Back in the day celebrities could lie about anything and there wasn’t much anyone could do to call them on it. Now that we have the internet, almost anyone can instant fact check what a celebrity is saying. However some have gotten away with crazy lies for a little while until they were forced to come clean. So which celebrities went crazy with making up false stories? These ten did and they were caught in the act!
1. Stephen Rannazzisi – “I was there on 9/11”
For some reason the star of The League decided he wanted to lie and say he was by the The World Trade Center on 9/11. “I was there and then the first tower got hit and we were like jostled all over the place,” he reportedly said in 2009. He went on to say he was haunted by falling dreams. However The New York Times confronted him in 2015 when they found out he didn’t work at Merrill Lynch like he said, so it was unlikely he was there. He then responded with a statement “I was not at the Trade Center on that day. I don’t know why I said this. This was inexcusable. I am truly, truly sorry.”
2. Lance Armstrong – “I won fair and square.”
The cyclist won the Tour de France seven consecutive times during 1999 to 2005. He also struggled with testicular cancer, which made his story even more amazing. However, he later admitted that he didn’t compete fairly. On Oprah he confessed to using illicit performance-enhancing drugs for at least a decade. “I view this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times,” he admitted. “I know the truth. The truth isn’t what was out there. The truth isn’t what I said.”
3. Tom Brady – “I didn’t deflate footballs.”
According to The New York Post, Tom Brady went all out to cover things up when he was investigated for cheating by deflating footballs. This includes destroying his cellphone to ruin the investigation. In the end he was still suspended for four games and had to pay a $1.88 million fine. He never admitted to being guilty for “deflategate”.
4. The White Stripes – “We’re brother and sister.”
Early in their career the duo lied and said they were siblings rather than in a relationship. When confronted on why, the lead man had an interesting explanation. “When you see a band that is two pieces, husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend, you think ‘Oh, I see . . .'” explained White to The Rolling Stone. “When they’re brother and sister, you go, ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’ You care more about the music, not the relationship — whether they’re trying to save their relationship by being in a band. You don’t think about that with a brother and sister. They’re mated for life. That’s what family is like.”
5. Shania Twain – “I’m half American Indian.”
Early on the singer claimed to be 50 percent Ojibwa Indian, but it turns out it is her stepfather who is actually First Nation instead of her biological father. When confronted about it she said, “I don’t know how much Indian blood I have in me. That is my heart and my soul, and I’m very proud of it.”
6. Brian Williams – “I was hit by enemy fire.”
In the past the reporter told people that he was on a helicopter that was hit by enemy fire and was forced down while covering news in Iraq. However this was completely false. “I want to apologize,” said Williams on NBC Nightly News. “I said I was traveling in an aircraft that was hit by [rocket-propelled grenade] fire. I was instead in a following aircraft. . . .This was a bungled attempt by me to thank one special veteran and, by extension, our brave military men and women, veterans everywhere, those who have served while I did not.”
7. Rick Ross – “I was never a CO”
For a long time the rapper was denying accusations that he once worked as a correctional officer to protect his image. However a photo surfaced of him in his uniform along with personnel records of him working as a CO for 18 months. According to MTV, he finally admitted it by saying, “I’ve accomplished enough, and I’ve made enough money for me to be good. … Yes, it was me in those pictures. But I’mma tell you this. Me taking that job, I was doing my job. You understand what I mean?”
8. Robin Thicke – “I wrote Blurred Lines”
The song “Blurred Lines” was everywhere when it hit and had a lot of controversy over how it depicted women. At first Robin claimed he listened to Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up” with Pharrell and they wanted to write something similar. They later got hit with a lawsuit for copyright infringement from the family of Marvin Gaye. This is what it took for Robin to back away from the hit song. “I was jealous and I wanted some of the credit … I tried to take credit for it later because [Williams] wrote the whole thing pretty much by himself and I was envious of that,” he said according to The Hollywood Reporter.
9. Tyga – “I’m from Compton”
The rapper once claimed of being from Compton, but then a video was released that showed that he wasn’t being truthful. Before he was famous, he was on a game show called “Bustas.” There he talks about growing up in the Valley with rich parents and having a Range Rover. However Tyga stuck with the lie and tweeted that the show was scripted.
10. Justin Bieber – “My laptop was stolen.”
The young star tweeted, “Sucks when u take personal footage and people don’t respect your privacy. Yesterday during the show me and my tour manager Josh had some stuff stolen. Really sucks. People should respect other’s property.” A fake twitter handle @gexwy started taunting him that his secret footage will be released. What did it turn out to be? Bieber’s music video “Beauty and a Beat.” The whole thing was a publicity stunt.
RELATED: The 10 Weirdest Celebrity Crimes in Hollywood History
