Share your convention/celebrity experiences

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I’m not sure if Clint is still a republican. I think he changed his views in recent years, or am I mistaken?

But yeah he seems like a nice guy, easy to work with. I’ve never heard other actors badmouthing him or anything like that.

Working at my old job at HMV, A few celebs approached me. Peter Wolf of the J Geils Band came in a lot. He would ask me for musical recommendations & I told him
"I don’t think your into what I like’’ He pursued my interests & I found he has a vast musical pallet. He came in once with Van Morrison. I thought it was his dad! :smiley: My manager, a huge VM fan was not to happy to have missed him.
Steven Wright (another Bostonian) frequented our store as well. I’m a big fan of his but never wanted to bother him. Plus, what do you say? I eventually interacted with him. I heard that distinctive voice from behind…
“excuse me, can you please tell me where your Cocteau Twins are?” I helped him & then asked him why he had no CD releases of his material. His response (once again, that voice sells the story)…
“I don’t know”. Me & my coworker laughed…
"no I’m serious…apparently you can get them as imports from Japan"
His stand up act is no act!

To show the other side of the coin, Chris Rock came in (bought Led Zeppelin I & Tracy Chapman’s solo cd) & a co worker saw his & said…
"Chris rock!"
CR “what?”
"Chris Rock!"
CR “yeah I’m Chris Rock”
"New Jack City!"
CR “what?”
"New Jack City"
CR “yeah, I was in that”

He wasn’t really rude but it just goes to show how awkward those situations can be for both parties involved.

I also saw Jonathan Richman perform live in store for like…5 people, had the guitarist from James tell me “I’m with the band” as I asked him to move & saw an employee make a fool of himself when Nina Persson, lead singer of The Cardigans came in. He sang their hit song as he rang her up on the register :-[ She is BTW smoking hot!

Haha, people crack me up. ;D

I met several writers (I did some work as an editor for publishing houses), local politicians (wrote speeches for some of them), pop artists (nearly all of them Dutch) and soccer players, but none of them made a great impression as a person on me.

I followed some of Derrida’s lectures in Paris and spoke to him personally once; he was a nice person, but rather self-indulgent as far as his (rather dubious) philosophical ideas are concerned. The same can be said about Peter Sloterdijk, whom I once met at Gent University. Swiss/Egyptian Tariq Ramadaan is a real pain in the ass, I only spoke to him for five minutes, but it was enough to call him one of the most dispicable persons I’ve ever met.

There are only two well-known persons I would like to meet again (in both cases it’s impossible): Theo van Gogh and Bobby Robson. Theo was an intelligent, very nice person. On TV, or in newspaper interviews, he always tried to be as rude as can be (he called himself a joker, thought nobody,not even an extremist would like to hurt a joker), but in reality he was bright, very nice, even a bit timid. Bobby Robson was a real gentleman, one of the nicest people in world soccer I suppose. Never met anybody like him in football actually.

I forgot…I met Stephen J Gould once. Worked with his son. I had no idea who he was but plenty of students that worked with us jaws dropped when they found out who their coworkers dad was.

I got his season tickets to Fenway Park (win). He was very nice & I was sad to hear he passed. I guess when you challenge Darwin’s theory of evolution & many people agree, you’re a smart mofo!

[quote=“I…I…Idiot, post:25, topic:2065”]I forgot…I met Stephen J Gould once. Worked with his son. I had no idea who he was but plenty of students that worked with us jaws dropped when they found out who their coworkers dad was.

I got his season tickets to Fenway Park (win). He was very nice & I was sad to hear he passed. I guess when you challenge Darwin’s theory of evolution & many people agree, you’re a smart mofo![/quote]

Never met him, but read several of his books

During the late eighties I was in a research group studying the working of the human brain, especially in relation to social misbehavior. Gould’s book The Mismeasure of Man was one of the most important reference books. I can recommend it to anybody interesting in those (rather complex) issues.

@ I…I…Idiot

re: Stephen J. Gould
It’s not true that S.J. Gould challenged Darwinism in the sense that he repudiated it; he proposed some adjustments (see: Punctuated equilibrium) and criticized some social theories, applications of darwinist ideas. He was, like some of his fiercest opponents (Dawkins, DC Dennet) a evolutionary biologist.

