Entertainment

Celebs Who Ruined Their Smiles with Bad Veneers

In the celebrity world, perfection is king. A dazzling, bright, white smile has become the standard for a flawless appearance, and more and more celebrities are falling victim to the pressure of getting porcelain or composite veneers. In short, porcelain veneers are thin shells or covers that are custom fit directly over one’s natural teeth after removing a thin layer of enamel. They closely resemble natural teeth, making them perfect for a natural-looking transformation. Composite veneers are slightly different: made using composite resin, these less-invasive teeth coverings sit on top of one’s natural teeth to reshape the smile to one’s desire. Composite veneers are perfect for superficial cracks or chips, while porcelain veneers are preferred to fully transform one’s smile.

Many celebs will nip and tuck themselves to death, all in the name of perfection. And it’s not just celebrities — even politicians go overboard with cosmetic procedures. While the results of cosmetic dentistry can beautifully elevate a smile, veneers can often look unnatural, fake, and just plain bad, with the worst cases exemplifying how dramatically veneers can change one’s appearance. Here are some examples of celebrities who ruined their smiles with veneers.

Miley Cyrus stole our hearts with her cute, gummy smile

Miley Cyrus first burst onto the Hollywood scene when she was just 13 years old as Disney’s Hannah Montana. At the time, the bubbly young actress was known for her gummy smile that perfectly embodied her innocence and youth. During filming, Cyrus used lingual braces — or braces fixed on the back of one’s teeth — to discreetly straighten her smile. While her teeth got straighter, Cyrus still maintained her prominent gums and minor teeth gaps into adulthood.

As Cyrus matured, so did her teeth. Over time, they appeared whiter, straighter, more uniform, and noticeably less gummy, but she still looked like the singer we grew up with. It wasn’t until 2023’s “Used to Be Young” music video that it became obvious that Cyrus was sporting porcelain veneers. Fans became fixated on her new look, taking to X (formerly Twitter) to voice their concerns. “When did Miley Cyrus’ teeth change?” one user said, via The News. “Love her. Don’t like the new veneers….too big,” said another, via NewsBreak. Even dentists weighed in on what might’ve changed. “Miley has likely had gum contouring (crown lengthening) to improve her gummy smile and even out the gum line,” Dr. Raj Juneja of Face Teeth Smile Dental Clinic speculates (via Hello! Magazine). Cyrus herself has never confirmed or denied getting dental work, but the proof is in the pudding.

Sam Claflin’s teeth lost their charm

Sam Claflin is an English actor best known for playing Finnick Odair in the “The Hunger Games” franchise. Claflin’s unique smile became a part of his signature look, separating him from other heartthrobs his age: it was warm and inviting with pointed canines, giving him a bit of a cheeky edge. They were also slightly discolored and uneven, but they added to his charm.

Recently, though, Claflin’s teeth look completely different. Before, his smile exuded confidence and ease. Now, they’re far more rectangular and almost uncomfortably white. In a 2017 interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, Claflin spoke candidly about the pressure to conform to Hollywood standards of beauty and how hard he’s willing to work to do so. “I’m not saying it’s anywhere near as bad as what women go through but I, as an actor approaching each job, am insecure,” Claflin explained. “I get really worked up to the point where I spend hours and hours in the gym and not eating for weeks to achieve what I think they’re going for.” With all this pressure, it’s no wonder he decided to change his teeth. Claflin will always be handsome, but many fans are disappointed that he’s lost his vampire-like charm. “I knew something was off about him lately,” one fan captioned a before and after photo.

Rex Ryan’s huge chompers distract NFL fans

Former New York Jets football coach and defensive coordinator Rex Ryan is known for more than just his coaching. Throughout his 30-year-long career, Ryan’s bold style and memorable press conferences have captivated both NFL fans and the media alike. It’s only natural that Ryan got flashy veneers to match his outspoken persona.

Before, Ryan’s teeth were distinctive but not extraordinary. They were slightly crooked and uneven in appearance, with minor discoloration and chips. Long-term tobacco use took a toll on Ryan’s dental health, leading to heavily stained teeth and the need for dental reconstruction. Moreover, Ryan was itching for a confidence boost, so he went ahead with getting the whitest veneers possible and underwent gastric band surgery to lose weight. However, his new smile caused a stir on social media, where many criticized the former coach for his mega-white, denture-like teeth. Ryan’s major weight loss only intensified how prominent the new teeth looked. “Dentures from Spirit Halloween?” one Reddit user jabbed. “Good God I need sunglasses for that,” wrote another. Most of all, people complained that his new pearly whites were just plain distracting. Thankfully, Ryan’s personality has not dimmed from the criticism, and he continues to flash his smile whenever he can.

