Don’t be sorry because you disagree.
When you’re a celebrity, you have no more personal time. You’ve effectively signed your life away.
The ONLY thing I’ll say in my defense is that I didn’t do it to impress her.
In retrospect, with having the wisdom of years (and the fact that I’ve been recognized a time or two, and asked for my autograph - it IS kind of disconcerting), I have to agree that it probably wasn’t my most shining moment.
However, at the time, it made sense.
Okay, this isn’t a story I tell often (because I come off as a real idiot at best), but I have to balance yours.
A few years ago, I was in Athens for a music festival. I was in the 40 Watt club watching a really great experimental band (it featured a lead cello, so they had me at hello). It was late in the evening and we’d been going from venue to venue since early afternoon, so I was in a state of inebriation somewhere between “happy drunk” and “about to vomit on someone’s shoes and pass out.” While I was watching the band, enjoying myself immensely, one of my friends came up excitedly and told me that Michael Stipe was in the club. I’m a big R.E.M. fan, but I didn’t particularly care about him being there, and I was pretty involved in watching the band that was playing. At some point, someone told me that the cellist was Stipe’s sister. After the show, I went and bought a CD, got it signed, and got to talk to her and the other band members. Then I went to the bathroom, and on the way back out, I saw Stipe standing there with an older couple (who, in retrospect, were most likely his parents). I was just drunk enough to forget that he was a Famous Person who Shouldn’t Be Bothered, so I went up and told him, “Your sister’s band is AWESOME.” He smiled and said, “Yeah, they’re great, aren’t they? You should tell her you liked it.” I said, “Oh, I did!” I then grasped his arm conspiratorially and said, “She signed my cd!” I added, “I like your band, too…but your sister’s band really ROCKED!” He maintained the smile (in retrospect, he was probably choking back laughter) and said, “Well, I’m glad you liked the show.” I then stumbled out of the club in search of food to soak up some of the alcohol, but I was told later that my talking to him had triggered a flood of fans who lined up to speak to him (and, no doubt, get autographs). He fled shortly after that.
So, when a Big Fan comes up to him on a street corner looking for an autograph, he’s not cooperative. But when an almost-falling-down-drunk middle-aged woman accosts him in a bar to rave about his sister’s band, he’s perfectly nice and far more restrained than one might reasonably expect. I guess it’s a crapshoot, isn’t it?
Now why did I imagine that crudely animated in a tight below-the-knees shot?
A couple of months ago my brother was walking in Manhattan and he noticed Tim Robbins standing on the steet corner (waiting for a cab or car most likely). As my brother was walking he noticed Robbins but didn’t fully recognize him until he had passed Robbins. When he realized who he had passed he stopped briefly and turned around to have a second look – he was about ten yards past Robbins at this point and had no intention of talking to Robbins or asking for an autograph, he simply wanted a second look to confirm who he had seen. Robbins noticed that my brother had stopped and said, “Yeah, its me, now turn around and keep walking”
My sister-in-law waits tables in a NYC restaurant. One of the regular customers is Dan Akroyd. He is a complete ass according to the restaurant staff. He comes in alone or with one other person and demands to be seated at a table that seats ten, he treats the staff like crap and doesn’t tip well or sometimes not at all. The waiters draw straws when he comes in to see which poor sap has to put up with him for the evening. Also he orders mounds of fried food and only fried food - its the only thing he will eat.
I’ve never been insulted by a celebrity, but I do have a story about the perfect antithesis of the phenomenon.
Tony Bennett was appearing at a amphitheater in Portsmouth, VA, and was staying at a hotel in Norfolk. He came down to the hotel restaurant for lunch and, while he was waiting for his food, heard several women “of a certain” age wishing Happy Birthday to one of their tablemates.
Tony Bennett, class act and wonderful gentleman that he is, got up from his lunch and went over to the table. He said, “I hear one of you ladies is having a birthday…” and then sang “Happy Birthday” to the birthday-girl. I suspect there were multiple orgasms occuring left and right.
I can’t imagine Tony Bennett ever being rude to an appreciative fan.
I didn’t, but my friend did. A few years ago he was crossing a busy street in Toronto and to his surprise, Don Knotts was crossing as well, and they passed each other.
My Friend: “Hi, Don!”
Don: “Asshole.”
And that was that.
Just imagine what he would have called your friend, had your friend called him “Mr. Furley” instead. 
At least your friend was being respectful.
Well, if we’re talking about INSULTING celebrities, I made a big boo-boo one day on the street.
I was meeting friends in SoHo for dinner, and we met at a friend’s apartment. They were filming the sequel to Men in Black in parts of SoHo at the time, and so the streets were full of trailers and trucks. Surprisingly, the sidewalks were fairly empty and we figured that they were all at dinner or something. So we’re walking to dinner and discussing Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith. I’d seen Jones in an interview the day before, and he just was looking a bit scruffy, so that had stuck in my mind. However, I LOVE the man - I think he’s a fantastic actor. He was just…well, scruffy. So we’re walking down the street, and I say:
“No, he was on something last night. Man, he looks like sh*t! I love the man as an actor, but he really looks like crap right now.”
