# Close Encounters with Celebrities **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 7, 2004, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/close-encounters-with-celebrities/243946 "2004-05-07T02:06:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![START](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@START](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/START)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/close-encounters-with-celebrities/243946/1 "2004-05-07T02:06:31Z")
I have not had to many but let’s see I met Johnny Cochran, Arnold Schwarzeneggar, Benny Hinn, Bow Wow, Snoop Dogg, Jay Z, Haley Osment, Jaleel White, Martin Lawrence and the father from fresh prince of Bel Air. For a normal guy that is a pretty good list…Most were seen at sporting events Johnny and Arnold were at some kind of Youth summit type of deal, not the same event or the same day just the very much the same theme. Can anyone top that not with how big the celebs are but with how many you have met. I still want to hear it but I’m not counting people that work with celebrities every day. oh yes and I can’t forget Debra Wilson from Mad TV. Thanx for posting and remember I read all posts. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/close-encounters-with-celebrities/243946/2 "2004-05-07T02:15:20Z")
> [@START](#): > > I still want to hear it but I’m not counting people that work with celebrities every day. That lets a few of us out; I used to write for _Movieline_ (before it sucked so badly) and I write show-biz biographies and magazine articles, so I meet a lot of 'em on business. There are a few other Dopers in The Show Business, too . . . ---
**Author:** ![Dignan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@Dignan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dignan)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/close-encounters-with-celebrities/243946/3 "2004-05-07T02:24:46Z")
> [@START](#): > > Thanx for posting and remember I read all posts. Is that a threat? The one that I can think of off the top of my head is when I was on the same flight as Geraldo Rivera. I only saw him getting on and sitting in his seat in first class on my way back to coach. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/close-encounters-with-celebrities/243946/4 "2004-05-07T02:30:15Z")
Okay, I’m not in showbiz…just retail sales, and I have met Tanya Tucker, Gary Sandy (WKRP in Cincinnatti) Doug Aldrich (guitarist from Whitesnake…he thinks we may be cousins) Scott Hamilton, Isaiah Washington (actor), Pat Benatar, and Michelle Kwan (ice skater). I think there may be a few more, but I’m too tired to think. Oh, and I was two aisles away from the guy on “Average Joe” at Marc’s discount store a couple of weeks ago. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/close-encounters-with-celebrities/243946/5 "2004-05-07T03:04:26Z")
Saluted Robin Williams and saw Lucas and FF Coppolla at the _Phantom Menace_ premier in SF. Made a sandwich for Larisa Oleynik (_Alex Mack_/_3rd Rock_/_10 Things I Hate About You_) Saw Chris Berman in the stands at a Giants Game at Candlestick. Close encounters with JT Snow, Krukow, Kuiper, and Lon Simmons, but I was an usher at Pac Bell. I saw Barry Bonds driving last week, not too far from the park, but it was an hour or so after the game. I think I’m forgetting some… ---
**Author:** ![Cyros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Cyros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyros)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/close-encounters-with-celebrities/243946/6 "2004-05-07T03:43:34Z")
I chatted with Yeardley Smith while cancelling a hotel reservation for her. The fact that I am one of the biggest Simpsons fans at work made it even sweeter. My wife booked a room for Mike Judge. My Mother in Law had Jack Nicholson chat her up at a bar in Mexico (she had no clue who he was). ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/close-encounters-with-celebrities/243946/7 "2004-05-07T04:05:42Z")
I’ve met lots of celebrities through famous people whom I know, but I still love the random-meeting stories. My favorite didn’t happen to me, but to a friend of mine, who was in an elevator at the Beverly Center with Julie Andrews. My friend said, “You look just like Julie Andrews” and J.A. said “That’s because I am.” My friend got all gushy and started going on about Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, and Julie gave her a big hug. What a great lady. ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/close-encounters-with-celebrities/243946/8 "2004-05-07T04:20:11Z")
