People have shared their incredible stories of both good and bad run-ins with celebrities, illuminating the ups and downs of meeting the rich and famous. These encounters provide a look into the interactions of common people with famous people and range from star-struck moments to hilarious mishaps to outright disappointment. These stories aren’t just amusing; they also offer insightful perspectives on the human side of fame and the effects it can have on both the famous and those who come into contact with them.
Continue reading because these stories are too good to miss!
One day my sister was at a play premiere in Chicago and she just so happened to have a seat next to Jennifer Hudson (this was before dream girls and after idol). My sister says, “OMG! You’re Jennifer Hudson! You totally should’ve won idol.” To which Jennifer says, “Yea and penny for every time I heard that…. winch.” Rolls her eyes and asks to move seats. That’s why she didn’t win 🙁
I was working in a mall kiosk selling cell phones. One night, some lady came in and wanted a handsfree headset. She asked if it would work with an out-of-country phone (I was in Vancouver then). I said of course. She came back later that night and said it didn’t work. We had just set up the kiosk and I was unable to do refunds so I sent her (in the rain, mind you) to the main store down the street. The next day, she comes storming up to the kiosk. My work buddy goes – holy sh*t, it’s that woman…and she brought Arnie with her! The lady starts screaming at me for making her go out in the rain when the other store was closed (oops), all the while Arnold Schwarzenegger is standing behind her, looking confused and talking German to his friend. Turns out she was his personal shopper. Very surreal. This was in the 90s.
I was a bike courier in Philadelphia during the filming of “Law Abiding Citizen”.
Part of the job was to deliver/pick up documents from city hall, where most of the filming was going on.
So one day I got out of the elevator in a huge rush only to walk into a crowd of people. I realized it was because Jamie Foxx and his henchmen were waiting for a ride up, trying to block fans away. So I ended up, in my rushed state, ramming into him and yelling “Outta my way, Jamie Foxx!” Only to get awkward glances from most people that saw…guess I took my job pretty seriously..
I was once at an outdoor cafe in Los Angeles and I see Beyonce Knowles walking toward me. She walks right up to me and says, “I lost my phone around here, have you seen it? It’s one of those cute little flip phones with gold sparkles all over it.” I told her sorry, I hadn’t seen it and asked if she wanted me to try calling it so she might hear it? She sighs and says, “no, that ain’t gonna work, it’s on silent mode”. I told her, “If you liked it, then you shoulda put a ring on it.”
Essentially I was in a hotel and met Alan Rickman. This was a few years back when the 6th book was out, and as he was signing an autograph for me, he asked if I finished the book. Starstruck, I said yes, even though I wasn’t. He then says “Oh, so I guess you know that I’m the half-blood prince, huh?” My jaw dropped. I had Snape Personally reveal his true identity to me.
I was at an Obama rally back in August of 2007. We were at Florida A&M, in a smallish gym. We had shaken Obama’s hand and talked to him a bit, and ended up following him back behind the barricade, talking to him. He ended up hugging us and all this stuff, but security was not too keen on it so they asked us to move.
Obama climbs up on the bleachers to take a picture with the band. Security ends up pushing me to move to the other side of the barricade (not hard, but it was crowded), and I fell forward.
I reached up to grab the first thing to stop my fall.
Miami, Fl in the Grove on a slow night at Mr. Moes. Jason Statham was outside at one of the rocker tables with a thick Latina all lovey-dovey-like. I was with a good group of lads and ladies, and we all immediately recognized him. We got a pretty girl to approach him and ask for a group picture. He was standing and smoking a cigarette or something at this point.
JS: “Sure, but not the whole group. Just her and her…”
F*cker only let the cute girls take a pic with him. His eyes were also glazed over pretty nicely…
My cousin recently was at some kind of college speech in the UK where Johnny Depp was speaking. My cousin yelled out that they couldn’t hear him speak and Johnny walked all the way over to him and brought him on stage to sit right next to him for the entire ordeal. Pretty neat. I might be able to get a pic too.
This must have been sometime in the late nineties. I’m eight or so, with a large group eating dinner at a Chinese restaurant in L.A.
Somehow word gets to us that Jackie Chan is also in the restaurant.
