Stars Who Haven't Figured Out That No One Likes Them Anymore

Not every celebrity is, well, celebrated. In fact, there are some that many people are downright sick of hearing about and that are grating on the nerves of everyone on the planet—and they're not necessarily who you think. Based on backlash, as well as sales, these are the stars people can't stand anymore—along with some ideas on how to turn their fortune around and get us to love them again.

Sure, she stills sells a lot of records, but Taylor Swift has been receiving a lot of rightful backlash for her personal branding. Vice took her to task for appropriating feminism when it's convenient for her, but not speaking out about socioeconomic and political issues, especially in the current political climate. Followers dragged Swift on Twitter for promoting her single from the Fifty Shades Darker (2017) soundtrack, "I Don't Wanna Live Forever," while most of her feminist squad peers were participating in the Women's March and speaking out against President Donald Trump's immigration ban. One user wrote, "Millions of women are in danger under our new administration. You say you're a feminist? Use your platform for good!" Another snapped, "Your country is a f**king mess and you're tweeting BTS footage from your music video? C'mon woman, you're better than this." Another simply asked, "Do you support your Muslim fans?"

Even 15-year-old Rowan Blanchard hinted that Swift's silence was damaging, tweeting, "Don't understand the mainly celebrity fear of not speaking so u don't lose ur audience- your silence doesn't keep u safe and it never will...Not sure it does good 4 the celeb #brand when u present yr world as entirely ur own self promotion, pretending nothing else exists outside...Not saying every celebrity has to be an activist, but am saying accountability culture exists and pretending nothings wrong will only hurt u."

Somewhere, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian are smiling. How can she come back? Releasing a killer single, dropping her victim complex, and putting her money where her mouth is in regards to social issues would be a good start.

Chrissy Teigen is stunning to look at, but annoying to some in other contexts. Sure, she has a fun quip on social media every so often, but for every witticism there's usually a bunch of first-world problem whining or pettiness, like when she attacked a working actress for no reason, made fun of Jay Mohr's baby for no reason, and slammed a child star for no reason. That attitude may be why, with the exception of Lip Sync Battle—which would likely be successful for its viral content no matter who hosted it—her TV efforts, like FabLife, fail miserably in the ratings. It's much less effort to like or retweet than it is to subject one's self to her personality for an hour a day.

Still, Teigen has successful endeavors: Her cookbook, Cravings, is a hit, so a Food Network series of her own would likely endear her to those who otherwise find her eyeroll-worthy.

Few stars have had rises as meteoric and falls as rapid as Iggy Azalea. The Aussie-born rapper had one of the biggest songs of 2014 with "Fancy," followed by her hit "Black Widow" and her verse of Ariana Grande's "Problem." Unfortunately for Azalea, those single sales didn't translate to ticket sales, and she scrapped an entire arena tour in 2015. In late 2014, Azalea became a punchline when a video of her struggling to freestyle went viral. Her November 2014 effort, Reclassified, only sold an estimated 11,000 copies in its first week, with single "Trouble" peaking at No. 67 on the Billboard Hot 100. In spring 2015, a petition was launched to rescind her Billboard Music Award for Best Rap Song for "Fancy." In January 2016, Azalea complained that her label didn't want to release a video for her struggling single "Azillion," and the follow up, "Team," peaked at No. 42 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Her upcoming album, Digital Distortion, was pushed back from a July 2016 to a January 2017 release date. As of this writing, it hasn't hit shelves yet...and no one really noticed. Girl, get Charli XCX back and get to work!

It's not just audiences who have been backing away from Katherine Heigl, it's also studios and casting agents. One source close to her film One For The Money (2012) said it was toxic to even use her in ads, telling Vulture, "Look at the TV spots: You notice that they're not calling her out? There's no 'Katie Heigl stars in...' They're going out of their way to not mention her. They're hiding her; they might as well black her f**king face out. Because when you don't call out a movie star like that? They know there's an issue. She did something to turn everyone off. Whether it's behavior or perception, but she did something."

Heigl admitted as much herself in a December 2011 interview with Elle (via Starpulse), lamenting, "I've never really been America's sweetheart, but for a minute I think that's what they wanted me to be. And I had 'em for a second thinking maybe I was. And then I opened my mouth and it was clear I wasn't." Hey, at least she's self-aware now—if she keeps it up, her new series, Doubt, may work out in her favor.

