The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals (65 page)

It all seemed jovial enough, but it was also on Twitter that one of the first tremors was detected in the marriage. It apparently all happened one weekend when the couple were out together and a young woman took it upon herself to slip Kutcher her phone number. It would seem that Ashton showed the note to Demi, who was incensed and immediately took to Twitter, berating the girl and then posting her number online for all to see. Unfortunately for Demi, many of her followers started to ring the number and then report the outcome on the social networking site. Many more decided to bombard the actress with messages, telling her how irresponsible she had been to post the woman’s number in the first place. Demi must have thought twice about her knee-jerk reaction: the tweet was taken down within minutes and never reported in the press.

The couple continued their relationship until autumn 2011, when Kutcher landed the plum role of Walden Schmidt in the sitcom
Two and a Half Men
. The star enjoyed the infamy that came with involvement in the production, but unfortunately for him, it was for all the wrong reasons that he started to make headlines, shortly after shooting began. It was alleged that on the day before the couple’s sixth wedding anniversary, instead of spending time with his wife, Ashton was partying in Las Vegas with a bevy of young women. Pictures soon emerged of the actor at the Hard Rock Hotel surrounded by the ladies in question; then Sara Leal, the woman at the centre of it all, came forward to tell her story of the “fling” she had enjoyed with the actor.

Things were made no better when rumours surfaced that Kutcher and Moore shared an “open” marriage and that he had previously been involved with a woman called Brittney Jones. This was denied by the couple, but it seemed that by this time the damage was already done.

Demi was heartbroken that her marriage was falling apart, but still the couple battled on, attending Kabbalah meetings and then deciding to go on a camping trip to Cachuma Lake near Santa Barbara. They were not alone, however, as they were accompanied not only by their Kabbalah teachers, but also members of the paparazzi who hid in bushes to take photos of the couple together.

The resulting pictures did little to assure the public that all was well, failing to show any intimacy between Demi and Ashton at all. In fact, the couple hardly seemed to know each other existed, and Demi – who had always been slim – was depicted stirring food over a camp fire looking extremely gaunt. Kutcher, meanwhile was photographed standing near to his wife, unshaven and visibly unhappy.

It came as no real surprise then, when Demi released a statement in November, announcing the end of the marriage. In it she said: “It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I have decided to end my six-year marriage to Ashton.” She then went on to describe how as a woman, a mother and a wife there were particular things that she had held sacred, such as values and vows. “It is in this spirit that I have chosen to move forward with my life,” she said. The actress then begged the public and press for privacy and compassion, stating that it was a terribly trying time for both herself and her family, and that she would like to be given the same amount of privacy that anyone else would be afforded in that same situation.

Ashton meanwhile released his own statement through his favourite networking site, Twitter, which said that he would forever cherish his time with Demi. “Marriage is one of the most difficult things in the world,” he said, before going on to say that, unfortunately, sometimes relationships fail.

After the announcement, Kutcher appeared to move on easily with his life – filming
Two and a Half Men
and being seen out with several different women. But Demi’s life seemed to stall. She was reluctant to change her Twitter name – @ MrsKutcher – and chastised fans who asked her why. It would take over five months before she was finally ready to change. Asking fans to send in ideas, Demi finally chose @JustDemi and revealed the new handle in May 2012.

But back in November 2011, Demi was photographed looking even skinnier than she had been in the recent past, and “friends” told the press that she had not been eating or taking care of herself. Then in December, she was devastated to learn that her friend Patsy Rugg had passed away. Rugg had been Demi’s sponsor at AA meetings and the two were exceptionally close. Unfortunately her death seemed to affect Demi in an acute way, and in the weeks ahead, she appeared to be going from one extreme to the other – one minute depressed, then at other times, according to friends, partying as if there were no tomorrow.

