Yes, Celebrities Deserve Privacy

Y’all… this is getting messy. There’s more drama surrounding Chappell Roan, and in this episode of Open Tabs, I’m unpacking the latest situation—plus sharing some of my own genuinely good experiences with celebrities I’ve met. As this is still trending, what's your take on Chappell Roan? Let me know!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Open Tabs. I'm Keely and I will be your host. Oh boy, howdy, y'all. Looks like Chapel Roan has done it again. And before we get into that, I would like to preface this with these words. Everyone deserves their privacy. That includes celebrities. And as someone who has met several celebrities in her life and done photo ops with people, I have never been that person who demands their time or is rude to them or anything like that. They deserve their privacy. Yes, they are celebrities. Yes, they are famous. Yes, by becoming famous, they opened up their entire lives to publicity. That does not mean they do not deserve privacy. They do completely. I will never disagree with that. Ever. Whatsoever. However, Chapel Roan has a track record of being just rude. She's rude. And that puts me off. Repeatedly, she has shown this attitude over and over again. And setting boundaries, yes. Okay. Never gonna argue with that. However, her entire attitude and everything feels so performative. A few weeks ago, this may have been shorter than this, I think it was during Paris Fashion Week, she was trying going to a restaurant that is well known and a lot of celebrities go to, right? And so she's outside of it, and you got a butt of paparazzi outside trying to take photos. Now explain to me why rather than going inside, she then heckled the paparazzi themselves by filming them. Go inside. Okay, they're taking a photo of you. You're outside of a restaurant that is known for celebrities, they can't follow you in. I don't know if y'all know this, but Paris has really strict rules on the paparazzi and where they're able to go because of what happened to Princess Diana. Okay, they're not allowed to follow you inside. If she had just gone inside, she would have been fine. Watching that video and seeing her taking that video of them heckling her when the rally reality is that she is heckling them by not just walking away, walk away. It's that simple. It bothers me, and again, I'm not saying that paparazzi aren't assholes, because they are, and they can't be, and we have seen that, and we have seen how they cross the line. There's been other celebrities like Hillary Duff is just trying to put her kid in a car seat, and you've got people heckling her and harassing her. That's not okay. That is not okay. My issue with Chapel Roan is how she treats people, and it's not just how she treats paparazzi, okay? Sometimes you gotta get mean with a paparazzi because otherwise they're not gonna listen. In that instance, she should have just walked away instead of acting like a Karen recording it because that didn't help the situation. If she had gone inside, they wouldn't have been able to follow her. It would have been fine. My issue is how she treats people and treats her fans. And I know y'all have been on threads and it's been all over social media and TikTok, and what happened is you had this girl, she was 11, was with her mom at a hotel, and she had seen just a glimpse of Chaperone, but didn't know if it was her or not. So the girl, and all the girl does is walk past Chaperone's table. That's it. Walk past, smile, didn't even engage other than smiling. Nothing wrong with that. She didn't talk to her, didn't heckle her, didn't harass her, she just wanted to take it, see if that was actually her, and she walked back to her table. That's it. Explain to me why the security guard then goes over to the mom and that girl and is aggressive with them, meaning like you shouldn't have done that. All she did was walk past and smile in a public setting. Like you were in a hotel having breakfast in a public setting. What? And it should be noted that this girl has a stepfather who is a famous, I think, soccer player, football player. I could be wrong, guys. I'm sorry. And then her father is Jude Law. This girl is grown up around celebrities. She probably knows how to act around other celebrities, right? I don't feel like she was being invasive by walking past a table and smiling and then leaving. She didn't do anything else. And it's just not okay. It's really not. Again, as someone who has met celebrities, and I've met quite a few, one of the first ones I met was James Marsters, who played Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Now, Spike is my favorite character, other than that episode we all hate because it was out of character, and we know that that was all done because Josh Josh Wheenon is a jerk. Anyways, but I love Spike. He's got a great character. He he's just I love him, and so I was super excited to meet James Marsters. And I ended up I was a little nervous, except when I get nervous, I ramble. So this kind of worked to my factor. And we talked for like 30 minutes, and now he didn't have to do that, okay? He didn't. He did not have to talk to me for 30 minutes. I could have signed he could have signed the photo, he could have taken a selfie, and that could have been it. But he chose to talk to me for that long. He chose to because he loves his fans and he wants to have that interaction. And he asked me, he was like, What's your favorite what's your favorite episode? And I said once more with feeling, I love that episode, it's a musical episode, and it's just not the fact that it's a musical episode, everything changes in that episode. And then he asked, What's your favorite line from Spike? And I said, Out for a walk, bitch, and he laughed. I've had some really positive, every single one has been a positive experience. And yes, we had to wait a little extra long to meet with the guy who voiced Zuko and plays Rufio. Gosh, Dante Basco, Dante Basco. We had to wait a little bit longer and people were getting annoyed, but like he had had lunch and he was running behind, and sometimes that just happens. Like, they are people, and I feel like some people forget that celebrities are people, and that's not okay. But you know what is also not okay? Being an asshole to your fans, you are making money because of your fans. Yes, set boundaries if you are having dinner. I don't think it's wrong for you to say, hey, I'm I'm eating with my family