# Celebrity uses a pseudonym at a hotel
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-uses-a-pseudonym-at-a-hotel/494117
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 23, 2009, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-uses-a-pseudonym-at-a-hotel/494117 "2009-04-23T17:24:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2009, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-uses-a-pseudonym-at-a-hotel/494117/1 "2009-04-23T17:24:03Z")
There’s a word for when a celebrity adopts a pseudonym when he or she is staying at a hotel out of town. Anybody remember what it is?
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### Author:  [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-uses-a-pseudonym-at-a-hotel/494117/2 "2009-04-23T17:36:08Z")
Incognito?
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### Author:  [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2009, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-uses-a-pseudonym-at-a-hotel/494117/3 "2009-04-23T17:49:10Z")
Pseemourbuttzism?
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### Author:  [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-uses-a-pseudonym-at-a-hotel/494117/4 "2009-04-23T18:26:15Z")
I recently heard on some … documentary, perhaps, or an interview, or a panel show, where one celebrity mentioned a name, and the other celebrity said, “Oh, that’s your _xxxxxx_?”
It was a common word, like “that’s your second?” or “that’s your other?” but I can’t remember what it was.
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### Author:  [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-uses-a-pseudonym-at-a-hotel/494117/5 "2009-04-23T18:48:58Z")
At the risk of being obvious (and wrong), could it have been “alias”? If not that, maybe “handle”?
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### Author:  [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-uses-a-pseudonym-at-a-hotel/494117/6 "2009-04-23T18:59:40Z")
a related question: How is this done legally?
When do you cross the line from “A celebrity using a pseudonym” to “a person with fake id”?
Does such a celebrity have credit cards in the name of his “handle”? And if so, does he have a driver’s license in a fake name, too? How about a passport?
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### Author:  [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2009, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-uses-a-pseudonym-at-a-hotel/494117/7 "2009-04-23T19:05:12Z")
> [@chappachula](#):
>
> a related question: How is this done legally?
The hotel knows who the celebrity is but agrees to help protect their identity by allowing a false name to be used.
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### Author:  [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2009, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-uses-a-pseudonym-at-a-hotel/494117/8 "2009-04-23T19:24:55Z")
> [@An\_Arky](#):
>
> At the risk of being obvious (and wrong), could it have been “alias”? If not that, maybe “handle”?
I don’t remember it being either one of those. Damn it, I can’t even remember where I heard it.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-uses-a-pseudonym-at-a-hotel/494117/9 "2009-04-23T19:30:28Z")
Attention whore?
Okay, probably not the word you’re looking for. But seriously, is anyone supposed to believe that when Johnny Depp checks into a hotel using the name Mr Donkey Penis (true story) he’s doing it to keep a low profile?
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### Author:  [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-uses-a-pseudonym-at-a-hotel/494117/10 "2009-04-23T19:35:49Z")
Nom de Room?
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### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2009, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-uses-a-pseudonym-at-a-hotel/494117/11 "2009-04-23T19:37:20Z")
Not nom de guerre?
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### Author:  [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-uses-a-pseudonym-at-a-hotel/494117/12 "2009-04-23T19:38:30Z")
Neither of those; it was a simple English word. I think I’d have remembered it if it were French or Latin.
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### Author:  [@Wiltshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wiltshire)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2009, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-uses-a-pseudonym-at-a-hotel/494117/13 "2009-04-23T19:42:14Z")
Travelling name?
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### Author:  [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2009, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-uses-a-pseudonym-at-a-hotel/494117/14 "2009-04-23T19:45:28Z")
My friend pumped gas for James Taylor and he wasn’t sure it was him until he saw his name on the credit card.
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### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-uses-a-pseudonym-at-a-hotel/494117/15 "2009-04-23T19:50:13Z")
No help on the term but [here](http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,26058,23876716-36335,00.html) are the pseudos a few of them use.
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### Author:  [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-uses-a-pseudonym-at-a-hotel/494117/16 "2009-04-23T19:50:37Z")
I always figured stars travel with entourages/posses. Don’t one of them just check in the rooms under their name?
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-uses-a-pseudonym-at-a-hotel/494117/17 "2009-04-23T19:54:54Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> Attention whore?
>
> Okay, probably not the word you’re looking for. But seriously, is anyone supposed to believe that when Johnny Depp checks into a hotel using the name Mr Donkey Penis (true story) he’s doing it to keep a low profile?
He isn’t doing it to try to hide his identity from the hotel. It’s a code word for the hotel to know when to let someone through to him.
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### Author:  [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2009, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-uses-a-pseudonym-at-a-hotel/494117/18 "2009-04-23T20:14:26Z")
Cover? Smokescreen?
I’m working on a sort of thesaurus website, and got concealment as the only synonym for incognito. The synonyms I got for concealment were:
activity, blind, bosom, burial, burying, camouflage, concealing, confidentiality, cover, cover-up, covering, covert, covertness, disguise, hiddenness, hiding, isolation, mask, masking, money laundering, privacy, privateness, screen, screening, secrecy, shoji, smoke screen, smokescreen, stalking-horse, stealing, stealth
Stalking-horse???
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2009, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-uses-a-pseudonym-at-a-hotel/494117/19 "2009-04-23T20:42:36Z")
> [@](#):
>
> He isn’t doing it to try to hide his identity from the hotel. It’s a code word for the hotel to know when to let someone through to him.
Fine. But Donkey Penis? If the purpose was just to screen out strangers, a regular sounding name like Joe Smith would work. Donkey Penis is just a cry for attention. I’m surprised Depp doesn’t request they put up a big neon sign out front that says “JOHNNY DEPP IS STAYING HERE!!!” And I’m not singling out Depp here. Plenty of other stars pick names that scream “Everybody look at me! I’m a famous movie star!”
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2009, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-uses-a-pseudonym-at-a-hotel/494117/20 "2009-04-23T20:53:48Z")
But Donkey Penis works exactly as well as Joe Smith. And it might be easier for him and his close contacts to remember. And, he might think it funny.
How is it a “neon sign” if it’s something that only he, the hotel, and the people who are given the code word know what it is?
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