Have you met any celebrities?

[bbarnhart]

I'm friends with a guy who is a local celebrity. He's the weather guy on a local TV station. He's very popular and everywhere we go, people recognize him and he just eats it up. Then he tells me he gets tired of people coming up to him. Right .

 

[3rdpath]

ok, a few more...

i once played mmmbop with hanson...nothing will make you feel as old as knowing the drummer you're playing with is only 11.

traded porsche stories with brad whitford of aerosmith.

finally..this is true...i have a witness...years ago, i got seriously "hit on" by raquel welch at a birthday party. intimidated the hell out of me...what can i say, i chickened out.

 

[bousozoku]

I'm friends with a guy who is a local celebrity. He's the weather guy on a local TV station. He's very popular and everywhere we go, people recognize him and he just eats it up. Then he tells me he gets tired of people coming up to him. Right .

They probably blame him for the snow. Don't the weather people get the worst of it? People somehow think that they're responsible for the weather.

 

[aus_dave]

...what can i say, i chickened out.

What's wrong with you man?

 

[kiwi_the_iwik]

...what can i say, i chickened out.

Oooh - OWNED.

I'd have been morbidly fascinated to see the plastic surgeon's marks - if anything...

 

[MacMumm]

I have only met a few famous people...

Brooks & Dunn (Country Music Artists) - I worked at the hotel they were staying in, they were very cool and friendly.

Sinbad (Comedian, Actor) - He was at a Mac show I was working for the software company I worked for. He was much smaller than I expected, he always looks so big on TV. He was really polite and nice, and got very annoyed with people bothering him for autographs at the show.

My favorite celebrity I met was by far...

Marlon Brando - While working for the software company, he was using our software and first called for tech. support. We were going to L.A. that weekend for a trade show, and he invited us to his home. My boss and I spent over 4 hours at his house just mostly visiting, it was quite surreal!

 

[Doctor Q]

I bet I'm the only person who has talked to each of these celebrities:

Dan Castellaneta (voice of Homer Simpson)
Scatman Crothers (actor - remember him in The Shining?)
Ray Bradbury (science fiction author)
Grace Murray Hopper (computer pioneer - coined the word "bug")
Dave Berg (MAD Magazine cartoonist)
Hayley Mills (Disney film actress)
Harry Secombe (star of The Goon Show radio program)
Kevin Fagan (author of "Drabble" comic strip)

I've shaken hands with a mayor, a senator, and a president. Two basketball players who later played in the NBA came to a party I hosted.

Once I ate dinner in the same restaurant as Jessie Jackson. He was taller than the basketball players!

Other members of my immediate family have waited on Diana Ross, Charlton Heston, and Frank Sinatra in retail stores, talked to Mel Brooks, Harry Chapin, John Wooden, Shaquille O'Neal, Matt Groening, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Dave Barry, and the casts of the TV shows "Cheers" and "L.A. Law", and run into these people in public places: Sinbad, Bob Saget, Eugene Levy, Harrison Ford, Calista Flockhart, Jack Nicholson, Don Knotts, Jerry Lewis, Englebert Humperdink, Matt Stone, Trey Parker, Mike Judge, Susan Vrieland, Neal Shusterman, Robert Cormier, and Dr. Dre.

And I received a personal letter from my fellow doctor Dr. Demento.

 

[3rdpath]

My favorite celebrity I met was by far...

Marlon Brando - While working for the software company, he was using our software and first called for tech. support. We were going to L.A. that weekend for a trade show, and he invited us to his home. My boss and I spent over 4 hours at his house just mostly visiting, it was quite surreal!

ok, you win...

what i'd give to hear marlon brando talking to tech support.

 

[kiwi_the_iwik]

OK - OK - I give in...


This is who I can remember off the top of my head...

SHOWBUSINESS PERSONALITIES:
Sting
Jamiroquai
Mick Jagger
David Bowie
Kylie Minogue
Madonna
Guy Richie
Val Kilmer
Kevin Bacon
Charlize Theron
Spice Girls
Duran Duran
Stereophonics
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
Rachel Hunter
Rod Stewart
Brian May
Dave Grohl
Sandra Bullock
Mark Knopfler
U2
Fat Boy Slim
Coldplay
Simon Cowell
Beyonce
Bush
Trey Parker/Matt Stone
The Ramones
Soundgarden
Primus
Bjork
Smashing Pumpkins
Depeche Mode
Motorhead
Henry Rollins
Vanessa Redgrave
Ian Mckellern
Antonio Banderas
Tom Hanks
Tom Cruise
Britney Spears
Jennifer Lopez
Sheryl Crow
Robert Mitcham
Robin Williams
Donald Pleasance
Sean Connery
Roger Moore
Desmond Llewellyn
John Cleese
Larry Hagman
Russell Crowe
Joan Collins
Billy Idol
Harrison Ford
Dan Ackroyd
Robert DeNiro
Patrick Stewart
James Doohan
Mel Gibson
Pete Townshend
Peter Gabriel
Brad Pitt
Kevin Spacey
Elton John
Garbage
The Cranberries
The Corrs
Billy Joel
Paul McCartney
Annie Lennox
Dave Gilmour
Dave Stewart
Sugarbabes
Atomic Kitten
Rolf Harris
Mel Smith
Rowan Atkinson
Hugh Grant
Leslie Nielson
Julia Roberts
Spike Milligan

