1. Donald Trump elected president of the United States
In the wee hours of Nov. 9, businessman-turned-reality-
star-turned-politician Donald Trump was elected president
of the United States in what was perhaps one of the most
surprising upsets … well, ever. Despite numerous polls
showing Hillary Clinton winning (some by a lot), Trump
rallied in the Rust Belt and surged to achieve a surprising
victory. “Sorry to keep you waiting. Complicated business,”
he told followers as he took the stage to address his
supporters. “I’ve just received a call from Secretary Clinton.
She congratulated us on our victory, and I congratulated
her and her family on a very, very hard-fought campaign.”
In the wake of his election, Trump has continued to shake
things up. He kicked off a “Thank You” tour, has made
some interesting choices when it comes to Cabinet
positions, irked China by making a call to Taiwan, and has
been taking meetings with everyone from Kanye West to Bill
Gates. If we could only get him to take a break from
Twitter.
2. Brangelina breaks up
With as much drama as when they got together, Angelina
Jolie and Brad Pitt's 12-year relationship came to sudden
end in September. The controversial pair with the famous
portmanteau, who hooked up when he was still married to
Jennifer Aniston, parted due to "parenting styles" — though
it later came out that they had a nasty fight on a private jet,
with their six children present, that culminated in their
eldest, Maddox, going shoulder to shoulder with his dad
while defending his mom. Pitt was ultimately vindicated of
any wrongdoing, but seems like the loser anyway as he has
barely seen their kids (and the visits are always supervised)
and must submit to drug and alcohol testing several times a
month.
(Pitt's Allied co-star Marion Cotillard made it clear she
wasn't the "other woman" in the split.) While it's never nice
to see any family torn apart, a small bright spot in the
Brangelina bust up were the hysterical Aniston memes that
served as reminder that what goes around comes around.
3. Kim Kardashian robbed at gunpoint in Paris
On Oct. 3, Kim Kardashian was held at gunpoint, forced into
a bathtub, and robbed by men dressed as police officers in
a private apartment. She had been in France for Paris
Fashion Week, along with her mother, Kris Jenner, and
sisters Kourtney Kardashian and Kendall Jenner. The
attackers made off with a whopping $10 million worth of
jewelry, including her nearly 20-carat second engagement
ring from husband Kanye West.
Though she was physically unharmed, a spokesperson for
the reality TV star said she was “badly shaken.” In the
aftermath, social media was declared at least partly to
blame, as Kim had inadvertently revealed she was alone in
her hotel room (sans body guard) when she Snapchatted
herself FaceTiming shortly before. (Her bodyguard was
watching over Kendall and Kourtney's night out at the
time.) Since the attack, Kim has been keeping a low profile
and has not posted on Instagram or Twitter.
4. Prince dies
The world was devastated to learn Prince was found dead
at his Paisley Park compound in Minnesota on April 21. He
was 57. Just one week before, the beloved musician (full
name Prince Rogers Nelson) had suffered a medical
emergency that forced his private jet to make an
emergency landing in Illinois. The next day, however, the
Purple One appeared at a concert and assured his fans that
all was well. Later testing revealed his cause of death to be
an accidental drug overdose of the opioid Fentanyl.
During his lifetime, Prince had sold more than 100 million
records. He was in discussion with Netflix about a Paisley
Park reality show at the time of his death.
5. Amber Heard files for divorce from Johnny Depp and
accuses him of domestic violence
Last year, the biggest headline about the movie star couple
was their marriage and the scandal over their unvaccinated
dogs in Australia, but they really blew that away in 2016.
Amber Heard shocked everyone when she filed for divorce
from Johnny Depp after just 15 months of marriage and
three days after the death of Depp's beloved mother in
May.
Later that same week, the Danish Girl actress sought and
was granted a restraining order against the actor, whom
she said had abused her throughout their marriage. Depp
vehemently denied the allegations of abuse, a police report
surfaced, his exes defended him, and she was accused of
making the claims for financial gain. It got uglier before
they eventually settled the split in August, and she vowed to
donate the $7 million she won in the deal to charity.
