James Franco's Teen Dating Tweet and Awesome Celeb Damage Control From David Letterman, Scarlett Johansson and More

Take a look back at some of the most memorable moments made by celebs in a compromised position

By Bruna Nessif Apr 03, 2014 9:59 PMTags
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Celebs getting themselves into a bit of controversy? It happens all the time in Hollywood.

And usually when an A-lister finds themselves in the middle of a scandal, the PR team quickly gets to work to create some sort of damage control, which most often than not consists of an apology, acknowledgement of what happened and a promise to learn from their mistakes and never do it again...blah, blah, blah.

But sometimes we get a gem—a celeb that, instead of running to their publicist to cook something up, just responds to the event at hand by poking fun at the entire situation.

Our latest example? James Franco, who got himself in a little blunder today after allegedly trying to hookup with a teenager, decided to address the situation by tweeting, "I HOPE PARENTS KEEP THEIR TEENS AWAY FROM ME. Thank you." (LOL!)

He's not the only one that handled a scandal in that way. Here are five more celebs that had some awesome damage control...

Jeffrey R. Staab/CBS

1. David Letterman: The Late Show host decided to address cheating on his wife Regina Lasko on the late-night program by apologizing and, of course, he cracked a joke. He began the mea culpa by saying he got into his car that morning and "the navigation lady wasn't speaking to me."

"There's a possibility that I'll be the first talk show host impeached," he continued. "It's fall here in New York City, and I spent the whole weekend raking my hate mail. It's cold, too—chilly outside, chilly inside my house." He added, "This is only phase one of the scandal. Phase two, next week I go on Oprah and sob."

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2. Hugh Grant: The About a Boy star was a bit of a bad boy when in 1995 he was arrested on Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard for lewd conduct with prostitute Divine Brown. The misdemeanor charge cost him just over a thousand bucks, but earned him a memorable appearance on the Tonight Show With Jay Leno less than two weeks later, where the host started the interview by infamously asking, "What the hell were you thinking?"

After joking about the different theories as to why Grant acted out the way he did, he finally just said, "I did a bad thing, and there you have it."

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3. Paris Hilton: Shortly after her sex tape was leaked, the socialite appeared on Saturday Night Live where she made fun of the racy home video during a sketch with Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey for Weekend Update.

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4. Fred Willard: The famous actor was arrested by the LAPD at an adult movie theater for allegedly engaging in a lewd act (though charges were soon dropped). After being publicly embarrassed, Willard laughed off the incident by tweeting, "Wait till you hear my version, much more PG. & my review, lousy film."

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5. Scarlett Johansson: Rather than playing the denial card after naked pictures were hacked from her phone, the actress was very tongue-in-cheek when responding to the scandal during an interview with Vanity Fair. "I know my best angles," she quipped. "They were sent to my [now ex] husband. There's nothing wrong with that. It's not like I was shooting a porno—although there's nothing wrong with that either."