Rob Lowe was staying in the apartment block I was living in when making a film in my home town a few years ago and I saw him around a bit. My only interaction with him was holding a large, heavy door open for him one morning. Made direct eye contact with me, thanked me twice and seemed to be a super genuine and really straightforward guy.
YMMV.
My impression is that Rob Lowe is someone who might have been a little full of himself in the 80’s, but who has grown up over the years.
I’m hesitant to criticize anyone based on one meeting.
But I can tell you, from repeated meetings and the reports of everyone else I know who’s dealt with him, that Dan Aykroyd is a major league asshole. He can be generous and kind, but he’s monumentally egotistical, expects that need to be pandered to, and apparently considers his wedding vows to apply only when his wife is within line-of-sight.
Never met him, and can’t argue whether he was an ass or not, but don’t judge him based on the intros. I’ve written some pretty funky intros for myself, too, and if the claims are that over-the-top, everybody knows you’re just funning them. In fact, I think I’ve used the “invention of television” one myself.
There has been more that one celebrity about whom I’ve heard, “He’s really nice when he’s sober…” I don’t buy it. If you are an ass when you drink, you probably know it. That means every time you drink, you are intentionally turning yourself into an ass.
Never encountered the Complainer, because mine is a small indie store and I am the CEO. There isn’t an author on the planet I wouldn’t throw out if he/she acted like an ass.
The Neighbor is pretty common around here, and I really don’t have a problem with it unless it’s a really busy day. Most of them are perfectly willing to chat while I’m shelving or sorting or preparing orders, so it doesn’t interfere with anything.
I think a few of the guys who dated my daughter might say the same about me 
That’s pretty cool. I’ve taken my own autographed stickers with me before, and bookstore owners always appreciate it.
Note dropzone’s use of the “Internet Sorry-But,” a very reliable signifier for “I am about to administer a smackdown while hiding behind the granite skirts of Hard Cold Reality.” It is an oft used rhetorical device with people who believe that there are no such things as hurt feelings, rudeness, or assholes where money is concerned, but do not wish to admit as much outright, probably because no one is worth their valuable time.
Note that I didn’t say he wasn’t rude, just that being caught offguard by a patently ridiculous request, such as, “Gee, Mr Stine, I know you are one of the top stars of the publishing biz and, as a bookstore owner, I know that it is your publisher sets up your book tours, and that they are ONLY interested in bang-for-their-buck, but could you please arrange to go a thousand miles and two or three days out of your way to come to my little store where I can guarantee that your presence will sell an additional two or three dozen copies of your book? Of course, you and your publisher are rich and can pay for the couple grand in airline tickets, cab rides, hotel stays, and meals yourself,” is understandable.
This is a really harsh interpretation, I agree. The driver wasn’t in on it! So what if she was already a politicised activist?
But, I can believe she’s obnoxious and entitled, like a lot of activists. Like someone suggested, it’s the qualities that lead you to be a famous political hero that are also the characteristics of an obnoxious and arrogant individual.
Your point is completely valid - the guy was still an arse though, and you’d think someone working in a section of the entertainment industry would have enough diplomacy skills to say no without being so incredibly rude. As for your “the people were uncomfortable for you, not for Stine” bit, if that’s the case then those people are just as much as an arse as he is - I don’t know anyone who would consider such a reaction acceptable behaviour.
That could be. I still think there was an element of WTF? aimed at both of them.
When I ran into Nichelle Nichols she seemed very snooty.
Need I mention Harlan Ellison? 
I’ve heard bad stories about David Prowse (Vader’s body) and found Chewbacca to be both very odd and slightly rude, but he may have just seemed rude due to his oddness.
They weren’t actually bad, but maybe in comparison to expectations, the actors who play the new BSG Apollo and Wash on Firefly didn’t come across as friendly as hoped.
Although we all tend to make a judgement based on what we see on the gogglebox and juicy rumour sometimes gets the better of us, keeping an open mind is not an easy thing to do.
Based on first hand experience on a few occasions I can report that Lenny Henry is complete fuckwad. He used to come into the record store on Oxford Street where I worked years ago and demand to listen to all the imports.
His demeanor, body language and style of speaking to the unlucky oik (me) behind the counter were obnoxious and assumed that the person dealing with him was just some sort of lackey.
I wouldn’t mind quite so much if he was remotely talented but sheesh.
On the other hand, Valerie Singleton (Orchestral Manouvres In The Dark) was nice but bemused, Jimmy Page (loads of vinyl) was pissed as were the two (very) young women in tow with him, Nick Heyward (some tape?) was hoping people remembered ‘Fantastic Day’.
In Scotland I was lucky enough to spend a day looking after Edwin Starr who was promoting a very late record of his. He was an absolute gentleman.
My friend went to school with Michelle Tractenberg (not going to bother figuring out the spelling - she was Dawn on Buffy) and despises her.
That’s interesting in light of how DD was portrayed on X-Files and well, the entire premise of his current series.
I have to say that this sort of thing is one of my pet peeves, especially when dealing with customer service people - assuming that everyone else who doesn’t have your particular job is going to know how things work. If you don’t happen to be an author, you can’t be expected to know the particular mechanisms for how they go about booking tours and know what is reasonable or not. There are no patently ridiculous requests or stupid questions if you aren’t in the same occupation.
Geez, Dropzone, you’re just not getting this.
Offguard? He’s at a bookseller conference, sitting at a table with nine store owners for a “meet the author” breakfast. If an invitation for a book signing catches him off guard, maybe he hasn’t done this before.
