Long gone are the days when Lohan was a blossoming, freckle-faced talent in The Parent Trap, described by the movie's acclaimed director Nancy Myers as " a young Diane Keaton". The Mean Girls starlet abandoned her PG persona and opted for the fast life at the height of her career. In and out of rehab since 2007, Lohan was charged on Wednesday for shoplifting a $2,500 necklace, which she claims to have taken out on loan from a Venice, California jewelry shop. The store, however, has no record of her using their customary celebrity loan policy.
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The all-American beauty with the Ultra Brite smile and golden, feathered locks became a pin-up icon in the 1970s, catching the eye of Aaron Spelling, who cast her on his megahit series Charlie's Angels. But during her ascent to stardom, the late Fawcett had a brief bad girl moment when she was arrested twice in 1970 for shoplifting clothes from two different boutiques. The actress was subsequently fined $125 and $265 for each incident. Fawcett explained she was "just taking justice into my own hands" – albeit quite literally – claiming that the stores refused to exchange merchandise she had already purchased.
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More than two decades ago, 13-year-old tennis prodigy Jennifer Capriati garnered fame as the youngest ever French Open semifinalist. But in 1993, during a brief hiatus from her career on the court after a difficult loss at the U.S. Open, Capriati was caught shoplifting a $15 ring at a suburban mall outside Tampa, Florida. She had tried on several other rings and claimed she accidentally left one of them on before leaving the store. A year later, seemingly buckling under the pressures of stardom, Capriati was arrested for possession of marijuana. She eventually overcame her adolescent angst and went on to be the world's No. 1 female tennis player in 2001.
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Who would have guessed that the Oscar-nominated, doe-eyed beauty who broke out in 1988's Beetle Juice would run into such trouble down the road? In 2001, Winona Ryder shocked the world when she was caught trying to make it out of Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills with more than $5,000 worth of merchandise. The actress was convicted of grand theft felony and vandalism, given three years probation, and assigned to 480 hours of community service. In addition, the court ordered Ryder to pay $6,355 in restitution to Saks and to undergo psychological and drug counseling. Six years after the incident, in an interview with Vogue, Ryder claimed she was taking painkillers for a broken elbow that lead her to be in a state of "confusion" at the time of the shoplifting scandal. A year after that interview, in 2008, Ryder allegedly committed jewelry theft again; but reports that she lifted $124,000 worth of Bulgari jewels from a Marie Claire photo shoot in Madrid never lead to charges.
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Britney Spears is known for going from the very top of pop stardom to professional and emotional rock bottom. During the time of her complete breakdown in 2007– when the former teen sensation-cum-divorcée shaved her head, checked into and out of rehab, and was scrutinized for child neglect – Spears was caught seeking five-finger discounts on several occasions. One video taken by paparazzi showed her stealing a lighter from a gas station and then returning to her sports car, where she said sarcastically to the camera, "I stole something. Oh, I'm bad. Ohhh!" In another instance, after arguing with the staff of a sex shop for not letting her try on a pair of underwear, Spears grabbed a wig off a mannequin and left the store without paying for her new head accessory. The following year, Spears rushed out of Fred Segal, conveniently wearing a $200 top she had " forgotten" to pay for.
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Former TV host and current New York Observer columnist Rex Reed is no doubt intelligent; so it's somewhat stupefying that in 2000, he walked out of Tower Records without paying for three CDs. Reed apparently thought he was pulling a savvy move by purchasing two other CDs, but it did not prove to be a sufficient distraction. The store guards caught him removing the plastic wrap from Tormé's California Suite, Carmen McRae's Easy to Love and Peggy Lee's Songs from Pete before placing the discs in his pocket. Reed was charged with petty larceny and criminal possession of stolen property, misdemeanors which were ultimately dropped.
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The daughter of two celebrities and granddaughter of famous TV host Hughie Green, Peaches Geldof grew up in the limelight. Amidst walking the catwalk and writing for London's Daily Telegraph and The Guardian, the young British model, socialite, and columnist has also made headlines for several shoplifting altercations. In 2008, Geldof was accused of pilfering undergarments from a store in east London and then of leaving a shop without paying for a £500 ($800) dress in her possession. The year prior, Geldof was suspected of stealing clothes from a photo shoot. Though rumors swirled of the starlet's penchant for theft, the now 21-year-old star managed to escape charges on all accounts.
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Reality television personality and former MySpace queen Tila Tequila earned plenty of media attention for her bisexual dating show A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila, where men and women competed for her affection. But she's also been known to seek attention through social media outlets, including her recently launched celebrity blog, MissTilaOMG.com. Last April, Tequila was caught stealing from CVS. But the most publicity the snack heist received came from her own blog, where the star confessed, "I lost my wallet while working all day today and was SO HUNGRY so I was at the CVS store and figured I would just steal some bubble gum and chips and not get caught, but unfortunately the security guard caught me shoplifting!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Damn! Now I got a court case on my ass! Ohh now I can certify myself a REAL GANGSTA! LOLOLOL jk kids..." Perhaps in Tequila's case, theft can be chalked up to privileged character syndrome—and profoundly inane behavior.
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This Harvard University theater student and daughter of New York City's former conservative mayor Rudy Giuliani was busted last summer with more than $150 worth of cosmetics in her pockets. Once staff at an Upper East Side Sephora figured out who Caroline Giuliani was, they were hesitant to call police. But she was later arrested on misdemeanor charges with a court notice. Throughout his tenure, Giuliani made a point of being tough on low-level offenses and he successfully lowered the city's crime rate as a result. Perhaps his daughter got off easy because her father was no longer in office-- the Manhattan Criminal Court told her to "stay out of trouble and avoid rearrest."
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Bess Myerson entered the spotlight in 1945 when the ambitious 21-year-old beauty entered the Miss America Pageant to win a music scholarship. Much to her surprise, she was also crowned the first ever Jewish Miss America. Myerson was a bright television personality throughout the 1960s and 1970s and a prominent figure in New York political circles, serving as Commissioner of Cultural Affairs under former mayor Ed Koch during the 1980s. But in 1988, she was arrested for shoplifting a smorgasbord of goods from a department store in Pennsylvania. Store security guards found the former pageant queen's shopping bag and purse filled with $44.07 worth of merchandise, including five pairs of earrings, six bottles of nail polish, packages of flashlight batteries and a pair of shoes. Myerson claimed she left the store because she'd forgotten to lock her car and intended on paying for the items when she returned. Eventually, she pleaded guilty to charges and paid the court $148 in fees and fines to clear her name.
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