By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
December 2, 2004
“I am your No. 1 fan.”
And so began Paul Sheldon’s terrifying encounter with Annie Wilkes, the obsessed character in Stephen King’s Misery who chopped off her idol’s feet so he couldn’t escape. (In the film version, she merely broke his ankles.)
In real life, celebrities such as Sheryl Crow, Mel Gibson and Catherine Zeta-Jones are dealing with their own slew of “No. 1 fans.” Some go to prison for their obsessive behavior. But others don’t.
Just this week, Ambrose Kappos — who admitted he was delusional and thought he had been communicating telepathically with Crow — was acquitted by jurors who didn’t believe he had stalked the singer for the past 15 months, despite his uninvited visits backstage and at her father’s office claiming to be her “soul mate.”
This verdict may send a chilling message to celebrities that there is a fine line between an overzealous fan and a stalker. According to experts such as security consultant Moshe Alan, 98 percent of all stalkers are harmless fans obsessed with their idols. It’s that other 2 percent who have the potential to be dangerous.
Though Crow hasn’t released a statement, her security staff surely must be wondering which category best fits Kappos. After all, when Michael Perry was found camping on Olivia Newton-John’s property in 1983, police didn’t arrest him. Instead, they returned him to Louisiana. While he never physically harmed the singer, Perry ended up killing his own parents, cousins and baby nephew.
“People hear that Sheryl Crow and Mel Gibson had some poor fan arrested for showing up backstage or at their house and they think these celebrities are whiners,” says Matt Arthur, a former bodyguard who worked with celebrities in Los Angeles. “But these famous people never know who’s coming out of the woodwork — literally. If you had some guy waiting outside your door night after night after you’ve repeatedly asked him to leave, you’d probably call the police, too.”
In an interview with CNN, Alan said, “I don’t think that we have more stalkers than we had 10 years ago. They’re just getting more sophisticated, and the amount of information they can get through the Internet and other sources is much bigger.”
Irving Rein, a Northwestern University professor who’s the author of High Visibility: The Making and Marketing of Professionals Into Celebrities, says the problem with stalkers these days is the machine set up to make fans feel they know the celebrities.
Unlike past decades, when movie stars didn’t step outside the house unless they were camera- ready, today’s celebs often are photographed doing everyday things not unlike you and me. We see Jessica Simpson shopping for groceries on her reality show “Newlyweds.” We watch Ozzy Osbourne clean up after his dogs on “The Osbournes.” Flip open any gossip magazine and there will be a picture of Britney Spears sipping coffee or eating a sub sandwich.
All this makes celebrities seem more obtainable to fans who see them on television or on the big screen. And it could make them even more inviting to stalkers who already have a difficult time differentiating between fact and fiction.
“The object of the whole celebrity industry is to get a committed following for your particular artist,” Rein says. “Imagine a ladder. At the bottom are the invisible consumers. These are the people who claim they’re not interested in anything. Slightly higher up from them are the watchers, followed by the seekers and then the collectors and fan club members. After a few more rungs you have the ensnared, and this area would cover the stalker.
“If I’m a celebrity, my thinking is I want to move these people up the ladder to be more committed to me and therefore spend more money on my products. That’s why they do things like fantasy baseball camps or come into town to host a dinner with their fan-club members. That’s why they have meet-and-greets and sign autographs after their shows.
“One of the conundrums of show business is if a fan eats all this up, he ends up wanting to get as close as possible to the celebrity. And, unfortunately, celebrities can’t pick only normal, healthy people to be their fans. They can end up with a John Hinckley [who tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981] trying to impress Jodie Foster.
“Obviously not all fans are going to end up stalkers. It seems to be that stalkers have a predisposition for that sort of thing. But stalking has spawned a whole new industry. The smoke-colored limos and bodyguards are much more evident now than … back then. Marilyn Monroe and James Dean didn’t travel with packs and entourages the way some stars do today. Ballplayers used to take the trolley to their games. Can you imagine a Michael Jordan taking a bus? It just isn’t done anymore. They wouldn’t feel safe.”
Stars and the fans who went too far
SHERYL CROW
Fan: Ambrose Kappos
The singer says Kappos stalked her for over a year, starting in July 2002. He showed up uninvited backstage at her concert and at her father’s office, where he claimed he and Crow were soul mates. He was acquitted Tuesday of stalking her.
JOHN LENNON
Fan:: Mark David Chapman
After getting an autograph from the enigmatic former Beatle earlier in the day, Chapman shot and killed Lennon in 1980. He is serving a life sentence.
CATHERINE ZETA-JONES
Fan: Dawnette Knight
Knight sent the actress some two dozen letters saying she was going to “slice her up like meat” and “feed her to the dogs.” Later, she apologized and claimed she was in love with Zeta-Jones’ husband, Michael Douglas and jealous. If found guilty, she could spend up to 19 years in prison. Trial began last month.
STEVEN SPIELBERG
Fan: Jonathan Norman
In 1997, he was arrested near the director’s home. Police said he was sexually obsessed with Spielberg and was found carrying handcuffs, duct tape and a utility knife. He was found guilty of stalking.
OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN
Fans: Michael Perry; Ralph Nau
Claiming the singer was a muse who was granted everlasting life, Perry was found camping on her estate in 1983. Sent back to Louisiana, he killed his parents, cousins and an infant. He is on death row. A year later — after four years of sending letters — Nau flew to Australia to meet Newton-John. When he returned home, he beat his stepbrother to death. He is in a psychiatric ward in Illinois.
JODIE FOSTER
Fan: John Hinckley Jr.
In an attempt to impress the actress, Hinckley shot President Reagan in 1981. He is in a psychiatric facility in D.C.
REBECCA SCHAEFFER
Fan: Robert John Bardo
In 1989, the obsessed fan showed up at her doorstep. When the 21-year-old actress opened the door, he shot her point blank. Her death lead to creation of the L.A. Threat Management unit, which deals with celebrity stalking cases.
MADONNA
Fan: Robert Hoskins
Hoskins believed Madonna was his wide and tried to fire her bodyguards for keeping them apart. In 1995, one of them shot him in the arm and stomach after he repeatedly infiltrated her estate. After Madonna testified in 1996 how Hoskins threatened to kill her, he was sentenced to 10 years in jail.
DAVID LETTERMAN
Fan: Margaret Ray
Letterman made light of Ray’s breaking into his house almost a dozen times. Ray, a schizophrenic, thought she was his wife. He never had her arrested and in 1998, she committed suicide by sitting in front of a train.
MEL GIBSON
Fan: Zack Sinclair
Gibson filed a restraining order against Sinclair, who showed up at the actor’s home and church. He also accused Sinclair of sending “sinister” letters about his film “The Passion of the Christ.”
GWYNETH PALTROW
Fan: Dante Michael Soiu
After sending the actress hundreds of packages and e-mails and showing up at her parents’ home, Soiu was convicted in 2000 of stalking and declared legally insane. He was sentenced to a mental facility.
