Meeting a famous person . . . but not knowing it

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

Harrison Ford was in DC shooting some cop movie, and there were rumors in our office that that night he was going to be at the nearby bar we typically went to, because it was also a popular hangout for DC police. It was Friday night, so I headed over there after work, to join up with some colleagues who had gone over earlier.

The bar was crowded, and the first familiar person I saw was the husband of one of my friends. This guy is bald and no prize to look at, so I jokingly greeted him by saying, “Hey, it’s Harrison Ford” and shaking his hand. He laughed, but then I heard a loud snort from over my shoulder. I turned, and rignt next to me, of course, is Harrison Ford. He muttered in his Harrison-Ford voice something like “that guy’s got too much hair,” and turned away while smiling a bit and shaking his head.

I was too mortified to go near him again.

42

Not in the same league as many of you folks here, but amusing nonetheless.

In 2000, I went to the World Science Fiction Convention in Chicago. My wife, a semi-pro writer, was asked to work in one of the writing parties at the convention. Since I was with her, I volunteered to help with security at the party.

I was watching a door when this little round man barges past the staff and begins to push his way into the room. I noticed that he did not have the access badge he needs to enter, so I stop him.

He tries to shove me out of the way with a cry of “Don’t you know who I am?”

“No sir, I do not. But without your badge, you are not entering.”

He shouts; “I’m Gardner Dozois, and this is my party!”

Not knowing the name, I responded with; “That’s nice, sir, but without your badge, how will everyone else know that? Please get your badge, and I’ll let you in.”

He stormed off, swearing and waving his arms. He returned 20 minutes later, shoved his badge in my face and demanded to be let in. I let him pass, and he walked past me, turned and uttered those immortal words…

“I’ll NEVER publish anything you send me!!!”

You have no idea what anguish his threat has caused me.

Especially since he did not know my name…

And I’m not a writer…

43

I was a young student studying to be a Barrister. We had one of our dinners at the Inn of Court. We were having drinks in the lobby and I had a long conversation with a gentleman. I spoke at length about why a recent Court of Appeal decision was dead wrong and the Judge “had taken leave of their senses”. Those were my exact words. It turned out that the gentleman was,Lord Phillips, the Lord Chief Justice and unfortunately the man who wrote the majority judgement in that case.

44

So what happened? Did he identify himself to you? Counter your argument? Or did you find out later…

45

I helped Michelle Pfeiffer with some art supplies. After we were done, I thought, “that lady looked a lot like Michelle Pfeiffer.”

A co-worker asked me a few minutes later if I had seen Michelle Pfeiffer. :smack:

(A similar thing happened with NFL offensive lineman Kevin Gogan. Very large man.)

46

At the theatre where I worked, we had a policy that we closed the doors 15 minutes after the last show starts. If the showtimes for the three theatres are 9:45, 10:00, and 10:15, we’d close the doors at 10:30.

Which is what we did one particular night. At about 10:35, I got a call. “This is David Brudnoy, and you’re not supposed to have your doors closed this early. I demand that you let me in!” For some reason I did. I guess he intimidated me. When I let him in he told me that he was going to call the big boss and get me fired. I then let him in for free, as our box office was closed. Oh, and he went into the 9:45 show.

A coworker looked at me and asked if that was David Brudnoy. Who the fuck is David Brudnoy?!?

Ah, apparently a radio personality.

47

I’ve told this story before, in another thread. But it’s been a while, so I’ll tell it again.

Back in the late 1970s, I was working in a parking lot in downtown Toronto. The lot was full–there was a big show on nearby. A man pulled up in a rental car, and I told him we were full. “But don’t you have even one spot left?” the man asked. “I’m headlining the show.”

Yeah, right, I thought. I’d heard everything that night, but not that one. Give the guy points for originality. But once again, I apologized, and directed the man to where he might find parking. He was a nice guy, he didn’t protest too much; and he went to where he might find parking.

A couple of weeks later, I was watching the Johnny Carson show, and Tony Bennett was the guest. He told the story of how he was late to his recent show in Toronto because when he pulled up in his rental car, a parking attendant wouldn’t let him park in the event’s lot.

48

When I was working for Live Nation we were doing a concert at Verizon Center, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. In the early evening between the stage being set up and the doors opening I hit a lull and headed over to craft services to get some dinner. A lot of the crew apparently had the same idea and most of the tables were full.

I made a plate with whatever they were serving that night (fish, I think) and sat down at an open seat at one of the tables. Already eating at that table were a couple of children and a few adults, the one next to me a pretty, but mostly unremarkable blond woman wearing jeans and a t-shirt. The children appeared to belong to her, and as we ate I made some small talk with her, I don’t know what about but not about the show. She mentioned a bit about begin happy to bring her kids on the road.

