‘Voice’ Denies Stalking Claim

CORRECTION APPENDED

The Harvard Voice is battling media accusations this week that it launched a targeted campaign to stalk “Harry Potter” actress Emma Watson at the Harvard-Brown football game last Friday—and the student publication is returning fire.

A New York Post article titled “Harvard Jerks Stalked Emma” reported yesterday that the Voice organized the harassment of Watson—a freshman at Brown University—with live blog updates throughout the night and actively tried to “draw as much attention to her as possible.”

But Alisha D. Ramos ’12, editor-in-chief of the Voice, called the piece an “outrageous” fabrication. On the Voice blog yesterday afternoon, Ramos denied accusations that the Voice planned to stalk Watson, emphasizing the purposefully “facetious” tone of the live updates and the happenstance nature of a blurry photograph of Watson leaving Harvard stadium that was posted on the blog the night of the game.

In an interview with The Crimson yesterday, Ramos said she stands behind the Voice’s reporting of Watson’s visit, noting that the heavy student interest in the actress necessitated coverage by a publication that focuses on student life.

“We meant absolutely no harm to Emma Watson...We were not actively pursuing her, nor were we orchestrating a mob of stalkers as Page Six put it.” Ramos said. “Our mission is really to report on things that Harvard students care about—and clearly this is something students are talking about.”

Emily X.L. Xie ’12, director of photography for the Voice, declined to reveal the identity of the staff photographer who snapped the picture, which was later posted on the Voice blog. But Xie stressed that “nobody was actually stalking Emma Watson.”

“The fact that we obtained the photo in the end was just as surprising to us and perhaps a bit hilarious as well,” Ramos said.

During the course of Friday’s football game, the Voice posted a series of live tweets that took a Watson-heavy turn around 7:42 p.m—more than two hours before the game began.

Subsequent posts included “EMMA IS HERE” and “WATSON FOUND. i [sic] repeat WATSON FOUND.” The posts—which were intended to parody the obsession surrounding Watson—were written by Voice staffers present at the game, according to Ramos.

The Voice’s evening concluded with a photograph of Watson, posted at 11:34 p.m., which intensified the anger of some concerned readers. “Emma is a person and does not deserve to be treated like a piece of meat,” one comment read.

An item in Page Six, the New York Post’s infamous gossip page, stated on Tuesday that Watson looked “quite shaken” at the game as security guards tried to protect her from stalkers. The information came from a tip e-mailed to Page Six, according to New York Post reporter Neel Shah.

After the publication of the brief, the Post received another e-mailed tip that directed the publication’s attention to the Voice’s reporting of Watson’s appearance at the game, according to Shah, who subsequently wrote the fleshed-out article.

Shah said that he tried to contact the editor-in-chief and e-mailed the general Voice account—but received no responses.

Ramos confirmed that she had seen Shah’s e-mailed inquiry but declined to comment.

“They had a chance to refute the story,” Shah said in an interview with The Crimson yesterday. “I don’t really see what gripe they could possibly have...What was I supposed to do? Drive up there and talk to them individually?”

One Brown student—who met Watson during orientation and has subsequently been on friendly terms with the actress—said that she was unaware of any controversy regarding Watson’s appearance at the football game until she had been contacted for this article.

The individual said Watson strives to keep a low-profile around campus, and the celebrity can often be seen surrounded by friends—not by the paparazzi.

“I think she went to the Harvard game because she wanted to be a normal Brown student,” said the individual, who requested not to be named to protect Watson’s privacy. “Understandably, it’s really not cool to be stalked...But I think there’s more speculation about what’s going on from the outside than there is from the inside.”

Mark Nickel, director of university communications at Brown, said he had no official comment regarding Watson’s visit to Cambridge and whether she had been stalked during the game.

—Staff writer Esther I. Yi can be reached at estheryi@fas.harvard.edu.

CORRECTION

An earlier version of the Oct. 2 article "Harvard Voice Denies Hermione-Stalking Allegations" incorrectly stated that the Harvard Voice's blog posts about Emma Watson were written by Voice staffers not present at the Brown-Harvard football game on Sept. 25. In fact, the staffers writing the posts were present at the game, according to Voice editor-in-chief Alisha D. Ramos. The posts were put online with timestamps that indicated they were being posted three hours before gametime, but Ramos later clarified that the stamps were simply incorrect.