Celebrities, with their all-consuming vanity, monstrous paychecks, and petty concerns, often don’t get along with each other. It’s only natural what with all the competition in Hollywood. There’s competition over jobs, money, and, of course, men. Here’s a list of the biggest celebrity feuds to blow up in the media.
- Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton: Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie grew up together in Beverly Hills and took their lifelong friendship onto TV when they both agreed to the hit reality show The Simple Life. But soon after the end of the third season in 2005, the two had a mysterious fight that became apparent when they stopped showing up at every social function arm in arm. While the source of the two-year feud has been somewhat mysterious, with neither party confirming how it started, the word on the rumor mill is that Richie thought it would be funny to screen Hilton’s infamous sex tape during an L.A. party held to honor Hilton. Richie denies that ever happened, and in 2006 the pair suddenly decided to make up and launched into an orchestrated reconciliation with a host of public appearances. Now, the friendship is going strong. The duo appeared on The Simple Life together again last year and are now dating twin brothers Joel and Benji Madden!
- Lauren Conrad and Heidi Montag: Lauren Conrad and Heidi Montag went from pseudo celebrities to front page news after their televised feud began on The Hills, the sort-of reality MTV show that spun off from Laguna Beach. When Montag began dating playboy Spencer Pratt, the arguments between the two best friends began. Montag resented Conrads constant criticism of her boyfriend, and Conrad resented the fact that Montag immediately seemed to ditch her for her new relationship. Eventually the resentment, and Pratt’s constant degrading of Conrad, split the friendship apart. Today, the women continue to fight publicly and consistently dis each other in the press. Each woman is a frequent Us Weekly cover girl, the headline often expressing a nasty sentiment. With all the bad karma generated between these two, it would seem reconciliation is a longshot.
- David Letterman and Jay Leno : Once good friends, Jay Leno began appearing on his buddy David Letterman’s late night talk show in the early 1980s when he was just a budding comedian. But when Leno nabbed Johnny Carson’s spot as host of The Tonight Show in 1992, when Carson retired, Letterman’s became incensed and his bitterness has lasted through today. After following Carson for many years, Letterman assumed he would move up into the coveted chair as host of the show. When it went to Leno, Letterman publicly expressed his frustration over having given Leno such a prominent platform on his own show. Letterman ended up leaving the network for CBS where he became host of The Late Show. He has consistently beat Leno in the ratings since, but despite a plea from Leno to kiss and makeup the two men remain estranged.
- Lindsay Lohan and Hillary Duff: Even though Lindsay Lohan has had many feuds with many fellow female celebrities, including Ashlee Simpson, Scarlet Johansson, and Paris Hilton, her most publicized tiff was with Hillary Duff, who dated Lohan’s ex-boyfriend — the washed-up heartthrob Aaron Carter. According to some rumors, Carter cheated on Lohan with Duff. According to others, he cheated on Duff with Lohan. The fight escalated at the 2003 premiere of Duff’s movie Cheaper By the Dozen when Lohan showed up, infuriating Duff and sparking her and her entourage to leave. Today, with Carter a distant memory for both women, the feud seems to have dissipated, and the two were even spotted hugging at a 2007 event.
- Tyra Banks and Naomi Campbell: These two supermodels have held deep-seated resentments toward each other since the beginnings of their modeling careers. As two of the only black supermodels on the fashion scene, Banks publicly stated that Campbell consistently verbally attacked her at photo shoots and even had her thrown off a couple of sets because of an argument. Banks said that she had always felt threatened by Campbell, who has a notorious reputation as an aggressive diva. Banks even claimed that Campbell approached her backstage at one show and said, “You’ll never be me. Don’t think you’ll ever be me.” In 2005, however, the two women had a tearful and heartfelt makeup session on the set of Banks’ talk show and since then the whole thing seems to be water under the bridge.
- Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal : To Shaquille O’Neal, the L.A. Lakers team had one leader – him. But when young hot shot Kobe Bryant came on the team that all changed. His superstardom and king-sized ego created instant warfare between the two, with O’Neal started demanding that Bryant kowtow to his seniority and position of authority. When that didn’t happen, and when Lakers officials started rewarding Bryant’s athletic prowess with money and praise, it was a war of self-inflated egos that took off in the press. In one of his rap songs in 2004, O’Neal spit words against Bryant, and blamed him for his eventual trade to the Miami Heat. Word on the street is that these two tall guys are still not even close to being friends.
- Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears: These two have been in competition since starring on the Mickey Mouse Club together. But when their independent singing careers blew up, the friendly competition became full-blown disdain. While Spears was more of the commercial success, Aguilera’s freight-train voice brought in all the awards. In 2003, the two women tried to play nice during an MTV Video Music Awards performance with Madonna, where both Spears and Aguilera smooched Madge on the mouth. Spears’ open-mouthed approach won all the press attention, but Aguilera shot back saying that during rehearsals Spears seemed like a nervous and insecure lost little girl. While not publicly arguing, the two women still could not be described as friends.