6. Ryan Lochte lies about being robbed during the Rio
Olympics
Ryan Lochte made headlines around the world when he
revealed he was held up at gunpoint and robbed by thieves
posing to be police officers in Rio. The 12-time Olympic
medalist was on his way home with three other swimmers
when the incident occurred. Only it didn't.
As investigators dug into Lochte's story, they discovered
the four swimmers had vandalized a gas station. And as
Lochte made the press rounds, his story kept changing until
the truth finally came out: There was no robbery. “I over
exaggerated that story, and if I had never done that, we
wouldn’t be in this mess,” Lochte confessed to NBC’s Matt
Lauer.
The U.S. Olympic Committee ultimately suspended Lochte
from swimming events for 10 months for the scandal that
nearly caused an international incident. Lochte was also
ditched by several major sponsors, but landed a gig on
"Dancing With the Stars." Blame it on Rio!
7. Kanye West hospitalized after mental breakdown
After making headlines in November erratic behavior at his
concerts — which he then canceled indefinitely — Kanye
West was hospitalized at UCLA Medical Center. Some
reports claimed the rapper was being treated for "sleep
deprivation and exhaustion" while others classified Kanye
as having a "mental breakdown."
He was released after nine days and has continued to
receive outpatient treatment. The anniversary of the death
of his mother combined with lingering effects from Kim
Kardashian's robbery reportedly triggered his breakdown.
According to ET, West's doctors were "reluctant to diagnose
anything." In December, he was back, attending art
openings and taking meetings with President-elect Donald
Trump. However, the European leg of his tour has been
canceled.
’The Voice’ singer Christina Grimmie killed by fan
Everyone was stunned when rising pop star Christina
Grimmie — who competed on Adam Levine's team on
Season 6 of "The Voice" and finished third — was tragically
killed by an obsessed fan in Orlando. The alleged murderer,
Kevin Loibl, shot Grimmie as she signed autographs
following one of her shows before he turned the gun on
himself.
Loibl had two legally purchased guns in his possession at
the time of the murder-suicide. According to Loibl's "only
friend," Kevin became fixated on the singer and "watched
everything having to do with her" on YouTube and her
social media accounts. Loibl's family said he had no history
of mental illness, but "lived like a hermit." While he had no
criminal record, police were called to the family's home in
2014 because of a domestic disturbance involving Kevin
and his father's girlfriend. Hollywood mourned the loss of
Grimmie. She was 22.
9. Chris Brown arrested after standoff with cops
Chris Brown was arrested in Los Angeles on Aug. 30
following a nearly 10-hour long standoff with police. The
charge? Suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. A
woman — who was later identified as Baylee Curran —
called 911 after Brown allegedly threatened her with a gun.
It reportedly all went down in the early morning hours at
Brown's house when Curran was admiring a piece of the
R&B singer's jewelry. "Chris came in, pulled out his gun and
said, 'I'm getting so sick of you people,' pointed the gun at
me, [and told me] to get the f*** out of the house," she
claimed.
Brown was released after posting $250,000 bail, and the
case is currently stalled due to lack of evidence — and a
sketchy alleged victim.
10. David Bowie dies
It felt like the day the music died all over again when the
singing icon passed on Jan. 10. In a time when we are
oversaturated with news, David Bowie's 18-month battle
with cancer was a closely guarded secret, so his death at
69 was a shock. During his 40-plus-year career, the “Ziggy
Stardust” singer transformed before our eyes, taking us on
inspiring musical journeys. His final album — "Blackstar",
released two days before his death — was like his parting
gift to the world. Personally, his marriage to supermodel
Iman was always one of the more stable ones in Hollywood,
so seeing her grieve tugged even more at our heartstrings.
11. Taylor Swift faces off with Kimye over ‘Famous’ lyric
It's been seven years since Kanye West interrupted Taylor
Swift's acceptance speech at the MTV VMAs, and though
they'd seemingly reconciled, 2016 was the year all that
ended. When Yeezy debuted his song "Famous," it dropped
this controversial line: "I feel like me and Taylor might still
have sex / Why? I made that b**** famous." West, who's
recently made news for other rants and for a
hospitalization, swore that he’d run the line by the singer,
but T.Swift's people insisted he hadn't.