Simon Cowell’s blindingly white teeth get him ridiculed

Simon Cowell is a producer, talent scout, and entrepreneur known for his polarizing personality and for signing One Direction, Fifth Harmony, Little Mix, and Cher Lloyd, among others. Throughout his career, Cowell has had quite a few dental treatments. The former “American Idol” judge’s natural teeth were stained from smoking up to 40 cigarettes a day, so he began with a simple whitening in 2007. In 2019, while he was judging “America’s Got Talent,” his teeth suddenly appeared quite a bit straighter, larger, and weirdly wider than his natural teeth. The new teeth were also extremely white, making them look very artificial. Dentists speculate that he might’ve undergone porcelain veneers, teeth whitening, and gum reconstruction for this shocking new look, while fans and media ridiculed the producer relentlessly online. Ultimately, though, it was reportedly after an incident where he lost a tooth to peanut brittle that Cowell decided to fix his smile again.

In 2020 and 2022, Cowell underwent several treatments to undo his dental disaster. This time, he told TMZ (via Long Evita Dental) he wanted his look to be “less Simpson-y and more streamlined,” with more natural-looking veneers. He redid 28 teeth total, costing him an estimated £91,420 or $112,000 USD. Thankfully, that time, the results were positively received.

Hilary Duff’s tooth fell out on her wedding day

Hillary Duff is early 2000s royalty, but not even icons are immune to dental disasters. The actor and singer has dealt with dental issues her entire life, but in 2007, after years of seeing Duff as “Lizzie McGuire,” something looked different. In a 2007 interview with the now-defunct Jane magazine, the interviewer asks if she’d had veneers done. “Yeah, on my two front teeth,” Duff confirmed per Lasry Dental Clinic. “I was really sick as a kid and constantly on antibiotics, so my teeth aren’t the strongest, and I kept chipping them on the microphone. One show, I literally spit half of my two front teeth out,” she explained. “When I got to L.A., I got veneers. But it’s like, why is it people’s business?”

Even though veneers are meant to last a decade, just three years later, Duff had another dental dilemma — this time on her wedding day! At about 11 a.m., a few hours before getting ready, her worst nightmare came true. “I burst into tears,” she explained on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” via People. “Then I started laughing at myself, and then I really burst into tears.” Luckily, a friend of a friend happened to be a dentist and was able to save the day. “The actual wedding was perfect,” Duff gushed. “Thank God I didn’t swallow [my tooth]. Not good for a bride on her wedding day.” That certainly could’ve soured the mood.

Millie Bobby Brown opted for a more mature look with veneers at 16

Millie Bobby Brown was just 12 years old when she was cast as Eleven on Netflix’s “Stranger Things.” At the time, her teeth were crooked but suited her, adding to her youthful appearance. She appeared to start Invisalign just a few short years later. In 2020, the then-16-year-old actor made headlines when she debuted a brand new set of straight, white teeth on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” Though she didn’t directly address the change, fans noticed how different her smile looked. “It looks like she has had Invisalign, or some kind of straightening, as well as teeth whitening,” Dr Richard Marques of Devonshire Place Dental told the Daily Mail.

“It also looks as though she has had two porcelain veneers or composite bonding to improve the two lateral teeth (adjacent to the front teeth).” The new veneers definitely gave Brown a more mature look, but not without straying away from her original look.

Eva Marcille’s veneers left fans conflicted

It’s no secret that Eva Marcille has always been gorgeous. She rose to fame in 2004 when she won Cycle 3 of America’s Next Top Model – where winners were allegedly not paid a penny – and went on to have a successful career in acting and entertainment. These days, she’s mainly known for starring in “Buried Alive and Survived” and for appearing on “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.” In early 2021, Marcille raised eyebrows when she uploaded a clip of herself looking very different on her Instagram. As she grinned for her selfies, fans couldn’t help but zoom into her new teeth.

Many felt that her teeth were already perfect before she changed them. “Please tell us the dentist so we NEVER GO THERE!” one disappointed user commented (via Atlanta Black Star). “You had PERFECT TEETH BEFORE! These teeth are too big for your face!” they continued. Another wrote: “You are entitled to do whatever you want, but why mess with perfection?”

The criticism worsened when Marcille posted again a few days later. “The fake teeth are so distracting,” a fan said via another Atlanta Black Star piece. A handful of fans commented their support, but the comments were overwhelmingly negative. Though it’s unclear exactly why Marcille underwent this dental transformation, in 2020, the reality star posted a short Instagram clip of herself seemingly getting a procedure done at the dentist’s office, perhaps hinting at what was to come.