- Heather Locklear and Denise Richards: Talk about cold, Locklear and Richards were best friends for many years, with Richards even being one of a few of Locklear’s best friends to be invited to her cozy Locklear’s 44th birthday celebration. The two women became very close after meeting on the set of Spin City in 2001. But when Locklear’s marriage to Richie Sambora crumbled in 2006, Richards, fresh out of her split from Charlie Sheen, went in for the kill. According to some rumors, Locklear suspected that Sambora and Richards had relations before their divorce, but regardless, it’s not cool to date your best friend’s ex-husband even after the divorce. Even though the romance between Richards and Sambora was short lived, chances are there’s no reconciliation in the stars for these two bombshells.
- Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur: Again a rivalry that began with friendship, rap stars Notorious BIG, a.k.a. Christopher Wallace or Biggie, and Tupac Shakur had bridged the divide between East Coast and West Coast rap and had even collaborated on songs. But as the rift between the East Coast and West Coast rap scenes deepened, so did the rift between these two men. In 1994, Tupac was shot five times outside of a New York studio. He survived the shooting, but blamed in on Biggie and his pals at Bad Boy Records, which included Sean “Puffy” Combs. Biggie denied the allegation, but alluded to it in a song on his new album. Tupac shot back with a song of his own, in which he said he had slept with Biggie’s wife, R&B star Faith Evans. The beef between the men’s two record companies was on. Tupac died a couple of years later in a drive by shooting in Las Vegas; Biggie was similarly killed in 1997 in California. Both murders remain unsolved.
- Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump: When billionaire Donald Trump announced that he would not fire his cocaine-using Miss USA winner Tara Conner, O’Donnell used her perch as a host of The View to publicly criticize the real-estate tycoon, calling him “a snake-oiled salesman.” Trump followed back calling O’Donnell a “fat loser.” And on and on it went. The feud made all of the top TV talk shows and then fizzled out. But while the heat of the moment has passed, these two TV stars still hold a deep-seated hatred for one
- Alyssa Milano and Shannen Doherty: Doherty and Milano started out as best friends on the set of their hit TV show Charmed, which also starred Holly Marie Combs. But after a couple of years of long-hard days together, the friends turned into bitter enemies, with the show’s producers even sending in an outside mediator to help squelch the bickering between the two. That didn’t work and the same diva spirit that got Doherty ejected from the cast of Beverly Hills 90210 eventually got her ejected from the cast of Charmed, making her one of the most frequently fired actresses in Hollywood. In the end, it was nothing more than on-set jealousies that stood between the two with Milano admitting, “We definitely didn’t get along. Shannen and I are two very different people.” Milano remained on the now-defunct show and the two remain estranged.
- Shanna Moakler and Paris Hilton: Pretty much everyone, it seems, hates Paris Hilton. The starlet has been implicated in dozens of feuds with fellow Hollywood celebutants, but the mix-up she had with Shanna Moakler was one of the more virulent scraps. Moakler and her hubby Travis Barker, the drummer for Blink 182, split in August 2006, at which point he began a heavily photographed affair with Hilton. Though Moakler acted initially unaffected by the romance, things came to a head in October 2006 when the ladies ran into each other at Hollywood hotspot Hyde Lounge and ended the night by filing police reports against each other. Moakler accused Hilton’s ex-boyfriend of knocking her down the stairs and pouring his drink on her; Hilton accused Moakler of hitting her in the jaw. Moakler has since reconciled with her hubby, but not with Hilton.
- Tom Cruise and Brooke Shields: The rift between these two longtime friends was short lived but pretty dramatic. After giving birth to her daughter, Shields went through a long bout of postpartum depression, which she treated by using the antidepressant Paxil for a short time. After her recovery, Shields went on Oprah to discuss her experience and encourage other women going through similar experiences. Shortly after, Cruise lashed out at Shields during an interview with Matt Lauer, during which he said that she shouldn’t have used antidepressants to combat her feelings, but that she should have turned to vitamins and Scientology for help. When Lauer questioned Cruises’ scientific basis, Cruise said that neither Lauer nor Shields understood psychiatry. Cruise has since apologized to Shields for criticizing her, and Shields even attended his wedding to Katie Holmes.
- George Michael and Elton John: This feud began when Elton John told members of the press that he thought Michael was a drug addict with “a deep-rooted unhappiness in his life.” John also called his pal’s new album Patience “disappointing” and said “My message to George would be that you need to get out more.” Michael, extremely hurt by the comments, refused to speak to John for over nine months, and wrote a letter to a British celebrity magazine saying John barely even knew him. The duo finally reconciled over dinner at John’s house catered by TV Chef Gordon Ramsey.
- Stella McCartney and Heather Mills: The daughter and former wife of Beatle’s star Paul McCartney have been well-known foes since Mills married Paul in 2002. While Stella and Mills respectfully kept their ill-willed comments about each other out of the press, it was widely rumored that McCartney felt Mills was a money-hungry gold digger. The two were rarely seen together during her father’s four-year marriage to Mills and when the two split and Mills publicly accused McCartney of hitting his first wife, Stella’s mother Linda McCartney, McCartney called Mills a “b*tch and a liar.” Mills responded by taking out a restraining order against Stella and forbidding her from seeing her half-sister. The divorce has been finalized, but the bad feelings between these two women remains.
