Undermined by Reality: Difference between revisions

* [[Michael Jackson]]'s reputation as a true eccentric was seen for years as just a funny bunch of quirks that his genuine talent and extensive charity work, especially with children, balanced out. Then he was accused of molesting children in 1993. He was never prosecuted due to the evidence being sketchy and settled a civil suit out-of-court, but his career was never quite the same; a second round of accusations that resulted in a court trial came along in 2003. While he was declared not guilty in 2005, his career never even approached his former heights until he died, at which time [[Dead Artists Are Better|his popularity again rose]] and it became risky to say anything about his checkered past.

* Life is hard for straight actors who play gay roles. Every interviewer will insist on asking them if the love scenes (or more often, kissing scenes) were difficult to play. If they say yes, they risk undermining the role, and sometimes the interview will attempt to frame this as homophobia. If they say no, this may be inferred as coming out, and will certainly start (or fuel) rumors. If they try to [[Take a Third Option]] it may be seen as a cop-out. At any rate, reading such interviews can spoil a viewer's enjoyment of an otherwise immersible romantic scene.

* In 2003, Marvel tried to get a lower import tax rate on their ''[[X-Men]]'' action figures by claiming that they were not dolls, but toys. U.S. tariff laws defined a "doll" as a figure representing a human, while a "toy" represents an animal or creature. So in summation, the crux of Marvel's argument was that ''the X-Men are not human'', which directly opposes the main [[Aesop]] of the X-Men series. The judge ruled in their favour.

* Notably averted by Fred Rogers of ''[[Mister Rogers' Neighborhood]]'', who really was as wholesome and benevolent as the show made him out to be.