyone.
I’m not saying she should have kept and treasured every last piece but at least have the tact and to throw it in the bin backstage or when nobody is looking.
Image source: ballsosteele
#23
My son worked at a high end hotel in our city. Said Chris Rock was absolutely the biggest jerk ever. Rude, dismissive and arrogant. He was followed up by Buzz Aldrin. Nicest celeb? Aubrey Plaza.
Image source: KathAlMyPal
#24
Cher
Many years ago I spent a summer working as a night concierge at a fancy hotel in London. Over that summer I interacted with several famous people – a few that come to mind are Tony Bennett, the members of Metallica, Alan Alda, Sarah Ferguson (she was still the Duchess of York at the time).
Cher was by far the most unpleasant celebrity I dealt with. She was in London promoting the release of the movie “Mermaids”. As a night concierge, one of my responsibilities was to take room service calls after 10pm. One night after I had been off duty for a couple days I answered the room service line and it was Cher. She identified her room number, but her voice was immediately recognizable. She proceeded to order chocolate truffle cake and berate me for the fact that the hotel restaurant didn’t have the cake the previous night (when I was off duty). She cursed me out and threatened to immediately check out of the hotel if we didn’t have the cake.
I was polite and got off the call as quickly as I could. I walked down the kitchen to hand deliver the order. Fortunately they had some cake left.
To this day I loathe her – no other guest treated me so rudely that summer.
Image source: PugDoug
#25
Bill Nye. Absolutely a total jerk. Extremely condescending and rude even when being paid to interact with people. At UCSB he gave commencement address at my sister’s graduation. Afterwards he was to meet the new graduates for a short Q&A. Terrible experience for my sister and dad that tried to get a picture and ask a question.
Image source: jiqiren
#26
Beth Chapman, wife of Dawg “The Bounty Hunter.” I was in a call center, she needed her dishwasher repaired. I wasn’t even supposed to get the call- I’m not in customer service. Apparently customer service didn’t know w*f to do with her either, so they cold-transferred her to me. She wanted a repair guy out NOW. Mind you, this is in Hawaii and there were like 10 technicians total for all appliances, on the entire island she lived on, and they were all booked two weeks out. She was not taking no for an answer, and screamed at the top of her lungs, swearing and cursing at me. (Side note- you can tell a native from a non-native Hawaiian by how chill they are. A native Hawaiian is like, “Ok, cousin, whenever you can fit me in is fine.”)
I ended up scheduling a guy to go out on overtime, with his and his manager’s permission, two days later. Calling her up to tell her the guy was on his way was a second treat, where I got my ear blasted for being rude, inconsiderate, not helpful, and called every name in the book. Technician I sent out got another earful. I made sure he got to go home early that Friday as an apology.
I heard from a lot of celebrities and their assistants back in those days. You know who was awesome? Charo. I had to schedule a half a day every time she had her stuff serviced, because my techs wouldn’t leave. Apparently she put out a full spread every time they visited.
Image source: KeiylaPolly
#27
Kanye, and way before he went completely nuts so I can’t imagine how insufferable he would be now. I had many many interactions with him when I was working in a service industry role about 20 years ago.
Image source: transglutaminase
#28
Johnny Cash was one of the nicest people around. Also: I met Lisa Marie Presley years ago and she was very nice and down to earth.
Image source: Ill-Aardvark6734
#29
I had just started working at a pharmacy and am actor from CSI Miami came in to pick up something and got pissy about it not being ready yet and pulled the “Do you know who I am” card. I, in fact, did not know who he was. I replied that I was sorry, I was new there and didn’t know all the regulars yet but his script would be done in 10 minutes.
He looked kind of deflated after that reply and wandered off. It wasn’t until he was gone that someone told me who he was. Never watched the show myself.
Image source: rwp82
#30
Michael Jordan. Ate at a steakhouse I worked at racked up a 6000 dollar bill and left me and my coworker zero. Zero. Needless to say I took that personally.
Image source: Funktackular
#31
Once ran into Bryan Cranston who was an absolute delight but since he’s the only celebrity I’ve ever met he wins by default.
Image source: Redirkulous-41
#32
Will Smith went to an event and hit the presenter…
Image source: Azraello
#33
When I was a kid I meet Bill Cosby way before the allegations came out. I loved the Cosby show. He was such a jerk to an 8 year old me I never watched the show again. Was not surprised when they all came out later.
