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tonight on "nightline," face to face. it is a high-stakes drama for alec baldwin testifying in court against his alleged stalker. tonight the story behind celebrity stalkers and the terrified objects of their affection. >> a free man, a shocking new twist in the murder case that has had ryan ferguson locked up for nearly a decade. he was just a college student when his own friend, accused him of a brutal murder. but today, things took a life-changing turn. and, mean girl, jennifer lawrence is a style icon, but she says even she has faced body

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and good evening. these days we have more access than ever to information about our favorite celebrities. experts say in extreme cases this kind of intimacy can make a deranged fan feel like a star is talking directly to them and that can lead to stalking. tonight we are going to take a look at this uniquely modern problem starting with a bizarre case of alleged stalking that is playing out today in a new york city courtroom.

here is abc's nick watt. >> reporter: alec baldwin for my money the best baldwin, actually cried in a new york city courtroom this morning as he described his living nightmare. baldwin, the debonair star of "30 rock" claims he was stalked by this woman, a two-bit canadian actress. >> i say loud and clear that i am innocent since day one. >> reporter: baldwin claims she would bombard him with 30 text messages a night. here is one, say i do to me. he says she showed up at his hampton's home, bombarded him with salacious e-mails. here is a taster dished up in court. i want to feel you, taste you, and make one with you for eternity. i will nourish you with my energy, power, and magic. she offered all this and more, in exchange for a new house in new york and montreal, a new wardrobe, car, and jewels. in one e-mail she states, i want

to be your wife. now. last year, she was arrested outside baldwin's manhattan home. she claims a misunderstanding she and baldwin were once lovers. >> you want to go for coffee with closure for your ex-lover. it is 4:00 in the afternoon. not like i was there unannounced. you announce yourself to somebody you have a relationship with and romance, we have many friend in common. it is normal. >> reporter: alex baldwin denies any relationship and describes his brush with her like something out of a hitchcock movie. stalking an occupational hazard for today's celebrities on line and in the flesh. just watch this. >> put your hand on the wall. >> reporter: 4:00 a.m., those are the gates of miley cyrus' hollywood home. that man 40-year-old jason rivera had a giant red heart

around his neck and unhealthy obsession with the 19-year-old singer. >> i have scissors. >> reporter: rivera found guilty of trespass slapped with a three year restraining order. he is not allowed within 1,000 yard of miley. for the protection celebrities get from the cops and courts they have this woman to thank, rebecca schaeffer rising star in the 80s played patty on the hit tv show "my sister sam." >> bran doidon is. >> back in the days there were no stalking laws in california or anywhere else. >> reporter: rebecca had a stalker, robert bardo. [ indiscernible ] >> reporter: bardo was enraged when he saw schaeffer getting into bed with a man "scenes from a class struggle in beverly hills" classic stalker behavior.

>> how dare she. she is not remaining pure for me. they put the victim on the pedestal. but once they're rejected it is anger, rage, rejection. >> reporter: bardo tracked her down and showed up at her apartment with a gun. [ indiscernible ] >> reporter: he shot rebecca schaeffer dead on her front doorstep. >> she had to be victim of a homicide in order for us to get message that something need to be done by way of legislation. >> reporter: laws were passed the lapd stalker unit was born which protected the likes of morgan fairchild prey for multiple stalkers who ironically once played a stalking victim in "seduction." >> hello? >> i watched you today? >> what? >> reporter: once she says a female fan began writing innocent postings on her website. then started sending card, gifts, and disturbing

handwritten letters to her home address. >> i am going to show up on your doorstep. fly across the country. you promised me you would pay our bills. you haven't done it. now i am angry. i was like, uh, it was getting threatening. >> reporter: the obsessed fan believed fairchild was her mother. >> with all the technology that is readily available to any weirdo on the street, you, do get a little concerned about, about your safety, your security. >> that's where we come in. part of our job is managing that fear. in addition to managing the case. >> madonna suffered nightmares after being stalked by a man named robert hoskins. >> the thing that makes him dangerous. he is focuseded on madonna as a spirit. he believes the ma dospirit can h hab y habit. >> reporter: he was sentenced to 10 years.

