I met my # LIFETIME CRUSH LAST NIGHT--AGAIN!

Cafe Society
#1

I’m sure I’ve written about this before here, but I’ve had a harmless crush, along with several million other red-blooded American males, on Karen Allen ever since the late 1970s, and I’ve been bizarrely lucky in that one of the guys I work with is a pal of hers from before she became famous, and keeps up with her. Said friend has introduced me to her on one previous occasion (I’m sure in my previous telling I detailed the humiliation he heaped on me at that occasion, all in good fun, for everyone but me and Ms. Allen, not that I’m complaining–I got to meet her, after all, and there’s no humiliation too great to wipe out that pleasure).

But I got to meet her again briefly last night. There was a special showing of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK last night, followed by a special midnight q-and-a session with Ms. Allen, afterwhich my colleague and I lingered to say hi. This time, he spared me the humiliation part, and simply introduced me. There was a crowd around, so no opporutunty for exrtended schmoozing as last time, but this was nonetheless a great night for me. She still looks fabulous, still has the same strong character and keen intelligence she shows in Marion Ravenswood, and Katy, and Jenny Hayden, plus that throaty voice and lovely smile.

That’s all. Just wanted to brag about achieving another one of my lifetime goals once more. Now I’m back to work on achieving all the rest–publishing my novel, having a one-man show in a gallery, finding out the truth about JFK’s assassination, etc.

#2

Karen Allen! Haven’t seen her in a movie since Starman! But yeah, I remember her fondly (in the Biblical sense), from Animal House as well as Raiders.

What ever happened to her career?

#3

She’s a totally cool, non-actress kind of lady: she’s been raising her son in rural New England, running a design studio, teaching acting, doing yoga, etc. and seems to be very cool with that, and even cooler in avoiding the Hollywood celeb-lifestyle, even though as I say, she’s totally gorgeous and could probably get good roles in Hollywood movies if she wanted more of that. Actually, she’s had some of that–she was in IN THE BEDROOM (I think–I saw it but am not sure of that title) recently, and that George Clooney-Mark Wahlberg thing about a fishing boat (THE PERFECT STORM?), and other stuff, just not the crapola-of-the week movie. She seems very sincere in talking about her interest in finding good parts and not taking shit blockbuster movie parts to pay the rent that she can pay just fine on a non-Hollywood standard. She said last night that the part she connected with the most was in the movie of THE GLASS MENAGERIE.

Did I mention how much I like her values, quite apart from the whole totally gorgeous thing?

#4

I’m in love with Karen Allen, and I’m only 25.

#5

A bit more info on this encounter please, or a link to the previous post? Piqued my interest for some reason. :slight_smile:

#6

I searched “Karen Allen” and “humiliation” and all sorts of stuff but nothing turned up, so I’ll tell it again:

My friend, one of my few colleagues with whom I have a close personal relationship, pointed out that Karen Allen would be speaking on our campus that night, which I had just noticed a flyer for. “You want to come hear her talk?”

“Definitely. I’ve had a massive crush on that woman for twenty-odd years. What’s so funny?”

“Well, I invited her to campus to give this talk. She’s an old friend of mine,” he said, and went on to give me numerous details of their friendship. “You want to meet her?”

“Jay-ZUS!” says I. “I’ve had her at the top of my ‘Meet-her-and-die-happy’ list for ages. Of course I want to meet her.”

So we went to her screening of some clips, and she fielded questions from the undergraduate actors and would-be actors for a while, and then my friend introduced me like this:

“Karen, I’d like to meet my friend Pseudo here–he’s had a crippling case of the hots for you for years and years, he claims.”

I turn lobster-red, I’m sure. “I, uh, very happy, this is, um, a great pleasure–meeting you, I, uh,” I manage to say. My embarrassment makes her uncomfortable, but she’s fairly cool, so she smiles and sticks out her hand for me to shake, which I do.

“Now Pseudo,” my friend reminds me, " You don’t want to be washing that hand again, ever, don’t forget." So now my ears are purple, or possibly off the spectrum entirely and well into the ultraviolet range.

I mean, I understood that my buddy was ribbing me, and simultaneously kidding with Miss Allen about her powers to transform otherwise articulate men into babbling bumbling geeks, but I still couldn’t control my babbling or my bumbling, and my friend to this day thinks this was funny, and I guess it was. For him. Me, I still blush and flush every time I remember it.

I suppose great beauties and major celebs and such like get a lot of this, because she sure didn’t seem to remember this traumatic event last night, when I got introduced to her as if for the first time, and she simply shook my hand, and said “Nice to meet you, Pseudo.”

#7

Before Allen (and Carrie Fisher), how many action-movie actresses were there that would casually pick up a gun and shoot a guy, it occurs to me to ask. I like Lauren Bacall for her tough intelligence, but I don’t recall a time when she ever got into an actual brawl.

#8

Blame that on the directors, not the actresses.

#9

I wasn’t blaming anyone, I was just wondering if there were any other examples, somewhere between the shrieking helpless female stereotype in movies of the fifties and Princess Leia blasting stormtroopers in Star Wars.

I guess Jane Russel’s deadly aim in The Paleface (1948) would count (as would her role in its 1952 sequel), but that was a comedy.

#10

Well, even a relatively minor celeb like Allen meets a lot of fans! You can’t expect her to remember them all!

(If I ever got a chance to meet Kirsten Dunst – twice – I’d probably have a story to tell very similar to yours.)

#11

It wasn’t ME whom I expected she might remember–it was her old buddy humiliating me (and embarrassing her) by informing her that here was a red-cheeked buffoon who had been dreaming for decades of getting into her pants. Even a celeb might regard that cruel humor as somewhat unusual.

But maybe not. Do you suppose Kirsten or Brad Pitt hears “I’d like you to meet someone who’s hot for your gorgeous body” so often that they just shrug it off routinely? Maybe so.

#12

I’m in love with her, and I’m 19! And a woman!

Or maybe I just want to BE her. Good GOD, she’s amazing!

#13

I’ve been utterly fascinated with her since I was a little kid and watched Raiders for the first time.

26, female.

I once worked with a girl who looked just like her in Raiders. Just like her. I wonder whatever happened to her.

#14

Look to television: Angie Dickinson in Police Woman.