In a recent fundraiser for the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, actor Neil Patrick Harris ("Dr. Horrible's Singing Blog", "How I Met Your Mother") demonstrated his inner fanboy by taking visting patrons on a tour of his home in the Studio City Hills. Among other works from contemporary artists of note, Harris' office contains a virtual shrine to the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.



"Best. Office. Ever," claimed Gendy Alimuring, a columnist for LA Weekly. According to Alimuring, Harris' office holds an original plaque from Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, and a changing portrait of Medusa which is also found in the Mansion. He even has a bride doll with a heart that glows red with each beat on display. "Dark and spooky, but kinda silly," Alimuring said.



Authoritative reports hold that the plaques currently installed outside the Mansion are the original ones, but there were a couple spare bronze plaques cast alongside the originals as the attraction was developed. Mysteriously, one disappeared from a Disneyland Staff Shop sometime in the '90s, around the same time that resin replicas of the plaque started to appear on the black market. So it is entirely possible that Harris' plaque is indeed original and from the park.



Guests of the DoomBuggies Swinging Wake held at Disneyland in February 2008 would not be surprised to hear that Harris is a Haunted Mansion fan, since he was seen as a guest at the event as well. The Swinging Wake, an event in which Haunted Mansion fans joined to listen to stories from four Imagineers who worked with Walt Disney in the creation of the Mansion, was a private glimpse into the mysterious history of the ride. Harris, an amateur magician and lover of stage arts, was overheard chatting about his practice on the trapese with Imagineer Bob Gurr before the event. The event concluded with an opportunity to have a photo taken with the Mansion's famous "Hitchhiking Ghosts," for which Harris waited giddily in line with the rest of the Mansion fans in attendance.

The Haunted Mansion has many other celebrity fans, including writer Cory Doctorow, who has written an entire novel about Walt Disney World's Haunted Mansion, titled Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.