Suffice it to say the kids at the table decide it is imperative that we meet Jackie. We end up forcing one of the parents to elbow her way over to his table and ask for a photo. All I remember about Jackie: (1) he’s wearing an offensively shocking bright blue Hawaiian-like shirt and (2) extremely tan—like seriously, a burnt sienna.
So we’re standing there, all waiting for the flash to go off when Jackie pats me on the back. Still smiling and looking straight at the camera, Jackie whispers through his teeth: “You should eat more.” I just stare at him and loudly respond, “What, why?”
We take the photo and then are immediately whisked out of his room.
My cousin lives in Orlando and was out with some friends right around the time Dwight got drafted. They were near some fountain downtown and the girls see Dwight Howard and without recognizing him are like “HEY WILL YOU TAKE OUR PICTURE?” He agrees and my cousin says to him “Hey Dwight I don’t think they know who you are but thanks for taking the picture” and Dwight answers “It’s okay I like white girls.” Dwight got the swag.
I was 7 years old at a Mariners vs. Padres game at Safeco field enjoying my hotdog in one hand with my glove in the other. All of a sudden, Tony Gwynn hit a home run and it was headed right for me. I put out my glove to catch it, but it rebounded and smacked me in the nose, then a wave of people descended on me one of whom accidentally kneed me in the head. I lay on the ground, crying with a bloody nose when I saw somebody kneel down in front of me and place a ball in my hand. I was seated near the away team pitcher’s pen only to discover that this man was one of the players who had climbed up the wall to help and yell at the people grubbing after the ball. He told me to wait in my seat at the end of the game, and sure enough, Tony Gwynn ran up and motioned for me to throw the ball to him. He signed it and tossed it back, this time I caught it. I still have that ball.
Not a big confrontation, but still funny. My parents were at Costco buying groceries in LA when they saw Tim Curry in the checkout line. They were quietly trying to see what he was buying (to tell stories about it later,) so my dad casually walks by his cart, pretending to put back some cashews or something. He got a look in his cart, and all Tim Curry had in the cart were about a dozen boxes of frozen crab cakes. Just crab cakes, nothing else. My dad turns back around to report back to my mom and happens to get a look at him. Tim Curry was just staring my dad down, not saying anything, just looking at him because he knew what my dad was doing and he was not in the mood. So my dad, in a panic, says loudly “I love shellfish” then awkwardly walks back to my mom at the cart. Says nothing else until they leave the store.
I met Emeril Lagasse. I saw him at a shopping mall for some kind of promotional thing he was doing there. I passed by and was looking at him and I ran straight into this big camera. It fell over and everybody just stared at me. Emeril came over and was really pissed, he was all red in the face and asked me why I ran into the camera. Nobody around seemed to notice he was being a huge douche. I told him it was an accident but he just told me to get out of there before I caused any more trouble. Easily the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to me. When I see him on TV it makes me cringe and I have to change the channel.
My aunt, who has never watched a game of basketball, met Shaq in an elevator when he was at the peak of his career. Her son is one of the biggest lakers fans and she kind of recognized his face. This was their conversation:
I work in a high-end Steak restaurant as a busboy. One night this summer, Julia Roberts was filming a movie in town and she came to our restaurant. She sat at the back corner with her back to the restaurant. She only ate half her steak, so after I took her dish away. I cut off a little piece of the steak and ate it. SO technically I SHARED A STEAK with JULIA ROBERTS.
I was at a horror convention years ago, where Adam West was one of the guests. As I was coming back in from outside the convention center, I noticed he was leaving so I held open the door for him.
“Have a good evening, Mister West!” I said.
He turned around, rolled his eyes, and snorted “Whatever.”
This royally pissed me off. So I responded, without thinking “Wow, you’re a prick!”
He turned back to me, and growled in that Adam West voice “Go to H*ll!”
I met John Cleese at an airport when I was 12. My brother, my dad and I walked up to him and his wife. We all knew him from Monty Python but he thought we knew him as Nearly Headless Nick from Harry Potter. My dad told him that we were going to buy the entire Monty Python DVD boxed set. He told us that we should use the $120 it would cost to buy ice cream instead, as that would be “a lot of ice cream”. He asked for our address and we ended up getting a signed picture of him in the mail. His wife was also very nice and recommended I read Phillip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” series (The Golden Compass, etc.) since I told her I like to read.
