I spent a summer in a summer stock production with Glenn Close and Jonathan Frakes, Before They Were Stars. I was a square little twerp (still am, but I’m fat now), and Frakes spent the summer in a desultory fashion trying to get me buzzed. I jumped on his back every night in the mutiny scene. I got my name above Glenn’s once in the musical of the year (Anything Goes…)
-While in college, I scored 7 points on Allen Iverson and I also played against Stephon Marbury – both were pretty nice guys afterwards.
-When the NY Giants used to have their football camp in my hometown, I would see Lawrence Taylor a lot. He is probably the most impolite person I have ever met.
-I went to college with Liz Filarski (does she count as a celebrity?). She lived right above my dorm room. She wasn’t very popular on our floor.
-I met the girl that had an emotional breakdown on Real World Seattle (she seemed a lot friendlier in real life than on tv), and I sat next to Tami from the first Real World California at a Nets game (she used to be married to one of the Nets’ point guards).
-I used to take a biology class with one of the kids on that MTV show where they are trying out for the WWF (his name escapes me at the moment) – probably doesn’t qualify as a celebrity…
I made an ass of myself in front of Martina Navratilova. Nothing terrible, but my friend and I were in Aspen, CO, with nothing to do, and were actually LOOKING for her, just as a joke (we knew she lived there). So we picked a random bar on Main street, walked up to it, and out she came, little dog in hand. I was so flabbergasted that she was actually standing there in front of me – two minutes after hatching a random stupid plan to look for her – that I was unable to say anything intelligent; I just tapped my friend on the shoulder (he was turned looking the other way) and said “…it’s…her.” To her credit, she smiled and shook my hand and said, “that isn’t my name, but it’s nice to meet you anyway.”
A couple of months ago I was having dinner at a chinese restaraunt with my family in Maryland, and Pat Sajack (sp?) walked in with his family and sat down next to us. I guess he married a woman from Annapolis recently. He seemed very pleasant and strangely normal for a guy who’s on tv all the time.
Well, OK, so they’re not major league celebrities. But Javawoman and I love their show. In case you’re not familiar with it, they present movies, and during the breaks present and demonstrate some recipe that usually has some relation to the movie being shown. For instance, when they showed “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, the recipe was “I can’t go to school today, I falafel” (groan!). But hey, I think that sort of humor is so bad it’s actually good.
How it happened is that I work for a satellite broadcasting company, which shall remain nameless, and every year or so they put on a “Programmer Fair”, in which all the stations put up booths, give out prizes and freebies, and so on. Paul and Annabelle were there representing WTBS. They were giving out free autographed copies of a book based on the recipes.
As I stood in line, bald and hatless in the hot sun, I couldn’t but marvel at the fact that I was enduring substantial personal discomfort in order to meet a pair of cooking show hosts! What am I turning into?
Oh and P. and A. seemed to be very nice, though of course I wasn’t able to submit them to any extensive evaluation.
I swear I typed, “Paul and Annabelle from Dinner And A Movie”!, but somehow it got truncated.
Kurt Cobain
Met him backstage at the first show Nirvana played in Chicago. We became friendly and I had backstage passes for every Nirvana show in Chicago after that.[sub]Miss you Kurt[/sub]
Chris Jericho,Edge,Christian,Test,Albert,
DeVon Dudley and Buh Buh Dudley
Met them at the hotel they stay at in Chicago. All very nice guys except the Dudleys. Buh Buh was drunk off his ass and very rude and DeVon grabbed my ass.
Next time the WWF comes to Chicago…I know what hotel Jeff Hardy stays at. 
I’ll post pictures.
While working for an orthodontist in Princeton, N.J., I had quite a long conversation with Peter Benchley. This was back in 1980,and “Jaws” was still quite popular. I was working on his kid’s braces at the time. I didn’t know who I was talking to until after he left. Really nice guy.
I also brifley spoke with the infamous Lyle Menendez when he owned a small restaurant, also in Princeton. I saw Brook Shields when she was in line signing up for classes. My sister-in-law use to wait on her when she came into a local diner. She said she was really nice and always left good tips.
They just are. They seem to reach a broader audience, and they kick ass in concert. Also really nice guys. Although I will admit that I love both Rush and Barenaked Ladies, as well as the Hip.
RickJay - I didn’t know you were from Kingston! I thought you were just posted there!
