Award Snub: In 1954, Judy Garland, resting and recuperating in a hospital from giving birth to her son, Joey Luft, would watch as Grace Kelly would win for The Country Girl over Garland's seemingly surefire win for her comeback, A Star Is Born, a film heavily edited from 182 to 154 minutes, eliminated crucial dramatic scenes and two musical numbers. She had a camera crew positioned to film her at her hospital bed to broadcast an acceptance speech. Legend has it that what the announcement was made, the crew coldly left Garland, packed up and left. Groucho Marx would call the snub "the greatest robbery since the Brinks." Garland never fully recovered from that loss.
Never Live It Down: Even today she is the punchline to many a joke about drug addicts.
The Woobie: Just take a look at the description on the main page. Yeesh.
Iron Woobie /BerserkButton: One of her pet peeves, at least according to her daughters in a recent cable documentary, was always hearing about being known as a "tragic figure"; that while she did have many tragic things happen to her, she leaned towards having a more optimistic and upbeat (and humorous) outlook on life as much as possible, and shielded her children from the more tragic moments in her life as best as she could.
One anecdote from the documentary is that when a reporter came in Judy's hotel room to interview her, she scattered pills, medicine bottles and alcohol all over the front table. When Liza asked her mother why she did so, she exclaimed, "I'm just giving them what they want to see".