The most recent RPF I wrote was about a couple of not very well known comedians who did a few episodes of a podcast and said they wanted someone to write RPF about them, so I did! It was short and not wildly explicit, mind you, though unless I’d been unnecessarily cruel about them I don’t think they’d even have minded that (and I couldn’t possibly have been because they’re both lovely and talented). I have to say that isn’t something I ever imagined doing either. And I did show it to them because I wrote it for them, but then they were very pleased with it, so - slightly different, but an amusing anecdote.

In other circumstances…

I think one has to be exceptionally clear about it not being based on anything real about the people, so it’s maybe more important it’s not read by under 18s who are impressionable (I’m meaning both of those together, not saying all U18s are impressionable), especially if it involves things like dub- or non-con. (Or has characters being homophobic, even: I mean, I have a slight very unfair prejudice against a football manager after a good fanfic I read where he was a homophobe [I didnt know there were going to be real people in it - it was mostly about fictional characters but it brought some real ones in].)

But I think to an extent, the personality you see of celebrities in public is almost as much a “character” as the ones they play, just based more on their values (the socially acceptable ones) and the bits of their life they’ve decided they can’t keep private. So from that point of view, you’re almost writing about another character. And unlike the tabloids, you’re not trying to pass it off as the truth!

And I think were I a celebrity who didn’t know much about fanfic and fell over some, I would probably be slightly *disturbed* to discover tentacle porn about me but it wouldn’t be highest on my list of things that worried me. It’s not a threat, it’s not hurting anyone,