I met Bill Gates when I worked at Control Data Corporation, before the PC came out, and negotiated with him to put his Basic on our supercomputers. And then again when we were both speakers (him featured, me on a panel) at IBM’s OS/2 announcement convention.
A few months ago, I spent two hours at a craps table at the Taj Mahal in AC passing the time with Drew Barrymore. She was new to the game, and I was able to chat with her a bit.
I regret now that I didn’t engage her in any “real” conversation; but I didn’t want to come across as a typical drooling fan. She was having such a fun time, and since it was about 2:00 AM and no one else seemed to even know she was there, I thought she might want to keep it that way.
The truth is, I’m not one to get caught up in the whole celebrity thing; but Miss Barrymore has always been on the top of my list. (Yes, you could call it a crush, I guess). Maybe, that’s why I went overboard on being cordial instead of asking for autographs and such.
At one point, she actually touched my arm in a playful manner. Whoa. (Of course, when I tell this story in 20 years, we’ll have gone up to her room together to talk and such!).
I ended up writing her agency for an autograph or picture or something. Or at least a form letter. Never got a reply.
Bitch.
i saw tim allen’s chair today.
so there.
I ‘met’ Matt LeBlanc in a bar. He was completely bombed, and several waitresses were complaining that he didn’t tip at all. I ran into him in the bathroom and said, “Hey aren’t you Courtney Cox? You look better on TV.”
Yeah, I know. He didn’t think it was funny either.
Oh, I almost forgot. I met the Cheers postman John Ratzenberger at an ecology trade show. He was the backer for a product that took old corregated boxes and made it into zig-zag confetti for packing material, to replace plastic foam peanuts.
He refused everyone’s requests to go into character though, just saying he didn’t want to upstage a serious product.
I met James Dickey, fairly well-known as a poet and as the author of Deliverance. He was poet-in-residence here at the university before he died and one of my professors arranged for me to join them for lunch.
He seems to be fairly well-known as an SOB, but he was cordial and a fascinating conversationalist at our meeting.
Being from the world of the theater I have had the honor of meeting lots of great peeps. Michael Crawford stands out as one of my favorites and a real sweetie. He even told me to audition for a part in Phantom… stupid me… I put college first 
I’ve met Nancy Deusault, Jack Klugman, Sara Brightman, Bebe Neuwirth, Marion Ross, Michael Ball, Lea Solonga, John Schneider, Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin. They were all very nice, and some even sat around and talked about their times on the stage… they give great advice!
<<still fearfully awaiting the newbie flame>>
Sandra Bullock. She’s here in the city I live in, filming her latest movie (darn, she has a house here, anyway)in front of the Alamo Draught House. She was very gracious, and BTW, guys, she’s as cute in person as she is on the screen.
Matthew McCounaghay(sp?)hangs out in the bars (The Lucky Lounge) here in town. Before the bongo-naked debacle, I saw him in the bar. He asked me to buy him a drink. I declined.
Didn’t they used to date? How weird.
<<crawls back under rock>>
I met KRS-1 of Boogie Down Productions once. He spoke at my college (Carnegie Mellon University) once, and I was in charge of security. We got to hang out with him and talk for a while after the event. He was fairly intelligent and well-spoken.
I also met Beverly Mickins, a comedienne who was doing standup at the same college. She mentioned that she was on Square One (a math show for kids that was on PBS) and was surprised at the deafening applause she got for that. Square One was such a good show that a good chunk of the people at CMU watched it religiously. I managed to speak to her briefly after the show, but I never got my autographed 8 x 10 glossy 
I have two incidences in the course of my short life… both in Hawaii, in the same hotel… about five years apart, each time.
The first time, I ran into Will Smith (Fresh Prince was big back then) in the hallway. I said “hi”, he said “Hey, how’s it going?” I said “Not too bad… what about you?” I think he said something like “It’s not too bad, just hanging around and all”… something to that effect. He and most of the cast of Fresh Prince were vacationing there, and I ran into him on the day they were leaving.
The second time, same hotel (the Kea Lani hotel, if you must know, in Maui… we still have some of the towels), Jason Alexander was down in the pools with his kid. He was just leaning up against the side and making sure his kid didn’t drown. Anyway, I came down the waterslide and nearly killed his kid, which prompted some brief chit-chat 'tween me and him as I waited for three of my other brothers and my sister to come down the slide after me (it was a long slide… fun, too).
