Mm… Benedict Cumberbatch looks good in these photos, right? Like, he looks somewhat sexy. Like he just stepped out of a shower and threw on a t-shirt and a great cardigan. These are photos of Bendy following a charity appearance last night. The charity? Dramatic Need, and the money raised from the performance will go towards providing arts and education to underserved communities in Africa. Benedict did Children’s Monologues with Nicole Kidman – you can read more about the performance here.
Meanwhile, we saw the trailer for the Sherlock Christmas special a few weeks ago. As we already knew, the special is set in Victorian England, which is how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle intended it. Well, now we know a little bit more about the special. The episode – which is pretty much a Sherlock TV movie, if we’re being honest – is called The Abominable Bride. Huh. It’s also been announced that Americans will get the episode on the same day as the Brits, which is exciting! Usually we Yanks have to wait for the episodes, but the special will air on PBS Masterpiece at 9 pm on New Year’s Day in America. To be fair, the UK will get it hours before America, but this is small progress.
There’s a new extended trailer too – we’re seeing more of the plot in this trailer, including a gun-toting bride going HAM.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
That hair colour is beautiful.. he looks great
He looks very put-together and great.
There is a part of me that misses the old Fox tshirt he wore every other day, though. LOL
Married life definitely improved his wardrobe. He’s quite thin, though. I can’t remember ever seeing his legs so slim.
I have no interest in the Sherlock special. The terrible 3rd season, coupled with the antics of his personal life, just soured me on his acting work. I’ll likely see it at some point, but I’m not waiting for it.
Apparently, the poor man had one of his stalkers arrested (says Daily Mail). So right now I feel for him. Damn loonies.
Yes – his cray cray fans is the only area where he has my sympathies. I have seen in person how intense they are and they scared me.
His super fans are like this weird, stalker collective.
His pr person does not help, there are photos of her greeting and hugging fans that turn up to all his events traveling the world to see him. It just seems there are no boundaries with his professional team at all.
She needs to be fired
I think if there weren’t a dozen hate blogs on tumblr it all wouldn’t appear as sinister. But when you know there are many unstable people out there who hate your wife, it is scary.
Countdown to comments going “No I totally agree it’s awful but still his wife is a real bitch because of x y and z and it’s still not a real marriage but I’m not obsessed AT ALL I’m just gossiping/questioning the PR narrative and anyway he flog their private lives by not hiding his wife and baby in a cupboard somewhere pretending they don’t exist so it’s totally fair game! Notobsessed remember notobsessedatall.”
I think some of the pro-sophie people can be just as scary.
I personally don’t care who he is married to or not. His behavior last year put me off him for good. I’ll enjoy the acting but watch the skeptics and the obsessives go after each other from a distance.
At the end of the day, neither side seems to understand that this weird looking man is not worth the effort.
What PR person hugs his fans? Karon?? I can’t picture that AT ALL.
I was coming here to Celebitchy just for this story! No matter how you feel about him, stalking is weird and creepy.
Excited that for once the US gets something on the same day as the UK.
“For once”? Hahahahahahahaha. The US never lets the rest of the world have its TV until weeks, months, years after it’s been shown there. With respect, you need to get over yourself.
The stalker wasn’t arrested but was served with a Police Information Notice which tells her to stay away. I went to 4 shows of Hamlet and I was amazed at the same people showing as early as 6 for autographs. I never stood a chance, but tried anyway. According to one fan that I met when he did sign he tried to get as many people as possible. She was there every night and got 8 signatures in all. She said that he was very kind to the fans. Another woman from the states got a hotel room near the Barbican and did SD every night. I personally think only people from the play should have been allowed – well alright with that one. And no-i refused to go on an off night. I just hope he gets lots of rest in the 5 days he has off between Hamlet and Dr. Strange. It was a treat to see him person.
Are these “get 8 signatures” people all fans or are there also those who later sell autographs for good money? I remember Eddie Izzard once talking about that phenomena. He refused to sign more than one item for each person because he didn’t want people to rip off his real fans. One autograph is indeed more than enough.
The stalker got outed last night, she’s active in hatedom. Her twitter is extremely disturbing.
