Its days like this when you wonder why you bother sticking
with a hobby for so long. I have been collecting autographs since the year
2000, it started out as just some way for me to express how much I love an actor’s
work but I didn’t think it would turn into the hobby it has. At last count I
now have well over 1000 autographs in my collection and at least a third of
them are from actors I admire. Whether it be background actors or your A list
headliner I appreciate all of them for what they bring to the screen. It
disappoints me when incidents like today happen, I received my photo back from
Once Upon a Time actress Ginnifer Goodwin and my heart sank. I have been a fan
of Ginnifers work for a very long time but when I saw she had switched agencies
to Spanky Taylor I knew there wasn’t a chance that Ginnifer had even seen my
letter.
When I opened up the envelope I wasn’t too sure at first, but after seeing an example from someone else who got theirs back a few days earlier my original doubts were realised that a machine had signed my photo. People have asked me how I know this. How can I tell? Well it’s pretty easy once you know how. Have you ever signed something and tried to replicate it exactly? Doesn’t come out exactly the same now does it? And this is where it’s obvious a machine has done it because every single autograph is 100% exactly every time. Every brush stroke, every mark all identical and when only one photo comes back signed it’s another obvious sign because 2 coming back would make it easy to compare. This is what’s called and Autopen, when a machine automatically does it for you. Of course many celebs do it and over the years I’ve learned to avoid writing to them.
Machines are not the only way celebs get around fan mail & autographs, preprints & secretarials are another. Preprints are obvious and easy to spot, you could rub your fingers all over the photos and that autograph is never coming off & a secretarial is where a celeb pays someone to sign their autographs for them.
I personally find secs worse than autopens because they even more so give the illusion that the celeb actually gave a crap. You could pour your heart and soul out and the celeb you are writing too may simply never see it. Of course you could be reading this thinking how on earth does she know? Celebs might get gifts etc or they might be too busy whatever. And of course sometimes that’s true; another Spanky Taylor client is Johnny Depp. Now you can only imagine the amount of fan mail that man would get, Orlando Bloom is another. But when mail is sent to these types of agencies gifts, heartfelt letters etc never make it to the celeb and so the only way you might catch them is in person or via a movie set.
What annoys me more is that I am prepared to wait; I am not one of these demanding fans who expect celebs to answer their fan mail around the clock. I know these people have lives and need breaks etc but would it kill them maybe once in a while take 5mins out of their day to appreciate their fans and not send these things back knowing full well they are fooling people? For me it’s now a simple case of adding another person onto the don’t bother writing to again list. People wonder why I am angry, well i'm not I’m just disappointed, it’s not fun knowing your letter that you put so much effort into never made it to its destination. People are also entitled to their opinion but this is mine and it isn’t going to change.
When I opened up the envelope I wasn’t too sure at first, but after seeing an example from someone else who got theirs back a few days earlier my original doubts were realised that a machine had signed my photo. People have asked me how I know this. How can I tell? Well it’s pretty easy once you know how. Have you ever signed something and tried to replicate it exactly? Doesn’t come out exactly the same now does it? And this is where it’s obvious a machine has done it because every single autograph is 100% exactly every time. Every brush stroke, every mark all identical and when only one photo comes back signed it’s another obvious sign because 2 coming back would make it easy to compare. This is what’s called and Autopen, when a machine automatically does it for you. Of course many celebs do it and over the years I’ve learned to avoid writing to them.
Machines are not the only way celebs get around fan mail & autographs, preprints & secretarials are another. Preprints are obvious and easy to spot, you could rub your fingers all over the photos and that autograph is never coming off & a secretarial is where a celeb pays someone to sign their autographs for them.
I personally find secs worse than autopens because they even more so give the illusion that the celeb actually gave a crap. You could pour your heart and soul out and the celeb you are writing too may simply never see it. Of course you could be reading this thinking how on earth does she know? Celebs might get gifts etc or they might be too busy whatever. And of course sometimes that’s true; another Spanky Taylor client is Johnny Depp. Now you can only imagine the amount of fan mail that man would get, Orlando Bloom is another. But when mail is sent to these types of agencies gifts, heartfelt letters etc never make it to the celeb and so the only way you might catch them is in person or via a movie set.
What annoys me more is that I am prepared to wait; I am not one of these demanding fans who expect celebs to answer their fan mail around the clock. I know these people have lives and need breaks etc but would it kill them maybe once in a while take 5mins out of their day to appreciate their fans and not send these things back knowing full well they are fooling people? For me it’s now a simple case of adding another person onto the don’t bother writing to again list. People wonder why I am angry, well i'm not I’m just disappointed, it’s not fun knowing your letter that you put so much effort into never made it to its destination. People are also entitled to their opinion but this is mine and it isn’t going to change.
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