15 Popular Celebrities Who Were Unfairly Blacklisted in Hollywood

We are living in a time of cancel culture. If you even breathe wrong, you’re canceled. Say something against the status-quo? Canceled. Did something 22 years ago? Canceled. However, cancel culture isn’t entirely new. After someone asked an online entertainment forum which celebrities were unfairly canceled or blacklisted, here is how they responded.

1. Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday
Image Credit: Wiki Commons.

According to some, Legend Billie Holiday was “destroyed.” The U.S. government banned her from singing a song. However, after refusing to stop singing the song “Strange Fruit” by Abel Meeropol, they set her up on a heroin bust and canceled her career.

“The song protests the lynching of Black Americans with lyrics that compare the victims to the fruit of trees.” She was singing it only two years after Congress rejected passing a bill that would have made lynching a federal crime

2. Janet Jackson

Janet Jackson
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

After Janet Jackson’s areola slip at the Super Bowl, she was banned from everything, and Justin Timberlake won a Grammy that year. One fan claims, “That was double extra unfair because not only was Justin Timberlake not canceled, he played the halftime show again (in Minnesota in 2018).”

3. Sinéad O’Connor

Sinead O'Connor
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

“Sinead O’Connor,” one states. “All she did was let people know about the Catholic scandal of sexual abuses before people wanted to hear it. It was true and even worse than we could imagine, and she was crucified for it.”

4. Rose McGowan

Rose McGowan
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Scream Queen Rose McGowan was canceled for calling out the abuses that Harvey Weinstein and others were (are) doing in Hollywood. Someone adds, “She called it on Twitter way before anyone else did. She had hinted for a long time before finally saying it.”

5. Ashley Judd

Ashley Judd
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Did you know that Weinstein also blacklisted Double Jeopardy actress Ashley Judd because she spoke out about his disgusting behavior? One fan informs, “She was originally considered for Galadriel and Arwen in The Lord of the Rings, but he told Peter Jackson that she was difficult and he shouldn’t hire her.”

6. Mira Sorvino

Mira Sorvino
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Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion alum, Mira Sorvino, is another fantastic actress who was unfairly canceled behind the scenes because of Harvey Weinstein.  

7. Eartha Kitt

Eartha Kitt
Image Credit: Wiki Commons.

Did you know The Emperor’s New Groove favorite, Yzma, was voiced by a once-blacklisted Eartha Kitt? After speaking out at Lady Bird Johnson’s Women’s Doer Luncheon in 1968 about young men being drafted to the Vietnam War, poverty, and crime, she was blocked from performing in the United States until 1978.

8. The Dixie Chicks

The Dixie Chicks
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Country music legends, The Dixie Chicks were canceled before being canceled was cool. One fan notes, “They are the least problematic people on the planet. Blind nationalism and sexism created a toxic mix that ruined their lives.

Six months ago, I was playing “Goodbye Earl” in my car, and my mom said, ‘Oh no, we can’t listen to them. They’re horrible people.'” Fanatical allegiance to political parties is stupid.

9. Richard Gere

Richard Gere
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“I’m surprised nobody has said this but Richard Gere,” one professes. “The man was really popular as an actor until he mentioned the poor treatment of Tibet by the Chinese government.” The Pretty Woman star is a “Buddhist and dear friend of the Dalai Lama. He narrated the DLs book The Universe in a Single Atom, and the book is brilliant, and so is Gere’s reading of it.”

10. Monica Lewinsky

Monica Lewinsky
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Monica Lewinsky. Someone states that she did an “Awesome TED talk. She was a young woman who Clinton and the media victimized. She seems like a very intelligent and well-put-together lady.

It’s sad that she’s always going to be branded by that. I watched that and just wanted to hug her.” A second person adds, “I have loved watching her come back as one of the wittiest people on Twitter. Up there with Mark Hamill.”

11. Corey Feldman

Corey Feldman
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The Goonies star Corey Feldman warned about child abuse in the entertainment business and was speaking from experience, and he was shut down and canceled. Barbara Walters responded, “You’re damaging an entire industry.”

12. Brendan Fraser

Brendan Fraser
Image Credit: Shutterstock – Joe Seer.

It’s great to see The Mummy star, Brendan Fraser, making a long-overdue comeback after being blacklisted in Hollywood for confessing that he got sexually assaulted by Philip Berk, a former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. I’m beginning to see a trend here. 

13. Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle

Fatty Arbuckle
Image Credit: Wiki Commons.

Fatty Arbuckle was accused of manslaughter. They put him on trial three times before finally acquitting him of all charges. Someone explains, “By then, he and his movies had been banned and canceled.

There was never any evidence to support the allegations. Because of the allegations, he became an alcoholic and died at 46. He was probably one of his era’s most famous comedic actors, and it was cut short by a lie.”

14. Constance Wu

Constance Wu
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Constance Wu was canceled following the renewal of Fresh Off the Boat for the sixth and final season. One explains, “She went on a mini Twitter rant about how much she hated that. She got called ungrateful and was significantly ridiculed for it.

She later released an interview saying that she had been sexually harassed by a producer on the show and wasn’t able to come forward at the time due to her own personal reasons but was left not wanting to live from all the hate she’d received.”

15. Katherine Heigl

Katherine Heigl
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Finally, people suggest Katherine Heigl didn’t deserve it. “All she did was talk about how the conditions were when working on Grey’s Anatomy, and she got blacklisted. Ellen Pompeo said the same thing years later but was praised for it. So unfair how seniority messes everything up.”

Source: Reddit.

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Elizabeth Ervin is the owner of Sober Healing. She is a freelance writer passionate about opioid recovery and has celebrated breaking free since 09-27-2013. She advocates for mental health awareness and encourages others to embrace healing, recovery, and Jesus.