On the flip side to VSM's tale, I worked with one actress a few years back who subsequently left the city. She took her email contact list with her, though. Every month we would get a long, windy, and personal update about what she had been doing, where she was working, and where she was headed next, peppered with comments to her younger cousins, best friends from high school and former professors at grad school! She sent them to every member of the production team for the show that we shared -- from directors to designers to the cast.
The first one I thought was a mistaken email. By the third one I had her on my spam blacklist.
Updates are cool, and can be convenient, but there is value in targetting your mailing list.