The video for the song came out over the summer,
featuring wax figures of numerous famous people
(including Swift) in bed with the rapper. Meanwhile, in
defense of her husband, Kim Kardashian intimated that she
had a recording of his conversation with the “Bad Blood”
singer. Kardashian went ahead and released the audio of
them chatting, even though she claims Swift's camp
threatened legal action if she did. Swift responded on
Instagram, stating she was “being falsely painted as a liar
when I was never given the full story or played any part of
the song is character assassination,” claiming West did not
tell her she would be referred to as a “b****.” Fans took
sides, but that died down as quickly as Swift’s brief
relationship with Tom Hiddleston burned bright, then
flamed out.
13. Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber spar on Instagram
There's nothing like a pair of famous exes going at it on
social media! It all started in August, when Justin Bieber
slammed fans for flooding his Instagram with negative
comments about then girlfriend Sofia Richie. "I'm gonna
make my Instagram private if you guys don't stop the hate
this is getting out of hand," Bieber exclaimed underneath a
photo of the two of them. Selena Gomez decided to get in
on the action, writing, "If you can't handle the hate then
stop posting pictures of your girlfriend lol – it should be
special between you two only." After Selena claimed her
former flame "cheated multiple times," Justin fired back, "I
cheated..
oh I forgot about You and Zayn?" Naturally, this exchange
in the comments section was captured for all to see. Both
stars ended up taking a break from social media shortly
after the spat (Justin still hasn't returned to Instagram);
however, Selena took that break one step further when she
stepped out of the limelight for nearly three months to deal
with "anxiety, panic attacks, and depression" due to lupus.
Beyoncé debuts ‘Lemonade,’ leaves everyone wondering
who ‘Becky with the good hair’ is
To paraphrase Beyoncé's husband Mr. Carter, you know
you've hit a crazy level of fame when the fact your
marriage made it is huge news. And for many, that's the
story that the masterful audio and visual album that
Beyoncé released in April told. "Lemonade" touched on
infidelity, anger, forgiveness, and renewal. But it was a few
key lines in the anger part, particularly the song "Sorry," that
got people talking.
When she said, "He only want me when I'm not there / He
better call Becky with the good hair,” listeners had a few
ideas as to who Becky was. The Beyhive’s targets included
Rita Ora, Taylor Swift, designer Rachel Roy, and even
celebrity chef Rachael Ray. (Fans got their Rachels mixed
up.) While were plenty of denials and clarifications,
Beyoncé and Jay Z never publicly commented on “Becky
with the good hair,” beyond in song, and the world was left
to wonder … that is until “Sorry” songwriter Diana Gordon
dismissed the speculation and insisted the controversial
lyric was about no one in particular. “I laughed, like this is
so silly. Where are we living?” Gordon said. “I was like,
‘What day and age from that lyric do you get all of this
information? Is it really telling you all that much, accusing
people?'”
15. Blac Chyna and Rob Kardashian Get Engaged and
Welcome a Baby
Rob Kardashian shocked fans (and his own family) when he
emerged from hiding in February with a new girlfriend …
Blac Chyna. Chyna — who shares a son with Kylie Jenner’s
beau Tyga — was persona non grata in the Kardashian
family due to her public feud with Kylie. Despite the
Kardashian clan's displeasure, Rob popped the question to
Chyna in April, after only three months of dating! Weeks
after getting engaged, it was revealed Chyna and Rob were
expecting their first baby together. Naturally, a reality show
(Rob & Chyna) was in order! The couple — who broke up
and got back together several times during her pregnancy
— welcomed their daughter, Dream Kardashian, in
November and they were one happy family for a few
weeks.
Chyna and Rob had another fight that resulted in Chyna
packing up their daughter and moving out. “This weekend I
was in an emotional bad place and did some things that
embarrassed myself and my family,” Rob wrote on
Instagram. “I apologize and I’m seeking help to deal with
my flaws/issues.” Stay tuned…)
17. Taylor Swift caught kissing Tom Hiddleston 2 weeks
after splitting with Calvin Harris
Well, that was swift! Just a couple of weeks after breaking
up with DJ Calvin Harris, Taylor Swift was spotted locking
lips with actor Tom Hiddleston. The "Bad Blood" singer and
Avengers star were first spotted dancing together at the Met
Gala in May — while Swift was dating Harris — and they had
a whirlwind courtship over the summer. The PDA-inclined
couple were spotted together in Nashville, England, Italy,
Australia, and Rhode Island … where Hiddleston thought it
was a good idea to sport an "I [heart] T.S." shirt. Although
Hiddleswift even met Taylor's parents, their love affair was
short-lived. Tom and Taylor split after three months
together but are still friends … reportedly.
