HOLLYWOOD LIARS CLUB!
Why A-listers who seem to have it all can’t STOP fibbing
HOLLYWOOD celebrities seem to have it all — fame, money and privilege — but they shamelessly tell lies to enhance their own images and will stop at nothing to protect the good life that Hollywood provides, according to top mental health experts.
But, ironically, psychologist Dr. Gilda Carle and forensic psychiatrist Dr. Carole Lieberman say stars’ attempts to make themselves look better can backfire and destroy their careers.
“Many stars are thrust into the spotlight before they know it and suffer imposter syndrome, carrying fears that they don’t deserve any of it,” says Dr. Gilda. “As a result, they will concoct wild tales to convince themselves — and the public — they merit all the adulation.”
Dr. Gilda notes NBC newsman Brian Williams was one of the most respected journalists in the world when he bizarrely felt the need to concoct a story about braving anti-aircraft guns in Iraq — effectively blowing up his career!
Others believe their stardom is solely based on reciting other people’s lines on stage or screen, so a successful actor like Robert Pattinson who has nothing to say in interviews feels the need to make up stories, the psychologist reveals.
Meanwhile, Dr. Lieberman notes fibbers Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan are all about money and headlines — and are hell-bent on “hurting the royal family” because they’re jealous of Prince William and his wife, Princess Kate.
Disgraced jocks such as Lance Armstrong lied for selfpreservation — to cover up the cheating that helped them succeed in their sports, says Dr. Carle.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie lied for the same reason — but different circumstances, according to Carle. They knew revealing the truth of their affair would crush Brad’s good guy reputation as the husband of America’s sweetheart Jennifer Aniston.
Dr. Carle says unhinged Kanye West lied about his involvement with Taylor Swift because the bipolar bully was challenged by her accomplishments and wanted to preserve his perception that he was the music industry’s biggest star.
In ALL cases, celebrities manufacture reasons to pump up their already overinflated images and keep their hold on the public’s imagination, according to experts.
Says Dr. Lieberman, “A-listers lie because they can.”
JOAQUIN PHOENIX
During a 2014 appearance on The Late Show with
David Letterman, the Oscar-winning actor, 49, made a surprise announcement that he was engaged to his yoga teacher. But the next day, The Joker star confessed he made the whole thing up, saying, “I guess my life’s just really boring, and I wanted everyone to like me.”
MARTHA STEWART
The prison décor probably wasn’t up to snuff for the domestic diva, who spent five months at Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia until her release in March 2005 — despite her protesting she was
NOT guilty of insider stock trading! Martha, 82, had boldly insisted she had a stop-loss order so she could legally dump her falling shares of ImClone. But she was ratted out by witnesses, including a close pal and her broker’s assistant. Not a good thing!
KYLIE JENNER
The billionaire cosmetics queen, 26, has long claimed she’s never had work done despite before and after photos showing she barely resembles what she looked like at 16. However, she recently fessed up to lip injections so she could have a trout pout. She admitted, “I wasn’t even 17 yet. What if I came out and said, ‘Oh, yeah, I got my lips done’? What are all those moms going to think about me?” Same thing they think now.
PRINCE HARRY & DUCHESS MEGHAN
Britain’s Duke and Duchess of Sussex were involved in a “near catastrophic” car chase by braying paparazzi during a 2023 visit to the Big Apple, according to their spokesperson. But
New York police pooh-poohed the claim — and a cabbie who drove the rogue royals recalls, “I don’t think I would call it a chase. I never felt like I was in danger.”
LORI LOUGHLIN
The Full House alum, 59, was full of something else when she and her fashion designer hubby, Mossimo Giannulli, 60, paid fixer Rick Singer $500,000 to get their daughters, Olivia Jade and Isabella Rose, into the University of Southern California by pretending they were talented rowers! The lies sent the actress up the river without a paddle, as she was sentenced to two months in prison and 100 hours of community service.
