I apologise for any controversy about my own answer…
The thing I happen to find most improves my opinion of any well-known person is finding out that they are an Atheist.
To give just one example - I already liked Stephen Fry for his exquisite way with words (and accents. For a person who isn’t an impressionist he’s surprisingly good at them), but when I heard in a documentary about him that he is an Atheist my opinion of him increased.
Now, it is because I am an Atheist myself that I happen to question the intelligence of those well known people whom I find out are not Atheists (more so if I find out they are not even agnostic). It is only natural that I will question those who disagree with me. I am only human and that is a human trait. I will also find that there are people about whom my opinion will be reduced if I find out something negative about them. One such person is Kelsey Grammar. I unfortunately lost a lot of respect for him when I learned that he is a Republican. Frasier holds the number 1 spot on my list of favourite American TV show imports. I love the show. I love what the writers come up with for every single show. It is the ONLY TV show (US or UK) that I can watch more than two or three repeats of and still enjoy.
Yep, and yep. My esteem goes up when I hear someone’s an atheist (or agnostic) and goes way way down when I hear they’re a Republican (unless they voted for Obama).
A person would also get put in the dumpster of my esteem if I find out they’re a $cientologist.
I like hearing about people who’ve been married or with the same person for years and years and years. Unless I hear they’ve been unfaithful, then, unless the circumstances are extraordinary, they’re scum to me.
I’m not a bible thumper by any means, but I’m usually a little surprised when I learn someone is agnostic/atheist - Stephen Fry is a little surprising to be honest. I expect brilliant people to certainly question organized religion, though.
I don’t usually care about political leanings. I’ve rarely been surprised - in other words, if I know a celebrity well enough I usually suss out their politics. If I don’t know them well enough, it’s not a shock. I think the last time I was surprised was when I learned Gary Numan was a Tory (didn’t know much about him, but he seemed to “weird” to be a Thatcherite).
I’m usually interested when a famous person has acclaimed family members in different fields (Louis Theroux is the son of a famous Canadian author and has a brother who is a television producer, all famous of their own accord) or were born in an exotic locale (Andy Partridge, lead singer of XTC, is known for being a proud Swindonian but was born in Malta, Michael Hutchence of INXS was born in Hong Kong, and Bruce Lee was born in San Francisco).
Scientology membership raises an eyebrow, especially if they’re entertainers and don’t seem to be all that bright. But Beck, for instance, is a Scientologist - apparently his parents are and he was born into it. He never hits people over the head with it either, so I haven’t changed my generally positive impression of him.
I’m not sure if you’re asking for specific examples or just general. Specific examples would include the facts that
-Barack Obama has read all of the Harry Potter books
-Seth Green has several of the same favorite books on his list that I do (Confederacy of Dunces, Good Omens, Mother Night, etc.)
-John “Mr. Humphreys” Inman of Are You Being Served legally married his longtime lover shortly before he died and consequently saved him from having to pay a fortune in inheritance taxes (even though he never made a Friends or Frasier salary Inman handled his money very well and was a multimillionaire)
-Gore Vidal, the least romantic or compassionate seeming of people, had a life-partner for 50+ years and mourns him daily
-Butterfly McQueen, remembered as Prissy from GWTW, was in real life a bookworm and an outspoken atheist who left a chunk of her sizable estate to Freedom From Religion
Or if you’re asking generally:
It’s always interesting to learn that somebody famous outside of a literary field is particularly well read, or that an English language celebrity is fluent in other languages (Jodie Foster, Brendan Fraser, Ben Affleck, several others), or that they really do understand whatever political or topical issue they’re discussing and aren’t just trying for “I care” publicity points (e.g. Jenny McCarthy really does seem to have seriously studied autism since having her autistic child, Dean Stockwell came across as extremely well informed on environmental issues on one talk show, Warren Beatty seems to actually know his stuff on politics, etc.).
And it’s always nice to learn that a serious person has a silly side.
Ditto. It always irks me when somebody starts an “Is celebrity name here gay?” thread and three or four people drop by to say “Who cares? Does it make him less/more of an actor/singer/prematurely gray CNN anchor and Vanderbilt heir/interior decorator/dog whisperer/AUSTRALIA&BOY FROM OZ star than he was before? When will we learn to look past orientation?”
Yeah yeah yeah, thanks for your enlightened views. So you think he’s queer or not? Nobody said it matters, it’s just interesting to some of us.
-=------
Another one for the OP: musical talent. Condoleezza Rice, David Hyde Pierce and Sean Hayes are all concert pianists, for example (but are they queer concert pianists? That’s another question [except for DHP- he is for sure]).
Two more facts about Stephen Fry. Both probably fairly well known facts, but in case somebody doesn’t know them here they are.
He is bi-polar.
He is Gay.
I was a little surprised to hear that David Hyde Pierce is Gay, but not for very long (Thinking about his ridiculously efeminate character). I seem to remember hearing that John Mahoney is also Gay. Eddie, I’m not sure what eddie’s sexuality is.
For some strange reason it’s good to find out that famous person x, y, or z can drive a car. An actual skill you have to actually learn and pass a test for. Actors aren’t supposed to have real skills, that’s just wrong.
edit: And a note for the thread. I do mean generally, I.e. not just political or religious orientation.
If they have been in a long term stable relationship. I like that, at least partly, because I think it may help to predict them being around for a while to do work I will enjoy, and not spiral out of control in a way that makes me ashamed to be a fan and cuts their career short.
There’s one thing I learned about a guy, which kinda makes think less of him;
Obama’s a smoker.
Now, I love the guy and I think he’s going to do great things. Also, never having been addicted to smoking I’m probably underestimating the effort it takes to quit. However, for a guy who’s going to rule the country, I expected a bit more selfcontrol.
Wow what’s most shocking to me is that the press did such a good job of keeping that hidden - I’ve never seen him smoking and didn’t know that until now.
I once heard that Iggy Pop has an unbelievably low golf handicap. That kind of surprised me. He seems like the last guy on Earth to be interested in the game. (Did I say that right? Low handicap = good golfer?)
