Plenty of celebs have called out their peers for understandable reasons, such as poor behavior. Sometimes, however, they decide to criticize one of their contemporaries completely unprompted.
Here are 11 times celebs criticized other celebs completely out of the blue:
1. Speaking at HistFest 2024, Brian Cox ranted about several things, including Napoleon and Joaquin Phoenix's performance in the titular role. According to the Standard, he said, "Terrible. It's terrible. A truly terrible performance by Joaquin Phoenix. It really is appalling. I don't know what he was thinking. I think it's totally his fault, and I don't think Ridley Scott helps him. I would have played it a lot better than Joaquin Phoenix, I tell you that. You can say it's good drama. No – it's lies."
Then, he mocked Joaquin's name.
Brian said, "I think he's well-named. Joaquin…whackeen... whacky. It's a sort of whacky performance."
2. In 2024, Courtney Love called out several other women in the music industry on her BBC Radio 6 Music show Courtney Love's Women. According to the Standard, she said, "It's great that there are so many successful women in the music industry, but lots of them are becoming a cliché. Now, every successful woman is cloned, so there is just too much music. They're all the same."
"I mean, I like the idea of Beyoncé doing a country record because it's about Black women going into spaces where previously only white women have been allowed. As a concept, I love it. I just don't like her music," she said.
Later in the series, Courtney criticized Taylor Swift. She said, "Taylor is not important. She might be a safe space for girls, and she's probably the Madonna of now, but she's not interesting as an artist."
And she criticized Lana Del Rey, saying, "I haven't liked Lana since she covered a John Denver song, and I think she should really take seven years off. Up until 'Take Me Home, Country Roads,' I thought she was great. When I was recording my new album, I had to stop listening to her as she was influencing me too much."
3. Lily Allen also criticized Beyoncé's venture into country music with Cowboy Carter. On a 2024 episode of her Miss Me? podcast, Lily said, "It’s very weird that you’d cover the most successful songs [like 'Jolene' by Dolly Parton] in that genre. I just feel like it’s quite an interesting thing to do when you’re, like, trying to tackle a new genre, and you just choose the biggest song in that genre to cover."
"I mean, you do you, Beyoncé, and she literally is doing her. Or is she doing Dolly?” she said.
4. In 2017, Carlos Santana in advertently put down Beyoncé while praising Adele. He told the Australian Associated Press, "I think that Adele won [Album of the Year] because she can sing sing. With all respect to our sister Beyoncé, Beyoncé is very beautiful to look at, and it's more like modeling kind of music — music to model a dress — she's not a singer singer, with all respect to her."
He later addressed backlash to his comments on Facebook, writing, "I would like to clarify a comment that was reported when I was doing an interview for some upcoming shows in Australia & New Zealand. My intent was to congratulate Adele on her amazing night at the Grammies. My comment about Beyoncé was regretfully taken out of context. I have the utmost respect for her as an artist and a person. She deserves all the accolades that come her way. I wish Beyoncé and her family all the best."
5. In 2022, Gorillaz co-creator/Blur frontman Damon Albarn told the LA Times, "[Taylor Swift] doesn’t write her own songs."
Tagging him on Twitter, Taylor responded, "I was such a big fan of yours until I saw this. I write ALL of my own songs. Your hot take is completely false and SO damaging. You don’t have to like my songs, but it’s really fucked up to try and discredit my writing. WOW."
In a follow-up tweet, she added, "PS I wrote this tweet all by myself in case you were wondering."
6. In 2014, Diplo decided to randomly body-shame Taylor Swift, tweeting, "Someone should make a Kickstarter to get Taylor Swift a booty."
Coming to her defense, Taylor's close friend Lorde replied, "Should we do something about your tiny penis while we're at it, hm?"
A few days later, Lorde told Fader, "I love [Diplo], and he's a big brother to me and one of my first friends in the industry, and part of having a friendship with someone like that is not letting them say stupid shit. Taylor's my friend as well, and I'm a girl, and if I see some weird body-shaming on my feed I'm going to be like, 'Hey man…' We do still love each other, hopefully."