Image source: TheReal-Chris
#34
My husband used to work in a job where he dealt with a lot of celebs. He couldn’t stand Jerry Seinfeld, Rachel Ray (her husband too) and Demi Lovato. His coworker also had a terrible experience with Rita Wilson.
Nicest ones he encountered: Jon Stewart, Ken Jeong, Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore.
Image source: nicohubo
#35
Kevin Hart – rude to the locals in my town by pretending to be a wine snob.
Image source: Luciferaeon
#36
I used to work as an usher at a UK theatre part time when I was a kid, so I have met a LOT of celebrities.
Number 1 rudest celeb : Warwick Davies. Rude, obnoxious, definitely had ‘small man syndrome’.
On the flipside , nicest : Joe Pasquale or Harry Hill.
Image source: No-Strike-4560
#37
This was like 25 years ago in Naples Florida. Outdoor seating at an expensive restaurant. Judge Judy sitting at the table next to me. She had a little dog with her and I said, oh can I pet your dog? She snapped No! I was a young woman at the time and I remember being stunned at how rude she was about it. Not very exciting, but that’s my story.
Image source: ivedonethisbefore68
#38
I meet a lot of celebrities through work and have to understand that everybody has an off day and that they’re humans but Dan Fogler and Warwick Davies have been consistently rude and dismissive. Steve Cardenas is up there too. The nicest celebrity I’ve ever met is undoubtedly Kevin Smith.
Image source: Complex_Video_8792
#39
The only celebrities I’ve ever met have been hockey players and all of them are really nice.
Image source: LogieThePerogie
#40
Sadly, it’s Danny Elfman. I have so much respect for the guy and Oingo Boingo is one of my favorite bands. Vatos and the horn section guys were really nice though.
My date and I were waiting to talk to him when he was really rude to a fan. He was making fun of the poor guy to his face.
And when my date asked him what inspired the song War Again. He leaned back and flailed his arms in the air and loudly said “Oh, don’t even ask me!!”
I was so shocked.
Image source: HiAndStuff2112
#41
Ok, not the rudest one but the best one!! (I know this is the wrong post to reply to, but my fav celeb story). One time I met Ray liotta at a nice bar in Spokane WA where him and Cuba gooding Jr? I think were shooting a movie. He walks up to the bar and tries to sit in an empty seat. Some uptight guy immediately tells him no and that he’s saving it for his girlfriend. Ray then goes into, ‘is this your seat? Is your name on this seat’ etc etc just like in Goodfellas! I was dying. After this ray goes to sit by himself in a booth near the bar and sulks for like 20 min. I’m there with my friends and go outside for a smoke. I see a cluster of little pink flowers and pick them. WHen I come back in, I put in down on ray’s table and go back to the bar. After 10 min or so, I look over and see that he’s still upset. So I walk over and say, ‘do you not like your flower?’ He takes a big sigh and says, ‘yes I do.’ After this he perks up and joins me and my friends at the bar! It was so exciting.
Image source: Ill_Math2638
#42
I was headed in a bagel shop in Marin Ca. To do some work (at the time I did refrigeration work walk in coolers etc…) I had a lot of tools slung over me cause I didn’t want to walk to my truck) I dropped my gauges this man behind me picked them up and carried them into the bagel place. I turned to thank him. Mr robin williams. Such a nice guy.
Image source: Mindless_Road_2045
#43
Just to inject a little good karma into this thread, I went up to Muhammed Ali in an airport when I was a little kid. This was late ’70s, so he may have been the most famous person in the world at the time. He not only gave me an autograph, but invited me to sit down with him and his entourage for 10 minutes and bought me a Coke.
Image source: Awalawal
#44
J-Lo
I’d heard she was bad, but doing security for 3 days I saw her treat everyone around her like dirt. 2 years later, I declined the detail, but everyone who worked it said she was consistent.
Image source: GloveBatBall
#45
David Spade.
Image source: Nauglemania
#46
Heather Graham. We ran into her in New York a few years ago and didn’t ask her for anything, no photo or autograph, we just said hello, and she literally scoffed and laughed, looked us up and down and turned her back.
Image source: MPD1987
#47
I once saw Kevin hart at a Walmart and asked for a autograph.. he started shouting something like
” Not every short black man you see is Kevin hart ‘ .
Image source: Bennevada
#48
I met essentially everyone in music between 1991 and 2001, inc a weekend with KISS, and whilst almost everyone was a jerk… Gene Simmons ost perhaps the worst person on planet Earth.
Image source: Former_Balance8473
#49
Bruce Willis by a country mile.
Image source: Cathcart1138
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