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The little-known phenomenon of Schleb-Shadowing is creeping more and more into the Kiwi famous-person psyche, I've noticed. It is, of course, a phenomenon yet to be officially diagnosed in the medical journals, but as a celebrity connoisseur of sorts - a star doctor, for want of a better
term - I feel somewhat of a specialist in this field and obliged to let you in on this new trend.
The celebrity coupling craze started innocently enough with well-known faces picking other well-known faces as plus-one dates to strut the red carpet (e.g. Marcus Lush and his pretty plus-one Michelle Langstone at the Qantas TV Awards last year). This ensured gossip page coverage. You see, I'm always looking for celeb pairings in snaps, so when a plus-one celeb enters the piccie, well, frankly, I'm killing two birds with one stone.
Upping the ante from this is, of course, when celebs find true love with other celebs. This is rare indeed, but when it happens - as in the case of Jay Reeve and Jessie Gurunathan - the gossip coverage is extensive... at first. It can also be a tad boring, unless a third party celeb enters the picture (literally), or tiffs, jealousies, break-ups and make-ups, or unwanted pregnancies become part of the story.
But perhaps most baffling to medical specialists in this field is the phenomenon of the one-sided celebrity pairing: the schleb shadowing - or celeb stalking, in layman's lingo. This is when one celebrity (normally a B-Z-lister) is infatuated with another celebrity (normally an A-lister).
We happened upon this phenomenon yesterday when our favourite radio couple, Jay-Jay Feeney and her hubby Dominic Harvey from The Edge's Morning Madhouse show, interviewed Faye Smythe and Anna Jullienne from Shortland St.
It turns out Harvey has somewhat of a monster crush on Smythe (aka nurse Tania on Shorty St). We know this because his adoring wife, Jay-Jay, dobbed her hubby in to Spy. She said: "Because he [Dominic] has such a crush on Faye, and he is such an embarrassing flirt, Mike [Puru] and I gave him this T-shirt which we've dubbed Faye Repellent, because with Dom wearing it, Faye should have been repelled by him."
Hmmm, it doesn't look so much like she is, if this piccie is anything to go by. Smythe did laugh out loud, apparently. Harvey has "a thing for South African girls," his wife said nonchalantly.
Faye, who is a big A-list TV star, seen on the box every weeknight by adoring fans, would be used to being the object of affection. But is Dom used to adoring other celebs? "Oh yeah," said his wife, he's had crushes on Hayley Westenra, Siobhan Marshall, Jodie Rimmer, even Anna Hutchinson who used to play Delphi on Shortland St (he has a thing for has-beens)."
If you know of any celebrity crush stories, send me a post. Here are a few of Spy's favourite celebrity pairing piccies from our archives:
Rachel Glucina