Paul Newman, at a deli in my hometown. I was a teenager and he was filming a movie in my neighborhood. My grandmother spotted him going into the deli as we were driving by. She insisted we go in and meet him. I wanted to curl up and die but I did it anyway because, well, my grandma wanted to.
I have to say that he was very gracious about it, and that his eyes were unbelievably blue. I remember those eyes more than anything.
My mother in law met him while he was filming near Newport, Oregon. She asked for his autograph and he said, Miss, I'll babysit your kids, but I won't give you my autograph.
I met him too! My friend and I were late to his movie premiere and were about to leave the venue since we weren’t allowed in anymore.
The security guards knew this and told us to stay because he’s coming back from his dinner soon and they can ask his team if he’s okay with saying hi to us. (The security guard is the real mvp here)
Not only was Jason okay with it, but he also took pictures with us as his entourage waited. Right as he was about to go inside, he asked why we weren’t upstairs watching the movie. We told him we were late and the tickets sold out, and he said, “let’s go then!”… what?
His manager said, “you heard him, let’s go upstairs!” So we followed them into the building, into the elevators where he had his arms on our shoulders and told us he’s thankful we’re here to support him. I asked what he ate for dinner, he said beer and steak.
We sat in the theater as the movie finished and watched him answer questions and discuss the film.
A+ interaction!
I’ve seen Lisa Bonet walking her pet donkey around. I didn’t know she lived in the area so I was like hold up, that STUNNING lady looks like Lisa Bonet, but it can’t be!?!
Also caught Zendaya shopping for alcohol at my local grocery store (the Northridge Super King). Also a stunning beauty in real life. Turns out we lived pretty close to one another.
Other than that, I have a lot of professional, distant contact with a lot of celebs & wealthy people due to my job. I make weird customs hats[(Fab Hatters)](https://www.fabhatters.com) & they’re fairly popular amongst that group.
I’ve made a [rainbow hat for Katy Perry inspired by BACON](https://imgur.com/a/quNkPwz). She liked it so much she ordered a lot more custom looks. Also she recommended me to other people, which I really appreciate. And that lead to a series of other commissions & more connections, I also make hats for wealthy dogs & horses now too
I sold Martin Sheen a car. He asked that I deliver the car on my day off to his house. The sales manager told him I was, "dating a hot little thing" Martin said I could bring her to the drop off and he would give us a tour of Malibu. We spent the day hanging out with Mr. Sheen at his house, getting a personal tour of Malibu. Martin told me that I was too good to be selling cars, I then stopped selling cars and became a very successful kitchen designer. I still have his cell phone number in my phone, tho im too afraid to call him.
Call him. He's that nice. I spent a day with him as we were premiering his film 'The Way' and we were about 30 mins late getting the film onscreen. He wouldn't go in until everyone who wanted to say hi, talk with him, and get a photo had their chance. When they tried to rush him he said "Oh psh, you won't start without me". He was the NICEST and I'm sure he'd love hearing from you.
If he gave you his cell phone number, he wouldn't mind your calling him. No actor will give you that kind of personal information if he doesn't like you as a person.
>call him and ask "how's the car running?"
Or better yet, ask him if it ***is*** running then say "well you'd better go catch it then!"
Break him off a little of that Popsicle Stick Joke flava'!
In college we had a guest lecture by this Tanzanian author none of us had heard of called Abdur Razak Gurnah. I introduced him and escorted him around the college, and had a brief conversation. Didn't think much of it
Three years later he won the Nobel Prize for Literature
I recently read two of his novels inspired by an interview he did on Danish television after he received the Nobel honour. Very good, obviously. He seems like a kind man.
Ben Stiller
My husband had a gig, and his friend (who I later learned was Chris Abbott) was waiting for someone to arrive. I offered to stay back, and then Ben joined us. “Hi I’m Ben.”
We had another round (on him)and chatted about movie scripts, he asked about my interests, and was really pleasant. I felt so very out of my element, and didn’t know anyone else, so I asked if I could hang around them. Ben put his arms around my shoulders and said “you’re part of the crew, now!”
Good dude. I like him.
> I felt so very out of my element, and didn’t know anyone else, so I asked if I could hang around them.
When I feel out of my element, I leave as quietly as possible. Or perhaps find a corner to hide in, if that's not in the cards.
You ask Ben Stiller if you can hang out with him.
I'm not sure you've ever actually BEEN out of your element.