dr. reid malloy, studies stalking and believes modern celebrity culture may be fueling the problem. >> the more the magazines humanize the celebrity figure the more it can reduce the space between the stalker and celebrity figure. >> the internet makes it easier with youtube, twitter, because these stalkers believe that the celebrities are actually talking directly to them. >> reporter: this woman stalked brad pitt. broke into his home. fed his dogs and slept in his pajamas. >> these are people who don't have a lot going on in their lives. all of a sudden, they can pull strings and they can make some one afraid of them. >> reporter: this man was jailed in 1998 for 25 years after he was caught trying to break into steven spielberg's home armed with a box cult tter, handcuffsd duct tape. he told police he wanted to rape the director. >> oftentimes they're living alone. they have typically had unstable work histories.

they have not done well. often times that's because of the psychiatric disorder. paradoxically they tend to be brighter than average. >> reporter: any way, back to alex baldwin and the woman who apparent leap first met in 2000, he was in canada, shooting a film. ten years later they had dinner in new york. baldwin now married to his then girlfriend, says she was asking for acting advice. she claims, they became intimate. >> are you a stalker? did you stalk him? >> no, i am not. >> you don't kid yourself a stalker? >> he maintained a relationship with me while he was with her. now that's why he created it. >> reporter: in court, baldwin vehemently denied. there was ever a sexual relationship. at which point, she screamed really? she then shouted he is leagying you! baldwin leaving court, clearly agitated telling a cameraman.

i am nick watt for "nightline." >> always colorful alec baldwin. our thanks to nick watt. coming up next, the popular college kid who went to prison for murder. the fresh life-changing twist in this case today. >> and the always candid jennifer lawrence with tough word for hollywood's real mean girls. mpg highway and comes with no charge scheduled maintenance. and right now you can drive one home for practically just your signature. sign. then drive. get zero due at signing, zero down, zero deposit, and zero first month's payment on any new 2014 volkswagen. hurry, this offer ends december 2nd. for details, visit vwdealer.com today. [ female announcer ] can you heal a broken heart with a bundt cake? of course you can! even if that heart was broken by zack peterson. bake the world a better place with nestle toll house.

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it is a team to try different jobs, fall in love, maybe get married. ryan ferguson has not had a chance to do an of these things. he spent the last eight years in jail convicted of a murder he says he had nothing to do with. but his family never gave up their fight for his freedom. today is beat ging of tthe begi rest of his life. here is dan a brahms. >> reporter: ryan ferguson is a free man after spending fearly a decade in prison for a brutal murder he always said he didn't commit. >> to get arrested and charged for a crime you didn't commit it is easy, you can lose your life very fast. but to get out of prison it takes -- an army as you can see. >> reporter: ryan ferguson's parents rushed to the prison to pick him up. and celebrated his hard-fought victory. >> i would look ike to absolute thank my parents. my father, my mother. >> reporter: ferguson spent all most all of his 20s in a maximum

security prison yet not a shred of physical evidence linking him to the murder and as of last year not a single witness to implicate him. we sat done with ryan before he was released. you have got to be furious? >> absolutely. i have suffered a lot. worse i sffeel like my family h suffered far more than i have. >> reporter: his incredible saga started a decade ago. former eagle scout. he was a popular kid, extremely close with his family growing up in columbia, missouri. leaving class one day he was suddenly pulled over by police. >> i lived about a mile away from the school. there were these guys who were tailing me. >> reporter: he was stunned to hear they were accusing him of a vicious murder that occurred two years earlier on halloween night. the victim, beloved sports journalist and father of two, ken hitehold, bludgeoned and strangled in the parking lot of the columbia daily tribune where he worked. >> obviously, i had nothing to

do with that. questioned me for an hour. i've go back. so it was a relief. >> i was not there. >> reporter: that relief fade the fast. ferguson was questioned for hours. >> what the hell is going on? >> reporter: and never wavered in his insistence that he had nothing to do with the murder. >> i wasn't there. i dent do anything. >> reporter: why was he arrested at all? because hours earlier in an interrogation room down the hall, this man, classmate of ryians, told police a very different story. saying he and ryan were response bum for that unsolved crime. >> whose idea was it? >> ryan's idea. >> reporter: charles ericson and ryan had been out drinking that halloween night when the man was killed. >> we had a few drinks, hung out. when the bar closed i took ericson home. and that was pretty much the night. >> reporter: years later, erics on who had a history of substance abuse started telling people including ryan that he had a dream he had been at the

