15 Celebs Who Were Once Normal But Are Now Weird

Let's face it, there's nothing we love more than a crazed celebrity. We love the mind-bending eccentricity of these larger than life personalities. And for some reason, more often than not celebs ARE crazy. Oprah has talked about the "trauma of fame" and from the normal-turned-cray cray celebs on this list, it seems like she might have a case here. Maybe it's the pressure of the public spotlight. Or those spotlight seekers are by nature a bit unhinged. But it seems like the idea of celebrity is itself crazy. In obsessing about the lives of people we don't even know as though they were fictional characters, are we not almost as crazy as Robin Williams' super stalker character in One Hour Photo? Heavy breathing aside, there's an escapism we're seeking when we get engrossed in the life of a certain celebrity, song or fashion house. And the weird thing is, this is totally normal. If we've learned anything from the sad cases of celebs publicly losing their marbles due to mental illness, addiction or other struggles, it's that the concept of crazy is pretty tough to pin down, and madness is also a lot more common than we might like to think. So, like the crazies we are, let's review 15 of the celebs who cranked up the crazy dial to full, waved their PR Managers adieu, and ran out of the house in their underwear. These are the most unforgettable celebrity crazy maneuvers we ever reacted to with shock, disbelief, and frankly, fascination.

15 Rose McGowan

We loved her on Charmed (we loved everything about Charmed), and when she spoke out against the gender issues that appears to be rife in Hollywood. But recently, she's been erring on the aggressive side of assertive and spending a lot of energy speaking to her "haters". When Instagrammers said she resembles Michael Jackson she was forthcoming with her reaction. Rose has had a bit too much plastic surgery at this point, which always makes celebs look crazy. But it's not entirely fair to slam her for that because in 2007 she was in a car crash in which scarred her face, after which she had reconstructive surgery. We love that she's pro women, but Rose seems to pick fights with exhausting regularity, hashtagging "#rosearmy" on Twitter. We're all for authenticity, but we have to admit to being a little bit scared by Rose's vitriolic assaults (justified or not) flooding social media. If there's one thing we've learned through all the fighting talk, it's that this is one impassioned, feisty lady. Which is great, but we're thinking the new bald look is a bit brutal. But hey, we support your independent spirit, even if we question your style, O Charmed one.

14 Macaulay Culkin

Everyone's favorite kid has famously turned totally bizarre in his adult life. Home Alone was an essential part of all of our childhoods, and (let's be honest) we spent a lot of Christmases trying to reconstruct home-made traps like the kid in the film. But this angelic on screen persona was fast overturned by offscreen illegal substance rumors and rehab. Tragically, it may well have been the on-screen presence that we all fell in love with that ended in self-harm for Macaulay. Living your most impressionable years in the spotlight is enough to make anyone crazy, and a common theme in this line-up of the most wacko celebrities out there. The "trauma of fame" may sound like a wishy-washy "poor me" plaint coming from some excessively privileged people, but it looks like Macaulay (and others in this list) are a testament to the reality of the traumatic effects of fame.

13 Lindsay Lohan

Another classic example of the child star, adult user of illegal substance dynamic. Can we really argue that there isn't a connection between the early exposure of these celebs and the collapse of their personal stability? LiLo has been in and out of rehab, arrested and has reputedly also physically attacked others numerous times in the past few years. Burning through the legal fees with the heat of her continual misdemeanors, we're wondering if Mean Girls star Lohan let her characterization go to her head. As usual, social media has closely documented a weird succession of Lindsay's real life act-outs. For instance, the time she posted a picture on Instagram with a caption explaining that she was packing 270 outfits for a 90-day rehab stay. And that was one of the captions that made ANY sense at all. As if we needed any more proof that Lindsay's publicist is on permanent vacation, the actress celebrated (serial killer) Charles Manson's birthday by dressing up as director Roman Polanski's wife, Sharon Tate, who is a Manson victim. Scary.

12 Johnny Depp

Let's face it, we always knew Johnny had a dark side. As a long-time collaborator with Tim Burton, starring as (mostly) crazy characters throughout his career, Depp is a pretty boy who refused to play by the rules. His quirky, offbeat image was one of the things that made us love him. Depp seemed to have found a way to manage the Hollywood madness by forging his own way and seemed to have achieved balance. Which is why we were TOTALLY shocked when we heard about the incident involving his wife Amber (Heard). It seems that the two came to a settlement in court and that the physical altercation entailed Johnny throwing a phone at Heard which struck her face, and menacingly wielding a wine bottle like a baseball bat. But Io Tillett Wright, a friend of Heard's has said that this incident was part of a wider pattern, which we're shocked by.