Jojo Siwa’s teeth spent $50k on her new smile

JoJo Siwa spent an eye-watering amount of money on her new smile. At the GLAAD Media Awards in early 2024, the controversial singer and dancer was asked about the most expensive thing she was wearing. “My teeth,” she boasted after a moment (via BuzzFeed). “These motherf***ers cost me 50 grand!” she laughed, flashing her dazzling new smile to the camera.

The blinding transformation was done by celebrity dentist Dr. Kevin Sands, who creates a customized plan for each procedure. For Siwa, she planned veneers for both her top and bottom rows to correct misalignment, stains, or any misshapen teeth. “Even with all of her adult teeth, she had an immature smile with some staining, unevenness, chipping, and discoloration that we wanted to address to create a more mature, appropriate smile with facial harmony and symmetry,” Sands told Page Six. Siwa and Sands worked closely together to perfect each tooth’s color, shape, and size, and Siwa seemed very happy with her results. The dentist reportedly charges between $3,000 and $5,000 per tooth, depending on the required treatment, but he declined to share exactly how many teeth Siwa had replaced.

Steve Harvey’s teeth take on a life of their own

Comedian and television host Steve Harvey is often recognized by his comically large teeth. Along with his charismatic personality, Harvey’s smile has become a defining feature of his public persona, contributing to both his charm and quirkiness on screen. Though Harvey has never openly discussed the specifics of his dental work, many speculate that he may have undergone veneers and professional whitening treatments to achieve his unique look.

Nevertheless, Harvey’s teeth are now a source of comedy within themselves. In 2023, a tweet making fun of the comedian went mega-viral: an X user shared a photo of her stacked cheeseburger with two large onion slices packed in it. “Why they give me these big onion slices, my burger look like Steve Harvey,” the user captioned the photo, inspiring ridicule across the platform. Clearly, the burger reminded her of Harvey’s thick mustache and huge grin — and she wasn’t the only one who saw the resemblance. At the time of writing, the tweet garnered over 19.5 million views and more than 340,000 interactions. Harvey himself eventually responded to the hoopla, tweeting: “Stop sending me this $!,” alongside a screenshot of the original tweet.

While he’s not afraid to joke about them, Harvey refuses to give a straightforward answer about his teeth. In a 2020 episode of “Family Feud,” a contestant bravely asked if he was wearing dentures. “You just came on the Feud to talk about my ass,” he joked.

Katie Price’s veneers kept falling out

British model and TV personality Katie Price is perpetually under scrutiny for her changing appearance. Over the years, Price has undergone countless cosmetic procedures, leaving her virtually unrecognizable from her former self. In 1998, her teeth showed the first signs of change: her smile was suddenly less gummy, straighter, and with fewer gaps. Her new veneers were timeless and natural, but because of their 10-year lifespan, Price has had them redone several times since.

From 2017 onwards, Price’s veneers began looking more and more strange. Not only did they gradually become whiter, but their shape and length seemed to have changed as well, giving Price a very denture-like look. In 2019, she sought to fix her previous dental work, but things only got worse. Just weeks after getting a new set, Price was left “horrified” when several of her veneers fell out on vacation. “She literally spat them out!” a source told The Sun. “She’ll have to go back to Turkey after her Maldives holiday and get them sorted.” In 2023, Price shocked fans when her veneers fell out again — this time in front of an audience on TikTok live. As Price chatted, one of her teeth suddenly became loose. Without hesitation, Price pulled the loose tooth out and showed it to her dumbfounded fans. As of 2025, Price’s veneers continue to spark criticism for their exaggerated appearance, despite claims of not altering them further.

Nicki Swift

Entertainment

Summer box office heats up as weekend ticket sales top $160M

The summer box office is off to a sizzling start — and it’s only getting started.

Over the weekend, domestic ticket sales topped $161 million, a nearly 88% improvement over the same three-day frame in 2025. Disney and 20th Century Studio’s “The Devil Wears Prada 2” led the pack, adding $41.6 million during its second week, followed by Warner Bros.′ “Mortal Kombat II,” which snared $38.5 million during its opening. Lionsgate’s “Michael” brought in another $37.9 million in its third week in theaters.

The weekend was bolstered by new releases like Amazon MGM’s “The Sheep Detectives” and Paramount’s “Billie Eilish — Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour” as well as holdovers from Universal’s “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” which is in its sixth week, and Amazon’s “Project Hail Mary,” which is in its eighth week.

Together, they made for a standout weekend at the movies as the industry chases a $10 billion annual U.S. box office.

