Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck are parents with a predictable schedule and a ton of paparazzi who follow them everywhere. If you watch videos of them dropping their older daughter Violet off at school, they’re surrounded by photographers. No wonder they often look annoyed when they’re out together – they’re being tailed by people shouting rude things. I’m hoping that the new paparazzi law in effect in LA this January, which makes it a crime to “take and sell unauthorized photos of celebrities in ‘personal or familial activity'” will help them get some relief from the constant surveillance.
To make matters worse for the Afflecks, Garner has a stalker who has been trailing and threatening her for seven years. She obtained a restraining order against the weirdo last year, but he still turned up outside her daughter’s school yesterday. Steven Burky was arrested Monday for violating that restraining order by being near Garner. Radar has his mugshot and he looks creepy as hell.
Jennifer Garner’s stalker, Steven Burky, was arrested Monday for violating a court order and stalking while violating a court order after he was found to be near Garner’s daughter Violet Affleck’s school.
Garner was granted a restraining order against Burky in November 2008. Burky was ordered to stay 100 yards away from Garner, her husband Ben Affleck and their daughter Violet, as well as being prohibited from contacting Garner in any way.
Garner claimed Burky had been stalking her since 2002, following her around the country and sending her packages and letters. At the time the order was granted Garner wrote in court papers, “This past year, Mr. Burky has resurfaced and his obsessive and harassing behavior has escalated to the point of becoming dangerous and threatening.
“He has now shown up at my private residence and has repeatedly expressed his belief that God has sent him a vision of me being persecuted in some manner that might result in my death.”
[From Radar Online]
That guy looks like a serial killer, right? I would be so scared for myself and my family. It’s to Garner’s credit that she’s handling everything with grace and just trying to maintain a sense of normalcy for her daughters. Garner and Affleck are swarmed by paparazzi in LA, but if she’s also being stalked by a potentially violent creep she does have the security that goes along with being hounded by a ton of photographers. In a recent interview in W Magazine, Garner discussed potentially moving her family out of LA to avoid the media circus. “We talked forever about leaving Los Angeles, but anywhere you go some dodo is going to buy a camera and start following you.” Or there could be one really scary guy and no one else around to help.
Maybe it’s time that the Afflecks hired a bodyguard. Kate Gosselin has a bodyguard for no apparent reason. It’s not like there are tons of fans trying to get a piece of that beaver hair. The Afflecks have a very good excuse and a pretty scary situation to deal with.
Image above is from 12/10/09. Credit: Fame Pictures
Isn’t that James Haven?
Sickening
Maybe it’s time for Jennifer to stop parading her children around all of the time just so she can look like mommy of the year. There are plenty of other celeb parents with young children that can drop their kids off at school unnoticed. Why can’t she?
edit: This guy is still a supercreep and I am in no way defending him. He is scum.
I’m glad he was arrested and I hope he goes to jail. I know, I know, that probably won’t happen, but you don’t mess with a woman’s children. EVER.
And I don’t subscribe to the point of view that since you chose to become an actor, actress, singer, etc…that you forgo any right to privacy. It’s not like Ben and Jennifer are out clubbing and partying: they are simply living, raising their children and going about their lives. No one has the right to take that away or make them feel vulnerable for going about their business.
And yes, dude totally looks like serial rapist/killer material to me.
The worst part is, that he is only in jail a short amount of time. He will get out and stalk her again. I hope the LA law passes too.
since when is dropping your kid off at school parading them around? it’s not like tommygirl and katebot who stage paparazzi camera shoots with suri.
Maybe now you can see why Ben looks so pissed when the paps are around. She tends to not look angry because she is with her child and kids can pick up on that nervousness and fear, and when Ben is with Violet he lightens up a little, but having some stalker like that around when all you want to do is take your kid to school is enough to aggravate Jesus.
Jennifer Garner attracts some crazy fans. Many of them read like a 15 year old obsessed school girl in their comments, who rabbidly defend her every being. It’s kind of creepy.That aside, this stalker needs to be put in a psych hold,a 51/50, and committed into a hospital BEFORE he harms her or her children. Laws do virtually nothing to protect the one being stalked until it’s too late. I would think Jennifer would be grateful for the paps always being around, keeps her safe and relevant, both important in her world.
