Last night, Liam Payne of One Direction fired off a flurry of tweets about his distaste for New York City. I felt bad for the guy at first because boy banders receive so much attention that it must feel unbearable at times. Then reality hit, and I realized how difficult it would be to pick out this guy in a lineup (that isn’t One Direction themselves). Liam’s the guy in the middle of this photo ^^^. He’s one of the forgotten members of the band with blonde Niall Horan also representing on the left. Everyone knows who Zayn (the deserter), Louis (the impregnator), and Harry (the hair) are, but not the other two guys.
Perhaps the hardcore fans of One Direction would recognize Liam. That’s what Liam says. He always feels “chased and cornered like an animal” in the Big Apple. He ranted a bit about the paparazzi, and then things got weird:
Why is it that in New York people think it's ok to swear and shout horrible things at you in the street…
— Liam (@Real_Liam_Payne) August 4, 2015
Just because u don't feel like taking a picture because there's paparazzi chasing you and you want to get your family and friends home safe
— Liam (@Real_Liam_Payne) August 4, 2015
One time id like to be able to see New York without being followed chased and cornered like an animal until other people get what they want
— Liam (@Real_Liam_Payne) August 4, 2015
I wish I was Harry potter
— Liam (@Real_Liam_Payne) August 4, 2015
I guess Liam wants to be Harry Potter so he can conjure up a magical spell to take him far, far away. There’s more background to this story, perhaps. Liam had some kind of run-in with security at the Empire State Building in 2012.
This seemingly mean tweet is the last shred of evidence of a tweet-tantrum Liam threw in 2012. Liam had a terrible time at the Empire State Building because he felt security was “arrogant, unprofessional and extremely disrespectful to my family.” No one knows what happened during the incident, but it sounds like the Empire State Building wasn’t afraid to burn boy-band bridges.
Photos courtesy of WENN
Enjoy your 15 min you little twit ……
He actually has been enjoying his “15 minutes” for years. lol
NOT buying this. New Yorkers don’t care. They leave celebrities alone – UNLESS the celebrity is already making a big fuss, with an entourage etc. Cornered like an animal? He wishes.
Well adult NYCers don’t care for the most part…sadly his fan base is full of tweens that have ZERO respect for boundaries. I’ve had to escort a celeb with a tween base before for a major event in NYC and it was awful.
The citizens might not care but there might be more than enough tourists who do, especially if the people in question are teenagers.
The blond one is apparently also on Twitter asking not to be chased and to be left alone today.
@ Linn – yep. TONS of teen tourists in the summer. Would steer clear of NYC crowds right now if I were them.
Random side note – I live in Chicago and went out on Saturday to a club called Rockit and we were seated at the table across from them. They had a small crowd around them, but were not barraged by psycho fans lol (prob bc their fan base is too young for the club scene lol) and of course they exited out the back.. glad they dont hate Chi like they do NYC. That sucks.
@ WinnieCoopersMom, apparently they are recording their album in Chicago, like flying out there after their concerts and spending their days off, because it’s centrally located and people are so (comparatively) disinterested in them there. As a former Chicagoan who still feels the love for the Windy City in my bones, it makes me happy to see how “cool, disaffected” New York is all gaga for 1D apparently and Chicago is the one that doesn’t give a crap 😉
You are so right Belle Epoch,
I am a born and bred New Yorker and I could care less. 😉
Being a grown up means I wouldn’t recognize any of these twee boys at any time…. But then I wasn’t into boy bands even as a teen. I always preferred men to boys, and one of the things separating the two is not just age, but how they gracefully handle fame (or not).
I don’t think Niall is forgotten at all. I heard on the radio that he’s the #1 crush of them all when they did a big survey on the boys. Liam used to be pushed as the star, from what I see in early videos. He’s always been a vocal lead. I don’t think there’s a “forgotten one.” They all have their little sections vying for them within their fan base. There pretty different on personality, personal lives/choices etc.
It seems as if almost everyone in that group is a complete mess. He needs to stop complaining.
they haven’t gotten into real trouble though. I’ve always heard they were all reall nice.
They’re burning out lmao
this guy is like on the bottom in terms of the looks departments. honestly i don’t even get how he became a member of a “boy band”. he looks like a middle aged man.
