When the Red Phone Rings: Her 15 Minutes of Fame

FM sat down for a tête-à-tête with Anne­-Marie Zapf-Belanger ’09, the Toronto native who skyrocketed to fame last spring when she posted a “casual encounters” ad on Craigslist for a tryst in Widener. Within hours the post hit the open list circuit, sparking debate about everything from morals to missionary. Zapf-Belanger responded in a mass e-mail, informing the world that she was serious, and still interested in shaking up the stacks.

The hubbub died down, but did Zapf-Belanger get down? FM finds out.

Q: How did it feel to go from a normal freshman girl to a Harvard celebrity?

A: It was kind of fun, I mean I was kind of surprised that it blew up in such a large fashion. I never expected anything that monumental to come of it—I sort of expected maybe 4 or 5 responses and it became this huge thing.

Q: FM heard that you finally received so many requests that you had to stop responding? Is that true?

A: I started responding to them individually and then I had to go to something, and I got back and there were tons and tons and tons of responses. So I sent out a mass email, and that’s where the mass email came in that got forwarded around to house lists.

Q: So how many responses to the post did you get?

A: I don’t remember—a couple hundred maybe? Maybe two hundred? Or was it two hundred and fifty?

Q: So who ended up being the lucky guy?

A: He didn’t want me to disclose his name, so I can respect that. I’ll say that he was a Harvard senior—which was nice because I figured a senior was a good idea because if anything went wrong I just would never have to see him again. Not that it did [she laughs].

Q: Are you still friends with him?

A: Nope, haven’t talked to him since. There was an email afterwards saying ‘that was fun, thanks,’ and that’s the extent of my interaction with him sense. But I assume he’s well.

Q: Did any of the librarians at Widener seem to know who you were?

A: Nope, no, there wasn’t any problem. I just walked right in, it was fine. I don’t think we were conspicuous at all, or at least I hope not. I mean you can’t always tell if you’re conspicuous or not. We had to relocate a couple of times, because you know, the footsteps, you hear them, you quickly pull down the skirt…

Q: Do you remember the books that were around?

A: No, I wasn’t really paying any attention to the books. It was somewhere in the basement though. Not Pusey, because I feel like that’s sort of cheating.

Q: Would you recommend that another guy or girl who might want to hook up in Widener use Craigslist?

A: I mean I think it’s kind of passé now. It’s kind of—you’re like an imitator now if you do it. It worked for me, but I don’t know if it would work again.

Q: You’ve now accomplished your list of three to-dos, which was to urinate on the foot of the John Harvard statue, run Primal Scream, and have sex in Widener. Which was the most fun?

A: Man, that’s hard. I mean, Primal Scream is just a great idea, and I vowed to do it 8 times because I’m pro-nudity all the way. As much nudity as possible all the time. Now I’m in the Dudley Co-op and my roommate doesn’t mind if I’m naked in my room, which is fantastic for me. John Harvard is also a lot of fun, just because the intake and outtake of food and drink are all so highly pleasurable—it’s just some of my favorite things. It’s a bit difficult in terms of getting up there. I’m short, so that was hard. I had to get a boost.

And yeah, the Widener thing was fun, it was much harder to put together because it’s much more complicated, you can’t just go and do it on a whim.