Gross Things Celebrities Actually Did In Public

You might assume that stars who are rich and famous would tend to be on their best behavior while out in public due to the fact that they're almost always being followed by fans, scrutinized by followers, and recorded by paparazzi. But living in the constant view of cameras doesn't seem to stop some celebrities from indulging in seriously questionable conduct. 

Some celebs have gotten themselves into trouble due to their over-the-top antics and wild ways. While some famous faces have apologized after the fact, others seem to find nothing wrong with their cringe-worthy shenanigans. Although these crude gestures, nasty actions, and offensive attitudes may make you look at your favorite stars a little differently from now on, you definitely want to check out the dirt on these super gross things celebrities have actually done in public.

Justin Bieber found himself issuing an apology in 2016 after the "Sorry" singer and his entourage were kicked out of the Mayan ruins in Tulum, Mexico for behavior that was arguably offensive and undeniably immature. According to TMZ, the group was spotted walking around the historic site with open bottles of beer before Bieber climbed a 700-year-old stone wall and pulled his pants down. What was he thinking?

The crooner clued us in during an interview with GQ: "Me and my boys have been doing this thing where we moon each other whenever we take a picture. ... And I guess [the guards] thought that I was being disrespectful to the site or whatever. That's not what I was doing." Although the Biebs admitted that his initial thought was "to smack [the guards] around a little bit," he instead decided to remove himself from the situation before it escalated. "I realized, you know what, obviously it looked bad, and it was disrespectful, because I was in their sacred area, showing my a** and stuff," he said. "I'm truly sorry for that. I never meant to disrespect anybody."

Pop star Ariana Grande faced a baked goods-based backlash in 2015 when she was caught on video seemingly licking donuts in a California pastry shop. While that would be totally fine if she had purchased the tasty treats for herself, it turned out that the "7 Rings" singer was strangely touching random donuts on the counter with her tongue. Sources told TMZ it was part of a game of truth or dare. When one of the shop's employees came into view with a fresh tray of pastries, Grande could reportedly be heard telling her companion, "What the f*** is that? I hate Americans. I hate America."

The pint-sized starlet apologized to the public after #DonutGate blew up in a big way. "Seeing a video of yourself behaving poorly, that you have no idea was taken, is such a rude awakening, that you don't know what to do — I was so disgusted with myself. Not here to make any excuses or justify my behavior, because I can't." She also tweeted, then deleted a statement (via the Los Angeles Times) that claimed she's "an advocate for healthy eating" who is upset by obesity rates and "the poison that we put into our bodies." As for the shade she threw at the United States, the singer stated that she is "EXTREMELY proud to be American" and pledged to "clean up" her mouth and "set a better example."

Back in 2014, Rosie O'Donnell was stirring up awkward situations on-air as one of the hosts of The View. During one of the daytime talk show's "Hot Topics" segments, Rosie and the rest of the female panelists fielded a question from a viewer. The group was asked about the grossest thing they've ever done at work. O'Donnell, who is well known for being brazenly and blatantly honest, took a moment to consider her options, sniffed slightly, and then said: "Boogers. Picking a booger." O'Donnell also apparently felt like she needed to demonstrate exactly what she meant by first sticking her finger up her nose, then waving it at the other women, and finally putting her finger in her mouth. 

Her co-hosts were understandably freaked out — Whoopi Goldberg practically fell off her chair. Rosie Perez chimed in to say that her confession was "so much worse," but she never revealed what could possibly be so horrible, so the booger takes the cake. 

Former The Princes of Malibu and Bromance reality star Brody Jenner, who is also the son of Olympic gold medal-winning athlete Caitlyn Jenner and half-brother of young billionaire Kylie Jenner, likes to spend his nights partying at the hottest clubs, hanging out with beat-making DJs, and for some strange reason — indulging in something he calls a "Shoey." According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, this tradition was reportedly inspired by Australian rugby players who apparently guzzle booze from their shoes while shouting, "Shoot the boot!" as a way to celebrate after games.

Brody has been captured on camera at least twice in recent years proudly taking a swig of beer out of his (presumably sweaty and possibly stinky) sneaker and even (relentlessly though unsuccessfully) encouraging others to "take a sip" from his Adidas — something that not everyone is eager to try for seemingly obvious reasons. In fact, Brody is so fond of the questionable tradition that he even named his dog "Shoey" in 2014.

Actress Jennifer Lawrence raised a few eyebrows when she dropped by The Late Late Show with James Corden to promote Passengers in 2016. Along with discussing the movie, the Oscar-winner also decided to share with the public what she called an "adorable" picture of her and her mom hanging out together in a beautifully landscaped yard. While the star's mother sits in a chair with a wine glass in her hand and a slight smile on her face, The Hunger Games alum can be seen squatting behind her, mostly out of view. Is she giving her mama a hug? Nope.

