Another week, another celebrity getting arrested.
Abby Lee Miller, the star of "Dance Moms," was just sentenced to one year and one day in prison on Tuesday, May 9, for fraud. The sentence comes about a year and a half after her indictment.
According to TMZ, she hid around $755,000 in earnings from the government. In addition to her sentence, Miller will pay a combined $160,000 in fines — a $40,000 fine and a $120,000 judgment for the currency-reporting violation, according to Deadline.
A couple of weeks before Miller's arrest, "Bachelor" star Chris Soules was arrested for allegedly fleeing a fatal hit-and-run. On Tuesday, April 25, Soules was formally charged with allegedly leaving the scene of a fatal accident and was held on $10,000 bond.
Soules is kind of the last person I would expect to be arrested. He's just not on my radar, but there are a lot of celebrities who have spent time in jail. Like, a lot...
Here's a list of celebrities you definitely forgot spent time in the slammer:
1. Mark Wahlberg
Wahlberg served 45 days of a three-month sentence in jail when he was 16 for assaulting two Vietnamese men while attempting to rob a convenience store, according to the New York Daily News. He said he was "high" when it happened.
According to the LA Times, Wahlberg asked for a pardon for the assaults back in 2014, but the request was dropped in 2016 after he failed to respond to a letter asking if he wanted to keep it open.
He allegedly told reporters at the Toronto Film Festival back in September 2016 that he was able to meet with the victims and apologize for the pain he caused.
2. Robert Downey, Jr.
Before he ever stepped into his "Iron Man" suit, Robert Downey, Jr. had multiple stints in prison for drug possession between 1996 and 2001, according to the New York Daily News.
He failed to show up to a court-ordered drug test in 1999, so he was sentenced to a three years in a substance abuse facility/prison in California run by the state, according to Daily Mail. He was released by a judge after serving 12 months. But his addiction continued after that.
According to Daily Mail, his current wife, Susan Levin, inspired him to clean up his act. Before they got married in 2005, Levin (now Downey) made him get clean, and he's been clean ever since. He landed "Iron Man" in 2008.
3. Lil' Kim
Just like Miller, Lil' Kim was sentenced to one year and one day in prison back in 2005 for three counts of perjury and one account of conspiracy. She was released in 2006.
4. Tim Allen
Tim Allen was arrested in 1978 at the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport in Michigan for possession of cocaine. He plead guilty to drug trafficking and spent two years and four months in prison in Minnesota.
In an interview with Washington Times, Allen said prison put him "in a position of great humility." He said, "I was able to make amends to friends and family and refocus my life on setting and achieving goals.”
5. Jane Fonda
The "Grace and Frankie" star was arrested in 1970 in a Cleveland airport for drug smuggling, but the pills she had weren't drugs... they were vitamins.
Fonda was an avid political activist during the '70s (and still is) and was openly against the Vietnam War. She was coming back from an anti-Vietnam War speaking gig in Canada when she was wrongfully arrested for the vitamins in her bag.
In a 2009 blog post, she said she believes she was arrested because the Nixon administration wanted to shut up her activism. According to Daily Mail, she said in the blog post,
I think they hoped this 'scandal' would cause the college speeches to be cancelled and ruin my respectability. I was handcuffed and put in the Cleveland Jail, which is when the mugshot was taken. I was released on bond and months later, after every pill had been tested in a lab (with taxpayers money!) the charges were dismissed and there were a few paragraphs hidden in the back of papers that they were vitamins, not drugs.
Her mugshot has become an iconic image ever since. She even sells merchandise featuring it and brings the merch onto red carpets.
Her "Grace and Frankie" co-star Lily Tomlin recently brought the clutch with Fonda's mugshot to the "Grace and Frankie" premiere. Iconic, truly.
6. Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill was sentenced to three months in prison in 2013 because she allegedly didn't pay taxes on $1 million in income.
She plead guilty to the charges in 2012, but she also noted she needed to be able to earn money in order to pay the taxes she owed, according to Billboard. Hill had left the music business years before, so she wasn't making enough money to pay off her debts.
According to CNN, she served the full three months in a facility in Connecticut and was released in October 2013.
7. Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart's arrest was so shocking, it's now legendary. She was sentenced for insider trading and went to a federal women's prison in Alderson, West Virginia in 2004.
She served five months in prison, five months of house arrest, and two years of probation. In an interview with Giuliana Rancic in 2014, Stewart didn't sugarcoat the difficulties of prison, saying "it can ruin you."
But she also told the E! anchor,
Luckily, I have an extremely strong, healthy constitution, so my health never suffered. Health, optimism and that curiosity to see what shouldn't happen, what you can overcome. So, I overcame a very difficult, nasty situation.
8. Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton was convicted of violating her probation and sentenced to 45 days in prison back in 2007 without the option for furlough, work release, alternative jail or electronic monitoring, according to Today.
She had been on probation for alcohol-related reckless driving. According to People, she was released early for good behavior.
She was also booked in 2016 for alleged cocaine possession, but was released shortly after.
9. Lindsay Lohan
Ohhhh, Lindsay. My girl. She's been arrested so many times over the last decade. But lucky her, she's gotten to leave jail early just about every time she's been in it.
In November 2007, she literally only served 84 minutes of a 24-hour sentence due to overcrowding at the Century Regional Detention Center in Lynwood, California, according to E! Online.
On another occasion in 2010, Lindsay was supposed to serve 90 days in the same prison, but she was released after two weeks because the jail was overcrowded... again... and she hadn't committed a violent crime.
Her convictions were a result of alcohol and drug-related offenses, as well violating her probation by failing to attend court-mandated alcohol education classes.
10. Matthew McConaughey
Matthew McConaughey was reportedly arrested for marijuana possession, possession of drug paraphernalia and resisting transportation at 3 am on a Monday morning in October 1999 and was released on bond later that day.
And, get this: When the cops came to arrest him, he was allegedly dancing completely naked and playing the bongos.
In a 2016 interview with Playboy, McConaughey confirmed that's what he was doing when the cops showed up to his home suspecting him of marijuana possession. He said,
What's wrong with beating on your drums in your birthday suit? I have no regrets about the way I got there. But what's the lesson? Shut the window that has the beautiful scent of jasmine blowing in because it's two in the morning and you might wake a neighbor.
11. Michelle Rodriguez
The "Fast and the Furious" star was arrested and sentenced to six months in prison in 2007 for violating her probation in a DUI case.
She only had to serve 18 of her 180 days in prison due to overcrowding, just like Lindsay Lohan.
When asked about her time in prison in an interview with The Guardian, she said,
I'm soooo glad to be over my 20s, man. Boy, were they wild... In my 20s, I used the excuse of adolescence to have enormous amounts of spontaneous fun. I've avoided responsibility for the last 10 years, now it's time to get on it... Very, very, naughty. I was a bad girl. I'm good now.
There ya have it. Lots of celebrities go to jail.
Citations: Mark Wahlberg Jail (NY Daily News)
