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?”