SEAN ‘DIDDY’ COMBS
Hotheaded hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, 54, was apparently hiding his dark secret as a serial woman abuser until his former galpal, singer Cassie, 37, recently accused him of sexual assault during their on-off 15-year relationship. Diddy settled out of court to muzzle her, but Cassie’s accusations opened the floodgates as three more women have come forward claiming the Bad Boy Records honcho also abused them! The billionaire denies the claims.
BEYONCÉ
The singer took credit for the catchy lyrics in her 2006 hit single Irreplaceable, but she turned out to be — like the title of another of her songs — a Beautiful Liar. Ne-Yo was actually the main writer and penned the tune for himself. But he felt a guy singing about how quickly he could find a new lover would make him sound like a cad. Meanwhile, Queen Bey, 42, wasn’t a total fibber — she did write the background harmonies.
KANYE WEST
Kim Kardashian’s bipolar ex concocted a claim that Taylor Swift gave him the green light to sing about how she owes all her success to HIM! “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that b***h famous,” he warbles oh so gentlemanly in his song Famous. But a tape emerged of his phone call to Swift, proving the whack job never told the bazillionaire beauty he planned to pan her with a crude slur!
OLIVIA WILDE
By now, everyone knows the 39-year-old director of Don’t Worry Darling was just wild about her affair with Harry Styles, 29, who replaced Shia LaBeouf on the film. Shia says he left the production voluntarily because of a “lack of rehearsal time” while Olivia claims she had to fire
Shia for his unprofessional “combative energy!” A leaked tape later showed Olivia begging Shia not to abandon ship. Reps for bo both sides continue to deny the other camp’s conflicting claims.
BRIAN WILLIAMS
Once the award-winning anchor of NBC’s Nightly News, Williams lied about being “hit by RPG fire” while flying in a helicopter in wartorn Iraq — when he was really in a different aircraft. He first told the whopper in 2003 and brought it up again in 2017 when he earned $10 million a year. The forked-tongue fibber, 64, was demoted to late nights on MSNBC before stepping down in 2021.
RUDY GIULIANI
Lauded as America’s Mayor for his actions after the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York City, two-faced Rudy, 79, turned into the biggest promoter of Donald Trump’s big lie, insisting the 2020 election was stolen with the help of Atlanta, Ga., election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss. On Dec. 13, an outraged jury ordered the shameless TV talking head to pay the gals $148 million for destroying their lives with terrible falsehoods.
The snake hasn’t apologized and vows to appeal.
WILL & JADA SMITH
Tinseltown’s notorious power couple led fans to believe they were happily hitched — until Jada spilled the beans about their secret 2016 split while flogging a new book last year. Huckster Jada finally admitted she and Will became “exhausted” trying to make their marriage work and had been living “completely separate lives” for seven years. She also admitted to an affair with 20-years-younger you August Alsina. A Hollywood H expert slammed Jada, J 52, as “self-absorbed” and a Oscar winner Will, 55, for “breaking the public’s trust” with their lies.
LINDSAY LOHAN
Troubled actress Lindsay, 37, announced in 2020 she was staying sober by not putting herself in “stupid situations like going out at night to clubs and stuff like that.” But within two weeks of that declaration, the Mean Girls star was reportedly “partying until the early hours” at the Electric Room in NYC’s Dream Hotel.
ROBIN THICKE
When his Blurred Lines became a monster hit in 2013, the Sex Therapy stud boasted about penning the lyrics with rapper Pharrell. Imagine his red face when he was clobbered with a plagiarism lawsuit in 2014 charging the track was ripped off from Marvin Gaye’s Got to Give It Up. Thicke later turned stool pigeon, blaming the cheating on Pharrell. Gaye’s estate was awarded $7.3 million. Still, Robin, 46, and Pharrell reportedly each made $5 million off the tune.
GERRY TURNER
TV’s Golden Bachelor plucked at heartstrings when he claimed he’d been womanless since his wife Toni’s 2017 death, but it turns out two-faced 72-year-old Gerry was just a silver-tongued devil! After being confronted with his fib, he admitted, “I dated a number of women.” A gal identified as Carolyn also stepped forward claiming they hooked up just months after Toni’s passing and moved in with Turner — but the skinflint made her pay $850 a month and split restaurant tabs before booting her when she gained ten pounds.
