2016 was a bad year for a lot of people on all fronts. One of those ways was a lot of celebrity deaths. Prince, David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Anton Yelchin, Gene Wilder, Abe Vigoda, George Michael, Garry Shandling, Muhammad Ali and Christina Grimmie were but a handful of celebrities who died in 2016.

I’m mentioning this to draw a parallel between that year and the year we’re freshly out of. If 2016 was the year celebrities died metaphysically, 2023 was the year celebrities died reputationally.

Yeah, there were a lot of scandals and a lot of ruined reputations in 2023. To name a few:

• Maybe the most damning scandal was so scandalous because it went beyond bad behavior into criminality. Danny Masterson of That ’70s Show and The Ranch fame received 30 years to life in prison on two counts of rape. Obviously, a possibly-permanent pause in Masterson’s career is a bad look for him, but the trial made a bunch of different people show their butts:
  • Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, Danny Masterson’s That ’70s Show costars, wrote letters begging leniency to the judge presiding over Masterson’s trial. Kutcher got a special amount of heat due to sitting on the board of Thorn, an anti-trafficking organization, a position he stepped down from due to the scandal.
  • Debra Jo Rupp and Kurtwood Smith, who played Masterson’s adoptive parents on the show, also wrote letters of leniency to the judge and received similar criticism as Kutcher and Kunis.
  • Masterson’s wife, former actress Bijou Phillips, first supported her husband, then dragged her feet in divorcing him once he was convicted. Along with the scrutiny one naturally receives for standing by someone through a rape trial, the new scrutiny made old scandals emerge. It turns out this wasn’t Phillips’ first time defending a predatory man; in 2009, she defended her late father, folk singer John Phillips, from allegations of having an incestuous relationship with Phillips’ half sister Mackenzie. The scrutiny also brought old allegations against Phillips herself back into the light. Daniel Franzese, who acted alongside Phillips in her breakout film Bully, accused her of homophobic and fatphobic bullying, and Heather Matarazzo, Phillips’ Hostel: Part II costar, accused Phillips of physically assaulting her on set.
• Perhaps the most ironic scandal of the year happened to Lizzo. The singer, who’s marketed herself as a body-positive, sex-positive and uplifting act, is currently the subject of a lawsuit by three of her backup dancers, where she’s been accused of sexual harassment, religious harassment, and creating a toxic work environment. The trio claims Lizzo, among other things, overworked them, forced them to attend nude dances where they had to eat fruit off the dancers’ genitalia, forced non-Christian workers to pray with her, and made derogatory comments about a dancer gaining weight. People naturally had a field day about the proudly plus-size Lizzo mocking someone else for being overweight, but I digress. The suit has yet to hit court, but it’s certainly hit Lizzo’s reputation.
• In the summer of 2023, Hollywood came to a standstill as the Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) went on strike. Much like the Masterson trial, the strike acted as a backdrop for several celebrities to pull up the ladder, including but not limited to: Drew Barrymore, Stephen Amell, Bill Maher, Kim Kardashian, and TikTokers Juju Green AKA @straw_hat_goofy and Collin Everett aka @collinurrmom.
• In 2023, Britney Spears released her memoir The Woman in Me. In said memoir, she revealed that when she dated Justin Timberlake in the early 2000s, Timberlake knocked her up and then forced her to get an abortion. Less scandalous, more embarrassing, she also said that when Timberlake first met African-American singer Ginuwine, he used an affected ‘blaccent’ and Ebonics.
• Since we’re on the topic of memoirs, Will Smith’s reputation took more hits. (Get it? Will Smith? Hits? …I think I’m clever.) Jada Pinkett Smith revealed in her memoir released this year that she and Will Smith had been separated for years prior to Will’s altercation with Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars. Another stain on Will Smith’s rapidly tarnishing reputation.
• In September 2023, the Jonas Brothers’ Joe Jonas and Game of Thrones actress Sophie Turner called it quits on their 4-year marriage. Celebrities getting divorced is nothing special. What is special is the number of hit pieces depicting Turner as an irresponsible mother and the subsequent backlash against said articles, which eventually turned on Jonas.
• 2023 was a bad year for Doja Cat, mostly because of the company she kept. The singer received criticism for dating Twitch streamer Jeffrey Cyrus at the same time several women accused Cyrus of emotional abuse and manipulation. Later on, Doja caught more heat for wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Sam Hyde, a comedian with ties to the alt-right, on it.
• Leaked texts left Jonah Hill with egg on his face. In July, his ex-girlfriend Sarah Brady shared screenshots from when she and Hill were together. In the texts, Hill tried to keep her from having friendships with other men and demanded she delete social media posts where she had a bikini on.
• Sean “Diddy” Combs is fighting four lawsuits, one from his ex-girlfriend and fellow musician Cassie Ventura, and three from unnamed women, accusing Combs of physical and sexual abuse, sex trafficking, and producing revenge porn. Several companies cut ties with Combs’ various business ventures, and a Hulu reality series about Combs and his family got the axe before it could go into production.
• Ariana Grande divorced her husband, real estate agent Dalton Gomez, in October. Again, celebrity divorces: nothing new. What is new is the revelation that Grande had been seeing Ethan Slater, her costar in the upcoming cinematic adaptation of the Wicked musical. Slater is married with a baby, by the way.
• Rolling Stone published an expose where 16 staff members on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon accused Fallon of creating a toxic work environment on set. Fallon issued an apology, but apology or no, he joins Ellen DeGeneres and Lizzo in the pantheon of Supposedly Nice Celebrities with Skeletons In Their Closet On Their Sets.
• And, because every famous person seemed determined to tarnish their reputation somehow some way in 2023, over 2000 actors, directors, producers and musicians signed a letter in support of Israel during the latest bout of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Signers include, but aren’t limited to: Haim Saban, Gal Gadot, Michael Douglas, Jerry Seinfeld, George Lopez, Shannen Doherty, Jamie Lee Curtis, Zachary Levi, Mekhi Phifer, Amy Schumer, and Asher Angel.

Now, those are the scandals I heard about. People who follow celebrity gossip more closely than I do, people in niche communities, and people more chronically online could probably add a bunch to that list. But I’m not talking about this in an attempt to turn my blog into a gossip column. I’ve mentioned all of this to say: with so many celebrities having shown their true colors, maybe celebrity worship can finally come to an end.

Celebrities aren’t “better” than your average Joe working a 9-to-5. They’re normal people, as capable of kindness, rudeness, generosity, greed, patience, anger, selflessness and selfishness as you or me. I’m not saying 2023 should be a reason to think Hollywood is some pit of evil. After all, for every one celebrity who got caught slipping, there are a dozen who kept their noses clean.

But maybe we can take celebrities as a group off the pedestal and treat them like normal people, albeit normal people you see on TV or follow on Instagram?

Please?