How did you feel.... *SPOILER*

[Prophecy Girl]

Oct 29, 2010 17:25:58 GMT -5 joelliea said:

The event happened four years ago. It takes a long way to overcome something like that, it's not easy especially when you've done so much. So how I feel for you, PG, and about this celebrity mess, you got the picture.

This is so true. When you've poured that much emotional energy into something, the effect is deep and lasting. I can't tell you how many of my friends read the book and said things like, "I hope writing the book was therapeutic for you." It really was, but almost more the point is that something like that is *worthy* of dealing with in a therapeutic way. It's often easy for outsiders to blow these things off, but when it's you, and your time, and your emotional investment, it's never easy to just "get over it."

As for your second story, I can relate a lot to what you said, especially as I've done this second blog. It's strange the feelings of hope that can (and in my case sometimes did) arise anew. It takes a conscious effort to step back, think about things logically, and get your head back on straight. In fact, that's precisely what I just went through with Stephen (which I wrote about in that blog entry the other day). It's so easy to be optimistic above being realistic...

Thanks for letting us know who the celebs were. ;D And thanks for this fantastic discussion! It's very heartening to know that other people have had similar experiences, and that we can all not only survive them, but learn from them and talk about them intelligently later.

[S4M985]

Nov 2, 2010 16:02:09 GMT -5 Prophecy Girl said:

Thanks for letting us know who the celebs were. ;D And thanks for this fantastic discussion! It's very heartening to know that other people have had similar experiences, and that we can all not only survive them, but learn from them and talk about them intelligently later.

HERE HERE!!!!! It was very entertaining to read your stories, thankyou.

Living in Australia i never ever get to experience "celebrities" so its really interesting reading other peoples stories. And it reminds me that maybe im not missing out on that much

[joelliea]

god. And I was beginning to think I'd scared people away from this thread =D. Sometimes I can be THAT serious about anything hehehe.

And those celebrities are not even as big as Jake.

Sam, it's a good thing Hugh Jackman is in Hollywood ^_^

[Prophecy Girl]

Haha, you definitely didn't scare anyone away! I just haven't been over here as much as I'd like to be lately and I was waiting until I had the time to give you a decent response. I'm actually notorious for scaring people away myself with my super-serious (and often unflattering) discussions, so I'm extremely happy that we were able to talk about all of this and no one got mad at either of us! ;D

[KD]

whoa whoa whoa. TEXT BLOCK. I feel like such a loser for not having finished the book yet. Most people here have read it several times over already!

Concerning meeting celebrities, I've actually never tried to meet any - ever. Weird as it sounds, me being so obsessed with film and television, I actually prefer to keep myself separate from the people I watch/follow/admire. I think a degree of separation between being a fan and being...a bit too enthusiastic is healthy. I can admire and research them from afar, watch all his/her movies or productions a million times and analyze them to death, I can become apart of amazing fan groups all I like, but I've never even considered going to meet any one them.

Now if I stopped at Cold Stones one day and happened to run into them, they hey, what an awesome. And of course I'd get an autograph and snap a picture, but some of the things so far I've read in Becky's book that fans have done to meet actors/musicians, celebrities, etc have shocked me. (PG if safe from my skepticism and criticism since all her attempted encounters have been in the name of Jake Watch) Going half way across the world? locating where a person eats, showers, went to school, goes to the gym? waiting outside studio lots at all hours of the day?

No thanks.

It's weird too, because I live just an hour from Hollywood, deep at the nucleus of this sort of materialistic, superficial world Hollywood has created...and I should be way more infatuated with celebrities than I am.

Maybe its because I'm so close that world has lost its charm for me.

[KD]

I'm close to finish the book though! Wanted to point that out so I don't seem way more like a loser than I already am.

And I gotta say, Becky earns major brownie sympathy points for me. What an incredible time of her life. And I gotta commend her for sticking with the blog through all the bull she had to put up with.

[Vanessa]

Nov 7, 2010 19:09:13 GMT -5 KD said:

Concerning meeting celebrities, I've actually never tried to meet any - ever. Weird as it sounds, me being so obsessed with film and television, I actually prefer to keep myself separate from the people I watch/follow/admire. I think a degree of separation between being a fan and being...a bit too enthusiastic is healthy. I can admire and research them from afar, watch all his/her movies or productions a million times and analyze them to death, I can become apart of amazing fan groups all I like, but I've never even considered going to meet any one them.

Now if I stopped at Cold Stones one day and happened to run into them, they hey, what an awesome. And of course I'd get an autograph and snap a picture, but some of the things so far I've read in Becky's book that fans have done to meet actors/musicians, celebrities, etc have shocked me. (PG if safe from my skepticism and criticism since all her attempted encounters have been in the name of Jake Watch) Going half way across the world? locating where a person eats, showers, went to school, goes to the gym? waiting outside studio lots at all hours of the day?