George R R Martin sat next to me on a plane to Seattle a few months back, right after the latest book came out. I’m a pretty big fan so we ended up talking a lot of the flight about random things, including football (he’s a Jets fan and I’m a Chargers fan, there’s a bit of a rivalry). He talked a little about the new book and I asked him politely to not kill my favorite character. I had him sign my iPad and it wasn’t until later that I realized he signed “GO JETS!” on it 🙁
It was the Warped Tour and Hillary Duff was on it. The night BEFORE the concert she and her posse (yes she had a posse) decided to stop into our restaurant. When I saw her outside, I immediately asked to be the person to take her order, even though I was a cook. The cashiers obliged.
So she walked in and I gave our usual greeting. She walked up, I explained the menu all courteous-like, and her group ordered. After everything was done, I asked, “And what name will be on order?”
She just looked at me like I was f*cking crazy. “Uhh, Hillary…”
“Is that two L’s or just one?” “Only one…”
As I took her money and stuff, she asked, “Do you really not know who I am?”
“No, should I?” was my only reply.
She mentioned she was Hillary Duff and was on TV and actually playing at the concert the next night…
“Huh, that’s strange,” I said. Then I yelled to my friends in the back, “HEY GUYS! Have you ever heard of anybody named Hillary Duff?”
“Nope.” “Naw.” “Who?!”
It was classic. Not really a confrontation, but still fun in my mind.
He was out with his girlfriend for lunch at a very fancy hotel in Dublin, Ireland and Colin Farrell happened to be there too. This was back at the height of his fame. So my mate sauntered over to him and said something like ‘Hey Colin, any chance of a photo?’. Colin Farrell being the cool dude he was then was like ‘yeh, course man, no bother’ and started fixing his hair etc. At that point, my mate hands HIM the camera and poses with his girlfriend.
In fairness to Colin Farrell, he didn’t know what to do at first but he did actually take the photo and they still have it to this day. The photo that Colin Farrell took of him and his now wife. I love that story.
This is going to get buried. But a few years ago when The Fountain (directed by Darren Aronofsky) came out, I was working at a little movie theatre in Calgary. Mila Kunis was on some shoot in the city and I guess it was her night off because she decided to stop by my place of work and see this great new film. I remember it was incredibly dead that night, and she and her friend actually got to see the movie by themselves.
Immediately after it was over, she comes down the stairs and announces to everyone (“everyone” being myself and my co-worker, it really was that empty) that it was the “biggest piece of sh*t [she’s] ever seen!”, and it was “so f*cking pretentious and made no godd*mn sense! What the f*ck did [she] just watch?!?”. I actually hadn’t seen it at that point and I remember having a predisposition against the movie when I went into it since she so adamantly hated it.
And then she went on to do Black Swan with Darren Aronofsky! Funny how that works.
Kobe Bryant – We were waiting outside a hotel in which the lakers were staying before their game that night, and when the players came out, we greeted them all and wished them a good game and all that sh*t. Then Kobe steps out and everyone’s like “Mr. Bryant! Mr. Bryant, can I get an autograph?” He just looks like he’s gonna keep walking. Then my buddy yells “Yo Kobe!”, and he just kinda turns and looks at us. (We were like 12 at the time.) I thought he was pissed, but he kinda grins and gives us both autographs. F*ckin’ Kobe rules.
We were vacationing on the island of Maui in 1999. On our first morning, we all headed to our favorite spot, Polo beach. As we were setting all our stuff on the beach a young boy about 7 years old came running past us. You could tell that he was maybe autistic.
All of the sudden my brother inlaw said, “Hey, is that John Travolta?” I looked up to see a man walking over to get the 7 old boy who ran passed us. As the man got closer my brother inlaw asked him if he was John Travolta. Anyone who has watched Welcome Back Kotter will know what I am talking about next. In a perfect sweat hog voice, he said, “yeah.”
Mr Travolta stuck his hand out and introduced himself to everyone. Not an ounce of being stuck-up or smug. No attitude of “leave me alone you peeons.” He was kind, polite, and down to earth. After introducing himself he went to get his son, Jet. About an hour later I was with my son in the ocean and we were checking out fish. John was a few feet away and was with his son Jet, trying to see the fish we were looking at. It was cool to meet him but the best part was that he was in no way a snob.