The same thing happened at David Tennant’s Richard II, one fan was at stage door at almost every single performance, and even grabbed Tennant’s butt once. And kept giving him gifts even after he told her to stop.
Wait, I’m confused. Who are the haters? I first thought they were people who hate BC, but now it seems like they’re his fans who hate his wife? Who are the sceptics then? Just the ones who doubt the relationship is real but don’t hate her? I thought those two are the same group.
Also, any link on who she was, if she was outed?
Haters are fans who despise his wife and believe the relationship is fake (either that they literally are pretending to be married and passing off a plastic doll as their baby, or that they are married but that he hates her and only married her because she trapped him with her evil magical uterus). Skeptics is their name for themselves. They’re super fans of Cumberbatch but honestly the amount of crap they spout about him, often it does seem like they hate him!
I don’t really want to post a link to the woman’s twitter since she appears to be genuinely mentally unwell.
> first thought they were people who hate BC, but now it seems like they’re his fans who hate his wife? Who are the sceptics then?
“Sceptics” is what the haters call themselves. Yes, they hate his wife mostly. But some of that transfers on BC as well, as he is now doing what they want him to do – dump her.
So, they go on forever how bad and unhappy he looks and his career is failing, and , of course, it is all his wife’s fault. Then they turn around and claim that he doesn’t even live with her. So how is it her fault then? But hate is never logical.
OK, thank you both for clarification. So yeah, they’re one and the same. I kind of prefer the term sceptic only because “Cumberbatch hater” really sounds to me like somebody who hates him, not just his wife.
What? I love Tumblr but sometimes I feel it’s like a black hole sucking life out of everyone.
I get how some people side-eyed him for trying to pretend his engagement was not shotgun (I did!), but hate his wife? Stalk him at HOME? Some people have no boundaries, at all.
From what I can tell, some of those fans who were overly invested in him turned ‘hater’ after he got engaged. They say they are ‘skeptical’ of everything he does now because he ‘lied’ to them in the past. Still can’t figure out the lie.
Some of the other fans who were overly invested in him are now overly invested in Sophie. Something I don’t find fault with, because being overly invested in a positive way happens a lot and its usually benign. And remember, Sophie’s only ‘crime’ is that she married Benedict and had his real life baby.
It is hard to tell them apart because both groups will attend more than one performance and/or be at stage door multiple times. Long before Sophie came forward as his fiance, the overly invested fans were stalking his house, so we can strike stalking from the list. Both have been known to contact his family, friends and staff, so strike that as well. Both groups have their issues with boundaries. So what is that? Like the fourth thing they have in common?
The easiest way to tell them apart is that the sceptics will almost always be negative. Her dress having pockets was a crime against humanity. One sent a tweet that was just the word, LIE written over and over.
She got them on different nights. She was going to give them as gifts. A friend of hers was there trying to get a book signed for charity. They seemed nice-just lots to do in London besides sitting near a stage door.
Wow. I like him a lot, but I can’t see myself doing SD more than once. I’m not even sure I’d do SD at all, if I had to wait like that. I just don’t get the appeal of “meeting” him amidst screams, pushes, flashes, etc. It’s not like you really get a chance to connect and even exchange a few meaningful words. A generic selfie is just not worth hours of waiting in my world. I guess I’m a bad fan. 🙁
Now, when I was 16, it was a whole different story. So, perhaps just too old to be a “good” fan? However, the narrative seems to be that the craziest fans are middle-aged women? That I don’t get.
According to the “skeptics” he invented the entire stalker police drama as a PR stunt. Because lying about the police is such a brilliant idea.
Smh.
On the other side of the fence, it’s all the ‘haters’ collective fault because apparently no other famous person has ever had any stalkerish behaviour from fans apart from BC and the ‘Haters’.
They’re total psychos who stalk and encouraging stalking, what do you expect?
The one doesn’t necessarily exclude the other. Yeah, stalking isn’t uncommon, buy yeah, the crap the skeptics talk about on their sites and the level of virulent hatred aimed at his wife, right down to the denial of the legality of their marriage and the denial of the existence of his baby son, beggars anything I’ve ever seen in fan circles.
