# Let's hear about your unpleasant celebrity encounters? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 4, 2005, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-hear-about-your-unpleasant-celebrity-encounters/288313 "2005-02-04T03:26:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-hear-about-your-unpleasant-celebrity-encounters/288313/81 "2005-02-09T19:30:05Z")
> [@D\_Odds](#): > > For about a year and a half, I got to share an office building (and thus, an elevator) with Ms. Joan Rivers and her dog. She wasn’t mean and nasty, just self-centered. If you were having a conversation on the ‘Ms. River’s’ elevator (which means, any elevator she was on) and it wasn’t about her, that had to stop. All elevator conversations on her elevator had to be about her. And none of these quiet elevators - if you shared her elevator there was a conversation (or more likely, a monolog). > > Thank Og for express elevators. > > Being in NYC, you have to beat off celebrities and celebrity wannabes just to get served lunch at the deli. Most interactions don’t stand out. Most of them go, _“I liked you in (name role)”; “Thank you”_. I can’t speak poorly of them, as I’m a typical surly, sarcastic and curt NYer myself. man, that would be the last time i ate at that deli. I hope they provide moist towelettes for your hands. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-hear-about-your-unpleasant-celebrity-encounters/288313/82 "2005-02-09T19:49:30Z")
Well, there was the time I spotted Angelina Jolie in a crowd and sneaked up behind her and . . . Oh, wait, you meant “unpleasant” for **me.** Never mind. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TwoTrouts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9adbd/32.png) [@TwoTrouts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoTrouts)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-hear-about-your-unpleasant-celebrity-encounters/288313/83 "2005-02-09T19:50:38Z")
A friend and I were walking down a street in Burbank, California one blazing hot afternoon. A limo pulls up to the curb next to us and the rear window goes down. Leaning out of the window was an extremely drunk Dom Deluise, who proceeded to try and pick us up! He was using cliched lines like “Let’s go back to my place and party”, etc. We, not being the type he mistook us for, politley declined. Dom let loose with a barrage of foul language, rolled up the window, and had the driver continue on down the road. ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-hear-about-your-unpleasant-celebrity-encounters/288313/84 "2005-02-10T04:37:24Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > I met Cecil Adams in a bar once. He was a mean, obnoxious drunk and he kept trying to cop a cheap feel off my girlfriend, which really went too far. > > Why she left with him that night, I’ll never understand. Probably because you’re too much of a “nice guy.” Why is it that nice guys never get the girl, anyway? I should start a thread about that… ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-hear-about-your-unpleasant-celebrity-encounters/288313/85 "2005-02-10T14:54:37Z")
> [@BurnMeUp](#): > > man, that would be the last time i ate at that deli. I hope they provide moist towelettes for your hands. Nah, you just have to pick and choose your delis. I especially like the ones where Tony Soprano’s girlfriends eat, or the Sex in the City cast. I’m hunting for new eating joints now. _It took me several readings to get your joke. And then I spit my coffee out. Good job_ ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-hear-about-your-unpleasant-celebrity-encounters/288313/86 "2005-02-10T15:28:06Z")
> [@TwoTrouts](#): > > A friend and I were walking down a street in Burbank, California one blazing hot afternoon. A limo pulls up to the curb next to us and the rear window goes down. Leaning out of the window was an extremely drunk Dom Deluise, who proceeded to try and pick us up! He was using cliched lines like “Let’s go back to my place and party”, etc. We, not being the type he mistook us for, politley declined. Dom let loose with a barrage of foul language, rolled up the window, and had the driver continue on down the road. Pardon the question but I’m not familiar with you offhand- are you and your friend male or female? ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-hear-about-your-unpleasant-celebrity-encounters/288313/87 "2005-02-10T15:48:55Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Pardon the question but I’m not familiar with you offhand- are you and your friend male or female? Having met him at a DopeFest, I can safely say that **TwoTrouts** is male (and a pretty cool one, too!); I would assume from the post that his friend was, too. That didn’t come across as snarky, did it? I only assume his friend was male because I happen to know that _he_ is; I didn’t mean to infer that _you_ should have been able to figure that out. Og knows I’ve been confused enough in the past about the gender of certain Dopers. ---
