twilightdew wrote:The issue of actor privacy is something that has come up on a fan forum (not Moonlight related) that I help run as well. While we haven't had the issue of pap photos come up (fortunately!) a question about an actor's love life quickly escalated into some very hurtful, negative gossip about the actor's possible girlfriend. Despite some member protest, the owner and I decided to remove the content and make those type of discussions strictly off-limits. In our particular situation, the snowball effect that occurred afterwards is what steered things into a really bad place.
I personally don't really care for pap photos because I know that it bothers the actors. Yeah, I know that is supposed to be "the price of fame" but I think there gets to be a point where it is really is a matter of respect. I know I hate people staring at me while I'm eating tacos or picking out tampons - I can't imagine it being posted up on YouTube or analyzed on Twitter. It seems that celebrities often get to a point where they have to accept it to some extent just to keep their sanity but it definitely bugs them at times, some more than others. One of my relatives works where she runs into a number of celebrities. She tells me that she can basically tell right away by their body language how they wanted to be treated. It seems that majority wanted to be treated and talked to as you would everyone else. But there are those in the more extreme areas. She has a set of celebrities that she sees occasionally and it is all business. They just want to be left alone and don't want to engage in general chit-chat. I suppose they get so hounded all of the time that they just want to "be." (Then again, maybe they are just snooty and would be like that regardless of their celebrity status.) And there are a few that like being treated like celebrities and enjoy signing autographs, even years after being in the spotlight.
To the admin/mods:
I just want you all to know that I admire you and applaud the work do here.
I used to do contract computer work for our state's main theatre and theatre company. Through that I was exposed to a fair few high profile local, and national Australian artists. Your relative is right, you can usually tell when to approach, and when not to. There were times when I had to go backstage during rehearsals, or go into the actors dressing rooms (I always knocked first, or checked their schedule), or I would see them in a director's office, to give some examples. Obviously during these times the most I ever said was 'please excuse me, I'm here to work on the computers, would you like me to come back at a more convenient time' (or words to that effect). Most of the time they were like 'Nah, you're right' or 'Sure, no problem, but can you please just keep any noise to a minimum'. Even if you saw an actor sitting in the green room eating lunch, or having a snack, or even just sitting there by themselves, it still wasn't a-okay to go up to them. They could have been running lines through their head, going over a scene they'd just rehearsed, reviewing a performance they'd just given. The ones where you knew it was okay to speak to them, that they were on downtime and were just basically chilling, you still didn't go up to them and start gushing and asking for autographs. It was more like (brief conversation) - "Saw your performance last night, really enjoyed" - "Thanks". To be honest I spent the first day at work walking around a little star struck and the rest of the time, because you saw them going about their daily work life so much, it was just like "Hey look, an actor, oh hey there's Jo Bloggs who works in accounting', they were just there to do a job same as the rest of us. It wasn't a big deal after that.
And ditto to what else you said.
