[QUOTE=ThisSpaceForRent]
ALL of the '97 Detroit Redwings (sans goalies as I hear they have no table manners)…Yzerman IS a class act
[/QUOTE]
I always hoped he would be in person, I know he’s a class player.
My guy Stevie Y! Let’s Go Red Wings!
Cheers,
G
Who misses hockey most dreadfully here on the bottom of the planet. 
[QUOTE=Colibri]
…and dinners with composer Aaron Copeland…
[/QUOTE]
This would seem more plausible if you had spelled his name correctly.
About 5 or 6 years ago there was a (rather lame IMHO) TV movie in which Mary Tyler Moore and Valerie Harper reprised their roles as Mary and Rhoda, 30 years on and living in New York, yadda yadda. Maybe you saw it?
I watched it with a friend who taught a “History of TV” course at Penn State, and when the show was over he called his good friend Valerie Harper to congratulate her on her performance. (He’d met her when he took his class to New York for a taping of something or other.)
So I didn’t quite meet Valerie, but I did eavesdrop on (the other end of) one of her phone conversations.
Too many. Growing up in a “movie star” community, being in broadcasting, and working for a production house in Beverly Hills, I’ve had nice encounters (and a few nasty ones) with celebs.
A couple of my good favorites:
16 years old, out in the driveway changing the oil on my car, and I feel a tug on my shoe. I pull myself out from under my car, and there’s an Olde English Sheepdog chewing on my shoe. And Walter Matthau leaning against the tree, laughing at his dog’s antics. I got to know Mr. Matthau rather well, as he lived two blocks from us and walked every day.
And next door to Matthau: Mel Blanc. Never met him, but I had a CB radio, as did Mel, and we chatted several times. His handle? Bugs Bunny, of course.
Actress Deborah Raffin. She and her husband owned a books-on-tape outfit I worked for, she produced several books, and I worked very closely with her.
Russell Johnson. Yep, The Professor from Gilligan’s Island. He read his book for the above-mentioned outfit and I produced it. Had some nice talks with him.
Michael Nouri. Another book-on tape reader. Did a non-abridged version of Even Cowgirls Get The Blues - took freakin’ forever! One night he took me out to dinner during a break in the session.
Diane Lane. Book-reader. During a break in the session, she ordered in deli sandwiches for everyone on the crew. Had a nice conversation with her.
John Conlee, country singer. I asked for an interview, he invited me onto his tour bus, we drank a couple of beers and had a great hour-long interview.
Finally, the late singer Dottie West. She flew into town for a show, I had interviewed her on the phone a few days before, and she asked me to meet her at the airport. I did, she greeted me with a big hug, we walked outside and her limo had not arrived yet. It was 15 minutes to showtime, Dottie said “Where’s your car, sweetie?,” I pointed to my Z-28 Camaro, she grabbed her bag and ran to my car. I drove her to the venue for the show. After the show, she posed for a picture with me and signed it for me. Class act and wonderful lady.
Ah, wonderful memories…
[QUOTE=Gleena]
I always hoped he would be in person, I know he’s a class player.
My guy Stevie Y! Let’s Go Red Wings!
Cheers,
G
Who misses hockey most dreadfully here on the bottom of the planet.
[/QUOTE]
I have two lads that are hockey NUTS and quite good players…I asked Mr. Yzerman for his autograph for my kids…We now have a personally signed piece of paper with ALL the '97 Wings (again sans goalies as I have heard they cannot write either).. one of the players even signed #9 for Mr Howe, even though he was not in attendance.
GO Blues…but the 'Wings are my second pick,
tsfr
Saw Spike Lee at Tipitinas last weekend. Not a fan of his, but wanted to have a decent converstaion with him regarding film and politics alike. He quickly made his way to a corner of the floor, surrounsed by several large black fellas that looked like they weren’t willing to let my pasty self get a convo in with Spike. Fair enough, everyone should have been there for the (great this time, 8/10) music, not criticism.