“The second weekend in May often provides solid returns from newcomers that bridge the gap between the opening weekend of the summer and the important Memorial Weekend coming up in about 2 weeks,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore. “But the impressive long-term playability of ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ and ‘Project Hail Mary’ serve as a reminder of the vital importance of holdover strength to the overall health of the industry.”

Of the top 10 performers of the weekend, seven were returning titles. Five of those films reported a drop in ticket sales of less than 50% from the prior weekend, according to data from Comscore.

For box office analysts this is an important metric. Typically, movies will see a 50% to 70% drop each weekend. When ticket sales post smaller declines week after week, it means a film is generating strong word-of-mouth buzz and new moviegoers are buying tickets — or that audiences are returning to see the film again.

“The Devil Wears Prada 2” saw a 46% drop in second-week ticket sales, “Michael” declined just 30% between its second and third week in theaters, and “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” saw a 45% dip from its fifth to sixth weekend. Most impressive is “Project Hail Mary,” which fell just 23% in its eighth week. Ticket sales for Neon’s “Hokum” were down 49% in its second week.

These trends bode well for the domestic box office. Through Sunday, the 2026 calendar has generated $3.02 billion, a 16% jump from the same period last year, Comscore data shows.

“From a high-level view, it’s fair to suggest escapism and ease of access may be important factors,” said Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory. “Historically, while ticket prices have also increased over time, going to the theater remains one of the more affordable out-of-house entertainment options for individuals, couples, and families who may or may not have spring and summer vacation plans in flux due to other economic uncertainties and hardships.”

Ticket sales still lag from 2019 levels, the last true benchmark before the pandemic stymied moviegoing. At this point in the year in 2019, the box office had secured $3.8 billion domestically. However, more than $720 million of that was from the record-breaking release of Disney and Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame.”

The summer movies season, which runs from the first weekend in May through Labor Day in September, is also about to get a boost from several blockbuster titles.

Disney’s first new Star Wars theatrical release in seven years arrives in late May with “The Mandalorian and Grogu.” It will be followed by Pixar’s “Toy Story 5″ in June alongside Warner Bros. “Supergirl.” Then in July, Disney has the live-action “Moana,” Universal is set to release Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” and Sony’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.”

“Ebbs and flows will naturally occur within the full year’s box office narrative as they always have,” Robbins said. “Momentum is as good as the most recent hit or misfire, but the bottom line right now is that the industry is enjoying something near a best-case realistic scenario with so much success on the books before the heart of a high-potential summer movie season fully arrives”

CNBC

Entertainment

Johnny Depp’s gray hair transformation was far from his signature look

When preparing to make his return to the silver screen, Johnny Depp donned new silver locks to go with it. Before the 2025 announcement that he’d been cast in a Lionsgate project, Depp had been out of the limelight for some time, with his last major motion picture being 2018’s “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.” Afterward, Depp shifted toward smaller projects, while the public shifted its focus to his public trial with his ex-wife Amber Heard, which occurred in 2022. But a few years later, he landed lead roles in two larger films, both of which would require major physical transformations.

The actor isn’t unfamiliar with switching up his look entirely for a role in a film. Depp has been able to shift his way through various roles, from Edward Scissorhands to the Mad Hatter, taking his audience by surprise every time. But in 2025, he swapped out his typical dark brown hair for silver for the film “Day Drinker,” directed by Marc Webb. In it, Depp plays a mysterious blue-eyed, gray-haired guest onboard a private yacht who forms an unlikely connection with a bartender, played by Madelyn Cline. Depp’s look for the film is quite striking and is completed by a dyed gray beard to match his altered features. It seems that fans love Depp’s silver fox look. One took to X, writing, “Personally, I think Johnny Depp looks much better with the gray hair. He definitely should stop dying it and go au naturel.”

Ghosts of defamation trials past might always haunt Johnny Depp after his return to Hollywood

This isn’t the only major transformation Johnny Depp has signed up for. Also in 2025, it was announced that he would be starring in Ti West’s “Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol” as the titular Ebenezer Scrooge. With horror guru West directing, Depp had to be prepared to take the classic Charles Dickens tale to some dark places. He also looks unrecognizable as Scrooge, donning gray hair in a completely different way than his handsome character in “Day Drinker.” With old age makeup and gray mutton chops, Depp’s transformation is certainly shocking.

Upon the release of the first-look photos of Depp on set, there were some mixed feelings about his return to the big screen. On one hand, people seemed happy that he was working again, with one commenting on an Instagram post, “Love the way Johnny can transform so incredibly.” On the other hand, it seems that many haven’t moved on from his 2022 defamation trial, with one person commenting, “Men can really abuse women without any accountability or punishment and just get right back to work.” As a reminder, the jury found that Amber Heard had defamed her ex-husband, resulting in a legal victory for Depp. It appears that the highly publicized case will continue to haunt Depp throughout his return to Hollywood, despite his win.

