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Shakira -

Shakira and Gerard Piqué's 12-year partnership came to a dramatic end in 2022. It was rumored that Piqué was caught cheating, and he went public with his new girlfriend two months later. In January, Shakira released a diss track called 'Out of Your League.' It premiered in a YouTube video with Argentinian producer Bizarrap. Within 24 hours it had gained 63 million views, setting a new record on the video-sharing platform. In the song, Shakira addresses her ex and his relationship with the significantly younger Clara Chía. "I’m worth two 22-year-olds,” she sings in Spanish, “You swapped a Ferrari for a [Renault] Twingo/You swapped a Rolex for a Casio.”

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Gerard Piqué -

Piqué was quick to shoot back, turning up to work in a Renault Twingo. It's clearly not the usual vehicle of choice for one of the highest-paid sports stars in the world, and his message was clear. He gave the paparazzi a big grin as he parked. 

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Shakira -

On Valentine's Day, Shakira posted a video of herself lip-syncing along to SZA's song 'Kill Bill.' The lyrics go as follows: "I might kill my ex, not the best idea / His new girlfriend's next, how'd I get here?"

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Banksy -

Banksy hit out at clothes retailer Guess after claiming the company used his designs without permission. The shop featured the artist's 'Flower Thrower' graffiti plus clothes bearing his images, so he shared a photo of their Regent Street location in London and wrote on Instagram, "Attention all shoplifters: Please go to GUESS on Regent Street. They've helped themselves to my artwork without asking, how can it be wrong for you to do the same to their clothes?"

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Banksy -

After encouraging fans to shoplift at the store, Guess closed the storefront to the public, covered up the window display, and placed security outside. The company sourced the Banksy artwork via a third party, namely Brandalised, which licenses designs by graffiti artists, though Banksy has stated that his work is available to license for non-commercial ends.

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Julia Roberts -

Organizers at Cannes were quoted saying that it's obligatory for women to wear heels to red carpet screenings, and in 2015 they turned away a group of women in their fifties from a screening for not wearing high heels. While stars like Susan Sarandon opted to wear flats in protest, Julia Roberts took things one step further.

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Julia Roberts -

Taking a stand against 'Heelgate,' Roberts appeared on the 2016 Cannes red carpet in a floor-length gown, which she then lifted to climb the stairs, revealing she was completely barefoot.

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Joan Crawford -

Late actresses Joan Crawford and Bette Davis had a decades-long feud that was both personal—involving their men—and professional. On the professional side, the two had agreed to costar in the horror film 'What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?' (1962) "as a last-ditch effort to revive their waning careers," as Vanity Fair put it. Davis was nominated for an Oscar for that film, but Crawford was not, though her revenge plan was Oscar-worthy.

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Joan Crawford -

Crawford allegedly approached the other nominated actresses to volunteer to accept the Best Actress statuette for them should they win. Anne Bancroft agreed and eventually won for her role in 'The Miracle Worker,' and Crawford ended up getting to take photos holding the Oscar that Davis was sure she would win.

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Burt Reynolds -

After the late actor broke his jaw while filming in 1984, he lost tons of weight and rumors started circulating—largely by the National Enquirer—that Reynolds had AIDS. "I was treated like a leper in Hollywood and it was the worst time of my life," he told The Guardian in 2017. But his revenge was potent.

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Burt Reynolds -

"One Christmas Eve my pilot and I loaded my helicopter with manure from my ranch, flew over the [National Enquirer] building and watched it cascade down their giant Christmas tree," Reynolds told The Guardian. "Dumping a helicopter full of horse [ ] on the National Enquirer made me feel great. They'd been writing crap about me for years so I thought it was only fitting."

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Lana Del Rey -

Lana Del Rey has carefully crafted her artist persona as the kind of woman you don't want to cross, and in December, she gave us the best example yet. As she prepared for the release of her album 'Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd,' the singer decided to put a billboard up—but only one, and in a very specific location. Del Rey shared a photo of herself with the billboard and wrote in the caption, “There’s only one, and it’s in Tulsa.” According to Uproxx, she added in the comments, “It’s. Personal.” Fans were quick to point out that her ex lives in Tulsa, so it certainly feels personal. It also makes sense since earlier in May the singer spoke about her upcoming music and said as a kind of thesis, “It’s more just like: I’m angry."

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Taylor Swift -

The famed pop star is infamous for putting her revenge to music, which not only draws negative attention to those who cross her but also makes her a ton of money. She's sang about numerous exes, from John Mayer to Joe Jonas, though the most vicious thing she sang was allegedly about actress Camilla Belle.

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Taylor Swift -

Camilla Belle allegedly 'stole' Joe Jonas from Swift, and in the aptly named song 'Better Than Revenge,' Swift sings the lyrics, "She's not a saint/ And she's not what you think/ She's an actress/ She's better known/ For the things that she does/ On the mattress."

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Judd Apatow -

Despite the fact that 'Freaks and Geeks' is now regarded as a cult favorite and one of Time's "100 Greatest Shows of All time," NBC decided to cancel the show after just 12 episodes due to weak ratings. The harshest criticism that writer and executive producer Judd Apatow received was that he picked the wrong cast, so he set out to prove them wrong.

