Never Forget These 12 Times Celebrities Were The Absolute Worst During Covid-19 Lockdowns

When it feels like the whole world may be collapsing around you, as though a rug has been pulled from right under your feet, easily one of the least comforting things a person can do is offer patronizing advice. Yet, time and time again, when a massive, timeline-disrupting event happens, celebrities always come out of the woodwork to gift us their “sage” advice, stand in solidarity with our struggles, or wag their fingers at our personal choices. 

During the Covid-19 “pandemic” lockdowns, celebrities took this to a whole new level. They seem to operate on an entirely different moral high ground from us normal folk. So, lest we ever forget, I rounded up 12 of the most infamous times that global elites were the absolute worst during lockdowns.

Jennifer Aniston

In a very (not) tasteful Instagram story, actress of Friends fame Jennifer Aniston bragged about cutting unvaccinated people out of her life.

"Because if you have the variant, you are still able to give it to me. I may get slightly sick, but I will not be admitted to a hospital and or die. But I can give it to someone else who does not have the vaccine and whose health is compromised (or has a previous existing condition) - and therefore I would put their lives at risk,” she said in the post, which was only live for 24 hours.

Later on, Aniston doubled down on her pro-vaccine stance multiple times. In an InStyle interview, she said, "There's still a large group of people who are anti-vaxxers or just don't listen to the facts. It's a real shame.”

She also told The Hollywood Reporter that she was “bullied” and called a “liberal Vax-hole.”

Personally, I’m just curious when she started feeling comfortable going back to venues without vaccine mandates, because it sure looked like she had quite the public footprint in 2022.

James Corden (featuring Ariana Grande)

For reasons that stupendously escape me, James Corden thought this little song and dance routine with Ariana Grande was good optics, despite much of the world still dealing with obnoxious rules and mandates.

Highlights from “No Lockdowns Anymore” include the appearance of a giant banner featuring the face of pandemic poster child Dr. Anthony Fauci, Grande and Corden singing about bad WFH ethics such as watching Bridgerton during Zooms, and of course, pushing the vaccine.

Lucky for all of us, Corden recently aired his final episode of The Late Late Show. Fingers crossed we’re no longer subjected to such humorless content like these off-putting skits or unamusing Carpool Karaoke “antics.” 

Everyone Involved in That “Imagine” Cover

I really want to forget about this video, but I can’t – the uncomfortably close faces of bright-eyed celebrities singing along to John Lennon’s “Imagine” is, sadly, indelibly etched into my hippocampus.

If I were to plug a prompt into ChatGPT asking it to generate a video that garners peak cringe from me, it would spit out a script for this one. “Imagine” is already one of the most overhyped songs ever written by one of the most overhyped musicians ever, but I digress.

This video, posted in 2020 on Instagram by Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot was received very poorly by the public. NBC News columnist Brian Moylan wrote in 2021 that Gadot’s video was “so unbelievably awkward that it’s almost impossible to make it all the way through, even 12 months later.”

Well, here we are three full years later, and this is still one of the most tone-deaf examples of celebrities trying to express solidarity with us normal human beings – and failing to do anything other than patronize us with performative activism.

Seth Rogen

Award shows have been painful to watch for quite some time now, but as Hollywood has more openly embraced its Marxist tendencies, they have become nearly unbearable. When presenting the first award at the 2021 Emmys, actor Seth Rogen decided to air his grievances about the Emmy organizers’ venue choice.

Rogen opened with: “Let me start by saying there is way too many of us in this little room. What are we doing?”

Organizers for the Emmys worked with LA County health officials to book a fully air-conditioned tent that offered “socially distanced” seating for the audience, but apparently, that wasn’t good enough.

”They said this was outdoors. It's not. They lied to us. We're in a hermetically sealed tent right now. I would not have come to this,“ he said. “Why is there a roof? It’s more important that we have three chandeliers than that we make sure we don’t kill Eugene Levy tonight? That is what has been decided.”

The entire monologue – likely meant to be funny – is indistinguishable from fury. If humor was the intention, perhaps Seth Rogen shouldn’t leave tweet receipts of him furiously rambling about his pro-vaccine passport stance.

Nancy Pelosi

Ah yes, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s unhinged ice cream fridge is yet another moment from the Late Late Show that never needed to happen. On April 14, 2020, Speaker Pelosi video-called into Corden’s show to display her two high-end fridges (which retail around $24,000 each) packed tight with Jeni’s ice cream, Talenti gelato, and Dove ice cream bars. 

This move was so out of touch, even for far-left leaning voices like Caitlin Johnstone, who quote retweeted Speaker Pelosi’s cringeworthy moment saying, “Watch the speaker of the working class party Nancy Pelosi showing the poors how to cope in the new depression. It’s easy! You just get your massive commercial-grade freezers ‘re-stocked’ with luxury ice cream in every flavor.”

While Congress was bickering over how to best financially support Americans struggling due to lockdowns, Speaker Pelosi was comfortable at home in California, demonstrating utterly lackluster leadership.

Chris Cuomo

Younger brother to former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Chris Cuomo made headlines during lockdowns after he first contracted Covid-19, was caught maskless and berating a bicyclist around East Hampton, and who can forget the icing on the cake? Cuomo staging his emergence from his Hamptons “quarantine.”

While walking upstairs to allegedly greet his family in the video, Cuomo said, "Alright, here it is, the official re-entry from the basement, cleared by the CDC. This is what I've been dreaming of, literally, for weeks. This is the dream, just to be back up here doing normal things.”

Washington Examiner reporter Jerry Dunleavy pointed out the “gaslighting” going on since Cuomo had just been seen in a “well-publicized fight.” 