My mom was organizing a book signing for Bill Cosby and she messed up the scheduling so the fans arrived 30 minutes early. Cosby flipped out and started pointing at my mom saying, “THIS woman right here, she messed everything up! Blame her for your problems!”
Drew Barrymore talked to me for an hour, hugged me, and bought me a coffee.
I was in an LA coffee shop when I got the call that my dog had been hit by a car. I went to the bathroom to cry it out (I was waiting for a ride) and Drew came in, saw me, and gave me the best talk. She was incredibly kind and very real. We hugged, we went back into the main area, she bought me a chai latte, and gave me her number and said to call her if I needed to talk again.
I swapped spit with Bill Murray. When I was a toddler we went to a Saint Paul Saints game. Bill Murray was there with a bunch of press for some reason that I am unaware of. He happened to encounter my mother holding me, and in a very Bill Murray way he took the pacifier out of my mouth and popped it into his mouth. The press laughed and I, apparently, in a huff, ripped it out of his mouth and put it back into mine. Ta-da.
I had a friend from out of state swinging through town and we met in NYC for lunch and a couple of drinks.
We are eating at the bar and I see further down that Mike Myers (Snl, Austin Powers, etc) is at the other end of the bar watching a soccer game on the television and drinking a beer.
I had never encountered a celebrity before and didn’t want to be some obtrusive *sshole. But prior to paying our tab I walked over and said “hey Mike, I’m a big fan, can I buy you a beer?” And without even turning to look at me he says ” I can afford my own drinks *sshole, save your money for my next movie”.
I stood there speechless for a second and embarrassedly turned back to my spot at the bar, we paid our tab and split without saying a word. I really felt like a d*ck head, haha.
Don’t know if it was confrontational so much as it was rude, but I once met David Hasselhoff at Rendono Beach when I was about 7-8 years old (so this was in the arc of his career in the mid-90s, plus my pop-culturally oblivious parents were the ones to spot him so you knew that meant this guy was primetime). I asked him for his autograph, and without skipping a beat or looking at me he said, “I’m playing with my children right now, beat it.”
I stood there not sure how to react or what to do, and he looked at me and gave me this weird face like he just smelled the most rotten thing that could ever billow into the nostrils of a human being and yelled, “F*ck off you little sh*t!”
I see all these stories about celebrities being d*cks, but I have a story about a celebrity being awesome.
My family lives next to a studio, and one day there’s a woman coming out of the studio surrounded by like 2 or 3 guys. My grandma,, my aunt, and my cousins were on the porch, and my grandmother happened to be on the phone. That’s when she realized that the woman coming out of the studio was Cyndi Lauper.
Instantly my family ran down, and poor Cyndi, they started yelling “Hi Cyndi!”. And then, Cyndi Lauper actually did a 180, and came over to talk to us! She was super nice and actually had a conversation for a couple of minutes. My grandmother was on the phone with my mother (it was my mother’s birthday), and Cyndi asked who she was talking to. My grandmother told her that it was my mom and that she was celebrating her birthday today, so Cyndi asked to speak with her on the phone.
She ended up getting the names of both my grandmother and my mom and got them VIP passes for an upcoming concert she was performing soon in the city.
My dad owned a liquor store in Malibu near the homes of many celebrities. I worked there for a summer and a couple of regular shoppers included Denise Richards, Jay Leno and Drew Barrymore. (My dad stocked these smoothies called Odwalla solely on her request. She was the only one who ever bought them)
However, his best customer by far was none other than Mark Hamill. He was on a first name basis with my dad. He came in maybe 3 times a week and always bought 4 packs of “True Blue” cigarettes. (Again, something my dad carried specifically for him)
His career wasn’t doing too well I guess. He drove a crappy car and his shirts were always some free promo item from a cartoon. I remember he wore a Pokemon shirt once. When I finally got the nerve to talk to him, I told him I was a big fan of Star Wars. The next time he came, he gave me a signed photo of him hanging onto Slave Leia. He signed it “To Justin, FORCEFULLY yours, Mark Hamill”. Great guy.
I interned at Saturday Night Live last season, and the Valentine’s Day episode was hosted by Russell Brand, featuring Chris Brown. I interned for the photo department, and we were shooting the bumpers that they’d show right after the commercial breaks before the show came back on.