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Judd Apatow -

Apatow played the long game when it came to his revenge, and turned most of his original cast—including the likes of Seth Rogen, James Franco, and Jason Segel—into major stars, as well as some writers and directors. Apatow himself said: "Everything I've done, in a way, is revenge for the people who canceled 'Freaks and Geeks.' It's really demented, but it's just like 'You were wrong about that person, and that person and that person. And that writer and that director.' And I really should get over that."

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Calvin Harris -

Apparently things ended badly between Calvin Harris and Rita Ora, because Ora was supposed to perform her hit song 'I Will Never Let You Down' at the 2014 Teen Choice Awards, but Harris got in the way.

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Calvin Harris -

Ora explained in an interview with Ryan Seacrest, "For anybody who doesn't understand how it works, he wrote and produced the song. So he has to approve anything TV-wise for anybody who doesn't get it. And obviously, he owns the rights to it and he didn't approve the Teen Choice Awards."

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Tiffany Haddish -

Looking back on the revenge she took on an ex-boyfriend whom she found out was cheating on her, Tiffany Haddish told People, "I know I'm crazy," but added, "I always try to think of ways to get revenge without going to jail." And it's true that you can't go to jail for pooping in a shoe!

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Tiffany Haddish -

"I ate a lot of corn. A lot. And I didn't chew it so well," she wrote in her memoir, 'The Last Black Unicorn,' as she explained the time she pooped in her ex's favorite pair of Jordan sneakers. Even better is that he put them on without realizing, and she appropriately let him know that he'd just stepped in "All the [expletive] you put me through!"

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Bill Murray -

When filming 'Groundhog Day' (1993), Bill Murray was reportedly cranky due to his first marriage dissolving and felt the production staff was bugging him with calls—AKA just doing their jobs. The communication between himself, the studio, and director Harold Ramis was so poor that they suggested Murray get an assistant to deal with all of that. "So he hired a personal assistant who was profoundly deaf, did not have oral speech, spoke only American sign language, which Bill did not speak, nor did anyone else in the production," Ramis told Entertainment Weekly.

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Bill Murray -

Ramis continued, "But Bill said, 'Don't worry, I'm going to learn sign language.' And I think it was so inconvenient that in a couple weeks, he gave that up. That's anti-communication, you know? Let's not talk." It's ridiculous revenge for the least valid of reasons, but devious nonetheless.

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Katy Perry -

Performing at her old Santa Barbara high school in 2010, Katy Perry spotted her former crush in the audience and decided to exact her revenge for the time that he rejected her.

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Katy Perry -

"You were the most popular kid in my class!" she told the audience looking right at him. "You never wanted to date me, it was always Amanda Wayne. You really chose right, honey. What's up now!? I'm going to dedicate this next one to Shane Lopes." She then sang 'Ur So Gay.'

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Elin Nordegren -

It's plain to see why Elin Nordegren, the Swedish model who married pro golfer Tiger Woods, would take revenge on her now ex-husband who slept with at least a dozen women during their marriage and got caught. But Nordegren, who has two children with Woods, decided to take the highest revenge road possible.

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Elin Nordegren -

She auctioned off loads of jewelry that Woods had given her, including her engagement ring, to "cleanse" herself of the relationship, but it was likely a huge blow for him, not to mention she made more than US$2.5 million!

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The 'Carlito's Way' costume department -

This story turned out to be a very tall tale after years of it circulating, largely fueled by actor John Leguizamo about his co-star Penelope Ann Miller. In his 2006 memoir and 2017 appearance on 'Live with Kelly and Ryan,' Leguizamo created a narrative that Miller was "mean" and "evil," and as a consequence the 'Carlito's Way' costume department in 1993 took in Miller's clothes a centimeter each day to make her think she was gaining weight.

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The 'Carlito's Way' costume department -

"She was flipping out, but she was mean, she was evil, so they kept doing it," Leguizamo recalled in 2017. In June 2018, however, Leguizamo apologized for his "hurtful remarks" and retracted the entire story—though it was certainly a devious one. Miller's costume supervisor on the film also said that Leguizamo's comments were "blatantly false."

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Justin Timberlake -

Before the false narrative about Britney Spears cheating on him was proven to be a ploy to get the media to side with Justin Timberlake after their breakup, it seemed to the public that Timberlake had pulled off the greatest revenge.

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Justin Timberlake -

In the video for his 2002 song 'Cry Me a River,' about a cheating ex, Timberlake hired an actress who looked very similar to Spears. It worked out for Timberlake's image for quite a number of years.

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt -

Joseph Gordon-Levitt was already tired of the aggressive paparazzi following him around back in 2006, and flipped the script on two of them when they declined his polite request to leave him alone. The actor pulled out his own camera and started filming and harassing them, then shared the video, which he titled 'Pictures of [expletive],' online.

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt -

Gordon-Levitt wrote in the description of the video on YouTube about the contemporary culture of celebrity, which, he said, "Is not just innocently shallow entertainment, but a powerful and fundamental part of a larger movement revolving around greed, apathy, and hierarchy that is currently dragging us down."

Sources: (BBC) (People) (Vanity Fair) (The Guardian) (TheRichest) (Entertainment Weekly) (Slate)

See also: The most brutal acts of revenge in history 

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