David Caruso Vs. Vincent D’Onofrio: Who Has the Craziest Fans?

Being a fan of both Law & Order Criminal Intent and CSI Miami, I’ve been exposed to some of the fan sites – and antifan sites – for both shows. It never ceases to amaze the number of sites that discuss the stars of both shows: Vincent D’Onofrio and David Caruso. There seems to be a lot of passion out there about these two, not all of it good. Let's take a look at the situation.

First of all, my opinions on both actors.

Vincent D’Onofrio has appeared in several films before he got the Criminal Intent gig. One of those films, Full Metal Jacket, had legendary director Stanley Kubrick at the helm. D’Onofrio gained 70 pounds for the role of Private “Pyle” in order to play the role most convincingly. It could very well have been the defining role for D’Onofrio. He went on to play various serious movie roles and some not so serious, such as playing Robert Howard in “The Whole Wide World,” to Edgar the weird alien bug-creature in Men In Black. While I think that D’Onofrio has fallen into a somewhat predictable pattern of angst-ridden, maybe overly edgy roles, he still seems to put his entire being into his roles and attempts to make them as convincing as possible. He seems to have found his soulmate in Detective Robert Goren on Criminal Intent, yet he continues to do movies.

David Caruso first made his name in television, appearing in TV roles here and there before he appeared in several episodes for Hill Street Blues. It wasn’t until he landed the role of Detective John Kelly in NYPD Blue that he got any real notice. But, he left this plum role to try to make the big leap to the big screen, an effort that seemed to have dismal results and gained Caruso a reputation of being, well, full of himself. It wasn’t until he got the role of Horatio Caine in CSI Miami that he seemed to be back in the good graces of television viewers. But, Caruso continued to develop the role of Caine until it became a joke, yet the show became the most popular TV show in the world. While I find myself being amused at Caruso’s over-the-top portrayal of Horatio Caine, I have to admit that considering the show in its entirety, there’s really no other way to play Horatio.

OK, now to the fans.

Over many years, I’ve seen quite a few fan site for Vincent D’Onofrio. And I stress that these are FAN sites. Sure, some of them are deluded fan sites, with lots of dreaming of D’Onofrio romance, fan art, fan fiction, etc. Those fans are not for me, but at least these are sites where the love and interest for Vincent is expressed openly and often. There are a few very serious fan sites that report of relevant news and happening with Vincent and his TV shows and movies, or his family, and some of those are surprisingly good and interesting. I could mention them here, but if you’re a Vincent fan who found yourself on my blog, you probably already know of every conceivable D’Onofrio site out there. They are hard to miss. Again, the D'Onofrio sites are strong fan sites – none are dedicated to any ill towards D’Onofrio, or his family. There is one gossip site out there where every now and then the topic of Vincent comes up, and it does seem to spur a bit of a love/hate war that can go on for days, subside for a while, and then resurface again. My opinion is that this particular gossip forum discussion is probably only populated by a handful of people, who like to stoke the fire both ways just to keep the discussion going. A lot of it centers on D’Onofrio’s weight gain, which even the die-hard fan has to admit is cause for concern. Bottom line is that there is lots of love out there for Vincent D’Onofrio, and virtually no intense dislike.

David Caruso, however, seems to have the most polar opposite fan sites. There are quite a few out there that love him, and an almost equal number that despise him. Even worse, Caruso has a stalker who has made threats to him and his family, and who is currently “on the lam” after failing to appear for a court date where she was to be tried for her stalking. In fact, someone from a Caruso fan site tipped me off that the stalker had probably visited this blog, a suspicion I was able to verify by checking my site traffic records. This stalker woman has one blog, maybe more, expressing her clear hatred for Caruso and anyone else with which Caruso is involved. There are also a few other antifan sites for David that frankly scare the living daylights out of me. Personally, while I don’t think too much of David’s acting and often poke fun of it, it amazes me that some people take their dislike of David – either of his acting or him as a person – to such an extreme as to make personal threats. And, to make matters more confusing for Caruso fans, there are anti-antifan sites, who essentially keep eye on the stalker and her internet movements in order to bring forward the Caruso-hater’s insanity.

I feel sorry for Caruso. Clearly, he has the craziest fans. While D’Onofrio has his share of deluded fans, I don’t think there are any out there whose goal in life is to spread D’Onofrio hatred. Is it because D’Onofrio is deep down a nice guy and Caruso is not? I don’t know either of these men, and I venture to say that I think most people who run the fan and antifan web sites probably don’t know them that well, either. Yet, there is something about Caruso that seems to bring out the worst in some people, but in my opinion the problem is not with Caruso, it’s with the “fan.”

So here’s a message to all the antifans out there whose life work appears to be making David Caruso look bad, or worse yet, spew non-stop hatred about the guy – seek psychiatric help immediately. No person on earth is worth that kind of negative dedication.


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