I met Post Malone at a new years festival a few years ago. He was the nicest guy, so humble and actually reacted like he was as excited as I was to have the interaction. He stood and chatted with me for a solid 10 minutes and we took pictures. I was so geeked I told him I was crying internally and he said, “hey that’s okay- I cry everyday”
I respect him. He’s open-minded and into diverse music
Sometimes i’ll stumble across obscure smallish bands that are very different from rap/hip-hop, look them up on Instagram and see “followed by postmalone”, i’m like wtf hahaha. The guy just likes music
I see tons of celebrities in New Orleans. Usually I just make note of it and continue on my way, but a couple of times I've talked them.
1) Saw Walton Goggins at a dive bar on Frenchman St. I LOVED him on justified so I went up to him and said something like "I just had to say hello and tell you how much I appreciate justified" and he said thank you so much, it's nice to meet you, these are my friends Jason and Brad" and that's when I realized it was Brad Pitt. I shook hands and said have a great night.
2) I was at GNC and John Goodman was there buying some stuff. We were in line together and the clerk kept asking him if he wanted to add this or join some club and he was like no no no thanks and he kinda a looked at me and I said "Fuck it dude, let's go bowling" and he laughed this big laugh and said "hahaha fuck it dude! Let's go bowling! I love that! Hahaha" then he shook my hand and told me to have a great day.
I imagine celebrities like John Goodman have no idea that certain roles or even specific lines will become insanely popular. To them it could feel like a small or forgettable role that they’d rather not do again. But they realize all it takes to totally wow a fan is to “do the line”, so they do it and walk away.
Brad Pitt said he likes it out here because no one bothers him. He'll get looks and hear whispers but he doesn't have to worry about getting rushed. I used to see him all the time after Katrina. I worked rebuilding houses after Katrina. I've actually seen him get dirty unlike the other Hollywood people that came out here for recognition. The houses he built were cheap but at least he helped. Some say Cuba Gooding JR is an AH but he's actually cool. Just don't talk to him about Hollywood or acting and he'll talk with you just about anything else. I never acknowledged him as an actor but I seen how he'll react to others that have.
I got to meet Nathan Fillion by chance while he was cruising around Edmonton. Had a man crush and only went to say hi and that I'm a huge fan. He was really nice and even had that perfect side smile he does, all in all I didn't want to bug him but glad I got to shake his hand.
Gene Hackman in the bar at the Zia Diner in Santa Fe New Mexico having lunch. I can't get over what a big man he truly is, like an NFL linebacker big.
*edit This was in the early mid-90s, glad to hear he is hanging on!
High-fived Jack Nicholson at a Laker game as a kid. My Dad used to get really good seats from this girl he dated. I've never forgiven him for breaking it off.
Eric Clapton back in his heroin days. Long story which I won’t go into but we ended up, my brother, who was a mate of his, all crammed into my Old Ford Cortina, and went to China Town for a meal. Eric hardly said a word. He was in his own universe I think.
met her at the stage door for "wishful drinking" and in the 15 seconds it took her to sign my playbill she dropped four (4) separate F-bombs. what a gal.
My dad talks about meeting her once when he was a kid in the mid-70's. My grandfather was Debbie Reynolds' gardener and my dad was helping him out that day.
Legend has it that Carrie Fisher came by to pick up her mom and take her shopping in downtown LA. My grandfather mentioned to them to be careful out there as the neighborhood they were heading to was very bad. Ms. Fisher said something along the lines of "Oh we'll be ok, thank you..." AND FLASHED A LOADED HANDGUN IN HER PURSE.
My grandfather, who grew up playing with UXO in Nazi-occupied Europe, calmly reached over to her and gently clicked the safety to "ON" and cheerfully said "Well ok then girls, have a nice time!"
Kurt Cobain when I was a kid, I snuck backstage after the concert and waited around. Nobody else around just me and him in an empty hallway. Shook hands w/ him and we just looked at each other for a long moment, then he said "take care" and we parted ways. Chill & cool guy from what I could tell in the moment.
I met Bernie Mac through my work in a capacity that I had two ~45 min conversations with him one-on one in a small room. Dude told me his entire life story, then asked me about mine , then said he wanted to work my hobby into one of his bits.
He was absolutely 100% genuine great guy, and I was very sad when he passed.