18. Janet Jackson announces she is expecting first child at
50
The world has watched this superstar grow up, make
history, and at times stumble (Nipplegate, anyone?). So
when the then 49-year-old singer announced in April that
she would be delaying her widely anticipated “Unbreakable”
world tour because she and her Qatari billionaire husband
Wissam Al Mana were planning their family, it got a lot of
attention and even more speculation.
Even though she was spotted bundled up and shopping in a
baby furniture store in September, it wasn't until October
that she confirmed her pregnancy in the pages of People,
glowing in a white ensemble that featured her baby bump
and saying, "We thank God for our blessing."
20. Mariah Carey and her billionaire break off engagement
Looking back, we should have predicted the end of Mariah
Carey’s engagement to Aussie businessman James Packer
in July when we published our story on how he was always
wearing track pants while she was in evening gowns.
He may have done well presenting her with a 35-carat
engagement ring (it was up to the elusive chanteuse's
standards), but they were a mismatched couple from the
start. And the fact that they couldn't share a super-sized
yacht while vacationing should have been another red flag.
(Their prenup was another disaster.)
Instead, Mariah went full-speed ahead incorporating Packer
into her reality series, Mariah's World, which debuted earlier
this month, and the powers that be had to scramble to edit
him out and play up what seems to have been her fake
romance with one of the backup dancers, Bryan Tanaka.
Oh, Mimi.
21. Hulk Hogan sues Gawker — and wins!
In one of the stranger lawsuits in recent decades, former
pro wrestling star Hulk Hogan sued Gawker for posting a
sex tape that featured Hogan and a friend’s former wife.
That wasn’t the strange part, though. The strange part was
that Hogan’s suit was largely funded by Silicon Valley
honcho Peter Thiel, who had been harboring ill-will toward
the site ever since it outed him for being gay nearly a
decade before.
Hogan (real name: Terry Gene Bollea) was awarded a
whopping $115 million by a Florida jury, who believed he
had “suffered severe emotional distress” since the tape
surfaced three years ago. Though Gawker insisted for
months that it would win on appeal, in early November, the
site caved and reached a settlement with Hogan, agreeing
to pay $31 million. In between those two turning points,
however, the site’s founder, Nick Denton, exited, and the
site was sold to Univision. Univision’s first order of
business was stripping the site of all the other articles that
were involved in litigation.
24. Iggy Azalea and Nick Young split after he impregnates
his ex
Iggy Azalea and NBA player Nick Young’s relationship
miraculously survived scandal in March, after footage
leaked of Young bragging to a his Lakers teammate that
he'd cheated on his fiancée. (They got engaged in June
2015.) However, the controversial Aussie rapper stuck with
him — and went on a “We're Still Together, So Deal With It"
press tour.
There was only so much she could take though. "I broke up
with Nick because I found out he had brought other women
into our home while I was away and caught them on the
security footage," she explained on Twitter. One more shock
was the discovery, through TV news, that Young's ex was
expecting her second child with him. "This is just like a
second shot to the chest," Azalea confessed. "And I feel like
I don't even know who the hell it is I've been loving all this
time." She’s been recovering from the split by posting lots
of sexy photos and leaning on her plastic surgeon’s
shoulder, which is the Hollywood way.
25. Jim Carrey Slapped With 2 Wrongful Death Lawsuits
In a strange twist, the estranged husband of Jim Carrey's
late girlfriend, Cathriona White, filed a wrongful death
lawsuit against the actor in September one year after she
committed suicide. White was found dead in her home after
overdosing on a lethal amount of Ambien, Propranolol, and
Percocet, none of which she had a prescription for. The suit
filed by Mark Burton accused Carrey of obtaining controlled
substances under a fake name and giving them to White.