Finally, in January 2012 it all came crashing down. Demi was hosting a party at her home when she suddenly collapsed after suffering some kind of seizure. A friend called an ambulance and reported that the actress was semi-conscious, burning up, suffering convulsions and barely breathing. She shouted for the ambulance to hurry and reported that friends had to hold Demi down, such were the severity of the seizures. In a 911 tape released later that month, the friend is heard telling the operator that Moore had “smoked something – it’s not marijuana, it’s similar to incense”.

It was later claimed that the substance could have been nitrous oxide, or laughing gas as it is better known. An ambulance raced to Demi’s home and she was admitted to hospital before entering rehab in order to recover properly. Once she was discharged, a number of friends were seen going in and out of the actress’s home, including first husband Bruce Willis, who had shown obvious concern for the health of the mother of his children.

The incident was a turning point for Demi, and afterwards she began trying to put her life back together; spending time with friends, putting on weight and embarking on a new TV show.
The Conversation
was an interview show that seemed to begin where Oprah left off. Talking to women about their experiences of life, the show was executively produced by Demi, and hosted by her friend Amanda de Cadenet. The brand worked and women from around the world began tweeting their delight with the show.

Demi was thrilled, though her personal life was still a problem, with rumours circulating that her children, Rumer, Scout and Tallulah, had distanced themselves from their mother, saying they needed space after a series of arguments concerning their ongoing friendship with Ashton Kutcher. The estrangement was an eerie reminder of Demi’s troubled relationship with her own mother, Virginia Guynes, as the two did not speak to each other for many years. “Her life has come full circle,” exclaimed friends, who remembered the troubles Demi had with Virginia, “and now her daughters just don’t want to deal with the drama.”

Other so-called friends declared that she had been an unwanted guest at Tallulah’s graduation ceremony, and that her children had wanted Ashton to attend instead. Demi balked at such a request, and although she did indeed attend the graduation, it seemed apparent that things weren’t going well, and none of the children were publicly photographed with their mother.

Also adding to the actress’s worries was the media’s continuing prodding into her relationship with estranged husband Ashton Kutcher. The couple – who were still legally married despite their very obvious and public separation – had bumped into each other at a party for their Kabbalah teacher in May 2012. The pair were civil and cordial to each other, but even this politeness was enough to prompt stories of a reconciliation. Immediately friends reported that the couple had hugged for “at least 60 seconds” in view of the other guests, and that they were obviously still comfortable in each other’s company.

Rumours became rife when Demi “favourited” a tweet by singer Wiz Khalifa that explained how everyone makes mistakes and that shouldn’t be the reason why you would give up on somebody. Then came another one saying that sometimes you have to love people from a distance in order to give them time to “get their minds right”. Could these quotes be cryptic notes to Ashton? The media definitely thought so.

Unfortunately for them, however, Demi was in no mood to play the reporters’ games and in response to their stories, she sent out a tweeted statement which described her feelings on the subject. In the comment she expressed how she had laughed at the need for the media to twist words and take tweets out of context “so they can create fictitious stories to sell to the public!” Of course, it was only a matter of time before the media jumped on this quote too and gleefully reproduced it in their publications.

As it later turned out, there was going to be no reconciliation between the estranged couple, as Ashton was soon being photographed kissing and cuddling with new love, actress Mila Kunis. Demi meanwhile was rumoured to be linked to actor Martin Henderson though it would seem that at the time of writing, the actress is far too busy working on the relationship with herself to put much time and energy into a relationship with another person. She is also said to be fairly content with the fact that her divorce from Kutcher is finally going through, showing that while the past few years have been a strain, she is looking forward to the future.

The destruction and death of Whitney Houston is a painful story, made worse by the fact that during the first years of her career, people believed she was a clean-cut performer who could do no wrong. Unfortunately, her image as a gospelsinging good girl was not only exaggerated, but in the end, very much an illusion.

Born on 9 August 1963, Whitney grew up in a family full of unique talent: gospel singer Cissy Houston was her mother, Aretha Franklin was a close friend (though not her godmother as some have rumoured her to be) while soul legend Dionne Warwick was her cousin. It was, therefore, seemingly inevitable that Whitney would follow in their footsteps and from the moment she sang “Saving All My Love For You” in 1985, she became a star.

