Backlash against Club Chalamet reveals fandom hypocrisy

The mask has officially come off. The woman behind the viral fan account for the Hollywood actor Timothée Chalamet is not a 17-year-old girl tapping away on her iPhone, but a 59-year-old full-time healthcare industry worker from California. Simone Cromer, who founded the Twitter account Club Chalamet in 2018, has become a micro-celebrity in niche corners of the internet — oddly adored and often mocked for her dramatic and extensive rants about Chalamet’s career and personal life. When Timmy’s relationship with Keeping Up with the Kardashians star Kylie Jenner was revealed in September 2023, Snow White star Rachel Zegler wrote online: “Is Club Chalamet gonna be ok.” Selfies of Cromer and Chalamet on the red carpet at movie premieres have gone viral; The Hollywood Reporter even covered the news of her home burning down in the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year.

But Cromer has become a strange source of scrutiny and discomfort, too. In her first profile interview with the Wall Street Journal last week, Cromer — posing awkwardly in the accompanying photographs with one leg up on a bench, wearing black skinny jeans and a T-shirt depicting Chalamet in his role of Bob Dylan — spoke about the backlash she has received, namely the claims that she has an unhealthy romantic interest in Chalamet or that she is too old to be a true part of the fandom. She told the publication: “I can’t change the fact that I was born in 1966. I don’t want to be a 24-year-old white girl running Club Chalamet. I am who I am.” Viral reactions from onlookers ranged from “MY DIVA” to “I’m crying she’s older than both my parents” and then... “Why are they platforming a stalker?”

Why Cromer has become so divisive is down to several factors. Her age — that she is 30 years older than Chalamet — is at the root of this amusement and befuddlement. But then there’s the posts. What started as sincere updates about Chalamet’s latest releases had descended into lengthy, passionate and sometimes overprotective rants about his personal life — leading Cromer’s detractors to label her as “unhinged” and even “dangerous.” When the unlikely romantic pairing between Chalamet and Jenner was revealed, Zegler was clearly onto something — Club Chalamet was not OK. In a live stream, Cromer claimed that the relationship was fake because they had never been to Olive Garden together, and that Jenner was stalking him. After a PDA video of the couple went viral, she told other fans: “If you’re feeling distressed by the video, it’s ok. But please take care of yourself. Step away from social media for a couple of days.” (This post was shared and memed, ad nauseam.)

But if you put aside the tone of her Club Chalamet posts, it’s worth asking that if Cromer were a 17-year-old girl, would she be viewed as such a divisive figure? Fandom discourse is often an excuse to laugh at women. The laughs start to bellow when the women are older, too. Thought-provoking conversations we have about parasocial dynamics and fan entitlement are often washed over by the idea that female fans are simply horny, uncontrollable and obsessed. It’s worth asking whether ageism and misogynoir are at the root of why Cromer specifically is under the spotlight of continuous mockery.

Within Chalamet’s extensive fandom, Cromer has spoken about not being accepted by certain members due to her age. Speaking to the WSJ, Cromer recalled exchanging messages with another fan account owner in 2018 shortly after the release of Chalamet’s career-defining debut in the romance film Call Me By Your Name. When the fan asked which high school Cromer had attended and realised she was roughly 30 years older than them, their reaction was: “‘Ew! Oh, my God!’” — before promptly blocking her.

Ellie Muir, The Independent