The Scandals That Rocked 2013

INSIDE EDITION takes a look back at the scandals that made headlines in 2013.

Maybe it was the '13 in 2013, which for some made it a very unlucky year.

Actor Alec Baldwin was back at war with the press outside of his Manhattan apartment.

The famously hot-headed actor was booted from his low-rated MSNBC show, after just five episodes for uttering a homophobic slur during a tirade at photographers outside his Manhattan apartment.  

Actress Reese Witherspoon isn't known as one of the bad girls of Hollywood, she was America’s sweetheart!  At least until the night she and her husband were pulled over by Atlanta police. He was driving drunk and she'd obviously had one too many as well. She told police, “You know my name?”

After she was arrested and booked for disorderly conduct, the Oscar winner sobered up and apologized on national TV. She said, "I am so sorry.  I was disrespectful to him."

Then, former Food Network star Paula Deen saw her cooking empire go up in smoke after it was revealed that she'd used the N-word in the past. She was dropped by her network, her cookware disappeared from store shelves and it's estimated that the scandal could cost her more than $10 million a year.

Twenty-three-year-old college co-ed Sidney Leathers spoke exclusively to INSIDE EDITION that grabbed headlines all over the world. She sobbed with guilt over her role in the latest sexting scandal involving former Congressman Anthony Weiner. Leathers, who exchanged racy selfies with Weiner, had surprising advice for Wiener’s long suffering wife, “If I were in her shoes, I wouldn't stay.”

New York City voters agreed Weiner couldn't be trusted. He lost the race for mayor.  

"You don't expect someone from public office to grab you behind," said Emily Marie Gilbert. But that's exactly what former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner did. According to Emily Marie Gilbert, a Marilyn Monroe impersonator, she claims Filner groped her at a fundraiser for sexually abused women. In all, 17 women claimed that Filner had sexually harassed them.

He said, “I will be entering a behavior counseling clinic to undergo two weeks of intensive therapy to begin the process to address my behavior.” But therapy wasn't enough. Filner ended up pleading guilty to various related sex charges and resigned from office.

And the race for bad behavior in city hall reached a new low when Toronto Mayor Rob Ford admitted that he'd smoked crack. Then, when the city council was voting to strip him of his powers, he just about knocked down a woman. Ford was then spoofed on Saturday Night Live.

Zumba dance instructor turned hooker, Alis Wright needed all the support she could get when she was nabbed by police for having paid sex at her exercise studio.  The steamy charges shocked the small Maine town where Wright landed in jail for ten months for offering more than the usual exercise classes.

Then, a video of an ugly confrontation between a biker gang and the driver of an SUV on Manhattan’s West Side shocked the nation. On INSIDE EDITION you watched for the first time as the SUV driver was beaten by the bikers after they pulled from his car in front of his terrified wife and baby.  Worse yet, the bikers tried to pull his wife out too, but she fought them off protecting their two year old toddler.

There of course was music mogul Simon Cowell who set the world abuzz when he got caught up in a sex scandal. He got the wife of one of his best friends pregnant! Socialite Lauren Silverman promptly divorced her real estate tycoon husband and is now shacking up with Cowell. Their baby boy is due in February.

And perhaps no one got more attention in 2013 then former child star Miley Cyrus who may have finally convinced her fans that she's not Hannah Montana anymore. The world was astonished by her raunchy twerking routine at the VMA’s. If that wasn't enough, she later showed up on stage in the Netherlands at another awards show and shocked us once again by lighting up a joint.

We'll no doubt be hearing more from Cyrus and a few others in 2014.