I’ve met a ton of people but my very most favourite celebrity story is this one. Nina Hagan (punky, German singer) did a tour of the US several years back. She started the tour in a club I was working. They rented the hall thurs for a few set runs, then did a show Fri and Sat. So I’m there thursday helping get the show going. The band started working out their set. They sounded great. Then I hear then start “new york, new york”, which just happens to be my favourite Nina Hagan song. So I slip out from behind the back stage area and sneak a seat in the middle of the club. Nina spots me and does the whole song right at me. I’m the only guy in the entire hall and Nina Hagan and her band are doing my favourite song JUST TO ME! One of those moments where you just kind of sit back and think “no way in my entire life did I ever expect this to happen” Very cool… Side note: Nina Hagan is a doll in real life and I want her to have my children. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DrMemory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DrMemory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrMemory)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/close-encounters-with-celebrities/243946/9 "2004-05-07T11:41:23Z")
I’ve met many, but here’s just a few off the top… Sean Connory, Harrison Ford, Tom Sellick, George Carlin, John Candy, Kurt Russell Carroll O’Connor, Caeser Romero, Bruce Willis, Dom Delouise, Mel Brooks, Rob Reiner,Carol Burnett, Sally Struthers, Chevy Chase, Arnold “The Govinator” O.J. Simpson, Tony Orlando, Dabney Colman (schmuck), Gilda Radner… …and the list goes on… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/close-encounters-with-celebrities/243946/10 "2004-05-07T11:57:23Z")
I certainly hope everyone who meets comedians screams their catchphrases at them. They love that, apparently. See the episode of Father Ted where he meets Richard Wilson. I have met… various people off the telly in Scotland who you people would neither know nor care about (Andy Cameron, Gerard Kelly, that sort of level)… various low-level glam bands who are now slightly more famous… and… some woman who was apparently an MTV presenter but really I couldn’t tell you who she was. Has anyone been really appallingly rude to a celebrity? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/close-encounters-with-celebrities/243946/11 "2004-05-07T12:06:03Z")
I met several while working in hotels especially. The ones I had interaction with were Tony Randall, the comedian Gallagher (prick!), the authors John Jakes & Anne Tyler, Walter Matthau, Nell Carter, Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Edward Furlong (disgusting and P-whipped little thing), Dwight Schulz (A-Team), Whoopi Goldberg (stoned) and James Earl Jones (sweet & avuncular). ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/close-encounters-with-celebrities/243946/12 "2004-05-07T12:20:34Z")
I can’t believe I forgot Roddy McDowell above, because he was the coolest of all. A quick story: one night during the filming of the film [The Grass Harp](http://imdb.com/title/tt0113211/) several members of the cast and crew who were staying at a hotel where I worked in Montgomery, AL. One of them was Edward Furlong, a teenaged whiner who literally smelled bad (and who left the filthiest room in the history of southern hotels, but that’s another story- it literally had to be taken out of commission for more than a week). At the time he was under the complete and total control of a 30-something Svengalia who had been his private tutor before she began wearing his testicles as a charm bracelet, and man could she play up his very limited starpower at any or no provocation. One night several of the actors wanted to go out to dinner and one asked me to make reservations at the local “in” place in Montgomery at that time. Since the place was always busy, one member of the production team asked if I could make reservations for a large table. I tried to, but the restaurant manager wouldn’t take the reservation. I told him that the “guest list” included Jack Lemmon (Oscar winner & international superstar), Walter Matthau (Oscar winner & international superstar), Nell Carter (Alabama’s own and thus popular there), Roddy McDowell (everybody knows him and he knew everybody), Mary Steenburgen (biatch), and an assortment of spouses and lesser actors. If the restaurant could have made just one photo of the table in exchange for the compliance it would be a great ad. The restaurant manager basically said “I don’t give a damn who they are… I don’t take reservations.” By this time there were several castmembers and others waiting in the lobby for their drivers and I relayed the message that sorry, no reservations available, might I recommend another place? Jackie staggered up to the desk in front of several Oscar winners and “known the world over” folk and told me, with absolutely no irony or sarcasm- she was being dead serious- “Well maybe you should have told them that this table was for _Edward FURLONG_!” Walter Matthau burst out laughing. He later told a member of the hotel staff “Eddie’s not a bad kid, you know, but his family is what you down here would call ‘Jerry Springer trailer trash’ and they won’t run that crazy bitch off.” ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/close-encounters-with-celebrities/243946/13 "2004-05-07T12:24:01Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > That lets a few of us out; I used to write for _Movieline_ (before it sucked so badly) and I write show-biz biographies and magazine articles, so I meet a lot of 'em on business. There are a few other Dopers in The Show Business, too . . . Yeah, my ex, formerly known as Sniffs\_Markers, works in the film and music industries, and I work in the performing arts and music industries, so… _shrug_ I don’t really think about it. Half the time I don’t really notice unless the celebrity turns out to be a lot taller or shorter than I expected. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/45deac/32.png) [@Evil\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_One)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/close-encounters-with-celebrities/243946/14 "2004-05-07T13:23:59Z")
Let’s see… Tom Cruise, Anthony Edwards, Meg Ryan, Val Kilmer, Tom Skerritt, Sean Connery , James Earl Jones, Alec Baldwin and Danny Glover. Walked past Mike Tyson at Universal Studios. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/close-encounters-with-celebrities/243946/15 "2004-05-07T13:46:45Z")
> [@masonite](#): > > What a great lady. Not according to my friend Michael, who worked in a bookstore when Julie Andrews threw a big “_I_ don’t have to wait in line, because I’m a _star_, and _no_ I will not sign any autographs” hissy-fit. ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/close-encounters-with-celebrities/243946/16 "2004-05-07T14:38:55Z")
> [@Ross](#): > > Has anyone been really appallingly rude to a celebrity? 1995-ish A good friend of mine in Brothers Coffee on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington, D.C. He is waiting in line about 5 minutes, notices a blonde woman and “a suit” queue up in the line next to him and is dimly aware of a lot of people in the building behind him. After another 5 minutes, the kid running my friend’s line disappears, closes out with a mumbled “Break time”. My friend, already late for - almost literally - a medical life and death procedure not his own (it was very important) - shot in front of Blondie with the thought bubble (as he tells) :\*\*\* I know this rude, But I’ve waited longer than her and plus whatever I’m doing is almost certainly more important than what she has to get to \* \*\* (reasonable assumption). He notes out the corner of his eyes the suit’s narrowed eyes & Blondie’s step back thought: _ **yes yes I know, but this really is fair and important, don‘t make me throw down with you pal”** _ Gets his coffee and turns all this is 5 seconds: Suits everywhere. Something is wrong. Subdued conversations in the normally lively place, he is dazed, “_ **What’s up?** _” turns as he walks past Blondie and original suit’s notes deliberate icy refusal to make eye contact as they now step up to order. But he has nothing to hide - it was fair, he got his way, he looks: Blondie is Tipper Gore. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/close-encounters-with-celebrities/243946/17 "2004-05-07T15:03:28Z")
One faded-celebrity who stayed in a hotel I worked at got such star treatment that she didn’t want to leave. This again was a nice hotel in Montgomery, AL, and as with all hotels the largest department was housekeeping, and as with most housekeeping departments the staff was underpaid and not-well-educated, and as with most low paying departments in the deep south it was predominantly black. The hotel had hosted some major celebrities (as well as Dubya when he was still just one of the First Spawn) who had been totally ignored by housekeeping, whose members may or may not have recognized them but certainly weren’t impressed (so he won a few Oscars back in the 60s & 70s, who cared? I need him out of that room). Then, a local business college brought in [Ja’net Dubois](http://imdb.com/name/nm0239425/) (bka Willona from _Good Times_, though she also sang the themesong to _The Jeffersons_ and has made something of a comeback in recent years via guest appearances) to do a series of commercials. The same staff that couldn’t care less when Sissy Spacek and Roddy McDowell were there went wild because reruns of _Good Times_ were probably beating first runs of _Cheers_ and the other hit-shows in the ratings in Montgomery- it was huge, particularly among black Montgomerians. Housekeepers were coming in on their off-days to meet and greet and tend to Willona- Walter Matthau was “that old man from the Dennis movie”, but Willona was a bonafide theophany. They begged for the privilege to take her to dinner, drive her around town, take her to church, etc.