# minor anecdotes about famous people that creep you out. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 31, 2007, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-anecdotes-about-famous-people-that-creep-you-out/417620 "2007-08-31T14:59:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-anecdotes-about-famous-people-that-creep-you-out/417620/241 "2007-09-06T00:15:13Z")
[QUOTE=dnooman] The Simpsons. He used to be voiced by the late great Phil Hartman. I hope I didn’t just get whooshed. [/QUOTE] Yep. Whooshed. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-anecdotes-about-famous-people-that-creep-you-out/417620/242 "2007-09-06T00:21:49Z")
[QUOTE=Robot Arm] Yep. Whooshed. Sorry. [/QUOTE] :smack: How in the hell did I miss that one? Haha. Next time read for comprehension I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-anecdotes-about-famous-people-that-creep-you-out/417620/243 "2007-09-06T01:08:10Z")
[QUOTE=Satchmo] I thought Tracy and Hepburn lived together for years. [/QUOTE] Strangely, they never lived together in all the quarter century they were involved. They each had their own house and just did a lot of “visiting”. Mrs. Tracy and the kids lived in yet another house. (He died at his own house, but Hepburn was with him.) [QUOTE=Walloon] Louise Tracy was not Catholic, and they were not married in the Catholic Church. Those two facts being so, divorce and remarriage were possible for Spencer Tracy without violation of church law. [/QUOTE] My bad. _Spencer_ was a practicing Catholic and did not want to divorce her (which makes his actions all the more hypocritical- he seems like something of the Sean Penn of his time incidentally- very talented, very temperamental, very convinced he was completely right about everything he had an opinion on). I read somewhere once, but can’t produce a cite, that Spencer when drunk would sometimes blame his son’s deafness on his own “sins”. No idea if this is true. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-anecdotes-about-famous-people-that-creep-you-out/417620/244 "2007-09-06T01:28:28Z")
And didn’t Hepburn pretty boldly walk up to Mrs. Tracy at the service and say something like “I guess we should be introduced- I’m Kate Hepburn” and held out her hand? Wow. Quite a broad. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-anecdotes-about-famous-people-that-creep-you-out/417620/245 "2007-09-06T02:02:22Z")
Hepburn recalls her thoughts immediately after Tracy’s death: > [@](#): > > What should I do now? Call the family? Call Stanley Kramer?\* Move out — no — yes — then call. Phyllis came. We moved all my stuff — clothes, personal stuff — out into my car. Then I thought — God — God —Kath — what are you doing — you’ve lived with the man for almost thirty years. This is your home. Isn’t it? It is part of you. These walls — this roof — this spot on the earth. I carried everything back into the house. You can’t deny your life of thirty years. She then calls Tracy’s family. Wife Louise arrives, and Hepburn directs her to Tracy’s bedroom. > [@](#): > > She went down the hall with her cup of coffee. Well, she was in a peculiar spot — no doubt about that. She could never bear to admit failure. Now he was dead. And he would never come back. She had dreamed — hoped — imagined he would. But now all those hopes had died with him. This strange woman — me — had obviously been with him when he died. And he is mine — oh — oh — oh… After his wake, Hepburn reflects on Tracy’s sadness. > [@](#): > > What was it — what? Was it John being deaf and you feeling reponsible? Was it that you felt that you should have remained married? Well, you were still married to Louise. I think that this is what she wanted. She just could not settle for the fact that her marriage had been a failure. Finally: > [@](#): > > After Spence died — a few days later — I called Louise and said, “You know, Louise, you and I can be friends. You knew him at the beginning, I at the end — or we can just pretend that — I might be a help with the kids.” > > “Well, yes,” she said. “But you see, I thought you were only a rumor…” > > After nearly thirty years? A rumor? What could be the answer to that? It was a deep and fundamental wound — deeply set — never to be budged. - Kramer had just directed them in _Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner_, which was still in post-production. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-anecdotes-about-famous-people-that-creep-you-out/417620/246 "2007-09-06T02:15:49Z")
I don’t know if this is creepy or not, maybe in a way… but when Lara Flynn Boyle wore [this dress](http://www.jaunted.com/files/admin/laraflynnsm.jpg) to the Golden Globes, it was not out of any fashion sense. Jack Nicholson cheated on her with a ballerina, and the dress was her way of fucking with him. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-anecdotes-about-famous-people-that-creep-you-out/417620/247 "2007-09-06T02:21:49Z")