Her initial success was followed up by hits such as “How Will I Know?”, “So Emotional”, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” and “Didn’t We Almost Have it All”, and award followed award as she raced her way quickly up the ladder of fame. It was at an award show on 12 April 1989 that Whitney met soul singer Bobby Brown, who after a long friendship went on to become the love of her life. She later told
Rolling Stone
magazine that Brown was the first male in show business who she could really talk to and be her real self with, and from the start it became apparent that for Brown, the feeling was mutual.

After turning down Bobby’s first marriage proposal, the singer eventually said yes and the two were married on 18 July 1992 in the grounds of Whitney’s house in New Jersey, in front of 800 guests. For a time they seemed a happy couple, and when Whitney gave birth to their daughter Bobbi Kristina in 1993, it seemed to seal the relationship in the eyes of the public.

Unfortunately their marriage was soon to deteriorate amid rumours that Whitney was secretly in love with her female assistant and friend, Robyn Crawford. The stories were never proved, though that has not stopped the gossip, even after Houston’s death. Regardless of rumours and hearsay about the status of their friendship, what does seem pretty clear is that Brown and Crawford disliked each other intensely. Such was their distaste, in fact, that eventually Crawford gave up her job, which resulted in the end of her friendship with the singer. However, the former assistant always held a place for Whitney in her heart and in 2012 she shared her feelings with
Esquire
during a poignant tribute to her recently deceased friend.

Once Robyn had departed the Houston/Brown home, the couple continued their marriage, though the relationship was always volatile and made no better when the two apparently acquired an interest in narcotics and illegal substances. According to Houston, during the years of worldwide fame after her movie
The Bodyguard
(1992) and song “I Will Always Love You” were released, both she Bobby Brown became heavily into drugs, with cocaine being their substance of choice. This was kept secret from her adoring public for some time, until the bubble finally burst on 11 January 2000 when marijuana was discovered in their baggage while at Hawaii airport.

No charges were brought due to the couple jetting off in their plane before the authorities could arrive, but rumours flew and it wasn’t long before all kinds of stories were reported in the press of cancelled interviews, erratic behaviour and even of Whitney being fired from an Academy Award show performance. There were also rumours of abuse within the marriage; of affairs and profound unhappiness; but the couple remained silent. For now.

Though still occasionally releasing records and movies, as well as enjoying a record-breaking music deal, Whitney’s career took a definite back seat during this fraught time. The success of
The Bodyguard
could have led to Whitney matching her singing success with a high-profile Hollywood career, and she did make a couple more films such as
Waiting to Exhale
(1995) with Angela Bassett and
The Preacher’s Wife
(1996) with Denzel Washington. However, it seems that her burgeoning acting career may have been sacrificed as a consequence of her drugfuelled life with Brown.

In 2002 she sat down to an interview with Diane Sawyer for
ABC News
. It quickly became known as the “Crack is Whack” interview, when the singer declared she made too much money to ever smoke that particular drug, as it was so cheap. When asked if it was true that she had spent $730,000 on drugs, Whitney bizarrely declared “I want to see the receipts!” before going on to admit that she had used a variety of substances. “I don’t like to think of myself as addicted,” she said. “I’d rather think that I have a bad habit, which can be broken.”

By 2006 one habit that she did want to break was her apparently abusive and destructive marriage to Bobby Brown. It had been on the rocks for many years and a car-crash TV show,
Being Bobby Brown
, did nothing for their relationship, showing them frequently fighting and taking part in what can only be described as erratic behaviour. Things were made much worse when leaked photographs of their drug-filled bathroom were splashed around the world and it was claimed that, during drug-fuelled episodes, Whitney would spend days at a time in her bedroom, sleeping, taking substances, so out of control she wouldn’t know what day it was.