Oh please, he looks perfectly fine. Not my type but hardly “on the bottom in terms of the looks departement”. No need to be so overdramatic.
When they stareted, he was much thinner, cuter and had bieber hair. Now he has turned into a middle-aged dad, that’s true.
He was just voted 3rd sexiest man in England….so no! He is actually a really nice guy and very handsome (bod is fantastic!) and just not used to being treated like a number probably. He is only 21 and has been on the road with the group since he was 16 so give him some leeway at least.
Must be hard up for choice in England these days.
No offense to anybody, but YES to this! I don’t understand the bad haircuts and skinny jeans on men over here.
Voted by whom? And where? Probably some Internet poll with their teen fans wearing their fingers to the bone voting over and over again.
Counting down the days until they go on a “break”…. gotta happen by the end of the year.
Then stay your sorry a..s out of the big Apple. I wouldn’t know him if he stood on my foot. Most New Yorkers (grown people) try to pretend they haven’t actually seen you and def will say what they feel. I have seen them telling off sports stars who lost a game while still walking and eating a slice of pizza.
Why would you do that though? Not only is it extremely rude, but there are a whole host of factors that go into winning or losing a game.
I never got why New Yorkers feel they’re entitled to be overly rude and abrasive.
I always found people in NYC so unnecessarily aggressive and rude… Like, shouting at people on the street for no reason. I’m not generalising to a full population, just my experience having visited a number of times. I always thought it’s just the experience of living in such a crowded city that made everyone so narky. Who knows?!?
You must not know a lot of New Yorkers if that’s the impression that you get. Having lived here my whole life, I find New Yorkers to be direct but polite. You’re not going to get fake cheer and smiles, but they’ll give you directions, apologize for running into you, give up their seat for people who need it, etc. Yes, there are outliers but those outliers don’t characterize the whole at all.
As for Liam, most of NYC probably doesn’t give a crap about him. It’s his fans and paparazzi who know his routine. If he wants from alone time, he should probably venture out far beyond his luxury hotel and the paparazzi friendly restaurants he goes to downtown. I guarantee if he hit Brooklyn, Queens, uptown Manhattan, etc, everyone would give him his privacy. If Angelina Jolie can get her privacy at the Central Park Zoo (I was there and no one bothered her at all except to smile or wave), if Jake G. Can get his on the subway, I don’t see why Liam couldn’t.
@LB, I didn’t say I knew a lot of New Yorkers, I said it was my experience of that city. I also said I wasn’t generalising to the entire population of NYC.
I’ve been to New York a couple of times, but only as a tourist. Found the same: people generally rude, distracted, rushed, lacking in a sense of community spirit.
But you know, I’m originally from London. People (tourists, both domestic and foreign) say the same about Londoners. And, since I do know, I can say Londoners aren’t really like that.
Isn’t it just the way of big cities? Life is more rushed and pressured in them. If outsiders ever got to see inside the actual lives of New Yorkers and Londoners, they’d find they’re just the same as everyone else. First/superficial impressions don’t really reflect the whole. Dig below the surface and you’ll find the real New York. Like London, the real New York is probably largely invisible to visitors.
(The opinions of silly boybanders don’t really interest me).
I lived in New York for three years, and I found both things. I stopped saying “excuse me” when I bumped into people, because you’re bumping into people every ten seconds. If you say “excuse me” people think you want to ask them a question, and they look at you oddly when you keep walking. But if you need something – directions, recommendations, help carrying something – most New Yorkers will stop and do everything they can to help. Politely and efficiently. In fact, I never had anyone refuse to help me. Sometimes their desire for everything to happen instantly makes them seem rude. I was taking too long to decide in the line of a deli once, and the guy yelled at me “come on blondie, hurry it up!” But he was right – there were 40 people behind me and I was holding up the line. So yes, they can seem rude, but by and large I found them to be nice underneath.
@GNAT – “come on blondie, hurry it up!” Dying laughing from picturing this! I love people who are direct, but this is just hilarious! They’ve got sandwiches to buy, girl! Hurry up and make a decision! 🙂
Lol, AcidRock, I think it’s funny now, but I was really shy then and I must have turned purple. He was right, though!