Oh! And I had the distinct pleasure to attend a booksigning, at age 17 or so, by the goddess of lesbian cartooning, Alison Bechdel (author of Dykes to Watch Out For). I adore this woman. I told her that I ran my school’s LGBT group and she signed two of her books with congratulations! I still have them in my complete collection of her works. We’ve also had a number of email exchanges on various subjects.
Most of the times I’ve gotten “up close and personal” with famous people, I was interviewing them. (Stephen Colbert is probably the most famous; some other favorites were the Derek Trucks Band, Yankees public address announcer Bob Sheppard and jazz trombonist/painter Dick Griffin.) But since I tend to hang out at stage doors after concerts and plays, I’ve had some other meetings.
There was the time Cyndi Lauper bitched out my mom in front of an audience. That was odd, but it sure was funny. I really hope I run into her again some other time so I can tell her that I saw that - it’d be more than worth it to see the look on her face.
I guess the nicest of all the meetings I’ve had was with Gregg Allman. Every March, I go to a couple of Allman Brothers shows in New York City with my father. We’re friendly with the Webmistress of the band’s site, and one day, she told Gregg about this father-and-son combo that came to so many shows and was so active on the Web site. He wanted to meet us, and after that night’s show ended, we went backstage, took the elevator to his dressing room, and spent a couple of minutes talking to him. I was 18 and at the peak of my Allman fan-dom, and my dad had been following the band for 30 years.
I have a picture of me standing next to Robin “Saavik” Curtis. I’m doing the “fingers behind the head” bit to her, with a Vulcan salute.
That’s as close to stardom as I’ve ever gotten.
Well, my Mom told me she dated John Turner.
BB King. 1970, in a concert at the University of West Florida. Awesome!!!
I dated Jose Feliciano for a while.
I was introduced to Mick Jagger (not a friendly sort.) I was back stage with the photographer.
I partied with the Venturers once.
I met Joe Pass at a free concert.
I met Tom Robbins (Even Cowgirls get the Blues) at a cocktail party, had him sign a copy of Jitterbug Perfume. I didn’t read him after that. His “date” was 14.
I spent a lot of time with Nina Simone. She always answered the phone, “This is Nina Simone, I’m not a man.” My second husband drove her around, when she couldn’t get a limo, in his '72 orange Dodge van. (this was in the mid '80s) Once, she had him drive her to Rodeo Drive to borrow a fur coat and jewelry for a show. In the jewelry store a knife fell out of her sleeve. They loaned her $20K worth of jewelry without a blink. If my husband was around she spoke to me, through him. She was fine when it was just us girls. 
Garrett Morris was my neighbor for a year. I loved his wife, Freda. He was mostly high. Rick Springfield lived in the same complex, but he wasn’t that social. He did play guitar for a group of us one Sunday morning.
I helped the daughter of Michael Gruskoff, (who produced Young Frankinstein etc) write a medical thriller screenplay. It was so bad it went directly to video.
I had a roommate who had been on the cover of Paris Vogue. She was a Ford agency model from age 14 to 22. She was in her 30’s when I knew her. She was dead broke and still trying to get modeling jobs, with little success.
My face was in almost every home in America for just under 2 years. 
(I was in an AT&T commercial)
Someone I didn’t exactly meet was Anne McCaffery. I met her nephew. The guy was a blow hard, so when he told me she was his aunt, I didn’t believe him, but when I looked at her picture on the back of a novel, there was no question. Well, they looked alike.
[QUOTE=Gleena]
So was Eddie Vedder.
It was a long time ago now, though!
Cheers,
G
[/QUOTE]
Is there anything about this you could share (asks the huge Pearl Jam fan)? 
[QUOTE=Rico]
Too many. Growing up in a “movie star” community, being in broadcasting, and working for a production house in Beverly Hills, I’ve had nice encounters (and a few nasty ones) with celebs.
[/QUOTE]
Please, me wants to hear about the nasty ones!
Oooh, I loves these kind of threads, even if I don’t have much impressive to add.
