Celebs Who Were Dissed Publicly By Other Stars

To the rich and famous, ego is like fire. It is the burning passion that drives stars to perform at top levels, but it can also harm them when it gets out of control. Social media and the thirst of the 24-hour news cycle quickly fan those flames anytime a slight hint of a celebrity feud arises, leaving a trail of deleted tweets, out-of-context quotes, and apologies in its wake. Here are some of the most notable public showdowns among high-profile stars.

The extent of Tom Cruise's dedication to the Church of Scientology became abundantly clear in 2008 when a video of the actor discussing the faith was leaked online. 

The interview (part of a recruitment film, according to Gawker) featured a turtlenecked Cruise ranting about what it means to be a Scientologist, and in it he touches on the subject of prescription medication. "We're the authorities on getting people off drugs," he claimed. "We're the authorities on the mind."

This now infamous interview was filmed in 2004, a year before Cruise aired similar opinions publicly while discussing the lifestyle of model Brooke Shields. During an appearance on the Today show, Cruise criticized Shields for using antidepressants to treat her postpartum depression, suggesting that she should have used vitamins instead. "I really care about Brooke Shields," he said. "I think, here's a wonderful and talented woman. And I want to see her do well. And I know that psychiatry is a pseudo-science."

Cruise then went on to tell Access Hollywood (via People) that Shields was being "irresponsible," which the actress didn't take kindly to. 

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say that Mr. Cruise has never suffered from postpartum depression," she said in The New York Times (via Today). "If any good can come of Mr. Cruise's ridiculous rant, let's hope that it gives much-needed attention to a serious disease."

Comedian Chelsea Handler is good friends with Jennifer Aniston, and although she claims that isn't the only reason she dislikes Angelina Jolie so much, it's clearly the main one. 

"She's a homewrecker," Handler said during a 2010 stand-up performance in New Jersey (via Entertainment Tonight). "She can rescue as many babies from as many countries as she wants to, I don't f*****g believe you."

Handler called the actress a "demon" during a 2013 appearance on Watch What Happens Live, and when Netflix gave her a talk show of her own, she went after Jolie again. When news broke that Brangelina was calling it quits, Handler addressed rumors that Brad Pitt was drinking and smoking too much weed for Jolie's liking.

"I wonder why he needed to self medicate?" Handler said. "Maybe because he could have been spending the last 12 years at Lake Como hanging out with George Clooney and Matt Damon, instead of being stuck in a house with 85 kids speaking 15 different languages." She also called Jolie a "f*****g lunatic" during her monologue.

The Oscar-winning actress has never publicly responded to all that hate.

Sir Elton John's lengthy feud with Madonna dates back to at least 2002, when he called Madge's song for Die Another Day "the worst Bond tune of all time." 

Two years later he insulted the songstress during the Q Awards, using his acceptance speech (he won the classic songwriter award) to mock Madonna's triumph in the best live act category. "Madonna, best live act? F*** off!" he said.

They traded blows in the years that followed, and in 2012 their feud exploded once more when Madonna criticized Lady Gaga, godmother to one of John's sons. During an interview with Australia's Sunday Night (via The Hollywood Reporter), the "Rocket Man" singer launched an expletive-laden tirade against Madonna, using the c-word and calling her a "f*****g fairground stripper." 

John later came to regret his words and extended an olive branch. "I said something horrible about her that you should never say," the musician admitted on The Graham Norton Show (via the Daily Mail). "I was in a restaurant in the south of France a couple of years ago and she walked in so I sent her a note saying, 'You'll probably never speak to me again but I am really sorry and ashamed of myself and can I buy you dinner.' She was very gracious and accepted and we talked."

There are some big names on Eminem's beef list, but the rapper's most famous feud has to be the one he had with Mariah Carey, his former flame (at least, according to Eminem.) Carey has denied that the pair was ever a thing, telling Larry King that their interactions were minimal. 

"I hung out with him, I spoke to him on the phone," she said (via ThoughtCo). "I think I was probably with him a total of four times. And I don't consider that dating somebody."

That's not the way Eminem tells it. The Detroit-born emcee claims the content of those calls Carey mentioned was a lot more explicit than she was letting on, and he said he had recordings to prove it. He called Carey "a f******g whore" on his 2009 Relapse album, which finally drew a response from Mimi. Her single "Obsessed" takes shots at Slim Shady for his apparent drug problems and basically calls him a liar.

