Grand Theft Auto Photo: David Caruso/Sofia Milos Photos, Revisited.

Back in early July, To Catch a Wacko posted an entry that concerned a photo that featured actors Sofia Milos and David Caruso, submitted to celebandme.com last April by a supposed fan named "Karen".

Given the inconsistent and characteristically sloppy info included with the submission, we speculated that the photo was misappropriated by none other than the lady primarily known by cyber-aliases "Vixen" and "Karen Spelling" -- as you readers might recall, the mysterious and creepy Austrian national with an on-line/off-line obsession with [stalking] David Caruso, his family, and other associates.

To our surprise, the moderators over at celebandme.com found our site and soon shared our misgivings over the authenticity of the photo. After learning of the cyber-stalker's propensity to steal and misrepresent on-line intellectual property, the mods promptly removed the photo.

Recall, however, that a few questions remained unresolved:

1. Who is the fan in the photo and where has she published the image before?
2. Was the photo misappropriated and used on celebandme.com without the real owner's knowledge/authorization?
3. Were there (or are there) 'contests' for fans to visit the CSI: Miami set?

We're happy to report that we can finally answer these questions. To Catch a Wacko is grateful to Jenny, a bubbly and highly cognizant net surfer, for supplying us with the following details.

Thank you, Jenny!

With regard to Question #1, we now know that the photo belongs to Elisabetta Armiato (see the above image), a retired Prima Ballerina and former pupil of Scuola di Ballo del Teatro alla Scala (the "Ballet School of the Teatro alla Scala"), who now instructs her own specialized classes/workshops in the art of body movement.

Indeed, Armiato would be the "mysterious" third person in the photo with Milos and Caruso. It was taken on the set of CSI: Miami in 2005, during the filming of a season 3 episode (319 - "Sex & Taxes").

A trip to Armiato's official site, ABCoftheBody.com, proves to be the authentic source of the photo (note the gallery). There are also several other photos/video demos of Armiato working with Sofia Milos. Additionally, a cropped version of the photo appears on Sofia Milos' official site (see here, scroll down). It turns out that the actress is a close friend and a private pupil of Armiato. Thus, this would explain the connection between the ballerina and CSI: Miami.

The photo was also posted and discussed among patrons of a third external site -- CSIfiles.com -- on its official message board (see here). Interestingly, it was posted a few days *after* To Catch A Wacko first brought up our suspicions about the photo, and it would appear the patrons of CSIfiles.com were not aware of "Vixen" or her fraudulent photo submission. We thus conclude that the sloppy cyber-stalker would have most definitely pilfered the photo from Elisabetta Armiato's site.

To answer Question #2, we figure that neither Armiato nor Milos were aware that their photo was misappropriated/egregiously misrepresented by "Vixen/Karen Spelling" as a result of its incidental connection to Caruso. Indeed, given past incidents of stolen celebrity candids, we reckon they *still* may not be aware.

Finally, as for Question #3, we're still not sure whether CBS offers "fan contests" but this may be a moot concern at this point -- as we've already authenticated the true source of the photo through the first two questions.

Nevertheless, we can finally lay this particular mystery to rest. As we initially suspected, the photo A) was published prior to the submission to celebandme.com, B) the submission itself was fraudulent and C) the impostor, "Karen", is clearly You-Know-Who. Moreover, we're now sure that this incident further proves that our cyber-stalking Austrian woman -- endlessly obsessed with "cyber-revenge" against a presumably oblivious TV actor -- continues to defy the boundaries of absurdity. Fortunately, everyone else has a better grasp of reality.

To "The Delusional One" herself, we'd just like say -- "nice try".

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Cyberstalker turns up in month-old German press reports?

In a very surreal turn of events, it would appear that we finally have an answer to a few questions that this To Catch A Wacko blog half-jokingly/half-seriously raised several months ago (see: "How a Deranged Cyberstalker was Born") .

Either this is all a really bad coincidence or the mysterious woman behind more than two-dozen web pseudonyms, and countless online forum disruptions, appears to be a woman allegedly wanted by the US and Austrian criminal authorities for really stalking Caruso off-line.

It turns out that the German and Austrian press published these claims back in late July. Here is one such source, a German-only web paper based in Triol, Austria. An English translation of this particular article can be read after the "jump".

