The official Steve Martin website has a very active web-based message board where fans of Steve can talk about everything from The Jerk to Novocaine. Poke around for a while, and you’ll undoubtedly run into “Chocolate Lover”: the alias of Texas-based painter Lynn O’Neill.
Most of Chocolate Lover’s 1200+ posts are about her innocent crush on Steve Martin and her love of his work, but her recent posts are far more personal.
On August 20, she writes about a thank-you card she received from Steve. On August 22, she said her greatest fears are “being mistaken for a lunatic,” “annoying the people I care about,” and “failing.”
On August 27, the tone of her posts changed, appealing to Steve Martin directly (although he doesn’t appear to ever read or post). She starts posting very personal information, followed by painful and desperate pleas. “I don’t know why you’ve turned on me.” “I am not a liar.” “I have NEVER been hurt so badly.” “Steve I am for real. Why are you doing this? … I feel like I am dying.”
Her last two messages are the worst. This thread gets continually worse, as she posts several times throughout the night, begging Steve to call her. At around 1am Dallas time, she posts a final goodbye… “I hope Steve doesn’t change his PO Box out of fear of me, I really am harmless, just a little weird. I’m going to the doctor because I don’t want to feel anything for a while, but I will not return after that.” She hasn’t posted anything since.
Side note: Do you suppose that’s Steve Martin in her Dream Date painting?
see, pre-internet, she would have stalked him until he got a restraining order, and then we might have heard about it. Now, we get the backstory, the buildup to the point where she climbs over the fence at his house/compound.
Do you think it could be a put on thing?
So she only took a two-day break from posting, and then started back up. She says, “I am glad my computer broke because I think I am addicted to this site and only having an hour here or there will keep me sane.”
Cripes those painings are creepy!
wow, those people over there at the Steve Martin message board are really really nice.
or maybe i’m just evil.. 🙂
click the little pig on the contact page for her secret image: 3 women in steve martin t-shirts with gwyneth paltrow’s head pasted on. eh…
Hey, nice find. Here’s the secret page.
She did come back and post more, though. I couldn’t wade through them all, but she seems to have calmed down.
(One September 1 post read “What a relief, this morning I found my glasses…”)
From what I read, it looked like she posted her email address a while back, and then someone had contacted her at that address pretending to be someone else. It’s a little unsettling to see people this involved in an ad hoc community on a celebrity’s message board. But at the same time, that community does spring into action, posting messages of support and offering assistance.
I’m not sure any of this makes her a stalker. Later on someone says she’s posting under a second name — “Miss Interpreter” — which, if it’s her, shows a self-awareness. Sadder but wiser…
In a later post in the “I will not return” thread, she even makes a telling concession. “I’m addicted to this, I have to leave, if I can get myself fixed I will be back.” The charitable thing to do would be to wish her luck.
Lynn is a kind, funny, creative, stable woman. She is not a stalker. She is well-known in the close-knit community there, and several of the people there know her personally. She is a very, very nice person. Apparently someone else has not been so nice to her and took advantage of her vulnerabilities, leading to her crisis. It was painful to read her pain, and hopefully she will never have to feel that way again. Naivety is not craziness. Cruelty is.
Fortunately, the fans who post there are kind, caring, and supportive people.
Andy, great site here too!
So, are you people stalking Steve Martin? And why do you care who is on his site?
Are you lurkers at Mr. Martin’s site?
oh my god.
maybe she’s a nice woman, but she has a major obsession problem. You really can’t deny that.
well….i was looking for pics of Mr. Martin for an argument about a steven king novel, and who would be a certain charecter for a certain movie that will never be made. The argument is based around the dark tower trilogy, and the charecter is the man in black. I don’t know why I keep thinking Mr. Martin would be so perfect as the man in black but i keep thinking of him as the man in black,weird huh? well i guess i’m asking if you guys know anywhere i could find a pic of him in mysteriouse dark monkish robes.
sorry about this probably being off topic and all
–matt
Steve Martin has a uncanny sense of the poetry of irony and tragedy of the human experience and daily trials of life but yet, can make it seem flippant and spin it with a flippant, bouyant style that screams hilarity and at the same time makes you say, “Yes, I can relate to that!” He has a fierce heart that comes out of his character portrayl in movies such as LEAP OF FAITH, making his supposedly insensitive character, seem so vulnerable,,,. In Bowfinger, I sensed another type of genius at work, making midlife desperation seem utterly delicious and no matter what movie he has, you are a willing hosttage eager for the bumpy ride and the havoc that follows helpless enjoying it all. Out of all the hollywood and actors and directors he serves his dishes with a rapier wit that cuts through all the dull and mudane mediocraty that hollywood mindless dishes out. So to you Steve Martin I say “Bravo!” Stay strong and never let yourself dim, Maestro.