Contacting celebs by e-mail

Cafe Society
1

I’ll start off by making clear that I’m not asking, here, for anybody’s email address.

A few months back I was in a situation, rather too personal to describe on the SDMB, involving a fairly minor TV celebrity, a guy with an ongoing secondary role in a TV series. Nothing dire; but I think he wouldn’t mind hearing from me. But (a clue, but don’t get carried away) he doesn’t know my name.

I’ve been trying to word this OP in such a way as to not raise suspicions that I want to stalk this guy, crawl in a window, get him to read a script, or anything else awful. Nor do I think we were married in a previous life, or in Canada.

What I would like to do is get a 2 or 3-sentence email to him.

But as we all know, that’s pretty close to impossible.

I suppose I could try to find out who his agent is, and send something that way. But I don’t care to have the agent read it, or to have some secretary throw it away, or toss it in the can. See, the celeb would know right away that I’m legit IF he actually reads the letter, but someone else would just say, “yeah, here’s another one” and toss it.

If you’re already feeling skeptical, you can see why I assume getting such a communicae to him would be–impossible.

But email, on the face of it, might be a bit likelier. To send an email does not require knowing the person’s physical address or phone number. Weird, threatening, or sick emails can be deleted. Viruses–OK, there’s a danger, but anyone on the net at all faces it, and it’s not like its gonna burst out of the machine and grab him.

So why don’t media celebs have public email addresses, the contents of which they might glance at now and then between scripts and shoots? I can see that it might be a hassle; but it’s an ignorable hassle, ultimately, and in theory they might receive some info that they are glad they received.

Is there such a thing as a kind of “central email exchange” for celebrities? Could there be? Why not? (Does it really come down to the agents not wanting outside direct access?)

I have no interest IN GENERAL in contacting actors or celebrities, just a reason to contact this one person.

Yup, I can’t force anyone to believe that my intentions are pure, can I. But mightn’t they be–hypothetically?

2

I think you’re applying a level of bureaucracy to a situation where it just simply does not exist.

I know people personally who have had roles in soap operas. I know musicians who have decent fanbases. I know somewhat famous artists. Basically, I know A LOT of people who fit this criteria. And attaining communication with them is not that difficult.

My friends and I oftentimes are so inundated with e-mail that we tell people to make sure that they make some kind of reference to who they are, that will be intelligible to the person receiving the e-mail. This has to be concise and in the subject line. It’s not really a matter of celebrity so much, it’s a matter of sheer connectivity, and the level of noise/signal that a person deals with on a daily basis.

You’d be surprised, with minor celebrities, oftentimes people make the same assumption that you are making, and they don’t even ATTEMPT contact with them because they assume rejection going through the gate, therefore the celebrity doesn’t get nearly the amount of contact that it is assumed that they would be getting.

I’d just make an honest attempt at contacting them directly. Put some sort of header that will make it clear that you know them, or know something about them that the average populace wouldn’t necessarily know.

People are known by their works, and oftentimes we assume that because someone is on television that they are being inundated with communication. This is simply not the case, in fact I’d imagine that my friend who is known for being magnamimous with his nice sound system to rave promoters here in New York, probably gets a larger number of e-mails than someone with a bit part on television.

So in essence, what I’m saying is just be honest straightforward and take the risk. Don’t assume that you won’t get through.

Erek

3

Moderator’s Note: Moving to Cafe Society.

4

Well, sending a letter via the agent is probably the only thing to do. To catch their attention, maybe type the envelope.

Also enclose a (sane looking!) photo with your card/letter, and mention something like: “It was great to meet you in xxx at yyy. As promised, here’s a pic and my email, if you would like to get in touch. Yours sincerely, Scott.”

5

It looks like the problem is not so much that the OP is afraid to contact the celebrity, but that he doesn’t know his address. Which leads one to the obvious, have you just tried searching the standard sources like Google? Or possibly some sort of fan-club webpage?

6

I recently read a book called Syrup, after reading the briefly insanely hyped Jennifer Government, both by a guy named Max Barry. Loved both the books and decided to let him know so I checked out his website and voila~ he had his email address on it.

I’ve never written to a celebrity before and thus had no idea what to say so I basically just told him what I thought of the books. He wrote me back fairly quickly to say thanks.

Have you even looked for this guy’s email address?

7

I’ve gone to writer’s websights, or hand written letters to them addressed to their agents and have received a note back.

Granted I was gushing about their work and kept what I wrote about coherent, but it is a cool feeling to get a note back in the mail from someone’s who’s work you admire.

