We’e already got a thread going about celebrities who are class acts, but I think it’s more fun to hear about the ones who are total assholes. I wish I had some kind of personal experience to start things off with, but I’ll have to use a couple of secondhand experiences instead. A bandmate of mine once met Glenn Danzig and said he was a belligerant dick. Another friend of mine (another musician) once had to fend off an attempted sexual assault from Quiet Riot singer, Kevin Dubrow (my friend was a male).
I guess even my secondhand stories are lame.
Anybody else got any good brush with prick celebrity stories?
Years ago, Howard Stern has a couple authors on his radio show. They were promoting a book they had written about how to get into limited access areas and rubbing shoulders with celebs.
And of course Howard had to ask which celebs are complete bastards. The authors said the two worst were Billy Crystal and Garry Shandling.
I have friends who were flight attendants back in the days before they were called that. So this information is really old. Not invited to my Valentine’s Party: Cher, Art Linkletter and Dale Evans. (I know. You are all scratching your heads and saying Art who? Dale who?)
But please, may I add an absolutely divine celebrity here? From my own brief encounter and from the experiences of these women when they were young, there was no one more thoughtful and courteous than Elvis Presley. (I was never a big Elvis fan, so I offer that without a lot of prejuidice.)
In the magazines I semi-normally read, I’ve seen Will Farrell’s name quite a few times as being a class A asshole. I’d google some stuff up, but it’s 1:15 and I really should be going to bed.
I do like the guy (as a sidekick) in the movies. If any hollywood types are reading this, please don’t let any more movies ride completely on his shoulders. (See Anchorman, that horrible Nascar movie, etc…
Val Kilmer. Once I read that, among other things, he burned the hand of one assistant with a cigarrette during the filming of “The Saint”, and then there’s, of course, the ridiculous fuckfest that was the filming of “The island of doctor Moreau”. Apparently, at some point, he went completely crazy there.
You should do it in the other thread mentioned in the OP.
Discussions of the SNL book in the past has brought up more (at least in the opinion of the then-current SNL cast), like Donald Pleasance, Milton Berle, and Robert Blake.
My unerstanding is that Klaus Kinski was the poster boy for celebrity bastards. I’ve seen behind-the-scenes footage from Fittzcarraldo that makes me believe it, too.
A friend of mine worked at a theater where Art Garfunkle performed and said he was unbelievably rude to everyone. He had a lot of stories about him, but the one that stuck out was when my friend drove Art and his manager to their hotel after the show, Art belittled his manager the entire way and then sat in the car continuing the tirade for several minutes while my friend was waiting for them to get out of the car.
I know a guy here in Osaka, Japan that used to train with Steven Segal back when he was married into a famous karate school family. Apparently he (Segal) had no qualms breaking people’s arms in demonstration matches, just to show that he could.
Chevy Chase seems to figure into a lot of people’s arsehole lists. There was the snl book that interviewed a few of the cast members and they talked about what it was like the night Chevy came back to host. Pretty belligerent by all accounts. And then there’s what Kevin Smith had to say on his blog about meeting with him. Kevin Smith is usually honest to a fault so I don’t have a problem taking what he says to be true. I can’t remember exactly what went down but from memory Chevy was making outrageous claims like he invented certain forms of comedy, and then became unreasonably petulant when it seemed like a deal wouldn’t be going through for a new Fletch movie.
For filming here in Thailand, Segal advertised for a local “personal assistant.” One lady said she was hired, but she declined the job upon learning about certain, um, shall we say “extra duties”?
I’ve heard Jean Claude van Damme is rude, but in a weird lovable sort of way. He’s the guy that’s kind of a bastard but doesn’t actually MEAN to be a bastard so he just comes off like the puppy who just peed on the rug. This info is coming like fifth hand though so it may be pure conjecture at this point of rumor-spread.
I imagine that Brando, who was notoriously difficult to directors and especially producers was not pleased that he wasn’t the biggest diva on that shoot. He was nice to strangers however. Brando, not Kilmer.
I have heard that Jack Nicklaus is perhaps the douchiest celebrity that has ever been born. I heard this from a friend who is a retired TV news reporter that he has a huge appearance fee, all sorts of demands, cuts appearances short, won’t mingle with his non-rich fans, etc. This friend says Reagan was one of the best celebrities.
I have another friend who is a huge Clint Eastwood groupie, to the point of I would be worried if I were Clint Eastwood. However, Eastwood is always very gracious with him and everyone else unless working, when it’s all business.
I’ll state the obvious: Andy Dick and William Shatner. George Carlin apparently was pretty dictatorial when it came to things like hotel rooms and the like. Supposedly, they had to be of a certain square footage, have certain items in them, etc., etc.
If I were a famous and successful comedian who spent most of the year on the road, I think I’d make the same demands. I mean, are we talking bottled water and coffee makers, or strippers and a trampoline?
All A- and B-list performers have backstage riders, and most of them aren’t all that unreasonable. For everyone who wants all the brown M&Ms removed from the bowl, there are ten or twenty who just want a deli platter and some beer.
