Tag: haunted hollywood

The Story of Lady Gaga’s Spirit Attachment

Alex Matsuo

Lady Gaga is one of the most influential artists in the world. Could it be possible that her success has impacted not only the world of the living but also the world of the dead? During her Monster Ball tour in 2010, it seems that Lady Gaga got a lot more than she bargained for…a ghost! I have to mention a disclaimer; this is based on rumors and speculation from various news sources. I’d love to verify this story with Lady Gaga herself

Here’s a story that I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t know about. I’m a huge Lady Gaga fan, her music is so inspiring to me and I think she’s just fabulous. And yet, I don’t know how this story went under the radar. I’m a ghost person, there’s no excuse for me to have missed this. I know my fellow diehard Lady Gaga fans already know about the story (since they told it to me).

But if you’re someone who doesn’t follow celebrity news, then this will be brand new information for you! Some of you may be thinking: Why should we explore celebrity paranormal experiences? Why not? They’re people just like us. Except for fame and fortune.

But given that us normal, poor people have paranormal experiences every day, it shouldn’t be a shock that celebrities have these experiences too. So let’s dive into Lady Gaga’s paranormal experience.

As always, here’s the video version of this blog for your viewing pleasure.

The Monster Ball Tour

In 2009, Lady Gaga went on the Monster Ball tour. The tour started in November 2009 and it went all over the world. So, the story goes that Lady Gaga had a ghost that she couldn’t get rid of. There’s no info on when this haunting started.

People who worked with Lady Gaga on the tour said that she believed that this spirit’s name was Ryan. It was also reported that while Lady Gaga was scared of the spirit. But he hadn’t done anything “too freaky” or “violent” according to the Daily Star. Apparently, he was more “annoying” than anything, and he wouldn’t leave Lady Gaga alone.

Sounds like Ryan was a fan.

He had traveled halfway around the world with Lady Gaga. Rumor has it that Lady Gaga had every venue and hotel room scanned by paranormal investigators to see if there was paranormal activity. By the time the tour hit Belfast, Lady Gaga had enough.

The Séance

The tour started on November 27, 2009, and the Belfast date was February 22, 2010. So somewhere between November 2009 and February 2010, Lady Gaga picked up this spirit.

She contacted a local medium and she and her crew assembled and apparently they had some sort of séance. During this séance, Lady Gaga confronted Ryan and told him once and for all to “Go away.” Again, according to rumors, Ryan’s spirit was never seen nor heard from again.

Look at Mama Monster setting those boundaries.

Gaga’s Ghost Gear

Liverpool and London were the stops after Belfast. Which would have been after Lady Gaga told Ryan to go away. According to the Mirror, when Lady Gaga arrived in London, she reportedly spent $4500 on paranormal investigation gear. This number doesn’t shock me because ghost hunting gear is expensive.

Apparently, she bought the kit before her London tour stop at the O2 Arena. So someone from Lady Gaga’s crew contacted someone named Dan Webb to get the gear. She was freaked about bad energy and evil spirits. So she wanted to do a whole sweep of the backstage area of the O2 arena. According to Dan Webb, Lady Gaga’s aide told him that the equipment had to be robust. Mainly because they were taking it on the road with them.

Again, the reporting sources themselves are that accurate. Now, the paranormal world is really small, or at least it is on Facebook. I couldn’t find a Dan Webb, but I found a Dave Webb in Belfast, Ireland. That would actually make more sense based on the timeline.

Or, maybe Lady Gaga wasn’t feeling super confident after the séance and just wanted to keep her spiritual space in check?

How I Would’ve Helped

If Lady Gaga was my client and she was asking me for help, I would do a few things. I would ask her what kind of activity has happened to make her think this was a spirit. Why was it not something more explainable?

I would also ask her if there was anything significant about her tour stops or wherever she picked up Ryan. I’d also ask where the name Ryan came from.

While it’s not a bad idea to have local teams investigating your hotel and venues beforehand, unless they were working super fast, it’s unlikely they would be able to come to some sort of conclusion about the spiritual makeup of the place. Also, I think I would focus on giving Lady Gaga the tools she needed to cleanse her space, ground, and shield herself.

Like, she didn’t need a séance to tell the ghost to go away. She didn’t even need to hire a medium. You can set those boundaries without those extra steps. While I’m impressed that Lady Gaga bought a ghost hunting kit and electro-magnetic field detection tools, that could do more harm than good.

Like, if Ryan was truly gone, using those tools to still look for spirits could be a way to invite unwanted visitors in. I’ve compared to having a huge lit-up sign above you that says to spirits, “Hey, I’m looking for you.” Some spirits may interpret that as an invitation to communicate.