"I'm actually peeing in that photo and she has no idea, no clue," J-Law said. "I went to pee and my friend got the phone because she knew I was peeing, and then we both decided to leave my mom out of it." Despite admitting that the photo would offend her parents, Lawrence didn't seem to regret sharing the gross image on television for millions of viewers to, um, enjoy. Frankly, when Corden noted that the star had a "very relaxed peeing face" in the picture, she casually responded by telling him, "Yeah, I know how to do it, I've done it a lot."

When Lady Gaga accepted the video of the year award at the 2010 VMAs, she wore a Franc Fernandez dress made of raw meat. It was a scandalous outfit that received mixed reviews. TIME deemed the "haute cutlet" ensemble the top fashion statement of the year, while animal rights group PETA condemned it as "offensive." Gaga explained that she meant "no disrespect" while speaking about the get-up to talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, who is vegan. "It has many interpretations, but for me this evening it's [saying], 'If we don't stand up for what we believe in, if we don't fight for our rights, pretty soon we're going to have as much rights as the meat on our bones,'" Gaga said. "I am not a piece of meat."

Mother Monster may have been willing to push boundaries and defend the dress, but LawInfo warned that the outfit could be a health code violation. The publication reported that raw meat can transmit E. coli and Salmonella, which means that "unless her seat, armrest, and anything else she might have had contact with was properly sterilized ... these germs could spread." Despite the alleged hygiene hazards, the dress eventually made its way to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Director of Collections Jun Francisco told MTV that curators decided "to preserve it like a beef jerky. So it's taxidermied."

Back in 2003, Jake Gyllenhaal and Kirsten Dunst, who were dating at the time and had been together for about a year, were having lunch in London's Notting Hill neighborhood. For one reason or another — perhaps she was flaunting an unattractive pose for the paparazzi, maybe she was trying to annoy her companion, or she might have just been really into her food — the actress decided to ditch all table manners while picking up pieces of salad with her hand and shoving the leafy greens into her mouth. Gyllenhaal simply stared at his girlfriend and anyone trying to interpret his deadpan expression might assume that he was flatly unimpressed. 

In fact, E! News dubbed that moment "The Day Salad Made the Love Go Away" and declared that Gyllenhaal "absolutely hated the way this woman ate salad. He hated it with every fiber of his being..." As if the photos of Dunst feeding herself weren't awkward enough, paps also captured subsequent images of her beau feeding her some of his soup. Trust us when we tell you that the gesture was definitely not as romantic as it sounds.

While visiting her grandparents' and brother's graves in a cemetery in Buffalo, N.Y. in 2018, former Grey's Anatomy actress Katherine Heigl took what she thought were a few silly selfies. However, when the star shared the pics with her Instagram followers, the flippant nature of the photos offended many fans, as did the accompanying video posted by her husband, musician Josh Kelley. In the footage, he pretends to share an "intimate moment" with a ghost. Kelley notes that listening to the audio of Heigl laughing "is a must."

Heigl later deleted the pics and apologized for taking them in the first place. "I realized you guys are right and that was not appropriate and was disrespectful." She added that since it's "kind of a heavy thing" to visit the graves of her loved ones, she "decided to try to find some moments of levity and humor," not realizing others would characterize her behavior as grossly insensitive. The actress said she intends to be "more thoughtful about other people's feelings" and not just her own.

Ozzy Osbourne was responsible for one of the most nauseating moments in rock-and-roll history when the former Black Sabbath singer bit the head off a live bat during a concert in Des Moines, Iowa in January 1982. The onstage carnage stemmed from an earlier incident when Osbourne reportedly bit the heads off two doves during a meeting with record executives. A fan attending the rocker's 1982 show decided to commemorate the monstrous bird-related story by throwing a bat onto the stage. Thinking the animal was fake, Osbourne picked it up and chomped down on the head. 

"Immediately, though, something felt wrong. Very wrong," he wrote in his memoir, I Am Ozzy. "For a start, my mouth was instantly full of this warm, gloopy liquid, with the worst aftertaste you could ever imagine. I could feel it staining my teeth and running down my chin. Then the head in my mouth twitched ... I didn't just go and eat a...bat, did I?" He did and had to suffer through a series of rabies shots as a result.

In 2019, Osbourne celebrated the 37th anniversary of that gross moment by releasing a 12-inch tall plush toy bat that featured a detachable head, meaning this plaything is both strangely cute and perfectly creepy.

Miley Cyrus certainly isn't afraid to take chances during her performances, and she seems willing to push any and all boundaries when she's entertaining an enthusiastic audience. However, her onstage antics might have gone a step too far during the singer's Bangerz Tour in 2014. While chatting with the crowd in Tampa, Fla., she took a drink of water from the bottle she was holding in her hand, then suddenly bent over and started spitting out a stream of second-hand H20 on her screaming fans.