Wow- if that’s true, then I respect her more. I just thought she was a too-thin idiot with no stylist (or style). ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-anecdotes-about-famous-people-that-creep-you-out/417620/248 "2007-09-06T03:25:27Z")
[QUOTE=Inner Stickler] Well, since his first line is always: “I’m Troy McClure and you might remember me from such films as \_\_\_\_\_ and \_\_\_\_\_\_”… [/QUOTE] Behold! [http://www.snpp.com/guides/troy.mcclure.html](http://www.snpp.com/guides/troy.mcclure.html) ---
**Author:** ![Burrido](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Burrido](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burrido)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-anecdotes-about-famous-people-that-creep-you-out/417620/249 "2007-09-06T04:37:00Z")
Mario Lopez. Arrogant and apparently nothing but hands. I knew a guy who was on the student council at UMDuluth that hired him to give a Commencement speech. Trust me he was not the first person they looked for. They went with him merely because they had exhausted all others. After the speech the student council took him out for a tour of the city and dinner. He would constantly touch the girls and to this one red head by him he squeezed her leg underneath the table. This all the while engaged to Ali Landry. When not foundling the girls he would constantly name drop and tell bs stories that never went anywhere other then to show how awesome he was. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-anecdotes-about-famous-people-that-creep-you-out/417620/250 "2007-09-06T08:17:47Z")
[QUOTE=middleman] I am enjoying both types of stories, so I hope no one objects to the pleasant anecdotes. [/QUOTE] You want pleasant? Gladly. Carol Burnett - what you see is what you get. She is very sweet and down to earth. The only time she ever got upset was when a tabloid claimed she was drunk at a restaurant. Her family has a history of alcoholism and that touched a nerve so she sued - and won - but gave the money she got in the lawsuit to charity. I remember a night backstage she was happily signing autographs for fans and happened to see a homeless man down the alley going through the trash. After she finished signing for the fans, she walked down the alley and handed the guy $20 and said, “just don’t spend it on alcohol.” He promised he wouldn’t and thanked her. Charlton Heston - I don’t agree with his politics or opinions on gun control, but the man has more class than anyone you will ever meet. Always courteous, a true gentleman and a very dedicated, professional actor, always prepared and never complaining about doing a scene over. While lesser known actors would show up with an entire entourage of people, Charlton showed up alone, had a tackle box that had some basic stage makeup, and had a framed telegram, yellowed from age, that simply said he got the part in Ben-Hur. Delta Burke and Gerald Mcraney - very nice people who invited the backstage crew into their dressing room one night, ordered pizza for everybody and told great theater stories. Got to hear the real story about Delta’s leaving Designing Women. Brooke Shields is really sweet, and drop-dead gorgeous in real life - even without make-up, but her mother was a raging, alcoholic, controlling bitch. Thankfully, Brooke cut off ties with her mother. Barry Bostwick - met him at a party where he was standing alone in the corner - we chatted for about half an hour about movies and shows and living in LA - very easy to talk to and then a pushy agent came and stood directly in front of me, as if I were dirt, and started talking to him. He simply moved around the agent and continued talking to me as if the agent didn’t exist. And perhaps a big surprise, Jack Nicholson. Met him in a movie theater lobby during the Berlin FilmFest (I was writing movie reviews and it was a late showing). He was by himself as the other movie hadn’t finished and it was too early for the next film. We started talking and he was very much a “normal” guy - I showed him a new copy of the Hollywood Reporter that listed the Oscar Nominees - he was nominated for Terms of Endearment (and later won) and was interested in seeing who else was nominated. I asked if my photographer could take a picture and he said, “Sure.” He put on his sunglasses and I stepped back and he said, “Don’t you want to be in the picture with me?” I still have that photo of me standing next to him. One odd thing, the minute the other movie ended and the audience started coming out of the theater, he turned back into the “Jack” everybody knows and suddenly clammed up and went off quietly to a corner. Still - one on one, he really is a nice guy. Back to the less-than-nice people stories: William Shatner was not a lot of fun, and did his best to piss off fans; Margot Kidder is simply insane, and I mean that quite literally; Steve Allen was very high-strung and had a nasty streak; Christopher Walken was as weird in real life as he is on the screen; Harry Dean Stanton could also use a few years of therapy and a team of psychiatrists; both Bea Arther and Betty White were very nice to people, but they loathed each other. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-anecdotes-about-famous-people-that-creep-you-out/417620/251 "2007-09-06T14:58:12Z")