JOHNNY DEPP & AMBER HEARD
Maybe actors Depp, 60, and Heard, 37, secretly vowed to love, honor and lie when they got hitched! The exes’ fabrications were exposed in their sensational defamation trial, when the jury slapped Amber with a $10 million penalty for lying about the abuse she supposedly suffered at his hands. The panel also made Depp pay $2 million in damages to Amber because one of his lawyers defamed her!
PAULA ABDUL
Straight Up singer Abdul, 61, strangely claimed she had to take a seven-year break from showbiz to recover after her plane crashed during a flight between St. Louis and Denver in the early 1990s. But there is no record of an incident fitting her story in the National Transportation Safety Board’s database, and the supposed hard-landing site in Iowa is not in the flight path between the two cities!
GWYNETH PALTROW
Wellness guru Paltrow, 51, has pushed d some questionable products on her Goop platform. The lifestyle brand sold jade and quartz eggs by suggesting they could help balance women’s hormones and regulate menstrual cycles when inserted into the vagina. But gynecologists called the claims hooey — and in 2018 California lawmen socked the company with $145,000 in civil penalties for the “unsubstantiated” claims!
KIM KARDASHIAN
Sex tape? Who, me? Crafty Kim denied up and down in 2007 there was any X-rated reality footage of her romping with ex-boyfriend Ray J — and when the foul film began circulating, her then-boyfriend Nick Cannon pulled a disappearing act over the deception! Kim reportedly settled with Vivid Entertainment for $5 million — and tongues still wag that Kim, now 43, and momager Kris Jenner were the masterminds behind the original leak!
BILL O’REILLY
Former FOX News blowhard Bill told his audience he’d seen nuns getting gunned down in El Salvador. But watchdogs pointed out the killings in question happened in 1980 — a year before the journo stepped foot in the country! The No Spin Zone host, 74, later fessed up, revealing he reviewed “images” of the murders and hadn’t witnessed the executions in real time.
DAKOTA JOHNSON
Nepo baby Dakota, 34, lied about loving limes! While showing off her lime-colored kitchen cabinets in a 2020 video for Architectural Digest, she paused by a bowl of limes on the counter and said she was a “lime lover.” But the bitter truth later came out, with the 50 Shades of Grey actress admitting she not only doesn’t love limes but is “mildly allergic “to them!
TYRA BANKS
The 5-foot-10 Victoria’s Secret catwalker and former host of America’s Next Top Model spent years speaking against nip/tucks and nixing buzz she’d gone under the knife. She even hired a doc to back up her gorgeous, lying eyes. But in 2018, the then 44-year-old bombshell confessed, “I had bones in my nose that were growing and itching. I could breathe fine, but I added cosmetic surgery. I admit it! Fake hair, and I did my nose.”
NICK CANNON
Masked Singer host Nick — who’s fathered 12 kids with six baby mamas — denied bedding busty model Amber Rose in 2014, but he failed a lie detector test when asked about their rumored romance! Former Dancing with the Stars contestant Amber, who divorced rapper Wiz Khalifa in 2016, swears Nick is just her manager — and insists they “have never hooked up.”
TYGA
The rapper, 34, got rapped for pretending his interest in then-underage Kylie Jenner was purely platonic, only to change his stripes later and come clean. But he also weirdly claimed to be from street cred–enhancing Compton, Calif. — after he’d already announced on a 2008 game show he was from a well-heeled suburb with all the trimmings. Trickster Tyga later admitted he’d lied — on the TV show!
TERRENCE HOWARD
The Empire star, 54, proclaimed on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2013 he’d earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from South Carolina State University. Unfortunately, the university does not offer a Ph.D. in that field! Undaunted, Terrence has added that he invented new hydrogen technology to defend Uganda — and a drone to help clean up the oceans. No doubt he can also get you a good deal on the Brooklyn Bridge!
