10 celebrity business ventures that drastically flopped

Photo: Michael Buckner/Getty Images for Mercedes-Benz 

While many celebrities establish their success in one talent area, others step out of their comfort zone to broaden their empire. Attaching a celebrity name to a new business can instantly help establish the brand with audiences. However, not all celebrity business ventures turn out to be as successful as originally hoped.  

Here are ten of the biggest celebrity business ventures that drastically flopped. 

1. Hulk Hogan – Pastamania 

After establishing himself as the biggest star in the wrestling business, Hulk Hogan decided to grow his empire in 1995 by venturing into the fast-food restaurant industry, naturally. Capitalising on his popularity, The Hulkster created and financed Pastamania, a pasta-themed eatery located in the Mall of America. 

Serving traditional pasta dishes such as alfredo and spaghetti aptly named Hulk-U’s and Hulkaroo’s and with heavy shilling during his matches, surely the restaurant was destined for great things, right? Unfortunately, the novelty of Hogan shaped noodles was not enough to keep the Little Hulksters coming back for more, leading to the restaurant closing not even a year after opening. 

2. The Kardashian Sisters – Kardashian Kard 

Photo: kardashiankard.com 

Being the most famous family in the world should bring success to any business ventures associated with the Kardashians. However, Kim, Khloe and Kourtney learned the hard way that this is not necessarily the case. In 2008, the sisters launched The Kardashian Kard, a pre-paid credit card by Mastercard which featured their faces plastered across the front. 

Targeted towards young adults, the card received heavy backlash for taking advantage of their vulnerability through its multiple high fees, including a $99.95 purchase price, as well as additional monthly costs and charges for each use. This negative press led the sisters to back out of the venture within a month, claiming not to have known about these fees. 

Not only did the sisters forfeit an estimated $40 million by distancing themselves from the project, the card had only been purchased by 250 people, leading to the biggest business failure to date for the Kardashian family. 

3. Lindsay Lohan – Lindsay Lohan Beach House 

After a multitude of controversies surrounding her name, Lindsay Lohan decided in 2018 that opening a beach club in Mykonos, Greece was her way back into the spotlight. The Beach House was seemingly destined for success as a popular place for party-goers, as well as MTV creating a reality show following Lohan’s experience of running the club. 

This quickly fell flat, with the beach bar not welcoming enough patrons to stay open, leading to the closure of the club and MTV subsequently cancelling the show after only a year. 

4. Kanye West – Pastelle Clothing

Photo: Kevin Winter from Getty Images.

Before Kanye West seized the industry with his Yeezy brand, the rapper was set to light the fashion world on fire with a different clothing line in 2004. After sporting an original polo in his music video for “The New Workout Plan,” West began to tease Pastelle Clothing by saying that the line was to drop soon. 

This happened for the next five years. Despite showcasing the original creations across multiple public outings, including at fashion shows and on SNL, and even hyping the brand in his songs, nothing ever came of Pastelle. In 2009, it was reported that the brand would never be releasing anything, essentially ending the business before it ever began.  

5. Shaquille O’Neal – Shaq Fu 

Imagine Shaquille O’Neal. Now imagine a video game. Combine the two together and what do you get? A basketball game, right? Nope. In 1994, the basketball player developed and released a kung-fu fighting game set in Japan, featuring himself as the player character.  

Since its release, Shaq Fu has received heavy criticism over its awful concept and gameplay, leading it to become one of the most hated video games in history. Through this hatred, the game is universally accepted as one of the worst of all time, even leading to dedicated websites focusing on its awfulness. 

6. Steven Spielberg – Dive! 

Photo: Jason Kirk from Getty Images 

Director Steven Spielberg dove into the food industry by creating a submarine-themed restaurant in 1994. Located in California, the director shelled out a reported $7 million to design the building in the shape of a neon yellow submarine.  

Naturally, customers came to experience the submarine submerging as they ate their meals, with the restaurant simulating a dive every half hour through blaring sirens, flashing red lights and blacked out windows. 

The gimmick obviously quickly sank, with the business unable to retain customers due to the disruptiveness of the restaurant’s theme, leading it to close its doors in 1999. 

7. Nicky Hilton – Nicky-O Hotels 

As a member of the Hilton clan, it would seem like a natural fit for Nicky to establish her own enterprise within the hotel industry. In 2006, she did just that by investing in her own hotel chain, starting with converting two hotels in Miami into Nicky-O Hotels and a third planned in Chicago, in time for the 2007 Superbowl. 

Unfortunately for Nicky, the hotels were plagued by delays and never opened their doors before the project filed for bankruptcy protection. Subsequently, Nicky was sued by the hotel developer due to her lacking on her responsibilities outline within the business agreement.   

8. Debbie Reynolds – Debbie Reynold’s Hollywood Hotel 

In a vision to create a museum and casino experience within a hotel, Debbie Reynolds purchased the Paddlewheel Hotel located in Las Vegas. After collecting a plethora of Hollywood memorabilia throughout her career, the establishment was transformed into the Debbie Reynolds’ Hollywood Hotel & Casino in 1993.  

However, through the business partnership with Jackpot Enterprises, Reynolds did not own the gambling portion of the hotel, leaving her short of any profits made by the casino. Creating a huge financial issue for the actress, the hotel filed for bankruptcy in 1997 and was sold at an auction a year later. Guess that gamble did not work out for her. 

9. Britney Spears – Nyla 

Photo: Left, by James Devaney; right, by Lawrence Lucier, both from Getty Images. 

In another celebrity attempt at establishing a stake within the restaurant world, Britney Spears opened Nyla in 2002, at the height of her fame. The Manhattan restaurant initially served a variety of Spears’ favourite Cajun food from her home state of Louisiana, but later changed to Italian dishes after receiving terrible reviews. 

On top of the bad reviews, the restaurant further faced several health-code violations, leading the business to suffer from financial struggles. With so much toxicity surrounding the restaurant, Spears cut her ties with the business after just six months. 

10. Kim Basinger – Braselton, Georgia 

Despite most celebrities venturing out into the business world to create larger empires, not many can claim to have purchased a town. Kim Basinger can. In 1989, the actress launched into a unique business venture when she decided to partner with other investors to buy the town of Braselton in Georgia for $20 million, in the hopes to create a central tourist destination.  

Despite having these big plans for the tiny town, including building movie studios and showcasing art shows, she was unable to manage anything more than knocking down a few old buildings. With no plans ever materialising, Basinger ended up declaring bankruptcy after a few years, with the venture drastically flopping and having significant financial loss for the actress.