or whatever. Um, afterwards, I I can do an autograph or something like that, you know what I mean, in a nice, nice way, not just telling people to fuck off because that is okay. You are out and you are having dinner with your family or whomever, you deserve to be able to do that in peace. Everyone does. A little girl walking past you and smiling is not breaking boundaries or heckling you or hassling you or anything like that. She walked past you and you chose to do that, and then your entire apology was disingenuous and you lied. Then it pisses me off because you can't criticize Chapel Roan's attitude without people accusing you of being homophobic. Y'all, I'm bisexual. How are you gonna accuse me of being homophobic? I ain't saying that bisexual people can't have their own homophobia or internalize or whatever, because they can. And we have seen that. But I am not. I'm not criticizing her because she does drag or that she's queer. I'm criticizing her because of her attitude when it comes to fans. That is not okay. And this isn't just one instance of how she treats people. This is several, there's been several instances. There was another video of I think she's walking through an airport or something, and obviously she's surrounded by other people. Either way, she was in a public setting, and someone had it looked like someone was just taking a photo of her, but that was it. She had her security guard go over there and be like, no. What? It's just that we've had so many instances of her acting like that that it's difficult for me to be on her side when she hasn't shown any sort of true remorse, or like I said, her video was very disingenuous. And the fact that she said, I didn't even notice them. Okay, if you didn't notice them, then why did the security guard go do that? Because that's not the hotel security guard. So what and like I said, I celebrities deserve privacy, they deserve to be able to eat their food in peace without people coming over them and coming over there and hounding them for photos and autographs and trying to talk to them, they're trying to eat. This little girl didn't do that. She walked past, smiled, that's it. Walked away. That's it. That's a lot of restraint and a lot of um consideration on her part, and it's just it's very, very frustrating. I don't understand sometimes because like I said, I've met a lot of celebrities, and I've always been super polite and super like met them where they were, okay? And sometimes when you go to photo ops, like James Marsters, his photo op wasn't that busy, so he had that time to speak to everyone as long as he wanted because it was shorter lines, and he had that time, but others may not have that time, and that's okay too. I mean, and then sometimes it's not even celebrities because sometimes I could tell that the celebrities actually want to talk to me longer, like that happened with um Michael Rooker. I did a professional photo op with him, and I could tell that he actually wanted to talk to me and my friend LaTosha more, but they were like hustling us out of there because there was a line behind us. So, like, sometimes it's not like the celebrities. Celebrities they want to talk, sometimes they really do, but sometimes they can't because they're trying to make sure that every fan who signed up to get a photo op gets that. And I'm sure you all have heard about this as well. A few months ago, during the Wicked for Good premiere, a fan broke through and basically like Glomp hugged Ariana, and what I got several issues with this. First of all, he never should have broken through the security line ever to be able to do that, ever. That is a failure on security's part. Failure on their part for not protecting the celebrities for not protecting Ariana. Also, Cynthia and Michelle should never have had to step in to get that fan man away from Ariana ever. That's the securities guard. That's the security guard who should have done that, period. Okay, that is not okay. The fact that this man has done this to several other celebrities and he was still allowed to be there and was not flagged, that is an issue, okay? No one would want to just be surprised hugged. Okay, ever. That was not okay. That is crossing a line, crossing a boundary, and that is not okay. Ever. And because he did that, it changed how the rest of the tour went for the wicked for good, because the rest of the people weren't allowed to even meet or greet with Ariana or Cynthia or any of the other cast members because of what that man did. They had to change that. Normally they greet them, they say hello to the kids who are all dressed up, you know, they do photos, they sign things, and they had to change that because of what that man did. That should not have happened. There is a big difference between a fan tackle hugging a celebrity and a fan walking past a celebrity smiling, and that's it. That is it. That was all she did. I I know that Chapel Roan has good music. I like her songs. And it makes me mad because I don't really like her. I don't. And I just don't like her because I don't like the way you treat people and I don't like the way you treat fans. That's not okay. It is okay to have boundaries and be like, hey, I would prefer not to do this at this moment. Uh I'm eating food. But when a little girl who's 11 is super excited to go to see you in concert, and all she does is walk past your table, smile, and that's it, that's okay. If anything, Chapel should have been like, oh, that's sweet, and maybe smile to the girl back, maybe go over to the table with the girl and her mom and say, Hi, thank you for just like letting me eat my food. Because that's what the girl did, is just went back. I'll let Chapel be. Chapel should have done that. Because that was that was showing a level of respect and setting boundaries and being kind and just walking past what Chapel did was not okay, what the security guard was not okay, to the point where the child didn't even want to go to the concert anymore. Because she was so upset. I find that heartbreaking. Completely. I know that there are always two sides to a story, and maybe the girl did more than just smile, maybe she waved, maybe she said something. I don't know, I wasn't there. But when the child and the mom and everyone else is saying the girl just walked past and smiled, and then when you can take in consideration how Chapel acted in that video, then I am more likely to believe the little girl. She's written music