Entertainment

10 Genuinely Surprising Celebrity Scandals You Probably Never Knew About

These days, when you hear "celebrity scandal" your mind immediately goes to the Kardashians. Between Kylie's lips and Kim's butt, that family has enough juicy bits to keep the hungry masses fed for gossip for years to come. But some celebrity scandals are a little more obscure. So obscure, in fact, that you may never have heard of them, despite the fact that they're far more interesting (and many of them having more far-reaching implications) than anything a Kardashians could do. With babies born in prison, soft-core porn and even professional assassins, you're in for some jaw-dropping revelations with the following stories.

What was Cameron Diaz up to before she was a clean cut Hollywood star? Why did Leighton Meester have to take her mother to court? Chuck Berry filmed women doing WHAT in the bathroom? And Woody Harrelson is the son of which famous killer? Are you intrigued yet? Well you should be. Even I was in disbelief as I went about researching the following ten lesser known celebrity scandals. Be prepared to be like, "whhhhhaaaaattttt?!?!?!?!" and kick yourself for ever caring about the state of the Kardashian family's super PG-rated drama.

by Kat George

Rob Lowe Made A Sex Tape With An Underage Girl

It’s pretty hard to image the guy we know as the loveable Chris Traeger from Parks And Recreation doing anything even vaguely subversive, but way back in the days of St. Elmo’s Fire, when Rob Lowe was part of the ’80s Hollywood, the Brat Packer was involved with some mighty questionable behavior. At the 1988 Democratic Convention (which might seem like a strange place for such a scandal to occur), Lowe was in attendance supporting presidential candidate Michael Dukakis. At an Atlanta bar during the convention, Lowe met two young women with whom he proceeded to have sex with (in his hotel, not at the bar) and tape. You know, as you do. Post coitus, when Lowe excused himself to the restroom, the women stole the tape and some of Lowe’s money. Later, Lowe learned that one of the girls was only 16 years old. He was arrested, but only had to perform 20 hours of community service in order to avoid criminal charges. Later he’d tell Oprah it was the “best thing that ever happened to him” as it was the wake up call he needed to get his wildly spiraling life back on track.

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Leighton Meester Was Born In Prison

Leighton Meester’s scandal isn’t really her fault at all: Her mother is a convicted felon, who gave birth to Leighton while she was in prison doing time for smuggling drugs between Jamaica and the U.S. Apparently that didn’t affect Leighton’s upbringing adversely, but the sad saga of her troublesome mother returned to haunt Blair Waldorf again in 2012, when the actress took her mother to court for custody of her younger brother, which she won.

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Benicio Del Toro Has A Child With Rod Stewart's Daughter Kimberly

Of all the scandals that I didn’t know about that I’ve uncovered for this post, this one shocked me the most I think, just because it’s such a random pairing of people involved. Benicio Del Toro is in fact, the father of Kimberly Stewart’s baby, Delilah. Allegedly, the pair had a one night stand in which Kim got preggers. While the parents confirm they are not currently dating (but on good terms), the details surrounding Delilah’s conception are unclear.

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Matt LeBlanc Did Porn

Before he was famous for being playboy Joey “How You Doin’?” Tribiani on Friends, Matt LeBlanc was doing softcore porn in Showtime’s The Red Shoe Diaries. And yes, that joke in Friends where Joey is in a porno is a nod to LeBlanc’s pre-primetime career.

Image: Showtime

Cameron Diaz Was In A Softcore BDSM Photo Shoot

Try as I might, I can’t find the actual photos that came out of this shoot, but I did find some video of an allegedly 19-year-old Cameron Diaz participating in a softcore BDSM (is that an oxymoron?) photo shoot. Somehow she still comes off as freaking adorable, which is the part of the eternal Cameron Diaz charm.

Anthony Harvey/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Chuck Berry Filmed Women On The Toilet

Oy. This one makes me sad. Chuck Berry owned a restaurant in the ’80s called “The Southern Air” and thought it would be a great idea to install cameras in the women’s bathroom to video tape women changing and using the toilet. Either way, it was a giant violation of non-consenting parties privacy and dignity. The whole sordid thing came to light in 1989 when one of Berry’s female cooks sued him when she realized she was being videotaped changing in the bathroom. The case was settled out of court, with Berry paying out $1.3 million to his victims.

Francois Durand/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

David Letterman Had Sex With Female Employees

David Letterman is America’s late-night sweetheart, so it’s unsurprising that you might have missed (or even willfully ignored?) his workplace impropriety. In a nutshell, the story goes that Letterman was blackmailed by someone who knew he was having all sorts of dalliances around the office. The blackmailer was discovered to be Joe Halderman, a producer on the show 48 Hours, and while he was caught and served six months in prison, he wasn’t lying about a very married David Letterman’s various affairs.

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Tim Allen Was A Coke Dealer

Yep, Buzz Lightyear was a big time coke dealer. Tim Allen, one of your favorite TV dads, was busted trafficking 650 grams of cocaine across state lines in 1978. In order to avoid a life in prison, Allen turned into a snitch, giving up his “colleagues” to the cops and only serving 28 months in jail.

Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Matthew Broderick Killed Two People In A Car Accident

Matthew Broderick is so harmless seeming, a lot of people don’t know he’s actually responsible for the deaths of two women in a car accident. While on vacation in Northern Ireland after shooting Ferris Bueller with then-girlfriend Jennifer Grey, Broderick caused the fatal accident while driving in the wrong lane into oncoming traffic. There is speculation that Broderick was not entirely of a sober mind at the time of the crash. A mother and daughter in the car Broderick smashed into both died, and Broderick was charged with “careless driving”, only paying a $175 fine and avoiding jail time.

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Woody Harrelson's Dad Is A Hitman

Woody Harrelson allegedly hides a dark family secret as his legacy (or not-so-secret, seeing as a Google search revealed it so I could include it in this post): his dad was an actual real-life hit man. Harrelson’s father, Charles Harrelson was found guilty of the murder of grain dealer Sam Degelia, Jr. in 1968, a crime which he was allegedly paid to undertake. Shortly after he was paroled for that, he was implicated in the assassination of a U.S. District judge and subsequently served two life sentences. The senior Harrelson had also claimed to be one of the “Three Tramps” who actually assassinated JFK. That’s a big one to take credit for, surely.

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