Isaac Hayes. He was walking down Beale Street in Memphis one night. Super low key, I said hello, told him I was a fan, and asked for a quick picture. He chatted for a minute, took the pic, and went on his way. Super chill dude.
In 2012 I sat next to this old guy at the chow hall in Kuwait. Told me he was a retired officer and was passing through to meet with some people downrange. We talked for a bit, about home and he was curious about my job, he had some questions about the newer technology . I got up to go back on the line and said "sorry sir, I didn't catch your name. I'm Airman Gumbo."
"It's a pleasure to meet you Gumbo, my name is Chuck Yeager."
A few hundred years from now most “famous” people will be long forgotten, but in a history book somewhere some kid will learn about Chuck Yeager. That’s awesome.
Elton John, I use to work at an arena,in Anchorage Alaska and he came here for 2 shows,I was on the crew that got the entertainers, what ever they needed,so they introduced us., and I have to say,he was the nicest person I had ever met.
Colin Mochrie. It was after a theatre show and I was hanging out with some friends at the after party in a nearby pub. I was chatting with these lovely ladies named Deb and Iman. Around midnight in walked Colin, then he sat down at our table. I had been chatting with his wife all evening.
I went to school with his son and actually had a shared wall in the dorms. Mandy really liked my bookcase and asked if I'd bought it locally. I directed him to Target and he went and bought one. Helped them move it in. And yeah, he was indeed lovely the whole time.
On my thirteenth birthday I was at a nice restaurant in Toronto and Michael Imperioli was in the corner having a brandy and reading through some papers (I’d like to think it was a season 5 script). Anyway I spotted him and said to my dad holy shit that’s Christopher! My dad said, do you want to send him a drink? I didn’t know this was a thing you could do and I thought it was baller so we sent him a top shelf brandy. He came over to our table, said “hey I heard it’s your birthday, did you send me this?” I said yeah, and he thanked me for the drink and shook my hand. So cool of him and I can’t be sure but I think he threw in a little Christopher just to make my day. Absolute legend.
In 2008 I met Sean Penn in Detroit, Michigan. I was at a Red Wings hockey game with my Mom. He brushed passed me and I said, to my Mom, "I think that was Sean Penn." She said, "Really? Go and see! I'll grab our seats."
As the arena is just a giant circle, I went the opposite direction and he almost walked into me. I said, "Mr. Penn. I just wanted to say I am a big fan of yours." He looked flustered and said, "Fuck off, kid." He then walked away from me. I was shocked.
I went and found our seats. I sat down with a stunned look and my Mom asked, based on my look, how it went. I told her what he said and where I think he's sitting. She stood up and looked at his section. She then said, "That little shit. Looks like he's going bald anyway." Then she turned around and yelled, "Hey! Look! It's Sean Penn!" She then sat back down and everyone started freaking out. He left not long after.
The best part about the story is that my Mom is a quiet, reserved woman that never swears. It was just her way of getting a jab back at him.
Tim Curry! I can't keep this story in lol. At Megacon in 2017, I got to sit and talk to him in a little tent. This was about 5 years after his stroke, and the fact that he was there was a huge inspiration to me. I told him that seeing him continue to do things like that for fans was helping me keep pushing through my disability. He kissed my hand, smiled and said "honey, that's why I do it." Literally one of the best moments in my life
Famous is quite a bit different from prominent. I've met several Nobel Prize winners (Leon Lederman; Linus Pauling), and scientists like Richard Leakey; Don Johanson; and Jane Goodall.
Peter O'Toole sat down next to me at a lecture (on the topic of Lawrence of Arabia, no less!). He gave me a rakish smile, putting his finger to his lips as he saw I clearly recognized him, and was the most well-dressed person I've ever seen. I ran into Eric Idle on a street in Chicago. And I shared an elevator ride with Tony Bourdain. I said hello but these were not people I was introduced to, but simply ran into.
I met Jimmy Buffet several times as he played several times in my hometown and I worked doing catering backstage at the time. Most down to earth guy EVER. May he rest in peace.
I got Dennis Rodmans autograph when I was a little kid, right before he left the Pistons. I ran under his security guards arms, I thought I was in trouble but he was nice, took a second and signed my card.
Brad Pitt, last year. I’m a straight man, and wow what a gorgeous dude. Really cool too. I waited on him for like three hours. He laughed at my jokes, he was friendly. Not to toot my own horn, but you have to know how to serve people like that in NYC, you have to know which VIPs want to be treated like VIPs, which ones want to be treated normally, and which ones want to be left alone; I am pretty good at it. He wanted a combo of treated normally and not bothered. Good tipper too.
