A while back, a Reddit user asked r/popculturechat about the pettiest thing a celeb has done, and the answers were pretty juicy. Here are some of the worst.
1. Of course, we have to start this list with petty queen Mariah Carey, who reportedly requested a $50 million “inconvenience fee” from James Packer after the two broke up. They had never been married but were engaged and had gone through prenup negotiations. While it’s unclear if Packer paid the fee, it was reported she received a multimillion-dollar settlement and kept her $10 million engagement ring.
2. Mariah also didn’t even mention Packer in her memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, quipping that she only talked about “relationships that mattered.”
3. If Mariah is the petty queen, 50 Cent is the petty king. The best example is when he brutally pranked Ja Rule by buying out the first four rows of one of his concerts so they would be empty. He also got the tickets on Groupon for $15 each, only spending $3000 on the prank. Fifty said of the prank, “Now you gotta test your showmanship, when you come in and nobody’s in the front seats. You gotta still perform like everyone’s there!”
4. Julia Roberts infamously shaded her partner’s ex through a handmade t-shirt, and I still think it’s one of the pettiest celeb moves ever. Roberts met cinematographer Danny Moder while filming The Mexican in 2000 — while Roberts was in a relationship and Moder was married to a woman named Vera. Moder later separated from Vera and dated Roberts (though Roberts denies being the reason they broke up). Then, in early 2002, when Moder’s divorce from Vera was still not finalized, Roberts was photographed in a DIY T-shirt that said “A Low Vera” — in obvious reference to her beau’s wife.
5. In one of my favorite examples, Lana del Rey put up only one billboard promoting her new album, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd — in her ex Sean Larkin’s hometown. On her private Instagram, she posted a photo of herself in front of the billboard, writing, “There’s only one and it’s in Tulsa☠️,” then commented, “It’s. Personal.” She also announced the album and released its titular track on Larkin’s birthday.
6. We can’t confirm this was intentional, but Miley Cyrus similarly released her song “Flowers” and the accompanying music video on ex Liam Hemsworth’s birthday. The song is largely understood to be about him, and there were even rumors that Cyrus filmed the video in the house where he had allegedly cheated on her — but these were unsubstantiated.
7. Again, we don’t know if this was intentional, but many felt Taylor Swift was being petty towards then-rival Katy Perry (the two have since made up) by putting her music back on Spotify (she had previously withheld it to protest Sptofiy’s practices) the same day and time Perry’s new album Witness was released.
8. Another shady move from Swift? When she opened the 2013 Grammys with “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and appeared to mock her ex Harry Styles. In the song’s spoken interlude, she said, “So he calls me up, and he’s like, ‘I still love you,’ and I’m like, ‘I’m sorry, I’m busy opening up the Grammys. And we’re never getting back together, like, ever.'” Besides the Grammys reference, this is how the interlude usually goes – except she said “I still love you” in a British accent. Styles was her most recent British ex.
9. An earlier iconic shady Taylor moment was when she used a Joe Jonas doll to shade him after revealing that Joe Jonas broke up with her via a 25-second phone call. Holding up the figure, she said, “See, this one even comes with a phone, see, so he can break up with other dolls,” then told a doll of herself, “Stay away from him, okay?”
10. One more petty Taylor-related moment came not from Taylor but from Demi Lovato. Lovato used to be best friends with Selena Gomez, but their friendship seemed to fade away as they got older, with Gomez notably becoming close with Taylor Swift. When a pap asked Demi how Selena was doing, she replied, “Ask Taylor.”
11. While this wasn’t the only reason Shonda Rhimes left ABC, the final straw involved Disney allegedly refusing to give her a Disneyland pass for her sister. Rhimes (whose shows have reportedly made the company over $2 billion) had a pass from Disney but requested an extra for her sister to take Rhimes’ daughter to the park. Rhimes claimed the company pushed back on her request but ultimately gave her the pass, only for it not to work at the park. When Rhimes called an exec, they reportedly said, “Don’t you have enough?” Rhimes had had enough, so she left ABC and took her shows to Netflix instead.
12. Arnold Schwarzenegger basically tricked longtime rival Sylvester Stallone into starring in Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot because Stallone thought he was taking the part from Schwarzenegger. Stallone, who later called the movie “the worst film I’ve ever made by far,” told the Hollywood Reporter, “I had heard Schwarzenegger was going to do that movie, and I said, ‘I’m going to beat him to it.’ I think he set me up.” Schwarzenegger has admitted the story is “100% true.”
“I read the script. It was so bad,” Schwarzenegger said. “So I went in – this was during our war [between Schwarzenegger and Stallone] – I said to myself, I’m going to leak out that I have tremendous interest. I know the way it works in Hollywood. I would then ask for a lot of money. So then they’d say, ‘Let’s go give it to Sly. Maybe we can get him for cheaper.’ So they told Sly, ‘Schwarzenegger’s interested. Here’s the press clippings. He’s talked about that. If you want to grab that one away from him, that is available.’ And he went for it! He totally went for it. A week later, I heard about it, ‘Sly is signing now to do this movie.’ And I said, [pumps fist] ‘Yes!'”
13. In Justin Timberlake’s video for his song “Cry Me a River,” he cast a woman who looks suspiciously like his ex, Britney Spears. Timberlake never explicitly said it was supposed to be her, calling his songs from that time “explanatory” (I believe he meant “self-explanatory”). Still, they were largely understood to be about Spears, who faced heavy public backlash for the breakup. Spears later described the video in her memoir as “a woman who looks like me cheats on him and he wanders around sad in the rain,” which she said portrayed her as the “harlot who’d broken the heart of America’s golden boy.” In reality, she said she was “comatose in Louisiana, and he was happily running around Hollywood.”
