NEW YORK (dpa) – Hollywood superstar Nicole Kidman has one fan she could do without: Matthew E. Hooker, aged 40, claims he will stand as presidential candidate in 2004 but before he is elected by the American people he intends to “marry his great love” Nicole Kidman.
Hooker is proving persistent in his aim: he constantly telephones and bombards the star with letters, and publishes love poems on the Internet with titles such as “Nicole”. He turned up at her house on two occasions in April, once to ask her out for ice-cream and another time to invite her to the ballet, Kidman told the Los Angeles police.The 33-year-old star feels she and her two children are being threatened by Hooker’s psychological terror, and reported him to the police for stalking.Stalking is a common problem among Hollywood stars, but it is a crime that increasingly affects ordinary people too. Many victims are pursued and pestered for years by spurned lovers.Aid organisations estimate that 1.4 million Americans suffer from such harassment from unwanted admirers. In Los Angeles, home to many of the famous, the Los Angeles Police Department has set up a special department to fight stalking. Anti-stalking laws have been in place in every U.S. state since the early 1990s.Most court cases result in orders preventing stalkers from contacting their victim by telephone or post, and ordering them to observe an exclusion zone from their vicinity. Some convicted stalkers are made to undergo psychotherapy.In February this year a judge in the state of New Jersey committed a female stalker to a New York psychiatric hospital. The 33-year-old woman had inundated U.S. singer Whitney Houston with letters, postcards and presents such as lace underwear and silk pyjamas since August 1999. She described Houston as her “born-again mother” and referred to the star’s seven-year-old daughter as “sister”.Michael Newall, founding director of the aid organisation Stalking Rescue (URL: http://www.stalkingrescue.org) says most stalkers suffer from serious personality defects, usually in combination with low self-esteem. They are most often men who do not understand that their excessive love can be threatening.However, female stalkers are often schizophrenics, who really consider themselves life partners of their victims.Hollywood star Brad Pitt last year found a 19-year-old women in his bed at his Malibu villa, the climax of a three-year bombardment of gifts and letters to him.Pop star Madonna was subjected to a more aggressive form of stalking: “Either you marry me or I cut your throat,” wrote a man who was caught three times on the star’s property and is now serving a jail sentence.But stalking is not just a problem in the U.S. In Germany the singer Costa Cordalis sought police protection from a persistent admirer called Anita. The 43-year-old woman was convinced that Cordalis’ song “Anita” was a personal declaration of his love for her. <