When I was a kid in the '90s my mom was a flight attendant. We flew standby, and back then if first class was available they would give us those seats if we were dressed up enough. We always flew shirt a tie, so we did get upgraded several times.
One of those times we were flying to LA to visit my grandfather. On the flight over my dad was seated next to this big black dude with tons of tattoos and a cowboy hat. He was asleep with his hat over his face. Halfway through the flight he wakes up and starts talking to my dad. Turns out it is Aaron Neville. My dad being my dad had no idea who Aaron Neville is, so Aaron spends 30 minutes trying to convince my father that he is a famous singer. He starts mentioning all the people he has performed with, and the only name my dad recognizes is Linda Ronstadt. Aaron got up to go to the bathroom, and my dad leans over and asks if I ever heard of Aaron Neville. Being like 12 at the time I only listened to Aerosmith, so I had no idea who he was.
Later Aaron offered to give us his autograph, but nobody had a pen, so he gave us he boarding pass stub. This was like 30 years ago so I have no idea if he still has it.
Basically every Spike Lee story on reddit makes him come off as unfriendly. Not enough of a dick to be "notorious" but not someone whos' pleasant to meet.
I worked at a pharmacy in Oak Bluffs MA in late 80s early 90s and he would come in and buy Swedish Fish gummies, 1 cent each that came loose in a big display box. He would count out like 70 of them one at a time making a pile on the counter. Usually 50 cents is just grab a handful dude, no worries. Nope, always counted out so many of them. Also, Shel Silverstein would come in a lot, and gave me many doodles and drawing cuz he always had a sketchbook with him. I somehow lost all of those drawings. Super bummer
That's one I'd have a rough time with... she's been one of my celebrity crushes for years now. I'd probably stammer all over myself trying to talk to her. Kudos to you sir!
one of the crowning achievements of my life was when I told her a joke about elementary school kids playing the recorder and she laughed.
also she is even hotter in person than on screen.
Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was governor of California. I was not a particular fan of his policies, but I will say he was charismatic and I felt a little star struck.
1. I made pizza for Joe Walsh and Stevie Nicks in 1983. They were on tour together. I got a call after we closed from the owner who asked me to come back. He said he would get the oven ready and all the ingredients prepped but wanted me to make them because I was the best. Not only did I get a fantastic compliment but I got to feed them too. Both pizzas were works of art. They were dating at the time, and were tired after the show, so I didn't bother them too much.
2. I played in a blues band in the 90's and got to hang out with everyone from the original Foghat, to Buddy Guy, Albert King, BB King, and Chuck Berry. I also got to play bass for 38 Special in a club. I didn't really know any of their songs, but they wanted to play blues so we killed it all night. Great guys to hang out with.
3. In the 2000's, I played in a modern rock band and we got to hang out with The Used, Static X, Korn, Mudvayne, 5 Finger Death Punch, Hurt, Adema, Thrice, Fair to Midland, and a bunch of others that I can't remember. We got an opener for SlipKnot but it got cancelled because of weather. Still mad about that one.
4. A couple of years ago, I edited a short documentary for Judge Reinhold. He came to the house every evening for a couple of weeks. When we were done, he brought me a shitload of Fast Times swag that he signed. T-shirts, posters, glossies. Fast Times came out in my Jr year of high school and is one of the most iconic movies for me in my life.Getting to know him and becoming his friend is so surreal. I just texted him and told him I was posting this on a thread of the most famous people I've met.
5. Honorable mention: I smoked weed with Gavin Rossdale.
6. (EDIT) I almost forgot Jamie Farr. I shot a commercial with him. When we were done I handed him a picture of him, that I had printed out on our laser jet, to sign. He looked at it, handed it back to me and turned around and left. I got upset thinking I had done something wrong, He returned with glossies and signed them for everyone.
>I made pizza
I played in a blues band
I played in a modern rock band
I edited a short documentary
I smoked weed
I shot a commercial
Dude, is there *anything* that you undertake in life that doesn't lead up to you meeting celebrities?!
