Celebrities’ lives are so lavish and exciting—automatic invites to the hottest parties, first pick of the latest designer goods, free Carvel ice-cream cakes for life … They do pay a price for all that access and entitlement, though. For every tabloid story chronicling a shopping spree or tropical vacation, there’s another that spills the sordid details of a divorce or a drug binge, whether they’re true or not. Because tabloids thrive on spreading gossip, most celebrity rumors become old news within a day or two, especially if left unproven. But some have managed to stick to certain stars’ careers like a bad movie or a bad relationship. So they must be true, right? Don’t be so sure.
Richard Gere: A Gerbil and a Gentleman
This Hollywood urban legend is as old as time itself. Well, as old as the mid-’80s, anyway. That’s when whispers started circulating about Richard Gere’s dalliances with a gerbil that landed him in L.A.’s Cedars-Sinai Hospital. A fake press release supposedly issued by the ASPCA about his “abuse” of the animal in the early ’90s didn’t help matters, either. But ultimately, the press release wasn’t traced back to any reliable source, and neither was the story itself. Gere later addressed the rumor in a 2008 interview, saying, “I just decided not to pay attention to any of it. It’s a waste of energy.” Hmm … that’s not exactly a denial, is it?
Alice Cooper: That Poor Chicken
Way before Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a bat onstage, Alice Cooper earned a reputation as a crazy man by reportedly ripping a chicken’s head off and drinking its blood at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert in 1969. Cooper says that someone from the crowd tossed the chicken onstage, and since he was a city boy who didn’t know about farm life, he assumed that it would fly away if he threw it back toward the crowd. Well, it fell into the crowd and was subsequently torn apart, but the head biting made for a much better story. In fact, when Cooper wanted to repudiate the claim, Frank Zappa advised him that people’s believing the rumor was better for his career.
Osbourne, on the other hand, definitely bit the head off a bat during a 1982 concert after a fan threw it onstage. He thought it was rubber, but the real question isn’t why he did it—it’s how all these animals managed to make it past security. They confiscate bottled water, but not chickens and bats?