VIN DIESEL
Fast & Furious gasbag Vin, 56, got busted for falsely bragging about being a 16-year-old breakdancer for the Beastie Boys! Adam Horovitz — a member of the pioneering hip-hop trio — says his “nice guy” collaborator Adam Yauch, who died of salivary gland cancer at age 47 in 2012, likely told an NYC bouncer the future film star was a dancer in the group’s entourage just to help the underage kid sneak into a club!
JACK & MEG WHITE
The White Stripes sold the world that they were a loving brother and sister act in the late ’90s — when they were really hubby and wife. The couple wed in 1996 when Jack Gillis took Meg’s last name. But as their White Stripes band began to soar around the time they divorced in 2000, they decided to pawn themselves off as siblings instead of a couple. The band ended in 2011 and Jack, who’s married twice since, has gone solo.
BRAD PITT & ANGELINA JOLIE
The former couple lied about their sizzling affair on the set of 2005’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which ended Pitt’s marriage to Jennifer Aniston. “During the divorce proceedings, Jolie would claim aim no infidelity took place and cited her father’s heartbreaking cheating on her mother as ample deterrent,” says a source. But just months after Brad’s divorce was finalized in October 2005, Jolie revealed she was preggers with his child, Shiloh, born in May 2006. Count the months.
GORDON RAMSAY
Potty-mouthed celebrity chef Ramsay, 57, cooked up a cauldron of lies by boasting he played professional soccer with the Glasgow Rangers in his native Scotland for three years. Team officials roasted him in the balls, claiming he tried out for the squad but never even made the reserve team. Gordon later backtracked, admitting his memories of those days were “hazy.”
MATTHEW PERRY
The tragic Friends star, 54, proved to be Hollywood’s BIGGEST liar after boasting of being clean and sober for 19 months and then drowning in his hot tub due to a ketamine overdose. He even denounced the hallucinogenic drug in his memoir — saying it was “not for me” — but was reportedly getting regular infusions to treat depression and most likely died from recreational use!
MARIAH CAREY
Diva Mariah, 54, keeps saying she wrote All I Want for Christmas Is You — her signature holiday hit — by herself as a kid. But Walter Afanasieff — who’s credited as a co-creator of the 1994 release — says he’s responsible for the music, while she only penned the lyrics! “To claim she wrote a very complicated chordstructured song with her finger on a Casio keyboard when she was a little girl, it’s kind of a tall tale,” huffs Afanasieff.
MILEY CYRUS
The Wrecking Ball songbird claimed she’d married thenboyfriend Liam Hemsworth in a secret ceremony. The report was later confirmed as a big fib, but the two ended up getting hitched for real in 2018. Cyrus, 31, called it quits with Liam just nine months later when she was snapped canoodling with reality blonde Kaitlynn Carter, who’d kicked her beau Brody Jenner to the curb. Their romance ended soon, and Miley’s since confessed to being equally attracted to guys and dolls.
ALEX JONES
Sleazeball right-wing radio pundit Jones insisted one of America’s most terrible massacres, the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting — where 20 children and six teachers were gunned down just before Christmas 2012 — was a hoax staged to impose new gun control laws on the nation. The slug’s lies were exposed in court, where he was ordered to pay $1.5 billion to devastated Newtown, Conn., parents. But so far, Jones, 49, hasn’t coughed up a cent — while living high on the hog and earning $650,000 a year from his InfoWars job.
TORI SPELLING
Reality star Tori, 50, porked up during her pregnancy with son Finn in 2012 — but the mom of five fibbed when she bragged about dropping 45 pounds of flab with low-impact cardio and “healthy” meals! The bigmouth later copped to starving herself and confides, “I took off my weight the old-fashioned way. I like to call it the Just Keep Your F**king Mouth Shut and Eat Air diet.”
JUSSIE SMOLLETT
Empire star Jussie made headlines by claiming he was the victim of a hate crime when two men jumped him outside his Chicago pad yelling racist and gay slurs. A month later, cops accused the actor, 41, of planning the attack and charged him with filing a false police report. The charges were later dropped. Smollett insists he didn’t lie about his ordeal, but The Mighty Ducks child star is still skating on thin ice.
