Kevin McDonald of ‘Kids in the Hall’ was an icy jerk when I was introduced to him backstage by one of their writers, Brian Hartt. Brian was kind enough to apologize after Kevin walked away. Frankly, everyone but Scott Thompson was a bit full of themselves to some degree whereas Scott let me tie a scarf I’d brought for Buddy into an ascot on him.
Do you mean you met Nichelle Nichols or Zoe Saldana? (If the latter is the name of the woman who played Uhura in the reboot.)
I was at the 2000 Dem National Convention. Every single famous person I met, politician and news person was polite and fun and took time with people. Especially Larry King. The exception was Mark Shields, who brushed me off.
I haven’t had such an experience, but my father did.
My dad was really taken with Emmett Kelly, a famous circus clown. Dad greatly enjoyed clowns in general, and did a little entertaining on stilts, sometimes in a clown costume. Through this he got a chance to meet Kelly, his favorite, something he really looked forward to. Apparently Kelly wouldn’t give him the time of day, and Dad was sorely disappointed and disillusioned. He never felt the same about Kelly after that.
My big disappointment was Scott Kurtz of PvP. I met him and Aaron Williams at a comic book store in '05 or '06. Very small store and not many people. I thought it would be fun to talk to them. Kurtz was a jerk. He was rude to people. I couldn’t read PvP online after that. I was even resentful of the books of his I have but haven’t thrown them out or anything.
I met Gary Gygax at a convention in 2000 and he was a grouchy old man at that point. I wasn’t playing “his” version of DND at that time and 3E was just coming out. I know some of what happened with him being forced out of his own company and the like, so I get some of it.
At a ST/DW convention, Walter Koenig was one of the guests and I talked to him in the autograph line. Koenig was a bit stand offish. I asked before I took a picture of him and he seemed resentful of me asking, instead of just doing it. He also left the con early but I did hear that maybe some con goers found out his room and so stalked it?
I met Nichelle Nichols in 1989 at a Dr Who Star Trek convention. I had paid to be in the contributor’s party to meet Peter Davison and she was there as well. Awesome woman! I had and still have a fond memory of how gracious and wonderful she was. I’m sorry that others haven’t seen that side of her. (And now I’m sorry that Armin Shimmerman wasn’t at the party as he arrived late.)
Met Jim Butcher and he was very nice! A guy kept interrupting him to talk about his own thing or say something and Butcher would just stop, let him speak, then pick up afterward. He also spent a lot of time talking to people as he signed the books.
Really, overall, I have had more good experiences in meeting celebrities than bad. At a Gen Con with a friend, he wanted to meet the winner of the “So you want to be a super hero” contest and from what I saw, the guy was really nice! Very gracious with his fans.
Okay, partial derailment on the OPs thread. Sorry. I haven’t gone to many signings or talks but have had only a few disappointments. (I’m sorry to read it about Kevin Smith and Christopher Reeve, though.)
I have never met him myself, but I used to hang out at a local restaurant/bar with a guy who worked at a flying school. He said that Reeves attended the school and everyone was pretty starstruck with him, so they all got together and had a nice polo shirt made with the school’s logo and his name and presented it to Reeves upon his graduation. Reeves took it and said, dismissively, “Great, another boat rag.”
Nichelle. I was certain I would butcher her name and couldn’t open another window to look it up at the time so I just said Uhura 
I don’t hold it against her or anything I certainly judge someone based on a single encounter, but it was for what it was, still disappointing.
I haven’t met Zoe but in interviews she seems very nice and down to earth.
A study in contrasts:
Michael Dorn (Worf of ST:TNG) was at a mini-con on Long Island circa 1988. Other than David “Darth Vader” Prowse, I can’t recall who else was there. Anyway, I was feeling under the weather, and didn’t really have any questions of Dorn, so I said hello, stated my name, and asked him to sign the picture he was selling. As he signed he looked at me and asked “are you okay?”. Nice guy I thought. So I told him, “I’m alright, just a bit of a summer cold I guess”. His face blanched (sort of) and he backed away (although he was on the other side of a table 3 feet away) and said “get away man, don’t give it to me!”. He said it in a loud voice, causing a bunch of people to whip their heads in direction. Now I never once sneezed, coughed, nor did I try to shake his hand. I took my autographed picture, and just shook my head, and moved onto David Prowse. I think Prowse witnessed Dorn’s behavior and must have felt bad for me or something, because he stuckhis hand out to shake and said hello. I thanked him but told him I might have a cold so I won’t shake. He smiled and wrote real nice things on my picture.
Maybe Dorn was just being a Klingon. Or an asshole
Or maybe he doesn’t like getting sick but rude sick people keep approaching him just to
get autographs and pictures and he is a little gunshy about it.
I’m happy to say that 95% of the celebs I’ve met in person have been wonderful. My girlfriend and I bumped into Dean Haglund on the street and he gave the impression that if he wasn’t running late to a panel, he’d have gladly gone and had a beer with us. Geez, Richard Herd is practically a friend of the family now.
The only “but” story I have is that by the time we got to Howard Hesseman’s booth to get his autograph, I think he was just completely done with the whole thing, because “perfunctory” would be the kindest way I could describe his attitude.
Armin Shimerman was a guest at an '89 Trek convention? Deep Space Nine was still years off. Was he attending just because he’d played a couple throwaway Ferengi?
He played one of the first Ferengi we met, in “The Last Outpost.” Sometimes that’s good enough.
Right. That was one of the two Ferengi I was referring to. He was also the (uncredited) face on the Betazoid gift box. I’m just surprised he’d have bothered attending based on those three roles.
David Copperfield - he was a total jerk to a friend and he left her stranded when she wouldn’t come across. He was nice to me in person but that was just before a show.
Neil Young - should stay away from underage theater workers. 'nuff said.
I’ve read that Steve Martin hands out this card to people who rudely try to glom onto him (fair enough); but also to anyone making any form of interaction that Martin doesn’t initiate.
If there was any chance I might encounter Steve Martin, I’d have a card at the ready myself:* “Why yes, I am a frustrated nobody, and my attempt to engage you is nothing more than a pathetic bid for validation.” *
Why? Despite the Scientology, I hear he’s a pretty good guy.
On the other hand, I’ve never heard of a nice personal interaction with Christopher Reeves. I’m willing to cut celebs some slack, everyone has a bad day. But everything I’ve ever heard about C. Reeves has been really awful.
He was an ass, but isn’t bothering someone as they’re getting ready for a panel kind of rude?
He wasn’t getting ready. He was just sitting there, looking around. I thought it was more considerate to approach him when he wasn’t busy, rather than at the end when he would be swamped. Oh, and the 3 hours I waited for him to sign my one book while the 15-20 people ahead of me got dozens and dozens of books signed. Courtesy goes both ways, and I addressed more than politely.
Robia Lamorte annoyingly interjected her religion into any conversation she could. She seemed kind of judgemental about it.
While your other complaints seem reasonable, I really don’t see getting angry at a writer for not being stylishly dressed unless she’s some sort of fashion advice expert. Writers in general are not particularly known for being fashionable, and I wouldn’t have expected a gaming convention to be a formal affair.
As for me, I guess I’ve been lucky because the celebrities I’ve met have all been perfectly pleasant. In particular I’d say that writer Neil Gaiman and MST3K performers Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy were just as their fans would want them to be, very nice and happy to sign autographs or pose for photos. Nelson and Murphy were joking around with each other the whole time.
Nitpick: Christopher Reeve.
George Reeves.
The easiest way I’ve found to keep it straight is that they both only have one s in their name.