[QUOTE=DMark] …Delta Burke and Gerald Mcraney… Got to hear the real story about Delta’s leaving Designing Women… [/QUOTE] OK, I’ll bite. What’s the real story? ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-anecdotes-about-famous-people-that-creep-you-out/417620/252 "2007-09-06T15:23:51Z")
[QUOTE=DMark] And perhaps a big surprise, Jack Nicholson. Met him in a movie theater lobby during the Berlin FilmFest (I was writing movie reviews and it was a late showing). He was by himself as the other movie hadn’t finished and it was too early for the next film. We started talking and he was very much a “normal” guy - I showed him a new copy of the Hollywood Reporter that listed the Oscar Nominees - he was nominated for Terms of Endearment (and later won) and was interested in seeing who else was nominated. I asked if my photographer could take a picture and he said, “Sure.” He put on his sunglasses and I stepped back and he said, “Don’t you want to be in the picture with me?” I still have that photo of me standing next to him. One odd thing, the minute the other movie ended and the audience started coming out of the theater, he turned back into the “Jack” everybody knows and suddenly clammed up and went off quietly to a corner. Still - one on one, he really is a nice guy. [/QUOTE] A much more mundane but still nice Jack Nicholson story- my brother was with the sound editing crew for AS GOOD AS IT GETS. So they’re working in the booth, actual filming is long over, and they hear a tap on the glass- there’s Jack peering in, grinning & waving at them. A minor gesture but a cool one. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-anecdotes-about-famous-people-that-creep-you-out/417620/253 "2007-09-06T16:45:56Z")
[QUOTE=Priceguy] Harlan Ellison is, by all accounts including his own, a total ass. About James Doohan: He’s dead now, but I thought he never went to Star Trek conventions? [/QUOTE] I met James Doohan in 1975 and 1986 at Trek conventions. He was the nicest guy you’d ever want to meet. ---
**Author:** ![BaneSidhe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@BaneSidhe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaneSidhe)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-anecdotes-about-famous-people-that-creep-you-out/417620/254 "2007-09-06T17:43:38Z")
My adopted big brother (guy who’s like my brother that I’ve known forever) met James Doohan several years back at a con and said he was a helluva guy, funny and more than willing to take a bit of time to talk to you. The pic he has of him and James throwing the horns is hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-anecdotes-about-famous-people-that-creep-you-out/417620/255 "2007-09-06T19:23:11Z")
[QUOTE=DMark] Charlton Heston - I don’t agree with his politics or opinions on gun control, but the man has more class than anyone you will ever meet. Always courteous, a true gentleman and a very dedicated, professional actor, always prepared and never complaining about doing a scene over. While lesser known actors would show up with an entire entourage of people, Charlton showed up alone, had a tackle box that had some basic stage makeup, and had a framed telegram, yellowed from age, that simply said he got the part in Ben-Hur. [/QUOTE] ## That’s how he always struck me- gracious and professional. That’s why as much as I disagree with his politics it pissed me when Michael Moore (about whom there are several primadonna stories [not mine, but on other sites]) staged that confrontation in a house he’d been graciously invited into. (How’s Heston doing these days? Has the Alzheimer’s destroyed him- anybody know?) Pleasant Celebrity Stories: ## Tony Randall- I always assumed he’d be a jerk but he was one of the sweetest guys you’d ever want to meet. He was a newlywed the first time he stayed in a hotel I worked and apparently thinking about kids as he asked to hold the baby of one of the housekeepers and goo’ed and ga-ga’d. Absolutely true story: the housekeeper said when he left “He’s famous isn’t he?” and we told her “Yes. Tony Randall. Movies, TV shows.” Her response: “Damn, he looked a lot better in that _Who’s the Boss Show_.” ## Roddy McDowall- eccentric but super nice and not the least bit “stuck up”. Asked staff recommendations on movies- went to see movies everyday when he wasn’t shooting. (Hated Mary Steenburgen- when he left he faxed her a review he had written of the play she had just finished= S-C-A-T-H-I-N-G= we loved it because she was not a nice