No thanks.

I know I haven't really participated in this thread yet, but I have to reply to what KD said because it mirrors a lot of my own feelings regarding celebs. & I agree with what she says. Actually when I read the book, I saw a little of myself in it, although not near as bad as the fans she described. I have been following the careers of my favorite actors for a very long time now, but I never did any kind of cyberstalking or real stalking for that matter. I really don't like the tweet & FB siting reports personally. What restaurant they were seen eating at, what they ate, who they talked to, etc., etc. & that whole business of taking pics of Jake entering or leaving a medical center or Dr.'s office. Geez, can the guy have zero privacy? I know he is an actor & once he became famous, that comes with the territory, but come on, that just goes too far. However, when PG uses the pap pics to poke fun in the way she does it, that's a whole different thing to me, & I get a big kick out of it & laugh my ass off. She isn't using those pics to dissect his private life & speculate on every minute detail of it & whether or not he is romantically interested in someone either. & I don't want to either. I guess what I mean is, there is the fun of doing it the "Jake Watch" way & then there is the creepy over obsessive stalking that I don't care to be a part of.

I went to LA & Hollywood a couple of years ago for a mini vacation & loved the whole place, but did I look for celebs, NO. However, I did run into 2 young women in the lobby of my hotel that were planning out their "stalking" trip to Hollywood one evening & were very surprised that me & my friends weren't planning to do the same thing. They admitted that the only reason they had come to LA was in the hopes of "running into" some stars. I don't know, it just seems so impersonal to me. If I had the opportunity to be introduced to a celeb by a mutual friend in a casual setting, that's a totally different thing & I would welcome that. Then I know the celeb wouldn't be trying to figure out how to make a quick getaway. They would be there because they wanted to be. & then it would be a nice experience that wouldn't be awkward or rushed. Would it do me any good to meet them? Highly unlikely. Chances are they wouldn't ever give me a second thought, anyway, so it's just not something I care to ever do. OK, I feel I'm rambling here as usual, so that's all. Just my 2 cents.

[KD]

bb, you said it ten times better than I could have. The whole thing about going to Hollywood to see the stars seems so excessive to me. The only reason I'd hit up Hollywood was to visit studio lots to see how films are made (that's what I'm interested in, in terms of the film industry - making movies) or eat at the fabulous restaurants there.

IDK, honestly how I would react if I met a celebrity. I think it'd be more awkward for me. "Hi. You're so and so....so, how was your day? I see the paps are waiting for you. must suck, huh?"

Or just really funny.

"Wow, can I get your autograph and a picture? Yes? Thanks so much! *click* *sign* Thanks thanks thanks!...so, double chocolate mocha? I'm more of a latte person myself....so....you like whip cream? oh hi, yeah, I'd like a chocolate muffin with that, thanks. Cute shoes."

I just can't. LOL

[Prophecy Girl]

I should have read this thread before I commented on the other one, KD.

For every extreme case I ran across during my JW days, there were many others out there who had no interest in meeting Jake ever. And not to get too far into the psychology of it, because I really don't have much experience outside of the Jake world (which I think is an unusual world in many respects), but I always harbored a suspicion that Jake's inaccessibility, on some level, fostered some of the more intense desires that people had to see him in person. For all his public appearances, interviews, movies, whatever, no one in the fan world really knows who he is. No one knows exactly where the line is between Jake the Celebrity and Jake the Person. And *everyone* knows that no one who isn't part of the Hollywood scene has ever gotten a true glimpse of the guy behind the image. We know logically that us "outsiders" have no chance, and yet we also know that logic doesn't play much of a role in hysterical fandom.

But there's something primal in the desire to see people of perceived power, and I think (know) that that message doesn't come across in the book because it's hidden behind my personal journey and behind the stories of the most extreme (read: entertaining) individuals I met along the way.

I remember getting into an argument with someone on JW about Jake never responding to gifts people sent him. This person was unable to understand why anyone would send Jake a gift in the first place. But the thing is, it's part of human nature to want to give back to the people you admire. Getting gifts is a fundamental part of fame. Hell, *I've* gotten gifts, and I'm not even close to being a celebrity. So my side in that particular argument was that there was no use in trying to figure out *why* people do it, it's that the doing of it comes with the territory, and therefore it's a huge reflection on the person at the center as to how they respond.

Taking that example and stretching it to seeing Jake in person, I know that I had very personal and very real reasons to feel like my experience was underwhelming, and that my motivation was very different from others I met. I also know that for many of those others, their interest in seeing him was unhealthy and their reaction to his presence was unnerving. In between is the majority of those who might try to see him, who would do so purely out of curiosity and because we have a cultural fascination with fame. And my main problem (as it always has been!) is that someone who treats his celebrity with the type of frosty indifference that Jake does will probably never grasp that there's a difference between any of us. And in that, everyone loses...