LIL’ KIM
Disorder in the court! The rapper, 49, had to pay dearly for the bogus boast she made to a federal grand jury in 2005 that she, her comanager and her bodyguard had NOTHING to do with a shoot-out in front of radio station Hot 97 in New York City and weren’t even there! Turns out, all three were captured on security footage at the scene that day. The tall tale won Kim — born Kimberly Denise Jones — a year in prison for three counts of conspiracy and one count of perjury.
ED SHEERAN
The Bad Habits singer, 32, got a publicity boost in 2017 when he claimed Prince Andrew’s daughter Princess Beatrice accidentally slashed his face with a sword during a wild party. Months later, the tall tale was exposed — and the cutting truth revealed Ed as a soused clod. Fellow singer James Blunt confirmed, “Ed was drunk, messing around and he cut himself. We made a fancy story up, people fell for it. It was very embarrassing.” Touché!
SUKI WATERHOUSE
The bubbly British actress, model and singer drowned in her own deceptions when she finally admitted she lied in a 2015 interview about rinsing her hair in Coca-Cola to make her tresses look “tousled.”
The beverage brag was all washed up once Suki, 32, corrected the record years later: “OK … I have to be honest, I got bored doing hair interviews and said this. I have never done this!”
BRANDY
The singeractress shocked fans when she announced she’d secretly gotten hitched to music producer Robert Smith in 2002. They went on to be featured in MTV Diary Presents Brandy: Special Delivery, which documented the birth of the couple’s daughter, Sy’Rai, now 21. Following the pair’s 2004 breakup, the marriage was discovered to be a hoax concocted to protect the wholesome image of the unwed and preggers beauty. Still, Brandy, 44, claims they had a “spiritual union and true commitment.”
KID ROCK
Musician Kid Rock, 52, cultivated an image as a tattooed trailer park type of guy as he shot to hip-hop stardom glorifying what he called “white trash” culture. But the phonybaloney, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, was born into privilege!
His parents owned a string of car dealerships in the Detroit area and he grew up on a sprawling estate that had an apple orchard and horses.
HILARIA BALDWIN
Actor Alec Baldwin’s yoga instructor wife, Hilaria, long spoke with a Spanish accent and insinuated her family was from the isle of Mallorca — when she was born in Boston as Hillary Lynn HaywardThomas! The culture vulture, 40, was forced to publicly apologize in March 2021 for not being “more clear” about her background — but still insists she has a “connection” to both America and Spain! Ay, caramba!
LANCE ARMSTRONG
The super cyclist — who scored an unprecedented seven straight Tour de France victories from 1999 to 2005 — repeatedly denied taking performance-enhancing drugs, which was bald-faced bull. Finally, after “pedaling” lies for years, Lance, 52 — who was engaged to singer Sheryl Crow for five months before they split in 2006 — revealed last month an “undetectable” substance helped him cheat on “500 drug tests!” His shameless cheating cost him the title of greatest cyclist ever.
STEPHEN RANNAZZISI
In 2009, comedian Stephen, 46, told podcaster Marc Maron he was in the World Trade Center during the 9/11 terrorist attack. “I worked on the 54th floor of the second tower” and got out before the second plane hit, he bluffed. But The New York Times caught him in the lie, which he’d also forced his wife-to-be to back up. “I know what I did was terrible,” he says. “I am truly sorry.”
ROBERT PATTINSON
The Twilight heartthrob, 37, admits telling bloody good lies to spice up interviews promoting his movie projects. Robert unleashed a huge whopper for his circus flick Water for Elephants, telling Today host Matt Lauer, “The first time I went to the circus one of the clowns died. His little car exploded on him. Seriously, everybody ran out. It was terrifying. It was the only time I’ve ever been to the circus.” The movie vampire does indeed suck.
T.I.
Rapper T.I. — whose real name is Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. — landed in hot water with the SEC in 2019. The Live Your Life chart-topper, 43, was accused of shilling unregistered securities during the launch of the cryptocurrency FLiK and failing to reveal he was paid for his promotional efforts. T.I. agreed to a civil settlement with the SEC, which included paying a $75,000 penalty and not participating in offerings or sales of digital asset securities for at least five years!