Celebrities, Stalkers, and Social Media

I follow a bunch of celebrities on social media. Probably not as many as a lot of people though, because I have a special rule for which celebrities I follow:

Who would be cool to sit down and have a beer with?

Of course this is highly subjective, not everyone would like to hang out with the same people as me. I follow / wanna have a beer with a bunch of people that most would recognize: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Nathan Fillion, Brandon Routh, Keanu Reeves, to name a few. The top 5 have changed quite a bit, but honestly, the guy I wanna have a beer with the most (at the moment), is Zachary Levi.

My wife and I discovered him through “Chuck” (2007), and if you haven’t checked it out, you really should. We were kinda blown away when we learned he did the voice of the male lead, including the singing, in “Tangled” (2010); and now he is becoming much more well known as “SHAZAM!” (2019). He seems like a cool guy that I might have quite a bit in common with; and, of course, he also seems like the kind of guy that if I bumped into him in a restaurant and offered to buy him a beer, would say yes. I imagine it will be a lot more difficult to just “bump into him” now that he is becoming a much more mainstream celebrity, but a guy can daydream, right?

Being in the number one spot on my “Beer With…” list I pay a bit more attention to his social media posts, and the other day I found my self in a surprising situation. Lately on Instagram he has been sharing pics of a fantastic house. I don’t know if its his new place, or a second home, just that it has shown up a few times since I started following him. He was panning around showing the view (as he does fairly frequently) and I wished I could be there; and for a very brief moment, I felt like I should be there.

I took a quick glimpse over the edge into the void of “celebrity stalker” and I found I really didn’t like it.

It was over almost as fast as it happened, but I was shaken. Its an easy thing to look at these pics of celebrities in their private spaces and feel a connection that isn’t actually there. I suddenly understand how people can sneak into their favorite celebrity’s home and then wonder why they’re getting arrested for doing it, and why so many celebrities hide their personal lives!

I’m not the kind of guy that feels like celebrities owe me anything, and as much as I might daydream about having a beer with someone on my “Beer With….” list I’m not delusional enough to believe I actually will have a beer with anyone on it. We as a society have bizarre relationships with celebrities, somehow believing that since they can act or sing or play a sport well that they owe us something more than just the entertainment of watching them or listening to them.

They don’t.

That being said, if Zachary Levi or any of the other people I mentioned find themselves in Ottawa, Canada and thirsty, I know a few places with really good beer.