Ashlee Simpson made it big by dyeing her hair jet black, pretending to be punk, and coming out from big sister Jessica's "Shadow." Then she got busted lip syncing on Saturday Night Live, gave a hypocritical interview about loving yourself and your flaws that hit shelves right when she debuted a nose job, and saw much lower album sales after both incidents. Her last album, Bittersweet World, came out in 2008, but that didn't stop her from reportedly trying to make a buck off photos of her wedding to Evan Ross in 2014. Apparently, though, no one wanted them. A source told The New York Daily News, "The Simpsons have a long history of selling pictures to magazines. When Jessica was at the peak of her success with Nick Lachey, her dad made an exclusive several-part deal with OK! magazine. Just a few months ago, Jessica sold her most recent wedding pictures to People for $300,000. But now it seems no one cares about Ashlee anymore."

Since Jessica Simpson has managed to remain relevant and successful through her clothing line, Ashlee may want to make appearances with her (despite her wanting to break out of her shadow still) to get the public reacquainted with her—then release a killer comeback single.

Robin Thicke was the man when "Blurred Lines" came out in 2013, garnering the longest-running No. 1 song of the summer and topping the charts in 15 countries. The album of the same name sold 177,000 copies out of the gate and more than 731,000 overall. Unfortunately, he couldn't top it or even come close to matching it at all afterward: His followup, Paula, out only a year later, only sold a dismal 24,000 copies in its first week. His 2012 MTV Video Music Awards performance with Miley Cyrus, his divorce from Paula Patton, a cheating scandal, a lawsuit over songwriting, and his new child abuse allegations aren't helping him in the public eye. His best bet? Lie low, sort out his family situation, and come back with another summer bop.

In the spring 2016 promotional campaign for season four of Inside Amy Schumer, as well as in the fourth season premiere, the comedienne was diagnosed with "overexposure." It seemed like she was self-aware that the combined promotional pushes for the show, as well as Trainwreck (2015) and her book, The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo, was making the world sick of her...but she still hasn't gone away at all.

One sign that the public has had enough? In October 2016, hundreds of people walked out during a standup set in Tampa, Florida, after Schumer criticized then-Republican nominee (and now president) Donald Trump. Many comedians dabble in political and topical humor and can have views with which not everyone agrees (think back to George Carlin, or as recently as Ron White and Michael Che) and still make the crowd laugh. Schumer has also been accused of joke theft more than once.

What's more, sources told Page Six that by the time The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo hit shelves, people had Schumer fatigue: It hit No. 1 on the bestseller list, but was actually considered a sales disappointment, and she even cancelled some promotional appearances because she was so upset about negative reviews from alleged trolls on Amazon.

"How thin-skinned she is to get upset over reviews by haters who probably didn't even read the book," an insider griped. "For $9 million, she should do whatever [the publishers] ask her...[Other publishers] are happy they lost the bidding war. They are breathing a sigh of relief that it isn't theirs." A source at a competing publisher concurred, "It's not a disaster, but it's not a huge success. Simon & Schuster has a long way to go to recoup their investment."

Schumer's publisher, Simon & Schuster, denied the report. If Schumer wants to keep her comedic It Girl appeal, she can start by staying out of the public eye when she's not promoting a project, as well as by vetting her own material a bit better before unleashing it on the public.

Chris Brown has a lot of hit songs despite his bad reputation—remember how you couldn't escape "Loyal" for nearly all of 2014 and most of 2015? However, it's not enough for him, and a lot of fans can't be bothered to actually buy his work. In December 2016, he released a surprise single called "Party," then went on a since-deleted social media rant when it didn't sell well, writing, "Everyone of you who follows me and has fake pages being fake supporters is a lil bogus. BUYMYS**T," he wrote. Someone let him know that you attract more bees with honey than with vinegar, okay?

Zooey Deschanel played up her "adorkable" persona and then tried to abandon it (and insult her own star vehicle, New Girl) when she got repeatedly called out on just how disingenuous her faux-awkwardness is.

"I don't always identify, perhaps, with the way that I'm portrayed in certain public contexts. I try to stay away from that sort of thing...['Adorkable'] was something that was calculated, you know what I mean?" She told the Huffington Post. "That was our marketing department at Fox and they did a really good job with our first season, but that's a word that describes the character that I play, not me. I don't personally have identification with that word myself." She added, "I don't think I've ever met a person who knows me use that word to describe me, so it's not of any consequence to me...Playing one character—as fun as it is—is kind of the same thing every day."

With that kind of attitude, it's not that surprising that neither critics nor audiences really missed her that much when Megan Fox filled in for her when she was on maternity leave from the show. If Deschanel would ease up on the cutesiness (or the pretentiousness), people would find her much more relatable and much less Manic Pixie Dream Girl.