crime scene the night of the murder. >> he's clearly inebriated. asking me if i knew of anything about the murder of ken hitehold. i don't know anything. i took you home that night. you even saying that is incredibly strange. kind of freaking me out. >> reporter: when interrogated by police, ericson seemed confused to say the least. he deidn't seem to know how the murder occurred. >> is that right? >> yeah. >> no. >> reporter: when brought to the scene, where it happened -- >> does this look familiar to you. >> i don't remember most of what happened. >> reporter: or what the murder weapon had been. [ indiscernible ] >> reporter: the detectives got aggressive. ericson claimed that he and ryan ferguson had run out of drinking money and decided to rob someone.

>> you better start thinking very clearly. >> okay. >> because the it its you that is on chopping block. >> the state calls charles ericson. >> reporter: at the trial, ericson somehow knew all of those details that eluded him during the interrogation and was the star witness against eric ferguson. >> you were down here. he had his foot on the victim's back. pulling up on the belt. like this. >> reporter: that detailed klt w -- account was supported by the janitor, jesse trump who identified ferguson as one of two men he saw in the parking lot immediately after the murder. >> would you point to the individual or individuals, please. >> yes. >> reporter: ericson and trump were the case against ferguson. because after all, the dna found apt the scene, footprints.

fingerprints, none matched ferguson. but enough for a jury to convict. >> does the jury find that defendant ryan william ferguson guilty of murder in the second degree. >> reporter: but four years after that 2005 conviction, erics on who pled guilty in exchange for a 25-year sentence reached out to ryan. >> kathleen zelner, an attorney who won many wrongful conviction cases, agreed to take the case pro bono. >> charles ericson wanted ryan ready attorneys to meet with him. >> reporter: with her camera rolling. ericson read a statement admitting he had not been truthful in his testimony against ryan. >> things happen much differently than i preachously stated. i regret i put an innocent man through that. >> ryan got a new court hearing. in april 2012. ericson testified that he lied about ryan ferguson during his

trial. >> man, i lied to everybody. >> then the janitor, the only other eyewitness to implicate ryan took the stand and admitted that he too had lied at the trial. convicted sex offend ter, jerry trump said, police pressured him to implicate two young men from a photo. >> i would like to have forgiveness from ryan. >> judge daniel green didn't believe ericson's most reesen r account. found there wasn't enough new reliable evidence to overturn the conviction. >> there is no case in the united states where a person remained incarcerated when the only two witnesses against them have recanted. >> it is frustrating. we found so much that helps prove my innocence. >> last week an appellate court overturned the ruling, quote, newly discovered evidence, clearly, convincingly establish that he is actually innocent. then today, the missouri attorney general's office announced that they will not

retry or pursue further action against ryan ferguson at this time. meaning, ryan ferguson is a free man. >> from day one i got arrested ehave been reading, wright, studying, working out, taking care of myself. i am ready for anything really. >> when we spoke with ryan over a month ago he kau sthusly predict heed would be out by thanksgiving. >> just maintain positivity. hope that one day i wake up and get a good phone call. >> reporter: now that phone call has come. ryan ferguson is preparing for his new life. a huge day in a long, winding case. our thanks to dan abrahams for that report. next on "nightline" "hunger games" catching fire star ready for a battle, not the battle you may think. introducing the 2014 s-class. the best or nothing.

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jennifer lawrence taking aim at the real mean girls of hollywood in to night's "feed frenzy." the 23-year-old oscar winner is shooting arrows at some real targets as she makes the round in support of her highly anticipated movie "hunger games catching fire." >> first up, waifish models like kate moss. lawrence says she turned done requests from movie directors to lose weight. she says it is important for catness to look strong and healthy. but for hollywood starlets it is a constant battle. girls are just mean to each