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this must be the one you mean.

Now women are saying that now that they know it's a successful ruse, they're going to try it. As Anakin said, he already deals with stalkers and has restraining orders. Didn't you think that it would encourage both the nuts and the benign fans? Do you think it's ok to ring a celebrity's doorbell to satisfy your own desires? We all know how Keanu is harassed by paps everywhere he goes. Doesn't he deserve sanctuary in his own home?

Celebrities are not playthings. They are not at our beck and call at all hours of the day and night. All they owe us is their performance. That's IT.

Heck, I run Sam Rockwell's unofficial official website (which takes a certain level of obsessive fannish devotion), and I still didn't bother to stalk him while I was in NYC, though if I'd seen him around I'd have probably gone to say hi. I was actively stalking Zachary Quinto when I was in NYC, and despairing at how fan reports would for instance show that he was only 5 minutes away from my office just after I'd left for home; so I know from first-hand experience that it's extremely difficult to stalk celebrities even when you try, and even when you know where they live. (I did eventually end up seeing ZQ twice, but those were at official events and I never got to talk to him.)

There's also geography, and timing: Keanu is rarely home, and most fans do not actually live in Los Angeles.

So, in order to do what that fan did, they would have to:

- be an obsessive Keanu fan
- who knows his address
- and wants to meet him
- are in the vicinity of West Hollywood
- have time to go to his house
- have access to a car/bike or are great at walking, because his house is way up in the hills and no public transport goes there
- go to his home at a time when he's actually around (which is nearly impossible to know for sure, since Keanu doesn't exactly spend all day at home).

Chances are if they do manage that, they'd have expounded a great deal of effort and needed a lot of luck to do so, and based on what I know of him I think Keanu wouldn't mind, really, to spend a few moments interacting with a fan who liked him enough to go to all that trouble.

also - so far I know of only one 'fan', Isis, who has a restraining order from Keanu, and that's after her repeated attempts stalking/harassing him, his agent, his manager and his relatives in order to convince Keanu that he's the reincarnation of the Egyptian god Osiris, her past life lover, and that he had to run for the US Presidency in order to save us all from when the aliens attack in 2012 with the alignment of Planet X. Pretty impossible stuff, given that Keanu is Canadian and thus not eligible to be US President. Keanu's publicist Cheryl Maisel later sued her for $1 million for slander after Isis publicly smeared her on her website, alleging that she was a horrible publicist for not doing what was best for Keanu's image.

I know a handful of other Keanu stalkers, but they were no Isis.
No one else is Isis.
...I almost miss her, in an odd twisted way.

And I knew a guy who was actually named Osiris. He was a mess.

No, it's not ok for a fan to ring a celebrity's doorbell. And most fans wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do it even if my life depended on it. well, maybe then. but it's highly unlikely for that to ever happen. But even if the whole population of L.A. decides to go ring his doorbell on a daily basis, he still has the option to not answer, to switch off the intercom, or to put a neon sign on his door telling people to fruck off. It's a two sided interaction, which both sides can choose to avoid if wanted to.

The way I see it, it's less intrusive and dangerous for the celebrity than paps bliding him with flashlights when he's driving or walking down stairs. But I haven't seen many people here taking attitude against that. The candid photos most of us lurve to watch can be more of a privacy, safety and boundaries issue than a few fangurlls fangurlling about a one-of-a-kind encounter.

Just sayin'.

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So Anakin, do you think it's ok for a fan to ring a celebrity's doorbell? Taking photos when you know they're not home is one thing, this went far beyond. What gets me with this is the disrespect for privacy and boundries.

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I don't know if it's a cultural thing, but I'd actually consider the photo-taking I did to be more potentially more disrespectful of privacy and boundaries than the doorbell ringing. I don't see it as a matter of a fan ringing a celebrity's doorbell, but rather a person ringing another person's doorbell. I ring strangers' doorbells all the time for a variety of reasons - the postman accidentally gave me their mail, we have a mutual friend and were supposed to meet there, I got locked out of my house and need to use their phone, seeking donations on behalf of charities, "hey, is this your cat?"

I once went to every floor of two 20-storey apartment blocks ringing strangers' doorbells in order to sell them mooncakes, as part of a fundraising my school band was doing. If people didn't want it, they either wouldn't open the door (that's what peepholes are for), or they'd tell me no, and I'd go away. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong or privacy-intrusive about the simple act of ringing someone's doorbell, whether they be friend or stranger or celebrity or someone who ordered the pizza that you're delivering.

Ringing doorbells is already polite in itself, I think, because you give the person inside the choice to answer. As opposed to, say, peeking through their windows and banging on the door shouting.

