14 DAY TRIAL // Actress Alyson Hannigan has joined the ranks of celebrities seeking legal protection against a stalker. TMZ reports that the star has just been granted protection against a man she claims is mentally unstable.
The man was recently released from a mental institution and, to Hannigan, seems unstable enough to actually act upon his threats of physically harming her.
“The ‘How I Met Your Mother’ actress filed a request for a restraining order in LA County Superior Court, claiming John Hobbs has been harassing her on the Internet – posting threatening messages on Facebook, MySpace, and Alyson's website,” the celebrity publication reports.
“Hannigan says Hobbs is ‘mentally unstable and was recently discharged from a mental hospital’,” adds the same media outlet.
He threatened to kill and rape her, posting vicious comments on her official channels, the star argues in court documents.
The protection order applies to her, her husband and their two children, with a hearing scheduled for March 6, when the judge will decide whether to make it permanent or not.
As noted above, Alyson isn’t the only star to find herself in such a situation: these past couple of years have made it possible for fans to interact more with their idols on social media but, at the same time, social media has also made the stars more exposed.
Last December, for instance, celebrity tattoo artist Kat Von D also got a restraining order against a man who kept leaving her messages on Twitter and Facebook with the things he was going to do to her once he got ahold of her.
Taylor Swift, Alec Baldwin and Laurence Fishburne also came too close for comfort to such “fans” and all turned to a judge for assistance with a restraining order, as we also reported at the time.