Russell Brand comes over, introduces himself to everyone, including the interns (which never happens. We’re supposed to stay sort of hidden), and is just absolutely the nicest man ever. So we’re shooting the bumpers, and we get to a picture where Russell is going to lay down, and we’re going to spread roses on him
Because I’m a big strong dude, I’m in charge of bringing over the crash pad that he lays on. Russell lays on it, we all throw roses on him, it’s funny, he’s nice, whatever. So the photo shoot ends, and the way it works is that right after the musical artist soundchecks, for the most part, they come right to us for photoshoots (which happens on one of the stages), so as not to waste their time being on set for things they don’t need to be.
So, Chris Brown comes over after sound-checking, and the Russell Brand photo shoot just ended, and I’m dragging off this big gymnastics crash pad. And Chris Brown stops me and goes “Whoa whoa whoa, what is this for?” and I go
“Russell was laying on it. We spread roses on him.”
“It’s not for me? I wanna do a backflip on it.”
“Nah dude, it’s not for you.”
“Leave it anyway. Ima do some tricks on it.”
“Chris, I’m just not gonna do that.”
and I walked away with the crash pad. He told one of the photographers to tell me to bring it back, and they made up something about how it was too risky for him to do that. He just really wanted to do some tricks on it.
She was working late in a costume design workroom at college. Late at night, all alone she is working on a project and the doors are suddenly thrown open by freaking Patrick Stewart. He hurries over to her and asks, “You there, who are you and what are you doing?” They talked for a few minutes before he excused himself to return to his exploring of the facilities.
Apparently, the Royal Shakespeare Company was in town to do a show and was at the university to meet the student actors. He had run off after the meeting to explore.
I was working at a coffee shop in New York and Jesse Camp walked in and asked if he could use the bathroom. I said, “yeah if you buy a coffee,” and he was like, “Don’t you know who I am?” and I said to buy a coffee or get the f*ck out. He got the f*ck out and the owner slapped me on the back. I hated that guy.
Katherine Heigl eats at the sandwich shop I used to work at. We had a confrontation about the order and whether it was prepared correctly. Not much haha
I was working at a theme park, hosting a cartoon dog (one named after an ex-planet, if you catch my drift), when a couple of younger teens started smacking him. I ran over shouting “Hey! Stop hitting (him)! Let’s be nice!” They smacked him again on the nose, not too hard, but seriously? So I yelled, “I’m calling security – no one treats (him) like that!” They got scared looks on their faces and kind of ran off.
I hear a loud recognizable laugh, and turned to see Seth Rogen looking at me! He said “that was awesome! You’re good at your job!” And then walked away laughing. Made my month!!
I wouldn’t say it was a confrontation so much as an SAP moment where I offended I Celebrity Crush that I had for several years (Read: much fapping had ensued over her). I worked at Long Beach Airport for TSA back in 2003 and was working the Baggage X-ray/Inspection Line when Rose McGowan came through my line. I had been a fan of hers for years and loved her Independent film career (The Doom Generation, Lewis & Clark & George, etc). All of which she appeared nude in, if you’re interested and didn’t already know. So I asked for her autograph (which is against government policy) and as she hands me the autograph I blurt this out, “I’m a really huge fan…I love all your B movies.” She gets visibly agitated and responds, “I don’t make B movies, Shannon Tweed makes B movies. I make Independent Films!” I am mortified…
Average Friday night, drank a four loko and went over to a friend’s place. We get invited upstairs to our friend’s dorm (pretty much gone by this point). Next thing I know I’m talking to Emma Watson. Turns out our friend shared a dorm room with her.
I ran into William Daniels (Mr. Feeny from Boy Meets World) on a flight from San Francisco to Chicago. I only realized it was him after my sister hit him on the side of the head with her carry-on as she was stowing up in the overhead compartment whilst he was attempting to take a seat. He wasn’t mad at all, laughed it off and shook our hands when we told him we loved him as Mr. Feeny. Really nice guy, polite and friendly when other passengers recognized him as well. He sat in front of us and we didn’t bother him for the remainder of the flight. he waved bye to us while me and my sister were still stuck in baggage claim.
My neighbor saw Miley Cyrus at either Disney Land or Disney World, I can’t remember which.
