The celebrity stalker
It started with Lisztomania and went on to Beatlemania. Now a new type of obsession has taken hold, found ANDREW GIMSON when he met Maisie Bone
MAISIE BONE is twenty years old and works for eight days a month in The Oldie’s advertising department. She devotes almost all the rest of her time to her great passion in life, which is stalking celebrities, above all Cheryl FernandezVersini, formerly known as Cheryl Cole. In this conversation Maisie describes an activity which, like many Oldie readers, I had never really heard about before.
The compulsive desire to get close to a famous person is not new. Fame can somehow become irresistibly exciting, and cause people to lose all sense of proportion. Heine coined the term ‘Lisztomania’ to describe the excessive adulation given to Liszt, and said it was ‘a veritable insanity’. In more recent times, we have had ‘Beatlemania’, which within three years forced the Beatles to stop giving live concerts.
Maisie’s ‘Cherylmania’ may not be as conspicuous as those earlier outbursts, but seems just as sincere, and to those of us who do not share it, just as incomprehensible. It must be widespread, for it helps support a vast industry of concerts, talent shows and other television programmes where the live audience is supplied by people like Maisie. It seems the world is full of Maisies, who tell their stories to each other on social media, while remaining unknown to the rest of us, unless one turns to the voluminous coverage of celebrities on Mail Online. But perhaps it is better to let Maisie speak for herself.
We met in the Jack Horner pub in Tottenham Court Road, along with Maisie’s friend and colleague, Lisa Martin, and I asked first how she became a stalker.
Maisie: ‘When I was about thirteen, I liked Girls Aloud, the girl group [whose five members, including Cheryl, were chosen through an ITV talent show]. The minute I liked them I wanted to see them. So I went to their concerts, their signings.’
Lisa: ‘She’ll queue up from five in the morning for eight hours in the rain to see Cheryl.’
Maisie: ‘I’ve done nearly 24 hours for Cheryl. That was at a book signing a few years ago. They were like the first group I saw. As The X Factor was on, Cheryl ended up being my favourite of all of them.’
She showed me a picture, printed on the cover of her mobile phone, of her with Cheryl, and added: ‘She’s lovely. She’s so lovely.’
Maisie has almost innumerable pictures of herself with famous people: ‘I met Kim Kardashian. She was doing a signing in London about five years ago and they were not as big then as they are now. I did about fifteen hours for that.’
Lisa: ‘Do you want to say how you get to stalk?’
Maisie: ‘Most of them can be off Twitter. And then I know a girl I met at The Only Way Is Essex [a television programme], she’s one of the paparazzi for them, and she’ll send me details, if she’s at an event she’ll take pictures of me with them, which is actually quite nice, and then she’ll send them to me privately. An event Cheryl went to, she got papped going into the event, and in the background there was a restaurant. We googled the restaurant name, and as she was coming out we saw her.’
Among her other activities in this world of suddenly famous ordinary people, Maisie acts as an extra in The Only Way Is Essex, usually abbreviated to TOWIE. For although she lives in Bromley, Kent, she sounds, as she happily admits, exactly like an Essex girl. For her 21st birthday, she is going to have ‘a red carpet themed party at a hall in Beckenham’, which will be attended by two of the stars from TOWIE with whom she has become friends, Gemma and Ferne. The second of these has just become even more famous by appearing on I’m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!
Lisa: ‘Maisie will attend as many red carpet events as possible.’ Maisie: ‘Loads.’ Andrew: ‘What equipment do you need?’ Maisie: ‘Really I just need my phone.’ Andrew: ‘Do you have any trouble with the security people?’
Maisie: ‘Yes. Cheryl’s are the worst of all of them. They’ll try to pull her up the carpet. But if she sees us, she’ll take her time. She’ll always come over, always get a picture. There’s a few she doesn’t really like, and she won’t stop for. They [the members of Girls Aloud] all recognise me, so I love that. When they started out it was years ago, so they’ve seen us grow up.’
Lisa: ‘Maisie’s been on the Daily Mail website loads. Cheryl’s had a photo taken, and behind is Maisie.’
Maisie has a younger sister, aged fifteen, who is not into stalking: ‘She’s very
For her 21st birthday, she is going to have a ‘red carpet themed party at a hall in Beckenham’