Chapter 4 

I had joined FOJG (Friends of Josh Groban) on the first day it was launched in October, 2003. That was an exciting time, because Closer was about to come out in just a few weeks, and they gave the members there special song previews. My username was the same there also, and I posted there just fine with that name until May, 2005. After my usernames were banned at joshgroban.com at the end of 2004, I continued posting in FOJG, but not often. I posted in the IMDB message boards, and got into some really heated arguments over January. One of the reasons why I got so involved with the issue of January Jones was because popular culture and current music trends affected my OWN family so much. To me, the issues that were discussed related directly to my own community and my own sons. It wasn’t just a matter of discussing Josh’s girlfriend, or butting into his personal life. I didn’t know anything about his personal life. I was always discussing public things: press articles (her quotes), her public actions, her public photos, her movies, etc. And that led to discussions about our culture in general. So not only was I upset by my perception that Josh, a person I care about, was being used by a Hollywood starlet, it was also the fact that in these discussions, issues such as lowering of standards in our society, corrupting influences of powerful people in Hollywood, talent versus promotion, and freedom of speech all came into play in comments that were made. Even though people have tried to portray me as a hateful person who is not supporting Josh, I felt I was fighting for my children and the young people in my community, and fighting for Josh Groban. I only want the best for Josh and ALL young people in our society. And I stand up for what I believe in.

As far as the Josh Groban Underground (which was private), over time, the tone changed from one of support of Josh to attacking of Josh. The leader there (and others) became more and more critical of Josh, the longer he dated January. They accused him of “going Hollywood”, being spoiled, etc. etc., and all the while I continued to defend him. I suppose I came to hold the minority opinion. Then, there was a discussion having to do with January and people got really bent out of shape over a sarcastic fictional story I made there. (See I was already writing satire back then…lol.) Someone said that we shouldn’t talk about girls who pose in Maxim because it might cause them to commit suicide. I found that statement ridiculously funny, and so I made up a fictional letter from the editor of the magazine which talked about how all the girls who pose really are very nice and they bake cookies and want to be Girl Scout Leaders. And it requested that the subscribers not talk speak up about moral values, etc. to the girls because that might lead to them commit suicide. Apparently some in the Underground were not amused ..gee… no sense of humor.  It was a silly joke, for heaven’s sake. Well, that was the end of my Underground days… I was booted out. Due to other “dissatisfactions”, the Josh Groban Alliance was formed by an Underground member, and I am not sure when that happened. It was a public forum, rather than private, and eventually that was taken over by Marty. Marty infuriated me many times with her censorship and actions such as “bozoing” people, which means that you post and you think people are seeing your posts, but they are NOT. It is a despicable tactic to me. But more on the Alliance in the next chapter….

OK…a little more information about my second username banning at joshgroban.com at the end of 2004. As I explained above, the incident was about my speaking out about Lynne Malone on the board. I was very upset that she claimed that I was insulting Josh and his family and being “negative” all the time. I was SO upset that I decided to bump all my recent threads that I had started, which were ALL positive: trivia games for Josh pillows, gushing over Josh and his performances, and tracking his CD sales. Of course, I am NOT saying that I was never “negative” about anything. I speak out about everything, and the message board world is never 100% “positive”. But I would estimate that 95% of my posts in all the threads were positive comments. Yes, people could argue that the 5% negativity overshadows the other 95%....I understand that. But I didn’t think that, overall, I deserved the harsh response I got—from fellow board members and from Lynne. As far as why my username was banned again, that is not exactly clear—some say it could have been because I bumped all my threads, maybe not because of my post to Lynne. I was never given any explanation, so I don’t know.