Whereas I'd say my photo-taking would be closer to crossing boundaries, because it's not something you just do to anyone's house without asking permission, and is more of a selfish act of trying to capture and keep that little bit of a celebrity; which is why I'm a little less proud of that. I know that, for instance, I'd be much more suspicious of someone who went sneaking around taking photos of other people's houses when they weren't in, vs someone who went around ringing the doorbells of those same houses in the hope they might answer the door and speak to them.

Keanu's house has a security camera, though. He'll be perfectly able to see who's outside his door, and if he doesn't want to be disturbed, he doesn't have to answer it and they can just assume he's not home.

I think they were sponsoring us because someone's parents had connections there, or something. But that was years ago. It's currently the midautumn festival period here, so my family has got lots of mooncakes around, mostly from my father's company's clients. :)

tini4, I hope most fans are like you, too. It's called respect.

ARYA, I personally think the higher road is NOT to ring celebrities doorbells.

Anakin, ringing doorbells for the reasons you cite is normal and expected.

Look, everyone. I stand by what I said. I'm not envisioning hoards of fans lined up to ring his doorbell. But if this encourages anyone to do so, I personally think it's just a bit sick. You can agree with me, or not, that's cool.

Peace out.

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That's a bit of a contradiction isn't it?

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Right, Isis was beyond creepy and I do not miss her. Anyone would find her creepy. You, by contrast, seem cool and pretty ordinary. I can't imagine for a second that anyone (agents? Really? O scary) would read around here and find anything that isn't kindly and benign. Any comparison with someone like Isis is ludicrous.

Luca said

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And what gets me is the envy and bitterness against one fan who dared to do the unthinkable and gasp! got what she was aiming for. And, double gasp! the celebrity actually looked like having fun. outrageous!

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Oh and don't I know that first hand?!

As I *dared* to spend a day on The Whole Truth set while they were filming outside. And was a welcomed guest invited back "sure! Bring your 11 year old." The filming outside was not a closed set, no mob. Just me being nosy. As a hobbyist photographer and a fan, it was fun.

The crew requested that no photos were taken of them filming and I absolutely honored it. Was having too much fun watching them mess with the lighting walls and all, why ruin that by sneaking a photo? For what? To prove it to whom?

When I was able to come back a few days later, they were inside the courthouse and that was a closed set, even the viewing gallery had to be blocked off because it was *too small* inside. Still, lucked out as I was walking my daughter to the front of the building where they had some benches and as we rounded the building KR was standing there, alone, in a suit, smoking. I walked up and introduced m'self and formally introduced my daughter, he shook her hand - she's so used to Mom talking to people she didn't pay attention and then afterwards said she still wanted to meet KR. Then she realized and did an epic facepalm. I love teasing her about it.

The dark side of that is some of the not so nice women around the fandom said so many cruel and ugly things about it and me, even about my daughter. They called me every name you can think of and my crime? Not photographing him. Instead we talked. Not long, about the time it takes to smoke a cig until he got called back onto the set. He was in a good mood, smiling and over all rather cheery.

I would have shared it here sooner [and still refuse to give all details] if it wasn't for the outright bullying I experienced. Being called a liar, stalker, fat, ugly, gameplayer, having people actually say that *I* along with my daughter had to be ESCORTED off set?! and that he was pissed etc was such a huge lie. We were not escorted off set LOL.

He went in to work and we went to lunch at the little diner that was under half a block away. My daughter had this huge seafood lunch and the diner owner and I sat out front and chatted. He's from Lebanon.

I have had exactly the same experience "if you didn't take a picture, it didn't happen." I didn't want to take a picture, didn't have a camera, wouldn't have used it if I had. I was enjoying the moment each time I saw KR at a Dogstar concert. Because of that, my memories are still vivid almost 20 years later.

I was shunned by "fans" who I thought were friends, called a liar, a stalker, the whole thing. It's one of the reasons I avoided "the fandom" for many years. I've come to believe that those people are not really what I consider fans. They are the people who insist that KR is their "soulmate" and are shockingly jealous of anyone else who gets close, who has a good experience. Some of them tried to convince me that he wasn't really nice, that he was faking. You know the look in his eyes, the warmth, the way he looks right into you, but in a nice way.

Those are the people who will rush to say this or that person is "just a fan" if they have had a nice experience. They have also said the same thing about some people in the past (and even now) who were VERY close to KR, people about whom I believe he cares deeply.

I LOVE to hear about people's nice experiences! I am HAPPY for you! and mostly, I want KR to be happy, bless him.
Thanks again!