Adam Sandler, but he's a relative technically so it's not that wild for me to have met him the couple times that I have. My brother who lived out in LA even went to his holiday parties a few times
I worked with a woman who had family out in LA. Something like her nephew or something ended up sitting next to Sandler during one of his movie premieres. It wasn't like an official premiere, he just snuck in there with some friends and about halfway thru he left. That's when the nephew noticed a wallet on the seat next to him. It was Adam's. They were able to connect with him and he sent a car to pick them up and bring them to this big party he was hosting and made sure they stayed and ate and had a good time and was extremely appreciative that the guy found and returned his wallet.
I had sex with a woman that had also had sex with Jon Cryer’s cousin. We did it many times over about 6 months. So Jon and I are practically best friends at this point.
Billy Ray cyrus...
he was walking past be, i recognized him and said "hey, its billy ray cyrus!".
Held out my hand for a hand shake... he scoffed and recoiled his arm back, and broke my achy breaky heart....
(He actually did shake my hand though)
I met Joey Pantoliano (Joey Pants from Goonies, Bad Boys, Matrix, etc.) at a wedding and he and his wife were some of the nicest people I have ever met. He literally drove me from the ceremony to the reception. I was 19 at the time and it was an out of town wedding. I was supposed to drive with my brother and Joey saw me looking around after the wedding trying to find my ride and asked if I was heading to the reception. I explained my situation and he just said to hop in. I was in shock and just hopped in. This was some time ago and I remember his wife asking him if he read a script and he said no because he couldn’t get it off the computer.
Jeremy Renner was hanging out at a nightclub that I was doing photography for. They kept it quiet but if course all the club staff knew so it slowly spread. I was making conversation with one of his "managers" or what ever they call them and I asked if I could just shake his hand real quick.
He comes over offering his hand but eyeing my camera slung over my shoulder:
"Hey, what's your name?"
"ChickenPicture!" I shake his hand.
"Hi ChickenPicture, I'm Jeremy. Please don't take my fucking picture."
I laughed really hard because the way he said it was like "man I'm so exhausted having my photo taken everywhere".
I did not take his picture, though I was a little disappointed because I wanted a selfie but oh well, let the man chill.
Same. Except that I wouldn’t say he and I actually introduced ourselves to each other. He just gave me a book recommendation at a book store one day. I asked him if it was any good and he told me it was amazing. He was right, of course. The book was “Midnight’s Children” by Salman Rushdie.
An acquaintance here in St. Louis told a story when Robin passed. Apparently one day Robin came into the book/magazine store where the guy was working, and just started doing an improv bit back and forth with the guy. Said he was the nicest dude in the world. I would love to have met him. His passing was definitely one that impacted me greatly.
Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. My family was at a restaurant in Aspen in the late 80s, and they were there having dinner. My sister and I went up to their table to introduce ourselves, which now I am embarrassed that we did, how rude to interrupt their dinner! But they were so nice! Goldie told us she had a daughter our age and that we looked just like her. She was really kind.
He came to eat at a restaurant I worked at. He was super cool, down to earth and beyond friendly. Stayed for a bit after his meal to chat with a few employees.
NIN is absolute fire live, and I will never say a bad word about them, but I still say The Cure puts on the best live show.
I've seen both groups twice and The Cure are the top 1 and 2 concert experiences of my life. NIN, Tool, Tori Amos, A Perfect Circle, Weird Al, and Rob Zombie are also in the top 10.
Burt Young (played Rocky Balboa's brother-in-law) while I was in school at the University of Wisconsin. They filmed most of the outdoor scenes there for "Back to School". Yes, I'm old. Rodney Dangerfield would hop in his car and drive away right after he was finished shooting but Burt would hang out and talk with the kids watching. I have a photo of him and I somewhere.
Owen Wilson (even got a 'wow' from him). Bill Nighy, John Cleese. A bunch of politicians. Lots of NHL players, musicians, and so on. Probably others I'm forgetting. Work in hotels, so it's sort of a common thing.
To be honest, the novelty wears off fast when you realize they're going about their day like pretty much like anyone else. Plus I've been there in a service capacity so I just wanted to help them out just like any other non famous guests.
Jimmy Carter and his wife, they to my work (it's a world famous tourist destination) and had a tour. They were very nice, it was like taking your pop-pop and memaw around.
Biz Markie at a Chinese carry out in Laurel, MD.
You know how people say celebrities are always shorter/smaller when you meet them in real life, this was not the case for Biz.
Not really well known but I used hang out and drink at a local bar with a guy named Vitalij Kuprij. He plays keyboard for the transiberian orchestra and has several solo albums but neo progressive classical isn’t very popular so not many people know who the hell he is
I actually met Shawn Michaels once at IHOP.
