A lot of celebrities seem to take “all attention is good attention” as a personal challenge. Sometimes, they try to get attention in ways that make sense, like doing a tell-all interview or posting a thirst trap on IG. Other times, however, their ploys for attention are a little more over-the-top.
Here are 21 over-the-top things celebs did for attention:
1.
In 2025, a fan caught Alison Brie clipping her husband Dave Franco’s toenails at a public park. Though the couple never addressed the video, many fans speculated that it was a publicity stunt to promote Together, their movie about a codependent couple.
2.
In 2021, the New York Post published paparazzi pictures of Grimes walking down the street and reading The Communist Manifesto after she broke up with Elon Musk. You can see the photos here.
Sharing the pictures on her Instagram, Grimes wrote, “I was really stressed when paparazzi wouldn’t stop following me this wk but then I realized it was opportunity to troll .. i swear this headline omg wtf haha im dead.”
She continued, “Full disclosure I’m still living with [Elon] and I am not a communist (although there are some very smart ideas in this book -but personally I’m more interested in a radical decentralized ubi that I think could potentially be achieved thru crypto and gaming but I haven’t ironed that idea out enough yet to explain it. Regardless my opinions on politics are difficult to describe because the political systems that inspire me the most have not yet been implemented). Anyway if paparazzi keep chasing me perhaps I will try to think of more ways to meme – suggestions welcome!”
3.
Ahead of the release of Anyone But You, fans speculated that lead actors Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, who were both in relationships with other people at the time, were allegedly having an affair. Glen’s then-girlfriend, Gigi Paris, seemingly unfollowed Sweeney on Instagram, adding fuel to the fire.
In August 2023, Sydney told Variety, “It’s a rom-com. That’s what people want! Glen and I don’t really care. We have so much fun together, and we respect each other so much; he’s such a hard worker, and I’m a hard worker. We’re excited for the press tour, and I literally just left ADR with him. We talk all the time like, ‘That’s really funny.'”
Then, that December, she told Glamour UK, “It was really hard on Glen, which made me sad… because [otherwise] it was such a beautiful experience for the both of us. I care for him so much…Also, I’ve never really shared that much [about my relationship], so the press loves to create drama in stories.”
However, in 2024, Glen revealed that playing into the rumors to promote the film had been Sweeney’s idea. He told the New York Times, “The two things that you have to sell a rom-com are fun and chemistry. Sydney and I have a ton of fun together, and we have a ton of effortless chemistry. That’s people wanting what’s on the screen off the screen, and sometimes you just have to lean into it a bit — and it worked wonderfully. Sydney is very smart.”
In 2025, Gigi shared her side of the story. She told the Too Much Podcast that, when she noticed she was being tagged in posts about the caption her then-partner put on a photo, she sent him a screenshot with the message, “Hey, the whole world is watching what you’re saying, please just proceed with caution.”
Gigi continued, “And that wasn’t received well. From there, there was a steady decline… It was just, ‘This is what I have to do for my job.’ I had two options. I could either pretend like I was going along with everything and have everyone wonder, like, ‘Are they hooking up? Are they not hooking up? Is she okay with this? What the fuck?’ Or stand up for myself and say, ‘No, I’m actually not okay with this, and I’m walking away.’ So that’s what I decided to do. I was shattered.”
She also said, “I don’t know if there was a relationship there or not, but then they came out to say it was all a PR scheme at the expense of our relationship… I honestly hoped that they’d end up together. At least it would make it worth it for me.”
A few days later, Nicki told Hot 97’s Funkmaster Flex that it had been a publicity stunt to promote his song “Take It to the Head,” which featured her. She said, “I was shocked just like the rest of the world. I was cracking up laughing with the rest of the world, ’cause Khaled is a master at what he does… It was just another way for him to kinda give the world a glimpse on the feeling of this record. Nobody in my real life took it seriously. Everybody just hit me like, ‘LOL. Yo, Khaled is crazy.'”
She said, “Khaled is my brother, and Khaled was not serious with that damn proposal, ya’ll. Please let it go. He was kidding. He’s not attracted to me; he doesn’t like me. We’re brother and sister.”
5.
In 2006, Steve-O and Nicole Richie were at the center of dating rumors — but their relationship wasn’t real. Appearing on The Howard Stern Show later that year, Steve-O said that he was fine with the fact that, since she’d just broken off her engagement, she wasn’t actually interested in dating or hooking up with him. He said, “It’s, like, by far more important to me to continue going around town with the paparazzi chasing us everywhere. Because the truth is, what she wanted, was to get some media coverage that wasn’t about her being fucking skinny…”
He added, “It was a ridiculous publicity stunt… ‘[I’ll] run around with fucking Steve-O, and they won’t be talking about how skinny I am. They’ll say I’ve lost my goddamn mind.'”
6.
