Colombia’s top 10 celebrity scandals of 2011

From botched butt-jobs to beauty queen drug busts and blatant public molestations, 2011 was a scandalous year for many Colombian celebrities.

SCANDAL #1 – VALERIE DOMINGUEZ’S FRAUD CHARGES

Starting with perhaps one of the most notorious scandals of the year, former Miss Colombia and actress Valerie Dominguez was involved in a subsidies debacle where she allegedly obtained a bond worth almost $160,000 meant for poor farmers and not for little rich girls. “I am innocent and I will prove it,” she declared.

SCANDAL #2 – JESSICA CEDIEL’S BOTCHED BOOTY BOOST

In perhaps one of the most ironic instances of plastic surgery gone wrong, Colombia’s former best booty’s botched bottom operation landed Jessica Cediel on a hospital bed countless times over to remove all the infectious biopolymer that left her backside blackened, bruised and swollen. As far as career moves go, this one is really going to come back to nip her in the butt.

SCANDAL #3 – REGGAETON STAR J BALVIN’S INTRODUCTION TO PEPPER SPRAY

Following a bout of sensitive ego-bashing after a Bogota concert, musician J Balvin and his bodyguard were pepper-sprayed in the face by fellow reggaeton artists Cali and El Dandee. Apparently pepper-spray seemed the most appropriate course of action to express how they felt about the J-man’s stinging performance.

SCANDAL #4 – FORMER BEAUTY QUEEN’S DRUG TRAFFICKING ORDEALS

Former Colombian beauty queen Angie Sanclemente made quite the stir when a police crack-down made perhaps the most beautiful bust of the year, arresting her for smuggling cocaine. She watched her entire career blow away as the judge sentenced her to six years and eight months in prison.

SCANDAL #5 – JOE ARROYO’S HERITAGE TURNS SOUR

When one of Colombia’s most famous salsa artists, Joe Arroyo, died this year, his widow and three daughters fought over who would inherit the rights to the late artists’ musical works. The eldest daughter even accused her own mother of threatening to kill her over the issue. Ouch!

SCANDAL #6 – COLOMBIA’S MORAL AUTHORITY SACKED FROM NATIONAL TV

Televangelist Father Chucho was taken off the air after nine years at RCN, sparking controversy amid rumors that he had a girlfriend, daughters, or even a pregnant girlfriend, which was very unbecoming of a man of the cloth, but certainly not as outrageous as other claims made against the clergy in recent years.

SCANDAL #7 – SOAP STAR PAOLA TOVAR’S ALLEGED HOMEWRECKING

More rumors plagued soap actress Paola Tovar in 2011 when posters in city streets popped up stating she was in a relationship with a married man and was addicted to drugs. “What a bad example for her public and above all for her SON!!!” the poster read.

SCANDAL #8 – MONICA FONSECA CHANGES ACTOR HUBBY

Colombian model Monica Fonseca’s love life was made quite public this year when she left her actor boyfriend of two years, Marc Tacher, for another actor, Juan Pablo Raba. The two wasted no time in taking the plunge and jumping in the sack as they were married and expecting their first child within months.

SCANDAL #9 – SILVESTRE DANGOND’S BALL-GRABBING

On a more perverse note, Colombia’s highest-selling recording artist for 2011, Silvestre Dangond, grabbed the genitals of a young boy after giving him money onstage during a concert. Various messages posted on social networks dismissed the act as “cultural,” while the rest of Colombia struggled to identify what deranged culture that was.

SCANDAL #10 – GERALDINE ZIVIC ALSO CHANGES ACTOR HUBBY

Rounding off the top ten celebrity scandals of 2011 is model and TV host Geraldine Zivic who had a good run with her boyfriend actor Andres Motta, but decided he was unfulfilling and instead married another actor, Gonzalo Vivanco in Colombia’s beautiful coastal city of Cartagena.

Looking back on 2011, one can say it was full of decadence, controversy, and at times, just plain weirdness.