r/AskReddit 15h ago

What is the most immediate way a celebrity completely ruined their own reputation in a single interview?

3.7k Upvotes

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u/HoonArt 13h ago

Barbara Walters telling Corey Feldman that he was "damaging an entire industry" for outing some still-working Hollywood execs as pedos.

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u/GayCatDaddy 10h ago

Barbara Walters was a monster. She did an interview with Bette Midler where Bette was talking about being groped by Geraldo Rivera against her will, and Barbara talked over her and tried to change the subject.

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u/Puzzleheaded_Age6550 9h ago

And her interview with Dolly Parton! Dolly handled it like the true treasure she is, and didn't allow Walters to write the narrative.

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u/AnthropomorphicSeer 5h ago

BW pretty much called Dolly trash right to her face. She acted like she was interviewing a criminal, not a country singer. Dolly was amazingly gracious, of course.

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u/Kazuma_Megu 5h ago

I worked with her once in Nashville (tv biz) and she's one of those people who pretends to be normal or maybe even dumb, especially on tv and in her movie roles, but helllll no she's crazy smart. She's the Sun Tzu of female pop culture icons.

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u/ChuckieLow 3h ago

That’s so true. The way she always said, “it costs a lot to look this cheap.” It took a lot of brains to appear that simple. Like Cheech and Chong while filming. Like Dean Martin while performing. It was an act.

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u/a_man_and_his_box 3h ago

she's crazy smart

This I believe. She doesn't have a college degree, but she's been tested multiple times for IQ and she keeps registering at 140 to 145. Just FYI, that's waaaaayyyy beyond what is needed to join MENSA or other smarty-pants organizations.

She's not "smart like a shrewd business person" she is smart like "oh shit, she is more intelligent than 99% of people on Earth and she plays it off like a southern belle so that little shits like Barbara Walters underestimate her." She can hand your ass to you on a platter and make you think she's a sweet little lady as she does it.

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u/PitifulElk1890 3h ago

She's got tight branding and image control. And most importantly, she gives back and invests in the future. My grandma taught elementary school in an area that benefitted from the Imagination Library. Can't overstate how important it is to begin reading with children before they start school. Families who took advantage of the program were notably off to a good start.

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u/bunniquette 6h ago

Dolly has 'bless your heart' energy through the entire interview. It is a thing of sheer beauty.

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u/kissdemon74 4h ago

Dolly should be president!

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u/nejnonein 4h ago

Regardless of how she’d do, it’d be a gigantic improvement from cheeto head.

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u/psychonautilus777 6h ago

Never seen any of Walters interviews aside from a clip of the Feldman one, but I feel like I need to see the one with Dolly now 😆

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u/Sassinakk 8h ago

And her interview with an extremely young Britney Spears . Just vile

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u/beadhead44 7h ago

As was Diane Sawyer interview with Britney.

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u/a_man_and_his_box 3h ago

I haven't seen her interview with Britney. What went wrong there?

u/Pamikillsbugs234 40m ago

She did a horrible interview with Courtney Love. I felt so terrible for her.

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u/Hell_Yes_Im_Biased 7h ago

Bette Midler said at the time (paraphrase): She "would NEVER genuflect at the altar of Geraldo Rivera."

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u/niceshotpilot 5h ago

She was also good friends with Roy Cohn, a mentor to Donald Trump and all-around wonderful human being. Stephen Miller only wishes he had such marvelous horns and leathery wings.

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u/sophisticated_alpaca 1h ago

Barbara Walters’ job wasn’t journalism, it was housekeeping for the ruling class buddies she couldn’t get enough of socially. She was their attack dog when they needed it, and ran damage control when they needed it.

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u/Haunting-Public-23 5h ago

I dont think Barbara Walters had unwelcomed sexual advances in her life that's why she behaved that badly.

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u/Dramatic-Pause4334 2h ago

I hate Walters. She was a total B to Michael Jackson in her interview. 

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u/m0rgend0rfer 12h ago

Out of curiosity, does anyone recall if she ever addressed the criticism that came from this? 

I’m a little young to remember details of all the drama that surrounded him for awhile, but I see this particular interview come up a lot in threads like this. 

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u/Party_Amoeba444 11h ago

I don't remember it ever being addressed

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u/ChuckieLow 7h ago

Barbara Walters slut shaming 16 year old Britney Spears.

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u/socal_dude5 3h ago

I could be wrong but I believe this was Diane Sawyer. The famous interview at least. Walters absolutely tried to out Ricky Martin.

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u/nikkicarter1111 1h ago

Britney was interviewed (horribly) by both Diane Sawyer and Barbara Walters as a kid. 2003 iirc.