Another Explanation

Also, if you’re using K2 or EMF meters around the backstage area of an arena…there’s so much electricity in these places, of course a K2 meter would go off.

Thus, making Lady Gaga believes she’s haunted when really, there’s just a lot of electricity. Also, EMF poisoning is a real thing. If you’re exposed to too much electromagnetic field, you can start experiencing hallucinations that can make you think you’re haunted.

From a psychological standpoint, continuing to check for paranormal activity isn’t healthy and can cause someone to continue believing they’re haunted when they really might not be.

Johnny Depp Has a Secret Paranormal Life!

Alex Matsuo

I’ve really been diving into the world of celebrities who have had paranormal experiences. It started with my 12 Haunted Celebrities video and it has snowballed from there. One of the most well-known and talked about celebrities right now is Johnny Depp. He has been having quite a hard time with life right now between his court battle with ex-wife Amber Heard and losing work.

With all of the spooky movies Johnny Depp has done, I couldn’t help but wonder if he had ever had any paranormal experiences. Turns out, he has. In fact, it seems he’s done a little ghost hunting. Who wants to go ghost hunting with Johnny Depp?

So, I’m going to talk about Johnny Depp’s disturbing paranormal experience and what he did about it. If you’re not up for reading, here’s the video.

A Lifetime of Encounters

As I was researching Johnny Depp’s paranormal experiences, I found this article that appeared in a 1995 issue of Premiere Magazine. The first sentence said, “Johnny Depp believes in ghosts.”

What I found really striking is that while he was filming the 1995 movie, “Dead Man”, he was staying at the Mackay Mansion in Virginia City, Nevada. Virginia City is known for being extremely haunted. “Ghost Adventures” has been there a few times and it’s a favorite hot spot for paranormal investigators.

The Mackay Mansion was built in 1860 and has seen a lot of major historical events in its lifetime. While Johnny Depp was staying at the Mansion, he was haunted by a little girl who was wearing a silk dress with a powder blush sash. He would often hear her playing in the room across from his as he was trying to sleep. That particular room had a bunch of dolls in it, so it’s no wonder a little girl liked playing in it.

Amateur Ghost Hunting

During the PREMIERE interview, Depp was talking to a local man named Tito who told him that the entire town of Virginia City is haunted. So Depp and his friend Buck went looking for the ghost of the little girl in the Mackay Mansion. Thus, making Johnny Depp a ghost hunter.

Unfortunately, it was a quiet paranormal investigation though. What I found interesting was that Depp said “They’re not used to people looking for them.” Keep in mind that this was before paranormal TV and ghost hunting being mainstream.

I have to wonder if Johnny Depp is sensitive to spirits. Also, from what I read in the interview, Depp was taking on more of a provoking approach and telling the spirits, “Come on out you bastards.” Yeah, he could use some ghost hunting tips and tricks.

In this same interview, Depp describes an event that sounds a lot like sleep paralysis. He would get these dreams, but he wasn’t sleeping, and wasn’t able to move or speak. He would see this face that would come to him. And he believes it was a spirit.

Blessings from a Ghost

These weren’t his only paranormal experiences. While filming the 2009 movie, “Public Enemies”, Johnny Depp played John Dillinger, a famous bank robber. Keep in mind Depp played Dillinger in the movie. Depp felt like the spirit of the Dillinger was watching over him.

He described that while he was filming, he felt these moments were he felt Dillinger’s presence in the room. Considering that Depp had to do considerable research and step into Dillinger’s shoes, it’s quite possible that maybe he caught the gangster’s attention. Depp did say that he felt like he got Dillinger’s approval to play him, which is always reassuring.

Again, I think Johnny Depp might be sensitive to spirits. But that’s just me. As I go through these stories of celebrity hauntings, I have to wonder.  I have a theory that actors are more sensitive to the supernatural.

Are Creative People More Sensitive?

The American Society for Psychical Research, also known as ASPR, did a parapsychology study on Julliard students back in the day using the Ganzfeld experiment. Basically, it’s a sender-receiver experiment.

One person is wearing white goggles while looking at a red light, and white noise is playing in their ears. They’re the receiver.

The other person is sending images, words, sounds, etc. with their minds. They’re the sender. ASPR found that it seems that those who are artistically gifted were able to detect what was being sent.

Again, truly fascinating.

Actors Are Shamans?

There’s another theory by Brian Bates that says that actors are like modern-day shamans in that they are bridges between the physical and spiritual world. Nicolas Cage is on board with this theory too by the way.

After reading these interviews and getting to know Johnny Depp’s spooky side, it seems that he is very aware of spirits. Not only that, but he also communicates with spirits. It seems that he has always had this awareness of the afterlife, and it made itself known to him before he was even famous.