11 Mel Gibson

It's kinda hard to believe that the twinkly-eyed co-star (opposite Helen Hunt) of What Women Want could go down in the annals of history as a bigoted misogynist. But Mel Gibson is on record as having passed some seriously worrying comments about Jewish and black people. In one quote, he suggests that Jewish people are responsible for all the wars in the world. Which is pretty obviously rubbish. But then we know how passionate he is about Christ. Strange that he forgot about the whole "love thy neighbor" thing Christ was preaching. And he too has reportedly attacked the mother of his children, verbally and physically, pleading guilty to misdemeanor battery. Nice. And as you might expect, it seems like Gibson's career has taken a correlative nosedive after all this crazy behavior. What a shame that an actor who was once renowned for his talent and at the height of Hollywood fame has brought himself plummeting to earth, just as his declining years are beginning. Definitely a weird one.

10 Britney

It was a sad irony when the pop star who brought us "Crazy" actually went crazy. Mickey Mouse Club child prodigy Britney was the archetypal girl next door-American sweetheart until she made the classic mid-career move of getting a whole lot raunchier. But then, when it seemed like nothing could shake the baby-voiced blonde from the top of the charts, she went totally bat s***. The public saw Brit with a shaved head (and not in a cute way), shouting incoherently and what emerged later was that the superstar suffers from bipolar disorder, an extremely challenging mental illness that robs the sufferer of their grip on reality. Happily, Brit is now back on top, having recovered from this severe bout of the illness and returned with chart-topping tunes like "Work B**ch" and "Pretty Girls" with Iggy Azalea. Speaking recently about the pinnacle of her fame, Britney said she felt "very lonely" and struggled with the intense paparazzi scrutiny because of her shyness, saying "I'm not really made for this industry because I am so shy. It's not something that I deal with so well".

9 Charlie Sheen

This one feels a little bit too easy after the endless internet memes devoted to poor old Charlie. We loved him in comedies like the Scary Movie series and Two and A Half Men, but when he started bringing that zaniness into real life, we started to lose enthusiasm. Remember that hilarious scene in Scary Movie where he wakes up with three women of the night? Well, that was based on reality. Apparently, the hotel room in question suffered $7,000 in damages. Charlie also pulled a knife on Brooke Mueller and was incarcerated for eight hours on Christmas Day. The drug binge reports keep rolling in, and production of Two and A Half Men had to be halted after Sheen checked himself into rehab. The previous night, he had apparently received a briefcase full of "snow". Besides the wild lifestyle, Sheen has vented about business partners on numerous occasions on social media. Strange that he would be cast in a series called Anger Management then. Although Sheen himself denies it, some psychiatrists have suggested that he too might be suffering from a form of personality disorder.

8 Anne Heche

Actress Anne Heche had a long-term relationship with presenter and comic Ellen Degeneres. She had an established career in Hollywood, after working on some superb films including Donnie Brasco and Volcano. But despite her success, there was a period of time in the early noughties when she was more likely to appear at a mental hospital than an awards show. According to reports, Anne took some illegal substance and roamed the streets of Fresno in her underwear. Eventually, she took a shower in a stranger's house and refused to leave until the man called the police. Typically for sufferers of mental illness, Heche (clearly delusional) claimed that she "was God" and said that her intention was to take "everyone to Heaven in a spaceship". Well, that sounds nice Anne, but we're glad you got your marbles back. In an interview with Barbara Walters, she said, "I'm not crazy. But it's a crazy life. I was raised in a crazy family and it took 31 years to get the crazy out of me."

7 Russell Crowe

He was the ultimate hero in Gladiator and wowed us in A Beautiful Mind and Master and Commander, but then we heard about his altercation(s) and started to wonder: what's wrong with Russell? From that time Azealia Banks posted on Facebook: "To recap my night, I went to a [party] at Russell Crowe's suite, at which he called me a n----r, choked me, threw me out and spat at me, last night was one of the hardest nights of sleep I've had in a long time." Others present suggested that it was in fact Banks who was the troublemaker, and Crowe bear-hugged her out of an escalating situation. But there have been other altercations. In 2004, Russell apparently wound up in a fight with his own bodyguard, Mark "Spud" Carroll, on the set of Cinderella Man. The next year, he threw a telephone at a hotel employee, hitting them in the face. But ultimate nice guy Ryan Gosling has (literally) embraced Russell and redeemed him, co-starring in a film ironically titled The Nice Guys. 

