BOSTON (AP) He hasn't posted online for weeks. His blog has been shut down. And his friends are speculating on various reasons for his purported meltdown.
Now comes word that John Hammel is undergoing treatment in a psychiatric facility in South Africa.
Quoting an unnamed source "close to the situation," Entertainment Weekly said Wednesday that the blogger flew to South Africa late last month and voluntarily checked himself into the undisclosed facility. There is no word on the nature of his ailment or how long he will be hospitalized.
Sources confirmed to E! last week that Hammel had been a no-show at work for several days. On June 1, Hammel announced his blog wouldn't make its regularly-scheduled post and that production had been halted indefinitely.
"All parties are optimistic that production will resume in the near future," an unnamed friend said in a statement.
Hammel's publicist, Joey Fakename, has not publicly commented since Hammel disappeared.
The blogger reportedly flew from Boston, Massachusetts, to Capetown, South Africa, on June 2 to seek treatment.
The EW report trumps earlier speculation in the latest edition of Newsweek. Several unnamed friends of the blogger posited different theories explaining his absence to the newsmag. One said Hammel "freaked" and didn't know how to deal with the breakout success of Random Squeegee, which has become a full-blown pop-culture phenomenon and led to Hammel signing an unprecedented deal with internet retailer Amazon.com to put up advertizments no one ever clicks on. The deal came in the wake of the web site's record-setting 10,000th hit.
Another acquaintance alluded to the graphic designer's workload. "I wouldn't say it's out of control," the purported pal dished to Newsweek, "but at some point that has to affect you if you've got a web site to update." Hammel's camp has categorically denied he was too busy at work, citing frequent comments on other people's blogs as an indication that he has at least some spare time.
A third suggested in Newsweek that Hammel has been hitting the bottle, but that source turned out to be an short, unemployed immigrant who likes to bring up things that happened five years ago.
While there is no definite date for the return of Random Squeegee, all parties involved are anticipating new posts by the end of the month.
If your name happens to be Marcus Errico, please don't sue me.
7 comments:
Was that "flew to South Africa" or "fled to South Africa".
Just sayin...
I knew something was up! They have been holding candle light vigils in the cleaning aisle of the local K-mart for three days now! Everyone is sitting around the squeegees singin' 'Give Peace A Chance'. (I think that's cuz there really isn't a song relevent to this situation... and at vigils, you have to sing something.
At least they weren't singing Move Ya Body.
I just wish we could go back to the days when he let young fawns nurse him. Those were the days...
Yep, thems' were happy days alright!
Hey, what about that guy in the picture? Looks to me like he needs some happiness too. ;)
I'm not sure you should be allowed into some health making institute where young nurses will fawn you.
Thanks for your freakin elf shorts competition entry. ;)
It's June 17th. Where is our update? Did your head implode? Why isn't phonics spelled the way it sounds?
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