It’s not that important, but people could get a totally wrong idea of what he stood for

[quote=“I…I…Idiot, post:22, topic:2065”]Steven Wright (another Bostonian) frequented our store as well. I’m a big fan of his but never wanted to bother him. Plus, what do you say? I eventually interacted with him. I heard that distinctive voice from behind…
“excuse me, can you please tell me where your Cocteau Twins are?” I helped him & then asked him why he had no CD releases of his material. His response (once again, that voice sells the story)…
“I don’t know”. Me & my coworker laughed…
“no I’m serious…apparently you can get them as imports from Japan”
His stand up act is no act![/quote]

That is a great story. I love Steven Wright

I’ll have to make note to check this book out.

I’ve never really met any real celebrities. I’m with the group that just wouldn’t know what to say… All I could really think about would be how they must go through this constantly and how annoying it must be for them.

The closest story I have, is when me and a group of friends took a long roadtrip to see Orbital play in Cleveland. We got to our hotel, hopped on the elevator and there was a young group of guys that looked like they may be in town for the show too, so we asked if they were going to see Orbital later. They looked at each other and laughed, replying “Yeah, we’ll be there.” We went to the show and to our surprise, this group of guys were on stage as the opening act- the Lo Fidelity Allstars. They had a hit over here for a short time, but never got very big…

A friend and I had a nice chat with Martine Beswick at a convention once. We asked her about working on A Bullet for the General and became quite animated (in a good way); I think she was surprised that we didn’t want to know about her Hammer work, like most people who approached her (she was selling autographed photographs). She was nice.

And when I went to see my favourite band, Killing Joke, a few years ago, I met lead singer Jaz Coleman in the bar beforehand and had a picture taken with him. The kicker? It was my birthday - he wished me many happy returns, then staggered off (he seemed exceedingly drunk) to prepare for the gig.

[quote=“scherpschutter, post:27, topic:2065”]@ I…I…Idiot

re: Stephen J. Gould
It’s not true that S.J. Gould challenged Darwinism in the sense that he repudiated it; he proposed some adjustments (see: Punctuated equilibrium) and criticized some social theories, applications of darwinist ideas. He was, like some of his fiercest opponents (Dawkins, DC Dennet) a evolutionary biologist.

It’s not that important, but people could get a totally wrong idea of what he stood for[/quote]

Eh…what…Sherp said. I knew if anyone here knew him, you would (that’s a compliment). I knew people who followed Darwin opposed some of Gould’s theories but beyond that, I don’t know the specifics. Nice man. (great seats @ Fenway as well)

But he was in a Simpsons episode so he had to have been famous :smiley:

I was sitting at an airport in Dallas waiting on a flight when G. W. Bush walked over and sat beside me. This was a few years prior to his presidential run; he was president of the Texas Rangers baseball team at the time. I knew who he was because of that fact and also that he was ex-prez Geo. Bush’s son. Pretty much everyone knew who he was here in Texas long before he became president. At any rate, I was reading a sports magazine minding my own business and he started up a sports-themed conversation. Nice guy. Just two dudes shooting the breeze. A lesson here-being friendly doesn’t translate into being a great president. :wink:

That would be a strange experience to reflect back on AceHigh

Also, don’t blow off some weirdo siting next to you in an airport trying to start a conversation. He could be the next President! :wink:

[quote=“Chris_Casey, post:10, topic:2065”]Interesting.
My experience with Elke Sommer was completely opposite. Almost uncomfortably so!
She was actually almost too nice and affectionate when I met her! I got way too many hugs and kisses from her. Of course, truth be told, if she had looked like she did in the 60’s when I met her…I wouldn’t have cared one bit! ha ha! Terrible for me to say that, I know…

I encountered Robert Stack many years ago when he was doing an appearance for UNSOLVED MYSTERIES in Oklahoma. As my girlfriend and I approached him, he held up his hands and in a stern voice that was as close to yelling as it could be without actually yelling said: “I am here to work not socialize. Leave me alone!”.

This just proves that celebrities are just people like the rest of us. They have their good days and their bad days. Some days they are divas and gentlemen, others not so much.

I have luckily been blessed with many opportunities to meet and work with a vast number of celebrities from the film and music industries throughout my life. I don’t know if I could really make a complete list.
But, I can safely say with the exceptions of Robert Stack, Wilfred Brimley, and maybe one or two others—they have all been wonderful, warm people, for the most part and my experiences have been very pleasurable. In some cases I have made long lasting friendships from these encounters.

Standout experiences, for me include meeting Aldo Sanbrell, LQ Jones, Henry Darrow, Enzo Castellari and his son Andrea Girolami, Powers Boothe, David McCallum, Jane Russell, David Carradine (whom I really miss), Joe Strummer, Chrissie Hynde, Dan van Husen, Nicoletta Machiavelli, Michael Biehn, Joanna Pacula, Mariette Hartley, Barbara Luna, Linda Cristal, and so many more.