If you don’t want the agent/staff to see what ever it is you want them to see because you would be embarrassed. Think about all the really odd ball stuff that some celebs receive in the mail. Panties, explicit photos, marriage proposals. They probably won’t be phased.

8

My cousin is a celebrity, and she gets tons of emails at her website. She tries to read all of them, so try that route first.

Oh, but if you’re writing from prison, and you want to compliment him on his boobs, don’t; according to my cousin, that’s a surefire way not to get a response.

9

The Internet Movie Database will list actors’ official sites if they have them, and often the email addresses are right there, or at least a guestbook that the actor clearly reads (as evidenced by their own responses to comments). Lauren Tom, for example.

Have you (the OP) given a social disease to this person or something?

10

Who’s your cousin, lissener? Can you say?

11

Also, I co-produced a radio show in Chicago for a while, and I found speaking to a manager and explaining exactly who I was and why I wanted to talk to the person usually got me further than you’d expect; they’ll usually at least pass a message along.

ALSO, I have two highschool friends and one college friend who have since become celebrities, and I’ve gotten messages replied to by them when I’ve contacted thei “people” and told them what the deal was.

12

Don’t like to; it’s gauche.

13

I’ve been surprised by the amount of email my daughter exchanges with celebrities. Granted, she’s not looking to start an ongoing friendship with Madonna or Heath Ledger - her tastes are much less mainstream, mostly punk-pop bands and comic book writers and YA authors. But I’d guesstimate close to 90% of them have responded and been just lovely to her.

As far as finding email addresses, I’ll just second what others have said: do a websearch, you may be very surprised!

14

Hamsters twice ate my immediate followup:

But I can say this: she has a bathroom book with entries by Burt Reynolds, Clint Eastwood, Denzel Washington, Kevin Spacey, Sandra Bullock, James Earl Jones, and many many more; some scatalogical gems that will ensure that her phone calls get returned for many years to come.

15

Next time, be sure to exchange email addresses when you meet.

Makes it a lot easier.

16

Thanks, all.

(I thought this thread had evaporated. For some reason, I couldn’t find it even with the Search function!)

Guess I started out a little too pessimistic. I AM guilty of assuming that anyone whose name appears on a “crawl” on any kind of screen is inundated with crap.

I think I do recall reading in “Sir” Walter Scott’s Personality Parade (well, he’s sort of the poor man’s Cecil Adams) that media/entertainment personalities ABSOLUTELY DO NOT EVER read “fan mail” these days due to liability issues, John Hinkley issues, stalker issues, giving-false-hope-merely-by-responding issues, and God knows what else.

No, I did not give or get a social disease. As if.

PS–

Ohhh-kay, I’ve gone to his website and sent a message to him via the only email address provided, which seems to go through his “handlers.” The Internet Movie Database is set up in a very confusing way, IMHO; I keep being told I can’t do anything without registering; then when I register, it turns out anything worth doing involves signing up for a monthly subscriber thing. So it’s all about money…like I didn’t know that.

17

If anyone’s interested, I did go to the guy’s site, left a short message on the “contact” email (which is not his personal email) asking whether it was possible to get through a brief noncommercial message that was somewhat personal (I worded it in a non-nutty way) and received this response:

"Hey Scott!

Actually both you and your friends at the message board are correct. Many celebrities have an email address such as the one you used to contact us. As a rule, someone is designated at the gatekeeper. That person reviews all incoming email and takes some action on it. I don’t know of any celebrity who has his/her ‘personal’ email address published.

In --'s case, I am the gatekeeper. As a rule, I do not forward email to him directly. There have been some exceptions. – DOES actually read the entries in his guestbook (www.peterpaige.net), so you might want to consider this as an option. You do NOT have to include your email address.

Another option is to send your message through me at the email address above. I’ll have to determine if it is something I will forward or not. No promises."

So, a pretty nice response. But he, at least, sounds purty definite about the difficulty of getting through to a celeb’s personal email. Anyway, some of you might like to know.

18

Good God, can I be any more STUPID than to have posted the thing with his website address not removed!?!

I swear it was not intended!! (No one will believe me, will they.)

MODS, if you can delete that address I’d be much obliged!!

19

I was perusing this actress’ web site, and I noticed that her e-mail address was @aol.com. So I think, what the hell, and I added her to my buddy list on a whim.

Then she came online. I IMed her, we said a few words to each other. She was cordial, but uninterested. Couldn’t really blame her, being a porn star and all (hence no link). :smiley:

20

I once sent Tom Snyder an e-mail. I sent it to NBC with “ATTN: Tom Snyder” in the header. He responded to it on the air the next night. Most networks, studios and publishers will forward messages to their famous clients.