Anyway, this huge ride was getting ready to fill up with kids and my neighbor was waiting in line with her own two kids when suddenly the star walks to the front and demands she gets the front seat. Oh, I forgot to mention she cut through the Make-A-Wish foundation line to do this. The ride employers tell her she has to wait in line because they’re already filling seats for the people who waited. She throws a fit, in front of everyone, screeching “DON’T YOU KNOW WHO I AM??” and basically having a temper tantrum before she finally stormed off with her bodyguards to try and get on a different ride. This was when she was starting out in fame, about 15-16 years old.
A couple of years ago I was working at Best Buy in the video game section when Chris Bosh came and his entourage. He and one of his buddies come straight up to me and he asks “Where are the HDMI cables?” I took him to the cable section and showed him the various cables we have. After I finish talking, I told him I was a big fan and thought he was a great basketball player. He then proceeded to pick up the cheapest Dynex HDMI cable available, pause to look at it for a second and then hand it to me saying “This is b*llsh*t, that cable is too f*cking expensive, f*ck you.” And walks out.
When I was around 13, after a day at the beach in Malibu, I went with my family to Starbucks. There was a pretty long line in which I patiently waited my turn. Then right as I’m one person from the registers, Paul Walker walks in with some hot little trophy bimbo and cuts in line directly in front of me. I was to shy to say anything, but before I could even get a chance the Barista tells him loudly and firmly to get in the back of the line and wait like everyone else. Paul tried to make up some excuse why he was cutting in line in front of some little kid, and I don’t remember exactly what he said but the Barista wasn’t buying it. He then quickly leaves the shop pissed and thoroughly embarrassed. I’ve always held a special place in my heart for Starbucks Baristas since that day.
When I was sixteen my first job was at a Cinemark movie theatre. I was pretty new there, and they had me working as a runner for concessions, meaning I would only fill up sodas and popcorn. I heard someone around me say “Oh my god! Chuck Norris is here!” and being the awesome teenager that I was I immediately quipped “Chuck Norris? I heard his wife is hot!” Right when I say that I turn around to set down a bag of popcorn, and who is standing right in front of me?
Chuck. F*cking. Norris.
He had this giant sh*t-eating grin on his face. This was before any of his internet stardom, and he was still in the middle of filming episodes of Walker Texas Ranger. I know he heard me say that stuff about his wife, and for a second I thought about the fact that he had studied under Bruce Lee, and had held many martial arts titles in his day (I was sort of obsessed with Bruce Lee at that time), and how he could have easily struck me from across that counter, or pulled me over it, or jumped over it and kicked my ass with an assortment of candies that were beneath me. He doesn’t say a godd*mn word to me though, just looks me dead in the eye. And winks. Chuck Norris winked at me because I said his wife was hot. He grabbed his popcorn and his drink and walked away while I stood there dumbfounded and probably ghost white. Since that happened I have not aged a day, which is an eternal curse, because now I’m stuck in the body of a sh*t headed sixteen-year-old.
About a year ago I went to go see Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. After the show, my friend Dan and I waited to get picked up by our other friend. As we were waiting in the lobby of Rockefeller Plaza Dan goes “Dude look it’s Jimmy Fallon!” I’m browsing the web on my phone at the time and am not really paying much attention to him because I think he’s lying. So he walks away from me. 10 seconds later I look up, turn around, and see Dan talking to Jimmy. My jaw jobs and I slowly walk over to them. Jimmy puts his briefcases down. He stops talking to my friend, looks at me and goes “Hi I’m Jimmy!” and shakes my hand. Then starts talking to us about I don’t even remember what but it was as if we knew him and he knew us. Dan asks for a picture and he says sure and I take the pic and even though I wanted a pic too I didn’t wanna be ‘that’ guy. But then Jimmy goes “You want a picture too?” I said “Yea sure!” The pic was taken, and we say how great his shows were, Jimmy grabs his stuff, and goes “Thanks guys. Come back again and keep watching the show!” and leaves. He’s probably the most non-conceited celebrity I’ve ever met. Really nice guy.
Jake Gyllenhaal was in a hurry and ran me over in Love Field in Dallas, ostensibly because he was late for something. The b*stard made me drop my Cinnabon.