Haha, I’m sure I would’ve wanted the floor to open up beneath me as well. But man, that is like the most stereotypical NY thing I’ve read – shouting at a lady to hurry up so everyone else can get their food 🙂
So you say that New Yorkers really treat celebrities in the way he claimed? Because he did complain about being sweared at, you know, the thing you just proudly told us New Yorkers apparently do to sport stars.
Ok he seems like a twit but I can imagine teenage fans can be pretty insane. Who knows how I would have reacted at 14 if I saw Jordan of NKOTB walking down the street?
I wouldn’t recognize him if he wore a huge name tag, but I don’t blame him for being annoyed with being chased by fans once in a while.
A certain amount of recognition and fan interaction is a part of the job, but some fans really don’t seem know the boundaries or care about how rude and creepy they are.
If he truly was rude/feeling entitled to special treatment at the ESB than shame on him. If it’s true that the security was rude to his family than shame on them. Anyway, it’s a bit weird to bring up that year old tweet now.
Most New Yorkers wouldn’t know or care who he was. If he’s getting harassed it’s by creepy little 1D fans.
The thing that enrages me is the lack of punctuation in those tweets. I hate that. Same with all sorts of text messaging. Anyway, this isn’t the first time he’s gone off on Twitter. The only two who keep it together on social media are Niall and Harry.
Also, I found the staff – including security – at the ESB to be very nice and helpful. Even when we went up there a second time at night and they thought the ridiculous glow-in-the-dark-glitter-pen I had bought at their gift shop earlier was some sort of explosive device. We laughed, it was all good.
Also, Louis should totally change his Twitter name to The Impregnator.
To this date Louis has never said a word as to whether he is going to be a father-all from management and her family who appear to be in cahoots. In fact a day or two BEFORE the announcement of the baby a babydoll was tossed up on stage and ended up with Louis and he looked at it and tossed it back into the crowd saying to the crowd: It’s not real! It. Is. Not. Real! Looking back I’m believing he was telling the fans in advance what was coming up from management. Don’t know why this is working this way other than the old adage there is no bad publicity but there you are.
Sure. It’s a stunt. If you say so. I really don’t care that much and we’ll find out soon. I’m always confounded when fans are so damn sure that something is real/true or not. If it’s a stunt, it’s a dumb one.
Lol. 1D has the biggest collection of tinhatting fans on the planet. Every little thing is evidence of “Management” manipulation to those loons. Louis was clearly just saying that the doll, a fairly realistic one, is not a real baby and therefore ok for him to throw back. Its stupid onstage banter. Had he thrown back a toy dog he would have used the same phrasing. It means nothing. Also, ofcourse he isnt commenting directly about the baby. Nothing kills the boyband illusion quicker than a member going on about his impending baby. Also, I think even he knows by now that he would go into a murderous rage if he had to put up with silly girls tweeting him about his kid so its best to just stay away.
I realize there will probably be another line in the sand moved and another excuse about how it’s not real, but i’ll try anyway.
You do know Louis confirmed on live tv today (during Good Morning America) that he’s going to be a father, right?
Except he talked about it today on GMA. 😉
Larries are the most ridiculous tinhats, not because of what they believe, but because of how huge a movement it is like, you at least know that those baby SweetPea folks are small in number. I can’t believe how huge Larry is! It’s honestly fascinating if disturbing.
Louis just confirmed that he’s going to be a father on national TV.
I agree about the punctuation, and isn’t the POINT of Twitter that you’re supposed to say what you have to say in a certain number of words? Now people just ignore that and put out Tweet after Tweet of long messages.
Yes, I especially hate this. People write entire diatribes and follow each blurb with (con’td) or (1 of 17). It’s like, just use your frickin 140 characters to say what you need to say, then shut up! If you can’t make your point in so many words, a tweet isn’t the ideal way to communicate it.
I hate NY, too. But for totally different reasons.
It’s not as much about fast travelling to far away places (and it wasn’t really done with spells) as the fact that Harry Potter owned an invisibility cloak and even though he was pretty much the most famous person in the wizarding world, he could go everywhere unnoticed under it. That’s the only part of this story I cared about. He seems to be a major douche.
The Empire State twit was awesome. “No, our security does not know who you are, and does not care”, lol!