Working-class Americans who contracted Covid-19 were forced into mandatory two-week quarantines to, you know, “stop the spread,” even if they were asymptomatic. Two weeks fully barred from being in public, going to work, or seeing loved ones. But, despite Cuomo being cozy in his high-end Hamptons home, he still couldn’t follow quarantine orders!

Sam Smith

Remember when Sam Smith posted his “stages of a quarantine meltdown” on Instagram in March 2020?

Smith looks a little bit different nowadays, but perhaps that came as a result of his very evident mental anguish. I, for one, would have been utterly miserable during lockdown in a $12 million home!

Look, I’m not trying to dismiss the feelings of anyone who felt lonely, bored, or just overall uneasy about how the world was operating back then. But, when you’ve got celebrity money in a neighborhood with celebrity neighbors, I’m sure lockdown wasn’t nearly as difficult as it was for victims stuck at home with their abusers or big families crammed into small apartments. 

One-quarter of Americans lost their jobs during lockdowns and/or struggled to make ends meet, but artists like Smith – one of the music industry’s top dogs for earning royalties – brought in over $7 million from Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and other streaming service royalties.

Kim Kardashian

While all other California residents were still subjected to mask mandates and on-again-off-again Stay At Home orders in October 2020, Kim Kardashian jetted off to a Tahitian private island to host her 40th birthday party.

Kardashian alleged that her dozens of guests went through weeks' worth of health screenings and quarantines before they “danced, rode bikes, swam near whales, kayaked, watched a movie on the beach and so much more.”

Now, Kardashian did provide caveats, writing, “I realize that for most people, this is something that is so far out of reach right now, so in moments like these, I am humbly reminded of how privileged my life is.” 

But call me crazy – that messaging doesn’t look very sincere attached to a glitzy photo of her raising a celebratory cocktail. 

There was nothing “humble” about this very obvious brag. Your typical Americans were barred from leisurely travel in general, let alone to go see their families in other countries, yet Kardashian and her 40 closest friends were exempt. No, the measures that average Americans were subjected to weren’t fair whatsoever, but neither was the total lack of awareness that Kim K demonstrated with these party pics.

Drake

Where I live, skate parks got filled up with sand, and basketball courts were taped off to deter people from outdoor exercise at the height of lockdowns. But, in Drake’s world, there was no shortage of basketball games to play!

At the same time on Instagram, Drake posted a story displaying his indoor, private basketball court. Just one meager portion of his $100 million home in Toronto, Drake’s NBA regulation-size court (4,700 sq ft) could have actually fit around six one-bedroom apartments, which was a familiar, close-quarters sight to many Americans under lockdown. 

He captioned the story: “My life for the next however long.”

So, what was Drake thinking when he posted this flex? I can only imagine he wasn’t thinking much at all, because anyone with a grasp on reality could have seen how elitist that story post seemed at the time.

Madonna

As a part of her “quarantine diaries” series, singer Madonna decided to film herself in her bathtub, surrounded by flower petals, and give us some musings about “pandemic” isolation.

"It's the great equalizer, and what's terrible about it is what's great about it. What's terrible about it is that it's made us all equal in many ways, and what's wonderful about is, is that it's made us all equal in many ways,” Madonna said.

According to Madonna, Covid-19 didn’t care how rich, famous, funny, smart, or old you were, it was “the great equalizer.” That’s pretty fresh coming from someone with unmatched access to medical professionals (I mean, how else do you achieve a face like that?) and likely had a net worth of $850 million at that time to keep her perfectly comfortable. 

Sure, Madonna was “isolating” in one London home, but that’s one of six London properties the singer owns. Not to mention the additional, pricey properties she owns in New York, California, and beyond.

Bette Midler

Singer and actress of Hocus Pocus fame Bette Midler has had such an illustrious five-decade career earning four Golden Globes, three Grammys, three Primetime Emmys, two Tonys, and two Oscar nominations. Somehow along the way, she never learned how to use her very basic kitchen appliances, which came to light in a tweet from March 2020.

Some of us – before, during, and after lockdowns – have had to cook and clean for ourselves (and families), but lockdowns presented Midler with a complex new problem to solve: not being able to outsource basic tasks to her housekeeper. 

Hey, I get it. If I had that kind of money, I’d happily accept an extra hand around the house with cleaning, but perhaps I wouldn’t publicly tweet about it at risk of alienating 99.9% of my followers. This moment could probably just be overlooked as a strange attempt at humor to cope with weird times, but all it gave in actuality was “let them eat cake.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger

I don’t know which instance of the former California governor and action film star Arnold Schwarzenegger’s pandemic preaching was the most out of touch.

Was it when he was feeding his miniature pony Whiskey and donkey Lulu off his dinner plate, post home workout? Was it when he used them as props to tell Californians to stay at home, tweeting, “Stay at home as much as possible. Listen to the experts, ignore the morons (foreheads). We will get through this together.”

Or perhaps, it was when he was at home in his jacuzzi, fresh from a bike ride, smoking a cigar, and once again spreading his social distancing gospel to the internet?

Schwarzenegger shared how he had been staying away from crowds and the outdoors, shaming people across the globe he had viewed pictures of dining al fresco at cafés or being in crowds. 

If we all just had in-ground jacuzzis, leisure time to unwind with a cigar, and of course, a $400 million net worth (at the time – it has since risen to $450 million), I’m sure we would have all been much more blindly complacent with lockdown protocols. Or maybe, just speaking for myself here, since it was hypocritical and unnecessary all along, we still wouldn’t have!

Closing Thoughts

It’s easy to be out of touch with reality when you’ve got an endless slew of wealth to keep you comfortable! While there’s nothing wrong with having wealth or relishing in your own hard-earned financial success, there are certainly better times to brag than while the rest of the world is subjected to strict mandates, at risk of losing their jobs, separated from their families, or put under tough financial duress. 

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