By coincidence today Zoe Williams of The Guardian put reader’s questions to Steve Coogan: ‘What’s the most cocaine you’ve ever taken at one time?’: Steve Coogan answers your questions
He was asked:
Why would that cause them to want to engage? If you wanted them to engage, don’t you think you should give them a reason? Even some little tiny reason? But I think you have to give them some kind of reason. Otherwise, they are fairly certain not to engage.
Have you ever had a celeb engage you after you said to them, “I just wanted to let you know that your work has brought me great pleasure over the years. Thank you.”?
“I wrote this script…”
I got a good laugh from that. Thank you. 
I would – I mean, after confirming they are who I think they are – probably ask what brought them to the area, assuming that that wouldn’t be a really dumb question. Obviously, if I’ve just met an actor and I’m standing in Hollywood, that wouldn’t make a lot of sense to ask. Then, as many people in this thread have already mentioned, I’d do my best to say something that wasn’t completely obvious. It may merely turn out to be slightly less obvious than usual, but it’s good to at least try.
Mr Boods and I found ourselves stood next to Kevin Eldon at a Bonzos reunion concert last year. Said nothing to him, but enjoyed dancing happily along to the opening act (Neil Innes & the Rutles) with him.
I’m part of a group of musicologists and musicians who take part in a major, annual academic conference in the US every year; among the group is a fellow who was in a pretty popular '60s band, loads of hit singles. I’ve never said anything to him, as I go into silent ‘eep’ fangirl mode around him. He knows this, and enjoys suddenly looming up from behind me when I’m engaged in conversation with a colleague or member of the public.
I once asked Tom Baker if he would autograph a DVD ‘To the Doctor, from the Doctor’ as I have a doctorate, and he cheerfully obliged. [He told me he’d never met a medievalist* before; I replied that I’d never met a Time Lord before.]
*I’m not a medievalist, but he did ask me what my plans were for the afternoon, and I was headed up to the British Library to do some work towards a Magna Carta project. He thought this was marvelous.
One sees quite a few celebrities out and about in London, just doing their own thing. I don’t bug them; most people don’t. That said, I once shared a lift with George Takei, and had a chat about the weather as he was very concerned that I was going out for a wander on a rainy day in Boston, and didn’t have an umbrella with me.
When I was fifteen, I took a taxi to Sonny and Cher’s house. They invited me
in and we chatted as though I were an old friend. I’ve always remembered how
kind they both were. Sonny even gave me cab fare home. 
I think that unless you’re a sexual object from the preferred sample of the celebrity in question, you should say nothing.
My brother saw Jeff Beck walking by and started to say something; Beck replied “Fuck off!”
I loved Dabney Coleman and thought that he was an awesome actor, even way back in the 60s. I saw him at a restaurant elevator. I fawned over him, and, he was clearly disgusted. I asked him about some movie that he’d been in in the 60s, and he turned around and recognized some chick and went over to talk to her.
I don’t think that I’ll talk to any celebrity again. Except for Lynsay Dawn Mackenzie, then, if I see her, I’ll just kidnap her, and flee to an exotic island, or some chateau. Don’t know what I’ll say, tho.
No, because I’ve never said that to one. The only time I’ve ever attempted to engage a celebrity in conversation is in environments where that is clearly their reason for being there (press events, fan events, premieres, post event meet-and-greets, etc.).
When they’re just about their normal daily lives I leave them alone. But if I did feel compelled to say something to them I’d leave the ball in their court as much as possible. It feels awfully presumptuous (to me, obviously lots of people disagree) to think that just because I’ve liked their movie or song or novel or whatever that it is time to try and become friends.
If it were a situation where no conversation was called for, I’d leave 'em alone. If it were a situation where it would be weird not to talk, I hope I’d try to talk with them about whatever was at hand.
Exceptions:
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If I know their work well enough to ask questions they don’t get asked very often.
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If they’re only a celebrity within limited circles, or used to be somewhat famous, but not so much nowadays - IOW, their celebrity is currently limited enough that they might not mind the attention that much. In the former category, if I ran into one of the surviving members of Firesign Theatre, or folksinger Si Kahn, for instance, I’d want to say something about how I enjoyed a particular piece of their work.
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If I ran into Barack Obama, I’d just want to say to him that I realize how he’s had to preside over the country during a particularly difficult stretch of time, and I’d thank him for doing such a great job under such difficult circumstances. I’d leave it at that, unless he kept the conversation going. If so, the next thing I’d tell him is that he’s married to one of the world’s most desirable women, the lucky bastard. (I figure he’d just reply, “I know,” with that sly grin of his.)
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If I ran into Susan Sarandon, I’d tell her I’ve had a crush on her since Atlantic City.
“Could you move sir…um…all the people stopping and…well, it’s kind of disrupting the line. Could you…um…y’know…um, maybe…um…move over there?”
A noted television and movie star was getting his son settled into a new college and we were doing the student IDs. The people gawking at him were being polite and not pressing in on him, but they were all around him and we couldn’t get the line moving past. So I was elected the guy to tell him to move. He apologized, moved and was great about it.
After that wonderful line delivery, I was amazed that I wasn’t called for a speaking part in his next film.
We have had a few celebrities where I work and I usually try to speak to them, because I don’t want to miss the opportunity. I usually say how nice it is to have them here. I don’t think I’m obnoxious.
