Buzz
Fame often becomes a magnet for obsession. When a person’s name is plastered across the globe, it begins to entangle itself in the lives of complete strangers—even those they’d prefer to never meet.
Every celebrity has admirers who cross the line. Thousands of individuals sit alone, nurturing delusional fantasies about someone they’ve seen on screen. And when these unstable fans leave their homes to confront their idols in person, it can evolve into a real-life nightmare that’s stranger and more horrifying than anything seen on film.
10. The Mime Who Haunted Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage has a tendency to attract the oddest individuals. While working on the film Bringing Out the Dead, he revealed that he was stalked by a person dressed as a French mime. No matter where Cage went, the mime would trail behind, watch him, and engage in what Cage described as 'bizarre behavior.'
Security managed to remove the mime before any harm was done, but Cage's run-ins with strange individuals didn’t end there. A few years later, he awoke at 2:00 AM to find a man wearing only a leather jacket standing above his bed, slowly licking a Fudgsicle while staring at Cage as he slept.
Frightened about what could happen next, Cage confronted the intruder and quickly realized he was dealing with someone deeply unwell. The actor managed to calm the man down and used what he called 'verbal judo' to convince the intruder to leave peacefully.
Cage reflected on the bizarre encounters, saying, 'I know it sounds funny, but it was terrifying.'
9. The Woman Who Believed Eddie Vedder Was Jesus
A woman once crashed her car into the wall of Eddie Vedder’s house. This wasn’t some random accident. She was speeding at 80 kilometers per hour (50 mph), intent on killing him, and Vedder knew exactly who she was.
For months before the crash, Vedder had been receiving disturbing letters from her. The messages were a chaotic mix of accusations. She was convinced Vedder was the father of her children, and that he had violently raped her and impregnated her twice. She also believed Vedder was Jesus, even writing in one letter, 'Jesus rapes.'
Vedder had tried to disregard her until she made it impossible by driving her car into his house. The crash nearly killed the stalker, who ended up in prison. But Vedder was left deeply shaken. For years after, he had his record label foot the bill for 24-hour security and became reclusive, constantly fearful of the people who adored him.
8. The Priest Who Stalked Conan O’Brien
In 2006, Conan O’Brien received his first letter from Father David Ajemian. This was just the beginning of a long series, with each letter essentially repeating the same message: Ajemian claimed to have a special message for O’Brien that only he would understand. Each letter was signed, 'Your priest stalker.'
At first, the letters were simply unsettling, a few eerie notes. But when O’Brien didn’t respond, Ajemian’s tone grew more hostile. One letter read, 'You owe me big-time, pal,' though he never explained why he felt entitled to anything from O’Brien. 'I want a public confession before I even consider giving you absolution.'
The letters then turned menacing. One letter saw Ajemian compare himself to Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech shooter. In another, he ominously warned O’Brien: 'Frank Costello once dodged a bullet in your building, and so can you.'
Before long, it wasn’t just letters. O’Brien’s parents answered a knock at their door to find Ajemian standing on their porch. For some time, he bombarded them with questions about their son. He didn’t physically harm them, but he made it clear that he was willing to harm Conan.
Ajemian was apprehended in New York, just as he was attempting to sneak into a taping of O’Brien’s show. He was arrested just a few feet away from his intended target.
7. The Woman Who Tried to Shave Hugh Jackman
Katherine Thurston was obsessed with Hugh Jackman. 'I want to marry him,' she would say, despite never having met him and Jackman already being married. This didn’t faze Thurston, who argued, 'It’s not illegal to have two wives.'
Thurston had one major issue with Jackman, however: his beard. She felt he looked much better without it, and his decision to wear stubble infuriated her.
She waited for him outside his gym and followed him inside. When he noticed her, she was clutching an electric razor. It was covered in filth—her own pubic hairs were still caught in the blades—and she had a wild, disturbed expression on her face.
'We’re going to get married, right?' Thurston asked. Without waiting for a response, she lunged at him with the razor, attempting to shave the hair off his face.
A personal trainer intervened, pulling her off and preventing her from causing harm until the police arrived. When they did, Thurston showed no remorse. She justified her actions by telling them, 'I hated him having those whiskers!'
6. Sean Penn And The Night Stalker
In 1987, Sean Penn found himself behind bars after a string of reckless and violent actions, including punching an extra in the head and getting caught driving erratically. Soon, he was spending 60 days in jail, sharing a cell with some unexpected company.
One of his cellmates was Richard Ramirez, the infamous 'Night Stalker' and convicted serial killer responsible for 13 murders. Ramirez was intrigued by the idea of having a celebrity in his vicinity, and he managed to convince a deputy to pass Penn a letter.
The letter itself seemed harmless at first. Ramirez’s brief note read, 'Hey, Sean, stay tough and hit them again.' However, beneath the message, he had scrawled '666,' drawn a pentagram, and sketched a devilish figure. It was unsettling. But the most chilling part for Penn was the fact that Ramirez seemed to believe they shared some sort of bond.
Penn responded with an angry letter of his own, firmly stating that he felt 'no kinship' with the murderer. 'I hope gas descends upon you before sanity does,' he wrote. 'It would be a kinder way out.'
Despite his fury, Penn kept the letter. He took it with him when he left jail, brought it home, and never parted with it.