**Author:** ![TwoTrouts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9adbd/32.png) [@TwoTrouts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoTrouts)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-hear-about-your-unpleasant-celebrity-encounters/288313/88 "2005-02-10T16:23:56Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Pardon the question but I’m not familiar with you offhand- are you and your friend male or female? Yeah, that little detail would help, wouldn’t it? Yes, both my friend and I are male. This was back in '79 or '80, so we were in our early 20s. Thanks for the compliment, **norinew**! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![diku](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@diku](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diku)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-hear-about-your-unpleasant-celebrity-encounters/288313/89 "2005-02-10T16:27:33Z")
I worked for a while at one of the top steakhouse’s in Lexington, KY(Del Frisco’s, FYI). We really only had three name celebs come in. **Jim Varney** was great, but it was a shock to see Ernest with long hair, earring, smoking and drinking. **Rick Pitino** , at the time UK’s coach, was a complete ass. He kept demanding fried chicken for his children, his wife wouldn’t look at anyone in the restaurant, and they were generally rude to everyone. **William Shatner** , well, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t really remember being there. Totally smashed. Very loud, with a group of loud people. Very demanding. Then, he made a reservation for the next week for 20 people, on Friday night. We had it all set, and of course he didn’t show. I’m pretty sure he didn’t remember making the reservation. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-hear-about-your-unpleasant-celebrity-encounters/288313/90 "2005-02-10T18:06:05Z")
Well, not a personal encounter, and not unpleasant either, but I did get an e-mail from Rodney Dangerfield once. I had watched the Howeard Stern show on E! that had Dangerfield on it, and in an interesting turn of events, the guy outside the studio asked Dangerfield if he and Jackie (Stern’s writer) were friends. Dangerfield said they worked together once, but it was not a good relationship. He only used one of Jackie’s jokes. Turns out Dangerfield loaned Jackie $1000 and Jackie never paid him back. That was why Jackie never said a word to him during the interview, because he was afraid Dangerfield would call him out on it. That’s what happened anyway. Dangerfield came back in the studio and did just that. Jackie said “That’s a lie! I did pay you back!” Dangerfield said “How?” Jackie replied “In Jokes!” Jackie then wrote out a check for one grand, which Dangerfield refused to take. In the Howard Stern newsgroup the next day, I commented that all would have gone well for Jackie if he had just said form the very beginning of the interview, “I would just like to say, at the start of my career, Rodney Dangerfield loaned me money, and it really helped me out. I just want to let everybody know how much I appreciate it.” Dangerfield would have probably said something like “Yeah and you never paid me back” and Jackie would got some ribbing, but nothing nearly as bad as what eventually happened. Afterwards, I got an e-mail from Dangerfield, who said he appreciated the kind words, and that I was a deep one. That blew me away! ---
**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-hear-about-your-unpleasant-celebrity-encounters/288313/91 "2005-02-10T18:23:28Z")
As sad as this is… **Bob Uecker**. We were at a bar in San Francisco late on a Friday night. The Brewers were in town (to play Oakland…this was in '89) and I’m pretty sure he was calling their games back then. Anyways, the bar was pretty quiet and we’re all sitting there and my buddy just happens to have a camera with him. So he gives me the camera and approaches Uecker and gives the usual accolades and then asks him if we could take a quick picture. Uecker looks up blankly and just says “Goddamnit…where’s the fucking camera.” I sheepishly raised my hand “Here it is.” My two friends stand behind him and he says “Just take the fucking picture.” So I raise the camera…and this is the part that is really unpleasant…Uecker puts on a big fake smile and waves right when I take the picture. As soon as the flash went off, he turned away and said “Now get the fuck out of my face.” I’ve met a few others, including some of those mentioned in this thread but Uecker was by far the rudest and most unpleasant. It was just so different than his public persona. ---
**Author:** ![TheBoneyKingofNowhere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@TheBoneyKingofNowhere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheBoneyKingofNowhere)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-hear-about-your-unpleasant-celebrity-encounters/288313/92 "2005-02-10T19:55:41Z")
The best celebrity meeting story ever. Don’t knock just cause it’s got “chicken soup” tagged to it… [http://www.chickensoup.com/stories/baseball\_fans/Roger\_Maris\_and\_Me.htm](http://www.chickensoup.com/stories/baseball_fans/Roger_Maris_and_Me.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-hear-about-your-unpleasant-celebrity-encounters/288313/93 "2005-02-10T20:40:39Z")
