According to published reports a New Jersey high school senior named Kevin McGuire who's battling leukemia for the second time is attempting to get Taylor Swift to be his prom date. And it isn't through a polite, private letter through a publicist. Showing all the ugly sides of celebrity worship in America, his older sister set up a Facebook page a few days ago, "Taylor Swift Take Kevin McGuire To The Prom!". It only three days it got 55,000 supporters. Kevin himself writes:

Dear Taylor,

I will open the door for you. I will pull out your chair for you. I will treat you with respect…Most importantly, I will do my best not to step on your feet. Please, make my birthday and senior prom the best it can be.

On Twitter, backers of Kevin's get-a-date-with-a-famous-woman cause have been tweeting around the clock non-stop.  To me this whole thing is arrogant, self-absorbed, inappropriate and downright disgusting.  And his sister Victoria citing his battle with Leukemia as a reason for Taylor Swift to go on a date with him is the most disturbing thing of all, because it puts a ridiculously unfair pressure on a woman to go out with a young man she's never met and knows nothing about.  To play the court of public opinion to pressure someone into a social engagement is just pathetic.  I'm sorry for what Kevin is going through and I wish him a full recovery and only the best, but Taylor Swift owes him nothing.  He doesn't have a free pass into her life just because he's a "fan".  The dollars he spent on her work and the entertainment he received in return ends the transaction.  Period.  This "they owe me for being a fan" mentality is nearing epidemic proportions in this country.  Look at first the outrage by some in New Jersey that services for Whitney Houston were NOT to be held at the Prudential Center after all, then the following closure of the cemetery where she was buried due to fans in huge numbers trampling through the property just to gawk at her grave.

There's something wrong with people.

So 55,000 people are trying to 'draft' Taylor Swift and pressure her into a date with a total stranger, and they'll feel justified because a) she's famous therefore...what?...owes it? and b) because he's not physically well.  How obnoxious.  If the young man wants to meet Taylor Swift, wants to ask her to his prom, find out how to contact her then do so privately and politely.  And when she says no or doesn't respond at all, accept it and move on like a normal person.  Don't create a public relations pressure machine to bully someone into a date so that they don't "look bad" that they "didn't care about someone with Leukemia" which is exactly the end result here if she doesn't comply.  Seriously, seriously pathetic.

 

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