Many, many thanks to Christiane and Chris for being really generous about providing us with this English translation.

July 20, 2007
LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
Unfulfilled autograph request: death threat
A woman from Innsbruck, Austria was tried for 'dangerous threats’ this Thursday. She had threatened to kill none other than the lead actor of the TV series CSI: Miami.

Threats sent by letter
The US TV-star David Caruso, lead actor of the TV show CSI:Miami and best known by his screen-name - "Horatio Caine" - received a death threat by a woman from Innsbruck [Austria]. Apparently, the woman wrote almost 100 letters to the actor. When her request for an autograph was not answered she threatened to kill Caruso and his girl-friend in a registered letter.

"CSI: Innsbruck" identified the perpetrator
The FBI together with the Austrian police department started to investigate the matter. They quickly identified the origin of the letters.

Suspect on the loose
The woman who is being accused of threatening the actor has disappeared. Neither family nor employer seems to have any knowledge of her whereabouts.

"The trial will be held in her absence," so says Günther Gast, the appointed defense attorney of the accused stalker. "My client has not been seen at work. Her family fears that something bad has happened."

Whether David Caruso has ever received the letters is doubtful, probably not very likely.

US requests extradition
Since the US government has issued a request for extradition, it would be dangerous for the woman to be on her way to Miami – the [filming] location of CSI: Miami - as she has done many times in the past.

"The worst thing to do now would be to book a flight to the US. The woman would be taken into custody at the airport and would face considerably higher charges than she would in this country."

DA has never seen his client
"The missing stalker is probably a woman who appears without many obvious problems in life. She has family and is successful in her job," so goes the description given by her defense attorney. He has, however, never met her in person.

She did not appear in court on Thursday, where she was to be tried for making 'dangerous threats'. A psychiatrist attested the Caruso-fan may have a profound mental disability. A second medical opinion will examine how dangerous the woman is.

Source: http://tirol.orf.at/stories/208788

It's all rather unnerving, for lack of better terms, and generally not as funny as the situation once appeared to be, particularly since the mysterious woman has disrupted on-line communities on a daily basis even after the reports were published weeks ago.

At the end of the day, in spite of our speculation that the mysterious woman was deeply disturbed, we didn't imagine that the situation went beyond an issue of just some highly narcissistic and annoying internet troll. Nor did it occur to us that the "cyberstalking" was a serious extension of real physical staking.

Finally, it's just a tad disturbing that our initial question -- "what gives?" -- would be answered under such criminal legal circumstances. One may vehemently like or dislike a person but there's no debating that stalking and physically threatening them is simply abnormal human behavior.

Looks like the situation has progressed *far* beyond the scope of even this blog.

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Obsessive Celeb Fixations: Life Imitating Art?

Explicit lyrics, mildly disturbing content, not work-safe:

It's interesting to note how much of the internet presence of the David Caruso's mysterious cyberstalker resembles a character from a song entitled "Stan" by Eminem (featuring Dido). "Stan" is the story of an overly-obsessed fan who takes his fixation with Eminem to volatile and destructive levels. Reading the lyrics, one might be slightly disturbed by how familiar this all seems.

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An e-Stalker's Sloppy Handiwork (Vix-Myths Pt. 2)

"Part II" of Vix-Myths™ would not have been possible without the help of a handful of patient and surprisingly resilient tipsters -- you know who you are -- THANK YOU all!

Vix-Myths Pt. 2 - False Gossip for Stalkers Dummies

This [*very* extensive] installment will have a look at dubious rumors concerning actress Eva La Rue (formerly of Y&R) and David Caruso because fortunately, with a little common sense, there's an unmistakable digital (and sloppy) paper trail that links the false rumor to our mysterious cyberstalker.

Let's have a look at that trail.



Back in late 2006, a college buddy -- who also happens to be a soap junkie -- sent me a link to Gloria and Karen's Y&R Dish site. Aware that I watched police/law genre shows, he assumed I would be intrigued by rumors of a secret romance between two CSI co-stars. Here's an excerpt:

KAREN: I [...] understand there are rumors on various websites that Eva LaRue (ex-Maria) and David Caruso are involved in more than just their TV show, "CSI: Miami" [...]

