Michael Jackson, acquitted of all charges Monday in his child molestation trail, is just the latest example of the strange confluence of sex, scandal and stardom in America, in courts of law and public opinion.
Salacious celebrity behavior – even the suspicion of it – has been a headline staple for decades. Some cases amount to social bellwethers, especially when issues of race and class are involved.
Public reaction to scandal tends to be fickle, though the degree of the crime seems crucial to forgiveness.
Singer George Michael and actor Hugh Grant weathered arrests for public lewdness and solicitation, respectively. Boxer Mike Tyson did prison time on far more serious rape charges; fans turned their backs on him.
A capsule look at a few sordid celebrity trials that riveted the public:
Errol Flynn
The swashbuckling star of “The Adventures of Robin Hood” and “Captain Blood” was a legendary carouser, but his 1943 statutory-rape trial was notorious even by Tinseltown standards.
Flynn was acquitted on charges that he had sex with two teenage girls. He remained popular, but alcoholism put his career in decline by the early 1950s.
The events allegedly spurred a catchphrase: “In like Flynn” was a wink-nudge wisecrack that remains in the lexicon, although there is debate whether it was a product of the trial.
Chuck Berry
The rock ‘n’ roll pioneer was at the height of his fame when he was arrested in 1960 and charged with a Mann Act violation: transporting a woman across state lines for immoral purposes.
Circumstances were hazy. Berry met 14-year-old waitress Janice Escalanti on a visit to Juarez, Mexico, and brought her to his St. Louis nightclub to work as a hat-check girl. She left after a dispute with Berry; several days later she was busted in a hotel on prostitution charges.
Despite an appeal based on the judge’s racially charged comments, and hints that the authorities’ motive was to shut his nightclub, Berry spent three years in prison. His career never quite recovered.
Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle
Arbuckle was a popular silent-film comedian, forebear of Jackie Gleason and Cedric the Entertainer. His world imploded in 1921 when starlet Virginia Rappe died of a ruptured bladder after a drunken party in the comic’s San Francisco hotel suite.
Arbuckle was charged with manslaughter. Rumors flew. A particularly lurid one had Arbuckle raping the woman with a champagne bottle.
Three trials resulted and William Randolph Hearst’s “yellow press” ran wild, flogging the story as Exhibit A for Hollywood excess. Despite Arbuckle’s ultimate acquittal, and a jury demand that the district attorney apologize to the comic, the damage was done. Arbuckle was blacklisted by Hollywood’s Hays Office and died at age 56.
Roman Polanski
In 1978, the acclaimed director of “Chinatown” pleaded guilty to statutory rape charges. Details were tawdry: alcohol, Quaaludes and sex in a hot tub at Jack Nicholson’s house with 13-year-old Samantha Geimer.
Polanski skipped bail before sentencing and fled to France. He still makes movies, winning a 2003 Oscar for directing “The Piano.” At 71, he faces up to 50 years in prison if he returns to the U.S.
Staff writer William Porter can be reached at 303-820-1877 or wporter@denverpost.com.