That wasn’t Nicole Richie’s only alleged PR relationship! She reportedly dated Brody Jenner for about two months in 2006. Then, in a MySpace post she made after their split, she said, “I know there are rumors regarding my ‘breakup’ with Brody Jenner. The truth is, we were never really together. We hung out, and he’s a nice guy, but my heart was never in it. Anything further is just a cry for publicity.”
And in a 2007 profile on Brody, his “manager/publicist/agent/stylist” Spencer Pratt told Details magazine that the relationship had been his idea to help get his friend’s name out there. Making light of the tabloids’ fixation with Nicole’s weight during the ’00s, Spencer claimed that he told Brody, “Here’s what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna start dating Nicole Richie. And you’re gonna get that skinny bitch to eat, all right? You are about to become The Guy Who Got Nicole Richie to Eat. Process that shit, bro. You’ll be, like, a fucking hero to America.”
7.
That wasn’t Brody Jenner’s last brush with PR relationships. In late 2006, he reportedly dated his The Hills costar Lauren Conrad. They even kissed on the show. However, in 2019, he told Entertainment Tonight, “We never actually dated. In the beginning, we had a little kind of chemistry, and we hung out, and I think it played pretty well on screen. I think that they, the producers, really wanted us to keep that going, even though we just wanted to be friends.”
He continued, “But she’s great. We had a great time. It was so easy to work with her. It was so easy to film scenes with her and do stuff and act like we were [together], because we really did enjoy each other’s company. We really liked each other, just not in that romantic way.”
When their fellow former costar Spencer Pratt appeared on Call Her Daddy in 2022, he admitted to orchestrating the fake relationship to complement his real relationship with his now-wife, Heidi Montag. He said, “I talked Brody into breaking up with Nicole Richie to fake double-date with LC.”
8.
Heidi Montag has a decade-long track record of cheekily staging paparazzi pictures, often alongside her husband.
In 2022, she opened up about her decision to eat raw meat on Instagram, then she smiled for paparazzi pictures while chowing down on a raw bison heart. For photo rights reasons and to spare those who don’t want to look, you can see the super gross photos here.
9.
NYC-based photographer Justin Steffman alleged to Cosmopolitan, “When Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin’s daughter Apple was first born, they worked directly with an infamous paparazzi photographer in New York. Together, they staged the first baby photos and made them look like candid pictures, then they sold the shots to a major magazine. The pictures were rumored to sell for upward of a million dollars. The paparazzi got a cut, and they took the rest.”
10.
When Joaquin Phoenix appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman in 2009, he made bizarre claims that he was quitting acting to pursue a hip-hop career.
However, both the interview and the “role” Joaquin played in the press turned out to be part of I’m Still Here, a “mockumentary” shot by his then-brother-in-law, Casey Affleck. Though there was speculation, they didn’t confirm it until after the movie was released.
11.
In 2016, Tara Reid and Dean May appeared as a couple on the rocks on Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars. In the penultimate episode, they got into an argument that revealed it was all fake. Dean said, “We’re just friends. We’re not having a relationship.”
Tara replied, “I did it for you because you said, ‘I just wanna make a little bit of money, and I wouldn’t mind the fame.'”
The counselors, Jim and Elizabeth Carroll, watched the recorded fight and confronted them about their lies in the finale. In a confessional, Tara said, “He owes money in taxes, and he could use the money, and he wouldn’t mind the fame. So I wound up doing the show for him, so he could get out of trouble.”
Dean later said, “She told me she did the show because I needed the money. That’s the most bullshit thing in the whole world. I did the show as a favor to her.” He also revealed that he had a real girlfriend at the time. He and Tara were ultimately kicked off the show.
12.
YouTubers Jake Paul and Erika Costell had a public relationship in 2017. They made a video about their Vegas wedding and continued to vlog about being a married couple. However, three months later, Jake admitted that their marriage wasn’t legit.
He told the New York Times, “We’re not even actually dating. It’s like the WWE. People know that’s fake, and it’s one of the biggest things of entertainment.”
13.
Apparently unsatisfied with only having one fake marriage for clout, Jake Paul married fellow YouTuber Tana Mongeau in a livestreamed Las Vegas wedding in 2019. They’d only been engaged for a month.
Five months in, they called it quits. Two weeks later, Tana revealed in a vlog that they weren’t legally married. A few months after their split, Jake confirmed it had been a publicity stunt, telling Entertainment Tonight, “We all do things sometimes. And sometimes you end up getting fake married. So I’ll leave it at that.”
14.
Julia Fox purposefully courts the paparazzi’s attention when she’s sporting one of her bold fashion looks. In a 2022 Instagram story post, she said, “Decided to walk to increase the chances of being papped cuz the world needs this look ur welcome.”
Here’s the look in question:
15.
In 2019, dating rumors surrounded Rachel Bilson and The Bachelor alum Nick Viall. They flirted on Instagram and went to dinner with friends. However, appearing on Nick’s podcast, The Viall Files, in 2023, Rachel said, “No, Nick and I never dated… We were messing around, not with each other, but with the internet.”
