Recently, I found one of my co-workers glued to the Britney-cam live feed on CNN.com. During the ensuing conversation on the ridiculous nature of stars “nowadays,” I began to recall the ridiculous (and tragic) behavior of stars “back in the day” as well. Here are 10 celebrities and their scandals you may or may not be familiar with.

1. Mabel Normand

Mabel Normand (1895 – 1930) was one of the most popular comediennes of the silent era. After embarking on a relationship with legendary director Mack Sennett, Normand worked side-by-side with other notable (and scandalous) stars such as Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle. In 1918, after her relationship with Sennett dissolved, Normand descended into alcoholism and narcotics abuse. Eventually pulling her life back together, Normand became the last person to see director William Desmond Taylor alive (see below), after Taylor was shot and killed only moments after Normand left his Hollywood home. The two had been friends and exchanged literature (yes, literally), and although she was never considered a serious suspect, newspaper rumors ran wild about her drug use and connections with Arbuckle. In 1924 she was involved in another scandal when her chauffeur shot her lover with Normand’s own pistol. Never far from the headlines, she died of tuberculosis at the age of 35.

2. Jean Harlow

Jean Harlow (1911-1937), namesake for Nicole Ritchie’s baby, seems in many ways to be early cinema’s Anna Nicole Smith. Rising to fame at the end of the silent era as a sex symbol of the 1930s, the “Blonde Bombshell” was plagued with scandal all of her short life. Her father was a connected mobster, nude photos were taken of her at the age of 17, and she had a reported abortion of a child fathered by her one-time fiancee William Powell. However, Harlow’s most recognized scandal involved her second husband Paul Bern, an intellectual luminary of Hollywood over 22 years her senior. On September 5, 1932 just months after their wedding, Bern was found shot in the head, sprawled in front of a bedroom mirror and drenched in Jean’s perfume. A note accompanied his body, which was ruled a suicide, that confirmed rumors Bern suffered from an impotence which he found too embarrassing to live with. Harlow’s own death a few years later was again tabloid fodder. Though the official cause of death was from kidney disease that became more aggressive after a string of illnesses, at the time many (untrue) myths suggested Harlow’s kidneys were damaged because of beatings from her husband Paul, or that the bleach from her hair had seeped into her brain and killed her.

3. William Desmond Taylor

Director William Desmond Taylor’s (1872-1922) death became one of the Great Unsolved Mysteries of Hollywood. Shot in the back in 1922, rumors circulated that the suspects might include Mack Sennett, Rudolph Valentino, and Mabel Normand among other Hollywood notables. Taylor was himself an eccentric figure, abandoning his first wife and children in one of his “mental lapses” thought to be aphasia. During the media frenzy over his murder, many of his friends claimed Taylor had made “delusional” statements, and some feared he might be insane. The Irish-born director of over 50 films became another unfortunate casualty of the Silent Era, which had so many scandals that many movie studios began requiring their actors and directors sign “morality clauses” to their contracts.

4. Errol Flynn

Errol Flynn (1909-1959) set the gold standard for celebrity debauchery. A fan of drinking, fighting and fooling around, he was thrice tried on statutory rape charges and was accused of being a Nazi spy (according to biographer Charles Higham, although subsequent biographies have denounced this particular claim). One of Flynn’s most infamous scandals involved his (recently deceased) friend John Barrymore. Flynn’s posse stole Barrymore’s body from the morgue and propped it up, Weekend at Bernie’s style, inside Flynn’s home so Flynn could be “greeted” by his old friend. The police didn’t find the charade so funny, and neither did the newspapers or public. Flynn’s mischief did not end with his death – he is said to be buried with six bottles of whiskey as a parting gift from friends.

5. Barbara La Marr

Barbara La Marr’s (1896 – 1926) quote, “life is too short to waste on sleep” (she reportedly only slept two hours a night), seems like it could have been uttered by any number of current Hollywood starlets. Like her later counterparts, La Marr’s film career flourished along with her love for the nightlife. However, an addiction to heroin soon took its toll on her as she juggled work schedules and a hyperactive social life. “The Girl Too Beautiful To Live,” as the newspapers called her, died suddenly of tuberculosis at the age of 29.