Everyone has heard the horror stories. One day you’re delivering your monologue, clapping to a few stupid pet tricks, and swapping awkward silences with Joaquin Phoenix, the next you wake up to find your stalker passed out on your tennis court with her arm wrapped around a bottle of Jack Daniels.
That’s what happened to David Letterman, anyway. The woman was no stranger. Beginning in 1988, Letterman’s stalker broke into his home no less than eight times.
Celebrities clearly have security concerns that the average Joe just doesn’t have to think about. To that end, Hollywood darling George Clooney and international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney would like to install an 18-camera security system on their property in the English countryside.
The problem is that in ensuring their own privacy, those 18 cameras will be infringing on the solitude of every Clooney neighbor.
Complaints from local residents in the village of Sonning Eye assert that the angle at which the cameras will be positioned could essentially allow the “Tomorrowland” star to set up his own neighborhood reality show.
The plan calls for ten cameras to be placed in and around the Clooney home, a $15.57 million dollar estate known as Mill House. But the security system would also include 8 additional cameras to be placed around the grounds. Those cameras would be installed atop tall, wooden poles.
To the neighbors, that’s a little excessive.
"A more appropriate security system could be achieved by a greater number of inward-facing, low-level cameras," reads the complaint, according to the Henley Standard.
The residents also describe the poles as being an eyesore that disturbs the town’s conservation area. Much of Sonning Eye retains its 17th-century charm, and there’s nothing less pastoral than eight cameras zooming in on every butterfly it sees.
Ultimately, the decision will be made by the South Oxfordshire district council. The results are expected in a couple of weeks, but word on the street is that the Clooney’s are going to get to permission to build the fortress of their dreams.
This is the star of ER, after all.