After that second username banning I was so upset that I emailed Jack Groban about it. I KNOW that the last thing that he wants to get in his email inbox is messages from distraught fans of his son, but I suppose I wanted to tell him that I have NOTHING but admiration for Josh, and I would never do anything to hurt him. I didn’t really expect him to respond to my email, but I was hoping he would at least read it. To my great surprise and extreme pleasure, he sent me a VERY nice email back. He explained that he really wasn’t involved in the message board and told me not to worry about it. He said that sometimes Josh’s record company is “overprotective” of him, and that it would all “pass”. What a NICE MAN!! To take the time out of his busy schedule to email me back and say such nice things!

January’s new movie came out in May 2005, and Josh and January went to the Cannes Film Festival, where the movie had its world premiere. You can get lots of information about the movie at the IMDB message site for it here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419294/

There were many sites where you can see a screen shot from the movie with January in it—from a sex scene in the movie, so apparently it was distributed by the makers of the film in their promotional material. Many websites have a descriptive caption, too.

At this time I was still a member of FOJG, posting with my original username. On May 24th, 2005, I made several posts in a "Josh and Jan at Cannes" thread in FOJG, commenting on January Jones’ role in her new film, and in response to other members saying idiotic things like "Josh and January should get married because they look so good together in photos", etc. Yep, January DID look very beautiful in that red dress. But it irritated me to the MAX that people were saying that they should get married just because they look nice together. Uhhh… THAT is a good basis for a serious relationship? Give me a break. I found it VERY insulting to JOSH that these people were saying that. So I spoke up. Being the sarcastic soul that I am, I made a post referring to the screen shot from her movie. Here is my post: 

Joan, yes, it IS a shame everyone can't be kind--why does Cheekymonkie have to be that way? And you are right Bonnie, mean comments do not belong on the "Friends" website......constantly telling other fans that they have been "turned in" is really quite mean, huh??

And yes Lauren, I do think before I post.....

Hey, since all of you seem to LOVE to talk about January and post photos of her, I have one for you. It's a NEW one from her NEW movie!! She's getting screwed doggie-style..isn't it just sweet and lovely?? And I bet Jack and Lindy will want to add that to their "January Photo Album" along with her Maxim photos and the famous nipples-thru-the-lace photo. Gosh, they must be SO proud of their son's girlfriend!!

OK, it WAS outrageous. It WAS sarcastic. But I was totally pissed off---especially since certain fans were constantly telling people to stop talking about Josh’s personal life. But there is always a double standard there: you can talk about January ALL you want to, even going so far as to try to convince Josh to MARRY her, but as soon as somebody like me comes along and disagrees and states that they don’t like the things she has done, then they start screaming at me to not talk about his personal life! Also, it is apparently OK to start threads called “Cabooseaholics”  where you talk all day about Josh’s A$$ (and post photos), but as soon as I make a reference to an OFFICIAL photograph from January’s movie, which is all over the internet, all of a sudden I am evil incarnate. Sorry, but I just don’t get the logic of that place.

Well, I suppose you guessed it by now…..the next time I tried to login to FOJG, I got this: “This account has been disabled.”..…..

Of course I was very upset to be locked out of FOJG in May. It seemed so unfair to me—and I still think that it was unfair. I guess what was so unfair was that IF people in FOJG can post about Josh's crotch and chest hair, post about how women posing nude is fine, and if they can constantly start fights on the board about everything from 'sleeping with Josh' fantasies to politics to other fans behavior, then why was what I said any different? Why was I banned, but not the others? And to clarify, I don't care if people talk about all that stuff. If Josh doesn't care about people talking about his crotch, then I don't give a rat's a$$ either. I thought many of those threads were extremely funny.

Meanwhile, back at joshgroban.com, posts about me pop up in the "Vent" thread in the Grobanite Discussion Forum, making fun of me, and making threatening statements such as suggesting to beat me up, to shoot me with a tranquilizer gun and put me in a straightjacket, and to infect my computer with viruses. Several posters even later implied that I was the Ezboard hacker! I was so horrified by the posts of these wonderful "fans", and I couldn’t even respond to their threats and accusations… if I tried to, my posts were deleted and I was banned again.