If you want to keep an acting job, comparing your boss to a dictator probably isn't the best idea. That's exactly what actress Megan Fox did, likening Transformers director Michael Bay to Adolf Hitler.

"He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is," she told Wonderland magazine (via Movieline) after the release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in 2009. "So he's a nightmare to work for but when you get him away from set, and he's not in director mode, I kind of really enjoy his personality because he's so awkward, so hopelessly awkward. He has no social skills at all."

Fox was promptly dropped from the franchise. Her team released a statement claiming that it was her choice not to return, but Deadline sources claim that wasn't the case. Bay later revealed that the decision to terminate had come from executive producer Steven Spielberg. "You know the Hitler thing?" Bay said. "Steven said, fire her right now."

There were rumors that tensions were running high on the set of 2010's Cop Out, and as soon as production on the Bruce Willis-led buddy comedy wrapped, director Kevin Smith spilled the beans on who the alleged troublemaker was. 

"One guy wouldn't even sit for a f*****g poster shoot," he told Marc Maron on his podcast (via Collider). "Everyone knows who it is. Put it this way, remember the really funny guy in the movie? It ain't him. He's a f*****g dream. Tracy Morgan, I would lay down in traffic for. Were it not for Tracy, I might've killed myself or someone else in the making of that movie."

Smith was, of course, referring to Willis, calling him "no help whatsoever" and claiming he made the whole thing a "soul crushing" experience. The Die Hard star didn't even attend the Cop Out wrap party. In his toast to the cast and crew, Smith reportedly said that he wanted to "thank everyone who worked on the film, except for Bruce Willis, who is a f*****g dick."

In 2006, James Franco starred opposite Tyrese Gibson in Navy boxing drama Annapolis. Apparently, Franco's approach was full-on method, meaning that to get where he needed to be, he felt the need to punch Gibson — for real.

"I respect method actors, but he never snapped out of character," Gibson told Elle. "Whenever we'd have to get in the ring for boxing scenes, and even during practice, the dude was full-on hitting me. I was always like, 'James, lighten up, man. We're just practicing.' He never lightened up." 

Franco did own-up to being a jerk on the movie, but Gibson vowed to never work with him again.

Legendary fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld has never been afraid to speak his mind, even if what he has to say will no doubt offend. He caused outrage in the U.K. when he called Adele "a little too fat" in February 2012, but he really risked the British boycotting his brand in November of that year, when he decided to turn his sharp tongue on Pippa Middleton, sister of Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge. Lagerfeld said Kate had "a nice silhouette" and dubbed her "a romantic beauty," but he couldn't say the same about her little sister.

Pippa (or, more specifically, her shapely bottom) became known to the world after she turned heads in a fitted white gown at Kate's wedding, but according to Lagerfeld, that's her only redeeming angle. "I don't like the sister's face," he supposedly said (via The Mirror). "She should only show her back."

 Ouch! As an extended-royal, it would have been improper for Pippa to publicly respond, but she was said to have been privately devastated by the cruel comments.

Who could forget the public roasting that Ricky Gervais subjected Mel Gibson to at the 2010 Golden Globes? The British comedian, who was hosting the show, wasn't afraid to tackle the sensitive subject of Gibson's 2006 DUI arrest and the actor's sexist and anti-Semitic remarks to police. Gervais made multiple references to the incident throughout the evening, taking every opportunity to make fun of the Braveheart star. "I like a drink as much as the next man," he quipped while introducing Gibson. "Unless that next man is Mel Gibson."

When Gervais returned to host in 2016, he had to once again introduce Gibson to the stage, and he didn't let him off lightly that time either. "A few years ago on this show I made a joke about Mel Gibson getting a bit drunk and saying a few unsavory things," he said. "We've all done it. I wasn't judging him. But now I find myself in the awkward position of having to introduce him again. I'm sure it's embarrassing for both of us, and I blame NBC for this terrible situation. Mel blames ... We know who Mel blames." 

Gibson did his best to laugh it off, but he later admitted that he "wanted to strangle" Gervais for dragging up his past yet again.

Rob Kardashian is currently embroiled in a nasty lawsuit with his baby mama, Blac Chyna, but she isn't the first woman to engage in a public war of words with the Kardashian brother. Back in 2012, the reality star's secretive relationship with singer Rita Ora began to break down, and it came to an abrupt (and very public) end when Kardashian used Twitter to accuse Ora of cheating on him with multiple men.