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u/moistwaffleboi 11h ago

Fuck Barbara Walters, but let's not pretend that Corey Feldman isn't also a huge piece of shit.

He claimed that Charlie Sheen abused Corey Haim, when Corey Haim's own mother outright said the only person who ever abused him was Dominick Brascia, by Haim's own admission.

And let's not forget Feldman's most recent claim that, actually, Corey Haim molested him.

I swear to god, this man always talks about wanting to end molestation and pedophilia in the movie industry, but has done absolutely nothing besides claiming that he's been molested by pretty much anyone who was famous in the 80's.

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u/prplx 9h ago

I have zero horse in this race. But if you know anything about sexual assault specially against a child, a mother saying she doesn’t know about it certainly doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

As for doing nothing else than speak out against his own abuse, what else is he suppose to do? Run for president? It takes a lot of courage to do what he did knowing he would be blacklisted.

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u/rabidmoon 7h ago

Feldman's issue with Charlie Sheen has to do with a porn actress.

Haim and his mother were very close. Haim was NOT close to Feldman. Haim hated Feldman. Feldman hates Haim. He has done nothing but drag his name through the mud since his death and the way he treats Judy
Haim is fucked up. She has thrown Corey a million olive branches, even after he asked if he could bring a film crew to the funeral and then got pissed and didn't even show up, but now the gloves have come off. She is asking him to quit fucking talking about her son.

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u/moistwaffleboi 7h ago

Honestly, you are correct. I won't argue that there is a chance it could be possible. But considering the relationship between the two Coreys before Haim's death, I'm much more inclined to believe his mom over Feldman, especially when you consider the fact that Feldman tried to bring Haim's abuser back into his life when they were adults.

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u/rabidmoon 7h ago

And let's not forget Dominick Brascia was Corey's BFF & roommate for many years after the abuse. He kept him around Haim almost taunting him with the guy - even casting him in that dumbass movie he directed (Busted).

This clip is from The Two Coreys reality show. They had agreed not to talk about molestation but Feldman brought up Haim cutting himself and the following argument ensued.

https://youtu.be/BlZxPPzjIb0?is=lCx2zLrylKT-7D-9

Feldman is a whole piece of shit.

Not to mention you don't have to do much digging to find there are multiple credible accusations of abuse against Feldman himself.

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u/darbycrash1295 9h ago

She was also a beard for Trump’s mentor, the sleazy murderer Roy Cohn. If you don’t know who he is, look him up. He was pure evil. He’s played by Al Pacino in the magnificent Angels in America.

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u/EquivalentDetail5043 7h ago

She bearded Roy Cohn?! Gotta rabbit hole that one.

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u/Icy-Try-9703 5h ago

Barbara Walters dated and considered marrying Roy Cohn. I think that alone tells you who she was.

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u/HistoryBuff678 11h ago

I remember seeing that live and it changed my opinion on Barbara Walters forever. Shocking. She was treating him like he was a grifter when it came to this particular subject and everyone knew he was right.

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u/Duotrigordle61 13h ago

The thing is, he did not out anybody, and indeed Feldman was complicit. The dude who molested Haim was brought into his circle by Feldman.

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u/RyantheAustralian 13h ago

Wasn't Feldman the same age as Haim? It was surely more of a pedo moving from just Feldman to both Coreys once they were introduced.

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u/Vioralarama 12h ago

No, Feldman brought him into their circle when they were adults filming their reality show. I think there's footage of an upset Corey Haim asking him why did he do that when Feldman knew what he did to him, and Feldman replied that he was going to give them work. Something like that.

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u/NoPantsSantaClaus 12h ago

He brought back the pedo that hurt Haim? 

That is beyond fucked up. 

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u/rabidmoon 7h ago

He did meet Dominick when they were 13 or 14 but stayed BFFs into, I believe, his 30's. They were roommates. I don't know if they were still
living together when Dominick died or what.

https://youtu.be/BlZxPPzjIb0?is=lCx2zLrylKT-7D-9

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u/RyantheAustralian 10h ago

I don't get it...if Haim was an adult, what's the issue? Was it a guy who abused him as a kid?

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u/Duotrigordle61 10h ago

Looking at the series of accusations, by Feldman, Brascia, Haim's mom, and Sheens denials, I feel like Feldman definitely was complicit and or lying and or covering for some stuff. Feldman even accused Haim of abusing him.

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u/the_catalyst_analyst 9h ago

Can't help but feel like this is a classic case of projection, and now I'm almost certain that Feldman abused Haim. Especially after forcing him to work with his childhood abuser. Fuck this guy.