But back to the week after my banning from FOJG…. here is where it REALLY gets interesting…..

On June 2nd, I got an email from a person working for “Clique Fan Club Support” notifying me that I am getting a refund of my FOJG membership cost, and within this email are many forwarded emails from various people working for the fan club and for Josh. This is obviously a big mistake by this person, and after I sent a response email thanking them for including all those emails for my viewing pleasure, I got an email apologizing for the previous “unprofessional email”. The first email in the chain was an email from Spyder to Lynne Malone (which included my post) saying this: I can't believe she posted this...Is she trying to get banned? It's like she is sticking her tongue out at everyone, including Josh.

This was a VERY interesting email, because not long before that Spyder had sent me a nasty email claiming she was not a member of the “board police” and that she “didn’t turn people in”. LIAR.

The next email in the chain was from Lynne Malone to Dan (the moderator at joshgroban.com and at FOJG), asking Dan to “warn me”, and Dan replied to Lynne that he would do that, and that anything after that would get me the “boot”. Please note that I was NEVER given any “warning” at ALL—my post was deleted and my username was disabled without ever hearing from ANYONE.

And then Lynne sent the following email to Dan:

Dan,
Per Avnet and the Grobans, please ban Louise xxx from FOJG.  
She is obscene and has also stalked Jack via email.  
Call me if you have any doubts.
Lynne

At this point I am so shocked that I don’t really know what to do. I contacted Jack Groban via email and ask him about this so-called "stalking", but get no response. This is an incredibly baffling accusation, since Jack Groban had sent me ten very nice emails in the past. Since when do you send emails TO someone who is “stalking” you?? I sent my first email to Jack in June, 2003, and from that month to January, 2005, Jack sent 10 emails back to me. After January, 2005, I told him several times that if he wanted me to stop emailing him, to let me know, and I would honor that request.

And another thing: if my post in FOJG was “obscene”, and I was simply pointing to and describing a photo of January and Barry Pepper in their movie, is Lynne saying that January is obscene?

Accusing me of being obscene is pretty bad, but stalking is a CRIME, and I did NOT take this lightly. I emailed Brian Avnet and other people associated with Warner Brother records and FOJG, but never got any response. 

Finally, I want to address this claim people are making that Lynne did not ban me, but was simply carrying out orders from her boss and the Grobans. I am NOT disputing that. I never said that Lynne alone was responsible for my bannings. I’m not sure what the truth really is, but the string of emails I got by accident proves that she gave the orders to ban me. And I think it is probably true that she received orders to do that from the Grobans and/or Brian. And of course, the person who told all of them about my post to begin with was Spyder. I seriously doubt if anyone would have known about my post if the board police hadn’t stuck their big noses into everything. 

But a major point I would like to make is this: I seriously doubt that Jack Groban called up Lynne Malone and told her “Louise is a stalker. Get rid of her.” The thought of that happening makes me laugh. I had sent Jack only NINE emails between the last time I heard from him in January 2005, to the time I was banned in May. I hardly think that anyone would conclude that two emails a month is “stalking” someone. If anyone doesn’t believe me, contact Jack Groban and ask him. Now I don’t know if I made Jack angry in my emails to him during that time. I may HAVE. But even so, I still can’t believe he would label me a stalker, considering how kind he had been to me in the past! (Also, keep in mind that during those five months, I was talking with the “mystery woman”, who was lying to me about everything, and getting me so upset about everything…)

Also, I can’t believe that they would call me “obscene” either. So the main problem I have with Lynne is what she said about me in the email she sent to employees of Warner Bros. I do NOT appreciate being LIBELED by a member of Josh’s management team. I am NOT a “stalker” and never have been. I was furious she slapped that label on me. 

Well, that’s enough for this chapter…. Next, I am devastated when I am told my Josh pillows are no longer welcome in Josh’s charity……..