"She cheated on me with nearly 20 dudes while we were together, I wonder how many she will sleep with now that we apart?" he said (via the New York Daily News). "How can a woman who is so busy trying to start her own career have time to be with so many dudes all while in a relationship?!" 

Ora never denied the cheating allegations, instead choosing to offer up a reason for straying. "Rob's d*** was wack, so I had to go get it somewhere else," she said in a Tweet that was quickly deleted.

Another member of the Kardashian clan who is no stranger to public feuds is Kim Kardashian, who has had to deal with her fair share of haters over the years. While she and her family are now known all over the world, back in 2006, Kim was just a socialite who hung out with other rich kids, including hotel heiress Paris Hilton. 

At the time, Hilton had fallen out with fellow reality star Nicole Richie and was on the lookout for a new BFF, so she apparently decided to try Kim on for size. The duo attended the Third Annual Lakers Casino Night in Santa Monica together, posing for perfectly orchestrated pics, and the next morning, Kim was famous too.

This apparently didn't sit too well with Hilton, whose star arguably began to fade as Kim's began to rise. By 2008 the former shopping buddies were no longer engaging in retail therapy together, and Hilton appeared to be trying to make it seem like she had dumped Kim. When asked about her ex-pal's famous behind in a radio interview, Hilton pulled no punches. "I would not want [Kim's butt] — it's gross!" she said (via Cosmopolitan). "It reminds me of cottage cheese inside a big trash bag."

Kanye West kick-started one of the most memorable celebrity feuds of the last decade when he crashed the stage at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards to protest Taylor Swift winning best female video. Swift's song "You Belong to Me" beat Beyoncé's "Single Ladies," which most expected to win, West included. The rapper was so incensed by the decision that he grabbed the mic from Swift, ruining her big moment and embarrassing everyone involved.

West apologized for his actions during an appearance on The Tonight Show, telling host Jay Leno that he regretted his behavior. "I only wanted to give and do something that I felt was right and I immediately knew in this situation that it was wrong," he said. "It's actually someone's emotions that I stepped on. It was rude, period." 

TayTay told Vanity Fair that they'd buried the hatchet in 2015, but their budding friendship didn't last very long. In 2016, West rekindled the feud when he mentioned Swift in his song "Famous," referring to her as "that b****" and taking credit for her success. The beef was officially back on after that, with Swift denying West's claim that he sought her permission for the lyric. 

Swift has since taken several subtle digs at West in her music. Her 2017 single "This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things" is allegedly full of swipes at him.

This unlikely feud began when pop star Justin Bieber was arrested for drag racing in Miami while under the influence of alcohol, something that funnyman Seth Rogen didn't find the least bit amusing. 

Rogan took to Twitter to vent his frustration at his fellow Canadian's reckless actions, calling him "a piece of s***." After that, every time Rogen sat down for an interview he was asked about his hate for the Biebs, and he was always happy to elaborate.

When he appeared on Watch What Happens Live (via Bravo) in March 2014, Rogen said: "He's obnoxious, he's ungrateful, he's insincere, and he puts people's lives in danger." 

A few months later the Pineapple Express star was at it again, throwing shade Bieber's way during a chat with Howard Stern (via Billboard). "He's a good example of someone you meet, who you think you're going to hate, and then you get to hate him as much as you thought," Rogen said. "You meet him, and he lives up to every one of your expectations of how you hope he will be."

Bieber actually decided to take the high road, tweeting that he was probably "a bit shy" when they met and telling Rogen that he still loves his movies. 

These two squashed their beef in 2015 when they both hugged it out backstage on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

 Swift's long-running beef with fellow pop princess Katy Perry rivals the one she has with West, and it's just as complicated. The pair used to be friends, but for reasons we're about to get into, they went from having mad love to bad blood. 

When cracks first starting appearing, many assumed these two had fallen out over a man (both had dated musician John Mayer,) but Swift told Rolling Stone that the rift was rooted in back-up dancers. "She basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour," Swift said. "She tried to hire a bunch of people out from under me."

From there, the two artists began a back-and-forth game of insults using both social media and their music. Swift landing the first big blow with 2015's "Bad Blood." When asked by Entertainment Weekly if she would be responding in kind, Perry said, "Everything has a reaction or a consequence so don't forget about that, okay, honey." The next week, Perry dropped the video for her track "Swish Swish," which reportedly made numerous nods to the ongoing feud. Swift hit back with "Look What You Made Me Do," which allegedly dissed not just Perry, but West and Swift's ex-boyfriend Calvin Harris, too.