Yeah, because the cupcake lady is some kind of high mental standard. Seriously, the crazies are on both sides and for the strangest looking man ever. What the what?
Who or what is cupcake lady? They all sound bonkers.
That woman who threw an unwanted party for him at the last night of Frankenstein? Was she a “hater”? Those people who share his adress online and have rented rooms/hotels/houses near or on his street when they went to see Hamlet 10 times? Are they “haters”? Those people who show up unannounced at his publicist’s place of work to give presents? Are they “haters”?
Face it, Cumberbatch has his share of crazy fans with no boundaries without bringing in people who talk shit about him and his wife online. Gossiping and speculating are NOT the same as stalking.
The woman who tried to rent a place on his street is very publicly a skeptic, yes. The only people I’ve seen talking about checking out his house or knowing his home address have been skeptics.
Going to see a public theatre performance, or dropping something off at an agency office, is not remotely stalking. it’s disturbing that you’d compare the two.
@ Fluff, then there’s more than one person who have rented places near him.
Cumberbatch have openly talked about how he finds it creepy, seeing the same faces at every red carpet, stage door, every event he does. Even if it’s a public event and they’ve paid to be there. But these fans don’t care about his personal comfort; they just want more bits of him, more to post on tumblr/twitter, more to show off how they’re the number one fans.
And bringing presents to his agency is just part of a certain part of his fandom’s attempts at insinuating themselves into his life. It looks innocent at the surface but I don’t think it’s appropriate. It’s a fucking office where people work for a living, not a place where you can go on your Cumberbatch tour of London to breathe the same air as his publicist.
Of course, it’s not stalking. But it’s a hell of a lot closer than calling his wife a terrible theatre director and saying he looks old.
Honestly anyone who stalks or gets upset over what a total stranger does in their private lives is disturbing. I just have a hard time taking all these “oh but what about those awful nans!!” comments at face value. Especially as there are regular CB commenters who have posted about stuff they’ve seen on Sophie’s friend’s private IG like it’s a totally normal thing to even know about.
Clearly some of the Tumblr ‘skeptics’ post here. And for all that the skeptics scream about terrible stalkerish nans, I’ve never actually seen any evidence of that (considering how much they bang on about sockgate, if there was any evidence, we’d know about it). Whereas there is a lot of evidence that skeptics engage in real life stalking, cyberstalking both of Ben and his family, criminal behaviour, and encourage stalking. They flat out say “Ben sells his family for PR so we as customers have a right to do this.”
So I’m sorry, maybe you’re not one of them. But I am deeply skeptical whenever anyone tries to claim the nans are stalkers for attending a theatre performance, while the skeptics are just people going “oh she’s a bad director.”
@ fluff, I’m not about to defend or explain away any of those things you’ve listed.
I just wanted to point out that the Cumberbatch fandom didn’t only consist of innocent little bah lambs who merely appreciated him for his *art* before the horrible, horrible “haters” turned up and started going through his personal life.
There’s a definite lack of boundaries on both sides of that particular war.
When I think about it, I’d say the majority of both sceptics and nannies are usually normal fans, just with different opinions, but I’d imagine extreme sceptics would be crazier than extreme nannies – speaking in general, not necessarily individually, because I’ve seen his IMDB and there’s one nanny there that I think is bat**it crazy and worse than any sceptic I’ve ever seen.
Anyway, here’s why I think that: when the PR-stunt rumours began, some believed them and some didn’t, but it takes a really overinvested fan to cling to that as some sort of hope that her darling didn’t really marry somebody else than her. Everybody else eventually moved on, nannies being happy and overprotective and other sceptics shrugging it off as “his loss”, but these people want to still have a chance with him and just won’t accept the reality.
Anyways, this is all amateur psychology, obviously. But I’ve seen loads of crazy fandoms growing up in the 80s and 90s and it’s interesting to talk to people about it when they grow out of it. Myself included.
@bread- I agree- the fans who attend every event he is present at (charity functions, the Sherlock convention, setlock, red carpets, etc), go to see Hamlet 6+ times and even more times at stage door, who draw pictures of him and take them for him to sign, who go to James Rhodes concerts just because he is friends with BC and he MIGHT be there- to me that’s scarier than a person on a blog coming up with conspiracy theories that ultimately won’t affect BC at all.
