Don't Be Cruel

I’ve been reading lately, courtesy of the good folks at Gawker, about the Worst Man in the World. His name is John Fitzgerald Page, and you may remember him from such roles as Office Worker (uncredited) in Fair Game and Lovestruck Doofus (uncredited) in Beauty Shop. It seems he’s been looking for love on Match.com and doesn’t handle rejection well.
The story, which you can read here, is that he was sent a wink on the online dating site and responded with a bio that the formerly interested woman may have found narcissistic. So she politely declined from connecting further. This prompted an angry missive from Page, in which he questions her judgment in turning down someone of "his caliber." He does, after all, drive a Beemer. And he is an 8.9 on Hot or Not, which likely measures on a scale of 1-10.
You can read his letter and judge for yourself if there are not worse people in the world, but the story does beg the question of how much privacy you can ever count on. Celebrities, obviously, learn pretty quickly that their answer is very little, and yet sex tapes and dumb remarks continue to leak. And if celebrities can’t adapt, then what chance is there for the common man, like John Fitzgerald Page?
Something we should all learn is to never, ever send anything in writing that you would be embarrassed to have read by your mother. The more likely you are to piss off the recipient of your letter, the more likely she’ll read it. Working in the communications field, you are often privy to words that are not meant for you, as people forward with abandon and it is in everybody’s best interest to avoid offering proof of stupidity, arrogance, desperation or douchebaggery.
And another lesson can be learned from Mr. Page, who is probably not the worst man in the world, but who is probably not a man you should marry, either. Never, ever, deliberate on the size of a woman you haven’t met.
On his own site he points out that he is only guilty of the crime of sending a "not very nice private e-mail to someone." In the age of MySpacebook, YouTube and blogs, this an avoidable and sometimes high-profile crime.