Uma Thurman at the Oscars ... red carpet gawking doesn't count. Photograph: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Manhattan's streets may never again be a safe haven for celebrities burned out by the relentless public glare of Hollywood, writes Robert Booth.
A New York gossip website, Gawker.com, yesterday launched a new addition to its celebrity spotting Gawker Stalker page, which has already been branded "insanely intrusive".
The offending innovation? An interactive Google map which shows exactly where and when a celebrity has been spotted by a Gawker user. They text or email in the full excitement of the sighting and the spot can go up on the internet almost instantly. Click on the map and find out not just who's where and when, but what they are wearing and eating. The combination of public rubbernecking and the instant communication of the internet is a potent and controversial mix.
It's close to a 24-hour operation. At 8am yesterday, Debbie Gibson was "looking pretty clowny" at west 50th at 8th Avenue, and Uma Thurman was at 71 Irving Place with an ex-boyfriend and "looked like they'd just rolled outta bed".
An hour later at 2nd Ave at E 10th Street, the actor Parker Posey "looked like a bag lady and had horrible skin". Charming stuff.
With 22 high-profile celebrities spotted yesterday, the site is a vision of Manhattan as a celebrity village. By comparison, we Brits just don't cut the mustard. The latest post on the British Celebrity Watch site only managed Jeremy Clarkson and Judith Chalmers.
Mark Boardman is trying vainly to keep up appearances. He started going out of his way to meet celebrities 19 years ago, though he stretched the definition of celebrity somewhat with a snap of Russ Swift - the record holder for parking in narrow spaces, as if you didn't know. But Mark has now become a sage in the art and recently grabbed the autographs of Ewan McGregor - "he's partial to a choc Magnum" - Lenny Henry, who disappointed by being the first celeb to refuse to record a mobile answerphone message for Mark, and pop "star" Lee Ryan - "who I watched on the backstage bouncy castle with Jodie Marsh" at Popbeach. Classy.
Back in New York, even the stars' children are not spared by Gawker's gawkers. Philip Seymour Hoffman was seen at 4pm pushing his child in a stroller by a basketball court at 150 west 4th Street. "He looked really happy," apparently. He probably wouldn't be if he knew he was being spotted.
The agent Ken Sunshine, whose clients include Leonardo DiCaprio, Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck, said he thought the site was outrageous, and worryingly close to stalking.
"It invites weirdos, if not dangerous weirdos, to physically come in contact with anybody they choose to expose on this site," he said. "Celebrities and everybody else have certain basic rights, particularly when there are children involved - children have got to be off limits."
Surprisingly, the website is positively encouraging its readers to "enact their ill will upon innocent, unsuspecting celebrities and their golden-haired children".
One Gawker reader, Steverino, responded with mixed feelings: "OMG, that is a little bit scary. Brilliant, but scary."
Lawyers may be wondering if this is "brilliant, but illegal" because US law makes it a crime to anonymously "annoy, abuse, threaten or harass" another person over the internet.
British legislation might also be used to challenge similar developments.
Bob Crow, the robust leader of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, once threatened to use the legislation against the Evening Standard. Back in October 2002, Crow claimed the newspaper breached his right to privacy after a reporter and photographer turned up at his home and allegedly told him that they had been ordered to follow him all weekend. The paper denied it.
Tessa Mayes is one commentator who asks if it is right for public figures to use the law in this way.
Gawker hardly thinks so. Since I've been writing Lenny Kravitz, Harvey Weinstein, Lindsay Lohan and Johnny Knoxville have all been spotted in Manhattan. Beck popped up in Brooklyn waving merrily to people who recognised him. So perhaps not every celebrity craves privacy. Mind you, the fact that he was "walking close to hand in hand with two hot blonde women" might have something to do with his happy demeanour. Happy gawking.
