Chapter 3  

OK, as far as the “mystery woman” or MS, I had considered revealing her name here, but I have decided against it, because it doesn’t really matter what her name is anyway. MS is a relative of some famous (older) singers--- she has their last name. I need to explain that I WAS quite skeptical of this person when I first heard from her.  It was quite hard for me to believe that anyone close to Josh would contact me and tell me anything at all about Josh’s life. Why would she do such a thing? I asked her that question and her answer was that she supposed that it was that she needed someone to talk to, and I guess she liked my posts. Now, as I said, I was posting in the “Josh Groban Underground” at the time I got the first messages from MS in October, 2004. I had not yet been banned from FOJG, so I was posting there too. MS told me that Josh’s “other girlfriend” was an artist and a college graduate and an animal lover. Sounded like someone he’d like, but I was still finding it hard to believe, so I decided to tell some members of the Josh Groban Underground about this person’s emails, to find out if anyone could verify what she was saying. But no luck there—nobody knew anything about it, nor knew who she was, and so I dropped the subject and never told them anymore about her. I did do some investigating on my own on the internet, trying to find information about her. I did find one thing: her name was referenced in relation to one of the songs on the famous singers’ albums. She wrote that song. So at that point I knew she was a real person, and indeed was the cousin of these famous singers. She also mentioned that her ex-husband was a set decorator on a famous long-running TV show, and that she had lived in Hollywood for many years. So it seemed logical, since she was around the entertainment industry, that she could have met Josh somehow. Now, anyone who has emailed back and forth with me knows that I tend to write LONG emails and ask a lot of questions too…lol. So it was no different with MS. And people tell me that they like getting emails from me, and MS appeared to enjoy our exchanges. But she was very secretive, and never told me where she lived (what town). The secrecy and reluctance to answer my questions is one of the main reasons I began to believe that this person WAS telling me the truth. She certainly did not appear to be someone making up wild stories and blabbing them to anyone who would listen to boast about her “connections”. She seemed to be genuinely interested in talking to me and glad that I could offer her some comfort. After a couple of months she had given me enough hints that I was not actually talking to the “friend of the friend of Josh”, but actually the “friend” herself. She explained that she didn’t see Josh that often, but she lived in a secluded area and he would visit her as he could fit it into his busy schedule. She also explained that she hated the “Hollywood life” and Josh needed a person to attend parties and events with--- hence his “hook-up” with January. At first, MS didn’t appear to be too angry or upset about the “arrangement”—she explained that Josh needed someone to “hang on his arm”. At this point, I know everyone is thinking: how on earth could Louise be so gullible to believe such an outrageous thing? Well, I guess you would have to read her emails to fully understand, and also, please understand that all my life I have believed that people don’t lie—well, most of time. I don’t lie, and so I suppose it is hard for me to understand why anyone would lie –especially about knowing people or having a relationship with someone. It was beyond my comprehension that someone could be weaving a complete fairy tale with every email sent to me. But apparently that is what was happening. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. As the months passed, MS appeared to be having “problems” with things and often described arguments and hurt and disappointment. She would tell me that “Josh called” and be happy about it….then later would be upset because they had some sort of argument about something. She appeared to be getting frustrated with January, and me being the kind of person who wants to help those who are sad and lonely, I offered her my sympathies and an ear for her expressions of anguish. As you can imagine, this fueled my resentment towards January, who I felt was not only hurting Josh with her actions, but also was hurting my “friend” too. And so that is why I wanted to explain about the communications with this “mystery woman”, so everyone could perhaps understand why I was so interested in posts about January on Josh’s boards. Now, even though I was about 95% sure that MS as telling me the truth, there WAS that 5% doubt, because there were a few times she said something that didn’t quite make sense. And so I decided to ask Jack Groban about MS. He had already answered many of my emails in the past (about seven of them), and so I thought he might answer my questions about MS. He said that he knew of her—that she had emailed him about concert tickets in the past, but that she was no friend of Josh. Well, MS told me she had never met Josh’s parents, only his brother. So I believed that Jack WAS telling the truth--- and that he simply was unaware of what was going on with MS. In the Spring of 2005, I know I got WAY too wound up with all the January-Josh-MS saga, because I not only saw my friend suffering but I saw Josh being upset and sad and being treated with disrespect, and that infuriated me. And as I explained many times in the past, I am a fighter for those I care about.

I continued talking to MS until May of 2005, when she abruptly stopped emailing me. It was REALLY abrupt, as she had been emailing me every few days, and the last email I got from her was something casual about going to the dentist, and that she would get back to me later. Also, about this time I was banned from FOJG and I was also told that my pillows were not welcome in Josh’s charity anymore. And I finally realized the truth about MS—that she had not really ever talked to Josh—that everything she had told me was a complete fantasy. One of the main reasons I realized this was because I caught her in a lie: she had said that she was going to a dinner party and in attendance was a famous movie star. But when I looked up the star on the internet, I was shocked to see that this star was actually in England—nowhere near where this supposed dinner party was located! I was devastated and angry to realize I had been lied to, and I even tried to deny it to myself at first. I even tried to figure out a way that the actor could have been back from England in time for that dinner party…lol. I guess I just couldn’t believe anyone could do something like this to anyone: lie over and over, especially since I had given so much of my heart to this person, to try to help them. The combination of realizing that I had been used and fooled, along with the banning from FOJG and Josh’s charity…all happening within a few weeks…. it was very hard to take, and it is still upsetting for me to think about, especially since I have tried to get answers from people about my bannings, etc. and have been met with mostly silence. To me, that is unnecessarily cruel. I think I could have handled everything better if I had just been given some sort of explanation. A short email from Jack, from anyone. But it never came. I am guessing that it is not a coincidence that I stopped hearing from MS at about the same time I was banned from FOJG and the charity. Perhaps someone found out that MS was communicating with me and perhaps she was bugging Josh in some way, and I was fueling her fantasy and actions. Like I said, I did tell Jack Groban that I was emailing with her, but again, I thought he was “out of the loop” somehow. So I continued to believe what MS told me: that Josh called her and visited her and even flew her to New York to see him perform. She never told me many specific details about Josh, but rather talked a lot about her life, her thoughts, and her feelings. She was a very interesting person! We shared many views and she seemed to enjoy talking to me. 

I never got an email from Jack again, after he responded to me about MS. If I was fueling MS’s fantasy and causing her to do something to bother Josh or cause him problems in any way, Josh, I am deeply sorry for doing that, but as I have said, I believed this woman was telling me the truth—I was a victim too. And I admit, a gullible fool. I still don’t know what happened to MS or why she stopped talking to me, or if she has something to do with why I was banned from Josh’s world. Perhaps someday I will learn the truth.  

I did hear from MS one more time, in the Fall of 2005. But the email was one line long and explained nothing. All she said was that she had been ill, and that she was “better now”. Well, I was “ill” over the whole thing TOO, and I still get ill thinking about it, because I don’t have all the answers. But life goes on…. 

Next chapter…. Lynne calls me “obscene” and a stalker…. Turmoil in the Josh Groban Underground…. And the Alliance starts up……