Lucy Mapstone, MSN Celebrity Editor

The Darker Side of Celebrity

We all love celebrities. It’s in our nature to respect them from afar and admire their talent and beauty. However, some people take admiration a little too far, and things sometimes end badly for our famous counterparts...

It must be great being famous. Being a celebrity has got to be the ultimate dream, right? The success, the adoration, the freebies, the champagne-fuelled parties… However, as amazing as living in the limelight can be, there is a darker side to a lifestyle that encourages people to follow your every move. A large number of celebrities fall prey to those sinister stalker-types, obsessed fans and sometimes psychotic criminals. It seems that nobody is safe in the land of the rich and famous.

The latest celebrity to find out how crazy some people can be is our very own songstress, Leona Lewis. Lewis was recently punched in the head by a 29-year-old man at a book signing, and suffered both mentally and physically after the attack. The man has been identified as Peter Kowalczyk, an X Factor reject from a previous series. He, like Lewis, had queued up to audition for the reality TV show, but had failed to get anywhere. Jealous of her success, he waited in line to meet her, and then punched her ruthlessly in the face at the Piccadilly Circus branch of Waterstone’s on October 14. Kowalczyk has since been sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

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Danielle Lloyd, WAG, glamour girl and reality TV star, has also paid the price for her fame. It was reported in The Sun that she almost lost her leg in May 2009 after an unprovoked attack in a nightclub from two females resulted in her falling onto a table of glasses. Her calf was severely damaged, and the scene was described by witnesses as a “bloodbath”. There is still no way of knowing why the unknown clubbers attacked the former Miss England champ, but it’s believed they were motivated by jealousy.

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It’s not just physical assaults that need to worry celebrities. Hannah Montana actress Miley Cyrus had to endure the sinister antics of an obsessed stalker. The young star was being stalked by 53-year-old Mark McLeod for quite some time in 2009. He had claimed they were in a relationship and that she had accepted his offer of marriage. The story took a disturbing turn when he showed up at two of her film sets on two separate occasions. He was promptly arrested both times, much to the relief of the 16-year-old and her family.

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Janet Jackson has also been a victim of a crazy stalker. Robert Gardner had apparently been stalking the pop star for nine years, when she was finally granted a restraining order in 2005. He claimed he was just a fan of hers, but Jackson said otherwise – apparently he had often been threatening and once even turned up with a knife to a TV studio where she was working. Gardner believed that he and Jackson were in a relationship, and he even reportedly turned up at the trial of her brother, Michael, in 2004.

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Catherine Zeta-Jones (Image © PA Photos)

Catherine Zeta-Jones was famously stalked by a woman who claimed to be in love with her husband, Michael Douglas. Dawnette Knight, (ironically) a trainee child psychologist, apparently wanted to get Zeta-Jones out of the picture so she could be with Douglas, and sent many threatening letters to her, one of them claiming she would “cut Zeta-Jones into little pieces and feed her to the dogs”. Yikes. In 2005 Knight was sentenced to three years in jail, meaning the Hollywood couple could sleep soundly at night again. Zeta-Jones wrote a letter to her stalker, saying: "You have profoundly affected me in how I conduct my life. Your actions will be with me for the rest of my life. I will be constantly observing, looking over my shoulder.” It makes you wonder if it’s worth being famous.

Find out more about Catherine and her stalker with Bing

One of the most unbelievable stalker stories is that of Jodie Foster and her long-term follower, John Hinckley, who went so far as to try to murder President Reagan to impress her. He became obsessed with the young actress back in the 70s when she played a child prostitute in the film Taxi Driver. When she went to Yale University, he even moved nearby for a short time to pursue her closely. He wrote her poems and letters and would post them under the door of her room. Unsurprisingly, he has been in psychiatric care ever since.

Find out more about Jodie and her stalker with Bing

Many of our favourite celebrities have had to deal with a stalker at some point in their lives. However, one of the darkest tales of celebrity is that of the unexpected murder of John Lennon. Mark Chapman, a fan of Lennon’s, infamously shot the Beatle several times outside his New York apartment on December 8, 1980. Possibly the most sinister part of the story is that Chapman had only spoken to Lennon a few hours earlier, and asked for the singer’s autograph. After shooting the star, Chapman sat down and read a book until the police arrived and arrested him. He was said to be delusional, and was jailed for 20 years to life. Fans are still mourning the death of Lennon, almost three decades later.

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Of course, being famous and revered is a wonderful thing, but if these poor celebs are anything to go by, maybe it’s better just to be a relative unknown. Is it really worth risking your sanity, health and sometimes even your life to be famous?

Is it worth risking it to be famous? Discuss your thoughts here.

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