My friend elbows me in the side, and I look to my right to see Tommy Lee Jones grinning his head off at me. He says “Thanks.”, gives me one of those one-fingered salutes, and walks off with a production person.
I really wanted to sink into the earth - I was highly embarrassed. Thank goodness he didn’t seem too pissed off at me - he seemed to find it humorous. I wanted to follow him and apologize, but my friends stopped me:).
Ava
No, you haven’t. I don’t know where fans get this sense of entitlement, but it’s pretty rude to expect a celebrity to be at your beck & call.
You must have met him on a bad day. Or he matured into a better person latter. My mother was down at spring training several years ago and many people hang outside hoping for autographs. You usually have better access to the players there than during the regular season. Tug McGraw was there as a coach working with the young relief pitchers. For you non baseball fans, most teams bring in veteran players during spring trainer as temporary coachs. After the game Tug stayed for over an hour making sure evryone had an autograph that wanted one and he joked and talked with everyone. He also shamed many of the players into coming over and signing too. Many were trying to duck out. Don’t say anything bad about Tug to my mother or you’ll get an earfull.
Let me add since I wasn’t clear, this was probably around 1994 or so.
Okay, it wasn’t really an insult exactly–actually kind of amusing in retrospect. When I was a teenager living in the D/FW area I was listening to a radio station with one of those bigshot D.J.'s. It was a Friday night and I’m guessing the D.J. had just been dumped or lost his puppy or I don’t know what. But, he was playing the most depressing set you can imagine–serious heartbreak songs and holy-crap-life-sucks songs and it was driving me nuts. So I called to make a request for something a little less wallowing in the misery of mankind. The next song he played, which he dedicated to me, was “Every silver lining has a cloud of gray.” So I did what I should have done to begin with; turned off the radio and read a book.
Jesse “The Mind” Ventura accused me of being a child when I said I thought his tax plan was regressive. I was over 30 at the time. As he prattled on, I came to realize that he didn’t know what the term “regressive” even meant.
Well, David Crosby can certainly bite me.
I’ve been yelled at/patronized by him three times. One time, he made a nice, smalltown gal at my office cry because he couldn’t find our LA office. He was an ass, expecting me to be able to tell him “Okay, turn at Such & Such street, etc.” when he’s yelling at me from cell phone in his limo, and I’m sitting at a desk in Omaha scrambling to pull it up on mapquest. And he admits he doesn’t know WHERE he is! What, I’m supposed to guess??? Oh, no, wait. I forgot we had that computer like on Star Trek:
Me: Computer, locate David Crosby.
Computer: David Crosby is currently heading north on Santa Ana.
And when Stand and Be Counted came out and he has quotes like: “We’re just trying to make a difference… to change things for the better wherever we can,” I just wanna puke. Your first step should be to stop screaming at secretaries!!
Nicole Kidman told me I was a lousy lay, but Lucy Liu begged to differ. A pillow fight ensued.
Wait, what thread is this again?
Well, we’re getting off-topic. Obviously we disagree. But in my opinion, celebrities have no right to pick-and-choose the attention they receive, as their entire career depends upon these very people which they seem to disregard.
Ooooh, Ava, well at least you said something complimentary. I was wondering, which finger did he use to salute you?
It wasn’t that one, I swear!
It was just like a military one-fingered salute. I did feel terrible afterwards, but hey, I did say I loved him!
Ava
At that point, your brother should have looked momentarily puzzled, then brightened and said “It is you! Sam Epstein from the old neighborhood! Saaay - you’ve put on weight.”
There was a newspaperman, H. Allen Smith, who did a long-running column back around the 1930s, based on his experiences interviewing movie stars and weird publicity-seekers. One time he told of crossing the street, glancing at a limo with an open back window and realizing that the occupant was the most famous Wall Street celebrity and financier of the day (I think it was J.P. Morgan). Their eyes met. Morgan was scowling at him, giving the impression that he thought Smith might be an anarchist with a bomb hidden under his raincoat. Smith thought "Well, this won’t make a very interesting anecdote - “I saw J.P. Morgan today.” So as he reached the opposite curb, he suddenly waved enthusiastically and said “Hiya, toots!!” Morgan’s eyes snapped back front, and the car sped away.
In a piece she wrote for Esquire a couple years ago, Jennifer Aniston recounted an incident with a too-familiar fan. She was in a restaurant with a friend. The friend stepped out to go to the men’s room, and a slightly drunk fan wandered over.
“You’re just a great big nuthin’, aren’t you?” said the fan. Aniston, who knows she exudes ordinariness in real life, just sort of agreed and nodded her head until her friend got back and shooed the pesky fan off. “Guess we’ll just eat this nuthin’ meal,” she quipped.
Upon reflection, she wasn’t sure what she should have said to the fan. Maybe something like “I don’t understand my life either, but come sit down and we’ll figure it out together”?