OT: Celebrity Encounters
I want to piggyback off of the Family Fame thread below, as I found it an interesting read. I'm fairly surprised that nobody was related to Kevin Bacon, however. So my question is, what celebrities have you carried out a conversation with?
I have had most, if not all, of my celebrity encounters through working at various bars.
I did a shot of Jack with Don Vito from Jackass. A few weeks later, he was in jail for groping some 12 year olds at a shopping mall.
I've met both Pryor and Gordon Gee in the last few weeks. Pryor used to be a regular at my bar until a bounty was placed on his head in Columbus. Gee made a promotional stop at the bar during senior crawl. Before all is said and done, I may end up meeting Gene Smith as well, as the business I've started has been contracted to work an OSU athletics booster event in August.
I worked with a girl who won the Real World Road Rules Challenge, prior to the show actually airing. That was the only season of that show I watched, as it was cool to watch the thing play out knowing she won. She quit pretty promptly after she received her $250,000 (although after taxes, I'm sure it was not that much...).
I've met DMX. A good friend of mine had to take $5,000 out of our cash drawers, put it in a paper bag, and meet him in a motel parking lot before he would perform at our bar. I did not envy that task.
I hung out with Braylon Edwards and Josh Cribbs when Cribbs hosted a private party at our nightclub. Braylon was actually a really cool guy. He did end up getting drunk and walking off by himself down High Street.
-I've met Chauncey Billups a couple times, back when he was with the Pistons. Along with him, I met the rest of the Pistons back in '06, except Rasheed Wallace and Tayshaun Prince. Although I had already met Prince before that.
-I've met tons of Milwaukee Bucks players over the years, except for Andrew Bogut. He's supposedly an asshole.
-I met Chris Paul and Trevor Ariza this past season. Both are pretty nice.
-I took a shot with Ryan Braun last summer. He's actually pretty cool and really nice too, he talked to me about school and what I was planning to do, etc.
-Bob Davie used to be my friend's neighbor
-Charlie Weis used to live in my neighborhood
-Met Brady Quinn, he's pretty nice too (Haven't met Jimmy Clausen, but I have friends who have and they all say he's a HUGE dbag. He tried to get one of my friends to sleep with him by pretty much saying "I'm the Notre Dame quarterback, that's why you should sleep with me"
-Sat next to Dayne Crist's parents at a ND game
-Family friends with Prince Shembo (ND linebacker)
-Met Chris Thomas and Chris Quinn (ND basketball)
-This hasn't taken place yet, but later this summer I'm having dinner with Charles Woodson.
He used to be a huge douchebag in freshman and sophomore year. By the time he's a Junior, he grew up and was a lot nicer than the first two years. This is hearsay from a couple of people I know who went to ND.
Jack Nicklaus
Joe Dumars
Paul Pierce
VP Al Gore
i meet professional athletes all the time, primarily baseball players through my work with MLB broadacsting rights. Of all of my encounters, Ichiro Suzuki is by far the biggest asshole. i sat next to kelly clarkson in a suite last year at the world series in texas. i had no idea it was her until someone mentioned it to me - she was wearing a rangers jersey and yelling and screaming throughout the whole game, playing with her nephew that she brought along to the game and never giving off the slightest air of celebrity. i was really quite surprised when i found out who she was, given how down-to-earth her demeanor was.
I'm from Dallas, and my sister is a waitress at a restaurant about a half mile from Cowboys Stadium. During the Super Bowl last year, she waited on Lamarr Woodley. Of course, she didn't realize who he was until some of the guys that work with her told her. She also didn't realize he went to Michigan, or she said she would have talked about me. But apparently he was really nice and joked around with her and tipped her $100.
I didn't meet these people because I didn't want to bother them while they were eating with their friends, but... In the same diner in Hollywood I saw Miley Cyrus and the Indian guy from Super Troopers. I thought Miley Cyrus would have bodyguards, but she just came in and sat with her friends in the booth next to ours. And surprisingly nobody came up to her or bothered her for pictures. It could be that it was about 2AM and that it would be past the bedtime of anyone who cared.
I ran into Jim (Chicago Bears QB) and his family at an airport in Phoenix, he asked me to hand him the Sports page after I read it, we talked for a minute, seemed like a fairly normal guy. Borque (if you don't know Ray Borque, then go Borque yourself!), I met at a bar in Marquette Michigan, where I went to college (NMU). His son was playing in a hockey tournament and he bought a few of us sitting near him a round, he was a nice guy. I used to work for a US Congressman and have met several big name politicians, but I don't think that counts!
I met Woody Harrelson at a restaurant when he was filming Money Train in NYC, invited him to play hoops in my Tuesday night game..bragged to all my friends that I had invited him to play...he wasn't there when we started the first game and I got a ton of sh*t from my friends...two minutes later guess who showed up??? Woody came and played with us for a month of Tuesdays and brought Wesley Snipes with him once as well (we killed them both).