According to the Mirror, plenty of people were unimpressed with the former Hannah Montana star's gross concert conduct, and there were rumors that venues were threatening to cancel her shows due to her "controversial" ways. However, Live Nation, who was responsible for the tour, denied that there were any issues brewing behind the scenes. In fact, when Cyrus repeated her icky theatrics by spitting on fans in Dublin, Ireland, at least one person was thrilled about it, sharing a photo of the singer in action and tweeting: "I cannot believe how amazing she was tonight, she spit on my face I can't believe it!"

The Black Eyed Peas could have aptly changed their name to the Black Eyed Pees in 2005 due to an unfortunate urine-soaked performance. Back when now-solo-singer Fergie was a member of the group, she showed up to a venue in San Diego with a full bladder and had to rush onto the stage before she had a chance to go to the washroom. Unable to relieve herself in private and unwilling to sacrifice her energetic performance, she ended up wetting herself in front of the crowd.

During a 2014 interview with Hot 97's Ebro in the Morning, the star explained that she considered the infamous incident "the most unattractive moment of [her] life." She recalled what is surely a cringe-worthy memory, saying, "[We were] late for stage... driving down the freeway, it's Friday traffic... get to the stage, we have to start the show, I'm running on and we jump and... do 'Let's Get It Started' and I get crazy and I jump and I run across the stage and my adrenaline was going and gosh."

She also said she tried to deal with what had happened by "pouring water all over" herself. However, since she had been wearing knee-length khaki shorts, the pee-soaked area was highly visible. "I wish it didn't happen," she admitted unsurprisingly. And while it had occurred years before, time has obviously not dulled the sharp edge of shame, as she added, "It was so embarrassing!"

English crooner Ed Sheeran may have made his name as the adored music industry star behind some of today's most romantic songs, but he can also be kind of nasty. Proof of that is in that fact that while you watch him up on stage playing "Thinking Out Loud" and "Shape of You" among his many other hits, there's a good chance that he's farting, something he admits he does "all the time" while performing in front of an audience.

And that's not all he's done. "I actually once misjudged a fart on stage, which ended up being a shart," Sheeran said in 2015 during an interview with Australian radio station Nova FM, according to E! News. If you're unfamiliar with the term "shart," it's slang for sh*t and fart, which means that the singer was admitting to the fact that he had let out a bit of poop when he thought he was merely going to toot.

He explained the thought process behind the resulting soiled situation, saying, "It was, like, midway through a performance and I was really lively, and then halfway through I was like, 'All right I'm just going to stand for the rest of the performance, and hope it's over soon and then go home and throw these trousers out!'" Good idea. We hope he did indeed trash those putrid pants.

Concert-goers saw more than just a boyband-filled and pop music-fueled performance back in 2013 — some also witnessed Harry Styles hurl. While performing in Pittsburgh with his former group One Direction, the singer suddenly rushed to the side of the stage and paused his performance of "Rock Me" to throw up.

The gag-inducing moment was caught on video by at least one person in the crowd who decided to focus on the vomiting star instead of the fact that the other members of the band — Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, and Louis Tomlinson — kept things professional and continued to perform, finishing the song without Pukey Pukerson. However, Styles was quick to rally and after wiping his mouth with a towel and taking a quick swig of water, he returned to the stage to join his band mates for the next song.

Styles reportedly later told his old friend Nick Grimshaw that the unfortunate upchuck was merely caused by the fact he had eaten too much before the performance, explaining, "Everyone was saying I was hungover but I wasn't, I was just too full." Sounds like it's time for the star to cut back on any all-you-can-eat buffet right before a big show.

Hugh Jackman may be a Tony Award-winning performer, but that doesn't mean he can easily live down the fact that he wet himself on stage. While playing Gaston in an Australian production of Beauty and the Beast in 1995, Jackman found himself in a pee-related predicament just as he was about to sing his big duet.

Due in part to the fact that the star had been drinking more water at the time to help him deal with headaches caused by dehydration, he suddenly had the overwhelming urge to urinate, which left him with a choice to make. During an interview with Playboy (via People), Jackman admitted, "I thought... 'If I sing this note, I'm going to pee my pants; if I don't, I'm going to be humiliated.' The actor in me took over. I was singing, thinking, 'Wow, I'm peeing my pants.'"

"When I finished, I immediately turned upstage, looked down and couldn't see anything," he continued. "I thought, these red tights must be waterproof. I was laughing as if I had gotten away with it. But the audience was looking at me funny. It had seeped through, and my pants were completely wet. The audience could see it." Those who were present in the theater that day surely never looked at the character of Gaston the same way again after seeing him pee his pants right in front of them.