I know the whole chicken soup thing is smaltzy nonsense (and sometimes cynically so) but damn it if that story didn’t get right to me. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-hear-about-your-unpleasant-celebrity-encounters/288313/94 "2005-02-11T00:16:56Z")
I had 2 in one afternoon. I was a travel nurse just arrived in L. A. for a 3 month stay. I’d moved into my apartment just behind Burbank Studios. I needed groceries, so I jumped in the car, thinking there’s surely a grocery store close by. I turned right out of the complex which took me to a freeway I’d never heard of. Having no other choice, I merged with traffic. By the time I was allowed to exit I had no clue where I was, but lo and behold, a grocery store! It had Valet parking (this is 1990 BTW) I parked (myself) and was nearly run down by a limo with Linda Lovelace in it. She rolled down the window and said “Sorry.” She looked bad. I think she died within the next few months. Once inside, I got a shopping cart and started shopping. At an intersection, Clang! my basket was hit head on then sideswiped by the basket of Joanne Worley. She told me to watch where I was going. At that point I decided I had crashed on the scary freeway, died and gone to '70s showbiz hell. The next day I turned left. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-hear-about-your-unpleasant-celebrity-encounters/288313/95 "2005-02-11T00:35:46Z")
> [@TwoTrouts](#): > > A friend and I were walking down a street in Burbank, California one blazing hot afternoon. A limo pulls up to the curb next to us and the rear window goes down. Leaning out of the window was an extremely drunk Dom Deluise, who proceeded to try and pick us up! He was using cliched lines like “Let’s go back to my place and party”, etc. We, not being the type he mistook us for, politley declined. Dom let loose with a barrage of foul language, rolled up the window, and had the driver continue on down the road. Dom Deluise? He used to be a chef on TV…but now he just sits at home with [his ass up his ass](http://www.tourettesguy.com/videos/domdelouise.mpg)! ---
**Author:** ![Hamadryad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6de8d8/32.png) [@Hamadryad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamadryad)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-hear-about-your-unpleasant-celebrity-encounters/288313/96 "2005-02-11T02:27:17Z")
> [@Ol'Gaffer](#): > > As sad as this is… **Bob Uecker**. > > … he turned away and said “Now get the fuck out of my face.” > > I’ve met a few others, including some of those mentioned in this thread but Uecker was by far the rudest and most unpleasant. It was just so different than his public persona. In 1989 I went to a few Tigers games with some friends in Detroit. One of my friends liked to get the autographs of the sportscasters and people like that, rather than the athletes. Bob Uecker was, bar none, the most unpleasant man he met. My friend said Bob growled, “Gimme the fucking ball,” scrawled his name on it, gave it back, and stalked off, bitching to one of the people with him. ---
**Author:** ![Millit\_the\_Frail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@Millit\_the\_Frail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Millit_the_Frail)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-hear-about-your-unpleasant-celebrity-encounters/288313/97 "2005-02-11T04:04:07Z")
I haven’t had many celebrity encounters myself, let alone bad ones, but my fiancee (I’ll just call him Mr. Frail) has a couple of pretty funny bad ones. When Mr. Frail was a teenager, he was an usher at a local auditorium. Davey Jones was touring with the Brady Bunch Show (no actual Bradys there, mind you) and made a stop in Mr. Frail’s hometown. That night, right before the show, Mr. Frail caught Davey alone in a hallway. “You’re Davey Jones!” he said. The response: “Yeah, who the hell are you?” Also, Mr. Frail went to a playwrights’ conference last year and had the pleasure of meeting Ted Levine. You know, Ted “PUT THE FUCKING LOTION IN THE BASKET!” Levine. So one day they’re rehearsing, and Mr. Frail is laughing because the scene is funny, and Ted stops his scene, looks Mr. Frail in the eye, and yells “SHUT THE FUCK UP!”…then goes right back to the scene. Mr. Frail does say that Judith Light is the sweetest person ever, though. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-hear-about-your-unpleasant-celebrity-encounters/288313/98 "2005-02-11T04:46:00Z")