for other artists. Like she could have continued doing that, but she wanted to sing her own songs, and I understand that. But this continued attitude is not going to do her any favors. We have celebrities who you haven't seen in forever. Think about Adele. Okay, Adele drops an album, you see her for a minute, and then she's gone because she has worked really hard to maintain her privacy. Okay. Same with Lady Gaga, same with Taylor Swift. Hell, Zendaya and Tom Holland got married and no one knew about it because they worked to get that privacy. There's celebrities who live in that obscurity because they want to. Chapel Rome could do that. And because of how she dresses and all of that on stage, honestly, she could walk around and most people may not even recognize her all the time. You know what I mean? It'll be interesting to see how this goes. It's left a bad taste in my mouth because of the attitude. I feel like she has also put bad taste in other people's mouths as well for how she treats her fans. I have read other instances through threads and through TikTok of people who have met her and people who have um heard other stories through like hearsay and stuff. When there is just so many bad experiences from one single celebrity that tells me that that celebrity is not someone you actually want to meet. This kind of reminds me of when I was at a photo op and I wasn't going to get a photo op with William Shatner. I didn't have an interest, but one of the people there had already gotten it, a photo op with him, and he said it was a very bad experience. Basically, they were told to line up when it was their turn, go and take the photo. Don't say anything to William Shatner at all because he is a jerk. Not only to his fans, but even to the people who are helping at these conventions. That says a lot because most people who are working at conventions are not gonna say anything bad about the celebrity that like they're working with, you know what I mean? Because of the fact that they were like, yeah no. So now that we've talked about Chapel Realm, I'm gonna talk about more about the celebrities I have met and my really good experiences. So I met Sebastian Stan because I love Buggy Barnes, and it's actually really funny because my brothers had come with me, and at the time they were like seven and like 11. Okay, so the six-year-old was tired, so I was like holding him, and you gotta understand, I was dressed as the winter soldier, complete with a fake arm that I had made from duct tape. Alright, and I dropped all of my stuff in front of Sebastian's stand on the table. I'm like, I'm so sorry. He smiled at me and melted a little bit. He was like, it's okay. Um and he was very nice, and again, because it's a photo op and there were so many people there, I really wasn't able to talk to him, but that's okay because I understand it's not a meet and greet. A photo op is not a meet and greet. Celebrities might be able to have time for that, but they don't always. And but he was very nice. I also got to meet Ryan Hurst, and let me tell you, Ryan Hurst played beta in The Walking Dead, and that whole time he's wearing a mask, okay? I had never watched Sons of Anarchy. This was The Walking Dead was the only thing I had seen him in, and I was super excited. I did it because I was like, I'm never gonna be able to meet someone from The Walking Dead again. I did it. I am dressed as Starfire, alright? When I say I'm dressed as Starfire, I mean I am dressed in her booty shorts outfit and her crop top, alright? I was feeling myself, I was feeling great. I didn't realize how handsome Ryan Hearst was until I met him in person. And I walk up and he's like, hey baby, and I swear I may have swooned a little. I was like, oh. And he was super, super nice. And again, I'm in a very revealing costume. Okay, it showed my stomach, all of my legs, and he is so he was so respectful and just so he was so freaking nice. Um, that was kind of funny, maybe one of the few moments where I was a little flustered simply because I I kind of didn't realize how handsome he was, and he was just so nice that made his attractiveness more because he was so nice to me. I met uh Jody Benson who voiced Ariel, and she was so. Sweet because my friend Latosha and I always dress up and we usually do something together. So she was Tiana, and I was Aurora, so we were princesses to meet Ariel, the princess, and she was like, You both are so pretty, and she was so excited to meet us. I feel like, especially if you've done this a while, you can tell when it's genuine with people, right? Like, you can tell when they're actually excited to see you. You really can. And I love meeting them because you can tell that they love what they do. Like, yes, Dante Vasco was a little late for selfies and autographs, but he was so nice meeting us. He he was just so excited to meet the fans. He still loves Zuko. I was like, I love his character arc, and he's just such a great redemption. Then Michael Rooker, Latosha and I were dressed from the Wings Cloud, and he's like fairies, I love fairies, and he was just so sweet and so funny. And again, and I appreciate this, and I know that other women would too. Latosha, I was dressed in a more revealing costume, right? So I was in Triloman skirt and a little crop top, and he was just so respectful, and he was just so excited. He's like, I love your costumes, where are they from? I just I have had really good experiences with celebrities, even the celebrities that maybe didn't get to talk to you that much, like spratch the stand because he was packed, or I just they were very kind, and like I said, you can tell when it's genuine, and I feel like and it comes off when we're going back to Chapel. I feel like it comes off that Chapel doesn't even love her fans, she hates them. I hope I'm wrong. I'm hoping that maybe this is a misunderstanding, and maybe she she is still working on speaking with the public. Maybe she's needs to work more with her publicist, maybe you know what I mean? Maybe she was having a bad day, and that's okay, everyone has bad days. But right now, I'm just not impressed. And maybe she will come back and she will make a genuine apology, maybe she'll work on how she interacts with people in public. Who knows? But right now, I don't even really want to listen to our music because she just put me off. But thank you for listening to me. Let me know what you think. Until next time, this was Open Tabs. Bye.