The judge should demand a mental evaluation, and as Yadda said, at very least hold him on a 51/50. He sounds mentally ill, and should receive appropriate care, not only for himself, but also to make the Garners safer.
well, I have to say I don’t think Garner/Affleck “parade” around their kids — not like Cruise/Holmes and Brad/Angie. Could they take their kids in a back entrance or have someone else take them — sure, but then they lose some of that normalcy that I think they legitimately are trying to achieve.
alecto: Seeing her drop her kid off at school is not at all the only time we see pics of Jennifer and her kids. If you go onto other sites there are many “insiders” who claim that she tips off the paps when she is with her kids so that she can keep up her facade of the greatest mother who doesn’t care about hollywood or what she looks like. It’s a game and they all play it. I do not hate her or anything like that but c’mon there is no way we could see sooooo many pics of her and her kids without her helping them (paps) out a little bit….also have you ever noticed that the only time you see Ben out in pap pics with the kids is at school? You never see him out with the kids in the parks and getting icecream but Jennifer you see all of the time, almost daily. Ben is deff the much more famous of the two so how does that happen?? That’s right! he doesn’t tip the paps off.
Jennifer Garner does not “parade her children around”….she’s a parent taking her child to school and picking her up. If she wasn’t there the paps would still be after photos of Violet. Taking a child to the park is not “parading them around” either – that is an entitlement of any citizen. BTW they have tried to use the back door but the paps are soon on to that and it’s a useless tactic.
There is no reason that Jennifer and Ben should have to change their ways. They are one of the most normalized of the hollywood families you see. All the photos you get of them are with their children taking them to school or out places, but you never see them staging events for people to follow them.
I must say the anti-pap law is going to be amazing for these families, but i will miss seeing pictures of the adorable children.
It’s cute how just because you guys like these people that means they are the perfect non-pimping family but if someone you didn’t like had the same amount of pics out every week you would claim them to be famewh*res. How do you people know they are not staged?? That is what I do not get. I am not saying that they deff are but it just seems silly to think that they are above the hollywood scene when they live in Cali when they could just as easily live somewhere else. Jennifer just said in an interview that celebitchy posted the other day that she rarely gets to work there (LA). If they wanted normalcy w/o the paps they could get it if they tried but they don’t. All I am saying is that Jennifer is not the perfect mother of the year. She uses her kids like everyone else. Just because she has dimples doesn’t mean she’s perfect.
Regarding celeb kids on celeb baby sites Gwen Stefani kids, Suri, Britney’s boys are seen more often than Violet. As for Brad and Angie, besides the pics in France their kids are rarely seen. W/ the exception of Maddox none of them have been seen since Halloween and the twins have only been seen twice this year.
Is she dying her daughter’s hair? Why do her roots and first couple of inches look so differenct from the rest of her hair?
the reason jen and kids are constantly photographed is because her pictures go for high dollar. the more we patronize those magazines, or these sites, the more pictures of her there will be. people HAVE TO GO OUT OF THEIR HOUSE, and the more desirable their picture is, the more it will be taken – doesn’t matter if you “pimp” yourself out or not. there are plenty of celebs dropping off their kids off unnoticed, you’re right, but only because their pics don’t sell. Sorry.
“I am not saying that they deff are”
um, that’s EXACTLY what you’re saying.
while I do believe that it’s true – there are some celebs that call the paps, I don’t think Garner is one of them.
I see more pictures of Suri, the Jolie-Pitt clan, the Beckham kids, and Britney’s kids than I do Violet or Seraphina.
I think that the paps love to get pictures of Violet and Seraphina BECAUSE there are so few pictures of them, and fewer opportunities to get them. It’s not like Suri who IS paraded around all the time, even to evening events when she was just a baby.
Yup. Jennifer needs a bodyguard.
Bless her heart. Having a stalker is scary to say the least. I’m glad he was caught. Jen doesn’t seem to have much on her schedule these days. I assume she’s parenting to making movies.
Btw, Tommygirl seems pretty obsessed with defending her stance. You guys should let it go. Jennifer is a parent to her own child, in her own way. I just can’t believe someone would comment on it three times. That’s a bit much.
“All I am saying is that Jennifer is not the perfect mother of the year. She uses her kids like everyone else. Just because she has dimples doesn’t mean she’s perfect.”
I’m trying to figure out where that article said Jen was the perfect mother of the year.
She uses her kids, “like everyone else.” Generalize much?
What do dimples have to do with being perfect? If there is a magic reason, then I’m awesome, ’cause I’ve got a couple.
“How do you people know they are not staged?? That is what I do not get. I am not saying that they deff are..”