As I finished eating I asked her how she thought tonight’s show was going to go. She said she was excited and blah blah blah, I’m just not putting it together. I thought she was part of the crew or a backup singer or something.

As I got up I finally got around to asking her what she did for the show. She seemed quite amused by this, then stood up, put out her hand and said, “Hi, I’m Faith Hill.”

49

I’ve always been curious how he pronounces his last name. Was it “Doze-wha,” like you’d expect in French, or some weird Americanization like “Doe-zoy”?

50

I’m certain that my mystery celebrity was not Prince. (Him, I woulda recognized.) Tim Burton would be a longshot, as I think my celebrity was short, and Tim Burton is a fairly tall guy. Macho Man Randy Savage is a pretty big guy, too. This guy was noticeably thin, he was wearing “skinny jeans” that were quite baggy. I’d say he weighed no more than 110 lbs.

Also, unless I majorly miss my mark, my celebrity was most likely a gay guy. The voice and mannerisms (not to mention that outfit) were all very stereotypically “gay”.

51

José María Sanz, AKA Loquillo, is one of my favorite singers and also of Middlebro’s. This one time, Middlebro and his wife were visiting some friends near Irún and at one point they crossed paths with this tall guy in a sui- actually, the getup can faster be described like “Blues Brothers minus the fedoras”.

Bro remarks “man, that guy looked a lot like Loquillo” and their friends looked at each other and said, “remember we mentioned we’d be taking you to a concert we were sure you’d enjoy? His wife’s from here…”

Whenever he tells the story, Bro says “it’s a good thing I don’t use my brain a lot, because it exploded.”

52

Little Richard?

53

A few years back I was walking through a hotel lobby when a large group of boys, mid-to-late teens, was heading my way. As I wound my way through them I assumed they were some boy scout group or high school sports team. I later found out they were the Pittsburgh Penguins, in town for a game. Buncha fresh-faced whippersnappers, I tells ya.
mmm

54

I held the bathroom door for Jeffery Tambor once without realizing it until my wife informed me.

55

Not really a meeting, but I was walking with my wife near Union Square in San Francisco and she said “wasn’t that the guy from that Insomniac show?” I scoffed, sure she’d just seen a lookalike, but then I turned and saw that it was in fact Dave Attell, walking along and chatting on his cell phone. Or at least pretending to.

56

I had a similar experience with Patrick Neilsen Hayden, but he called my house after 10pm, woke me up, and reamed me out about there not being a room in the sold out hotel we were holding our convention in. Now, I actually don’t read much SF/Fantasy, I got roped into running the hotel department by a friend. So I explained to this unknown nutjob that the hotel had been sold out for three months, that there were two very nice overflow hotels, and that it was impolite to call people after ten pm.

57

I used to do improv comedy.
A few years ago I did an entire show with the actor who played Boner on Growing Pains and I had no idea. People kept making “Growing Pains” references throughout the show and I had no idea why. I ended up doing a couple of scenes with him and had fun…maybe he appreciated that I focused on the story and not finding reasons to do Alan Thicke impressions or quoting the theme song from the show.

58

I found out later when he rose to give the toast and was identified as the Lord Chief.

59

When I was a kid in the 60’s we would sometimes visit my Dad’s family in Tennessee. One time we took a side trip to visit my Great Uncle (my Dad’s Dad’s Brother) who lived on a lake just outside of Nashville. We got there and immediately my sister and I begged for a boat ride on the lake. My Uncle grabbed us and whisked us off for a ride (what a relief from being stuck with the other adults chatting). We were cruising around not far from shore when a guy in his back yard waved to my uncle and then waved for him to come in. My uncle said we were going to stop and talk to one of his friends. The guy came down and held the boat by the dock while he chatted with us and asked my uncle who his two new friends were. Small talk about our visit etc. and I was getting bored thinking we could talk with an adult back at the house… we wanted our boat ride.

Later that day as we were driving back my Dad asked us if we remembered chatting with one of Uncle G’s friends on our boat trip. We did. Dad asked us if we knew who it was. We didn’t. He asked us if we knew who Johnny Cash was. We kind of knew the name… why? That was our uncle’s friend who we chatted with. I was maybe 8 so I didn’t care until many years later knowing what a cool conversation I would have loved to have had had I been old enough to understand.

60

Sometime in 2000 or 2001 I attended a computer security conference held at the Westin Crown Center in Kansas City. The ballroom immediately adjacent to ours was hosting an NFL owners’ meeting. During one of our session breaks I went to the bathroom, and as I stood at a urinal a man entered to use the one on my left.

Eyes-forward bathroom etiquette kept me from realizing who it was until I flushed and turned to use the sink, but then I saw his flashy track suit and the large gold chain around his neck. I instantly regretted not recognizing him sooner… As a Chiefs fan, had I known I was pissing next to Raiders owner Al Davis I might have backed a step away from the bowl and taken much less care with my aim.