I think I told it here how nice Richard Dreyfuss was. I said something along the lines of, “Hello! I’m Ellen Cherry and I just wanted to meet you!” I can’t remember what I said anymore, but anyway, took my hand and bowed! I had on heels and I just towered over him.
Unless the setting is conducive to conversation I say nothing. Passing in an airport: no. Sitting next to them in a bar: yes. The airport scenario has happened a few times. The bar scenario never.
In my case, I can’t afford to hang out in the bars celebrities frequent. I suspect that is by design.
Picture it: 1997, Los Angeles. I was in line with my girlfriend(now my wife) to buy tickets to “The Lost World: Jurassic Park II” at some theater. GF whispers “There’s Todd Bridges!”, which was funny because we had just seen a documentary on how f’ed up all the kids from Diff’rent Strokes had turned out. So I answer, in my obliviousness, “Where?” A few rounds of “Where?” , “right there!” later, and I realize she is talking about the person right in front of me. I look up at him (I am Gary Coleman sized). He looks down at me. I say, in my normal Long Island loud voice “Oh Shit! Its Todd Bridges!” He scowls at me, and then walks away from the theater with his friends. Not the way I would have wanted the encounter to go, but at least I didn’t say “What you talkin’ bout, Willis”. He probably would have decked me.
To this day, my wife won’t let me live down that I ruined Todd Bridges’ trip to the movies.
The bar scenario happened to me, once, sort of. A goalie for the Pittsburgh hockey team was seated next to me at an area bar. I had no idea who he was and just nodded at him when I sat down. He bummed cigarettes off me several times through the evening. Found out later who he was. I will add to my earlier post in this thread that I’d just as soon celebrities leave me alone too.
Well, there goes my plan to run into William Shatner and start quizzing him on what it was really like to work with Leonard Nimoy :D. I’m sure he’d have a few anecdotes, and it wouldn’t kill him to talk to my mom on the cell phone and pose for a few pictures, would it?
If you’re Asimovian, you try to run over them in the theater parking garage.
My policy is to say nothing. But sometimes I don’t know who they are and…
In 2000, I was flying to California for a job interview, and I was in the dead last row. The one where the seats can’t fully recline. Across the aisle were some people, and they seemed to be talking about music or something, and I asked, “Are you guys in a band?” The guy answered, without any pretension and in a nice voice, “Yes. Naughty By Nature.” The name barely rang a bell with me.
This one’s better. My best friend lived in New York until recently, in the theater district. In late 2010, we were walking back to his place from dinner or a bar, and he, although he doesn’t smoke, asks an old guy standing outside a restaurant if he could bum a smoke. It was one of those places you have to step down a few stairs to get to, so we were down there, just chatting about life and stuff. He was quite a good conversationalist, perhaps a bit too believing in conspiracy theories but clearly intelligent. My friend never tells me who it is until we’re well away from the place. It turns out it was Richard Griffiths, i.e., Uncle Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter movies. I liked the fact that my friend (who knew who he was) never let on that he did to me or Richard, so we were able to have this very interesting conversation, and it’s made for a great story thereafter!
During that same trip, Jackie Mason came into a restaurant we were eating at.
In 1993, with the same friend at his university, University of Georgia in Athens, Michael Stipe of REM came into a record store we were in. My friend told me, but I didn’t even bother to look (my policy, you see).
Ray Bolger was in our hotel coffee shop when we were visiting Disneyland in 1979.
I was in the presence of some celebs in Japan in the 1990s as we sold some products on a shopping show. I didn’t know who they were, but it was a fun story to tell people I had been in the presence of the host, who was fairly famous at the time.
I wrote to Paul Williams, who is a personal hero, and asked him for a signed picture, which he sent to me. I also corresponded with Brian Protheroe (another hero I’m sure people here won’t know). Other than that, I’ve never asked a celeb for an autograph and would not.
At an event involving Japan that had some luminaries in attendance, I met then-governor of Indiana Mitch Daniels. He is rather short and struck me as quite shy. But the highlight of that event was finding myself at a table next to former Governor Thompson of Illinois. I had lived in Crown Point, Indiana, during his tenure, and he was a very familiar figure from Chicago TV. It was a completely natural conversation, and it was just like talking to an ordinary guy. I’ve met Mayor Ballard of Indianapolis a couple times, and he is very nice and natural too.
Oh, I have a funny one to finish! I was a member of the Columbia Club in Indy, which has mostly Republican members. This was early 2008, I believe. Well, Mitt Romney had a breakfast fundraiser there which I sort of crashed (I just happened to be there that morning). After he gave his idiotic speech, he was shaking hands and whatnot, and I shook his hand and said, “Welcome to Indy.” He is very tall and good-looking in person, FWIW.
I think I have a few others…
Story. Now!
At an AA meeting many years ago, I went up to a guy who I thought had arrived with a group of men from a halfway house and introduced myself to make him feel welcome. He looked at me a bit funny as we shook hands and introduced himself by his first name.
It turned out he is a VERY famous rock singer (still alive, successful, famous AND sober today)and actually was and still is one of my favorite performers.
He did not look at all like I thought he looked like from seeing him on TV and I never approached him again when I saw him at meetings.