Broadway star Lea Salonga sparks a discussion about what celebrities owe their fans through her response to a viral video of fans waiting outside her dressing room after a recent performance of Here Lies Love at Broadway Theatre, People reports.
In the video, Christopher Retokelly Carpila and his companions walk into Salonga’s dressing room and ask for photos. Salonga refuses gently but firmly, saying, “Who are you? I’m so sorry—I don’t know who you are… Unless you’re on the guest list, we cannot have you back here.”
After the group continues to ask her for photos, Salonga escorts them out of the theater and takes a photo with them. In the caption of his Facebook post as translated by Playbill, Carpila complains, “For Sister LEA, If ever we are wrong and we are not in the guest list, the fact that we are already there just to take pictures, lined up and paid dearly for the show, maybe as a fellow FILIPINO and FANS to be given at least a little RESPECT AND EVEN IF NO LONGER HUGS OR KISSES you can be allowed to take a PICTURE for a moment.”
After the video went viral, Salonga responded on Twitter, writing, “Just a reminder… I have boundaries. Do not cross them. Thank you.”
Salonga later revealed that though Carpila and his companions claimed to know Giselle Töngi, one of the producers for Here Lies Love, they were lying.
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“I was giving the benefit of the doubt until the moment I heard back from [Töngi],” she wrote.
Since the incident, security regulations have been heightened, and Salonga will no longer be taking guests in her dressing room.
“It’s unfortunate that this had to happen at all… Folks need to be reminded that although we are public figures we need our private spaces, and will be guarding those sacred places with fervor,” she wrote.
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