After I reviewed “Hairspray” in July, I got this e-mail from a reader named Jeff:
I can’t believe you made it through whole “Hairspray” review, even mentioning Amanda Bynes by name, without making reference to that 40+ year old creepy guy that hosts a fan website in her honor! Perhaps you didn’t want to detract from an otherwise glowing review….
Then, when I gave a much more negative review of the Bynes vehicle “Sydney White,” a commenter named “ClobberGirl” once again invoked Creepy Guy:
Where’s that creepy Amanda Bynes fan site guy? Someone should show him this review. I bet he’d say more hilariously crazy stuff for us if we did.
Alas, as subsequent commenters noted, his site is no more.
If you’re just joining us, Creepy Amanda Bynes guy, aka Robert Mackey, sent me three e-mails in 2006, each vigorously and angrily defending the object of his obsession, who was also the subject of his website, “Amanda Bynes NOW!” The first letter came when I reviewed her in “She’s the Man”; the second was when I reviewed Lindsay Lohan’s “Just My Luck” but made mention of the awful “She’s the Man”; the third was when I reviewed the “Just My Luck” DVD and made the same “She’s the Man” crack.
Mackey, a professional crossword puzzle constructor by trade, is in his mid-40s, and his “Amanda Bynes NOW!” site was an alarming and unsettling mixture of gushy Amanda Bynes praise and illogical tirades against all who oppose her. In one memorable instance, he carried out a long hate-filled campaign against Jennifer Love Hewitt. Why? Because she was the star of “Ghost Whisperer,” which was on at the same time as Bynes’ “What I Like About You” and which allegedly caused that show’s cancellation by drawing viewers away from it.
His e-mails to me were hilarious and vindictive. He was clearly off his rocker when it came to Amanda Bynes devotion.
Yet now his site is gone. The domain name expired on Oct. 29 of last year, and Mackey never renewed it.
An interesting tidbit: The last blog entry I wrote about Mackey was on Oct. 25. Was he finally awakened to the absurdity and creepiness of his obsession? Did he make a conscious decision to abandon the site? We’ll never know.
The Internet archive has preserved some of Mackey’s site, here. You can get a taste of what it was like. Sadly, much of it is lost to history.
He and his brother Dave still work as crossword constructors, though, and you’ll find their site devoted to that subject here. Creepy Amanda Bynes Guy is the one on the right, with the beard.
