This past week a statement by pop institution Madonna helped put away one of her newest stalkers, Polish citizen Grzegorz Matlok, who broke into Madge's London home and the residence of her ex-hubby Guy Ritchie. Madonna submitted the statement to Southwark Crown Court officials detailing the terror of Matlok's intrusions.
A few weeks back, we shared some stories from other Rocks Offers about their moments with their favorite musicians. Some were funny, sad, and some altogether creepy, like the time The Cure's Robert Smith played with a random girl's hair.
Of course all of your stories ended when the bands left town and you didn't try to cut a lock of hair off the lead singer's head, or move to his or her hometown and get a job at the Starbucks down the street in hopes that they would come into your shop. That's what stalkers do.
Stalkers are a part of the deal rock and pop stars make we assume to be world famous and lusted for. It's not really fair to them or even their families, but it's a sad reality. Having someone lurking around your house and property sucks enough even as a normal person with no name recognition, so we can only imagine what famous people go through. Even gates and bodyguards can't fix the intrusion.
George Harrison: Harrison dealt with two stalkers in the last years of his life. The first, Cristin Keleher, broke into his Maui mansion and cooked herself a pizza. Weeks later a deranged man attacked Harrison and his wife Olivia at their British home. The former Beatle and his wife subdued the man but not before being injured themselves.
John Lennon: Before Lennon was shot by Mark David Chapman in December 1980, he had been dealing with stalkers for almost two decades. This clip from Imagine shows Lennon confronting, and then feeding, a guy who was lurking around his home.
Shania Twain: The country superstar recently testified by video link in the court case against her stalker, Giovanni Palumbo, who showed up at one of her houses, the funeral of her grandmother, and the Canadian Juno awards, where he was arrested. Apparently none of his advances "impressed her much."
Danzig: You would think the Tiny Evil Elvis would be immune to stalkers, but on Halloween night 2005, Danzig and his bodyguard found a man on Danzig's property with a backpack full of hardcore porn magazines. That's cool and super-weird anyway, until the men discovered that the stalker had replaced the faces on both the men and women with Danzig's mug.
Britney Spears: Miss Spears has been famous since childhood, and hot since 1998, so it's odd that she only had a handful of stalkers so far. Miranda Tozier-Robbins was found in April 2009 decked out in camo fatigues looking Spears' home working on a "documentary" about the singer. Another one was mailing her letters and other threatening material, and in 2003 a Japanese man named Masahiko Shizawa sued Spears for emotional distress for not accepting his imaginary advances.
Lady Gaga: In late 2010, Russian student Anastasia Obukhova wrote a letter to Mama Monster saying "You come to my dreams. I want to die and I want to die together with you. "I am not Mark Chapman. It is not only you who will die. I will shoot a bullet through my head too." Obviously Gaga got a restraining order soon after Obukhova attempted to make it to the backstage area of one of her shows.
