Top 10 Career-Ending Blunders of All Time

February 21st, 2011
Anyone who has spent significant time in the real world understands that one misstep can ruin a promising or even established career. It’s why we choose not to become too comfy around our coworkers, speak our minds in the office, or behave in any manner that indicates we’re unprofessional. The fear of what could happen is enough to keep most people in check, especially if they live in the public eye. Just look at the prominent people listed below — their successful careers were gleefully guillotined in public by the merciless, blood-thirsty lynch mob that is the media. Of course, in some cases, these people were already suffering career declines, and their so-called "career-ending" blunders didn’t really end their careers, but crippled them. Semantics aside, we can all agree that their falls from grace were cringe-worthy.

1. Mel Gibson’s Voice Mail Revelations: Gibson’s anti-Semitic rant during his 2006 DUI arrest didn’t kill his career — after all, his project Apocalypto was well-received, ranking No. 1 during its opening weekend. The second episode, however, pretty much sealed his fate as a Hollywood has-been. During the summer of 2010, Gibson’s girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva filed a domestic violence-related restraining order barring him from coming near her or her daughter, of whom Gibson is the father. What’s more, previous assertions that Gibson harbors racist and sexist feelings were confirmed when recorded phone conversations between him and Grigorieva were released to the public. His most notorious comments are so vile that it’s difficult to imagine him becoming a marketable star again if he’s bitten by the acting bug — his impending return notwithstanding.
2. Gary Hart’s Monkey Business: Hart isn’t the first or last man in power to be hamstrung by his lust for women — see Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. But the aspiring president, who was the frontrunner heading for the 1988 Democratic nomination, has never lived down his candidacy-sinking extramarital indiscretions with model Donna Rice. His ultimate downfall, even more so than the affair itself, proved to be his cavalier attitude toward the press. When speculation arose about the matter and questions poured in, he responded by saying "Follow me around. I don’t care. I’m serious. If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They’ll be very bored." The Miami Herald took him up on the dare and exposed his monkey business, famously printing a photo with Rice seated on his lap aboard the appropriately-named luxury yacht Monkey Business. Hart subsequently dropped out of the race, lashed out at the media, returned to the race, withdrew again after Super Tuesday and went on to have a much lower profile career in politics.Read More