GLORIA: I have issues with David Caruso (won’t resort to defamation of character here), so, would that mean I’d have to have issues with Eva--by association?

And very intrigued I was, for I thought I had read a very vague account of this rumor on a different site. I didn't know at the time that the site belonged to a weird stalker. (You *might* recognize it's general content from our previous installment of Vix-Myths™). It wasn't until To Catch A Wacko was launched (6 months later) that the connection between rumors and cyberstalkers was obvious.

Now, here's where it gets interesting. A different entry from the same short-lived blog shows "vixen" providing a mini-archive of obscure sites, all supposedly corroborating the rumor to be true. The problem, of course, is that the archive does no such thing.

First of all, the archive of links are by and large re-prints and interpolations of an alleged "sighting" that, to date, remains vague, undetermined and inconclusive. Additionally, coverage and corroboration from real entertainment gossip sources -- for example, TVGuide, People Magazine, ET, or Access Hollywood -- simply do not exist.

Secondly, a few "follow-up" La Rue/Caruso reports mysteriously appeared elsewhere on the internet. One was sourced as a "blind item" on TVguide.com under the stalker's pseudonym of "Horatiolover". Amusingly, when the stalker tried to cross-post the "blind item" to another site, onlookers realized that (1) the source was *really* written by TVguide's Head Writer, Michael Ausiello and (2) the stalker had tampered with Ausiello's piece in such a way as imply that the "blind item" was about Caruso/La Rue (when, in fact, it was not). The other "report" -- which was sourced on the Hollywood Backwash gossip site by an "anonymous" author -- was also fraudulent, for it only cited the National Enquirer's homepage as it's source. In fact, the National Enquirer has not featured Caruso-relevant gossip since 2004. (And doesn't carry La Rue-relevant gossip, period!)

Thirdly, the few legitimate news sources listed in the stalker's mini-archive -- in this case, The Gazette (Canada.com) and the DenverPost -- are second and third-hand reports that ultimately cite Janet Charlton Holywood.com in confirming the rumor. In fact, a majority of the links in the mini-archive cite a March19, 2007 article by Charlton, which indicates that Caruso and La Rue were "finally out in the open with their relationship". The cyberstalker, thrilled that someone had finally picked up her wildly invented tale, celebrated the publication, fiercely defending the indisputable reliability of Janet Charlton:



So imagine the cyberstalker's surprise when two weeks later (on April 6, 2007), Janet Charlton published a RETRACTION of her March 19 article. Highlights of this retraction include:

There were mysterious sightings of the pair slipping in and out of various places around Los Angeles. But NO photos. After extensive research we are prepared to announce that David and Eva are NOT dating.

And our personal favorite:

Beyond mistaken identity, it seems Caruso's or SOMEBODY'S fanatical fans have been deliberately spreading false information to various news outlets.

OUCH! It's quite a blow to the ego when gossip sites reject one's "leads" as the work of stark-raving lunatics. But almost immediately, the stalker "blitzkrieg'ed" sites (such as the official Perez Hilton message board, now defunct) with comments admonishing Charlton for having supposedly been "bribed" by Caruso's publicists. Remember, this is the same stalker who extolled Charlton as a reliable source less than 3 weeks prior to the retraction. The irony is palpable.

Finally, both before and after the official retraction, our cybserstaker engaged in a desperate campaign of "self-sourcing" across several gossip/entertainment message boards as, again, "Horatiolover" (here and here at HollywoodRag.com) and "laruerules" (at Evalarue.com), to name but a few. By "self-sourcing" we mean posting false information on multiple message boards with no real sources other than (1) links that don't exist (2) the stalker's creepy blogs and/or (3) any of the debunked/retracted sources already discussed above.

In a nutshell, not only is the La Rue/Caruso rumor false, it was never attributed to authentic/reputable sources or fan sightings to begin with. And of course, we have come full circles -- for it was our highly delusional, characteristically sloppy cyberstalker who was "meta-submitting" and self-sourcing the false rumor to the links listed in her mini-archive all along.

Now, we know what you're thinking: why would this stalker be obsessed with linking David Caruso to Eva La Rue in a non-existent love affair? We'll explore the plausible answer in the next installment of Vix-Myths™.

Do join us then and as always, thanks for tuning in.

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