Biggest Hollywood scandals of 2012

So 2012’s nearly over. It’s another year gone, another calendar in the bin. But instead of us all getting depressed about the sands of time that ceaselessly slip through our helpless fingers, let’s look over our shoulders and celebrate the last twelve months, shall we?

It’s been another belter of a year for film fans. We seen the epic conclusion to the ‘Dark Knight’ series, the triumphant return of 007 and the record-smashing behemoth that was ‘Avengers Assemble’. And as ever there’s been plenty of big-screen controversy too. Headline-grabbing Hollywood never lets us down on that front, does it? Let’s run through ten of the most shocking events...

[Related story: The strangest movie stories of 2012]
[Related story: Biggest movie flops of 2012]

The ‘Innocence of Muslims’ outcry

Despite its seemingly pro-Islamic title, extended trailers for this film sparked widespread outrage, and could’ve contributed to protests and riots across the Arab world, resulting in the deaths of 75 people.

The 14 minute clip, uploaded onto YouTube back in July, was quite obviously the work of a filmmaker with a strong anti-Muslim agenda (one who quite fancied a fatwa being put on him, seemingly).

The man behind the ‘Innocence of Muslims’, Egyptian-born American resident Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, was jailed for a year for his part in the incendiary project.

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‘John Carter’ flops

No, that’s not sewing circle gossip about an unfortunate man’s nocturnal performance, but a reference to a giant movie turkey. ‘John Carter’, was an intergalactic actioner based on the books of ‘Tarzan’ author Edgar Rice Burroughs, starring Taylor Kitsch. It was due to be Disney’s flagship movie of the year. Trouble is; no one went to see it. Worse still, it cost a whopping $275m to make!

Disney may be used to big-eared rodents about the place, but it doesn’t get much more Mickey Mouse than losing more than $200m on one flick. It rocked the company so much that the big boss Rich Ross (no, not Walt...) had to fall on his sword and resign. Too bad Mr. Carter didn’t fall on his massive alien-slaying sword in pre-production.

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‘The Master’ ruffles Scientology’s feathers

In Hollywood, if there’s one lot you don’t want to upset, it’s Scientologists. L. Ron Hubbard’s church is a powerful body with far-reaching influences.

Which is why it was so surprising when The World’s Best Director™ Paul Thomas Anderson decided to make his sixth movie about them. Well, ‘loosely based’ on them, anyway.

There were rumours the Church wasn’t happy with certain lines from the film, and Anderson and close friend Tom Cruise even fell out over it (again, reportedly). It was a great movie though.

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Extremely Bad and Incredibly Surprising

‘Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close’ was nominated for Best Picture at the 2012 Oscars. If you’ve not seen Stephen Daldry’s adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s 2005 novel, that might not be too crazy a notion. But if you have, it will be.

The Tom Hanks-starrer is a truly terrible film. It’s been described as ‘the single worst Best Picture nominee ever’. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t win.

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K-Stew C-heats on R-Patz

Hollywood’s number one glam couple, ‘Twilight’ pair Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, don’t have to do much to court media attention. So when Ms. Stewart was caught carrying on with her ‘Snow White & The Huntsman’ director Rupert Sanders, newspapers and magazines worldwide went mad with it.

And rightly so. Who cheats on world’s most fancied man?!

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Tom Cruise and Katy Holmes also split

Speaking of movie star break-ups, they don’t come much bigger than this. Katie dropped a huge bombshell on Cruise in June when she filed for divorce while he was filming oblivion in Iceland.

We may never know why they split, as Kate soon signed a settlement with the ‘Top Gun’ star that kept all details private.

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Dictator behaves badly shocker!

Sacha Baron Cohen isn’t known for behaving particularly well at awards ceremonies, is he? Which is why Academy bosses specifically asked him to behave at this year’s Oscars.

The ‘Hugo’ star promptly misbehaved by dressing up as General Aladeen from his latest comedy ‘The Dictator’ and chucking the ashes of ‘Kim Jong Il’ all over poor Ryan Seacrest on the red carpet. Bad Borat.

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Katy Perry’s actor ex allegedly kills someone then commits suicide

No, we’re not talking about Russell Brand obviously, it's a chap called Johnny Lewis. The star of films like ‘One Missed Call’ and ‘The Runaways’ and former boyfriend of pop star Katy Perry jumped to his death from a rooftop after a row with his elderly landlady. She was found beaten to death the same day.

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Terminator 3 star goes missing, ends up in rehab

Nick Stahl - the young John Connor from ‘Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines’ - sadly went off the rails this year.

He went missing for almost two weeks in May, prompting a man-hunt and worrying the hell out of his estranged wife, who tweeted through the ordeal. The actor was already in trouble with police for failing to pay an $84 taxi fare.

He was eventually found (after being sighted in Los Angeles’ less savoury districts) and checked straight into rehab.  Stahl had reportedly been battling drug addiction for months, and was involved in a messy custody battle. We hope he’s alright now.

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