I would think that most well known people would want to disguise who they are.
On another forum I reside in we have a celebrity in our ranks. She’s famous in Europe, starring in a TV show. She didn’t come right out and say who she was (although she did do that with a RL friend of mine), but over a few years she mentioned (and posted from) places she was visiting, things she was doing, mentioning what Tom Cruise was like behind the scenes, then she finally posted a clip of a TV appearance (not her show). She had always mentioned working on set, but I thought she just worked for a studio, maybe one of those coffee-fetchers. It all seems very credible. And no one flipped out. Mostly because we don’t have a lot of European members who might be awed by her fame. But we’re all a bunch of grownups who respect people’s privacy and like her for who she is. She’s very intelligent, well educated, very helpful, really nice, and she just happens to have a job that a lot of people watch her do. She’s still just one of the regular old gang. To me, anyways.
Next up: Lahore??
Announcer: Peyton Manning you just won the Super Bowl, what do you want to do?
Manning: I just want to say, “Hi, Opal!”
Well, I might cite Cecil during my Christmas Midnight Mass homily so you’ll all hear it on NBC.
~FriarBenny
Eh. You wouldn’t say that if you knew her.
And then from Climax.
Does being a legend in my own mind count as being a celebrity? If so, my post is my cite 
…Or from Intercourse.
Can’t anyone in the USA come up with an original name? 
Close, but I think in order to really prove he’s a Doper, Manning would have to say this:
“First, I’m gonna celebrate with my team. Second, I’m going to Disneyland. And third, hi Opal!”
See, I think the opposite would be true on a message board. You could totally be yourself and enter and leave on your own terms/timelines as you pleased without anyone physically bugging you.
However, I could also see where you’d actually have to watch what you said or it could be used against you, especially out of context. Hmm…now I’m not sure what I think!
I don’t know but want to nitpick that the van Dykes come from southern IL. They really come from central IL. Danville’s a nice little town, btw.
Other than that, I got nothing. I would think that celebs would 1. not have a lot of time to um, dedicate to something like this and 2. revealing ID would be fraught with security issues for them (much like it is for us, but on a much larger scale).
And then, of course, we need to define “celebrity”. I will never reveal who I truly am because that would ruin the fun for all…
I think the generic answer is that the celebrity would announce on the SDMB in advance that he or she was going to make a Dope reference (death ray, Marianas trench, hi Opal, I burning your dog…) in the next book, movie, TV show, interview, or whatever, and then do it.
My husband is from Danville and he and his three siblings say that it’s a complete shithole. Most of the big companies have left and there are just a lot of crappy neighborhoods. True, though, that is more central than south.
A question only a Doper would ask.
I think it would be a riot if, say, Tom Hanks was on Letterman and said “Hi to everyone on the SDMB!” and then neglected to tell us his username.
Why would a celebrity WANT you to know they were here?
As an anonymous person, they can say whatever they want to say and get honest feedback. If everyone knew who they were, people would be pouring over every single thread and every response to a thread for tidbits that would most certainly come back to haunt them.
Let’s say, for instance, that Obama really did come here and post occasionally - as someone recently suggested. As an anonymous poster, he can add his two cents and get feedback and see what others think. If you knew it was Obama, can you imagine the fallout if he made a joke that might be even the slightest bit un-politically correct?
I don’t doubt some celebrities have stopped by to lurk, or even make the occasional posting - but they would be fools to announce who they were in real life. Many people, like myself, post things here sometimes that you might not want your co-workers, or even family, to read and know about.
I do think it might be interesting if, say, Obama came on board for a few weeks under his real name and let people ask him questions. Then again, he would probably be criticized in the press for going on a board that has a history of goat abuse.
Good point. That’s why I figure you’ve never told us who YOU are
Does it count if every time I see MGibson I THINK it’s Mel Gibson? It’s really Mark or something but I like to think it could be Mel.