I was a kid, on vacation in Florida with my family. We’re at some fancy restaurant and Rosie O’Donnell walks in with a huge group of people. Harriet the Spy had just come out, and she was huge on Nickelodeon, so I was really excited to meet her. My parents told me I should draw her a picture to show my appreciation – I put all my effort into what could only be described as an artistic masterpiece in the medium of crayons. I put all of my heart into it.
So I finish, then I head over and give it to her. She says she loves it, gives me a hug, and gives me an autograph. I’m beaming. I sit back down with my family and my brother is upset – he wants an autograph, too. He was too scared to go over and meet her himself.
Finally, after we’re almost done eating, I help my brother work up the courage to head back over to Rosie O’Donnell’s table… only to find she has already left.
Sitting on her table, crumpled up and stained with sauce and Coke, is my drawing.
So I was working in a Walden Books back in the 90s. It was Perl Harbor day. An old man came in and asked if I had any books on WWII. It so happened that I was kind of a WWII buff and I was familiar with all of the books we had on the subject. So we walk back to the section and we had a great time just talking about the books. It was obvious he was a veteran – so I asked him where he had served. He got this light in his eye and said “Do you know who I am?”
I felt kind of embarrassed and said, “No, sir. I don’t.” his reply…
“I am Frank B. Rowlett. I broke the Japanese Purple Code. I was one of the first men to be recruited as a codebreaker for the SIS.”
I was stunned. We talked for over an hour. He said he’d love to continue the conversation and gave me his address and phone number to me. I kind of forgot about it until a while later when I learned he had died.
Talk about a celebrity! Thanks for letting me tell that story. I’ve never mentioned it to anyone up until now.
I used to work at Barnes & Nobel in Phoenix and one of the days I was on cashier Mike Tyson came in to buy a bunch of books for his kids. I was trying not to shout “HOLY JUGGLING TITS IT’S MIKE TYSON” so I tried to play it all cool. When he paid for the books (cash) I asked for his last name for Barnes & Nobel bullsh*t-cards, to which he responded “Uh….Tyson.” I then responded back to him “Oh, like the chicken, right?” He pulled a Dave Silverman and just walked out.
I met Ryan Gosling at a restaurant in Downtown Cincinnati while he was filming Ides of March. He was having dinner with some of the cast (Clooney included) in the private back room. I was leaving the bar to head outside and we ran into each other in the entrance-way. I stopped dead in my tracks and said “…Hi.” He placed his hand on my shoulder with a smirk and said “Hi there, how are you?” and didn’t really stick around for an answer (not in a d*ck way). I was sort of paralyzed. Apparently, he was going to the bar to bum a cigarette from someone.
Ran into Steve Jobs and his son on a street corner in 2006, not far from his home. The man was my hero, and I had a million questions. But I had crossed from the other side and to follow him would be creepy, so I decided to ask him something different: which path on the Buddhist eightfold path does he follow the best, and which he struggled with the most. He smiled, thought for a moment, and said “mmm…discipline” and after a pause “the sixth is a b*tch.” We both laughed, his son looked at me with a blank stare and we moved on. It was perfect. The sixth by the way is “right effort” which is the “need to conquer our evil side and promote our good side.”
A few years back, there was some commotion in front of an ice cream shop in downtown manhattan. I had a few drinks in me, and as I passed by, I stopped and asked some girl what the commotion was all about. She looked back at me with a smirk and said, “Oh Rihanna is in there.” So I responded with, “Rihanna!? She’s only got one song!” The girl gave me a sarcastic ha and a few others chuckled. I walked away, and someone chased me down. Turns out that the girl was Rihanna. At the time, Umbrella was getting tons of play on the radio and I was getting sick of it. Now I’m a big fan of hers, and I hate myself for that moment. That leads to my next story.
A while back I was working catering for movie production. We were on set for the movie Beauty Shop (the queen latifa one). We were setting up when we found out Alicia Silverstone was going to be on set that day.
A few hours later Alicia’s assistant came up to me and asked if I could heat up some soup for Ms. Silverstone. I took the soup and went back to our kitchen to heat it up. Once the microwave dinged I pulled it out and grabbed a spoon to see if it was warm. It was at this point that I realized the next set of lips to touch that soup would be Alicia Silverstone’s. Technically we kissed but she wasn’t aware of it.