I would be interested in seeing if he comes forward with his spiritual beliefs more as time progresses.

The House That Terrified Britney Spears & Brittany Murphy

Alex Matsuo

I’ve covered Haunted Hollywood a few times. I’ve talked about the Roosevelt Hotel and I’ve discussed celebrities who live in haunted houses. And more recently, more LA-related, I’ve talked about the Cecil Hotel.

I know Britney Spears has been very much at the forefront of the news lately because she is in an awful situation. She’s trying to break free from her dad as her conservator. Thus, the #FreeBritney movement.

As I was diving into the Britney rabbit hole, I found a really interesting and yet, disturbing story. Britney lived in a haunted house. Then later, Brittany Murphy lived there, and that was where she collapsed and later died.

Seriously, this story is TRULY crazy that it even has THIS skeptical believer scratching her head.

Before I dive into this, disclaimer: I’m not saying that any paranormal phenomenon is an explanation for mental illness and such.

Don’t feel like reading? Watch the video!

Britney’s Trauma

The podcast, “We Need to Talk About Britney”, did an interview with Britney’s makeup artist, Julianne Kaye. She worked with Britney from 1999-2004, which, without a doubt, we can agree was her most iconic period. Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake shared this home together.

Julianne talked about how Britney had this house on Sunset Plaza and she described it as really weird. After some partying, Britney needed to relax. Julianne had her friend come up to the house to do a reiki healing session on Britney. She swears that this reiki healer opened some sort of spirit portal or did something.

She believed that a few bad spirits had come through the portal, specifically a male and female spirit. Julianne explains that Britney said that the spirits were fighting and that they tried to push her down the stairs. The paranormal activity ended up getting so bad that Britney left.

Here’s a direct quote from Julianne: 

“It was so bad that she left, she went to the Casa Del Mar hotel to stay there and never went back to the house again. She goes, ‘I know you’re gonna think I’m crazy, I’m not crazy, I know what I saw, I know what I felt,’ blah blah blah. And I was like, no, I believe in that s**t, too, so it didn’t really weird me out that much. But she was very persistent about it and she put her house on the market.”

What happened after is where this gets truly bizarre. Britney puts the house on the market, and guess who buys it?  None other than Brittany Murphy.

A Mysterious Death

As we know Brittany Murphy ended up dying in this house after she collapsed in the bathroom just one year later. Her death is seriously mysterious and could have been caused by a number of things like anemia, pneumonia, prescription drugs, and other pills. I need to make it clear that Brittany Murphy did not die in the house. She collapsed and was taken to the hospital, where she later died.

Then her husband, Simon Monjack, died in the house just five months later. It’s confirmed that he did die in the house, as that was how he was found. I haven’t been able to find exactly where he was found.

Brittany Murphy’s mother filed a lawsuit saying that the couple died of toxic black mold. But lab reports also said that Murphy had an abnormally high amount of heavy metals in her system, which is also weird.

Fleeing the House

What I also found really chilling was the fact that Murphy also wanted to flee the house. Before his death, Simon Monjack said that Brittany would sometimes beg to not sleep in the house that night and go to the Beverly Hills Hotel instead. Also, the only room in that house that Murphy liked was the bathroom. And that was the room she was found. Maybe Brittany Murphy also had similar experiences as Britney Spears?

It’s also weird that Spears thought there was a young male and female spirit in the house. And later, Brittany Murphy and Simon Monjack, a young couple, died in that house.

Maybe the house was cursed? I’ll admit, I don’t have any sort of psychic abilities. But even I get weird vibes looking at this house. What is also interesting is that the New York Post reported that since Brittney Murphy and Simon Monjack died, the house has been listed for sale 10 different times.

Theories & Questions

From what I am understanding, the original house where Brittany Murphy and Simon Monjack died had been torn down and rebuilt. If this is the case, it means that the paranormal activity taking place there isn’t tied to the house, it’s tied to the land.

Finally, I don’t know if Britney Spears had some sort of psychic abilities. But, what if the male and female spirits that she said were haunting the house were actually the spirits of Brittany and Simon? Meaning, Britney was experiencing and seeing the events of the future.

An awesome paranormal researcher named John E.L. Tenney was also on the “We Need to Talk About Britney” podcast and he thinks that the spirits Spears encountered were Murphy and Monjack as well. Being haunted by ghosts from the future is a popular theory. This goes into the whole theory that time isn’t linear as well.

I told you this case is truly crazy.

