Originally posted by Aurelius
I don't like it. I don't think it's nice to use somebody's name, famous or otherwise.

What if somebody Googled their own name, or a friend's, and they found it appeared in a sex story? Perhaps they'll be flattered but I doubt it. The author may even attract abusive email.

FWIW I make a habit of Googling my characters' names before using them in stories. (Full names obviously.) I never use a name if something already shows for it on the internet. It's a bit fun too, using a 'fresh' name.
I think it's in very poor taste to put a real living person into a story (I have no particular objection to using Messalina or Caligula or Cleopatra or Henry VIII, though, as long as the story is reasonably believable).

As to the, "Well, they're celebrities, they chose to be in the limelight," argument, I think of a person like Jessica Lynch, who is very much a celebrity. And someone, somewhere, has probably written a story about her captivity -- and I think that is an invasion of her privacy. But even if the story is about a very un-private person like Pamela Anderson, I think it's in poor taste.

I don't run a google check on my characters names, but since they are set in historical times, I don't think that any real life "Jack Slocums" or "Erika Weiss's" are likely to object.


Boccaccio