Paul Mescal became very famous in a short amount of time. After the major success of the mini-series Normal People, the Irish actor exploded in popularity and gained an extremely dedicated fanbase. Now, he’s an Oscar nominee for Aftersun, the star of a new West End production of A Streetcar Named Desire, and the subject of much speculation over his love life. With that has come some awful sh*t, as he told the Evening Standard in a recent interview. He spoke of his anger after a fan groped him when they asked for a photograph outside of the theater where he was performing.

‘I thought it was an accident, so I like [moved away]. But the hand followed. I remember tensing up and feeling just, like, fury,’ he said. When asked what he did next, he said he told her, ‘What’re you doing? Take your hand off my ass […] It’s uncomfortable for everyone involved. But it was really not okay. It was so gross, creepy.’

Jeez, this is so awful.

This is, alas, not unheard of behaviour from over-zealous fans who believe that celebrities are their property. In 2019, a man tried to grab Miley Cyrus by her hair and pull her in for a kiss while she was walking through a crowd in Barcelona with her then-husband. In 2015, Katy Perry invited a fan on-stage in Brazil, who then repeatedly grabbed and kissed her. Sarah Hyland posed with a ‘fan’ in Australia, who then proceeded to grab her breasts. Honestly, we could be here all day listing examples, and it’s not defined by gender. Look at Harry Styles, Tim McGraw, and any number of male celebrities who have experienced this.

Call it fan entitlement, bad manners, an abuse of power, or just sheer dickery, can we agree that this is awful and nobody should do it? What, did you think Paul Mescal was going to feel a stranger’s hand on his backside and think, ‘Yup, this is the woman for me, step aside, Phoebe Bridgers’? We’ve talked a lot on this site about the lack of boundaries in modern fandom as exhibited by weird online behaviour and conspiracies, and this feels like a natural extension of that. Do you think the bragging rights from an act of casual assault are worth it? You won’t be a hero among your fellow fans.

I think this also reveals how many people don’t see groping or forced kissing as an act of assault. It very much is. It’s not ‘cheeky’ or funny. It’s not the lesser evil of harassment. Nobody will thank you for it. Would you want someone to do this to you? It’s terrifying to feel stripped of your autonomy in this way.

Keep your hands to yourselves, you effing creeps.