Anyway, I’m with Divemaster… I don’t get all gawk-eyed around celebs, unless they’re naked. But, then again, I usually gawk at ANY naked person.
Oh, yeah, how could I forget this… I went to the same High School as Beverly Mitchell and Johnathan Taylor Thomas. John just graduated this year, Bev last year, with my class. Bev was a nice person… John was just full of himself and annoying.
I know how you forgot… we saw them every day, they ceased being celebrities to us. ((SPOOFE and I went to the same school, I was in JTT’s grade, however.))
oh yeah… I saw Jim Carrey at a reseraunt in San Antonio, Courtney Cox at one of David Arquette’s stage shows, I used to know Sinbad, I’m’ friend’s with Jerry Lewis’ grand daughter, Bruce Boxleightners son, Brittney Spears was a good friend of a good friend of mine when we were young… etc… when you live In Los Angeles, you see 'em everywhere… they’re like ants…
I was photographed with James Doohan in 1991.
I have talked with and gotten autographs from Ron Howard and Marion Ross in the early '80s at a celebrity benefit thing in L.A.
I was in an elevator with Isaac Hayes last fall. He had one of those headset cordless phones on and he was talking but I didn’t notice and thought he was talking to himself. I made a teasing comment and felt pretty stupid when he told me he was on the phone.
I walked with Peter Berg from Chicago Hope for a few blocks talking with him last winter.
I talked with Steve Thomas of This Old House on a plane from Boston to Dallas in 1996.
I sat across the aisle in a plane and visited with Jake Steinfeld, the Body By Jake guy in 1996.
My most significant brush with celebrity was that Peter Richmond, the sports columnist for GQ, came to speak to my journalism class. I shook his hand afterwards and told him I loved his stuff, and he seemed surprised. His talk was, to me at least, absolutely fascinating. I regard that day with more fondness than any other in my abortive college career, I think, 'cause it’s not so much that he’s a celebrity ('cause really, who reads bylines except strange folks like me?) but that he’s someone I respect.
I’ve met John Ralston Saul. One of my sex partners once swapped spit with Rufus Wainwright, which I regard as more interesting. 
Seriously, I used to hang with some of the fringe Hollywood crowd, and it was more than I can remember, or have time to list here. Johny Carson, Raquel Welch, David Carridine, Tony Reynolds, and more. I also messed around with Annie Sprinkles, and got kissed by Hyapatia Lee & a couple other porn stars. This WAS some time ago, tho.
And, Osiej,welcome to the SDMB Glad to have you! (there, that wasn’t so bad, now, was it?)
Having worked in the large arena in my town for a couple years and in a club that has touring acts all the time for a few more years, I’ve met more musicians than I can remember. The most memorable:
1992(maybe 93). Ice T has recently released the “Cop Killer” song and was taking the resulting flak from it. He’s on tour, and playing at the club I was working at that nite. I was there in the afternoon doing pre-production stuff.
The club has 2 sides, one for concerts, the other has pool tables, video games, etc. I go to the game side to get something, and there’s Ice T playing Mortal Kombat with a small line of people wanting to play aginst him. I figure “Why the hell not,” and get in line. While I’m waiting my turn, he’s talking to people, laughing, joking, talking about the song and all the attention, just being a regular guy. Very nice, very cordial, shook hands with his opponents after the games. Just a really kool guy. My opinion of him rose exponentially.
The show that nite was one of the best I’d ever seen, even to this day.
osiej–the 2 places are the Erwin Center and the Back Room. We’ll be “same town newbies.” Haven’t seen Sandra yet tho.
On the “Same high school” note–our most famous alum is Debbie Gibson. She started the year after I graduated, so I never met her. Her sister was okay, tho. We ran in different crowds and didn’t really talk much.
Oh, the MK game–Ice T kicked my ass. Badly.
I went out with friends to have dinner at a place called Ed Debevic’s in Beverly Hills some 3 years ago. At Ed Debevic’s, we happen to run into OJ Simpson. People around us were either staring at him or whispering “murderer”. One of my friends happen to carry a camera with them but the developed picture was blurry.
Had lunch with Cesar Chavez.
I’ve met JillGat. I have pictures to prove it!