Online with the green-eyed monster

By Times staff

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 14, 2001

What has Willa Ford done that could be that terrible? Why is she so universally despised?

Somebody has to be Nick Carter’s girlfriend, but singer Willa Ford learned it’s a tough job.

Ford is a perky 20-year-old aspiring pop singer from Ruskin. (Okay, the perkiness is cause for some concern, but not widespread loathing.)

Ford, whose real name is Amanda Lee Williford, has a good singing voice, no criminal past and, as far as we know, flosses regularly. The woman used to sing in the Tampa Bay Children's Choir, for heaven's sake.

Yet when you log onto the Internet and enter her name, you'll find most of the Web sites about her are filled with venom. And those are the good things people are saying. Some of the e-mails contain hate you wouldn't see coming out of a prison. Consider the titles of these sites:

Poor Nick Carter. What he possibly thought was love, his fans knew was exploitation.

Hating Willa Ford

Boycott Willa Ford

The Anti-Willa Ford Page

Willa Ford: Just Another Pop Star Wannabe

Why Willa Ford Sucks

Say No to Willa

What horrible crime has Willa Ford committed? She was the girlfriend of Backstreet Boy Nick Carter.

Her attackers? The thousands of teenage girls who wish they were Carter's girlfriend, and who also have a streak of meanness that goes far beyond simple anger. This is restaurant quality hatred. Example: Ford made the mistake of signing on as an opening act during the boy band's 1999 United States tour.

"I saw signs like 'Die Willa!' " she said in a recent issue of Teen People. Even though Ford and Carter broke up in October and she has pleaded for forgiveness, the hatred follows her.

-- TOM ZUCCO

"What do you call Willa between two brunettes? A mental block. Why does Willa smile at lightning? She thinks she's getting her picture taken. How do you keep Willa busy all day? Write 'Turn Over' on two sides of a piece of paper. Why does Willa spend hours staring at frozen orange juice? The label says 'concentrate.' Willa is so stupid she thinks Meow Mix is a CD for cats."

-- www.anglefire.com

"I was in Wal-Mart the other day and was looking through the CD section when I came across a whole mess of Willa singles. Well, of course I don't want people supporting her, so I did what any self-respecting girl would do -- I hid them all behind other singles!

"Sounds lame, I know, but anything I can do to prevent her from making it, makes me happy."

-- (e-mail from the Anti-Willa site)

"We will provide concrete evidence that Willa used her ex-boyfriend, Backstreet Boy Nick Carter, to attain her own selfish goals. We will ridicule and make fun of Willa as we see fit. She has to RESPECT people in order to have fans. With fans Willa is NOTHING."

-- (from the Say No to Willa Web site)

"I can't stand Willa because she is a stupid, talentless w--. Nick (Carter) can tell us to back off, but I won't."

-- (e-mail from the Anti-Willa site)

"Names to call Willa: Willaworkforfood, Willabeast, Willaevergetalife, Willanilla, Goodwillahunting, Willapowerless, Willa-ted."

-- Willathereject@hotmail.com

"The Spawn of Satan, otherwise known as Willa, is a mean-ass b-- who is a power hungry control freak who will stop at nothing to ruin the lives of others while propelling herself up the ladder. She says she loves Nick for his checkbook . . . er, him. We are not Willa haters. We just think what she did (used Nick) is very wrong."

-- gurlpages.com

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