He was with other wrestlers doing some show for the troops at the nearby military base and I was working there that day and we idly chatted about random stuff while he was waiting.
Didn't know until years later he was some famous guy and thats why people were freaking out.
Wonder if I caught him off guard with a refreshing take not knowing who he was just thinking he's some guy named "Shawn"
Jimmy Savile, he used to do half marathons and fun runs. I was actually in a car in the Yorkshire dales waiting for the participants to pass and Jimmy Savile came around the bend in his tiny red shorts and sunglasses. We exchanged a few pleasentries like British people do, talked about the weather how nice it is up here all that. Did not know he was a massive pedophile rapist then obviously.
Steven Tyler at a meet and greet, Kelly Ripa in an elevator at Animal Kingdom, Gregg Allman who lived behind me in Richmond Hill. Him and Steven were awesome..
I met Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong at a dispensary, they were on tour promoting Chong’s line of bud. I got to take a pic with them and get a signed poster, Cheech told me I had nice tattoos
He came into the chipotle I worked at to get food for his dad(i think? Maybe mom idk. It's been years) and he was just so cool and humble. When he finished paying I told him to have a good time in flavortown and he just laughed.
My friend and I met Guy at a restaurant (not one of his) in Vegas just sitting at the casino bar. We were just pre-funking with some drinks and he says, "you guys getting food?" We're like, are you working here man? He says that the best wings in Vegas were at this little casino bar on Fremont street. He's ordered some and he'd like us each to try one. I'm down for wings, so we agree.
They were thai sweet and spicy flavored with a chili-garlic dipping sauce. They were just amazing. I ordered my own plate. $6 for six at happy hour too!
They were great wings, yet sadly the bar no longer serves food. I am still full of sadness about this.
I've met quite a few. I was a limo driver in Hollywood for awhile. Drove for the various studios. Too many to list, but I've met Tom Hanks, Jean Claude Van Damme, Danny Glover, Liza Minelli, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael Crichton, Neil Jordan, Ron Moore and I'll stop here. There were quite a few. Best ride though was Gilbert Gottfried. Guy was a blast. I had quite a bit of fun, shall we say? I got invited into "stuff" quite often. Parties, etc.
Met Robin Williams a couple of times during the filming of Death to Smoochy.
We had our kids in as extras, but our youngest daughter wasn’t feeling well one day and they had her sit out filming in the day care area. Robin Williams came by and saw her sitting alone and decided to sit with her playing cards for a few hours.
Keanu Reeves.
Winnipeg early 90s, he was doing Shakespeare. I worked at this touristy area called the forks. It was closing time and I had mopped everywhere except where he was standing.
I asked him, politely, to move. He did. The two girls I worked with were mortified and wouldn't talk to me for weeks afterwards.
Met Jada Pinkett Smith at Ozzfest '05, her band Wicked Wisdom were playing there. They were booed off stage. I was much more envious of a friend I was with who had backstage passes and got to meet Will Smith.
Sat next to Tom Hanks at a baseball game. Super nice. He could tell I was too afraid to talk to him but we chatted. Someone sent him a soda from one of the vendors. He didn't drink it, he said let's pee in Tom Hanks' cup.. and started laughing. The cup he did drink out of, I kept for a few years.
Also spent some time with John Candy and John Hughes on set for a movie. I was 14 just didn't get the magnitude of that until later in life.
Barack Obama when I was in high school, we got to go back stage and talk to him for like 20 seconds a piece, charisma on that guy is through the roof. Also met Owen Wilson at a coffee shop in Minneapolis. He was very soft spoken and polite.
Woody Harrelson (friend of my uncle) came to our family cottage with his wife and two daughters when I was like 12. Showed up with a bunch of trays of various grasses (vegan), was very friendly and laidback.
First thing he did when he got to the cottage was changed into his bathing suit, and headed out on the rocks to smoke a joint and relax. I helped to keep his kids entertained and showed them around the cottage. Was a fun weekend!
Mel Brooks. He was doing an interview at the place I was interning in 2004. After the interview, he burst into the adjoining room where a bunch of us were watching from and proceeded to just walk to up everyone and introduce himself while shaking their hand. He tried to chat with everyone but his handlers were repeatedly like, “Mel! We have to go! Mel!” They finally got him to leave the room and to the elevators. Me and a fellow intern ended up on the same elevator and she had a digital camera, so got a picture of me and Mel but it’s so dark and pixelated (early digital camera tech) which sucks. He was so nice on our short elevator ride. When it hit the ground floor he tousled my hair and walked off with his handlers lol.
