The rules of the experiment

No experiment can be legitimate without a set of rules to guide it.

The purpose of the experiment is to see if celebrities do care enough about their fans to give their autographs out. I want to see which celebrities seem to respond more, A listers, B listers, faded stars, popular ones, young, old, etc, etc.

I am a firm believer that if the general public watch the tv shows or films and buy the dvds and merchandise, then the celebrities wouldn't have the money that a lot of them have. No one forces anyone to become and actor or a singer, if you put yourself in the public eye you not only put yourself up for scrutiny but you have a responsibility to pay to your fans. If someone has paid over £120 on your albums and £30+ a go to see your concerts, then the least you can do for someone is sign a measly bit of paper.

The Rules:

1. Autographs can only be obtained two ways, by writing fan mail or meeting someone in person. None can be purchased either at a shop or online store like ebay, neither can I attend a signing event where the celebrity asks for payment in exchange for their signature.

2. Only one batch of letters can be sent a month, (any email requests must be sent on the same day) that way it will be easy to track the length of time a response takes.

3. Only GENUINE letters will be sent. I will not write to anyone whom I don't like or admire just for the sake of a signed picture. All letters must be from the heart, no copy & pasting allowed. I will be typing all the letters as my handwriting is illegible.

4. If there is no response after 3 months, then I will count those letters as having failed to get a response. (If a response is received later than this, I will over turn it.)

5. All celebrities will named unless there are extenuating circumstances.

6. Nothing I have obtained during the experiment will be sold on. As I am only going to obtain things from people I admire, there will be no reason for me to part with them.

7. Although I will not be mentioning specific dates on sending or receiving, each batch of letters will have a three month review. For example, in March I will post a full review of Decembers letters, stating which were successful & which weren't.

8. The sending of letters will go on for one year, December 2008 - December 2009, though it is likely I will still be receiving letters into 2010 so the blog will be updated regularly.

9. I can only find fan mail addresses by doing my own research. Checking fansites or agent/managment websites is fine, using websites which list hundreds of celebrity addresses is not fine. I know these websites are very handy for people who collect autographs as a hobby, however since this is an experiment I feel I should work hard for the addresses I find.

10. I will not be giving out celebrity addresses or information, if you want to write to someone a website like Movie Eye will probably be best for you.

(I may add to these rules as the experiment goes on.)