@Phoebe,
Some of those people with the conspiracy theories have threatened to jump up on stage and slap him. Yet another spoke of wanting to punch Sophie when she attended Hamlet and saw that Sophie was there. Still others have said that the real reason their son wasn’t shown off like Simba was because he was disabled and Benedict was ashamed of him. Or he wasn’t shown off because Benedict hadn’t purchased him yet. They even put forth the conspiracy that his birth was delayed because of medical issues. So no, I don’t think those who make up conspiracies are less scary.
@delorb,
I’ve been following 1 very prominent skeptic blog pretty much since day 3 of its creation, and I had never once heard anything about disabled son, BC being ashamed, etc.
It’s actually possible to be a long-time skeptic (of certain things, such as the raison d’être of their marriage), and not go off the deep end. The fact that you found the craziest skeptic blogs amidst many measured ones says something about you as well, IMO.
seriously, lol? that’s like…really stupid.
Some of them go to far. There was a Fan, supposedly a fan, who drink out of he glass after he put it down. What’s up with that? Seriously. And the girls that followed him around in the middle of filming? That’s a bit much. Not to mention it was rude and cost money.
Well one reason they’re doing that is because they know they’re going to get the blame for feeding the hysteria around him. And second, given that they have suggested that if the baby’s birth registration duly appears (and they’ve got people looking for it), it will only be because he and Sophie are either casually committing government fraud by lying about a birth to the civil authorities because there is no baby, OR, and I quote one of them, “Ben went out and bought a baby” – yup, a sub rosa adoption for which not a single shred of legal evidence can be found.
So insisting that he invented the stalker police drama as a PR stunt would be small potatoes.
Most of the hate blogs are ignoring the story altogether. The big stories at the moment are “Ben wasn’t smiling while doing an event about and for impoverished African children which proves he’s clinically depressed over his fake marriage” and eight billion bad things about some opera his wife directed (either she’s lying about having directed it since one site didn’t have a crew list, or she didn’t do anything since everyone knows operas don’t need directors as it’s just a bit of singing, or she’s a terrible director since she left after the performance, or her being back at work so soon proves there’s no baby, or her being back at work so soon proves she’s a terrible mother, or the haters’ kids could all do better than that, or…”
I love how many of you people who find these blogs ridiculous and think the people who have them are crazy, psycho lunatics clearly are read them religiously and know every detail of what they post. Why don’t you just stop obsessively reading them so you can come on other websites to talk about how crazy they are?
Word, I haven’t even heard of half of these theories.
I sometimes go to Tom Hiddleston’s IMDb, but can’t with the luv character. She posts rants and pages about he is gay because he wears scarves. And it’s not limited to one thread on the subject, but is everywhere. Then she makes fun of fangirls while simultaneously posting every single thing on the internet about him to that board. But somehow she doesn’t see herself as a fangirl. I think she’s definitely one.
I follow their blogs because they sent me abusive emails and stalked me after I sent some tweets about a work event my company was involved in, that Sophie Hunter was also involved in. Before that I barely knew who Benedict Cumberbatch was and certainly didn’t know about the existence of ‘skeptics’ and ‘nannies.’ If people are harassing me and trying to destroy my career for literally nothing more than having once breathed the same air as their crush’s wife, I have every right to try to find out why. And to try to give them a taste of their own medicine.
Because it’s fun? Some people goggle at Big Brother or Keeping up with the Kardashians. I goggle at the skeptics. How many people used to read fandom_wank religiously? No different.
Sounds just like TOBY!! I just don’t understand why a person would regularly read something that you disagree with just so you can be mad about it and rage at strangers on the internet. Just don’t read it! I disagree with 101% of what is said on Fox News so, guess what, I never watch Fox News.
> I just don’t understand why a person would regularly read something that you disagree with just so you can be mad about it and rage at strangers on the internet
I scroll through Cumberbatch tag on tumblr and I see that crazy stuff. I don’t follow or go and seek any of them.
And I don’t know how much is out there untagged. What I see is enough.