Nicki Swift

Entertainment

The Wizard of the Kremlin’ Review: The New Rasputin

History is littered with stories of the man behind the man — the one who was pulling the strings, orchestrating the movements, watching it all happen. Though text at the start of “The Wizard of the Kremlin,” directed by Olivier Assayas, informs us that this film is a “work of fiction with artistic intent,” it is based, in part, on the story of such a man: Vladislav Surkov, a Russian politician and businessman who was a close aide to the Russian president Vladimir Putin until being abruptly dismissed in 2020. Surkov was considered by some to be both an éminence grise in the Kremlin and a spin doctor, manipulating the media to maintain control.

His avatar in this movie is Vadim Baranov (Paul Dano), a man with a gentle demeanor and sophisticated taste in art and literature. The screenplay, which Assayas wrote with Emmanuel Carrère based on Giuliano da Empoli’s 2022 novel, introduces us to Baranov via an American journalist and scholar of Russia named Lawrence Rowland (Jeffrey Wright). Rowland has written an article about Baranov in Foreign Affairs magazine — “Vadim Baranov and the

Invention of Fake Democracy” — and it seems to have attracted the attention of Baranov himself. While in Moscow in 2019, Rowland exchanges messages over social media regarding the 1924 proto-Orwellian novel “We,” by the Bolshevik writer Yevgeny Zamyatin, with a person he does not know. Accepting his correspondent’s invitation to talk in person, he travels to their country home, and discovers that it is Baranov himself.

From there, “The Wizard of the Kremlin” largely takes the form of a story within a story. Baranov walks Rowland through his life, explaining what Rowland got right and what he got wrong in his article, though it feels as if Baranov is rummaging back over his life looking for the answer to a question he can’t quite articulate to himself.

It begins with Baranov’s student days in the early 1990s, in the heady “new Russia,” just after Soviet communism had collapsed. Everything felt possible and money flowed freely. As Baranov recalls it, those days felt like a never-ending bash, or maybe an orgy, where you might watch a naked man on a leash follow a punk rock singer around at a house party. As an avant-garde theater student and then director, Baranov lived a life of art and poetry with his girlfriend, Ksenia (Alicia Vikander). When the vulgar but fun Dmitri Sidorov (Tom Sturridge), the inventor of Russia’s first commercial bank, enters their lives, things grow brighter, then more sour.

But Baranov moves on, taking a job in trashy reality television production, and this is where the historical tale begins to take shape. “The Wizard of the Kremlin” is really a movie about how Russia went from those heady post-Soviet days to the rise of the oligarchy to, eventually, the establishment of Vladimir Putin (a mostly chilling Jude Law) as president, a former K.G.B. officer who valued power over money. The oligarchs who choose Putin as Boris Yeltsin’s successor realize too late that this man will not be their pawn. “What interests me is restoring integrity to the Russian Federation,” he tells Baranov. And that means consolidating power — in himself.

Baranov, with his talent for weaving a story, is useful to Putin, and at this point he has little idealism left. As he grows nihilistic, believing that truth is whatever he wishes to make of it, so does his country. A background in theater and reality TV proves useful: He turns out to be a communications genius, figuring out how to manipulate political theater to not just represent reality, but invent it. They call him “the new Rasputin.”

As you may already have surmised from the casting, “The Wizard of the Kremlin” is not in Russian; the actors speak in English, which suggests this is an account of Russian history intended for non-Russian audiences. Even with its 136-minute running time, that’s a lot of ground to cover, so it moves at a good clip. This has an interesting dramatizing effect: We see history progress through Baranov’s eyes in broad arcs, and figures like Putin, who often occupy daily headlines, become more like characters in a play.

And while that can result in the oversimplification of a person, it can also be useful when trying to figure out why a person does the things they do. In a play or a movie, people have roles, psychological traits and motivations that drive their character arcs. Here, the lightly fictionalized version of an authoritarian is driven not by the desire for something like money, like the oligarchs, but by the desire for power. Projecting an image of strength is part of that desire; propaganda is the means by which one does this.

It’s a useful framework for understanding leaders around the world, and Baranov is the ideal cipher, someone who intimately understands how easily people’s minds are swayed and molded. That peek behind the curtain is the greatest strength of “The Wizard of the Kremlin,” and also its scariest element: The notion that in an age where truth can be manufactured, the people doing the manufacturing hold so much of reality in their hands. But even they can also be tossed aside when they stop being useful to the powerful. And then what was the point of all that wizardry?

The New York times