5 Spooky Ghost Stories of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel

Alex Matsuo

The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, California opened on May 15, 1927. It is one of the oldest hotels in the Los Angeles area that is still in operation today. It sits right on Hollywood Blvd, across the street from Grauman’s Chinese Theatre (also known as TLC Chinese Theatre). If you want to feel like you’re at the center of the universe where everything is happening, the Roosevelt Hotel is your place. If you ever stay there, chances are that you’ll see a celebrity at some point since it’s a popular hotel for the stars.

With so much history and such an incredible guest list, it’s no surprise that the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel is a hotspot for paranormal activity. Living in Hollywood can be energizing and draining at the same time, as well as dynamic and volatile.

Glitz and Glam

If you’re a fan of “Old Hollywood” and the glitz and glam of the 1920s and 1930s, the Roosevelt is a landmark. Shirley Temple learned how to do her famous stairstep dance on the stairs. Marilyn Monroe lived at the hotel for two years and did her first photo shoot by the pool. While filming the 1952 film, “From Here to Eternity”, Montgomery Clift lived at the Roosevelt for three months. And finally, Errol Flynn may or may not have created the famous recipe for his bootleg gin in the barbershop tub. My personal favorite, Charlie Chaplin, also stayed at the hotel numerous times along with Clark Gable…swoon.

Alright, let’s dive into the ghost stories!

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe will forever be an icon. Even decades after her tragic passing, people still obsess over her. Her spirit has been seen by multitudes of guests of the Hollywood Roosevelt.

Marilyn lived at the hotel for two years, and she did one of her first photoshoots at the pool. From my understanding, she lived in Room 1200. It’s one of the largest suites at the Roosevelt. There used to be a tall mirror that hung in the room, but now it hangs in one of the hallways in the mezzanine by the lobby. That mirror is reported to be haunted by Marilyn, as well as Room 1200. According to legend, the reason why the mirror was moved out of the room was that people would see her reflection instead of their own!

Mystery Phone Calls

This is probably one of the most unsettling stories from the Hollywood Roosevelt. At one point, the Roosevelt became apartments for a period of time before being converted back into a hotel. Perhaps some of the residents there decided to not leave? At night, receptionists have reported getting phone calls from hotel rooms that don’t have any guests. All they hear on the other end is giggling.

Montgomery Clift

Montgomery Clift called the hotel home for three months while filming the 1953 movie, “From Here to Eternity.” He stayed in Room 928, according to legend. Sadly, in 1956m he got into a car accident and he had to get plastic surgery to repair his face. But he never recovered physically nor emotionally. He passed away in 1966 from a heart attack.

Legend says that he is a playful ghost at the Roosevelt. He apparently likes to tap people on the shoulder and play his bugle, just as he did in “From Here to Eternity.” Batteries have also been known to drain when Mr. Clift is around.

Caroline

Caroline has been spotted around the Roosevelt and the pool area. Legend says that Caroline and her brother drowned in the pool while their father was out running errands. Since then, Caroline likes to make phone calls from the hotel lobby phone, play in the jacuzzi with her brother, and ask guests where her mother and father are.

Other Ghostly Experiences

There are other ghost stories associated with the Roosevelt Hotel like the sound of a typewriter coming from unoccupied rooms. A man dressed in white and 1930s attire has been seen by the piano near the Blossom Room. As you approach him, he seems to disappear. The ghosts of Errol Flynn and Carole Lombard have been sighted at the hotel along with Carmen Miranda, Humphrey Bogart, and Betty Grable.

My Personal Experiences

The fifth and final ghost story is my own personal experiences at the Roosevelt.

I have an extensive history with the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel that started in 2011. I went to an event there back in August 2011. As soon as I walked through those doors, I felt something compelling and just plain strange. Sure, Hollywood itself is pretty strange. But, this was spooky.

Then, a year later, I ended up staying at the Roosevelt on an impromptu trip to Hollywood. I was with a friend at the time, and the stay was fairly uneventful. Maybe some odd footsteps here and there, but that’s it. I saw a few shadows out of the corner of my eye, but I try to brush it off as explainable.

A few years later, I found myself a regular guest at the Roosevelt. Mainly, it was because my former boss was living there for a few months during a transitional phase of his life. Because sometimes my drive took more than two hours, he frequently booked a room for me. I think in the span of three months, I stayed for several weeks in the hotel.

I often went to the mirror that is famously known for being a hotspot for Marilyn Monroe’s ghost. While I didn’t see her full-on, sometimes I caught sight of a shadow as I was turning around. I also had an alarming amount of nightmares during my stay at the Roosevelt. I often heard knocking at my door, but no one announced themselves, and no one was there when I looked through the peephole. It made me feel pretty uncomfortable at times, but I’ve never felt unwelcomed during my stay.

Have you ever stayed at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel? Is there a haunted hotel near you?