And it is usually stuff like – BC looks so unhappy, he should man up and deal with it ( i.e. confess that his marriage is fake or that Harvy Weinstein forced him to marry for Oscars etc. etc. ) I tell you, these people are delusional and it is hard not to notice them.
Phoebe: a) it’s amusing.
b) The skeptics go out of their way to seek out, stalk and harass anyone with even the most tangential connection to Ben or Sophie. Even people who tweet sightings of them. Is it any surprise those people then become curious to know why?
I know one person on Tumblr who’s working on Tipping the Velvet and after she made a post about Lyndsey Turner she got loads of unsolicited ask messages from skeptics, not even asking questions, just stuff like “ugh so sick of the shamwow poor Lyndsey” like someone who’s not even a Ben fan is supposed to have the slightest clue what that even refers to?
What we should agree on is that there are certainly two ends of the spectrum- there are the very extreme Ben lovers — who, btw, also go out of their way to attack people for tweeting his location or sneaky pics because they feel like his “protectors” or that they know best what he wouldn’t want online. Often after someone posts that they saw him- that account is suddenly deleted or private- and it’s not because of a skeptic, it’s the “protectors” yelling at that person about his privacy.
The other end of the spectrum are the extreme skeptics who think the past year of his life is all fake for PR and who look for hidden messages to prove their point in nearly everything he does. The two extremes of any argument are often the most vocal and the easiest to mock.
Phoebe you are flat out lying. When I tweeted about seeing Ben and Sophie the ONLY people who contacted or harassed or stalked me were skeptics. I’ve since talked to two other people who were in the same position, again, ONLY skeptics.
LOl- it happened to 3 people (supposedly anyway- you could be lying to prove your point) so therefore I am lying? So they said to you “hi, I’m a skeptic and I’m going to begin “stalking” you now.” I said “often” not “every time”, that’s not a lie.
I read them because I find some of it hilarious. Well not the stuff about his child. Children should be off limits. I then will take their idiocy and mock them. I also have a morbid(?) curiosity to see how long they’ll go with their hate. Its already been a year. So how much longer, I wonder?
He isn’g aging well. His face has the exaggerated look of a cartoon. Lord, what is all the fuss about on those loony blogs??!!
God knows. I think they identify with Sherlock – misunderstood autistic genius who doesn’t need to play by society’s rules because he’s so brilliant. Being not conventionally attractive probably means they felt they had more of a chance with him, hence the outrage at him getting married.
“Being not conventionally attractive probably means they felt they had more of a chance with him, hence the outrage at him getting married.”
I must admit: that’s one I never thought of!!! +100!
I’m currently working on a Study about the Fandoms Extreme Behaviors.
Cumberbatch ‘s is a very special and intriguing one
I have to thank you Benn for one of the most useful tip I found out so far about the possible reasons for such a frenzy aroud this man .
It’s both simple and full of implications , I’m gonna work with it , again thank you .
he’s very thin rn
yeah those people are just a mess apparently 🙂
Attractive in a non threatening way, just like Tom Hiddleston.
Well I hope it will be better than the last series.
Sooooo, it looks like Dr. Strange is going to have curls? I wonder what color.
I also read in the news that Sherlock Special will be shown in movie theaters in China, and Australia (?).
What about the US, will it be on BBC America, anyone knows?
PBS
Yes, I saw it now in the article too )) . PBS at 9 PM. Thank you.
It’ll be shown in cinemas in the US as well as PBS.
The trailer looks meh to me. I’d rather see more modern-Lock instead of this.
Yeah, I’m not holding my breath. Honestly, I thought the first trailer was a parody… was disappointed when I was corrected LOL
Same here. Doesn’t have the same oomph to me without the usual… And I want to know what’s up with Moriarty, so it’s somewhat annoying to watch an episode that doesn’t deal with it.
Not only is the Sherlock special premiering the same day as in the UK, but it’s also coming to cinemas:
http://www.ew.com/article/2015/10/26/sherlock-theaters
I don’t need to pay money to watch it on a bigger screen than home, but I hope we see more of the good writing from the first two seasons. I remain skeptical.
