#Ronnie Ortiz-Magro Arrested For Domestic Violence | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

uncloseted · 2 years

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Why is it that so many famous people turn out to be horrible people? I feel like most of the time irl I meet people and they are fairly normal, albeit flawed but not dangerous. However, I feel like a majority of actors, musicians, and famous influencers regularly are exposed for doing really heinous illegal things. Is there some kind of correlation between fame and feeling more inclined to do wrong? Are morally flawed people more likely to gain fame and notoriety because of the way they are?

I think the premise you're starting with here is a little flawed. Of course, some actors, musicians, or influencers do illegal things, but I definitely don't think it's "a majority", or even a sizable minority. And I'm not convinced that famous people are statistically more likely to commit a crime than normal people. I mean, think about it- the majority of criminals are totally random individuals. And even amongst celebrities who have been arrested for a crime, they're mostly drug related or DUIs, which I wouldn't describe as "really heinous".

We can actually run some (unscientific) math on this. As of 2013, about 0.00041% of all English-speaking people worldwide are famous enough to have a Wikipedia page. That includes all celebrities- scientists, fashion designers, news presenters, social thinkers, sportspeople, tattoo artists, etc. If we assume all of those people are American (which we know they aren't), that would work out to about 41 celebrities being arrested each year.

Now let's look at a list of celebrities who were arrested in 2021 and what they were arrested for:

Yella Beezy: weapon possession, sexual assault

Fetty Wap: drug trafficking

Alyssa Milano: protesting outside the White House

Flavor Flav: domestic battery

Hayes Grier: violent robbery

Andy Dick: assault with a deadly weapon

Alex Caruso: possession of marijuana

Polo G: battery on a police officer

Drake Bell: endangerment of children

Bonnie Somerville: DUI

Joshua Duggar: child porn

Jen Shah: telemarketing scam

Johnny Damon: DUI

Adam Jones: misdemeanor assault

Silento: murder

Chad Wheeler: domestic violence

Trey Songz: assaulting a police officer

Jussie Smollett: disorderly conduct

Joanne Horowitz: assaulting a police officer

Cecil Ray Baker: burglary

Ronnie Ortiz-Magro: domestic violence

Bill Hutchison: sexual assault

T.I.: texting while biking in Amsterdam

Nicholas Brendon: prescription fraud

Luke Petitgout: assault

Jason Alexander: security violation

Joe Don Rooney: DUI

Jason London: public intoxication

G-Eazy: assault

Tyga: domestic violence

Matthew Gwynne: breaking and entering

DaBaby: gun possession

Pooh Shiesty: armed robberty, battery, theft

Zack Scott: DWI (asleep behind the wheel while stopped at a traffick light)

Norman Reedus: assault

Marcus Maye: DUI

Danny Carey: assault

That's only 37 celebrities that I could find who were arrested (not necessarily changed with a crime) in 2021, which is actually a few less than we would expect. And of those arrests, at least a few aren't really what I would call "heinous", although some definitely are.

Which kind of lines up with what I expected. My experience with the celebrities I've met in real life are mostly like the experiences you've had with people in real life. They're fairly normal people just kind of living their lives. If anything, Most of them are nicer than they need to be given how many random people they interact with every day.

That said, there are a few reasons why celebrities may seem more likely to be bad people, or to commit crimes that are more high profile.

I think the largest factor is just that celebrities are being scrutinized all the time by everyone. If you or I have a bad day where we yell at someone, it's likely that nobody will see it. But if you're a celebrity, the chance that someone will record you yelling is much higher, and that moment in your life becomes very hard to erase. Every time you do something else that people deem "bad", that moment will also resurface. And if you're a celebrity, you're disproportionately likely to have frustrating interactions with other people, because people are constantly approaching you all day long and treating you like a commodity instead of a person.

The same goes for social media posts- I think most of us have probably posted a bad take online, or complained about something out of frustration without thinking it through. Those tweets are unlikely to resurface for someone who isn't famous. But if you're famous and someone is looking to "cancel" you, they'll dig through tweets from before you were famous, looking for "evidence" of your wrongdoings. So any "bad take" is impossible to erase, even if you delete it from your account. These types of celebrity scandals are also more likely to be reported on in the media, to be commented on by everyone you know, and to be taken out of their original context, sometimes making the celebrity look worse than they actually are.

The type of person who can become a celebrity may also contribute to their behaviors. Many famous people come from famous families, which both provides them a certain amount of privilege when it comes to the consequences of their actions but also makes them more likely to come from a situation that's in some way dysfunctional. The combination of those two factors may make them more likely to act out without believing that their actions have real-world consequences. Some celebrities develop a condition called "acquired situation narcissism", where they develop traits of narcissistic personality disorder as a result of the lack of social norms and controls in their lives, as well as continually being told how special or important they are and being surrounded by "yes men". For celebrities who became famous as children, I think this is especially true because they've never really known a world where they can't do whatever they want, but they also often have the pressure of being the breadwinner for their families. The type of pressure that comes along with being famous is also too much for people sometimes, which can lead them to developing mental health issues. When every action of yours is monitored, reported on, and criticized by the world, it makes sense how you might act in desperate ways to deal (or to get people to stop paying attention to you, or to regain control of your life).

Coupled with that, much of the time, celebrities are also people with other levels of privilege- they're beautiful, wealthy, connected, etc. - which means that they are more protected from consequences in certain situations. And I think there's also a personality type at play; entertainment is a very competitive industry, so many of the people who make it have a certain amount of ruthlessness to them, which can manifest in bad behavior in other ways.

Finally, I think it's just power. People who have enough fame, money, and connections can get access to pretty much anything they want, legal or illegal, and I think some of them are curious how far that can be pushed. And I think others are kind of on a version of the hedonic treadmill, where they can get whatever they want at all times, so the things that are novel or interesting to them become increasingly dangerous or difficult to obtain.

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