| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Yukon |
Posted - 02/06/2008 : 03:54:33
Chocolate Lady's story in the FYC about her run-in with Bob Marley on a train had me wondering about other people's brushes with Hollywood celebrities.
Anyone else have any interesting stories?
Here's mine.
When I'm not writing on FWFR, I'm a newspaper editor/reporter.
Back when I was in university taking journalism courses, guess who was the very first person I ever interviewed in my life for an article? It wasn't the winner of the local pie contest or some school administrators for a story about cafeteria food.
Nope, I talked to Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh of Traffic and Ocean's 11, 12 and 13.
It was for my campus newspaper back in 1997 or 1998. I had never actually written a "real journalism article" -- I only wrote humour columns and movie reviews. I saw an advance screening of Soderbergh's film Kafka. The publicity people then called up our campus paper and said Soderbergh was coming to Toronto and we could do an interview with him.
Because I was the only one to have seen the movie and was completely unqualified, my editors made me do it.
I went to his hotel room, was scared shitless, asked a bunch of simple basic questions (mostly about trying to emerge from the shadow of his previous, debut film Sex Lies and Videotape). Fortunately he was a real pro and gave me lots of interesting answers and it turned out to be a good story.
Ironically, I no longer live in Toronto and work at a newspaper far away from any celebrities. So now I interview winners of local pie contest and school administrators for stories about cafeteria food.
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| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Yukon |
Posted - 02/10/2008 : 21:20:36
Wow, those are some amazing stories! Thanks for the link. I love Noncentz's Jack Lemmon story and MGuyx's near-fight with Jamie Foxx. |
| Sean |
Posted - 02/09/2008 : 01:47:25
http://www.fwfr.com/fourum/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true&TOPIC_ID=772
Follow-up to mine:- I had lunch with Courtney's sister on Boxing Day. |
| w22dheartlivie |
Posted - 02/08/2008 : 23:53:10
I met Leonard Nimoy once. I don't remember if I've told this or not, so please indulge me if I have. My friend and I went to Indy to a Star Trek convention (yeah, yeah). I collect autographs and knew that it was usually easy to get them at the conventions. Nimoy was supposed to appear so I brought along my really neat and cool vinyl covered 1976 Star Trek Technical Manual that I'd saved my hard earned money to buy years before. After Nimoy spoke, they announced he would not be signing that day, so my friend and I, disgruntled, decided to leave. It was late summer, which is a bear in Indiana, and as we arrived at the parking lot, we could see that a rainstorm was approaching. We got to the car, which was in the first row behind the building and lo and behold, there sat a running limousine behind the building! Obviously it was waiting for Nimoy, so I grabbed my book and headed for the limo. As I arrived, Nimoy and his wife left the building and I met him at the car door, just as the rain was beginning to fall. Nimoy said "I'd be glad to sign this, but you'll have to get inside out of the rain."
Well, it was a bit of an inconvenience for me (HA!), but I got inside with them. We talked for several minutes about Star Trek and he spent a relatively long bit of time looking at my book, as he'd never seen it before. He signed it and said it was good to meet me, and I departed. Later, I told another friend, who is an autograph dealer about this, and within a week, I was infamous among the autograph set for being the only person at the conventions who got a Nimoy autograph. 'Twas cool. |
| Downtown |
Posted - 02/08/2008 : 23:19:24
I once tailgated at Stanford with Jim Plunkett and Bill Walsh. That was cool. According to the other guys there Jim still breaks fingers with his passes when they play pickup games. |
| Whippersnapper. |
Posted - 02/08/2008 : 17:59:54
One day I was in St James's Park when I saw a cat, with a somewhat disgruntled expression, incongruously sitting on one of the benches, surrounded by pigeons and ducks who treated his presence with apparent indifference. Still, I walked around to the park keeper's office and knocked on the door. I explained that there was a cat sitting on one of the benches. "What does 'e look like?" asked the keeper. "Well, he's medium sized, black and white and furry" I replied. "Oh," says the keeper. "That's not our cat." After a pause he continued "That's 'Umphrey, the Prime Minister's cat.
I saw him there on several further occasions, sometimes pointing out to tourists that that cat's Humphrey, the world's most famous cat, but I don't think they believed me. 
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| Josh the cat |
Posted - 02/08/2008 : 17:16:44
quote:
Originally posted by R o � k G 0 1 f
I met Ted Nugent at a barber shop. Jesus, he's short.
Are you sure he just wasn't sitting down
Josh the cat |
| silly |
Posted - 02/08/2008 : 16:56:18
I thought of another quasi-close brush.
I had a good friend in College that was told by the Secret Service he could not attend then-Vice President George H.W. Bush's speech at our campus, on account of him (my friend, not Bush) being too radical.
I really am boring when it comes to celebs. |
| Ali |
Posted - 02/08/2008 : 06:58:58
Another great story from Chocolate Lady.
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| ChocolateLady |
Posted - 02/07/2008 : 12:42:29
Since I'm sure I told the story about Placido and my father just after Pavarotti died, here's the other one.
