When a Fan Hits the Shit: The Rise and Fall of a Phony Charity - Softcover

Renne, Jeanine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0965313646 ISBN 13: 9780965313643

Publisher: Heisenberg Press, 2004

Synopsis

Amy Player came from a good family in Virginia. She attended Christopher Newport University for two years and worked at Busch Gardens in the summers. Pretty, bright, and a talented artist, it's hard to understand how she ended up creating a phony charity and fleecing half the cast of the "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy.

In 2002 Ms. Player created an online fan club in homage to actor Sean Astin and his character, Sam Gamgee. This club caught the eye of Abigail Stone, a fan from Oregon, and the women discovered two mutual interests: an obsession with Astin and the other actors, and the willingness to do or say whatever it took to meet them.

Abbey and Amy developed their fan club into a beautiful, professional-appearing website. They referred to themselves as "Bit of Earth," and claimed that they wanted to raise money "for charity." On September 11, 2002, Amy went to Washington, DC and approached Sean Astin after his speech at the Capitol (Mr. Astin sits on the President's Council for Service and Civic Participation). Amy asked him to help out her "fledgeling charity" by volunteering with other members to build a Children's Reading Garden for a public library.

Their planning was perfect. They knew that Astin, having just given a public appeal for active community service, could hardly turn Amy down. They picked those themes because Astin is a staunch advocate for literacy, and gardening would naturally lend itself to publicity for Astin's movie role as gardener Sam Gamgee. As luck would have it, Astin loved the idea of focusing the enthusiasm of LOTR fans toward a charitable community project, instead of the usual autographs and merchandise. He agreed to help build the garden!

With that kind of endorsement, membership in Bit of Earth rapidly expanded to hundreds of Astin's fans worldwide. All were told that BoE was working in direct association with "Reading is Fundamental" to raise funds and build gardens to promote literacy.

The garden was built in Beaverton, Oregon, in 2003, and Astin's presence gave them renewed international publicity among his fans. Other major LOTR websites covered the news and it seemed that the sky was the limit for Bit of Earth, with its small army of enthusiastic fans working side-by-side with celebrities to improve communities.

Then it all hit the fan. Amy got caught in a complicated lie, in which she tried to mooch free airline tickets for actors to fly from New Zealand for a Bit of Earth event. This resulted in a miserable trip for several actors. Two of them ended up sleeping on the floor of Amy and Abbey's filthy apartment, instead of the deluxe accomodations they had been promised for attending this "fundraiser."

After the discovery of one lie, hundreds more fell apart. Former Bit of Earth volunteers came forward with horror stories. Amy borrowed a friend's computer and didn't "log out," which gave open access to the official Bit of Earth email account, revealing hundreds of lies that attempted to manipulate celebrities, businesses, volunteers, etc. into supporting this fake charity.

When A Fan was written by one of their victims. It takes the reader through the incredible web of firsthand evidence, revealing just how the half-truths, exaggerations, blame games, and other manipulations were employed to swindle both fans and celebrities the world over. Even without the "high drama" of murder or huge sums of money, this book will fascinate you with the real-life details of con artists in action.

About this title

About the Author

DRIVING DIRECTIONS: Start in Michigan and progress to Florida by way of South Carolina. Get degree in chemistry at Harvey Mudd College; stop abruptly to work as a cancer researcher.

Upon achieving extreme boredom, return to school. Get MA in psychology.

After hearing touching story by doctor about a patient with a pineapple, make sharp right turn to Baylor College of Medicine. Irritate living hell out of classmates by commencing piano lessons and watching lots of Star Trek.

Marry college sweetheart.

Proceed rapidly downhill with med/surg internship in Portland, Oregon; determine exact limits of endurance and sanity. Irritate living hell out of other interns by getting pregnant.

Regain some altitude in Iowa during residency in neurology and revel in the elegance of the human brain. Have baby. Fall utterly in love with baby. Lose all tolerance for destructive, asinine hazing rituals of medical education, particularly 30-hour shifts away from baby.

Take immediate 180 degree turn: quit job. Abandon Conventional Wisdom and the Consumerist Dream. Start down new path of simple living and cherishing loved ones. Discover side roads that had been ignored all along, such as writing, painting, gardening, pottery.

Have another baby. Settle into contented routine until finding out about interesting LOTR-related charity called Bit of Earth . . .

From the Back Cover

THE FRAUD GOES EVER ON AND ON

Strap yourself in for a wild ride through lies, pseuicides, movie stars, phony identities, phony charities, phony male appendages, and all the rest of this stranger-than-fiction exposé of the Bane of "Rings" Fandom, Bit of Earth. Get comfy first; it's as long as Tolkien's Silmarillion and almost as easy to follow.

Much like with Bakshi's animated LOTR, all you have to do is sit back and enjoy the wonderful horror as it unfolds. Just when you think you ve heard it all, something else pops up. I'm surprised a grassy knoll didn't fit into this story somewhere. It still might! ~inDUHvidual, FigwitLives!

Let a couple of sociopaths loose in a charitable venture and the surprises never end. "Lord of the Rings" fans had a good track record ofor getting together online to organize big party events that raised money for charity. Until "Bit of Earth" thought up the celebration to end all celebrations: Tentmoot. Few could have foreseen the scandal that would unfold from this innocent-seeming bastion of goodwill and fan enthusiasm... ~Tehanu, TheOneRing.net

From the Inside Flap

~ The Order of Events ~

2002 Jan: Bit of Earth (BoE), a Sam Gamgee fan club, appears on Yahoo.com Sept: Sean Astin agrees to participate in Project Elanor Nov: Victoria Bitter mysteriously disappears from all online clubs and journals

2003 Jan: BoE announces its new PR rep, Jordan Wood Feb: BitofEarth.net is hacked by a "nut" claiming that Jordan Wood is Victoria Bitter April: Project Elanor. Sean Astin helps BoE build a garden and raise $3000 for charity July: Hall of Fire Music Festival. Astin delivers marriage proposal to Abbey on Jordan s behalf Sept: Lost Palantir Film Festival. Sue is sent to LA to get Astin, Monaghan, Mortensen videos Oct: BoE moves to LA. Mom and Dad Player receive suicide letter. Det. Myers enters the saga. Lies whirl as thick as autumn leaves in the wind Dec: Celebrity air travel fiasco. Tentmoot collapses

2004 Feb: Attorney General investigates BoE. Cease and Desist letter sent to cast of LOTR March: Air New Zealand shafts Donna the Travel Agent May: Civil judgement against Abbey and Amy is served by the Dept of Justice June: "Jordan Wood" spotted posing as Harry Potter for photos and collecting tips "for charity"

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

After weeks of waffling, the decision finally came down from the upper echelon: Pikachu. Spiderman, Batman, and the vaguely described monsterbeast thing would have to wait for another Halloween. It was time to go to the fabric store for some goldenrod fleece and brown felt. As I loaded the baby into the van, he squawked in ire at being stuffed into his carseat. He must have known he was doomed to wear Big Brudder's hand-me-down "Gentleman Bug" costume. It was a perfectly ordinary fall day in the Pacific Northwest, crisp and cool with a hint of smoke in the air--until we got home and discovered the business card wedged into the screen door.

From a detective.

With "Please Call Me" scrawled on it in black pen.

I instantly knew this was about Jordan.

Edition details

• Publisher: Heisenberg Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0965313646
• ISBN 13: 9780965313643
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352