A few weeks later, White's mother filed a similar suit
against the actor. Brigid Sweetman, alleged that her
daughter contracted three STDs from Carrey without
warning, and that her suicide was a result of that, as well as
having illegally obtained prescription medication from the
actor. Carrey — who insists the medication was stolen —
called Sweetman's suit a “shakedown” and had this to say
in response to Burton's claims: "It would be easy for me to
get in a back room with this man's lawyer and make this go
away. But there are some moments in life when you have
to stand up and defend your honor against the evil in this
world."
6. Lindsay Lohan gets engaged, announces she’s pregnant,
then calls the whole thing off
Lindsay Lohan's 2016 actually got off to a promising start.
The actress appeared to find love with Russian entrepreneur
Egor Tarabasov and got engaged in the spring, but their
relationship went up in flames in August when Lindsay
alleged on social media that she was pregnant (although
she was photographed smoking during this time) and that
Egor was out cheating on her with a hooker.
LiLo also claimed her beau had physically abused her. Egor
denied the "harmful" and "false" allegations and no charges
were brought against him, but that didn't stop the Mean
Girls star from giving interviews in which she publicly
slammed her ex and claimed he never paid for anything.
Egor fired back insisting it was Lindsay who was broke.
Needless to say, it's a good thing this wedding never
happened! Plus, then she might not have ever opened up
her new nightclub in Athens, Greece…
27. Sharon Osbourne temporarily breaks up with Ozzy after
he admits to affair
The rock 'n' roll couple, married in 1982, had survived
everything from his drug addiction to — the kiss of death for
many couples — a reality show, but it looked as if it were all
over because of another type of addiction: sex addiction.
Ozzy Osbourne's four-year relationship with hairstylist
Michelle Pugh was revealed in May, and Sharon spoke
openly about her marital problems on The Talk. "I honestly,
at this point today, have no idea what I'm going to be doing
for the rest of my life," she said.
The future looked bleak as the couple's daughter Kelly
reacted to the news by tweeting out Pugh's phone number
along with an unsavory message, prompting Pugh to file a
lawsuit. By July, the story took another dramatic turn, as
Ozzy publicly insisted his marriage was "back on track," and
that a sex addiction was to blame for his affair with Pugh.
Sharon later noted on her show that Ozzy was going
through treatment for his addiction and that she was proud
of him for doing so. Rock on?
29. Corey Feldman gives a bizarre performance on ‘Today,’
then marries one of his ‘angels’
Corey Feldman, the ’80s child star (also known as half of
the two Coreys), certainly caught attention in September
when he appeared on Today for a head-scratching
performance — well, some would call it just plain bad — of
his song "Go 4 It." His "angels," a group of women he
claims to have saved from life on the streets, played and
sang backup, while he imitated Michael Jackson's dance
moves, spinning and grabbing his crotch, and singing … not
well. The reaction from the Internet was swift.
"We just wanted to tell everybody that, like, it's been really
painful," Feldman said in a Facebook Live post the day after
the show aired. "We put ourselves out there and we did the
best that we could. And, like, I've never had such mean
things said about me. Like constantly." Things got better for
the actor, though. He returned to Today for another
performance in October and, the following month, married
his angel Courtney Anne, in his third trip down the aisle.
Part of his reasoning was that his bride is Canadian, and he
was concerned she might deported once Donald Trump
becomes president. Please give this man a reality show in
2017.
30. Jennifer Aniston and Renee Zellweger take a stand
against shaming by writing op-eds
Dealing with Hollywood's outlandish standards of beauty,
coupled with society in general's expectations that a
woman is only really happy if she has the stereotypical
husband and children at home, must be exhausting. This
was the year that two of the industry's heavyweights took it
upon themselves to speak out about it. Jennifer Aniston
made the first move in July with an essay written for the
Huffington Post, calling for people to stop obsessing over
whether or not she's pregnant.
"If I am some kind of symbol to some people out there,
then clearly I am an example of the lens through which we,
as a society, view our mothers, daughters, sisters, wives,
female friends and colleagues," she wrote. "The
objectification and scrutiny we put women through is
absurd and disturbing." Zellweger penned her essay for the
same publication the following month, pleading with
readers to stop speculating about whether she had eye
surgery and begin talking about "our many true societal
challenges and how we can do better." Oh, she didn't have
eye surgery, by the way.
complied by yahoo celebrity staff.
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