I know lots of people loved the third season, but I’m with you. Hope that they go back to the quality of the first 2. The third one was just a false note all around to me. Too much humanizing Sherlock all at once? Change is good, but an about face in 1 episode is too much.
Series 3, episode 1 was the worst. To me, it seemed that Cumby’s celebrity was informing the writing of the show and they were either mocking or pandering to the fans. The other two episodes were better, but I agree that the Sherlock’s humanization was too much, too soon.
Re: crazies, I actually remember posters who claim sanity now calling this guy’s wife a bitch and yelling at “nannies”. Cumberbatch could have made a successful cult leader.
Yes, and there are still “skeptics” posting here. They are easily recognized by their “code” words like the one posting below – about avant-garde.
They just had to tone it down after all their predictions turned out to be false.
The thing is, they haven’t toned it down. If anything, they’ve ramped up the libel with stories of Ben being hooked on cocaine by Sophie, who’s apparently a heroin addicted prostitute. The baby isn’t real, it’s a doll, there was no marriage or christening, Ben is breaking his mothers heart, etc. They’ve actually accused both of them of fraud, bribery and theft! And they seem to think its all in good fun, isn’t hurting anyone, and all the “nannies” should just stay in their own lanes. I can’t figure out if they’re delusional or just trolls. It’s very disturbing behavior, gets people worked up, and probably has contributed to this stalking incident.
The ‘stay in your own lane’ is hilarious considering they go out of their way to involve other people, even people who barely knew who Ben is! And then they get shocked when they discover that flooding complete strangers with emails talking about “shamwow” results in said strangers getting VERY interested in the senders…
Creepy red ribbon?
Probably it will be ‘Avant-garde Art’ by his very successful Theater director-Actress-Singer-Artist wife.
He looks hot but unhappy.
Actually the “haters” that are mentioned are those ‘nanny’ beyotches that have their heads in their butts, and pretend everything is alright in Benedict Land—when it’s not. These people have 1) Rocked up at Barbican’s stage door every night for their eight (and counting) freaking autograph, 2) Given gifts to him–which I hope he never sees or laughs at their stupidty OR 3) Makes stupid drawings or cupcakes of all his characters.
Benedict himself has gone through way too many changes as of late and not good ones–he used to be fun and dorky–now he looks sullen at times, haggard, too thin, almost sickly. This started November 5th, and has gotten worse after February 14th. Only one person caused this when she rocked up and put his balls in a vice.
Fantastic spoof! You’ve really nailed what they sound like.
The paranoia is a nice touch touch. The skeptics are just nannies in disguise posting crap to make skeptics look bad. This seems to the theme lately.
Nobody actually forced him to marry her, you know? He did that willingly. He chose HER. He could have easily coparent their son and not get married.
People need to get over this, his fans are not his carer, his doctor, his parent, etc.
@Cee-I don’t think for a minute that he wouldn’t marry her when she got pregnant. The LFF just still seems off. Regardless, they are married, have a son, and are busy leading very busy lives in the stark spotlight of a lot of over invested fans and unkind publicity. You couldn’t pay me enough to go through that. And he looks tired and crappy? A. He’s expending at least 3000 calories a night in Hamlet and he’s doing other gigs/meetings, and B. he has a newborn at home. Remember the report of the night when he refused to sign autographs because of the flashes? The 8 autograph person told me that he came out the next night and apologized saying that he had been up all night with the baby and had a headache. The guy is just not getting enough rest!
whatever they want to call themselves “haters” and “nannies” alike both groups are utterly pathetic in all honesty.
I love the discussion of ‘nannies’ vs ‘sceptics’ and which group is crazier. In my opinion the entire BC fan base, at least the really invested fans, are all fuc***g insane! Both end of the spectrum are insane. His wife didn’t bring the crazies out they’re now just a bit more obvious but they’ve been there since the beginning and they’re not going away any time soon. I honestly feel bad for the guy for being stuck with them.
Whose saying is this ( ?) – there is only one step from love to hate.
That is about every over-invested fan out there.