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by GingerOfTheNorth *
The Tragically Hip are the #1 selling musical act in Canada ever, foreign or domestic. They’re also the biggest concert draw going.
I’m sure they’ve sold fewer albums than Rush worldwide; they’ve also sold fewer than Bryan Adams, alanis Morrissette, and Celine Dion. In Canada, however, they’re #1.
IF you like rock music and you don’t own Road Apples, Day for Night and Fully Completely, your album collection is incomplete.
GingerOfTheNorth: Born, raised AND posted in Kingston. Live in Toronto now though. I miss K-Town.
I hugged Joel from Good Charlotte. No one knows who he is but I love him SO much. 
I highly recommend Good Charlotte, you all should check them out.
~Kittie
Ladies and gentlemen, Marilyn Manson.
Studi
My sister tells me that she once met one of the former cast members of “Degrassi Junior High” at a party; the one who played “Snake”, I think. (That would Stefan Brogren according to the IMDB.) Apparently, he was a bit of a jerk.
But the closest I’ve ever come to meeting a celebrity is when my wife and I got books signed by Neil Gaiman recently. He seemed to be a pretty nice guy, even though he’d been signing his name non-stop for two hours. We’ve also passed by Zuleikha Robinson at a car show, and I was once in the same Radio Shack in Ottawa as Elvis Stojko, but those weren’t meetings…
Was that the same convention that Peter David debated Todd McFarlane? I had a hard time deciding which I wanted to see more, but couldn’t miss Harlan’s talk. Well worth it…
I’m surprised to hear that. I met him while returning a rental car at the San Francisco airport. We talked for a few minutes and he seemed like a nice guy.
I’ve hung out with the band The Smithereens on a few occasions. Cool guys.
Eric
In college, I worked in the office that coordinated campus entertainment. I had the opportunity to meet and exchange pleasantries with several celebrities, among them: Bob Hope, Leonard Nimoy (got to take him to the airport), Jay Leno, Kurt Vonnegut (had dinner with him along with about 15 of my office workers), and Robert Klein (really nice and pleasant man).
In no particular order,
Terry Pratchett, Lee Aaron, Tad Williams, Spider and Jeanne Robinson, The Rheostatics, Michael Smith (nobel prize winner), Jaymz Bee, Great Bob Scott, The Beehive Singers, Lloyd Robertson.
Santos L Halper:
The very same. And unfortunately, it turned out to be the only Comicfest ever.
I almost hit Steven Spielberg with my car once.
Sat a few seats away from Brooke Shields at a Princeton football game back in 1985.
Stood next to Patrick Stewart outside a theater in NY before his one-man peformance of A Christmas Carol.
The Mets player Howard Johnson used to come into my ice cream store all the time. I used to make him banana splits. I thought it ironic that a guy named Howard Johnson would come into my store to buy ice cream. You’d think they’d give it to him for free over at HOJO.
Bill Buckner was very rude to me in 1986, a few months before that ball went between his legs in the World Series. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy…
My dad and uncle were good friends with Bill Clinton from junior high/high school so we used to go the White House for formal and informal events…my mom has an album devoted to pictures of various members of the family with the president or in parts of the white house.
Also I used to live in Pebble Beach, CA which has many famous ritzy golf courses… One day my mom came home from doing whatever and said I might want to check out the 5th or 6th hole on the mpcc golf course… i walked a couple blocks and there I saw Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Phil Jackson, and some other manager or something who i didn’t know… as I was walking up barkley had just sliced (or maybe its hooked) his tee-off way to the right and it went onto the driving range… he was pissed and smacked his driver on the ground, breaking it… When I got there I was of course shocked and nervously asked for their autographs… Michael Jordan wouldn’t sign anything cause of his contract or some shit… fuck him… but Phil Jackson and that other guy signed a napkin they had on them and then Charles Barkley became one of my all-time favorite celebrities by signing the head to the driver he’d just broken, then giving me the driver and the head
A brief yet interesting conversation with Huey Lewis (aka Huey Lewis and the News). Nice guy. Real down to earth, albiet this was more recent than not and his celebrity status has sort of spiraled downward.
Which one? I only ask 'cause I have the same name as one of those guys (first and last name).
I’m pretty sure I saw Steven Tyler at a local Ren Fair about 8 - 10 years ago. I didn’t go up and speak to him because I figure lots of celebs would like a little privacy. I’m not a big fan of Aerosmith anyway.