New Moon vampire Robert Pattinson's secret terror

TWILIGHT star Robert Pattinson is the hottest film heartthrob in the world - but he lives in FEAR of his own fans.

The floppy-haired screen vampire has become a target for obsessed followers who are after his BLOOD in real life, a new book reveals.

Brit Pattinson - mobbed in London's Leicester Square last week at an event for New Moon, second movie in the blood-sucking film series - even worries he'll be KILLED.

The actor, just 23, says: "People ask me to bite them and want to touch my hair. I just don't want someone to have a needle and give me HIV and I don't want to get shot or stabbed."

New Moon, in which he again plays vampire Edward Cullen, opens in London on Wednesday and has a high-profile movie premiere in Los Angeles the day before. But Pattinson is terrified such occasions could make him a target for a terror attack or a assassination attempt.

He says: "Oh my God. Are they going to blow the place up?"

Although he is adored by teenage girls the world over a new book, Robert Pattinson: The Unauthorized Biography, reveals he:

• LOOKED so delicate as a boy his sisters dressed him up as a GIRL.
• DIDN'T have a proper girlfriend until he was 18.
• FLOPPED spectacularly as a teenage male model.
• NEARLY blew his chances of stardom after turning into a "prat" while acting in the Harry Potter films.
• IS READY to quit films for his first love, music.

But the star of movie phenomenon Twilight - it shot straight to No1 at the box office in the US and grossed £200million worldwide - says the attention he gets from adoring fans is threatening to destroy him.

They even cut themselves and offer to let him drink their blood.

He reveals : "There were girls who had scratched the side of their necks, so they were freshly bleeding when they came up to get a signature. They were like, 'We did this for you'. I didn't know what to say. 'Thank you, guys?'

"This is my life. People know my name and ambush me in public and try to figure out what hotel I'm staying at. I have accepted it as real now, but it still feels surreal."

But as a youngster, the only way he got close to girls was wearing their clothes. Pattinson's two elder sisters - Victoria, now 28, and Elizabeth, now 25 - loved to dress him up in their things.

He says: "I was a bit of a loner at school, quite anti-social. My first kiss was when I was 12, but I didn't have a girlfriend until I was 18. Up until I was 12 my sisters used to dress me up as a girl and call me Claudia."

Although Pattinson did not excel at lessons in his early years he took a shine to the stage, starring in school productions from the age of six.

Then he embarked on a modelling career and as a teenager posed in just a pair of black boxer shorts and a cravat.

He grins: "When I first started, I was quite tall and looked like a girl, so I got lots of jobs because it was during that period when the androgynous look was cool. Then, I guess, I became too much of a guy, so I never got any more jobs. I had the most unsuccessful modelling career."

And his luck with women hit an all-time low when he cried himself to sleep in the DOG BASKET after suspecting his girlfriend was cheating on him.

He says: "I remember when I was a teenager thinking my girlfriend was cheating on me, and going around riling myself up. Pretending to cry, I went to some pub and then went crying all the way home. And I got into my dog's bed. I was crying and holding on to the dog. I woke up in the morning, and the dog was looking at me like, 'You're a fake'."

Pattinson's first girlfriend was model Nina Schubert, who lived near him in Barnes, south west London. They dated for two years and parted amicably in 2006 when she moved to New Zealand to pursue a career as an artist.

He claims he got his acting break when his businessman dad Richard spotted a group of pretty girls at a restaurant. Pattinson explains: "For some reason he decided to ask where they had just been. They mentioned the local acting school and after then he nagged me about attending. At one point he even said he would pay me, which is pretty strange."

Eventually Robert joined the Barnes Theatre Company, in South West London and, after a part in a TV fantasy series, landed the role of Cedric Diggory in two Harry Potter films.

But he admits: "I was a real prat for the first month. I didn't talk to anyone. I just drank coffee and told everyone I was 24 and this famous theatrical actor just back from South Africa.

"I kind of blew it after the Potter films. There was a chance for me to really kick on and use the exposure, but I didn't really want to do anything. Looking back, it was a good thing. I was able to teach myself how to act for a start. I could have done some more teen movies, but I thought what was the point? I'm not all that fussed by making loads of money."

And when the chance came to audition for the part in Twilight that would make him a worldwide superstar he REJECTED the idea at first.

He says: "I was literally embarrassed walking into the audition. I had no idea how to play Edward at all. I thought even going was completely pointless, because they were just going to cast a model or something. I was almost having a full-on panic attack before I went to the screen test.

"I read the book five months before casting. I read the first 50 pages and I was just like, No! Because I was really fat as well.

"After reading the four-line synopsis - 'Edward is the perfect being. He's so witty and beautiful. He's crazy and funny. He'll open doors for you. He'll drive you in his Volvo' - I thought even turning up would be embarrassing."

Fans of Stephenie Meyer's incredibly successful teen book series Twilight initially greeted his casting in the film adaptation with universal anger. But they were won over when it hit the screens last December. And now he is besieged wherever he goes.

Pattinson was filming inside a New York bookshop when news of his presence spread. By the time he emerged from the store a huge crowd of fans had gathered, forcing him to run for the film's production offices.

But the crush was so great he was pushed on to the road and hit by a taxi. Worryingly, Pattinson had three bodyguards with him at the time but they were powerless to hold back the screaming hordes. The vampire movie fans - dubbed 'Twihards' - camp outside his LA apartment, hoping for a glimpse of their hero. Pattinson says: "It's funny, but about a year ago, I'd go out and talk to girls and no one would be interested. Then everyone seemed to change their mind. The attention I get now is just mind-bending."

And Pattinson fears the crazy attention from fans will soon threaten his life back home in England too.

He says: "I was getting quite scared the other day. When I go back to London, the only thing I've done all year will be to have gone around to cities and have people scream at me and stuff, and ask things like, 'What's it like to play the most beautiful person in the world?' I feel like I have nothing to talk about to my friends any more. It's going to really destroy me when I go back home."

He confesses to donning disguises to try to elude waiting fans.

"But it just makes me more and more conspicuous," he admits. "I'm wearing two hoods, a hat and sunglasses, which kind of stands out in the middle of the night. So I'm learning to sprint."

Pattinson reveals he would pack it all in and return to his first love of music if he feels fans are endangering his health.

A piano player at three who is also trained in classical guitar, he has performed live as a solo artist and with bands, and had a song on the first Twilight film soundtrack.

He says: "I used to love playing live at open mics at bars. You could go nuts and be completely free.

"What I really wanted to do was to be a rapper. But I didn't have the right physicality for it - I'm not very threatening!"

Robert Pattinson: The Unauthorized Biography by Virginia Blackburn is out now (Michael O'Mara Books, £14.99). To buy it for £13.49 (with free P&P) call 0845 271 2137 or visit notwbookshop.co.uk.

• New Moon (12A)

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