But you did say that. You said Jennifer alerts the media when she goes out with the kids. Did you watch the videos?
:shakes head:
@ Bec, I don’t think she’s dying V’s hair. It’s pretty long now and she used to be pretty blonde, I think her hair’s darkening with age. My girls both have multi coloured hair – naturally.
I really hope this new law will be enforced and the magazines stop using that pathetic excuse of the public demand for these photos. If they’re published, sure I’ll look at them, if they’re not published I won’t miss them. I hardly think US Weekly have people writing in saying “we haven’t seen Violet in a while, can you call up a pap for some photos”.
bitter much tommysgirl?
This is the only site that people seem to be unaware that Garner plays the game just like everyone else in Hollywood. She pimps her kids the same way that Tom and Katie pimp Suri. There are a lot of famous people who take their kids to school everyday and we don’t see the pictures, day after day after day. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with it but you have to be fair and call it like it is. If Brangelina and their kids were photographed as much as Garner is with her kids, they would be reamed from here to Australia.
And can we please stop looking at pictures and determining who is or who isn’t a good parent? We really have no way of knowing the true parenting styles or skills of any of these people.
Ok, let me get this straight…If they take their child to school and photos are taken they are pimping her out, and if they were to have a nanny take their child to school they are bad parents…damned either way aren’t they.
Tonmmysgirl isn’t bitter she’s just stating the truth. The best thing to happen to celebrity children are the new paparazzi laws in January because celebrities and their handlers will no longer be able to use celebrity children to promote themselves and this includes jennifer garner. She won’t be able to get her assistant to tip off the paparazzi when she is out with her kids, because those pictures will be illegal.
This is horrible, this guy has clearly gotten worse since the restraining order was entered. Stalkers are frightening people with whom reason cannot be expressed.
I would be fearing for the children at this point, if I were the Aflecks, and hiring an armed bodyguard.
“If Brangelina and their kids were photographed as much as Garner is with her kids, they would be reamed from here to Australia.”
Since when have there ever been as many photos of Violet and Seraphina as there has been of the Jolie Pitt kids?
F-U-G….T-H-A-T!
seriously Jen, you got every right to get your ‘Alias’ strap-on, girl!
he was near the baby’s school?!….aw, HELLS NO!
you’re from West VA, and have gun trained…start packin’ honey.
only one way to deal with crazies threatening the fam…’ka-blam!’
nobody messes with the mama bear’s cubs!!!
NOBODY. GRRRRrrrr!
Since when have there ever been as many photos of Violet and Seraphina as there has been of the Jolie Pitt kids?
——————————
There are pictures of violet literally every single day and as sera gets older and starts walking you can bet your last dollar she too will be paraded around on a regular basis. The jolie pitt kids are rarely seen in public and the new twins have been seen about 2 or 3 times since they were born, you can’t same the same about seraphina. There is no contest the garner girls win hands down when it comes to public overexposure by their fame seeking mother.
@Wednesday Agreed 100%! The children needed protection from the parents as much as from the press. I hope the baby blogs go out of business for good. Watch the devious movie stars and low end copy-cats, will just find added excuses go out of state and wag their babes there.
tommysgirl5 is as scary an obsessed Jenifer Garner person as Burky. Think about it: In a way, she is JUST as obsessed as him!
Its pretty ridiculous to say she “calls the paps” when she obviously doesnt like it. One good thing about them though, and she & Ben probably realize it — Burky and Tommygirl cant get close to her with all the paps taking pictures. They ARE sort of a buffer. I wouldnt be surprized once that law passes in Los Angeles to find that the Afflecks were behind it being passed.
people are sick. and need to get lives. dropping ur kid off at school isnt parading them around.
Maybe this is a lucky warning to Garner, she really needs a body guard especially for the child. Hollywood was looking very dark last year, luckily she has beat the fears he presents her,
but she will wiser to falling next time.
Toward tommysgirl’s comments I have to say that I recently worked in the background of one of Jennifer Garner’s movies and I can tell you she is a very nice person to work for. She bought the whole set treats such as ice cream and yogurt, she ate lunch with the crew and joked around with them, and at the end of the day she went home just like everyone else. For all it is worth, she appears to be just a regular girl with a sincere love for her work and family and I don’t think it is too much to ask for the rest of us to respect how she goes about keeping her work and family balanced. Additionally, no one is completely perfect and I wonder what we might say about how YOU balance your life if we were the proverbial “fly on your wall.”
It’s really scared.
Fortunately, i am not a celebrity.