While I wouldn’t mind having a well-known name (author, researcher), I would not want to be visibly famous, which would be the case if I were an actor or musician. I would hate being the type of person where every word I spoke was scrutinized and analyzed. “What did he mean when he said that?” I would hate to become the type of person tabloid writers drool over like a pack of horny camels in heat when something remotely scandalous might happen. The last thing I want is to have my mug plastered all over the Enquire for every soccer mom and her pack of soccerlings to look at while standing in line at the supermarket checkout.
If I run into someone famous (unlikely where I live unless it’s a local celeb, such as a news anchor), I just let them go about their business. I can only imagine how sick the weather guys get of people asking them what the weather is going to be like that day, or worse, complaining to them when the forecast is wrong. They take a shit one turd at a time just like the rest of us.
The closest I’ve become to being famous would have to have been when I worked as a bartender in a small college town. I worked a full-time at an Irish Pub in this small town in Denmark, and there was a community that was built around it, and I was pretty well known. It was difficult to go around town and not recognize people. And a lot of times, people would recognize me too, without me remembering their faces, witch is also a bit bizarre. Now that’s not exactly the same, though, as being famous, because I’d probably had an interaction with these people at some point, it is kind of similar in the way that I’d rather not be recognized by people going about my daily business at times.
I would not handle it well. I understand that a lot of people desire fame, but that has always been last on my list of things I want. If I became famous against my will, the only changes I would make in my life to would be to make it go away. There are many famous people who have proved that you can be famous and not live a life in a fishbowl.
By any chance did it involve either “falling and can’t get up”, a cereal you wouldn’t eat because “he hates everything”, a thin skinned caveman, or a guy named Bob whose proud of his male enhancement drugs?
Naw, it was an AT&T commercial. I was wearing a garish green and yellow sweater (they made me wear it), standing in front of a green and yellow building. I said “I’ve always used AT&T, because it’s always been easy.”
I’ve had my fifteen minutes of fame… several times. Nothing world-wide, but enough to get stopped on the street. It was weird! In one instance the reason even made me feel kind of guilty - I’d passed on the first try the ESL-teacher exam in my local Official Languages School, where apparently only one person gets the diploma each year. I didn’t intend to make a career of teaching English, just had come back from the US and since many Spanish employees suffer from diplomitis thought it would be good to have the certificate.
Once, uhm, c. 1990 there was a Metallica concert in Barcelona, where I was living at the time. There’s a bar in Plaza Catalunya that’s been there since forever, Cafeteria Zurich. In fact the building where the bar used to be got demolished, turned into a mall and the bar closed, but recently someone else opened a bar in the same spot and called it Zurich. It may not show up on tourist guides but everybody in town knows it. It’s just in front of the Ramblas. The whole town was plastered with Metallica posters; metalheads who’d arrived early in the morning to spend the whole day in town were all over, but mostly in the shopping area around Plaza Catalunya and the Ramblas. The Metallicas were sitting in the terrace at Zurich, having coffees, and their fans would pass by, maybe elbow the one guy in the group who hadn’t noticed their idols, grin and go on chattering happily. The band seemed to find it quite amusing.
It’s impolite to go up to your doctor in the grocer’s and say “by the way, my tummy is hurting here…”, so why wouldn’t it be impolite to do the same to actors and singers? When they have a signing or go to a convention, or right after/before a show, that’s different because it’s part of their job. The biggest complaint I hear about people not respecting this kind of limits is about how many mistake the actor and the role, though. Having someone come up and say “sorry to bother you but I’d like you to know I loved your job in XXX” is unexpected (even for people who’ve been in the biz for decades) but nice; having someone come up and start yelling that you’re a sonabitch and shouldn’t have left your wife for than stupid neurosurgeon and the yeller hopes she turns out to be a lesbian… :rolleyes:
If I was famous I’d try to keep quiet about it or maybe wear a huge fake beard like I’m totally sure the members of ZZtop do when they’re working and take it off when I’m not working and live a normal life.
The other alternative is to shag myself senseless with every beautiful woman I came across,I realise that they wouldn’t be having sex with me for myself but my fame but I’m sure that I could harden myself to that in time .
Over here it is considered completely uncool to aproach famous people when you bump into them in the street or talk to them about their film/T.V. roles etc. etc. and if you deal with them on a day to day basis as say a shop worker ,barman or the like you should talk to them as though they are just another member of the public.
That said we still have our very large share of immature dickheads who feel that its their god given right to pester famous media people if they stumble on them in every day life.
Personally, until I meet someone who doesn’t have to use a toilet,I honestly cant feel that anyone on this earth is better then me.
(Jennifer Aniston excepted ,I love you Jen and I’m not worthy of you ,why dont you answer my letters you cruel bitch)
I’d say that there is a similar sentiment here in New York. I’ve seen several famous actors on the streets here but never said anything to them. It would be rude. It also seems very much “uncool” in a particular New York way. Like how you don’t sit around and gawk at the skyscrapers. It seems very much like touristy behavior. It seems to be a big New York think not to get impressed with things in general.
“You think yoah bedda den me?”
anyway, yeah, never felt the need to approach anyone. I would possibly approach only my super-favorite actors. But I’d prefer to meet the directors. But personally, I prefer to write such people letters. If I feel really serious, I’d like to do that, and know that they have heard my sentiments in a way that they could do at their time and choosing.
