Poster: Vinni_Rattolle
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It happens all the time… if you just happen to be a superstar sex idol! Ask John Travolta, ask Henry Winkler, ask Paul Michael Glaser – ask them exactly what their fans want of them, ask them exactly what their fans fantasize about them, ask them what their fans literally beg for in their letters.
Just recently, one of Screen Stars’ reporters was nearby when the mail call was announced on the set of “Starsky and Hutch” – usually all the fan mail for both Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul is handled by a special office with people from Universal Studios working hand in hand with the boys’ PR people. When possible the average of 30,000 fan letters are answered by the staff, with them all deciding which letters require a personal response, which are put into a kook file, which are put into a “follow up” bin and which are shown directly to Paul Michael and David. Usually most of the letter never get into the hands of the actors – it would take too much time for them to actually get involved with them – but on this particular day, one of the staff members thought Paul Michael would be interested in one of the requests.
As usual, Paul Michael was preoccupied when the letter was handed to him; he had just finished a very intense scene with David Soul and was busy picking apart the interaction between them. At first he held on to the letter and ended up using at a prop as he was explaining to the director why he felt they should reshoot the scene. From one hand to the other, the letter traveled, but Paul Michael never really seemed to know what it was he was holding. Then he flung it onto a table, almost as if it were burning his fingers. His conversation with the director continued, going from discussion to argument within a matter of minutes. As usual, Paul Michael ended up making his point and the director scurried over to the crew area to tell them after they came back from their lunch break they would be reshooting the scene they had spent hours perfecting all morning – and no one seemed surprised!
The conquering hero smiled and only then seemed to notice the letter lying on the table; he picked it up and casually walked back towards his trailer. Halfway there, Paul Michael stopped short and let out a hoot: “Oh my God, here’s another one!” It seems that Paul Michael has been inundated with offers from women and girls – from ages 9 to 90 – ranging from “Will you please send me your autograph?” to “I would love to show you how I feel about you. Will you please meet me so we can get it on!” Most of the letters are funny, maybe even pathetic, but this particular one seemed to shock even Paul Michael. As a little group surrounded him, he tried to read some of the less graphic part, but actually ended up blushing, claiming that he couldn’t believe anyone could have written such a blatantly sexual letter!
Indeed, it’s letters like this one that make Paul Michael feel his entire life is at the mercy of a double-edged sword. Sure, it’s flattering to be wanted, to have women asking for your autograph, a little snip of hair, a moment of conversation – but when they start begging for a sexual encounter, a night spent with him, Paul, as any man might, feels that women are just begging for it, begging for his love and attention! It’s disturbing, actually a little scary when you think about it, and you can be sure Paul Michael has thought about it!
“I don’t look at my mail much now,” he admits. It’s not that I don’t want to or that I look down upon it, it’s simply a question of time. I don’t have the time. Once you start opening it, it’s like a little Pandora’s box – without the stigma attached, of course. Once you open one letter and then another, you really can’t help but want to answer these people who’ve taken their time to write to you. It means something to them. Maybe it’s something about you or the show, but it’s important to them – and it’s important to me. Without them, I wouldn’t be there. And every night, I do try to answer one or two. I also occasionally try to answer what obviously represents an incredible effort on someone’s part like a huge Valentine’s day card, etc. Sometimes a particularly articulate or nice letter will come through the mail and I will pick up the phone and call them.
“So I try to make the gesture just so that I can ‘sit’ with myself. It’s a strange position to be in. You want to respond to much more, though. When people relate this intensely and ultimately to you on the screen, they carry that relationship over to a letter. The same thing happens when they meet you…”
However, sometimes when his fans actually meet him, the intimacy and intensity only doubles. A perfect example is when a crowd of about fifty well-wishers crowded back stage on Paul Michael’s last birthday. He was surprised and touched as they sang “Happy Birthday” to him, but somewhat embarrassed when a lady fan called out: “Come over here, Paul. I can give you something better than that for your birthday!”
Naturally, Paul Michael tried to ignore the remark, but later claimed: “I had my fantasies about stardom. But it wasn’t like this. Before it happens, you fantasize that you’ll perform, you’ll receive public acclaim, people will recognize you, call out your name and it will be wonderful. What you don’t think about is the responsibility that goes along with it. The ‘job’ doesn’t end when the curtain goes down. It continues out into the street, wherever you go!”
As for being a sex symbol, he adds: “I can’t say how much I thought about it, certainly it was never a motivating factor. But when it happens, it can really inflate your ego, make you very full of yourself, or it can humble you.
“When you come in contact with fans, what they offer is an enormous force of positive energy. You can reject this or you can accept it, and make it work for you. I think it would be very difficult to reject it. Acting is a craft, it’s my work, it’s what I like to do, how I express my life. And to discover that in the course of doing this, which I would want to do whether anyone recognized me or not, I can also attain this response…. Well, it’s very humbling.
When people stop me in the street to say they like the show, the gratification I feel is immeasurable. It’s wonderful to have people love you and be touched or moved by you, but it hasn’t gone to my head because by my yardstick, I haven’t done anything earth-shattering to deserve it. That’s my reality.”
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