But I would say for me skeptics are the worst, because they actually wishing for bad things to happen. The so-called nannies are just wishing for the pink ponies, fluffy rainbows, and happily ever after. No harm from them, as long as they respect his privacy. If they don’t , then they also need to be told what is off limits in no uncertain terms.
Oh, I don’t know. I think nannies can be just as bad to the skeptics so they can “protect” their idol.
I’ve heard stories where they published skeptics private information, have contacted places like the theater to warn them of the dangers of these skeptics. It’s not their job to do this. Celebs hire people to help protect them. The actions these nannies did was actually against the law. So…..to say they are the worst and the nannies don’t really do anything wrong is to not paint the story correctly.
I’ve no dog in the hunt and seeing how crazy this fandom is has made me back away from it. Trying to figure out what was going on with BC/SH in the beginning was supposed to be fun gossip (still vote for shotgun wedding), but to carry on after all this time from both sides is kinda pathetic.
> I’ve heard stories where they published skeptics private information, have contacted places like the theater to warn them of the dangers of these skeptics.
I only remember one being outed by someone – a 50-something woman from Seattle . Yeah, it was wrong and that blog that outed her was taken off tumblr.
But I am not a saint, and I don’t feel sorry for her at all. If you run a hate blog, being outed is the least you can expect. Even more likely is being contacted by police at some point. How these people don’t understand they are ruining their lives over it, I don’t know.
And more importantly those hate blogs promote hate and turn some unstable people to hate with their conspiracies. That is where their true crime is.
Agreed. I can deal with Unicorns and Rainbows, its stuff I can ignore, but the weird shit from the Uber Skeptics is just beyond comprehension. Theres one on Twitter right now who has tweeted everyone Ben knows it seems about trying to save Ben from this “forced” marriage. There are Uber Skeptics out there who dont have tumblr pages but read everything on them and very much take them to heart. I remember the one who had a meltdown on Tumblr because the marriage that wasnt supposed to ever take place, happened. It got picked up by Cosmo, people even asked her if she was making a parady post, it was that bad.
I’m deeply skeptical of the anti-nanny claims, because the haters have a proven history of faking claims against the nannies, and of accusing anyone (even people who don’t even know who Ben is) of being nans. Like when they accused the ‘nannies’ of doxxing the propmaker who tried to rent a room on Ben’s street who accosted one of Ben’s co-stars on the train. Actually she’d already outed herself by linking her blog to her public twitter (on her blog it even says “I outed myself) and she wrote about her experience ‘befriending’ the co-star on the very same blog she used to spread hate and lies about Ben’s family.
Literally anyone who’s ever worked with or said anything nice about Sophie, they accuse of being either a nanny or a PR plant. So I take “oh it’s all the evil nans – even when it’s a huge longterm skeptic, it’s obviously a nan playing a long game by pretending to make skeptics look bad” with a bucket of salt. Personally I’ve never seen any evidence that ‘nannies’ exist.
There are the overly invested fans (some of whom are nannies and others who are sceptics) and then there are the fans who don’t belong to either group. It chaps that I am lumped in with either.
I’m neither a sceptic or a nanny. I want to see all the photographs whether they were taken with his knowledge or not. I want to read the tweets sent by his neighbor. I think everything should be on the table for discussion. I do NOT need some gatekeeper determining what I should or shouldn’t see. He’s a grown man who can deal with negative press and/or photos. I will defend him if I think its warranted (Oscar) or disagree when I think he’s put his foot in his mouth (Egypt).
I also don’t mind a bit of gossip, HOWEVER, what the sceptics are doing isn’t gossip. They aren’t telling any ‘truths’. They don’t have any insider information from anyone. Its just a group of butt-hurt fans who are bullying Benedict’s wife.
@Fluff-fyi (I’m almost embarrassed to reveal this – I admit it I’m hooked on Tumblr) but sock gate was very real. I know because I read the entry from one of the people involved. It was around Parades End and he apparently wore said socks to a screening with Susanna White.
What the hell was sock gate?
