Top 10 Most Scandalous Celebrity Trials of All Time

Were going a bit back for this one. Oscar Wilde is one of the most famous Victorian writers, but his career hit a significant wall in 1895. In February of that year, Wilde sued the Marquess of Queensberry for libel after Queensberry accused him of homosexual conduct. Wilde eventually dropped the suit but was arrested on charges of gross indecency, a vague crime which allowed authorities to prosecute acts of physical intimacy between men. Wilde underwent two sensational trials, the first of which ended in a hung jury. The second resulted in a conviction, thanks in large part to witness testimony and the loose definition of the law. He was ultimately sentenced to two years of hard labor and died soon after his release.

Behold - the social media trial of our age. Held throughout the spring of 2022, the trial saw Johnny Depp suing his ex-wife, Amber Heard, for defamation after she published an op-ed claiming to be a victim of domestic abuse. Heard was countersuing Depp for similar reasons. The trial was widely followed and enormously mocked thanks to a number of meme-worthy moments. These include the famous Poop in the Bed incident, my dog stepped on a bee, Depps deadpan humor on the stand, and best of all, the fabled megapint. Seriously, this thing deserves its own movie. And in the end, Heard faced significant scrutiny, being regarded as the figurative and literal loser of the trial.

The world was left utterly shocked on October 21, 2021, when we heard that Alec Baldwin had accidentally shot and killed someone on the set of a movie. That movie was a Western called Rust, and the victim was its cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins. Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter, and the trial commenced in Santa Fe in July 2024. The trial was enormously popular thanks to Baldwins fame, the dramatic story at its core, and the controversy of even charging Baldwin in the first place, with most thinking he was not to blame. But just three days into the proceedings, Judge Mary Sommer dismissed the case after the prosecution failed to disclose critical evidence to the defense.

Insider trading isnt as juicy as some of the other crimes on this list, but it still resulted in one of the biggest celebrity trials of the 21st century. In June of 2003, Stewart and her broker, Peter Bacanovic, were indicted on charges related to insider trading. The trial began in January 2004 and lasted five weeks, becoming a media spectacle owing to Stewarts celebrity status and the publics fascination with white collar crime in the early 2000s. Remember, Enron and WorldCom occurred just a few years prior, and the controversy was still fresh. Stewart was ultimately found guilty on four counts and sentenced to five months in prison, five months of home confinement, and two years of probation.

While not exactly a household name at the time, Harvey Weinstein was a prominent film producer with major clout in Hollywood, having co-founded Miramax and produced landmark films like Pulp Fiction and Scream. Of course, he was also the central figure in a watershed criminal case that helped ignite the global #MeToo movement. Weinstein went on two trials for sexual assault - one in New York and one in L.A. - and was found guilty in both, resulting in a combined 39 years in prison. However, an appeals court overturned the New York conviction in 2024, ruling that the judge improperly allowed testimony from women whose allegations were not part of the charges. Regardless, his trial ignited one of the biggest cultural movements of the century.

Like Harvey Weinstein, Phil Spector also worked behind the scenes, serving as one of the music industrys most influential producers. He was everywhere in the 60s and 70s, but by the 80s he had fallen into seclusion and was suffering from mental illness. And then on February 3, 2003, actress Lana Clarkson was found dead from a gunshot wound at Spectors mansion in Alhambra, California. Spector was brought on trial for her murder. The first ended in a mistrial following a deadlocked jury, but the second ended in a conviction after the prosecution placed a stronger emphasis on Spectors abusive behavior. He was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to nineteen years to life in prison. He died there in January 2021.

It was sort of an open secret that R. Kelly was a creep, with accusations of sexual misconduct dating back to the 1990s. And they have resulted in numerous, very public criminal trials. The first was extremely scandalous, given the nature of the heinous crime. It also became highly notorious in 2008 when Kelly was acquitted of all charges and allowed to walk free. And then Surviving R. Kelly came out in 2019 and changed everything. This documentary reignited discussions around Kellys abuse and he was subjected to two further trials in New York and Chicago. He was found guilty in both, receiving a combined 31 years in prison. He is currently incarcerated in North Carolinas FCC Butner.

This famous silent film actor was better known as Fatty Arbuckle. Nicknames can be crude. Arbuckle was one of the highest-paid actors of his day, but his career virtually ended in September 1921. Thats when a young actress named Virginia Rappe died at a San Francisco party that was also attended by Arbuckle. The actor was accused of sexually assaulting Rappe and causing significant internal injuries that led to her death. The sensational nature of the allegations caused the press to explode, and Arbuckle went through three highly sensationalized trials. The first two ended in mistrials, and Arbuckle was acquitted in the third, complete with a written apology by the jury, claiming that a great injustice has been done. Despite this, Arbuckles career never recovered.

This is perhaps the most divisive celebrity trial in history - either a gross miscarriage of justice or a wrongful accusation. Occurring in 2005, the trial saw Jackson facing charges related to various sexual offenses. While Jackson himself did not testify, the trial was a media circus and lasted for five months. It was all anyone could talk about, with many discussing the merits of the accusations, the strength of the prosecution, and how the trial would impact Jacksons legacy. He was ultimately acquitted of all charges, but he left the trial both emotionally and physically drained and was never the same. He largely withdrew from the public eye before dying four years later from a drug overdose inflicted by his personal physician.

The most scandalous celebrity trial is that of O.J. Simpson, and frankly, its not even close. This trial has long overshadowed Simpsons football career, and that was legendary! This was the media circus to end all media circuses, a cultural event that enraptured the entire country for nearly nine months throughout 1995. Its hard to explain just how big this trial was to people who werent there, but many of its moments have become famous, like the ridiculous glove incident and Mark Fuhrmans cross examination, during which he was caught lying about using racial slurs. And of course, it concluded in the most dramatic manner possible with one of the most infamous acquittals in criminal history. You cant write this stuff.


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