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Trouble At The Gate
Are the rich and famous really that different from the rest of us, travel-wise? Not when it comes to dealing with the legal ramifications of trying to board a plane carrying a 9-millimeter pistol. In late 1994, Christian Slater and his piece were stopped at JFK's Delta terminal: the actor was promptly arrested and charged with criminal possession of a weapon. Perhaps he hadn't read the list of passenger no-no's.
"I don't know why celebrities bring banned weapons or narcotics to the airport, but I hope that they don't think that because they have celebrity status that they can get away with it," offers Jim Amormino, spokesperson for the Orange County Sheriff's Department. "Because in law enforcement, we will arrest and prosecute any person for violating any airport laws--whether they're a celebrity or not."
See our slideshow of celebrity airport arrests.
One would think that having a prominent public profile (like, for instance, being a Beatle) would lend itself to caution with regard to narcotics and airplanes. One would have to think again. Take the celebrated foreign internment of Paul McCartney. Arrested at Tokyo's Narita International Airport after officials discovered 7.7 ounces of marijuana in his baggage in 1980, the musician spent ten very long days in jail.
And there was no star treatment for prisoner number 22. Like his fellow inmates, he was woken at 6 a.m., sat cross-legged for roll call, breakfasted on a bowl of seaweed and onion soup, and was in bed (on a very thin mattress) at 8 p.m.
"It was like Bridge on the River Kwai," McCartney told High Times in July, 1980. "At first I thought [the jail] was barbaric. But underneath their inscrutable exterior the guards were quite warm. We had sing-songs. I got a few requests for 'Yesterday.' I would sing and they clapped."
But in the annals of high-profile airport busts, one man reigns supreme. Snoop Dogg has had a truly remarkable 2006, having wreaked havoc in three separate airports. In April, the rapper was arrested at Heathrow Airport for "violent disorder and affray" after throwing whisky bottles in a duty-free shop after he and his posse were denied access to the First Class lounge.
Five months later, he was detained at John Wayne Airport when officials found a collapsible police baton in his luggage. The following month, he was arrested at Bob Hope Airport when security discovered marijuana and a firearm in his car while he was parked in a passenger loading zone. The trifecta was complete.
Packing heat in the Duty Free Zone? Reefer madness in Gate 9? What are they thinking? As celebrity mental health therapist Terence McPhaul argues, stars become so insulated that they no longer have any sense of repercussion.
"Celebrities far too often believe their own invincibility. And from this feeling of power, they behave recklessly," said McPhaul, the author of The Celebrity Psyche: A Psychological View of Life in the Land of Cinema, Money, Music, Sex and Power. "Stars develop no boundaries. The more power they have, the less likely the lawyers, managers and agents who surround them will tell them the truth about their bad behavior."
Nobody told Richard Simmons to slap that man in the Phoenix Airport, or Axl Rose to mouth off to that security guard, or Courtney Love to suffer a mid-Atlantic meltdown. But the authorities certainly had words with them afterwards. Read on for more celebrity airport busts.
See our slideshow of celebrity airport arrests.
