Just take a teenager: she knows J-Lo's birthday, but she doesn't her best girlfriend's. Who, as the good friend she is, would call her cow. Dead sure. Dr. Maltby, however, would rather say the teenager is affected by Mad Cow disease - that is, the mad icon's disease. This Maltby of Leicester University has recently brought out a survey where he underlines the fact that in today's society there's a something one could call famous people's iconization syndrome. And that's something you can't take thoughtlessly, even if the seriousness of it depends every time on the intensity of the relationship the fan gets to create with the star, the icon, ... eeh, the celebrity. A few fans just limit themselves to talk about stars, whereas a few others believe they share with them a special and very intimate relationship, and there are even those convinced that the stars are looking forward to meeting them. So no wonder at knowing that among those fanatics there are people thinking the stars already know them, and that all they do is done for them only, just for pleasing them. In their opinion there's nothing comparable to that intimacy. There's no star without persecutors, those without are no stars at all. Aren't you scared by this? I am.

Everyone has a right to his own opinion, sure, but one can't deny that it's all a matter of territory. Like dogs, also fans mark their territory. And, from this point of view, Italy surely is no exception, for here also there are pop-stars and persecutors. These latter may even be waiting for them at their house door only to say: Whore, you betrayed me, or (why not?): Asshole, swine, you betrayed me.

Are they mad? Well, yes, all fans are a bit, both the ones who believe there's some secret romance between them and the stars, and those imagining the stars busy thinking of them only. But are stars mentally sane, really? You know well what they do, they love mentioning and relying on their spectators and listeners, just think of how much pathetic they can get when saying: I love you, I can't do without my followers, or People know who and what I am. They do flatter them, more than anyone else. Stars        go further in flattering than politicians themselves, for these ones know how to keep their self-control, somehow. Yes, fans are clinical cases, but not more clinical than stars. Even better: this romantic pseudo-secret, this relationship which is so similar to a plot between the star and the fan isn't only clinical but also repressive. When the star says to her/his fans I love you and I don't exist without you, or come to my concert or website, this is nothing but inviting them not to look for any other contact with the other stars. Exactly so, they want to keep their fans close to themselves, tie them to themselves... They only lack handcuffs.

Entertainment is a form of public control, so is being a star; stardom entails the power to control one's own fans, entice them into a cobweb-like relationship from which their preys will never be able to free themselves. Whether stars are recording a new album, or turning a new movie, or preparing their website, all this is done bearing in one's mind what are (or should be) fans' likes, expectations, and appetite. The whole thing is just calculated, programmed, guided till the very last yell, pose, and photo detail. The fan must be won, captured, invaded, and every move the star makes is part of his/her plan for taking control over her/his victims. Are fans people having lost contact with reality? Yes, sure... but stars are too, as they certainly aren't famous for keeping their feet on the ground. It's a catch-22: the fans have contact only with the stars, who in turn have no other relationship outside their fans. Fans are escapists, people running away from reality, but what else are stars?

Can we say that the fans are persecuting the stars? Of course, but these latter aren't less than those. They offer themselves to their tormentors every time and everywhere, from newspapers, TV-screens, even from cans... non-stop. It's something heavily morbid, I would even say pathological... and not only do they offer themselves to them, little by little they open their minds to them, sharing their intimate things, secrets, and problems... Yes, stars end up being a load for who's listening to them. If, on the contrary, it's the fan that tries to unburden himself to the star, he could see her/him giving him the finger... The star's ears are never willing to listen in that case. However, fans must listen, they're forced to do that. So, can you really put the blame on fans for their taking stars' messages as signals, personal invitations? And what about fans' living together with the stars in a fantasy for two? Since the stars themselves walk over their fans, doing whatever they can to become stuff for daydreams, trying to penetrate deeper and deeper in the fans' lives to live those lives together with them.

They also aim at winning fans' hearts trying to replace there the living, real people.

But the heart is, as you know, something terribly delicate: I surely can't plead the innocence of who has got into someone else's heart through manipulation.

Fans are not innocent. But stars are guilty, for sure.