While hyping up her new album, Here, Alicia Keys made a point to make public appearances "without makeup"—but her own makeup artist revealed that she actually was wearing some makeup, just not the full face that stars usually employ on red carpets. She then wondered why people made a big deal of her alleged lack of cosmetics. Maybe that disingenuousness is what led to her album sales being shockingly low for a star of her stature, moving only 54,000 copies (including streams) in its first week in November 2016. Her last charting single was "Girl On Fire" in 2012, so maybe instead of talking about whether or not she wears mascara, she can focus on whether or not she can make consumers care about her music again. If she wants to get back on the charts, releasing another "No One" will be a good start.

Lena Dunham's nepotism (her parents are artists Laurie Simmons and Carroll Dunham) helped launch her to stardom with HBO's Girls. She used her fame from the series to launch a podcast and a newsletter. The thing is, not that many people actually watch her show, and the ratings have actually gotten worse over time: The season five premiere only had 406,000 viewers. Add that to her tendency to offend a lot of people constantly, and it's a wonder why she hasn't retired to a quiet writing career out of the spotlight yet. If she wants to truly win over audiences, she can start by really thinking very hard before making any declarations on social media or elsewhere, and perhaps running any statements by her publicist first. Her heart seems to be in the right place, but her foot just always seems to be in her mouth.

Let's make one thing clear: Madonna is a legend and will always be able to rely on nostalgia, as well as her core fanbase, to be massively successful, especially in terms of tour revenue. However, her album sales have been on a downward trajectory. Sales for 2015's Rebel Heart were abysmal, moving only 238,000 copies, as opposed to 2012's MDNA, which sold 359,000 copies in its first week (then had an 88 percent drop in week two, setting a record) and 539,000 to date; and 2008's Hard Candy, which sold 758,000 copies. Tactics like appropriating imagery from the Civil Rights and anti-apartheid movements to promote her album probably did harm than good. Still, her powerful speech at the Women's March in January 2017 proved she's still a force to be reckoned with, so don't count her out completely—especially if she's got a sick beat and a good promotional team behind her.

It seems like Jenny McCarthy can't talk about anything without the discussion coming back to her bizarre, unfounded, and ignorant opinions on medicine. The former Playmate doesn't have an M.D., but that didn't stop her from spouting anti-vaccine rhetoric for years (before somewhat backpedaling) and perpetuating damaging falsehoods about HIV and AIDS when she found out Charlie Sheen was diagnosed with HIV after she guest starred in Two And A Half Men alongside the troubled actor. The public refuses to let her forget it, even reminding her of her alleged anti-vaccine body count when she poses innocuous, unrelated questions online. Perhaps if McCarthy spent less time talking about science and more time just being funny, she'd have a bigger fanbase.

Vin Diesel may be overestimating his star power. While successful in franchises like Fast And Furious and Guardians Of The Galaxy, the beefcake can't seem to sell tickets when he's the only marquee name in a film: His two most recent star vehicles, The Last Witch Hunter (2015) and XXX: The Return Of Xander Cage (2017) made $27 million with a $90 million budget and $40 million with an $85 million budget, respectively. Add to that his public feud with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson—who was named the Sexiest Man Alive and the highest paid actor in Hollywood in 2016—and it seems like whenever Diesel is in a hit movie, it's likely because he surrounds himself with much more bankable stars, like Johnson, the late Paul Walker, and Chris Pratt. If his agents play their cards right, though, and have him star in comedies like the successful The Pacifier (2005)...or just not wait 15 years between franchise installments like they did with the original XXX (2002).

Whether it was from exploiting her relationship with Blake Shelton or just not connecting with her music anymore, it seems like America is over its love affair with Gwen Stefani. Her most recent album, This Is What The Truth Feels Like, opened at No. 1 in March 2016, selling 76,000 copies, but dropped almost 80 percent in sales in its second week. Singles "Used to Love You" and "Make Me Like You" peaked, respectively, at No. 52 and 54 on the Billboard Hot 100...and "Misery" didn't chart at all. Moreover, The New York Daily News reports that Stefani had trouble filling seats for her "This Is What The Truth Feels Like" tour, with Groupon offerings for very cheap in efforts to move tickets and avoid empty arenas. The entire era was a far cry from her "Hollaback Girl" days, when she was inescapable on the radio instead of in the tabloids.

Thankfully, she's got plenty of other avenues to make bank, including The Voice, a new deal with Revlon, and her clothing lines—as well as her romance with Shelton to keep her happy—so don't cry too much for her.