As far as Hollywood-type stars go, I’ve sat at a table next to Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard at a bistro in Paris, saw Roman Polanski and Emmanuelle Seigneur (sp?) at an amusement park, also in Paris, and once sat in the same row on a plane flight as Richard Herd, who played the police chief on T. J. Hooker. And that’s about it, I’m afraid.
Other celebrities: Once gave Leon Redbone a ride back to his hotel from a gig in Pittsburgh, met Allan Collins (from Lynyrd Skynyrd) when he inexplicably showed up in some hole-in-the-wall joint in Hooversville, PA to jam with some friends who played in a local band at the time, an was once thanked personally by Nancy Wilson of Heart for buying a ticket to one of their concerts.
More recently, again in Paris, I’ve had drinks and long conversations with a few relatively well-known contemporary artists, including Mark Wallinger and Louis Baltz.
My girlfriend of the time met Gerard Depardieu (her artists’ group rented a building from him for an exhibition and he stopped by to see it), and once in London she went out to dinner with a bunch of people who included Damon Albarn (from Blur and Gorrillaz).
My great-uncle, a steelworker from some tiny little flyspeck of a town on the Ohio River, for many years played golf regularly with Bill Mazeroski. I always thought that was pretty cool.
What can I say, I’m not in with the in crowd.
[QUOTE=Seven]
Oh yeah. I almost forget. When I was a kid I worked in a movie theatre. Aaron Brown of CNN (or is it FOX) fame would watch movies there. At the time he was just a local newscaster on a NBC channel in town.
[/QUOTE]
Seattle?
I had my picture taken with Adam Clayton of U2 last year and then got his autograph on the picture a couple months later. I have a second picture of me with him but I look like crap in it.
Another time, I almost had my picture taken with The Edge, but the guy taking the picture screwed up and ended up taking a picture of Edge’s feet instead.
Shook hands with Bono–he did the two handed shake–his hands were very soft.
Got pulled up on stage at a U2 show last December.
I briefly met Donna Rice (of Gary Hart fame). She was very short and much better looking in person than in her photographs.
I was an extra in Sidekicks and got to meet Chuck and Aaron Norris, Mako, Jonathon Brandis and Joe Piscopo.
I put Willy Nelson in jail once.
But the one that made the greatest impression on me was when I was 15. My (now ex-)brother-in-law had just finished a guest role on Bewitched when we went to L.A. for a visit. He took us on the set and I got to meet Elizabeth Montgomery. I fell in love with her on the spot. She was just incredible classy and incredibly beautiful.
I cried for her like a family member when I heard of her death from cancer in 1995.
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright]
Sold sunglasses to:
.
[/QUOTE]
Good to see you’re back, RNATB.
Considering I’ve lived in L.A. all my life, I’ve met very few. Bob Bain is a name that will mean something only to knowledgeable guitarists who follow the (recording) studio musician scene. For years, he was the guitarist in the Tonight Show Orchestra, during the Doc Sevrinson era. He also played on “God Bless The Child”, the definitive version, though it’s hard to hear any instruments at all over the vocals.
I’ve met John Densmore at a signing for his book, seen Ray Manzarek sit in Paul Warren and Explorer, so drunk he was practically horizontal, and told I’d just missed Robbie Krieger at a video store.
REally not much to talk about here.
I used to work for a company that picked up bodies for many of the high-end mortuaries around L.A., so while I “met” the following people, they weren’t much for conversation: Jimmy Stewart, Phil Hartman, Pat Brown (former CA governor, met his son Jerry), Juliette Prowse, Doug McClure, Steve Allen, Bonnie Lee Bakley, and those two North Hollywood bank robbers that got turned into swiss cheese.
And living in Burbank at the time, I’d see a few live ones once in a while: Ed Asner at a 7-11, Shannen Doherty at another 7-11, Jay Leno driving an old fire truck, Joe Mantegna at a Chicago Dog place he’s part owner of.
The mortuary I work at now is kind of out of the celebrity loop, but we did get Big Minh.
Martin Yan (Yan can cook) told me I was pretty once…
Ah, and I guess i met a bunch of well known professional artists in college, but it was required.