Celebs With Embarrassing Drinking Stories

Like most people, celebs just want to have a good time and cut loose after a hard day's work. It's part of the human experience. However, when the average person has a few too many drinks, their antics may be big news within their social circle, but it's probably not going to make national headlines. That's definitely not the case when you're famous. Celebrities also don't have the luxury of dealing with alcoholism in private, and that's led to some unfortunate pop culture moments that have sidelined the careers of even Hollywood's biggest stars. 

Have you heard the one about J-Law and the stripper pole? How about The Hoff versus the cheeseburger? From Reese Witherspoon's "Do you know my name" moment to Kiefer Sutherland and a hapless Christmas tree, the following celebs may forever be linked to these embarrassing drinking stories.

By the time Shia LaBeouf was arrested in July 2017 for drunkenly threatening police officers in Atlanta, Fox News reported that the Even Stevens actor already had a history of drunken run-ins with the cops, including a DUI, bar fights, and an arrest in 2014 for yelling at actors and security guards during a performance of Cabaret. After the Cabaret incident, LaBeouf voluntarily started treatment for alcohol addiction, but it didn't exactly do the trick, and one year later, he was arrested again for public intoxication in Austin, Texas.

LaBeouf's 2017 arrest for public drunkenness in Atlanta took an ugly turn after footage began surfacing of the Transformers star yelling racial insults, threatening to kill an officer with a gun, and boasting about his high-priced lawyers. The situation was all kinds of bad, and LaBeouf made no attempt to downplay the severity of his actions when he posted an apology on Twitter. "I am deeply ashamed of my behavior and make no excuses for it," he said. "My outright disrespect for authority is problematic to say the least, and completely destructive to say the worst. It is a new low. A low I hope is a bottom." 

Mel Gibson's 2006 DUI arrest still ranks as one of the top disasters in celebrity drunkenness. According to the New York Daily News, the Braveheart actor's career has never fully recovered from that fateful night in Malibu when he referred to a female officer as "sugar t*ts" and asked another officer if he was Jewish because "Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." TMZ also reported that Gibson repeatedly threatened officers, made several other anti-Semitic remarks, and was just all around awful.

Gibson eventually released a statement apologizing for his actions. "The arresting officer was just doing his job and I feel fortunate that I was apprehended before I caused injury to any other person. I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested, and said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable. I am deeply ashamed of everything I said. Also, I take this opportunity to apologize to the deputies involved for my belligerent behavior. They have always been there for me in my community and indeed probably saved me from myself."

In Gibson's defense, he hasn't had a major alcohol-related scandal since. As for his penchant for racist and violent rhetoric, that's a can of worms for another day.

Reese Witherspoon is such an assured, inspiring, boundary-pushing Hollywood superhero (she helped bring out the Times' Up movement) and versatile actress in everything from Legally Blonde to Wild to Big Little Lies that it's easy to forgive (if not forget) what seems to be the sole ugly incident in her public life. And she totally owned it, of course.

In April 2013, Atlanta police pulled over a vehicle. Its driver, Jim Toth, failed a sobriety test. Mrs. Toth (aka the Reese Witherspoon) was sitting shotgun, and boy oh boy, did she go off on those officers. She even tried to play the celebrity card. According to the incident report, (via The Independent) she asked officers, "Do you know my name? You're about to find out who I am. You're about to be on national news!" The report also noted that Witherspoon kept getting out of the car, leaned out the window to harass the police, and even told a whopper about being pregnant (which she later confirmed was not true.) Toth was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence; Witherspoon got booked for disorderly conduct; and the whole world saw video footage of her behavior, which was most certainly lacking its signature Southern charm.

Witherspoon has profusely apologized for her behavior that night. "I clearly had one drink too many and I am deeply embarrassed about the things I said" she admitted in a statement (via CBS News). 

Knight Rider star David Hasselhoff became an unfortunate YouTube sensation in 2007 after his 16-year-old daughter, Hayley, filmed him drunkenly rolling around the floor of his Vegas hotel while shirtless and trying, unsuccessfully, to eat a cheeseburger. The video was admittedly a train wreck that was hard to ignore, and it painted an unsettling look at alcoholism as Hasselhoff's distraught daughter kept pleading with him not to drink or he'd be fired from The Producers. 

