These are the celebrities who went to jail

In the 2000s, Felicity Huffman was one of the most recognizable faces on television thanks to her roles on Desperate Housewives and American Crime. She is also the actress who “tasted” what it’s like to be behind bars.

Huffman didn’t spend long behind bars – just 11 days – but it was enough to irreparably damage her career, as she revealed to the Guardian newspaper. She is just one of a long list of celebrities who at some point, before or after their triumph, discovered that committing crimes has consequences…

• Felicity Huffman

Jail time: 11 days

Felicity Huffman’s story could be taken from the character she played, Lynette Scavo, on ‘Desperate Housewives’. Wanting to achieve with money what her daughter could not achieve on her own, Hoffman became the most prominent figure in Operation Varsity Blues – the investigation into the $25 million paid in bribes to facilitate access to most prestigious universities in the United States, those colleges that are supposed to accept only honors. The actress paid more than $15,000 to “improve” her eldest daughter’s test results.

“I felt I had to give my daughter a chance for a future. It was my daughter’s future, which meant I had to break the law.”he told ABC News.

During the trial, the actress stated that her daughter knew nothing about the case. In the end, Huffman pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to 14 days in jail, one year of probation and 250 hours of community service, in addition to a $30,000 fine. Of the allotted 14 days, he spent only 11 in jail. Just a week and a half, but a lifetime in terms of the damage it did to her reputation.

• Robert Downey Jr.

Time in prison: 18 months

During the 1990s, Robert Downey Jr. he got into so much trouble, it was more common to see him smiling in arrest photos than on the red carpet. He “learned” drugs from his father when he was just six years old, and his criminal record is particularly extensive: possession of weapons and drugs, use of drugs in public places, violation of supervision, even for breaking into the property of his parents’ neighbors and to sleep in their young son’s bed.

The most serious incident occurred in 1996, when he was caught transporting heroin, cocaine and an empty Magnum. He was given a three-year suspended sentence and forced to undergo mandatory drug tests, which he regularly failed, resulting in him spending six months in prison. He didn’t learn his lesson. In 1999, he failed yet another drug test and this time was sentenced to 15 months in prison, although he ended up serving less than a year behind bars. “You could feel the evil in the air […] it was like being in a really bad neighborhood”he said on Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast. “There were no opportunities there. There were only threats.”

Life after prison: The fact that his otherworldly life has not affected his career too much is due to his great professionalism on set. Despite all his misdeeds, he has never missed a shoot, nor has he had a fight with his co-stars, who have always supported him unconditionally. Downey became one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood and the backbone of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

• Mark Wahlberg

Imprisonment time: 45 days

When he called himself “Marky Mark” and was a rapper and model, he was the official villain of the entertainment industry. In the 1990s, he became famous when he appeared in underwear in the iconic Calvin Klein ad. Wahlberg wasn’t pretending: he’d been a gang member since the age of 13.

At the age of 13, he and his friends threw rocks and shouted racial slurs at a field trip of black students. A few years later, he attacked two Vietnamese men to steal a case of beer. He smashed a baseball bat over the head of one while shouting profanities and hit the other in the face with such force that he was blinded in one eye. He was sentenced to two years in prison, but only spent 45 days in a penitentiary. An experience that changed his life. “I realized what were the positive things that would help me to be successful, to have a future, my freedom, a career and a family. That’s when I regained my faith, went back to church and started working as a productive member of our community.”he had stated in an interview.

Today, Wahlberg is a devout Catholic and devoted family man who has cemented his place in Hollywood thanks to films like “Boogie Nights,” for which he earned an Oscar nomination (though he now regrets taking the role), “ Ted’ and ‘Transformers’. The former bad boy who became the highest paid actor in Hollywood is also an experienced producer, as he proved with projects like “Entourage” or “Boardwalk Empire”. Wahlberg is also a passionate entrepreneur. His name is behind a chain of hamburgers, gyms, sportswear and even bottled water.

• Wesley Snipes

Time in prison: two and a half years

He had what it took to become one of the big stars of the 21st century. He proved his worth as an action hero in ‘Demolition Man’ and ‘Passenger 57’ and showed he could do comedy in films like ‘White Men Can’t Jump’ and ‘To Wong Foo’. But no role made him more famous than ‘Blade’ (1998), where he played a vampire hunter.

But his popularity played absolutely no role in him repeatedly making headlines for his misbehavior. Jennifer Lopez said he flirted with her and tried to kiss her while they were filming ‘Money Train’. The actor did not take the rejection well. He wasn’t too kind to Ryan Reynolds in “Blade: Trinity” either. According to reports, she refused to speak to him during filming.

But that’s not why Snipes went to jail. In 2008, the actor was sentenced to 36 months behind bars for failing to file his tax returns between 1999 and 2004. He owed about $2 million in taxes. Snipes served his sentence in a federal prison in Pennsylvania. He was released in 2013 after spending two and a half years in prison.

• Lindsay Lohan

Jail time: 14 days

Movies like “The Parent Trap” made her one of Disney’s rising stars, movies like “Freaky Friday” turned her into a teen idol, while “A Prairie Home Companion,” co-starring Meryl Streep, cemented her position. in Hollywood. But Lohan’s nighttime looks took off, and by the second half of the 2000s she was part of the paparazzi’s favorite trio, along with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.

By then, she wasn’t Lindsay Lohan anymore, she was “LiLo.” Her battle with addiction, frequent car accidents and the fact that she was bisexual made her “figure” on the front page of the tabloids. In May 2007, he was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. Two months later, he was arrested again for possession of cocaine. This was the beginning of a string of arrests, stays in rehab and probation violations. She appeared in court more than 20 times and breached her probation on four occasions, resulting in a six-month prison sentence. Due to overcrowding in California’s women’s prisons, she was only behind bars for two weeks. He spent another 35 days under house arrest and did 60 days of community service at the Los Angeles County Morgue.

• Danny Trejo

Imprisonment: 11 years

It has more than 400 titles in the IMDB movie database. Perhaps his name says less than his weathered face and imposing tattoos – an appearance that means he almost exclusively portrays criminals or prisoners. Indeed, he was an inmate in real life, as recounted in the documentary “Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo.”

Trejo started using hard drugs when he was still a child and in the 1960s he was in and out of prison several times on different charges. After an armed robbery, he spent 11 years in San Quentin, where he became the prison’s best boxer.

After his release from prison he decided to change his life. He worked as a gardener, a foreman and a helper. He was on set when Eric Roberts – brother of Julia Roberts – asked him to be a boxing trainer for the movie ‘Runaway Train’. His work was so impressive that directors and casting officers started recommending him more and more. Since then, he has returned to prison only to give speeches and inspire the youth emphasizing that “it doesn’t matter where you start, but where you end.”