I swear, ESB is the sassiest of the tall buildings. Although, Willis (Sears) Tower can throw down pretty well too.
No one else thinks it’s odd that an American account spelled it “behaviour” though? LOL, that’s all I got out of that tweet.
I feel that 1 D’s time is almost up. But I don’t want them to be over. I don’t want them to be replaced by that boyband from Australia. I’m willing to put up with this British boys’ antics for several more years.
There’s a new boy band coming up? Jesus.
Yeah 5 Seconds of Summer. *rolls eyes*
For the people complaining about new york if you don’t like it don’t come.
ID has become my daughters new favorite group, she is 6. So since she asks me a billion questions about them I have started to follow their social media feeds. Holy Shitballs the stuff that the girls post on their twitter accounts. Crazy. I remember how crazy I was 30 years ago as a teenager and think what would we have been like if social media existed. It really is a whole new level of crazy. Girls get suspended for excessive tweets, some will tweet 400-500 tweets a day to the guys. I can’t even imagine.
I get it this time. Yesterday was apparently pretty extreme. He was physically chased down the street by a bunch of people just so they could swear and yell at him when he wouldn’t stop for pictures.
I certainly get being gracious to fans- but there’s a limit to everything. Good Lord, that pic yesterday of some young woman trying to take a pic of herself and a clearly annoyed Matt Damon together was nuts. Face it, a boy band’s fan base is very young and very obsessive. Still no excuse for insulting the celeb when he or she doesn’t do what you want them to!
To all the people who are saying “no one in New York cares about these twats,” you must either not live in New York or follow One Direction. And that’s fine if you don’t, but then don’t speak with such authority on these subjects.
When Harry stayed at the SoHo House, the sidewalk on that block was shut down with fans. BOTH TIMES. I know when the boys are in town (as they are now), I should avoid the Meatpacking and Midtown since that’s where they usually stay/shop and the fans will block the entire street. Fans have hoarded around restaurants, hotels, stores, bars, etc in all parts of Manhattan and Williamsburg for all members of the band. YOU might not care, but they’ve got fans who will go to the ends of the earth to get a selfie with them. So, no, Liam is not acting a fool right now. He just wants to be able to live his life.
What a few fans do shouldn’t be a reflection on all of nyc. The majority of new yorkers don’t not care about these guys.
In a city of 8.5 million, you’re hardly going to get a majority of anything. Heck, we can’t get even half to show up for a mayoral election. The point is: a lot of people care who he is, he’s constantly swarmed by fans and in NYC, it’s particularly bad. That’s what his tweets were about. He’s not followed by 5 or 10 fans. Literally hundreds, if not thousands, are physically surrounding around him at all times in NYC. And that’s just he fans. The paparazzi are another nightmare. Id be exhausted too if I were him. He’s not acting like a twat, just like a guy who’s tired.
@FingerBinger +1 I live in NY and I couldn’t pick these guys out of a crowd if my life depended on it and they’ve certainly never disrupted my day. I’d say that probably goes for most New Yorkers. If he has a problem he should direct it towards his fans who hound him.
It doesn’t make sense to me that people seem to doubt that the members of 1D are hounded constantly just because they’ve never personally witnessed these guys being hounded. It’s not like Liam is showing up to the lobby of your apartment building or office. He may not be where you are, but trust when he says that wherever HE is, he’s constantly stalked by fans – boyband fans are batsh*t insane, and it doesn’t surprise me that 1D fans in NYC may be crazier than they are anywhere else. I’ve been to NYC and no one was even a little bit rude to me the entire time I was there, but NYC more than any other city has a reputation of people being abrasive and aggressive. I do not doubt him when he’s saying that people are cursing and shouting at him, which has got to be pretty jarring, celebrity or not. I realize people are taking this as him dissing the city, but if he feels more hunted in NYC than in any other city, I don’t see why he’s not allowed to make that observation.
NYC is bigger than the Meatpacking District and Midtown. It’s bigger than downtown. Heck, it’s bigger than Manhattan. There are plenty of places he can go for privacy. He’s making a choice by staying in the areas you mentioned – it’s trendy, it’s hip, whatever. Then bitching about the consequences of that choice (and attributing it to New Yorkers in general, when it’s really just crazy fans).
