The fallout from Will Smith giving Chris Rock both a verbal and literal smackdown for a joke Rock made about Smith's wife Jada Pinkett Smith on Oscars night earlier this year became a global controversy. Smith won the Best Actor award for "King Richard" shortly after the altercation, then resigned from the Academy as part of his long-winded apology tour. However you look at it, it's an ugly situation, and the incident may well harm Smith's career for years to come.
But this is far from the first time that someone in Tinseltown has gotten themselves on Hollywood's blacklist, in which the whole industry essentially cuts them out of work. Who could forget the notorious Hollywood Ten scandal of 1947, which saw more than a few screenwriters of communist sympathies kicked out of the industry (more on them later)?
Time will tell if Smith is eventually welcomed back into the industry's good graces, but these Hollywood exiles have had a far, far more difficult road to returning to the entertainment industry again.
Birthdate: July 26, 1959
Years active in Hollywood: 1986-2017
Year blacklisted: 2017
Two Oscars, untold millions, the respect of his colleagues, plus worldwide fans weren't enough to stop the scandal train that came crashing into the "House of Cards" star in 2017 when actor Anthony Rapp claimed Spacey had sexually assaulted him decades earlier when Rapp was underage.
Spacey was swiftly fired from "Cards," and the final season went on without him - to disappointing notices from critics and fans, but that's another story. Other actors came forward with similar claims, and Spacey's attempt at damage control by finally coming out as gay - as if that were a viable defense - outraged the LGBTQ community.
Birthdate: July 12, 1937
Years active in Hollywood: 1965-2014
Year blacklisted: 2014
There might not have been a harder, swifter fall from grace than what became of "America's Dad." Ever since comedian Hannibal Buress used his standup routine in 2014 to call attention to allegations of Cosby's misbehavior, many women have come forward claiming Cosby drugged and/or sexually assaulted them over the decades.
Even when "The Cosby Show" was a monster hit among both Black and White audiences, its star continued his predatory streak. Cosby was jailed in 2018 in his native Pennsylvania, although the state supreme court ordered him freed last year. Though no longer behind bars, it's all but certain he'll never work again.
Birthdate: Aug. 18, 1933
Years active in Hollywood: 1968-1977
Year blacklisted: 1977
The Polish filmmaker Roman Polanski made quite a splash in Hollywood, with "Rosemary's Baby" and "Chinatown" securing his reputation as one of the great immigrant filmmakers of the post-studio era. However, shortly after his arrival in Los Angeles, Polanski's wife Sharon Tate was murdered by the Manson family, leading to some great work but some awful personal choices.
In 1977, Polanski was convicted of drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl, but he fled the United States before being jailed. Although he's continued to make films in Europe since then - including the Oscar-winning Holocaust memoir "The Pianist" - he'll be arrested if he ever returns to America.
Birthdate: Nov. 3, 1952
Years active in Hollywood: 1988-2018
Year blacklisted: 2018