Richard Armitage - the perfect fantasy?

Here are a few remarks I made in response to a post on Me + Richard Armitage last December, when the topic was about his fame, his friendship with an actress and the fandom that goes with it. Saved them because I thought they could be used as basis for posts here, which hasn't really happened. But anyway, here goes:

Picture from Me + Richard Armitage,
found through Google

I too have a sort of reluctant interest in Ms. Capper, which is really difficult to explain, because … well, would I be interested at all if she HADN’T been seen together with Richard Armitage? No. She sounds like a nice person, and we get the impression that Richard Armitage is a nice person too, so sounds like they’re well-matched as friends. If there’s more to it than friendship, who knows? Does it really matter to any of us either way?

I suppose that from a sense of being an ordinary woman, that he’s seen with a woman who looks REAL is the sort of self-satisfied “see? He’s a decent bloke, he wouldn’t be interested in one of those fake girls you see everywhere and especially in the glitzy world of showbiz, he wants a REAL woman! (… Like me!)” Because that’s just it, isn’t it? If he was seen with a supermodel, he would be Just Like Everyone Else – one who cares more about the appearance of someone rather than about the person they are inside, which I loathe anyway, and that would perhaps diminish a part of the attRAction [sic].

Good grief, fangirl psychological analysis is a slippery slope. You go into it with the best of intentions and come out sounding more insane than you did going in! *cowers*

It's a double-edged sword. Like you say, we're all real women, and just because someone has gone down the "surgically enhanced" route doesn't make her into a machine or anything. There's still a living, breathing human being inside.
I think feefa put it very well:

If RA is a fantasy object then she’s a potential rival (crudely put) – but it helps that she seems to be a good thing, by anyone’s criteria. What’s not to identify with?

Perhaps that's the thing. Richard Armitage is our fantasy and Annabel Capper is our projected rival, of sorts. But if she's genuinely a "decent person" and someone we can identify with, which most of us can't when it comes to the "rich and beautiful" (even though we too may be both beautiful and rich, of course) ... well then she's not so much of a rival but more a substitute for ourselves? We can identify with her. Which then boils down to the whole issue of "if she's a friend of his, and she's a 'normal person' with half a brain, that means that by default, Richard Armitage would also get along famously with me, if we ever crossed paths" - which again, sounds if not creepy, at least it's bordering on stalkerish. Which, in turn, worries me.

Now, how much I may gush about the guy online, I'm a (reasonably) sensible person offline, and wouldn't dream of stalking a celebrity or get to the point of really believing that Richard Armitage and I would be BFFs if only we met. Likelihood of me ever meeting him - slim. Likelihood of me ever getting to a point where he'd consider me a friend - none.

Yet there's still that nagging feeling of if we met and had a proper conversation, we'd have things to talk about and would most likely get along quite well because we seem to have a similar approach to life in general. But, and here's the important part, I would never try to seek him out and force myself into his company and actually truly believe that all that stands between us and a happily ever after (as friends or otherwise) is an introduction. That's the stuff of fantasy and romance novels, not real life, and I know that. So why can't I just shake off the "we could be such good friends" feeling, when I know that sort of thought is uncomfortably close to erotomania?

And again, delving further into fan attitudes and behaviours does make you sound insane. Can I justify it by saying I've done some psychology studies at uni because I've always found psychology a most fascinating topic? :)