And it is by no means a ridiculous request. Despite being in a small town, I’ve had several NYT-bestselling authors come in (yes, while the book was on the list), and we’ve sold hundreds of their books. I make a point of asking authors to visit when I meet them, and most are polite. I usually offer a place to stay and buy them dinner. I’ve had authors schedule my store just so they could take a vacation in Yellowstone and write off the trip as business. R.L. Stine is the only author who has ever responded rudely, much less this level of off-the-charts obnoxious.
As a New York City resident, he clearly feels that the “flyover states” are just an evil necessity for the ranks of “common” authors–which he seems to think he’s transcended. Well, the big news for him (and apparently, you) is that there are almost 300 million Americans that do not live in NYC.
I’ve sold a lot of R.L. Stine books in my store in the past, but I won’t be selling any more. He was at that book show as a publicity stop, for crying out loud! Acting gracious instead of being a condescending arrogant prick would have cost him nothing at all, and it’s the whole damned reason his publisher sent him there. If he can’t be pleasant in front of a couple of hundred booksellers, he has a problem.
Have you ever heard the old advice, watch how your date treats the staff at the restaurant, because that’s their real personality shining through? Well, we saw his real personality, and it wasn’t doing a hell of a lot of shining.
But the point is, I AM an author in addition to owning a bookstore. Sure, I’m not in his league (he’s sold hundreds of millions of books to my hundreds of thousands), but I am completely aware of book tours work and what a prick he was.
Reba McEntire in this area has a reputation of being a first class bitch. It started some years back when she gave a concert a year or so after half her band died in a horrific plane crash. Near the end of the concert, she gave this seemingly heartfelt speech about how her band was like a family to her, and that she wouldn’t have been able to make it in the days after the crash if it hadn’t been for the support she got from the surviving members of the band. The next day, she promptly fired all of them. The papers here were filled with interviews with the (now) former band members saying they’d been completely blindsided by this.
She also raised holy hell when the city she lived in wouldn’t allow her to build a heliport on her property. Seems the neighbors didn’t like the idea of a helicopter flying over their houses at all hours of the night.
Barbara Mandrell and her sisters aren’t highly thought of around here, either. Seems that they thought their celebrity status granted them the right to go to the front of the line at places like the post office. (Barbara Mandrell also had a rather nasty PR snafu in the wake of the near fatal accident she had back in the 80s. The kid that hit her was driving over the speedlimit and was uninsured. He was killed, while she survived. She [or more likely, her insurance company] sued the family of the dead kid, causing them to lose their house. Barbara’s response of, “I had to sue them.” didn’t sit well with the general public. Had Ms. Mandrell simply said, “It was my insurance company that sued them, I had no choice in the matter.” it would have been a bit better for her image.)
Matthau was in Princeton filming IQ. All I heard was raves. He would hang out at the local bars and restuarants. He was friendly with everyone and would sit and talk for hours. Tim Robbins didn’t mix much but I heard no bad stories. Meg Ryan was aloof and would not go near the public but the story at the time was that she was having problems with a stalker.
Actually I was defending you dude lol. In any case, clearly from Stine’s perspective he thought you didn’t know how things work (though you did) and I was responding to the rudeness of being condescending to someone for not knowing (or thinking they don’t know) the intricacies of your profession.
Perhaps not a “complete bastard” but, surprisingly, Bonnie Hunt is pretty impossible to work with. One of the most self absorbed people I’ve ever met.
You want true celebrity asshole behavior, forget soap opera stars, go right to real opera stars.
Kathleen Battle was legendary for diva behavior, to the point that the Metropolitan Opera not only dismissed her from a production of, if I remember right, Cosi Fan Tutti, but banned her from ever appearing at the Met again, which is a pretty big deal in the opera world.
One well-known story about her is telling. Ms. Battle did not speak to underlings, perhaps fearing some sort of contamination. She would usually be provided with a car and a driver during engagements at major opera houses. If she felt that the car was too warm, or too cold, and wanted adjustments to the climate control system, she’d call her manager from the car phone, and have him call the driver and request the temperature adjustment.
She always demanded the largest dressing room at the Met. Traditionally, at the Met, the singer singing the biggest role gets the biggest dressing room, even if that singer is a relative unknown, perhaps someone making her debut in a starring role. Battle refused to relinquish the biggest room on several occasions.
She would demand changes to the rehearsal schedule to accomodate her (and changing the rehearsal schedule for an opera is a pretty big deal – there are a lot of people involved), and then show up late or not at all.
Which Thompson would have been able to supply.
Not related to the thread topic, but this reminds me of a anecdote from back around 1991 when Bill Clinton was first emerging as a major candidate. Rolling Stone sent a group of reporters to have a round table interview with Clinton on various issues, among whom was Hunter Thompson and P.J. O’Rourke. Clinton’s personality was that he wouldn’t just try to tell people his views; he’d try to convert them. And one of the subjects was drug policy and Clinton said that we needed stricter laws and more enforcement.
In the article, the various reporters wrote a short piece about their overall opinion on Clinton. O’Rourke, already a noted conservative, said he disagreed with Clinton on most issues. But he said you couldn’t underestimate the tenacity of anyone who thought he could talk Hunter Thompson into supporting tougher drug laws.
ROTFLMAO! Given that O’Rourke is basically pro-legalization and could probably match Hunter in booze, if not drug, consumption, I’d say it was a bit surprising that O’Rourke was so surprised by Clinton winning in '92.