- they brought her gifts and asked her to kiss their children and meet their mothers and almost every other conceivable homage. It was incredible, and there must have been more pictures taken of her in that three-four day span than in the rest of her career combined. To Ms. Dubois’s credit, she could not have been more gracious even when she was being mobbed, posing for every photo anybody wanted and talking to people she’d never met on the phone at the request of some housekeeper, etc… The Manager discreetly asked if she’d like him to ask housekeeping to leave her alone other than to clean her room and she told him politely “Honey… the next time you go some place and have people treating you like you’re Jesus come to town on Palm Sunday, let’s see if you want somebody to tell them to stop! I’m fine with it (laugh)”. Cool lady. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/close-encounters-with-celebrities/243946/18 "2004-05-07T15:11:15Z")
**masonite** ’s story reminded me: Early December 1996, I was having dinner at Amedio’s, a little college italian restaurant near NC State. As I was in line to pay my bill, I noticed the fellow in front of me looked familiar, so I ask him whether any one has ever told him that he looks just like (then Governor) Jim Hunt, only a little shorter? He smiled and said that he was Jim Hunt. The cashier agrees, and holds up his AMEX card to verify. I was suitably embarrassed, and murmured a congratulations on his re-election. ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/close-encounters-with-celebrities/243946/19 "2004-05-07T15:18:43Z")
I concur with **Sampiro’s** comment about Gallagher being a prick. So was Tom (Dr. Who) Baker, who was so slobberingly drunk he couldn’t stand up when I encountered him. I met James Garner at the Indy500 - he was on a golf cart and very nearly ran over my foot - he apologized quite nicely. Dennis Miller is much quieter and low-key offstage. “Met” him very briefly after a live show of his (one of those “line up and shake hands with a celeb” thingies.) Meat Loaf, who told me an OJ Simpson joke backstage at one of his concerts (I’d won backstage passes from a radio show.) Danny Bonaduce, formerly of the Partridge Family, was a radio celeb here in Chicagoland for some time, and I was friendly with him and his wife when they moved into my neighborhood. George Thorogood - another backstage passes encounter. He handed me a beer, and I recall he had the largest hands of anyone I’d ever met. Ann Jillian used to sing in the nightclub where my mother worked, so I had a few brief encounters with her. Myles Loud, who is now a big-shot nightclub entertainer in Florida, I believe. I knew him pretty well once. Dennis Farina is a semi-relation of mine. I say “semi-relation” because his brother is married to my stepfather’s aunt. At any rate, I haven’t seen him in person since he was a cop. The author of The Satanic Bible, Anton LeVay, was my cousin. Country singer Chely Wright bought some of my hand made jewelry. When the Chicago Bears were in their Superbowl season, many of them came into the restaurant where I worked. I got to know a few of them well. Other Bears I knew personally were Ed Sprinkle and Gayle Sayers. I’ve met a number of science-fiction writers and B-list-ish celebs at science fiction fan conventions. And when I was working at a country-western themed restaurant with live music, I met a bunch of country bands and singers who have since gone on to become famous. Oh, and my brother volunteered to work a celebrity charity golf outing a few years ago and spent several hours tending bar alongside Harrison Ford, who he said was the nicest guy in the world. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/close-encounters-with-celebrities/243946/20 "2004-05-07T15:55:15Z")
> [@LifeOnWry](#): > > I’ve met a number of science-fiction writers and B-list-ish celebs at science fiction fan conventions. And when I was working at a country-western themed restaurant with live music, I met a bunch of country bands and singers who have since gone on to become famous. Slight hijack, but a hotel I worked for briefly in Georgia once had the most unusual combination of events I’ve ever known. One was a _Star Trek_ convention (special guests George Takei and John de Lancie, neither of whom I met) and the other was a small NRA covention. You didn’t have to ask the guests checking in which one they were there for. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/close-encounters-with-celebrities/243946.md?page=2)