Way back in the days when newsgroups were more popular than these types of forums, I was on misc.writing. One of the people there was Eric Garcia. One day he asks us a question: "If there was one food you would be willing to eat every single day and not get tired of it, what would that one food be?" My reply was that despite my username, it wouldn't be chocolate. As long as I could still have my cigarettes, that food would be tuna fish. Later Eric publishes the book "Matchstick Men" where the main character (later portrayed by Nicolas Cage in the movie) only buys tuna fish to eat at home, and is a smoker. When I asked Eric if my answer went into that character's attributes, his answer was "I won't deny it".
(I think that's my last one exept that a young man who worked with me for a couple of years was Natalie Portman's salsa dancing partner when they were both studying at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.)
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| RockGolf |
Posted - 02/06/2008 : 22:36:11
My big "brush with celebrity" stories are almost all on Canadian politicians. I got a wink from Pierre Trudeau once. It was 1979 & he was just defeated in the last general election, the Conservatives forming a minority government. I asked him to sign his autograph as "Prime Minister Trudeau" but date it 1980. He chuckled, winked at me mysteriously and signed "P E Trudeau" (his initials). Two weeks later he announced his retirement, and I thought "ah, that's what the wink meant". Two weeks after that the Conservative lose a confidence vote, forcing an election, with no heir apparent, Trudeau is asked to hang on, and wins the election. It is 1980 and he is again Prime Minister Trudeau and I think "ah, that's what the wink meant!"
I met Ted Nugent at a barber shop. Jesus, he's short.
And I ran into Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Bo Diddley at the airport. I was absolutely star struck. Stupidly, I could only remember his real name of Elias McDaniel but couldn't remember his stage name for my life. He saw me staring at him slack-jawed and said "How ya doin'". All I could say was "I saw you at Live Aid with... with..." "George Thorogood" he helpfully completed. "Yeahhhhhh" was all I could reply, looking like every dumbstruck sitcom cliche in existence. "Nice to meet you" he said, heading off. I think I mumbled, "It's an honor", and you know for me, it was. |
| duh |
Posted - 02/06/2008 : 22:00:04
As far as I know, I haven't crossed paths with anyone who could be considered a major celebrity. If I did, I would be only mildly amused about it and I would leave them alone. I think I mentioned before that one of my best friends taught Denzel Washington and Sean Astin how to drive tanks, but that he thought Meg Ryan was a snob and also possibly high much of the time.
Bill Murray was in my home town recently to deliver a brief address at the high school. We learned that his brother Bryan Doyle Murray is a resident here because his wife is a student of veterinary medicine at our world-renowned school of Veterinary Medicine.
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| damalc |
Posted - 02/06/2008 : 20:46:20
i got one more.
i was staying in a hotel in Detroit, and from the main entrance, you could see a banner several stories tall hanging on the side of a building. the banner was promoting a show that was playing featuring tap dancer Savion Glover.
i was in the hotel elevator and two guys got on _ one, a light-skinned black guy with dreadlocks, dressed pretty casually, and the other, dressed more professionally. on a chain around his neck, the well-dressed guy was wearing an all-access pass to the show. before my brain was engaged, my mouth said to dreadlock guy, "oh shit, you're Savion Glover."
"yeah."
i introduced myself. "i loved (recent, at the time, tv special he did that i can't recall now)."
he grinned. "for real? thanks."
very cool.
quick hits - Lennox Lewis, Jim Carrey, Darius Rucker at the Ali Center opening celebration. Jermaine Dupree, Spike Lee, John Lovitz at the Kentucky Derby. Treach from Naughty by Nature in a strip club. |
| Sal[Au]pian |
Posted - 02/06/2008 : 20:09:43
Yep, we see them pretty often in the street here too, and I would never say anything to them, though I might look them in the face. As well as central London, in Richmond where I used to work there would be the Rolling Stones, Richard E. Grant. My hero David Attenborough also lives there (as does Richard) and I've seen him too, but at a talk/book signing, so it doesn't count.
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| Downtown |
Posted - 02/06/2008 : 18:24:37
Well I once lit a cigarette for Richard Belzer when I was living in New York.
I was walking through Midtown and I guess they were between shoots on S.V.U., and he was there on the sidewalk with a cig in his mouth feeling at all his pockets (presumably looking for a lighter), so I stopped and whipped out my Zippo and gave him a light. He said "thanks," I said, "no problem, by the way I loved your Mick Jagger impression on The Tonight Show," and then I kept walking (no time to chat, I was on my way to a job interview).
But I never really thought it was a life-changing event...that's just life in the NYC, you see celebrities like that all the time just doing "stuff" on the street, and you're supposed to act like it's no big deal. I think that's the difference between NYC celebs and LA celebs. LA celebs want to be seen and followed by screaming fans and cameras as they go from one exclusive nightclub to another, with bodyguards fending people off and such...NYC celebs just want to blend into the crowd and be New Yorkers! I once found myself three tables away from Bob DeNiro at a restaurant. |
| turrell |
Posted - 02/06/2008 : 17:58:47
I used to go to church with the following regular attendees:
Arnold Scwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, Gregory Hines (RIP), Nicole Kidman, and Martin Sheen. Plus loads of other lesser knowns. It was church so we let them do their thing. |
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