Approach with hand extended, smile on face and offer a hello and a compliment on his/her work, or
Leave them alone and let’em have their privacy
I’m a #2 guy myself, after my brief encounter with the late Richard Harris, who was very mono-syllabic throughout, making it very awkward for me.
Never again.
How 'bout y’all?
Q
Depends on their body language, I guess.
I’m inclined to leave them alone. Not big on celebs anyways.
But, if I was talking to them, and they farted, I would say, “Cover your hole.”
#2
I attended a play at a small playhouse in L.A. Also in attendance was none other than…
HOWARD HESSEMANN !
Who? Dr. Johnny Fever from WKRP. That’s who. Just about everyone knew who he was and left him alone, but only one dope bothered him about it. It was an awkward moment for both of them because they didn’t know each other and had nothing to say.
Another time, in Baker’s Square in San Diego, I saw…
THE MILLION DOLLAR MAN TED DIBIASI !
Same thing. Let a man that size eat his dinner in peace.
How about a casual, unobtrusive approach, “Hi, you’re <insert celeb name here>, aren’t you? Well, thanks for all the great <music/movies/books/whatever>.” Then leave.
We found ourselves sitting right next to a well-known folk singer in a NYC restaurant a few years back. We summoned the waiter and asked that a round of drinks be sent to her table with the message, “Thanks for all the great music.” It had the unexpected result of a couple of free passes to sit at the reserved table at a sold-out club performance a few days later.
If it’s a celebrity that doesn’t particularly pique my interest, I’ll thoroughly ignore him/her. If it’s someone I do indeed admire, I’ll risk a smile and maybe a quiet, passing “hi” so as not to alert others. If the celebrity in question happens to be Tiger JK, I will blush like mad and slip him my number.
I’ll leave them alone too. Although I may be forced to make a comment to the random stranger who may be near me.
I saw Jerry Garcia at the Colo Springs Airport, I went up to him and smiled and walked away. I have been a fan for years, but I would not intrude on his privacy, even if I owned all Grateful Dead songs. We used to listen to concerts at mile high stadium from the parking lot because we could not afford the gate. Let um be…
Unless it was a celebrity I really, really liked, I would let 'em pass. If I really liked them AND I had to pass by them on purpose, I might say, “Hi. Love your work,” and move on.
leave 'em alone.
I totally agree- leave 'em be. They’re not at work, and they deserve time to relax and not worry about dealing with people.
In that situation I wouldn’t approach the celebrity. If it was a meet & greet or a social situation and the celebrity was someone I admire or think is talented then I might compliment him/her on his/her music/movies/books. Then I would move on.
I did attend a meet & greet with a certain band I won’t mention. One of the band members was extremely rude to a young girl, to the point he made her cry. All she did was say hello and politely request an autograph. I was standing about five feet away when it occured and witnessed the entire encounter. I thought his behavoir was completely uncalled for. The other band members were complete gentlemen.
Leave 'em alone.
What if it was Carrot-Top? Kick his ass? 
Q
Well, depends on the situation. On one occasion, I’ve actually had a celebrity approach ME. I was doing a college recruiting visit. Happened to be the day that Harry Smith (of CBS fame) was in town doing a feature story on the Head Football Coach (one of the winningest coaches in NCAA football history). Harry, as it turns out, had actually played for Coach back in the early seventies. Well, anyway, I was observing a practice, when I hear a guy say “So, what do you think?” I look to my left, and there’s Harry.
We talked for a good 15 minutes, and he seemed like a really nice guy.
Another situation where I’ve seen a ‘celebrity’: I play on a 9-man semi-pro football team. The team’s head coach has some kind of front-office role with the Minnesota Vikings. As a consequence, occasionally Vikings players would drop in to watch our practice or one of our games. An interesting experience, having Daunte Culpepper or Michael Bennett standing on your sideline while you’re playing a game. In those situations, I didn’t say much to either of them, although I did hear Daunte give a “nice block” comment (I think he was talking to me, but it’s hard to say for certain).
I guess, for the most part, I’d just leave 'em alone unless they approached me or somehow initiated the contact.
In this instance, the band-member in question had the opportunity to make a positive impression on a young person and give her a nice memory to take home with her. Instead, he probably soured her on attempting anything like that ever again.
Just a tiny question like “Do you know what you wanna do with your life?”, could have done so much for her. Instead, he chose to be an ass.
Q
I’ve seen 5 celebrities at airports. I leave them alone.
Well, some famous people are known to enjoy meeting people, if they’re just standing in line, or something that isn’t really “doing” anything. Stan Musial and Jay Leno come to mind. But I’d keep it brief, yeah. They’ve heard it all before. If you don’t have something deep to say about their art or whatever, the response is likely to be “Thanks”.
Exactly, Quasimodem. She was very young (appeared to be around 15/16 years old) and impressionable. I’ll admit I wasn’t quiet in letting my opinion of his behavoir known. I’m generally not a confrontational person but in that instance I was. I could see how much it upset her. Afterwards, I approached her and spoke to her for a few moments even though she was a stranger to me. I’ve always had a problem keeping my tongue in check when I feel I’m defending an underdog and then I want to take care of the person.
Elaella - it’s almost exactly that situation that turned me off a certain football player. I worked in a restaurant near where the team trained, so it was not at all uncommon to see players there. A certain QB was there one night and was approached by a small child who recognized him. Said football player threw his fork onto the table and let loose a string of profanities about how he can never go out and just have a g-d meal, etc.
I was waiting on that table, so I took the boy aside and told him, fairly loudly, that he was mistaken about the QB’s identity, because “we all know (QB’s name) would NEVER be so rude to a fan. That’s just a jerk that LOOKS like (QB).”
On topic, I say leave the celeb alone unless you’re in a situation where you’d naturally interact with him/her.
If I notice a celebrity? My reaction varies between ‘ignore’ and ‘run away’. I’d never approach them. They deserve their space and privacy as well. But I am very bad at recognising people at the best of times, I actively detest the cult of celebrity-worship, and I have little money; it’s very unlikely that I’d recognise any celebrity likely to pass through the same locations I do…