5. The Uber Driver Who Tried to Kidnap Kevin Smith’s Daughter
Harley Quinn Smith, the 16-year-old daughter of Kevin Smith, was waiting for her Uber outside a coffee shop when a Jeep pulled up in front of her, displaying an Uber sticker on the window. Inside the vehicle were two men, who gruffly ordered, 'Get in.'
Something about the men immediately raised alarms for the young girl, and she hesitated. She asked them who they were picking up, but the men remained silent. She then requested to see the Uber app on their phone, but they had no app.
'Just get in the car,' one of the men growled. As Smith hesitated further, another car pulled up, again with an Uber sticker visible. The driver announced that he was there to pick up Harley Quinn Smith.
The Jeep sped off and vanished, and Smith quickly realized that they weren’t actually Uber drivers. They were predators, intent on kidnapping Kevin Smith’s daughter.
4. The Woman Obsessed With Dilbert’s Scott Adams
'I see that my Canadian stalker is back in full force,' Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams wrote on his website in 2010, frustrated by the persistent comments a woman had been leaving on his site.
The woman was Christina Lane. For seven years, she had been living under the delusion that Dilbert was a comic strip containing hidden messages meant to torment her. She believed that Adams had been sexually harassing her, bugging her phone, and sending thugs to harass her. Moreover, she thought that every strip in his comic about office life was filled with secret, threatening messages designed just to bother her.
But she didn’t limit her obsession to leaving comments on his website. Christina Lane maintained her own blog, where she claimed that Bill Gates and Scott Adams were secretly the same person and were behind all spam emails.
At times, however, her delusions turned from bizarre to dangerous. She insisted that Scott Adams had assaulted her, and she would relentlessly call his syndicate and publishers, attempting to convince them of her version of events.
3. The Fan Club President Who Killed Selena
Yolanda Saldivar was the president of the Selena Fan Club. She had an unhealthy obsession with the ’90s pop sensation and transformed her home into a shrine, covered in countless photographs of Selena.
Unlike many obsessed fans, Saldivar had the rare chance to form a real relationship with the object of her obsession. Selena not only allowed Saldivar to run her official fan club but also made her the manager of her boutique, Selena Etc. For Saldivar, it was the ultimate fan’s fantasy—Selena knew her by name, trusted her, and even considered her a friend.
However, Saldivar had been embezzling money from Selena's boutique, and when Selena discovered the theft, it led to a devastating confrontation. Selena confronted Saldivar at a Days Inn hotel in Corpus Christi and told her she was being fired.
In an attempt to prevent Selena from leaving her, Saldivar first claimed she had been raped, hoping to gain sympathy. But when the lie unraveled, Saldivar became desperate. In a panic, she pulled out a gun from her bag and shot Selena.
Selena tried to escape, but Saldivar chased her down. Though Selena made it to the hotel lobby, she collapsed before reaching safety. She did not survive.
When the police arrived, they found Saldivar in a distraught state. They had to convince her to lower the gun that she was aiming at her own head, as she seemed ready to end her life rather than live in a world without Selena.
2. The Fan Who Killed Rebecca Schaeffer
In 1989, Rebecca Schaeffer, best known for her role on the popular show My Sister Sam, encountered a stalker who would ultimately take her life. Unlike other victims, she did not survive the harrowing ordeal.
The man responsible for Schaeffer’s death was Robert Bardo, a schizophrenic recluse who had transformed his bedroom into a shrine in her honor. He spent countless hours in a room plastered with photographs of the actress, obsessively watching tapes of her TV appearances.
Bardo’s admiration turned to disgust after he saw Schaeffer perform a love scene in the film Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills. In his deranged mind, this was a betrayal. He now saw Schaeffer as just “another Hollywood whore.”
Bardo tracked down Schaeffer's address using the DMV and showed up at her door uninvited. He presented her with an autographed letter and tried to talk his way inside, but his presence made her uneasy. Feeling uncomfortable, she shut the door on him, instructing him never to return.
A few days later, Bardo returned, this time concealing a gun in a brown paper bag. Schaeffer attempted to close the door once more, but she was too slow. Bardo shot her in the chest, ending her life.
When the police questioned him about the murder, Bardo explained, 'I have an obsession with the unobtainable. I have to eliminate that I cannot attain.'
1. The Man Who Thought Sandra Bullock Was His Wife
In the summer of 2014, Sandra Bullock discovered a strange man in her home. He had bypassed her security systems and made his way inside. Now, he was pounding on her bedroom door, yelling that she had nothing to fear because he was her husband.
This man was Joshua Corbett, a schizophrenic individual who had convinced himself that he was the secret father of Sandra Bullock’s son. He had been sending her letter after letter, declaring things like, 'You are my wife by law, the law of God, and belong to me.'
Some of the letters took a darker tone. In one, Corbett wrote, 'I’ve waited and waited and you never come. Perhaps this is all supposed to happen some other way.' This message came shortly before he broke into her home.
When the police arrived and took Corbett away, he believed it was all a misunderstanding. 'Sandy, I’m sorry!' he shouted at the actress, convinced that it was just a lovers’ quarrel gone too far. 'Please don’t press charges.'
Had Bullock not called the police, things could have turned far more dangerous. Upon investigating Corbett’s belongings, the police found a stash of 24 firearms, including machine guns, assault rifles, and homemade explosives.
Corbett had intentions of carrying out his plans. Authorities found a notebook in his home where he had written out his disturbing scheme: to break into Sandra Bullock’s house and commit an act of violent assault.
