Autograph Poachers

" This may sound rude and unfair, but please hear me out:

Today I was in London for the Independent British Film Festival, and I arrived 8 hours early, super excited to see both Tom Hiddleston and Cillian Murphy. Now there already a handful of autograph hunters there (People who get celebrities autographs and just sell them for the money) which wasn’t surprising. However, when the event eventually began 8 hours later, events took a turn for the worse.

Now the security at the event… left a lot to be desired so to speak. However, the fans stayed behind the designated barriers to give the celebrities space. But the autograph hunters decided to fuck the barriers, waltz right onto the red carpet, and quite literally mob every single celebrity until they gave them as many autographs as they needed.

This obviously took up a lot of their time, meaning that real fans such as myself weren’t able to get any signatures. I politely asked them to move behind the barriers, as myself and my friends had been waiting for much longer than them (5 hours longer) and so we wanted some autographs too. Their response?

“Oh yeah, you must be pretty gutted right?”

I nodded in reply.

To which the douchebag replied with “Too bad. Your problem.”

Excuse me?

I was fuming. I was so angry. However I comforted myself with the thought that Tom Hiddleston was coming, and he always looked out for his fans.

However, as soon as he turned up, ALL of the autograph hunters (and there was A LOT) swamped him and didn’t let him move at all. I heard Tom say on several occasions “Please move, take a step back, I can’t move around!”

At first he looked pissed, but then he just looked upset.

They wouldn’t stop. They just kept handing him picture after picture, demanding he signed it and refusing to move until he did. This meant that fans such as myself couldn’t get anywhere near him, and so struggled to get an autograph, if anything!

We all chose to keep our distance anyway. He looked incredibly upset, so we didn’t want to upset him any more.

He eventually forced his way through after a good 20 minutes, running into the building. He had a look on his face that almost made my heart split in two.

This also caused such a mess that Cillian Murphy (the one who I was looking forward most to seeing) had to go in the back way, so I never got the opportunity to even see him, let alone get his autograph. I was so upset I was brought nearly to tears.

So please, don’t buy his signature from online stores. They’re quite often obtained through mean, rude and despicable ways.

Thank you for your time. I just don’t want Tom to experience something as horrible as this again. Please signal boost if you can."

source : http://elzahchan.tumblr.com/post/37583236850/please-dont-buy-toms-signature-from-online-stores

other speaking sources, because an image is worth a thousand words ;
http://hiddlesbowlofsoup.tumblr.com/post/37590219587/tom-hiddleston-surrounded-by-autograph-hounds


My Own Personal Thoughts.

The first thing that comes to mind is the heart wreck I feel  upon reading the accounts of this. I feel bad for Tom and I feel bad for the fans with the same equal hurt.

I feel bad for Tom because he is fresh in the industry and genuinely likes the interaction with his fans and is naturally inclined to be generous of his time and is always signing as much autographs and take as much pictures with the fans as his time/schedule allows him. This is the most direct and irrespectful way of ripping him off from that beautiful thing he is building with his fans. The sole idea of selling off those autographs for personal profit makes the whole thing dirty at the same level as prostitution.

I feel bad for the fans because They stand there long hours, they respect their idols and favorite celebrities, they respect the boundaries set for each and everyone's safety and well being, they actually participate in an exchange of appreciation of the other party's service or artifact (in this case the act of signing an autograph). Tom appreciates his loyal devoted fans and the fans appreciate Tom - it's all done in respect of each other and it can be the most wonderful thing with this man!

I feel bad for Tom because this surely has affected him for the evening and will surely break the idealistic image he had of his career as an emerging actor. This stains the whole thrill of being appreciated for his hard work. It's like having a fine dessert in front of him and some random idiot takes out a big chunk; it's just inconsiderate and rude. Ill mannered being too faint of an expression.

I feel bad for the fans because they feel bad for their fave actor. They / and we have compassion and respect for our idols. We feel with them and for them, especially when sad events such as this happen. 

Having a couple thousand horny fan girls can come off as a joke and at the end of the day, most fan girls have enough common sense to respect their idol. (I say most, because there are some among the self proclaimed fans who have no shame in harassing him over tweeter as if he was their best friend, or some, even worse, who have the guts to send him angry tweets because they trusted unverified sources who promised his presence at a location where he was not scheduled to be). Bottom line is, the vast majority would protect this man as they would with their own family! So we don't take it well when others - who on top are Not even his fans - take advantage of him in such a rude and selfish manner!

Autographs, for the record, can be obtained through his agency if someone has the minimum caring decency of sending in a pre-paid postage back - which in the case of these morons wouldn't even cost 1% of the money they'd make selling the said autographed piece. And to me, it lowers the value of the said autograph if it's purchased off e bay or any other online source which is not an honest legit source. This is not import/export goods and antiques from Venice! Autographs by famous people have a very deeply personal connotation to them to the fans and if one would never part from one - one should not loose god knows what exuberant amounts of money - to get one which was obtained as legally as poachers would get an exotic animal on the black market!