…would you believe them? What would you need as proof? I found this article on Halle Berry here, and it seems that after she told her online pals who she was, they did not believe her. Expected, I suppose. Maybe the only proof they can offer is if they publicly state who they are and where they’re posting, but that would get in the way of their anonymity.
So Halle, if you’re posting on the SDMB, we welcome you! 
I think I’d believe them if they gave every impression of being serious, AND if they had, say, more than 1,000 posts, or had been an active member for at least a year. Anyone who just shows up claiming to be a celebrity, no matter how serious they seemed to be, would make me highly skeptical (barring absolute proof, of course).
I am Michael Jackson.
What?
AOL used to (and may still) have a number of special interest boards, including some science fiction ones with individual boards for popular authors. I used to be a regular poster on, among others, the Harry Turtledove board. At one point a new poster signed on and announced he was Harry Turtledove. Several people were skeptical and it was several days before he was able to convince everyone that he was in fact the actual author.
Someday there will be a SomeplaceDope, and someone with an Oscar nomination and a charter membership will walk in. I’m betting on Mike Myers, but he’ll have to work on sucking up to the Academy first.
Not intending to redirect this thread, but I’ve often wondered about a similar scenario:
Phone: Ring Ring
Up-and-coming-yet-undiscovered-uber movie star: “Hello?”
Steven Spielberg’s assistant: “John Smith?”
Star: “Yes?”
SSA: “Hi, this is SSA, are you familiar with the ‘XYZ’ movie project?”
Star: “…Yes…?”
SSA: “Mr. Spielberg has looked at some of your tapes and he likes your work, would you be willing to audition for the lead?”
Star: “…Is this a joke?”
SSA: “No, it’s not.”
Star: “…Haha Gloria, very funny. Nice one.”
SSA: " I assure you this no joke… Hold please."
…20 seconds pass…
Steven Spielberg: “This is Steven Spielberg, is this John Smith?”
Star: “Very fucking funny Donny, and where’s my $20??” Click.
Proof actually wouldn’t be too difficult. Digital camera self portrait, with this thread in the background on the laptop screen, for instance. (Or the current chat window, or whatever).
I am Tiger Woods…
Famous Guy making a YouTube vid saying, “Yeah, I’m ParentalAdvisory on the Dope” might do the trick.
Why would a mega-celeb ever want to do that? Unless he/she was known for being a stoner (i.e. Willie Nelson) he/she would be effectively banned from participating in the occaisional drug thread.
I never really noticed drug threads being all that prevelant around here. That restriction would take away what, one thread in a 100? Maybe less.
I love the combination of user name and named celebrity here
Not exactly a mega celeb, but Jim Beaver, who is most familiar for playing Whitney Ellsworth in Deadwood (although his career is not limited to that performance. He is also an acclaimed stage actor, author, playwright, and television writer) made a few posts here last year in connection with Hollywoodland. Mr. Beaver was an unpaid consultant on that film and also has been working on a book attempting to find the truth about George Reeves’ death. As I recall, he was warmly welcomed here with open arms.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=380703&highlight=beaver
I’m Minerva McGonagall.
Look, mega-celeb or not, if you expose yourself on the SDMB, I’m guessing a banning can’t be far off…
Don’t know if this’ll count, but back in the day when I lived on the Murder in Small Town X boards, we constantly got to talk to the contestants after they’d been bumped from the show, and since we continued to post there long after it went off the air, we even (if I remember correctly, it was right around 9/11 and things were, obviously, pretty fucked up) chatted with the winner, Angel. He was a NYC firefighter who died trying to rescue people from the attacks. He hadn’t even been on duty. 
Anyway, as far as note to this thread, we frequently got, daily it seemed, updates (and personal discussion – wow!) from Gary Fredo, who posed as the ‘lead investigator.’ In real life he is/was a cop (I believe – geez, it seems like it’s been so freakin’ long ago) and did do a bit of actorly type work on the side.
We were all such fanboys and girls, that this awed and delighted us to no end. We looooooooooooved that show and anything that had anything to do with it.
RIP Mr. Juarbe. You were a great man.
This could quickly spiral into “How are we sure of anything”.
I am sure that the front page of a daily newspaper, video of celeb signing in to SDMB, some trivial item mentioned in a previous post or SD private message, AND a clean view of teh face are all needed somewhere in the equation.
:rolleyes:
Steven Spielberg here. 
As far as exposing oneself to the SDMB, I vote for Rose McGowan. Please. 
Why would anyone remain an active member of the SDMB? Most here know it’s not about dope Addictive yes, but no dope. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a few of them lurking among us, or actively engaged just to “get away from it all”, just that they don’t try to open themselves up to the fact that they’re George Clooney.
I fear that Miss Berry, bless her heart, didn’t quite get how ‘anonymity’ is supposed to work. Which would, of course, include not announcing your name.
When I was a regular at alt.fan.dave-barry, Dave would post from time to time, as would his wife. A couple of the producers of Frasier posted on that board (including David Angell, who died in one of the 9-11 crashes), and a couple of famous people posted on another board I used to go to - but didn’t reveal their names. Tim Allen posts to his boards from time to time, too.
I rather expect, however, that it would be unlikely for anyone famous posting here to wish to try to ‘prove’ to us who they are since that would defeat the whole ‘living life like a normal person’ thing.
From what I can tell, even though celebrities are regular people like anyone, they tend not to actively appear on the net beyond their own websites. I don’t know if that’s after advice from publicists or what, but it seems fairly consistent.
Except for Science Fiction authors, who, for geeky reasons I imagine, tend to hang around at all sorts of places.