person.) ## Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton both stayed at a hotel where I worked (not at the same time) and neither could have been more gracious or polite. It was irritating- I have mixed views on Jackson and loathe Sharpton so I was hoping they’d be jerks, but nope. ## Newt Gingrich- he at least was good enough to be an obnoxious bastard. Wouldn’t deign to speak to staff- during a speech rather than ask the hotel personnel for anything he’d ask one of his flunkies to ask them. (True story: we had regular guests who walked out of the hotel and made accomodations elsewhere rather than stay in the same hotel as Gingrich- wasn’t his actions to them, just their political objections.) # A surprising one from the not particularly nice camp: Jimmy Carter. I worked at a library at a college he attended and Rosalind graduated from, where the library was named for his father, and where Rosalind’s institute is set. They came there only one time and that was to see a museum of his mother’s relics (she left her papers and effects to the library). I won’t say he was rude, but he was not warm, and he didn’t listen to the staff when they’d volunteer things; my boss told him when he was surprised to see a particular autograph in the collection that “There are autographed photos of Sinatra, Warren Beatty, Shirley MacLaine [etc] to your mom downstairs”- he passed by later and said “Huh… that’s Frank Sinatra— and Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine- I had no idea she had those”. The school, a regional small college desperate for money, often asked him to please do a speech at the school- he lives _NINE MILES AWAY_- he always refused. It would have taken him an afternoon or less and could have raised a lot of money for the school, but nope. Most obnoxious “celebrity” ever (if you can call him that) was a guy who had a show on one of the news shows called “The Investment Biker”. He was rude, abusive to staff, used a racial epithet- just a horror. Except of course when he gave the speech he’d been brought to town for when he became charming and smiling. Total asshole. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-anecdotes-about-famous-people-that-creep-you-out/417620/256 "2007-09-06T19:26:10Z")
Ah, and Dwight Schulz- bka Murdock from _A Team_- super nice guy and exceptionally well read and very funny in person. ---
**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:** [September 6, 2007, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-anecdotes-about-famous-people-that-creep-you-out/417620/257 "2007-09-06T19:30:19Z")
I met the Rev. Al Sharpton through work. He was always very nice and polite. His wife Kathy Jordan Sharpton is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet. While nobody actually introduced us on her first visit, the next time she called, she knew my name and asked me about myself I’ve also met a few rappers at work. Being an “old white lady,” I was kind of surprised when they treated me with respect. I’ve since learned how to impress them with my vast knowlege of music fundamentals. ---
**Author:** ![megatraum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@megatraum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/megatraum)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-anecdotes-about-famous-people-that-creep-you-out/417620/258 "2007-09-06T19:45:06Z")
Would you mind sharing some rapper stories? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-anecdotes-about-famous-people-that-creep-you-out/417620/259 "2007-09-06T19:52:38Z")
[QUOTE=Burrido] Mario Lopez. Arrogant and apparently nothing but hands. I knew a guy who was on the student council at UMDuluth that hired him to give a Commencement speech. Trust me he was not the first person they looked for. They went with him merely because they had exhausted all others. After the speech the student council took him out for a tour of the city and dinner. He would constantly touch the girls and to this one red head by him he squeezed her leg underneath the table. This all the while engaged to Ali Landry. When not foundling the girls he would constantly name drop and tell bs stories that never went anywhere other then to show how awesome he was. [/QUOTE] This one really threw me, until I realized I had Mario Lopez confused with [Mario Cantone.](http://www.mariocantone.com/) The idea of Mario Cantone spending all day feeling up women seemed… really, really unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-anecdotes-about-famous-people-that-creep-you-out/417620/260 "2007-09-06T19:53:02Z")
How did this become a “share heartwarming anecdotes about celebrities that you’ve met” thread?! :smack: Bring on the creep! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-anecdotes-about-famous-people-that-creep-you-out/417620.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-anecdotes-about-famous-people-that-creep-you-out/417620.md?page=14)