The actor had reportedly told her to film him if he relapsed — a request that didn't sit well with some experts. "To ask a 16-year-old child to tape her father when he's intoxicated with what is a brain disease is unconscionable in my opinion," Dr. Harris Stratyner told Good Morning America. Stratyner added that it was also narcissistic that The Hoff "turned his child into the parent."

Since the viral video, the Baywatch star has remained sober, and in 2010, he expressed gratefulness to his daughter for giving him the wake-up call he needed. "When I found out about the tape, I was overcome with an amazing sense of calm," the actor told WENN (via The Daily Telegraph.) "God was basically saying, 'It's time to stop'. I knew why Taylor did it: she was afraid for me. I said, 'That's pretty cool that my daughter loves me to say, 'Dad, this is what you look like. We're scared'. End of story."

When an allegedly drunk Johnny Depp stumbled through his presenting duties at the 2014 Hollywood Film Awards, most people didn't think much of it. The actor was well past his days of smashing up hotel rooms, and he wasn't exactly known for drunken behavior, so it seemed like a hilarious Hollywood faux pas. It happens. But two years later, Depp and actress Amber Heard began a messy divorce, and Depp's alleged drinking problems stopped being funny. 

Amidst accusations of allegedly abusing Heard while intoxicated, TMZ published footage of what appeared to Depp throwing a violent, drunken tantrum. For the record, sources connected to Depp say the tape was "heavily edited" and he was being "egged on" by Heard. The bad press didn't stop there. During the divorce, he allegedly got into a drunken fight with his own bodyguard, according to Page Six, and his former business managers claimed the actor was plowing through $30,000 worth of wine every month. The Hollywood Reporter discovered that the actor's drinking also allegedly affected production on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. 

Is another drunken fiasco in his future? We certainly hope not, but it's anybody's guess at this point.

When Christina Aguilera was arrested for public intoxication in 2011, fans were shocked. Outside of allegedly having a few too many drinks at Jeremy Renner's birthday party, the "Dirrty" singer didn't exactly have a wild reputation for partying, plus she had a 3-year-old son at home. The news was so surprising that Pink couldn't help but crack a joke about the situation. "Out of Myself, Britney, and Christina — didn't everyone think I was gonna be the troublemaker?" she tweeted. "LOOK MA!!! No CUFFS!!!"

In Aguilera's defense, she had just gone through a divorce, and apparently this new Xtina was ready to live it up even, if that didn't make her the best party guest. According to Page Six, Aguilera attended Seth MacFarlane's annual Christmas bash in 2015, but she was allegedly too sloshed to sing a duet with the Family Guy creator. "She was a mess," an eyewitness said. Rumor has it that the wobbly singer was helped out but nearly took out a Christmas tree in the process. 

Aguilera didn't let the headlines get her down and even poked fun at her Christmas tree-crashing reputation on Instagram. If only every celebrity drinking scandal could be so festive.

Following a drug overdose in the late '90s, Charlie Sheen remarkably managed to put his bad boy persona on ice and become a respected television actor and family man for a good chunk of the 2000s, but if you're familiar with the terms "tiger blood" or #winning, then you know how long that lasted. By late 2010, the actor was trashing hotel rooms and inviting adult film stars to live in his house as his "goddesses" as an infamous meltdown unfolded. He referred to himself as a "warlock" and was fired from Two and a Half Men. Sheen also made the dubious claim that he cured himself of alcoholism with his mind, and you'll never guess how that worked out.

On a July night in 2014, a couple sitting in a Taco Bell drive-thru got quite the surprise when Sheen stumbled up to their car and announced, "I'm so f**king hammered" before showing off his tattoos and offering them relationship advice, according to TMZ. Fortunately, the actor wasn't driving, and nobody was injected with tiger blood, that we know of.

To Sheen's credit, he hasn't made any headlines like this since revealing his HIV diagnosis to the Today show, and he's spoken candidly about his life with the disease in the years following those drunken debacles. 