I’ve seen plenty of bigger celebrities who blend in because they choose to and because for the most part, actual city residents (not the fans he and you are talking about) don’t bother them (they have their own lives to worry about). I’ve eaten at the same cafe as Harry Potter, ridden on the N train across from Jake Gyllenhaal, ran into Angelina Jolie at the zoo, encountered Ryan Gosling and Tom Hanks (on two separate occasions) on my way out of the subway. All without security or paparazzi chasing them; all in areas where the paparazzi are barely around.
I don’t feel sorry for him.
I think you underestimate the capability of 1D fans to find out exactly where the members of 1D are at all times, especially in this age of social media. If one fan spots a One Directioner having breakfast in deserted cafe down a remote street, she’ll tweet about it, and within 20 minutes I guarantee there will be a crowd of tweens gathered outside freaking the fck out. From there, the day is shot – wherever he goes he will be followed by a gaggle of fans constantly tweeting his whereabouts as they tail him around the city. Fans are not going to stay in the trendy spots waiting for 1D to show up – they will go ANYWHERE at ANY TIME, so it doesn’t matter whether 1D is staying at the W, or if they’re holed up in some motel in Jersey. I doubt it’s complete privacy that they are asking for – they know by now that will never happen as long as they are this big of a group. But asking people not to shout curses at them, not to grab their arms and yank them back as they try to get a selfie – I really don’t think that’s too much to ask for.
I’m not sure why New Yorkers are taking his tweets so personally in this thread – he clearly doesn’t mean that he’s being mobbed by investment bankers and construction guys while they’re on their way to work. It’s crazy ass 1D fans that are making NYC a crappy experience for him and he has every right to tell them to treat him with respect. Like I said above, New Yorkers have a reputation, whether deserved or not, of being aggressive and abrasive, and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if those traits were magnified in NYC 1D fans.
Liam is a nice guy and really don’t understand all the hatred thrown his way by commenters. Unless you are a ID fan then you have no idea how these boys are hounded everywhere they go.
I wish I were Harry Potter.
Zayne dumped Perrie! Zerrie no more! The end is nigh.
I want to be Hermione Granger ( a lot better magician than Harry) , make some spell and fly away! Neverland/middle earth or Narnia, hera I come!
🙂
How interesting that these tweets seem to actually be directed at his fans, as I would assume those are the people following them around all day. I can see how of course that would be really annoying but also biting the hand that feeds you.
I would think he’d be more concerned about the fans not swarming them…
This isn’t the first time they’ve talked about New York being difficult for them. I think Harry said once that it was awful because the paparazzi there were so aggressively rude (unlike London) and there was no easy way to get away (like in LA).
1D also has insane stalker fans that work hand in hand with the paps and track their every movements on twitters and follow them everywhere. Most of the girls who chase them around there have actually met them loads of times they just keep doing it. And because 1D’s image is ride or die for their fans, they really don’t say anything bad to them, just deal with it. There’s a video I saw once of a girl stalking Harry to a parking garbage and crying hysterically when he just waves at them, then screaming at him that he’s a monster until he came back out and apologized and took a picture with her. She’d already met him multiple times too? I don’t get how anyone thinks that’s appropriate. But anyway, even tho they wouldn’t be anything without their fans, I really do feel for them, because they are so patient and interactive with people who are so dehumanizing to them.
Have you seen the video of the guy driving the car with his daughter hanging out the sun roof and he’s chasing the ID car? He actually bumps other cars out of the way so his daughter can get up close to the band. I wouldn’t blame any of them for walking away from this insanity.
I’ve heard about it but I couldn’t bring myself to watch it because just hearing about it made me anxious and mad! Even when I was a tween/teenager and ~so in love~ with Leo and the BSB I wouldn’t have dreamt of stalking them. And I can’t even imagine the rationale of the adults who do it! Josh Hutchinson told a story once about a teenage girl and her mom who drove like seven hours to his parents house and knocked on the door. they thought he might be home (and he was) because it was THANKSGIVING. How does an adult decide that’s an okay thing to do??
Until the impregnator impregnated someone, I couldn’t have picked him out of a lineup either. I only knew The Hair (Taylor Swift’s ex) and That Honestly-Hot One (Zayn).