Nick added, “We were both epically single, and we wanted the attention.”
They confirmed that, after Rachel appeared on his podcast in 2019, they decided that faking a relationship would be a great way to promote The Bachelor podcast they planned to start together. However, she ultimately decided not to do the podcast, so there was no reason for their faux romance to continue.
16.
Prior to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s wedding in 2018, her father, Thomas Markle, worked with the tabloids to stage pictures — which sparked his estrangement from his daughter.
In a clip from her and Harry’s 2021 interview with Oprah, Meghan said, “The tabloids had apparently known [his location] for a month or so and decided to hold until the Sunday before our wedding because they wanted to create drama. When we were told by the comms team that this was a story, we called my dad, and I asked him [about staging the photos]. He said, ‘No, absolutely not.'”
She continued, “I said, ‘The institution has never intervened on anything for us, but they can try to go in and kill this story. But if they do this once, we’re not going to be able to use that same leverage to protect our own kids one day.’ I said, ‘I just need you to tell me, and if you tell me the truth, we can help,’ and he wasn’t able to do that. And that, for me, has really resonated, especially now as a mother.”
Afterward, Thomas told Good Morning Britain, “I wish I hadn’t done the whole thing. My oldest daughter was contacted by a man named Jeff Rayner, who was a photographer, who said, ‘If you can convince your dad, we can make him look good.’ For an entire year, outside my house, somebody was taking photographs of me. I couldn’t go anywhere or do anything without being photographed buying something, coming out of a store. And god forbid I’m buying beer for the guys at the guard gate…everybody knows I don’t drink. But I bought beers for the guys at my guard gate. [The press] were making me an alcoholic, calling me names, talking about the way I dress. So, I, yes, I went for this deal where this man was going to make me look better. Maybe I got sucked into it, but I believed him, and I thought it was going to work. It didn’t work. Of course.”
On Instagram, he wrote, “Still Speechless ☁️ So much love for you @badgalriri ! You are one of a kind. To be blessed with this opportunity is something I never could’ve dreamt of. Can’t wait to see you flourish in this next chapter called Motherhood 🙏🏽❤️.”
Paparazzo Jesal Parshotam told the Guardian, “He is trusted. She’s worked with him for over 10 years. If we’re in a crowd of 10 photographers, I’ve seen her stop and hug him.”
18.
Katie Holmes reportedly staged paparazzi pictures for a hair care brand she worked with. Nouveau Communications CEO Tyler Williams told Bustle, “One of the tactics we would use occasionally — beyond her being our face for advertising, videos, and media interviews — was staging a photo of her shopping at Sephora with our newest product.”
He continued, “The talent gets a fee, we agree to a location and what the photos will look like — if they’re walking down the street or pulling a product out of their bag at lunch… A lot of these photographers have really great relationships with the publications, so they can say, ‘We’ll take these photos for you and guarantee placement in XYZ magazines,’ or ‘We’ll guarantee at least a certain number of impressions based on the publications we work with.'”
19.
After her time on Love Island ended in 2016, influencer Malin Andersson arranged staged shoots. In 2022, she told the Guardian, “No one wants to talk about it. But I have done it. I openly admit to that… It was so fucking weird. I’d pretend to be on my phone. I felt so awkward doing it. But then it became a norm.”
However, she doesn’t call the paparazzi on herself anymore.
20.
Rachel Finni, a 2021 Love Island contestant and influencer, learned about staged paparazzi pictures from a friend who was a minor celebrity. She told the Guardian, “He said: ‘I am going to text the pap guy…’ He said, ‘Honey, paps only come if you call them!'”
So, she called the paparazzi on herself over the next couple of months. She said, “Seeing yourself in the papers and magazines every other day is the most incredible feeling.”
However, she’s since stopped staging pictures. She said, “It doesn’t do anything for me, but to remind people I exist. And how does it benefit me to remind people I exist? It’s so empty.”
21.
And finally, on The Bachelorette Season 15 finale, Hannah Brown got engaged to musician Jed Wyatt after fans watched them fall in love. However, while the season was airing, Haley Stevens — another musician who alleged that she was dating Jed before he went on the show — told People, “He told me [the show] was just an obstacle, and we’d be stronger on the other side because of it… He told me [early on] that he had applied. He said, ‘It’s probably not going to happen, but it’s a huge opportunity. I’m only doing this for my music.’ He only did it for his career.”
Haley said, “He was always so reassuring. He told me it’s not real. It’s acting… He called me when he landed in LA [for filming]. He said, ‘I love you, and I’ll call you when I get back.'”
However, Haley said that, after he returned home to Nashville, he didn’t call her, and after she phoned him to confront him, they never spoke again. Between filming the proposal and the live special After the Final Rose, Hannah confronted Jed about Haley’s interview. During AFR, she confirmed that they’d called off the engagement.
What’s the most ridiculous or outlandish celebrity PR stunt you can think of? Let us know in the comments!