Ivanka Trump invests in a number of my funds, so I see her every once in a while. (through work I've also met George Soros, Carl Ichan, Bill and Melinda Gates, and others).
Was friends with Rumeal Robinson at UM and got into Sports Illustrated with him in the '89-'90 Basketball preview issue.
I met the Grateful Dead backstage in AA in April '89.
Played a round of golf with Arnie Palmer in '94.
My friend's parents are Mike Nichols and Diane Sawyer, so I see them once in a while (oh...and his wife is Rachel Nichols from ESPN).
Played a round of golf with Dan Marino and Don Shula in Miami in '91
Most interesting person in the world!! What kind of beer do you drink?
....after that Dead concert. Yay, NROTCU fundraising.
Funniest thing I saw was how many concertgoers had to be woken up and told to leave after they turned on the lights.
but when I do, it's usually baby seal blood ;-)
Met Luc Robitaille at the palladium back when he was with the wings
Met Tate and his dad at my work, talked to Tate for probably 10-15 minutes, really cool guy. Asked me for my address, and a couple weeks later I got this envelope from CA with 5 autographed photos of Tate from different 2009 games, pretty sweet!
Met and talked to Peyton and Eli Manning, Peyton is a really cool dude, asked me where I was from, said michigan, then asked him if he knew Charles Woodson (burn) He laughed. Then I was making fun of him for NFL Fever back on the original xbox, where he had some really cheesy commercials for it. Eli Manning was pretty shy and really didn't talk much.
Met Spike Lee, who is my all time most hated celeb after meeting him, total douchebag asshole. First, I told him that I liked his Jordans, and hes like "These aren't Jordans, these are Spiz'ikes." in an arrogant fashion. Then when going to shake his hand, he starts talking to someone else and totally ignores me.
Met Condeleeza Rice, who was actually really nice, and surprisingly answered all my questions, some political, in a totally honest manner.
Met Chris Chelios and Dominik Hasek at a Tigers game, both really nice guys, My sister goes to school with chelios' daughter.
Hung around after a show and met Raekwon, which was pretty awesome, although I am extremely jealous of the guy that posted about meeting the entire Wu-Tang clan, that would have been incredible
Gene Simmons from KISS. I was backstage at a show and shook his hand and talked about the performance. Ace Frehley had accidentally hit one of the lighting trusses with his guitar pyrotechnics and Mr. Simmons... er, Gene just rolled his eyes and shook his head.
Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Met him, his wife and 2 daughters. We were having lunch at the same place and his 2 daughters were quite young and were running around being noisy and Mr. Duggan... I mean, Hacksaw just started counting to three in a stern voice and the 2 girls stopped. He never once said, "HOOOO!"
I've also met The Great Daryl Nathan. That might be a bit of a stretch if we're talking about celebrities though.
I skyped with Anthony Weiner several times. Talk about OMG Shirtless!
There were a number of football players in my friend's frat, but those are typical college experiences. Bumped into Webber and Rose when they were freshmen.
Living on campus I've told the stories of being Hall/Floor/Building mates with Derek Jeter and Tom Brady. And over the years of fandom have met and been introduced to a lot of Michigan players and coaches. Tip: Go to the Bowl game, and stay in the team hotel. One bowl trip one of the people I know was friends with Angelique Chengelis, and had dinner with them, then met Wojo, Mike Tirico and Herbtstreit at a bar in San Antonio. Shared a plane with Michelle Tafoya heading out to the Rose Bowl.
When I worked out at the Palace, I met a lot of players coaches, and musical performers out at Pine Knob and Meadowbrook. Some past their prime, some still in it.
I'm sure I'm forgetting some. But never really treated it as just other people. Maybe a nod if causal. Or just regular talk if hanging out. Paid Tirico back for the drinks he bought, because I figure he gets hit up all the time by people assuming just because he's rolling in the bucks that he should buy everything. Guess I've never met that screen icon who's work I love so much that I might be nervous, or someone I thought was such a total hottie that I'd get tongue-tied. (Sigh...never met Lucy Liu when we were on campus together....)
I got to meet and quickly talk to Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger at a speaking event he was doing right after the war in Iraq had started.
I missed an invite to party with AC Milan in their hotel after that friendly game they played against Panathinaikos last year at the Silverdome when a couple of my group who were headed off in a different car had a friend who met one of the players who encouraged him to bring his group to hang out with them. Alas, we did not find out til we were already home.
I met Dick Vitale once, and saw Marcus vick at the mall when I was a student at VT.
The richest person I've ever met was David Brandon, thrice. My girlfriend at the time was in the Honor Council and organized an ethics event that Brandon was a panel speaker of. I first spoke to him before I had attached a face to his name, and cotDAMN does the man have presence.
