By: Susan, Atlanta
A.B. Replies: You've just unleashed a freakish phenomenon in this B!tch's mailbox, leaving my complex space-age supercomputer overheated and confused. I think the fan is broken.
When I had my crack research staffers blast your question across the city, they got two waves of answers. First came a whole bunch of managers and agents. The indignation radiated from their messages like an aurora borealis of pure righteousness. They all said the eyeball thing is just an old myth perpetuated by small minds--vicious little ferret people with snipey faces and eyes too close together who have no standing reservations at Morton's.
Just to be clear about the kinds of people allegedly spreading this apparent myth: We're talking about petty swine who lack even your basic 42-inch flat-screen TV in the bathroom. People who have never even been to Clooney's place on Lake Como.
"I have never personally encountered any celebrity who requires that employees, stagehands, extras, etc., do not look them in the eye or address them directly," says Thomas Ingrassia, a manager who has worked with Mary Wilson of the Supremes and E.T.'s Dee Wallace Stone.
"I think this business of stars not allowing their employees to look them in the eye is a myth," Ingrassia says. "Certainly, there may be some who are paranoid that way. But for the most part, it just is not true."
Or maybe it is. As soon as that first set of messages stopped coming, this B!tch got a second wave of missives. This batch had a whiff of fear about it, a smell like a pack of beagles that had just escaped from a pharmaceutical lab. These are folks who would fly a Comanche helicopter directly into my office window and light my hair on fire if I revealed their names.
One writer said her husband had just returned from a corporate event hosted by one of the biggest names in comedy. According to the conference attendee, the comedian had a contract insisting that none of the convention workers could look the star in the eye. The writer wouldn't give her name, so I'm not giving you the comedian's name.
Then there's this, tucked into a story about background actors that ran in L.A.'s Daily News a while back:
"As vital as they are, extras grumble that they get no respect. One actor demanded extras be forbidden from wearing any perfumed soap or hairspray. Another star ordered the firing of any extra who made eye contact with him.
"And under no circumstances, should extras try to chat up leading actors, unless spoken to first."
So, what does this mean? That of course there are stars who don't let others look them in the eye. But it's for our own protection. Nobody likes turning to stone.