ROYALTY:
Sultan of Brunei
King of Tonga
Sultan Qaboos of Oman
Saudi Royal Family
British Royal Family (at least the top 12)

POLITICIANS:
Tony Blair
John Major
Yassar Arafat
Benjamin Netanyahu
Ehud Barak
Hosni Mubarak
Vladmir Putin
Mikhail Gorbachev
Bill Clinton
George Bush Snr.
George W. Bush
Donald Rumsfeld
Jaques Chirac
Silvio Bellisconi
Gerhard Schröeder
Bertie Ahern
Jerry Adams
David Trimble
David Lange
Robert Muldoon
Helen Clark
Bob Hawke
Paul Keating
John Howard
Nelson Mandela
Thabo Mbeki
The entire remaining Commonwealth Heads of State

SPORTING PERSONALITIES:
Pete Sampras
Jimmy Connors
John McEnroe
Pat Rafter
Greg Rusedski
Tim Henman
John Walker
Sir Edmund Hillary
NZ, Australian, English, Pakistani, Indian, West Indian, South African Cricket Teams
NZ, Australian, English, South African, Welsh, Irish Rugby Teams
English Football Team
Pelé
Ronaldo
Eric Cantona
Various managers/players in the English football league
Carl Lewis
Daley Thompson
Steve Redgrave
Lennox Lewis
Mike Tyson
Dennis Connors
Sir Peter Blake
Chris Dickson
Brad Butterworth
David Coulthard
Jackie Stewart
Stirling Moss
Juan Pablo Montoya
Damon Hill
Colin McRae

...sorry - can't think of any more...

 

[Mike Teezie]

OK - OK - I give in...

...Britney Spears...

...sorry - can't think of any more...

What was she like?

 

[kiwi_the_iwik]

Lots of teeth, and a sparkly dress...

Pretty much all I noticed about her. Otherwise, she did a lot of smiling, and said hello a lot. Not much chop close up - unless you're a barbie fan...

 

[Awimoway]

What was she like?

Yes, yes, kiwi. Now you need to rank and catalogue them according to who was nice and who was rude. Of course, I imagine most of them would be putting on a good face whenever a camera (non-paparazzi) is near.

 

[kiwi_the_iwik]

Yes, yes, kiwi. Now you need to rank and catalogue them according to who was nice and who was rude. Of course, I imagine most of them would be putting on a good face whenever a camera (non-paparazzi) is near.

Hmm - Oh, yeah - I forgot Oasis. Well - they were DEFINITELY rude.

Goes without saying, really...



Usually, we get to do proper sit-down interviews with them, so their agent sits in the same room - making sure they don't say or do anything improper. But everyone's generally really cool - they know we're doing OUR job, and they just do THEIRS. Still, you get to chat away, just to make them feel comfortable with us (to prove we're not there to screw 'em over, and that we're nice folks...).

But ultimately, we'd treat them as if they were anyone else - and they really appreciate that.

 

[MacMumm]

ok, you win...

what i'd give to hear marlon brando talking to tech support.

I talked to him on the phone after my boss told me he had called. I thought he was joking, until I heard his voice on the phone. He had both a Mac and Windows computer, but the Windows machine wasn't even on while I was there. It was just strange sitting in his home talking computers. The first half hour was tech support, the rest was all just fun talk. He is quite friendly and funny.

 

[howard]

hey kiwi

which of those celebrity meetings was the most interesting?

 

[gbojim]

I've met and worked with a ton of musicians and actors through touring and providing tech support to sound and film studios. But what I really enjoyed was a particular weekend trip to Toronto. I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan and the Boys were playing the Bills in Toronto the year after Dallas won the first super bowl over Buffalo. I got tickets for Christmas and my wife and I booked the usual hotel that I stay at when in Toronto. Because I'm there at least a couple of times a month, we got upgraded to the exec floors - which is not usual. Needless to say I was really happy to find most of the team staying on the same 2 floors. I got to meet and talk a bit to a lot of the players, but the hilight was eating breakfast with Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson.

 

[oldschool]

i saw muhammad ali at LAX in 1997. I have met pavel bure who is a big commie jerk.

When i was an extra in a movie that never was released I met Isabelle Glasser and James Remar. Isabelle was very nice but Remar was an ass.

Also after a Jerry Seinfeld concert here in Vancouver, Hugh Jackass, i mean Jackman walked out from a backstage entrance. He tried to act all big and famous and started signing autographs, while people were really waiting for jerry to sign autographs. Jerry left in a limo but Hugh just kind of walked into the night and I yelled out "i guess Hugh's taking the bus"...everybody around me cracked up.

And last but not least at school one day i saw Gil Bellows, the guy that played billy on ally mcbeal. I think thats it...

but none of those people compare with john cleese....except maybe ali.

 

[Awimoway]

the hilight was eating breakfast with Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson.

I'm not a Cowboys fan, but I can respect that that must have been a really awesome experience.

