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Fame can do crazy things to a person. Live in a bubble surrounded by yes-men for long enough and the experience begins to warp one’s sense of what’s reasonable. Ideas that might sound insane to the rest of us, like, “I should totally buy the Elephant Man’s bones,” or “This script for the ‘Star Wars’ prequel is amazing” begin to sound perfectly normal to those who have no one to challenge them.
But even with the prevalence of coddled behavior, it’s still a little difficult to believe one oddball rumor, even though it’s one of the most persistent in show business. Are there really certain celebrities who are so precious, so above-it-all that they refuse to allow those around them to look them in the eye?
We’ve all heard this for years, attached to pretty much every A-list celeb or rock star out there. Barbra Streisand forces hotel workers to turn and face the wall when she enters a room, goes one tale. Same for Michael Jordan at the Foxwoods resort casino. Some say Nicole Kidman insists her makeup artist refrain from making eye contact. Tom Cruise supposedly ordered extras to avert their gazes on the set of “Magnolia.”
There’s rarely any hard evidence beyond gossip, and so it all seemed as improbable as that story you’ve heard about Richard Gere. But then Katy Perry’s tour rider was leaked to The Smoking Gun a few days ago and concrete proof of the phenomenon was finally at hand.
In the section covering her driver’s behavior, the singer’s contract stipulates that the chauffeur is “not to start a conversation with the client” or “stair” — that would be “stare” if spell check were turned on — at her in the rearview mirror.
Apparently, California gurls really are unforgettable — as in, forget about even looking at them.
“It is real,” insists Al Sapenza, a New York actor whose resume includes “The Sopranos” and “Prison Break.” “Some people pull this nonsense, and it’s nonsense — self-indulgent bulls – – t.”
“I was once on a set of a sitcom,” Sapienza continues. “The actor — I won’t tell you his name — was screaming at people for looking at him. This pretty girl walked by and said ‘hello’ to him, and he said, ‘Don’t say hello me! Don’t say anything!’ It’s insane.” (A quick search of Sapienza’s old IMDB credits shows he was also on “Who’s the Boss?” We’re just saying, Tony Danza.)
Jessica Alba, who had a bit role in two episodes of “Beverly Hills, 90210” back in 1998, once said that she was contractually forbidden from making eye contact with Luke Perry and Tori Spelling.
“You wouldn’t be allowed to talk to them unless they spoke to you first,” Alba said. “It was bizarre. But I guess that’s what happens when you become a big star.”
Even when they’re working, some stars like their orbs unencumbered. Sapienza says that on the set of the 1999 movie “Silicon Towers,” star Brian Dennehy screamed at members of the crew if they moved during takes. (Perhaps he inspired Christian Bale’s notorious rant on the set of “The Dark Knight.”)
And then there’s Sylvester Stallone, whose “no eyes allowed” policy has been murmured about for decades. In 1999, five of his household staffers sued him, complaining that they could be fired if they looked him in the eye. When Stallone entered a room, they were to “back out and vanish immediately.”
Stallone is also famously rumored to have had this peepers prohibition on the set of 1995’s “Judge Dredd,” but Sapienza — who had a small role — says he never heard anything along those lines and that the action star was always polite. Another member of the crew says he didn’t see any direct evidence of the no-eye-contact edict either, but “suspects there is some truth to it.”
Bizarre “look the other way” prohibitions may be a natural outgrowth of simply trying to protect famous people, says Peter Thall, a prominent New York entertainment lawyer and author of “What They’ll Never Tell You About the Music Business: The Myths, the Secrets, the Lies (& a Few Truths).”
Thall, who has worked with Katy Perry and Barry Manilow (another star often associated with this syndrome), says that he has never seen language in a contract specifically forbidding eye contact with a star. But it makes sense that a star’s handlers might take steps to keep nonessential people away.
“These artists are thrust into environments of strangers, people they don’t have reason to trust,” Thall says. “They have reason to be wary of the motivations behind these people.”
One of Manilow’s old contracts, for example, reads, “Under no circumstances is anyone not directly affiliated with the tour to disturb the artist at any time. There are to be no requests for autographs or photos from anyone backstage.”
It’s not a stretch to imagine overzealous handlers taking this a bit further backstage and verbally forbidding anyone from even looking at the crooner. Thall says a star would most likely have to approve language written into a contract (like Katy Perry’s no staring mandate), but what someone does in their name beyond that? The sky’s the limit. No looking! No laughing! Absolutely no reggae in the presence of Mr. Cruise!
And just in case you thought it was only the Earth’s biggest stars who would deign to act like this, not so fast. Life & Style recently reported that The Situation bans eye contact in his tour rider. Any old loser is free to look at his abs though.