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WATERLOO REGION — Justin Bieber sightings continued to reach a fever pitch around the region this week, and teenaged girls’ text messages can hardly keep up.
On Sunday, the 16-year-old Stratford-born pop sensation nearly caused a stampede when he showed up unexpectedly at Fairview Park mall to do some Boxing Day shopping.
The next morning, he rented out the entire Empire Theatres multiplex on Ira Needles Boulevard for a private showing of his upcoming movie, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. He brought along about 20 friends and family, and lingered with fans for about 15 minutes after the movie ended.
Alerted by text messages, crowds of young female fans soon started showing up, wanting to touch the seat he sat in. The theatre plans to use a poster he signed and the now-famous seat as part of the promotion when the film is released in the spring.
“Two young girls asked me, ‘Can you please show us where he sat?’ They were so excited,” said Brooks LeBoeuf, director of operations at Empire Theatres.
The theatre asked staff to turn in their cellphones before Bieber’s arrival, in an effort to avoid the mayhem that broke out a day earlier at the mall. In that case, police were called in after hundreds of girls started pushing and screaming and broke some vases trying to get close to the star.
“We tried to keep it low-profile, because he wasn’t here to make a celebrity appearance. We didn’t want it to turn into a madhouse,” LeBoeuf said.
After deciding against his security entourage’s suggestion that he sneak out the theatre’s emergency exit, Bieber and his family went up the road to Boston Pizza — where staff mistook him for a look-alike.
That is, until hordes of fans, alerted by text messages, started showing up there, too.
“A lot of girls came in after the fact looking for him,” said Suzie Gasselle, a manager at the restaurant. “It was pretty crazy that this happened here.”
On Monday afternoon, Bieber’s shopping spree continued in uptown Waterloo, where the heartthrob bought a pile of colourful hoodies and v-neck T-shirts from American Apparel on King Street.
As usual, staff there said he was exceedingly polite and respectful. He was left alone with his mother to shop and quietly left at about 3 p.m.
Bieber, who is in the region visiting his family, has been pursued at every turn by throngs of fans who typically follow him wherever he goes, even when he’s on break from his hectic schedule.
The pop star, who reportedly earns $300,000 for each performance, hasn’t spoken publicly about his trip home, except to say he’s enjoying the downtime.
“Another solid day hanging with the family and friends. Love the holidays,” he wrote Tuesday to his 6.4 million followers on Twitter.
As hyperventilating girls try to guess where the singer will pop up next, the places he’s already visited here have been turned into shrines of sorts for his fans.
Teenagers have been flocking to the stores he visited on Sunday at Fairview Park mall, including the Sunglass Hut.
They want to walk on the same ground Bieber’s sneakers touched and sniff the same air, and are asking staff what three pairs of shades he bought — two for himself, one for his dad.
“We’ve had fans come to the store who wanted to linger in the moment in the space where he was,” said Jessie Folmer, from the sunglass company’s public-relations department. “But we’re trying to make sure they’re there to shop, not to worship.”
Source : therecord.com
