Consumer Guide for Today's Media

The life of a celebrity has its perks – money, fame, and power, just to name a few – but it also has its pitfalls. Just ask Uma Thurman, who testified in Manhattan State Supreme Court yesterday against her accused stalker Jack Jordan.

In November 2005, Thurman was shooting a movie in downtown New York City when Jordan “approached her trailer on the set and requested to see her,” People reports. Jordan was stopped by Thurman’s assistant, who promised to deliver a card he had made for her.

The card – “bearing a picture of an open grave and a man standing on the edge of a razor blade” – left Thurman “completely freaked out. It was like a nightmare. It was scary,” she said.

The card also contained the message “my hands should be on your body at all times.”

Scarier still, when Thurman let her family know about the card she received, her father told her that he had gotten E-mails from Jordan, who had also attempted to contact Thurman’s mother and brother.

“I felt a stone drop in my stomach,” she said. “The idea that this had a history made it even more terrifying.”

Thurman is not alone in her terror – this month, pop star Deborah Gibson filed a restraining order against her own stalker, Bassas Jorge Puigdollers, who continually showed up at Gibson’s hotel and house and who prompted Gibson to file a restraining order after he knocked on her door.

“That was crossing a line, so that was really scary,” Gibson said. “I am a single female, so I reacted like anyone would and called 911. I’m very good at reacting calmly in the moment, but then I fall apart later.”

Perhaps one of the most famous celebrity stalker cases involved My Sister Sam star Rebecca Schaeffer, who was stalked and later shot and killed by a fanatic fan, Robert Bardo, in 1989. Coincidentally and creepily, posters of Schaeffer as well as Gibson patterned the walls in his bedroom.

“I was very young at the time, but it was scary, because I realized that whether you live or die can come down to security,” Gibson said. “This woman answered her door and was killed. From then, I’ve always had good security. I can’t let it slow me down.”

Celebrities need not only watch out for the paparazzi’s pursuits but also the chase of crazed admirers and followers who can be deceiving, dodgy, and dangerous. Though celebrity life has its benefits and though fame carries with it bonuses, it is the utter lack of privacy and constant need of protection that makes recognition maddening and makes its downfalls worthy of our attention.