My buddy and i were stumbling into the MGM Grand in Vegas at about 6am and Coolio was walking out with a red-haired lady who, let's just say, seemed like he paid for... My buddy says, "Hey, it's Coolio!" And i said, "NO, it's Coolio with a hooker!!" Needless to say we were wasted.
I had my shoes shined next to Brian Billick at the airport in Cleveland. I introduced myself and we started talking. Somehow I ended up telling him that i had Miami in a game the previous season against his Ravens and got burned. He said "Why?" To which i responded that i thought they had the better run game matchups, but obviously i was wrong. He proceded to tell me all about that game and the matchups and why they won in the trenches. I told him that info would've come in handy before the game, but thanks anyways - he laughed. It was a pretty cool experience.
I worked at County Stadium during high school and my job was to stock (and keep stocked) the concession stands in the bleachers. Needless to say this involved basically constantly pushing carts full of beer kegs from the cooler to the concession stands and keeping all the tappers flowing. After the game my job was to clean up the bleacher concession stands and get them ready for the next game. By the time i was done it was pretty late and i'd have a long tired walk back underneath the stadium to punch out and go home. Uecker parked his suburban somewhere so that when he was leaving he would drive right by my concession stands. One time i was finishing up and starting the walk in as he was driving by - he waved, then stopped, rolled down the window, and offered me a ride. I walked up to the window and said "Mr Eucker, i'd love a ride, but my uniform is disgusting and there's no way i can get in your nice suburban like this." He responsed, in epic Uecker fashion "Oh, believe me kid, you stink pretty bad too, and there's no way i'd have you riding in here - but if you hop on the bumper and hold on to the rack i'll take you as far as i can" - From that day on i busted my ass to get my stands done and hope i could catch another ride with Uecker. About once or twice a homestand i'd be lucky enough and after a while if he saw me he'd just stop and expect me to jump on the back of the burban. Those are times i'll never forget with Mr. Baseball.
He'd let you in the front row, did you?
I used to work at a grocery store in Rochester Hills (it is no longer there). Most of the Pistons players shopped there. Mehmet Okur and Darko were the most frequent customers. They didn't really talk too much, but Darko would always bring two or three girls with him. Chauncey Billups and Rasheed Wallace came in a few times and actually talked with some of us. Rick Mahorn shopped there at least once a week. He's a real cool guy. Ted Lindsay used to live in my subdivision. I was younger so I didn't really converse with him, but my dad talked to him a few times. He used to rollerblade around the subdivision all the time. I met Barry Sanders at a record store and got an autograph. SInce moving to South Florida, I've met Marlins pitcher Josh Johnson at a Rascal Flatts concert
Played against Reggie Williams and Nate burleson in high school too. We beat both their teams
Barry Sanders still owns a house in my subdivision. When I was a kid he'd jog by my bus stop daily, and he'd always wave and say good morning. He and my mom got on a first name basis, somehow, even though she always thought he was our quarterback.
Bill Russell
<br>Sam Perkins
<br>Rashard Lewis
<br>Steve Emtman
<br>MC Hammer
<br>Chris Mullen
<br>All of the fan 5 in Hawaii.
<br>Rodney stuckey
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<br>Went to high school with kasey kahne. Know him fairly well.
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<br>Played basketball with Michael Dickerson.
President Obama, Charles Woodson, Coach Carr, Dick Vitale, Kirk Herbstriet(spelling?).
At the Century Tower Hotel in LA when I was out for the 1989 Rose Bowl.
Met quite a few UVA athletes during my time there, naturally, including a few pros:
- urban planning class with Roger Mason
- Heath Miller partied at our house once or twice, because one of my housemates was on the team
- played intramural softball against Matt Schaub once, and he did nothing but launch rockets over the center field fence, every time. We tied 'em, though, because his supporting cast sucked.
Also, when I was in high school I met then-Senator Spencer Abraham, which was cool. A family friend invited me to a fundraiser during his (unsuccessful) reelection campaign. Not much for a recently-graduated high school senior to do at a thing like that but it was fun shaking hands with the senator.
And I have a picture with General Petraeus. This only counts for half, really. At the Naval War College I worked in one of the secure facilities there, and it so happened that while the general was on his visit, he had one of his scheduled talks with Obama and the rest of the decision-making crew re: Afghanistan, so he used the video equipment in our office. Our boss finagled a photo op, and so we all set up in position with a spot for the general, who came up the stairs, stepped in, smiled, shook hands with our boss, and left. Meet him? Nope. Picture? Yup. Our IT got a Petraeus coin for his efforts, which got him really excited because it was huge.
I met Jason Segel in the Arena on campus about a month ago. He has been in Ann Arbor filming a movie. He was a really nice guy and sat at our table and talked to us for a while. It was also like 1:30am and he was pretty drunk at the time which might have helped.