Alleged Stalker: I Just Wanted a Date

Man accused of threatening Nicole Kidman says he's innocent of charges, just wanted to go out for ice cream and ballet

By Emily Farache May 24, 2001 8:20 PMTags
"I have never stalked anyone in my life...that includes obviously Nicole."

So says Matthew Hooker, the Los Angeles-area man Nicole Kidman claims showed up at her house and threatened her.

Kidman, who is in the middle of what is shaping up to be a nasty divorce with Tom Cruise, has obtained a temporary restraining order against the 40-year-old Hooker, and is asking a judge to make that order permanent.

After a brief hearing on the matter Thursday (the case was continued to next week to give Kidman's legal team time to get a full affidavit from the Moulin Rouge star), Hooker took his case to the court of public opinion, addressing journalists from the steps of the Los Angeles Superior Court building.

He said what Kidman perceived as threats was just his way of being romantic. "All I know is, I've never been violent. I've never been angry, I've never harassed anyone," Hooker continued. "I tried to meet a woman and date a woman and that's all."

Hooker wants the charges against him dropped. "I don't want my good name smeared with the name 'stalker.' I don't know why she has told these lies about me but they are very unjust and I deny almost everything on the complaint.

"I was attracted to her. I wrote her a love poem. I wrote her a letter. I went by her house to ask to take her to the ballet and to take her kids out to ice cream. That's it," Hooker told reporters.

In her complaint, Kidman says Hooker called her at home, asked to tutor her children and expressed his desire to "serenade" her. Such behavior, she said, made her and her two kids "fearful for our safety and security." Hooker is also accused of getting into a fight with Kidman's security guards last month.

Meanwhile, Hooker, who runs various Websites, including one for his U.S. Presidential campaign, has launched his own legal action--this time over another female celebrity, according to the New York Daily News.

He's suing American Airlines and Iberia Airlines for ruining his "Easter holiday" with supermodel Claudia Schiffer.

According to Hooker's court papers, two passengers on his flight to Barcelona "drugged" him and stole his Visa card and driver's license.

When he arrived in Majorca he couldn't rent a car, so he had to walk to Schiffer's villa carrying his heavy luggage. When he finally arrived, he says, the model's mother and sister told him she wasn't home and to come back later.

Hooker did as he was asked, but was rebuffed a second time, his suit claims.

After spending the night sleeping on the beach, Hooker went to her front gate and tried to get the model on the phone.

The police came, searched his luggage and, according to court papers, informed him that Schiffer had told police he "was not welcome at her home."

So what is Hooker suing the airlines for exactly? Apparently lugging his bags around the island gave him a double hernia.