14. Mariah similarly dressed up as an Eminem lookalike in her video for “Obsessed,” suggesting he was obsessed with her, after Eminem claimed the two had a relationship and referenced her in multiple songs. Mariah never confirmed the man in the video was meant to be Eminem, but many noticed parallels in their clothing.
15. After Camila Cabello left Fifth Harmony, the group appeared to publicly shade her at their performance at the 2017 VMAs. Appearing onstage with five members (after Camila left, there were only four members of the group), the center figure was yanked backward offstage in a move that seemed to reference Camila’s exit.
16. Rihanna used to be merciless on Twitter. One of my favorite examples is when she tweeted, “I hate broke bitches.” Teyana Taylor then tweeted, “Shit I Hate Broke Bitches Too.” Rihanna then changed her Twitter header to a comparison of her net worth vs. Taylor’s: $500,000 vs. $90 million. The two were feuding at the time.
17. She also memorably told Kendall Jenner not to come to her concert after Kendall tweeted, “If Rihanna doesn’t perform Complicated tomorrow I’m gunna be very upset #FavSong!” Rihanna tweeted back, saying simply, “Well don’t come.”
18. Of course, her best clapback was when she was feuding with Ciara, who wrote, “Trust me Rihanna u don’t want to see me on or off the stage.” Rihanna replied, “Good luck with booking that stage u speak of.”
19. Patti LuPone and Andrew Lloyd Webber began a decades-long feud when Webber replaced Lupone in Sunset Boulevard when the show moved from the West End to Broadway. LuPone then sued Webber for a breach of contract and reportedly came away with a $1 million settlement, which she apparently used to build a pool on her lawn. In a hilariously petty move, she named it “The Andrew Lloyd Webber Memorial Pool.”
20. Natalie Maines of The Chicks and country singer Toby Keith feuded in the wake of 9/11, with Maines referring to Keith’s song “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” as ignorant and tactless. Keith responded by saying Maines was “not a songwriter” and showing fake photos of her with Saddam Hussein at concerts. Maines later wore a shirt reading “FUTK,” which many thought stood for “Fuck You Toby Keith.” Maine initially claimed it stood for “Friends United in Truth and Kindness” but later admitted the shirt was targeted at Keith.
21. Drake has had a number of feuds over the years, with the most notable probably being with Pusha T. The two have been feuding since 2011 when Pusha appeared to diss Drake on his song “Don’t F–k Wit Me.” He also claimed that Drake uses a ghostwriter for his songs in 2016’s “H.G.T.V. Freestyle” and 2018’s “Infrared.” In a few songs from Drake, he shaded Pusha’s street cred and called his career faded, then asked for money from Pusha (and Kanye, who had produced Pusha’s last album) for the free publicity, posting a wildly petty invoice for $100,000.
22. In response, Pusha T released the diss track “The Story of Adidon,” which claimed that Drake had a secret son. Drake ultimately confirmed the existence of his son Adonis months later in his album Scorpion. Drake later blamed Kanye for leaking the info (as he said he had confided in Ye), but Pusha T claimed it came from producer Noah “40” Shebib.
23. Drake’s feud with Meek Mill apparently once led to an incredibly petty incident where Drake booked the room right above Meek, who was staying with Nicki Minaj, at a Four Seasons hotel in Canada. He then played his new diss track directed at Meek over and over again all night. He rapped in “Summer Sixteen” that he “let the diss record drop you were standing right below me” and that “we must have played it a hundred times, you was going to bed.” Meek then appeared to confirm the incident in his song “War Pain” but claimed he was unbothered by it.
24. Drake also feuded with Kanye. He claimed that Kanye called him, offering help and asking about Drake’s music. Drake says Kanye then dropped a bunch of music around the release dates Drake had told him. He also claimed that Ye had offered his song “Lift Yourself” for Drake to sample…only for the song to release with lyrics like “Woopty scoopty poop.” Drake said he realized, “Oh, this guy’s trolling me. This was like a manipulative, like, ‘I wanna break you’ thing.'”
25. In a piece of petty revenge, Drake later sampled Kim Kardashian talking about her divorce from Kanye West in his song “Rescue Me.”
26. Speaking of Kim — she famously sent heart-shaped perfume bottles of her KKW Kimoji Hearts Fragrance to her “haters,” including Sharon Osbourne, Taylor Swift, and Chelsea Handler, writing on her blog, “It was my way of saying they can talk s— about me if they want, but I’m going to keep doing me. Success can sometimes cause people to try and bring you down, just to see you fail.”
27. In an old-school example, Joan Crawford accepted an Oscar in Anne Bancroft’s place just so she could receive the award onstage instead of Bette Davis, who had been nominated for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? She had appeared in the film with Crawford, who did not receive a nomination.
28. Joan and Bette’s feud was the stuff of legend — while starring in the film together, the two were notoriously petty to each other. In one scene, Davis had to pull Crawford along the floor, so Crawford put rocks in her pockets to make it more difficult.
29. Davis also had a Coke machine put in her dressing room to spite Crawford, who was married to the CEO of Pepsi.
30. Let’s jump to a more modern one: when Nicki Minaj reposted an article calling her “One of the Greatest of All Time” on her Twitter but crossed out the mention of other strong contributors to female rap, including Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, and Doja Cat.
31. And finally, let’s end on the iconic selfie Beyonce posted from her couch during Kim and Kanye’s wedding, which seemed to confirm that she was not attending.
What other wildly petty celeb moments stand out in your brain? Let us know in the comments!
