The day I betrayed Anthony Kiedis began like any other. It was August, 2007, and I was living in Malta. Specifically, I was living in Gharb, a tiny village on Gozo. An island roughly the size of Manhattan, Gozo is a ferry trip away from Malta, which is itself a tiny spot of land about 100 km off the south coast of Sicily.

Life in Gharb is Stealing Beauty on quaaludes. I emphasize this so you’ll understand how unlikely it makes the following events.

My friends Rob and Suze were visiting. That morning, we drove to Gozo’s premiere tourist attraction: the Azure Window. It’s a limestone arch that juts out from the west coast of the island. To get the best view of the arch or to swim through it, you wade out to the edge of another geological wonder: the Blue Hole. It’s a deep sinkhole that’s popular with divers.

Daniel Craig, I am not.

That’s where we were standing when I ruined this photo of my lovely friends.

A few minutes later, Rob stepped close to me and gestured at some tourists nearby. “Hey,” he said, “that’s Anthony Kiedis.” As a casual fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, I recognized him mostly from his sundry tattoos. My friend snapped a couple of photos of Anthony and his group.

When I got home, I posted the photos to Flickr and wrote a short blog post about the surreality of seeing one of the world’s biggest rock stars at the end of the world.

Mr. Kiedis is on the far right. Did those young women on the left take his photo too?

A few days later, the emails started arriving.

“Sorry to bother you… But could you tell me when you took the AK pic you posted?” “Did the girl next to anthony look pregnant to you?” “All I want to ask you if you actually remember that they were holding hands because to me the photo doesn’t look like it.”

I received at least 40 such emails and messages through Flickr. I answered the first few and ignored the rest until one thoughtful correspondent explained the sudden interest.

Members of a Red Hot Chili Peppers fan forum called Sir Psycho Sexy (“a place where very enthusiastic female fans talk about Anthony”) had discovered my photo and begun a CSI-worthy forensic analysis:

In the photo of Anthony you have posted on your site, there is a tall brunette girl in shorts standing beside him and what looks to be holding his hand. The only problem is, Anthony has a girlfriend, Heather Christie, who is about to give birth to his first (that we know of…haha) child any day now. So, for her to be in Malta last month is pretty much impossible since you’re not supposed to fly in the third trimester.

I answered her questions and confirmed that the woman with Kiedis definitely was not pregnant. She promised that she’d take my answers back to her forum and that the rabid fans of Sir Psycho Sexy would leave me alone. And they did.