7. On a 2020 episode of the podcast Scam Goddess, Ayo Edebiri said, "Today I was actually thinking about one of my favorite scams of all time because [Jennifer Lopez] is performing at the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Her whole career is one long scam." She also alleged that J. Lo isn't always the person singing on her own tracks.
When Ayo and Jennifer were the Saturday Night Live host and musical guest in 2024, Ayo's previous comments resurfaced online.
In the sketch "Why'd You Say It," Ayo played a contestant on a gameshow where she had to address her past comments. She said, "It's wrong to leave mean comments or post comments just for clout or run your mouth on a podcast, and you don't consider the impact because you're 24 and stupid. But I think I speak for everyone when I say from now on, we're going to be a lot more thoughtful about what we post online."
Ayo also apologized to the singer privately. Jennifer told Variety, "She was mortified and very sweet. She came to my dressing room and apologized with tears in her eyes, saying how terrible it was that she had said those things. She felt really badly and loved my performance because we had just done my soundcheck and she actually got to hear me perform. She was just like, 'I'm so fucking sorry, it was so awful of me.' It's funny. I've heard similar things said about me throughout my career, so it really didn't affect me."
8. In his 2022 memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Matthew Perry made several disparaging mentions of Keanu Reeves. For instance, he said, "Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?"
Elsewhere in the book, he wrote, "I punched a hole through Jennifer Aniston’s dressing room wall when I found out [Chris Farley died]. Keanu Reeves walks among us."
However, Matthew addressed his comments at the 2023 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. He said, "I said a stupid thing. It was a mean thing to do. I pulled his name because I live on the same street. I’ve apologized publicly to him. Any future versions of the book will not have his name in it."
9. In 2019, Angelica Huston seemingly made a subtle dig at the Jacki Weaver and Diane Keaton-led movie Poms. She told Vulture, "I'm looking for movies that impress me in some way, that aren’t apologetically humble or humiliating like, 'Band of cheerleaders gets back together for one last hurrah,' you know. An old-lady cheerleader movie. I don't like that kind of thing. If I'm going to be an old lady — and I'm sort of touching old lady these days — at least I want to be a special old lady. I don't want to be relegated to some has-been making a comeback. I hate comebacks."
In response, Jacki told Vanity Fair, "Didn't she grow up in a castle in Ireland? I can't see her cheerleading. But then, I grew up in Australia, where there is just no cheerleading culture. I think the most interesting acting happens outside your comfort zone...I just laughed. And then I said, 'Well, she can go fuck herself.' I was kind of disappointed. I had always been an admirer of Anjelica. And I thought, 'That's a bit mean and petty.' I would say she must be going through menopause, but she must have had that ages ago."
10. In 2012, Jon Hamm told Elle UK, "Whether it's Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian or whoever, stupidity is certainly celebrated. Being a fucking idiot is a valuable commodity in this culture because you're rewarded significantly….It's celebrated. It doesn't make sense to me."
In response, Kim tweeted, "I just heard about the comment Jon Hamm made about me in an interview. I respect Jon, and I am a firm believer that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and that not everyone takes the same path in life. We're all working hard, and we all have to respect one another. Calling someone who runs their own businesses, is part of a successful TV show, produces, writes, designs, and creates, 'stupid,' is, in my opinion, careless."
Then, during a PaleyFest panel, Jon told E! News, "It's surprising to me that it has become remotely a story. I don't know Ms. Kardashian, I know her public persona. What I said was meant to be more on pervasiveness of something in our culture, not personal, but she took offense to it and that is her right."
11. And finally, in 2014, Martha Stewart criticized Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop, her venture into the lifestyle and wellness space. Martha told PORTER Magazine, "She just needs to be quiet —she's a movie star. If she were confident in her acting, she wouldn't be trying to be Martha Stewart."
Later, at the at Fortune Magazine's Most Powerful Women Summit, Gwyneth reportedly had this sarcastic response: "No one has ever said anything bad about me before, so I'm shocked and devastated. I'll try to recover. If I'm really honest, I'm so psyched that she sees us as competition. I really am."