 

[ibookin']

I haven't really met anyone famous, except for the cast of the early episodes of Babylon 5 (I was very young). Also, I almost spoke to Steve Wozniak once after seeing him at a panel.

My dad has, though. He has met and spoken to:

-Tommy Chong
-Jackie Chan
-Fabio. (we actually have a picture of him with my dad)
-Weird Al
-The drummer from No Doubt

There are more, I just can't remember them.

 

[kiwi_the_iwik]

hey kiwi

which of those celebrity meetings was the most interesting?

I couldn't really tell you - sometimes, you can get mentally stimulated by what the talent are saying (i.e. Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Jerry Adams, David Trimble, etc...), and so find it interesting. To tell you the truth - after meeting so many "famous" people, their appearance doesn't phase me at all any more (when I was first starting out in this job when I was still at High School, it was kinda cool. Now, it's just a job...).

But at a push...

When I first arrived over in the UK, I was doing a job for ITN as a freelance cameraman. The reporter had asked me to set up my camera in a small quiet room for an interview. After about 10 minutes, I was still setting up, when a nice South African man in his 60's turned up - the interviewee.

As I was putting up lights, we got chatting (I had no idea who he was - he'd introduced himself as "Donald") - and, of course, being a FIRM rugby supporter, and a fan of the All Blacks, I started ribbing him about the Tri-Nations tournament between South Africa, Australia and NZ's All Blacks, and his country's recent pathetic performance. We were having a good old chat - a decent banter, and some predictions on the forthcoming Rugby World Cup (I'm yet to find a South African not fond of Rugby..!).

It was only when the interview had started, it was when I'd discovered who the man really was...

...None other than Donald Woods - the man portrayed in the movie "Cry Freedom", who had befriended Steve Biko, and fought - at great personal cost - for the destruction of Apartheid.

 

[Ozi]

this thread is awesome! love reading all the stories... especially the one with the queen! go kiwi!

As an aussie... I haven't met nearly as many famous people as you Americans. As a pov Uni student, I also havent got a good "meeting famous people" job.

However, here goes.

John Howard (Prime Minister of Australia) met, shook hands, quick chat.

Various other federal politicians, ie. Kevin Rudd (opposition foreign affairs) and minister for education, Dr Brendan Nelson.

Sigrid Thornton (actor)
Various AFL stars, seen in bars/clubs.
theres more... but can't remember them... sorry!

But yeah, keep posting cool stories guys!

 

[Lyle]

After reading some of the other responses, I feel like I need to get out more.

When Jeff Foxworthy came to do his act at my school's homecoming, I got to meet him and talk to him for a few minutes; the band I was playing in was his opening act. I've also met Lewis Grizzard and Sean Hannity at booksignings.

The funniest celebrity encounter occurred when my wife and I went to Disney World for our honeymoon in 1994. Nancy Kerrigan had just won the silver medal in the '94 Olympics and was down there with her family at the same time, and we kept running into her.

I think that the older I've gotten, the less starstruck I am and don't know that I really care to meet any celebrities. I don't know what I would say to them.

 

[sebisworld]

Well, being from a small German town, I've not really met many celebrities besides myself *g* My uncle, however, has the same name as the German David Letterman, so whenever we need something from a company we can ask him to give them a call. It definitely speeds things up.
I also seem to remember to have kissed Britney Spears (how come Apple's Spell Checker knows Spears but not Britney?). I kissed her to get an internship at an Icelandic company that had decided not to take any interns anymore, but I think I changed their mind (I'll know by next week).

Speaking of kissing someone to get things done, what's the English word for 'hochschlafen' (sleeping with your boss in order to be promoted)?

 

[kiwi_the_iwik]

Here's one more...

I was doing a shoot over in Seattle once, for a show called Beyond 2000. We were visiting a company called Darwin Molecular, whose sole purpose was to break the DNA code.

Touring the computer room, we were confronted by a MASSIVE Cray 3 (or 4...) - can't rightly recall the details, but just that the CPU was cooled by Liquid Nitrogen, and the floor was vibrating...

It also just so happened that the Chairman of the Board was one William H. Gates III...

We were allowed access to the board meeting - and there he was, sitting there, smiling away. The world's richest man.

I'd remembered that in my camera case was a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator 95 (there you go - it had just come out, and I'd bought it for my brother; an avid flight sim enthusiast and a PC user (BLECH!) - that's how long ago it was...). I went out to get it, brought it back into the boardroom, and asked if he could sign it for my brother as a Christmas present.

He was really chuffed that I'd gone out and bought it - I thought his reaction was really cool. He tore off the shrinkwrapping, and opened the manual, scribing a short message.

A few months later, it was Christmas, and I'd just arrived back from the trip (my shoots used to go for 2 months at a time...). I handed my brother the game, wrapped in Christmas paper. He unwrapped it - and was unimpressed. For he'd bought the game himself not 2 weeks beforehand.

"Aww, CRAP! I've already GOT this bloody game..."

"O-P-E-N I-T, dumbass!"

He obliged.

On the inside front cover, it read:

"To Ashley

Happy Flying!

Regards, Bill Gates"

 

[oldschool]

great story