Facebook & Celebrity Friends

I'm posting this on the main board as opposed to the OT one since it deals with performers and not just facebook. In the past we've discussed friending performers on facebook, sharing information they post, and even gifting performers. But there's something else I've been noticing and I wanted to see what other people thought about it. People sending friend requests to the friends of performers.

I'm going to pick to on fellow posters who have been chosen randomly for an example:

Let's say Millie is a performer on Broadway and I'm me - an average nobody. We're friendly aquaintances but not "besties". We talk on facebook a little bit but not overly often. Millie lets fans have access to her facebook and Taz sends her a friend request. She accepts Taz and he sees that I've posted on Millie's page. So he sends me a friend request. I don't know Taz and Taz doesn't know me.

I just think we're getting into the realm of "too much" with this. There is the need to know every little thing about a performer and it's becoming a problem. Is it the hope to catch the performer saying something on a friend's page that they might not normally say on their own where there are fans present?

Should people who are simply friendly aquaintances of performers have to put up with the same stuff the performers do? Should they have to give up their own privacy just because they know someone?

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Easy answer - just don't accept Taz's friend request. (edited to fix typo!)

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Updated On: 11/10/09 at 12:28 PM

I added this person on facebook who seemed to be a big Broadway fan so I thought it would be cool. She apparently saw my pictures from backstage at Next to Normal... she casually IMed me on there one time and we were talking and whatnot. Then she kept trying to bring Aaron Tveit into the conversation, which I thought was odd (and annoying). She kept going on and on about how hot he was. She asked me a million questions about being backstage with him and about our conversation. The best was when she asked me if I would call her on the phone next time I saw him so she could talk to him on the phone. WTF?

I agree that it seems kind of creepy. I don't even like friend requesting for celebrities, unless I am absolutely sure they are okay with it.

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I usually don't add people as facebook friends unless I actually know them and they know me. Adding celebrities as friends on facebook has always seemed a little creepy to me. Maybe it's because you always hear about those fangirls/fanboys who add an actor or musician or whatever as their facebook friend and then think that they're suddenly best buddies with them.

I guess if the actor's using their page for self-promotion and/or to get information out about their current and/or upcoming projects and such, it's okay, but there are way too many people who become facebook friends with performers and then try to take it to the next level.

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Updated On: 11/10/09 at 02:48 PM

^^^
Great point Eris.

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So, they didn't delete the other ones either? I actually was pretty sure that Kristin Chenoweth's was run by her management, until they came out and said it was fan based. They had her manager's name and everything on there, which I think is very misleading.

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I don't friend anyone I don't personally know. Most "big" performers have fan groups on facebook and those are the better place to meet other fans if that's what you want to do.

Same here. And if you want updates on the performer, to converse with fellow fans, share pictures, ask questions, and generally obsess over the performer, a fan group is the place to do it.

This thread intensifies my already-in-progress headache.

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Heh, I stumbled upon a multi-Tony winning actress's Facebook by accident once.

Easy answer - just don't accept Taz's friend request.

It's not that easy, though. Once the fans know the friend exists, then all the actor's friends have to start blocking their own Facebooks so only friends can see. It places an unnecessary burden on the actors and all their friends and family to protect themselves just because some idiot fans have no concept of what is appropriate.

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"Several Broadway people have hidden accounts that can't be seen by anyone except their friends (and not friends-of-friends). Sutton & Cheyenne are on Facebook, but Cheyenne had to hide when he began recieving barrages of droolingly lurid messages from people he didn't know. "

Some are also on Facebook under pseudonyms, which I think is a clever way to ensure that only people they know can find them.

As for the original question- absolutely not. Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to their own privacy- no should HAVE to put up with anything via Facebook.

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Victor Garber had a very deceptive page that was really thrown together by an slightly stalkery fangurl who made it look like it was run by Garber himself.

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"This happened to me. I was denying friend requests from a performer's fans every single day and when I wouldn't "friend" them they started spreading rumors about my sleeping with another performer. I didn't even know these people and they were talking about me. "

Wow...reading this and the other examples makes me feel MUCH better at my present level of obsessiveness for Billy Elliot...this is just...wow. I dont care how many times you've seen an actor, spoke to them at the SD, etc etc I am a FAN...not a friend!!! All actors really should just set up fan sites(on facebook or blogs) and hide DEEP any personal sites. Otherwise just give up, at a certain point the threads become viral and its impossible for a rational person to read them (Fan or not 200 plus posts on claims of future marriage makes an ice pick to eyes look pretty good). I do eat up personal info IF its being openly given BUT really its a baddd idea, esp. when you get messages "where is that?".

So as a mantra"Im a FAN not a FRIEND" repeat as required(and repeat to friends going over the edge).Too bad this is preaching to the choir.