That’s the problem I have with threads like these. Most of the time, you really can’t judge someone’s character on the basis of a brief exchange. For example, up until he was first accused of domestic abuse, O.J. Simpson had a near spotless public reputation. In fact, his favorable public image was so strong that even the charge of domestic abuse didn’t hurt him that much since he was still kept appearing in the **Naked Gun **movies, doing NFL commentary on NBC, and serving as the spokesman for Hertz. That’s why so many people were incredulous when he was arrested for double homicide.
Mays is one of those people who blows hot and cold. Back in the 90s when he was on Larry King’s old late-night radio talk show, he was a great guest. He seemed fairly happy to be there and was friendly with King and all the (unscreened) callers. As for his chilly demeanor at autograph shows, I’m willing to wager a lot of it has to do with how joyless and cynical the whole hobby of autograph-collecting has become. It’s not like in the past when you mostly had kids innocently seeking the signature of their heroes as personal mementos Now, it’s generally adults who either want to automatically turn around and sell the star’s autograph for a quick profit or–in the case of a older retired athlete like Mays–hold on to it until the star dies so the price can be jacked up 10 fold or more. If I had to spend a good portion of my twilight years having to sign autographs for these vultures, I can understand why you’d be a little peevish.
Carrie Underwood is the biggest bitch I’ve ever had the “pleasure” of crossing paths with. I used to work for an entertainment planning company, and we were working on a tour sponsored by JCPenny and would hit all of the major fairs in the summer of 2008. We were going to have Carrie headline this tour, but she was such a hard person to work with (the only time I encountered this behavior in person was when she REFUSED to sign in at our building’s (a NYC skyscraper) front desk, saying “don’t you know who I am?” to the security guards. Due to the building’s code of conduct, she was not let in, even after our VP came down to try to escort her up. Rather than just signing the damn guestbook and getting on with it, she stormed out of the building, skipping the meeting which was about HER completely. After that, we concluded that she would not be fitting for this promotion and went with Sugarland instead.
Mickey Rooney was just pathetic when I came across him in a 50s-style burger joint in Westlake about a decade ago. Living in SoCal, I’ve seen my share of celebrities in the wild, and most of the time leave them be because they are just people.
But, my friend wanted to go get his autograph (I didn’t care), so we walked up to him at the diner bar. He looked us up and down with the most unsubtle, most obvious leering “I’m checking our every inch of your body” gaze I think possible. It really grossed me out to have an octogenarian’s eyes crawling over every inch of my body with that ick grin he had. Then, he went on to converse with us in the most sad, pitious speech one would expect from a poorly written stereotypical geezer character in a movie: he complained about “these kids today;” he lamented television is awful these days (“That ‘Dr. Quinn’? No one watches that shit! And Jane Seymour? You know they say she’s a bitch!”–he actually said that!); he bragged about how he built Paramount studios (true, to some extent) and how ungrateful they were; he bitched about a recent A&E biography of Judy Garland…it went on and on.
I actually found myself requesting his autograph not because I wanted it, but because I felt pity for a bitter, old, broken man. His young companion (cute!) smile apologetically the whole time.
He looked so awful then; I can’t believe he’s managed to live another 10 years. John Ritter–by many accounts, a gracious and grounded human being–dead. Mickey Rooney…living well into his 80s.
I’ve heard Sylvester Stallone is an asshole in many ways. But supposedly, there are several hotels that won’t allow him to stay, because he has a habit of leaving a surprise in the shower, before checking out.
Patrick Stewart is a prima dona, and was known on the ST:TNG set as “Baldilocks” because everything was either too cold or too hot (metaphorically speaking).
I’ve heard some pro golfers can be hard to deal with. Some people think it might be because it’s not a team sport so they get bigger egos and they also don’t have coach to deal with.
Well, I saw Murray McLaughlin at Expo '86 and he was joking around with his girlfriend, trying to persuade her to eat some ice cream. I didn’t approach him.
I talked to Arthur Black once on the telephone, and he was quite pleasant.
According to Wil Wheaton, Stewart refused to unpack his bags for two weeks after starting on Star Trek: The Next Generation because he was certain it would be cancelled. And, of course, after the show he’s sick of being known only as Picard and doesn’t do much to hide it, although that’s excusable.
I’ve always cut him slack for his fantastic SNL episode and seemingly being a good sport, but that may have just been him putting on a good face for his audience.
Here’s a really minor, out-of-date one: my grandfather used to work for Frank Morgan, who played the Wizard in the Wizard of Oz. (My grandfather worked on his yacht, or boat, whatever it was.) He said Morgan was a real jerk.
He lives close by, and his reputation is not a pleasant one. Several friends and one relative of mine worked with him, and they had nothing good to say.
Tommy Lee Jones has a rep as a cranky douche. However, I know some firefighters that worked a polo event he was attending, and he made it a point to come and sit with them. He told them that their job was way more important than his, and that in a perfect world they’d be the one’s rolling in dough. They were right impressed.
According to a tabloid article a couple years ago, Lindsay Lohan actually tried to run over a young fan (and the fan’s mother) who wanted her autograph. When this was brought to the media’s attention, LL’s publicist said words to the effect that never mind LL’s behavior, it was the FAN’S fault that she was out hanging around clubs in the early a.m. and the fan’s mother should have better control of her daughter! :eek: LL is a nasty piece of work and is IMO is mentally unbalanced. Crawling around on the floor huffing up spilt drugs does nothing to improve her disposition.
When A League of Their Own was filming in Evansville, IN (I used to live there), a friend of mine waited on Madonna, Rosie O’Donnell, and Tom Hanks in a restaurant. He says that Rosie was very rude and pissy, and that Madonna kept deliberately trying to confuse him, which would cause Rosie to get even more pissy when he got something wrong. Madonna thought this was hilarious. Tom Hanks, on the other hand, was very polite and kept apologizing for Madonna’s and Rosie’s behavior.
When I taught college…I had his daughter in my class. Her last name wasn’t Burghoff (except on the official name rolls it was but she didn’t use it herself)…but when I was told by her mother that she was his kid (they were married at the time) it was obvious she was his daughter. She looked like him but in a female, cute way (I know that sounds weird but it is true).
I was told never to bring up her dad. She HATES her dad because he wanted nothing to do with her after the divorce.
Sounds like a dick. Not saying he IS because I haven’t heard his side…but 2 strikes in favor.
I’ve never heard anything good or bad about Bill Cosby, but I worked backstage at an event he hosted once (maybe '91-92) and he was a complete prick to everyone on the crew, except the one attractive girl we worked with. She was about 25 at the time and adorable, and he not only spoke only to her and no one else, but it was sort of embarrassing how thick he was laying it on with her. He was rude and dismissive of everyone else.
I’m pretty sure anyone who’s been on Jeopardy or met Alex Trebek at an audition will agree with me that he’s an incredibly self-important and condescending bastard.
I’ve met him twice at tryouts and he has an incredibly patronizing, “I know, isn’t it great to meet me?” tone when he addresses the auditioners. He also was incredibly rude to my ex mother-in-law when he did a charity event she coordinated. Dissmissive, snide, how it was so fortunate he was able to be there (even though he was given a fairly generous appearance fee) etc. She’d been a major fan of his up until then.
