One of my all-time favorite people on TV is Alton Brown, the host of “Good Eats” and “Iron Chef America” on the Food Network.
Tonight, while watching an episode of “Good Eats,” I saw a promo for a “Lost Episode” DVD of the show. The Food Network web site description didn’t really tell me much about it, so I decided to check out Alton’s personal web site, which I hadn’t seen in months.
The site includes a sort of blog, except that Alton doesn’t really update it very often. I used to track an RSS feed of it, but it didn’t really seem worth it for something that only gets posted to every three or four months.
Anyway, when I looked at the blog, I saw that Alton had apparently posted his contact information on the site for a while as part of a playful request for refrigerator pictures. But he got so many “vulgar, nasty, frightening messages and images” that he took down the contact e-mail and has vowed never to restore it.
Different famous people seem to have different policies on this. If I were in a position like that, I’m sure that I would enjoy getting feedback from people but would be probably frustrated by certain types of messages — not only the really creepy stuff that prompted Alton’s decision, but people making unrealistic requests for time and money. Not only that, it’s got to be kind of strange for so many people to want to think of themselves as your friend.
TV personalities in particular become such a familiar presence in your home that it’s tempting to think that you could be their friend the same way that they seem to be your friend. I can imagine talking to Alton if I ever have the good fortune to run into him somewhere. Perhaps we’d compare notes about humor; I’d tell him about the Door and I’d surely tell him that I, too, have visited the Lodge factory in South Pittsburg.
But the reality of the situation is that Alton has hundreds of thousands of such potential “friends,” even if you just counted his most devoted fans. It’s got to be awkward to deal with that kind of attention in a polite and grateful way while still preserving some kind of privacy for the sake of your sanity (not to mention your family).