I don’t know if you can say that I actually “met” him, but I have seen Clint Eastwood in person twice.
The first time was when he was in Austin, TX during the time they were shooting A PERFECT WORLD.
I saw him in a hotel. I said, “Hello, Mr. Eastwood. How are you?”. He said, “Doing fine. How are you?”. “Great”, I replied. “Good”, he said, then he was gone. The whole time he had the friendliest smile on his face.
The second Eastwood encounter was when he zipped passed me on the sidewalk outside of the hotel in Beverly Hills where they were holding the Golden Boot Awards. Again, he was smiling and seemed to be in a pleasant mood; but, no words were exchanged.

Like I said, I have been extremely lucky!

PS= I once nearly stepped on and/or knocked over Mickey Rooney at the Golden Boot Awards in 2004![/quote]
You are one lucky man…

I went to a Star Trek convention with a friend when I was about 13. I got to meet Walter Koenig who played Chekov in the original series. I was really star struck. He was so friendly and had a real enthusiasm about being there, not just going through the motions. He also had a wicked sense of humor which I thought was so great. Not to mention he flirted with my friend’s mom! I didn’t blame him, she looked like Liz Taylor with green eyes!

The other meeting I was very impressed with was Oscar De La Renta. I was attending Kent State University and had a friend who was a fashion major. She dragged me to a big perfume launch he was having. I somehow ended up with the “in crowd” who got to be at the meet-and-greet. I spoke with him for some time. He was one of the most charming, sophistocated men I’ve ever met. I was impressed, and slightly embaressed, because I really didn’t want to be there! My friend, alas, did not get to meet him. Life is strange.

Ha ha - Don’t ruin my reputation Phil with talk like that. Anyway I can tell you now it wasn’t my spilled cider that made your couch wet!

I’ve previously documented (name-dropped) my celebrity meets. I did a bit of work for various bands and got to meet the Iron Maiden chaps backstage at 1992(?) Monsters of Rock and was invited to drink their beer. Got in a conversation with Nicko McBrain (who was wearing one of my t shirt designs for their support band - The Almighty). He was a lovely fellah and put up with my ramblings, as were they all - and of course they were a lot more sober than me, them having headlined and me having been heavily on the lash all day.

Ace High’s president story reminded me of a very dubious sort-of celebrity meet. My mate Damian was the Washington correspondent for a British news agency and married an American woman newsy-type whilst out there. She was working with Monica Lewinsky doing research for a potential book and they became friends. Back in Blighty she was introduced to us all and we went off to our local pub, which is quite the macho real-ale roughy-toughy drinking hole - and this woman produced a lipstick given to her by Monica, who couldn’t swear it was the one, but it’s one of the ones she had in her bag at the time of … yunnow :P?
Anyway, before the evening was out, of course we’ve all got this lipstick on - blokes as well - we’re falling about pissed, laughing and talking loudly about blowjobbing a president! Needless to say we soon had the pub to ourselves!
Anyway it is posible that I was wearing the same celebrity lipstick that wrapped itself around the presidential cock! Of course it could be bollocks - but I like to think not :-*

Presidential bollocks?

I used to frequent horror conventions and I have met quite a few actor/directors. My favorite accomplishment was having my Dawn of the Dead poster signed by Romero, Savini, Foree, Emge, Reiniger, and Ross over the course of about 3 years. I have some photos to share which I will post later on.

Most famous people I met are Rutger Hauer (nice guy) Vanessa Paradis (Johnny Depp was with her at the wrapparty of some French Belgium Dutch movie) and a big bunch of Dutch actors.

[quote=“Col. Douglas Mortimer, post:1, topic:2065”]Do you ever go to fan conventions. Who have you met?

Have you ever had a run in with a celeb?

Which ones were nice? Which ones were dicks?[/quote]

I’ve encountered a few. For those of you who are followers of HK films, I’ve seen many over the years.
Maggie Cheung was very cold. I saw her in Paris and wanted an autograph. She left right after she detected I wanted to approach her, and I spent the longest time mustering enough courage to do so. I stopped being a fan after that. Tony Leung doesn’t look very remarkable in person. Karen Mok (several times, really really really really skinny), a bunch of HK celebs. I sometimes see Rosamund Kwan and occasionally other celebs in busy, large shopping complexes. I begin to think Rosamund recognizes me, because she sort of smiled when she saw me again somewhere. Cherie Chung is still stunning and this woman is in her 50s.

Jet Li was my highlight. He is an enlightened and compassionate man.