Macaulay Culkin storms off: 5 other cringeworthy walkouts

Macaulay Culkin stormed off stage during a gig in Nottingham this weekend after a crowd booed his "comedy band" and pelted them with full pints of beer. The 33-year-old, who is best known for his role as Kevin McCallister in the Home Alone films, was playing with The Pizza Underground – a band that parodies classic Velvet Underground hits with pizza-themed lyrics. (Songs include Papa John Says, Take a Bite of the Wild Slice and Pizza Day.) “Why are you throwing these? I’d rather drink them!” shouted Culkin, before finally walking off stage soaked in beer. The band was given a similar reception at another gig in Manchester, where Culkin walked out after someone interrupted his kazoo solo – securing his position in a long line of cringeworthy walkouts:

Justin Bieber

Last year Justin Bieber was hit by a water bottle during a concert in Brazil. After a moment of shock, he glared angrily at the audience before leaving the stage. Fans remained in their seats for half an hour hoping he would return, but he never did. Bieber subsequently became the butt of online jokes about the incident, with a Twitter account for the offending water bottle earning two million followers. One post read: "Stop judging me, I just wanted to touch Justin like the rest of you." Another post complained that the bottle was "getting threats of recycling".

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Morrissey

For Morrissey, it wasn't bottles or heckles that forced him off stage, but the smell of burgers. The singer was performing at the Coachella festival in California in 2009, when he was overcome with fumes from a nearby barbeque. "I can smell burning flesh ... and I hope to God it's human," he said before walking off stage. When he finally returned to finish his set, he told his fans: "The smell of burning animals is making me sick. I just couldn't bear it."

Bee Gees

Clive Anderson pushed the Bee Gees a step too far on his BBC show Clive Anderson All Talk in 1997. It started when the group admitted they used to be called Les Tosseurs, and Anderson told them "You’ll always be Tosseurs to me." His quips continued until Barry Gibb finally had enough. After Anderson claimed he liked his brother Robin's solo effort but could not remember a song released by the other two, Barry walked off stage, saying: “You’re the tosser pal.” His brothers followed, but not without an awkward struggle to remove their microphones.

Russell Crowe

Actor Russell Crowe proved equally sensitive when talking to BBC Radio 4's Mark Lawson about his 2010 film Robin Hood. Talking on Front Row, Lawson told Crowe that his accent sounded Irish. The New Zealand actor, already smarting over the critics' reaction to the film, told Lawson he had "dead ears". Asked if he was going for northern English, Crowe responded "No, I was going for an Italian, yeah, missed it? F*** me!" before walking out.

Michael Bay

Transformers director Michael Bay was left red-faced after he fluffed his lines and unexpectedly walked off stage during a Samsung press conference in Las Vegas earlier this year. When his teleprompter malfunctioned, he struggled to ad lib his way through the presentation and after several awkward moments of silence, walked off. Later in a blog post on his website, he admitted: "Wow! I just embarrassed myself at CES... I guess live shows aren't my thing."