Josh Brolin did not have a good 2013. He spent New Year's Day in jail for public intoxication, and by November of that year, he was in rehab after getting in fights with a bar bouncer and a taxi driver all in one night. It probably didn't help that he was finalizing his divorce from wife Diane Lane at that time. 

Brolin didn't dispute the incidences and recognized his drinking was getting out of control. After his stint in rehab, the actor was spotted looking "hot and healthy," according to E! News, and so far, he's stayed true to his word that his crazy nights "won't be happening again." He called the problems of 2013 a "turning point," telling The Guardian, "It made me think of a lot of things. My mum dying when I was in my 20s. All the impact that had on me that I hadn't moved past; I was always such a momma's boy. But I realized that I was on a destructive path. I knew that I had to change and mature. It was like I stepped back and saw the hamster wheel."

When it comes to celebrities with a reputation for hard partying, Lindsay Lohan's is hovering right around Charlie Sheen levels. After blowing up her career with constant clubbing and two DUI arrests, Oprah Winfrey tossed the troubled actress a life preserver in 2014 and set her up with a docu-series on OWN that would chronicle Lohan's journey to sobriety and career comeback. Needless to say, the show was a recipe for disaster that culminated in the Mean Girls actress allegedly getting drunk at the viewing party. "When she stepped inside the elevator, she reeked of booze and could barely stand!" a source told Star (via the Daily Mail). "She was walking in a zigzag, and everyone in the lobby was staring. She was definitely not sober." 

Winfrey pulled the plug on a second season. It turns out she wasn't playing for the cameras when she famously told Lohan, "You need to cut the bullsh*t." Unfortunately, that advice didn't quite stick. In September 2016, Radar reported that Lohan allegedly bombed an interview on Russian TV after going on a vodka bender, and a month later, she became part-owner of a nightclub in Greece. That sounds like warning signs for more embarrassing moments to come.

Kiefer Sutherland became a viral sensation in 2005 after video surfaced of him drunkenly tackling a Christmas tree in a hotel lobby. While the footage is undoubtedly hilarious, what younger generations might not know is that Sutherland has a reputation for being one of the biggest drinkers in Hollywood. The actor has racked up four DUIs, which is not cool, and it's a miracle the 24 star hasn't killed somebody. Following his fourth arrest, People quoted friends of Sutherland who said he doesn't stop drinking "until the wheels fall off."

Has he checked into rehab? Nope. In 2016, Sutherland literally recorded a love song about alcohol and flat-out told People that he won't quit drinking. "One of the things I love to do is go out with my friends and tell stories and have a bunch of drinks." he said. "That's true. Having said that, I can also look back on my life and tell you very squarely that the only bad things that have ever happened to me in my life have been because I like to go to bars and have drinks with my friends ... That's a choice I've made and I live with that choice."

Our condolences to Jack Bauer's liver.

Over the years, Jennifer Lawrence has built up a reputation for falling down at awards shows. One of those moments was the 2014 Oscars, which Lawrence admitted to Seth Meyers (via Us Weekly) was the result of having too many drinks while meeting a certain hunky celeb at the Dolby Theatre lounge. It all started when her BFF convinced her to slip out to the bar during the show. "We ran into Brad Pitt," Lawrence told Meyers, "and she was like, 'Get Brad Pitt over here!' and I was like, 'I can't do that!' And she was like, 'Yes, you can!' So what was a girl to do? 'I just went, 'Hey Brad Pitt!' He came over. He smelled like sandalwood. It was unbelievable!"

In 2017, Lawrence's drinking became a viral hit when Radar published video of the starlet working the pole at a strip club in Vienna while allegedly stripped down to her bra. The actress took the headlines in stride, but set the record straight on Facebook. "Look, nobody wants to be reminded that they tried to dance on a stripper pole by the internet," she said. "It was one of my best friend's birthdays and I dropped my paranoia guard for one second to have fun. I'm not going to apologize, I had a BLAST that night. P.S. That's not a bra it's an Alexander Wang top and I'm not gonna lie, I think my dancing's pretty good. Even with no core strength."