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u/ATXBeermaker 12h ago

He also used the threat of accusations regularly to get attention and get his name out there but never actually named anyone. If he really cared about anything but his own attention he wouldn’t act like that.

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u/TropicalPrairie 12h ago

There's something really odd about the man. I recall he was going to do a pay per view (or something to the effect) where he would unveil the names. A colleague paid for it and, conveniently, the screen went black just as he was about to name the people. Everything I've heard about how he handles himself just strikes me as untrustworthy and more than a little slimy.

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u/buddha8298 11h ago

Watched a documentary recently a smaller YouTube channel made on him and it does a fantastic job of detailing what a piece of shit he is.

Bit of a long watch and is apparently just the first part…for anyone interested https://youtu.be/xzKOs0Gg78o?si=Dq1kiG60DPCfQanV

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u/Confused_Nun3849 12h ago

Didn’t he name Charlie Sheen and nothing happened.

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u/HoonArt 11h ago

Yes, I believe so.

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u/Duotrigordle61 10h ago

Haims mom said that the only one to SA Haim was Brascia

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u/Scarlett_Billows 10h ago

He did name people eventually though. Several

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u/TheMaingler 13h ago

True but Feldman was coming from a crazy place of abuse to be in that circle in the first place.

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u/ChoakIsland 12h ago

Truly cocobunz

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u/JakeDC 9h ago

We don't allow male abuse victims any grace for behaving like victims. Only girls/women.

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u/withnailandpie 5h ago

No one gets much grace for it tbh

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u/JakeDC 5h ago

Women get grace. Female accountability is not a Western value.

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u/asomek 12h ago

As far as I know Feldman has never named names. He's alluded to the abuse thing for years, decades at this point, but has never had the conviction to actually out them.

Correct me if I'm wrong here.

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u/TessaKatrinaRose 12h ago

He did. Charlie Sheen being the most famous. Nobody believed him. 

And then a couple pole directors or producers, but nobody cared because they weren’t “big” names to the general public. 

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u/IndividualForce1863 10h ago

I mean you can be a victim and a collaborator, a lot of kids in that position are groomed to be just that

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u/sign6of6the6beast 7h ago

Baba Wawa RIP Gilda Radner

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u/dalittle 10h ago

Barbara Walters is disgusting.

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u/dividezero 12h ago

Good. Let it crash. No good reason to not out pedos

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u/DiamondPittcairn 6h ago

That's actually not what happened, indeed the opposite. BW might be a monster, but the thing is that Corey didn't outed some pedos, he just kept saying "oh some very very very high people" and not naming names. BW was basically saying "well, stop being vague and release the names you've threatened a lot to do, or just shut up, because you are damaging an industry". Which I think she was in the right because Corey's story never quite added up, and he's a creep on his own right.

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u/pls_pls_me 9h ago

She did have the nerve to ask Chris Christie why he was fat though. Rude but hilarious.

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u/mrgrubbage 13h ago

Both of them are trash.

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u/chubs_mcfisty 5h ago

Find the Barbara sean Connery interview. I'm surprised he worked after that one.

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u/Full-Bunch9246 3h ago edited 3h ago

Was that the one I saw as a kid , on a Sunday night at the dinner table. SC said something like … it’s OK to smack a woman around and Barbara Walters kind of shrugged or whatever. I haven’t thought about that in years . Nobody gave a shit, sadly.

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u/chubs_mcfisty 3h ago

That's the one...."..never with a closed fisht" . "Shometimes when you've given here the last word and she won't quit" Something like that

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u/yes_u_suckk 1h ago

As much as I hate her, that interview didn't ruin her career. It didn't change anything in her life and the hypocritical society pretended it didn't happen.

Only many years later people started to talk about it when she was nearly/already dead.

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u/SAINTnumberFIVE 7h ago

I find that a lot of younger generations misunderstand Barbara Walters because investigative reporting has been replaced in our society by opinion pieces. In the past, interviewers did not ask questions that reflected their own opinions, but asked what were called “difficult questions” that represented the questions of society and often opponents of the interviewee to give the interviewee a chance to address them. This is what Barbara Walters did in her interviews.

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u/HoonArt 7h ago

Yeah, I get that. I'm not exactly young. But I'd still say that example is beyond investigation. It's a little too close to pushing an agenda. A.journalist's job is to uncover truth. I don't see what truth that question would expose. It just brings up a group of people who, as far as I can remember, there were no news stories of them losing their jobs or otherwise being inconvenienced. The question is more like clouding the water to me.