STARS BEHIND BARS
Salman Khan has a lot of celebrity supporters from Hollywood. They relate to his story… leave alone the case of the century and sports hero OJ Simpson’s double murder trial, there are other celebrities who have spent time in jail. SHUBARNA MUKERJI SHU delves in the lives of such stars
Bhai is out on bail, but his fans cannot get the image of him, sprawled on the rickety chair at Jodhpur jail out of their mind. He might have stunted the room with his presence, the police officers might be telling the stories about how they brushed shoulders with the man, while Bhai would be hoping to end the 20 year ordeal, but his fans, they are busy making memes about the entire episode, even as I type. But Salman Khan isn’t the first to have had a tryst with law. There are many others. Closer home, we have many, but you will be surprised how many celebrities from Hollywood have spent time in jail.
Lindsay Lohan
This gorgeous blonde has served time more than most her age. Through 2007-2012, the lady has had innumerable brushes with the law. It started with driving under the influence and possession of cocaine, she wrecked the car in Beverly Hills, and was taken into custody. This was just the beginning of the storm. While her lawyers were fighting to prove she was abiding by the probation rules, LiLo was busy trying to beat law with other outrageous behaviour. She had been thus far arrested for missing mandatory classes, social service diktats and even assault on a woman in a night club. She’s been arrested so many times over the last decade that it is difficult to maintain a timeline. But lucky her, she’s gotten to leave jail early just about every time she's been in it. In November 2007, she literally only served 84 minutes of a 24-hour sentence due to overcrowding at the Century Regional Detention Center in Lynwood, California.
Robert Downey Jr
Our dear ol’ Iron Man was allegedly behind iron bars once too often. His has been a story of rogue to riches.
The star reportedly had his first experience of drugs when he was only six years old after his father, a drug-addict underground film maker, Robert Downey, let him try a cannabis joint. The actor claims he started taking drugs with his father as an emotional bonding experience. He recalls he was soon getting drunk every night and ‘making a thousand phone calls in pursuit of drugs’.
The actor had multiple stints at the prison, it was even reported that Downey Jr was sentenced to three-year imprisonment in California, but was released after 12months in 1999, but his drug problem persisted. It was his wife, Susan Levin Downey who helped him clean up his act. Married for 13 years now, the two have been inseparable and there has been no room for drugs of prison-stints.
Matthew McConaughey
The Interstellar actor was allegedly arrested for marijuana possession in 1999. The then 29-year-old star was arrested for resisting arrest after police discovered marijuana in his Austin, Texas, home. McConaughey spent nine hours in Travis County Jail before being released on $1,000 bond.
Police went to the actor’s house around 3 am after a neighbour complained of loud music. According to the police report, an officer looked in a window, saw the actor dancing around naked and playing bongo drums, while another man clapped. The cop went to the door, smelled pot and decided to search the place. He found a bowl filled with marijuana stems and seeds, a bong and a pipe. The police report says, “Both men were very intoxicated with glassy and very bloodshot eyes.”
In an interview with Playboy magazine, McConaughey confirmed the description of the arrest stating, “What’s wrong with beating on your drums in your birthday suit? But what’s the lesson? Shut the window that has the beautiful scent of jasmine blowing in, because it’s two in the morning and you might wake a neighbour!”
Mark Walberg
He might act all tough and unbending onscreen, but off it – Mark Walberg needed help! Today, 46 – Mark is an actor, producer, director and more…. He still does his jaunts in theatres, but where did he start off? He started off as a drug dealer who got into some serious trouble before he even managed to know which way he forward in life.
He was sentenced two years imprisonment for attempted murder, when he attacked two Vietnamese. Six years later, he assaulted his neighbour and broke his jaw… speaking about these episodes of violence and arrests that mark his past, Walberg stated, “You have to go and ask for forgiveness and it wasn't until I really started doing good and doing right by other people, as well as myself, that I really started to feel that guilt go away. So I don't have a problem going to sleep at night. I feel good when I wake up in the morning.”
Mark apparently, even went up to the Vietnamese gentleman he had assaulted and blinded, and apologised for his horrendous conduct. “I had to learn to stay on the straight and narrow,” he added.
Tim Allen
He has made us laugh and fall in love with his acting, but the actor served jail time for drug trafficking which he pleaded guilty. He was paroled on June 12, 1981, after serving two years and four months in Federal Correctional Institution, Sandstone in Sandstone, Minnesota. “It was a watershed moment,” Mr Allen told Closer in its newest issue. “It put me in a position of great humility, and I was able to make amends to friends and family and refocus my life on setting and achieving goals,” Allen added. In 1984, Mr Allen married Laura Deibel and they had a daughter five years later. The stand-up comedian then became a household name after playing TV dad, Tim Taylor on the hit series ‘Home Improvement’ from 1991-1999. In 1998, he entered rehab for alcohol abuse after being charged with a DUI (driving under influence).