Someone I used to work with told me she encountered Martha Stewart in a store in CT and Stewart quite deliberately cut the line and made it known to everyone standing there that she thought she was entitled to do so.
<minor hijack>
When I was a kid, my Dad used to run a lawn sprinkler installation and service business in the Hamptons, and I worked there every summer from the time I was 11 until after I graduated college. We had quite a few celebrity encounters over the years, including some celebrity customers. I can’t remember an instance of any one of them ever being arrogant. Quite the opposite. In many cases, I was surprised at how down-to-earth many of them were.
In fact, when I was part-timing with my Dad and simultaneously holding down a job at an ad agency, one celeb publisher/founder of a well-known magazine conglomerate invited me into his home so he could pick my brain on some ideas for web marketing. We fixed his sprinkler system, took our boots off and came inside to sit down at his computer, where he showed me the mock-ups for his new website and asked me questions about how I would cross-promote it. Here I am in my dirty t-shirt and sweat shorts, being invited into a celeb’s luxurious home for an impromptu brainstorming. That was pretty cool.</minor hijack>
Didn’t mean to step on anyone’s toes there–just trying to find out if people actually have sound reasons for finding celebs arrogant. No need not to post semi-hijacks, rants, celeb-bashes, etc. though. They’re just not what I was hoping to get, that’s all.
Pro wrestler Sean Waltman, one time boyfriend to man-woman Chyna, posted on his website about how she came to his house drunk and assaulted him in front of his kids.
In the commentary that followed, one poster enjoyed a moment of schadenfreud. He said he was handicapped and in a wheelchair, and once tried to get Waltman to sign an autograph for him. Waltman told him “Fuck off, I’m on the phone,” but there was no phone in sight. The poster went on to rejoice at Waltman’s misfortunes.
I’d provide a link, but I think Waltman deleted the thread.
Someone said Bill Murray…he used to own part of the St. Paul Saints while we had season tickets. He was always polite when he came to games. We didn’t bother him (I’m of the “celebrities have a life, I don’t get much from shaking his hand” school) but we saw him treat all autograph seekers politely (he’d move to the booth to watch the game - otherwise the ball players didn’t get any attention - as well as, I suspect, to get a break). He apparently also tips well, I know two Twin Cities waitresses who were tipped very well by him and had nothing but good things to say.
On the other hand, one of my girlfriends has known Garrison Keillor since she was little - he is a friend of her parents and she even dated his son. When they bump into each other, he doesn’t acknowledge her. (To give him credit, this may be arrogence, or it may be shyness or obliviousness - even she isn’t sure).
Oh, I’ll add a funny one…Steve Brust, the SF writer. I formerly travelled in circles that would have me seeing him once or twice a year. Every time he met me he tried to pick me up and I’d turn him down. It wouldn’t strike me as arrogant except he seemed to have no recollection he’d ever seen me before, and I got the feeling that even if he’d slept with me he’d have little recollection of seeing me before.
The same girlfriend just saw him and told him this story. Described me. He said something along the lines of “oh yeah, I think I remember her. I was kind of a jerk.” He seems to have hit a more reflective stage of his life.
Barbra Streisand. When she did arena tours in the early 90’s, her contract rider demanded that the arena carpet every square inch of flooring, regardless of whether her precious feet would come anywhere nearby. Further, when she played Las Vegas, upon entering her hotel room, she demanded that her $5,000/night suite be redecorated and repainted.
First runner up: Barry Manilow. When he played the arena where I worked, he insisted that the catering people avert their eyes when sliding his 6 oz. chicken breast across the table to him. All arena personnel were told that should they be in the tunnel when Mr. Manilow was walking to the stage, they were to turn and face the wall.
Usually we allowed performers to park their limos in the fire lane by the star entrance and the fire marshall looked the other way. On the night of Mr. Manilow’s concert; however, we towed his ride. What an ass.
Bono–I know he does charity work and all, but the thing with the sunglasses drives me nuts. I see it two different ways–one is that he needs to have some barrier between him and the rest of the world. The second–“Oh, your powerful earth sun is too strong for my sensitive humanitarian musician eyes!”
Billy Crudup–left his pregnant wife to hook up with Claire Danes. 'Nuff said.
All very true, astorian. My experience with Hugh Jackman is limited to that single encounter on the Sydney-Brisbane flight. Perhaps he is indeed a prince among men and I just struck him on an “off” day. But the OP asked for concrete examples of celebrities’ arrogance, and the one I saw was a first-rate example.
How is this “arrogance,” exactly? It’s self-centered, probably, or selfish. It shows a lack of forethought. It demonstrates fickleness. I can find lots of character flaws that this exemplifies before I’d pin it on “arrogance.”
Couldn’t a humble man do this?
Now if he bragged “None of society’s standards of behavior apply to me. I’m simply above them,” THAT would be arrogant, whether or not he left his wife for Claire Danes.
If he’d left his pregnant wife for Claire Fanes, who’s kind of short and fat and has bad skin, would that be arrogant? Or is he left his p.w. for Claire Hanes, with whom he’d been in love since kindergarten, to care for her brood of six through a series of drunken affairs with irresponsible strangers, would that not mitigate some of his arrogance here?
My point is, yeah, you’re plenty pissed at Crudup for bad behavior, but how does this behavior display arrogance, please?
In the “Unpleasant Celebrity Encounters” thread I mentioned my experience with “Dr.” Ralph Stanley. The first time I saw him, he spent half the show talking about awards he had won, and the special banjo Deering (or somebody) had designed for him, and just how generally awesome he was. He’s serious about the “Dr.” business–he was given an honorary doctorate by some college a long time ago, and he uses the title like it means something. I know a lot of people in the Bluegrass world, and every one of them has a story about Dr. Ralph being an arrogant prick. (It stands out because it’s such a glaring exception in the field. The only other bluegrass musician I can think of who is anything but universally pleasant and humble is Ricky Skaggs, who can be a real ass.)
Maybe so, but I had a chance to chat with Billy for a few minutes after a screening of Jesus’s Son at Roger Ebert’s film festival, and he came across as anything but arrogant. I’d say that his leaving his wife for Claire Danes makes him more of an asshole than anything, but then again there may be more to the story.
Manilow just sounds neurotic as hell, not necessarily arrogant except in the sense that he can make his ridiculous (and rather sad) demands and get them met.
Streisand, on the other hand, pretty much qualifies. Of course, if I were the hotel, I’d happily redecorate a room if someone were willing to pay $5000/night for it. You’d amortize the cost in a single night.
Okay not arrogance, but pure assholery. I don’t care who he shacked up with after leaving his wife–if you’re going to separate from from your spouse, you shouldn’t be dating anyone for a year or so. His wife would’ve been an equal asshole if she had left him and shacked up with someone else.
Yeah, I don’t think I could ever watch another one of his movies after that one. He sounded so casual when he said it, and pretty much stated ‘oh well, it’s just one of those things’
This reminds me of the time Diane Keaton came into the shop I worked at. She was in a trench coat (it was really warm out), a hat and BIG sunglasses. I swear to you that when she first walked in, our first impression was ‘shop lifter’. As she shopped, we realized who she was. She had this huge additude as if she were trying to hide and “I vant to be alone”. She would have gotten way less attention if she just dressed normally and went about her business (as other stars that came to the shop did). Her behavior and dress seemed like a ploy for attention.