> [@Millit the Frail](#): > > When Mr. Frail was a teenager, he was an usher at a local auditorium. Davey Jones was touring with the Brady Bunch Show (no actual Bradys there, mind you) and made a stop in Mr. Frail’s hometown. That night, right before the show, Mr. Frail caught Davey alone in a hallway. “You’re Davey Jones!” he said. The response: “Yeah, who the hell are you?” Not a really unpleasant encounter in the “he was rude to me” sort of way, but I was in line at the Philadelphia airport and went into the men’s room. Davey (who I had such a crush on in reruns) literally smelled of alcohol and was slurring vulgarities into his cellphone. (Early adaptor: this was in the early days of cell phones.) > [@](#): > > Mr. Frail does say that Judith Light is the sweetest person ever, though. 🙂 A friend of mine who is active in AIDS awareness (the big money stuff, not the “we’re here we’re queer” nonsense) has worked with her and said the same thing. He also said that unlike many celebrities with a cause she’s very informed on the subject (even uses words like recombinant and glycoproteins correctly in a sentence). He said she told him that when she learned Danny Pintauro (her son on ‘Who’s the Boss?’) was gay she began telling him in explicit detail how to protect himself from HIV position by position and he actually finally shouted “Judith, I love you, but please, I don’t want to ever here you use the phrases ‘if you’re a bottom’ or ‘dental dam’ again!” A funny story (if only to me about star egos): I’ve mentioned before in my more namedropping moments the memories of working in a hotel where the cast of [The Grass Harp](http://imdb.com/title/tt0113211/) was staying. One night Roddy McDowell, Jack Lemmon (& his wolf-bitch of a wife), Walter Matthau (and his deadbeat of a son- majorly screwed several businesses and private individuals on that movie [he was the producer]), Mary Steenburgen, Nell Carter, Piper Laurie and, oh yeah, Eddie Furlong (and his strident voiced harpie hanger on cow of a tutor turned manager turned concubine- I agree with [this photo’s assessment of her](http://www.houseofdiabolique.com/hall/eddie/yuck.jpg)) as well as some of the tech members wanted to go to dinner. They asked for a recommendation and I gave them the name of an “in” place in Montgomery at the time; since 1- there were about 20 people and 2- several were celebrities and not accustomed to waiting in line, they asked me to call and make a reservation. (They’re standing in the lobby waiting for the mini-vans to take them.) I got the restaurant on the phone but the owner-manager, a local good ol’ boy from a well-to-do family, wouldn’t take a reservation. Trying to persuade him I mentioned that “there are some pretty big names here- Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Mary Steenburgen, Roddy McDowall, Nell Carter- great photo ops” (if you’re keeping score that’s three Oscar winners, one multiple Oscar nominee, Roddy “Cornelius and knows everybody who ever passed through Hollywood” McDowall [a super cool individual] and Alabama’s own [& a Tony winner] Nell Harper, and Eddie Furlong.) The guy still won’t bend. Jackie (Furlong’s concubine-dominatrix [who later sued him for millions]) hears part of the conversation and, with an absolute lack of irony says in her whiny voice “Tell- him- that- Eddie- Furlong- wants- a- table-” then looks at me like she’s Metatron and just delivered a heavenly mandate. Walter Matthau overheard her and burst out laughing. (He later made the comment “that kid is a pretty decent guy but he’s got two things that will keep him from being a star- _she_ is one and the fact he comes from a family that’s too damned sorry to chase her golddigging ass away is the other”.) I may have already mentioned in this thread but just in case: Furlong and frau declined maid service while they were there. They stayed in a two bedroom suite for over a month and never once let housekeeping in. When they checked out all of the rooms of the suite were indescribably filthy and it actually had to be placed out of order for about two weeks while it was thoroughly cleaned [ashes ground into the carpet, stains on everything, a bathroom you don’t want to know about, etc.]). ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-hear-about-your-unpleasant-celebrity-encounters/288313/99 "2005-02-11T04:49:48Z")
Oh, and speaking of that cast, when Sean Patrick Flannery left the maid found some Polaroids somebody had made of him in his hotel room wearing nothing but a cowboy hat and a smile. THOSE got passed around like the only woman on a pirate ship, let me tell you. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-hear-about-your-unpleasant-celebrity-encounters/288313/100 "2005-02-11T13:16:01Z")
> [@gatopescado](#): > > Just then, Andre Agassi rolls up in his Ferrari, and the guy working on my car LITERALLY drops his tools on the ground to rush over to see what he needs. I can still hear the ringing of a Snap-On wrench hitting the floor. > > I was sooo pissed! That’s hardly Agassi’s fault. **plnnr** I like your Garcia story the best. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-hear-about-your-unpleasant-celebrity-encounters/288313.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-hear-about-your-unpleasant-celebrity-encounters/288313.md?page=6)