Ever meet a celebrity "casually"?

[Brue]

Ahhhhhhh, to bad it wasn't BonJovi. That would've been cool. I wonder what happened to BonLovi?

Not sure how that typo happened.

[Adam West]

Darius Rucker used to come into my shop when he was staying in Baltimore. Really nice, laid back guy.

I mentioned this already but I went to High School with Mark Bryan and Dean Felber from Hootie (before they formed the band). At our 10 year graduation anniversary, they handed out a memory book (sort of a what are you doing now) type thing....this is when Hootie and the Blowfish were one of the most popular bands in the country and Mark Bryan's biography just said something along the lines of "plays guitar for a rock band"...

[Brown Bear]

Two stories come to mind....

MISTER DRESSUP: When I was seven, he worked a show at a high school and my Dad was the clearer there, so I got to stick around afterwards and meet him. He came out in a leather jacket and salt n pepper hat, very cool. He grabbed a poster from the wall advertising the event, signed it then jumped up on stage and grabbed a few feathers and balloons left over from the show and taped it to the signed poster.

He went above and beyond to make a seven year old Canadian boy very happy.

OWEN HART: Less than a year before he died, WWE was in town for a show and a few stars appeared on a local breakfast tv program. My brother and I went but I had to leave. My brother hung around and ended up catching Owen after the show. He helped him with his bags to his car and chatted.

He said Owen was extremely down to earth and talked about he planned to work one more year then leave the sport because of the smutty content. Poor guy never had the chance.

[MEMEGO]

I only have 3 words, well 2 since the hyphen counts as one, Olivia Newton-john. ENUFF SAID.

[Mikey]

I only have 3 words, well 2 since the hyphen counts as one, Olivia Newton-john. ENUFF SAID.

If I ever met ONJ i'd turn to jelly

been in love with her ever since I was a kid (pre Grease)

[MIB41]

I met Tim as well. Back when I was in high school I worked at JC Penney, and he was playing at a local nightclub. He came in and bought a pair of bright yellow socks. I didn't get his autograph though, but I still remember he smelled like sour milk. Weird.

Neat story Stan! Yeah, Ole Tim was a strange bird, but I guess he was true to his fashion sense.

[kingdom warrior]

I met George Michaels in a bathroom once.

Really? are you the "famous" cop who outed himself to George in the mid 90's who played the game I'll show you mine if you show me yours......

[GlobalObserver]

I kinda got felt up by Truman Capote in 1980.

[toys2cool]

Really? are you the "famous" cop who outed himself to George in the mid 90's who played the game I'll show you mine if you show me yours......

lmao

[UnderdogDJLSW]

Back in my theatre days, I met some pretty nice folks. The nicest I think I've had the chance to converse with was James Whitmore. Down to earth and cared about everyone in his show.

[mazinz]

I met Robin Williams several years ago with his son at Toy Tokyo in New York. No photos and no "can I have an autograph". We (myself and friends) actually ended up talking with him about Godzilla films and toys as he was there buying a bunch of those Hommie/kubrick lego type figures (I really think these were for himself, not his son if memory serves correct) and just things in general. He was actually very nice and pleasant to talk with

[starsky]

met willie mays at men's wearhouse. he was pretty nice and gave me a signed baseball. my friend went to get his glove in the car and when he came back , willie said he's not signing the glove because then it would be worth too much money.

[trekfan]

Back in '79 or '80, I went to a Chess Tournament and met Boris Spassky. He was very nice. US GM Walter Browne came up and asked if he'd watch his suitcase (he used to sell annotated games at tournaments), Spassky agreed. When Mr. Browne left, he said, "Play joke" and hid the suitcase behind a bush. That, my friends, is humor, at its best, for chess players. It was funny because of Mr. Browne's distress upon returning (that suitcase was a money maker for him).

[Marvelmania]

Met lots of country music stars back when I lived in Nashville but I really didn't paid any attention to them since I'm not much into that type of music. Met Jim Varney (The Hey Vern guy, Beverly Hillbillies movie) at a Krogers once while waiting to pick up a birthday cake. He was a real jerk. Chuck Norris at a dry cleaners back in the 80s. I think they were shooting parts of one of the Missing In Action movies somewhere around here. Super nice guy but really small in person. Of course I'd never tell him that

[AcroRay]

I get to meet a lot of celebrities in the course of my work, and get to kind of stand around and chat. I do a lot of stage manager work for ESPN in the Big East and ACC, so I've hung out for pretty lengthy times with folks like Dick Vitale, Erin Andrews, John Sanders, Bob Valvano & a lot of famous-sports-players-turned-ESPN-analysts like Len Elmore & Jay Bilas who get mobbed for autographs. Set up and down time on those shows can leave you standing around for a long time. On other TV show gigs I've met music folks and actors. I really liked Aaron Goodwin when I worked on Ghost Adventures. He was a really good guy. (Zach Baggins was a real prima donna, though.) Spent about 8 hours with Mary Lou Retton last month on a gig. She was cool. Back in the 90s when I worked for PBS in Pittsburgh I worked with Fred Rogers, David Newell (Mr. McFeely) and the Mr Rogers Neighborhood folks occasionally. One day I walked into the QED 5th Avenue studio on a day when Mr Rogers' "Neighborhood House" set was up but not being shot on for the day, and wandered around by my self for about an hour on the front porch, living room and kitchen - sitting and standing in all the places I'd seen so many times since I was a very little child. I guess it a way the set was like a celebrity itself. Quite an experience. I wish I had photos. I also got to spend a while looking at the Neighborhood 'model' set, and the Neighborhood of Make Believe "X The Owl Tree" and "King Friday Castle" were constantly parked in the main hallway between the QED sound stages, so I walked by them over a dozen times a day, if not more.

One of my favorites was meeting the late Leslie Nielsen when he was attending a Showtime boxing gig I was working. I didn't get to talk long, because he was indeed getting mobbed, but one of the photographers on the crew nabbed this for me:



I got to tell him how much FORBIDDEN PLANET meant to my dad and I, and how much I've always enjoyed all his films. He was really nice, very generous and wise in that very rare manner of a person who is completely comfortable with themselves and their lives.