Ditto – what is sockgate? I know some fans (“nannies”) once delivered a present of some socks to his agents office, and it apparently is a big deal. I don’t know more than that. I mean, I’ve worked for talent agencies for quite a few years off and on and that’s pretty common (as the agency is nearly always the official fanmail address) but I don’t know what else went on with it or why they’d give an actor socks? David Tennant got given loads of presents over the years, some of which he appreciated and kept, some of which got tossed. But no one ever thought it was weird or stalkery. Unless the gift itself was inappropriate or delivered to his home address.
@Chuck @Fluff-it was some fans who got together and gave Ben a bunch of fancy socks. Don’t remember where-think it might have been a venue. Big write up on the head’s site at the time and whenever he wore them for a while afterwards. TBH I thought it was cute at the time but started to get a little old when the blogger appointed herself Ben’s biggest fan and protector.
I’m not seeing how that’s bad or stalkery? Certainly not in the same league as the crazy illegal stuff the skeptics have done.
I genuinely feel bad for the celebs that have to deal with these unhinged people. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but again: something needs to be done about this. I know you can’t prevent everything, and censorship isn’t ever the right answer, but these people are clearly a nuisance and potentially dangerous. There have always been the celeb obsessed, but the internet changed the game and now the people even vaguely related to the celeb are being targeted. Blogs and rants are whatever; they can be avoided but this has gone beyond that. I don’t have any good ideas. Ok, sure what they do is technically against the service agreement or whatever but that doesn’t do jack to stop anything.
In BC’s case; well, it’s fair to say he didn’t help himself at all. Like AT ALL and someone should have stepped in a long time ago. Not saying he deserves any of this though, just saying it could have been handled a heck of a lot better.
What did he do wrong, tho? He’s the victim here, and since I doubt he actually invited anyone to his home, he shouldn’t be blamed for this. Being nice to fans or getting married fast because he knocked somebody up is still miles away from justifying this response. Again, he is the victim here. There’s no “he didn’t help himself” or “could have been handled a lot better”.
I agree with the rest of your post. Likeminded people with extreme views come together and support each other’s fantasies and thrive on hate (or overprotecting, obsessed “love”), and only listen to each other’s opinions, not allowing anybody else’s, thus creating a whole new reality. The one they think they have the right to “fix”.
I think some people wanted or expected legal action to be taken or at least a letter or some ting to some of these skeptics. But the reality is a lot of celebs won’t do anything because an kind of engaging with these people would encourage more of their behaviour. It would make some think they have a connection to him and a way to get him to contact them.
Legal actions for slandering or for stalking?
I don’t think actors can do a lot about former if it comes from fans on the internet. I also think they shouldn’t address silly rumours because then they’ll have to do it every single time or the fans will go “must be true, he didn’t deny it like he did last time” and others won’t believe him anyways. Just ignore the loonies.
As for latter, he did contact the authorities.
I disagree to an extent; he is responsible for what comes out of his mouth and how he conducts himself at events and he didn’t do a great job during the melt down era, IMO. No he is not responsible for the reaction of the crazies, but he and his people didn’t seem to do a thing to stop the bleeding once it started. This has been discussed ad nauseum though.
It’s not so much that the celebs themselves should try to have it stopped-in fact that would backfire big time (see Chris Evans’ mom) but people in general that should stop this kind of thing. Like there shouldn’t be an environment- online or otherwise-that can get people on the periphery of a celeb harassed. I guess maybe the host sites need to police themselves better? Society as a whole should start taking their online actions more seriously? People should be taught better? More consequences for bad online behavior? All of the above? I don’t know. Like I said, I don’t have any good ideas. I was talking more in a societal sense; the net has been around long enough that the totally naive part me thinks people should be over the novelty of hating on someone autonomously; and the rational side is wondering why there aren’t more consequences in place yet. This is not a new discussion but the technology evolves while the protection from it doesn’t.
@Invadertak; what do you supposed he and his people should have done to ‘stop the bleeding’?
Looking forward to TAB, but the news has been (for me) overshadowed by Bowie’s new album coming out a week later. That is infinitely more important news. I’ve a feeling Mr C. feels the same way, as he is a fan.
Also, I bet (remember I said it here first) BC and wife will be seen in NY when Lazarus opens.
Anyway, Victorian Sherlock is fab, but I would have preferred a continuation of the story in modern times. This feels to much like a Doctor Who special.