Every now and then we’re reminded that celebrities get special treatment, but they’re not immune from the law — at least not for long. The latest celebs to get into serious legal trouble are Todd and Julie Chrisley, stars of reality show Chrisley Knows Best. The husband and wife were recently sentenced to 12 and seven years in prison, respectively, on bank fraud charges. “This conviction serves as a reminder that regardless of an individual’s celebrity status, there are serious consequences for cheating the American tax system,” an IRS investigator said after the Chrisleys’ conviction.
The list of other celebrities who broke the law and were sentenced to one time behind bars isn’t long, but it’s definitely worth noting. Read on to learn about five celebrities who have been in jail in real time.
1
Martha Stewart
The budget expert was sentenced to five months in prison in March 2004 for multiple offenses related to insider stock trading. Stewart was serving her sentence at a prison camp in West Virginia called Camp Cupcake. Stewart has shown a sense of humor about her incarceration, cracking jokes about it during a televised Justin Bieber roast and showing off a nativity scene she made behind bars. But it wasn’t all fun and games – Stewart was refused a visa to visit the UK for her offences.
2
Robert Downey Jr.
In 1999, the actor was sentenced to three years in prison for violating probation for drug offenses. After spending a year in a California prison (where he made eight cents an hour washing dishes), Downey qualified for parole. “The prison culture is really hard to explain. She opened my eyes to a lot,” he said. “You see barbed wire fences, you see a lot of correctional officers. Some armed, some not. All their job is basically to protect society from you for now. And that sends a message.”
3
Felicity Huffman
That Desperate Housewives star pleaded guilty to email fraud in the 2019 college entrance exam cheating scandal — she paid for someone to impersonate her daughter to take the SAT. Her guilty plea resulted in a 14-day prison sentence, a fine, and a year’s supervised imprisonment. She served 11 days and has since kept a low profile. Full house Star Lori Laughlin was sentenced to two months in prison in the same scandal.
The story goes on
4
Lauryn Hill
In the mid-’00s, the former Fugees frontwoman failed to pay nearly $3 million in state and federal taxes, which she says was done on purpose “to resist a system that resists on purpose.” [her] Right to complete and integral survival.” In 2013, she was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment, possibly three years. Hill was paroled from a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut for good behavior.
5
Tim Allen
Home improvement and Last Man Standing star Tim Allen almost torpedoed his own career before it began: he was convicted of cocaine trafficking in 1978 and served two years and four months in prison. “I just shut up and did what I was told,” Allen said of his time in custody. “It was the first time I did what I was told and played the game. I literally learned to live day by day. And I’ve learned to shut up. You definitely want to learn how to shut up.”
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