6 Justin Bieber

We were Beliebers until Justin started acting just a touch cray cray. Around the same time, the 'do' got a *little* too long and white blonde for us. Initially a typically lovely Canadian, Justin is yet another child star who has recently railed against his squeaky-clean public persona in full view of the world. Controversially arrested for dangerous driving, assault, and driving while under the influence, it seems like Bieber has yet to grow out of the awkward teen phase. Which is putting it mildly. The latest news involves the star reportedly urinating in public places and that he insulted a "night worker." Oh, and that time he sat in a tree in a public park in Boston and fed the squirrels, later saying that he has had an "epiphany" about his life. He also did the unthinkable and got a facial tattoo (of a cross). Sounds like Justin is like any other teen, except he's also struggling with the pressure of growing up in the public spotlight.

5 Tom Cruise

Apart from the fact that he's a dedicated Scientologist, which is just nutty, Tom's insane Oprah interview went viral a few years back, and with good reason. At the time, he was overcome with love for his then fiancee, Katie Holmes. Sadly the two recently divorced, but back then Tom's uncontrollable enthusiasm for the romance lead him to act out on TV. A shocked Oprah responds with increasing disbelief as Tom jumps on the sofa and pounds the ground, whipping the in-house audience up into a frenzy to match his own. But we were mainly fascinated by the motivation behind this weird outburst, which seemed more strange than romantic. What's even weirder is that, since the break-up, Tom has not seen the couple's daughter, Suri, in just under two years. This is because the Church of Scientology has banned him from seeing Katie Holmes. So the actor is fine with boycotting his role in his daughter's life based on this bizarre ruling by the leaders of Scientology. Very weird.

4 Kanye

Snoop Dogg recently reacted to a rather bizarre onstage speech made by the self-proclaimed "son of God" asking what Kanye is on that has made him so crazy. We're with Snoop. What IS Kanye on? In his 25 minutes speech about himself, Kanye said he was "hurt" by competition between him and Beyoncé over Video of the Year, and urged Jay Z to "call" him. He also shocked fans recently by saying that if he had voted, which he didn't, he would have voted for Donald Trump. In other ways too, Kanye displays less than a respectful attitude towards democracy. When he and Kim got together he stood on tables and told people to take pictures of him. He has also proudly announced that his wife got famous because of a tape and compared himself to Michael Jordan, Steve Jobs, and Jesus, appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone wearing a crown of thorns. And that's saying nothing of the feud with Taylor Swift or the time he stormed out of the American music Awards when he was not voted Artist of the Year. He also canceled a gig in LA three hours before it was due to start and posted a series of strange pictures on Instagram.

3 Jim Carrey

OK, so Jim's persona has always been freaky. He's built his career on that very attribute. From The Mask to Dumb and Dumber, and Ace Ventura, it was Carrey's ability to metamorphosis with unbelievable plasticity into shapes, both abstract and recognizable, that made him so compelling. But we have to call Jim out on THAT creepy YouTube video addressed to Emma Stone. It seems that the comic actor isn't bothered about publicly coming across like a psycho heavy breather, nor voicing his unsolicited (albeit complimentary) opinion of the actress. Stone responded with her own social media post, in which she was super nice about the actor, even saying she and a group of friends had been gushing over him recently. Which was a super classy way of letting him down. Besides his (public) outpourings of love, Carey has been very candid about his spiritual beliefs, paints, and says that it doesn't matter if he comes across a little crazy. Well, power to you Jim.

2 Nicholas Cage

The wealthy Mr. Cage is reputedly a maverick when it comes to his personal life. He likes to purchase rare dinosaur skulls and has pre-prepared a pyramid that will house his body after his death. Morbid. Nicholas has more than a couple of classic drunken embarrassments on record, including allegedly attacking his wife in a crowded street, and getting into a fight in Las Vegas while defending a different woman. Nick has a history of sleepwalking. Also, he only eats animals that he considers to have dignified intimacy. We don't know what this rules out exactly. He delivers EVERY LINE LI-KE. THIS. His youngest son is also named after Superman. Yep, this guy who brought us his Oscar-winning performance in Leaving Las Vegas, every action movie out there and a slew of top-rated movies, alongside the distinctly blah Bangkok Dangerous, Next, and Trespass. Yep, Nick keeps us guessing, that's for sure.

1 Joaquin Phoenix

Remember when Joaquin Phoenix rocked up to the Late Show with David Letterman looking like Tom Hanks in his most deranged Castaway moment? Things got even weirder when he announced that he was retiring from acting to pursue a career in hip-hop. We weren't sure whether he got a little TOO into his character in Walk the Line. But then things got weirder still when we heard his music. Thankfully, Joaquin and Casey Affleck later revealed that this was all part of a mockumentary. But the weirdest thing still was that the day after the Late Show aired, few if any feathers were ruffled. It seemed that most of us totally bought into this mad move, which we have come to almost expect from celebs. We filled in the picture by referencing Joaquin's history of alcoholism and eccentricity. Maybe the craziest thing about celeb culture is that crazy is the norm.