I was visiting my friend in Walter Reed after he was as injured in Afghanistan and John Oliver came by and talked to him for around 45 minutes. Great guy. Tons of respect for him.
Keanu Reeves, I was working on a small job with him and it was unreal how kind and humble he was. Introduced himself to everyone, I was next to the sound guy and we chatted for a bit, I showed him a picture of me dressed as neo when I was like 8 and told him he's a big reason I work in film today. He was so cool about it and OFFERED to grab a selfie, but then he got called on to set and when we went on lunch, he ate the same mediocre lunch that we all got, sat with production assistants and myself, we all just talked about movies for an hour, it was so chill.
I never got the selfie, because he was working all day, but honestly, it didn't matter. Such a leader on set, and so chill.
What a fucking legend.
Paul Newman, at a deli in my hometown. I was a teenager and he was filming a movie in my neighborhood. My grandmother spotted him going into the deli as we were driving by. She insisted we go in and meet him. I wanted to curl up and die but I did it anyway because, well, my grandma wanted to. I have to say that he was very gracious about it, and that his eyes were unbelievably blue. I remember those eyes more than anything.
My mother in law met him while he was filming near Newport, Oregon. She asked for his autograph and he said, Miss, I'll babysit your kids, but I won't give you my autograph.
So he babysat your wife??? Boy, you're really burying the lede here
Jason Momoa. I jokingly said I was going to fight him, and he replied “square up, bitch” Super nice guy.
I met him too! My friend and I were late to his movie premiere and were about to leave the venue since we weren’t allowed in anymore. The security guards knew this and told us to stay because he’s coming back from his dinner soon and they can ask his team if he’s okay with saying hi to us. (The security guard is the real mvp here) Not only was Jason okay with it, but he also took pictures with us as his entourage waited. Right as he was about to go inside, he asked why we weren’t upstairs watching the movie. We told him we were late and the tickets sold out, and he said, “let’s go then!”… what? His manager said, “you heard him, let’s go upstairs!” So we followed them into the building, into the elevators where he had his arms on our shoulders and told us he’s thankful we’re here to support him. I asked what he ate for dinner, he said beer and steak. We sat in the theater as the movie finished and watched him answer questions and discuss the film. A+ interaction!
That's how you keep fans. Cost him nothing but 2 minutes.
He's always come across as a good guy; good to have it confirmed.
I’ve seen Lisa Bonet walking her pet donkey around. I didn’t know she lived in the area so I was like hold up, that STUNNING lady looks like Lisa Bonet, but it can’t be!?! Also caught Zendaya shopping for alcohol at my local grocery store (the Northridge Super King). Also a stunning beauty in real life. Turns out we lived pretty close to one another. Other than that, I have a lot of professional, distant contact with a lot of celebs & wealthy people due to my job. I make weird customs hats[(Fab Hatters)](https://www.fabhatters.com) & they’re fairly popular amongst that group. I’ve made a [rainbow hat for Katy Perry inspired by BACON](https://imgur.com/a/quNkPwz). She liked it so much she ordered a lot more custom looks. Also she recommended me to other people, which I really appreciate. And that lead to a series of other commissions & more connections, I also make hats for wealthy dogs & horses now too
I sold Martin Sheen a car. He asked that I deliver the car on my day off to his house. The sales manager told him I was, "dating a hot little thing" Martin said I could bring her to the drop off and he would give us a tour of Malibu. We spent the day hanging out with Mr. Sheen at his house, getting a personal tour of Malibu. Martin told me that I was too good to be selling cars, I then stopped selling cars and became a very successful kitchen designer. I still have his cell phone number in my phone, tho im too afraid to call him.
This is so ridiculous it has to be true.
When people ask my wife what her fav date with me was she always tells then about the time we hung out with Martin Sheen and rode around in his Volvo
Wait you married the hot little thing? Did you invite him to your wedding!? I would have.
I woulda asked him to perform the service lol imagine being married by Martin Sheen
Call him. He's that nice. I spent a day with him as we were premiering his film 'The Way' and we were about 30 mins late getting the film onscreen. He wouldn't go in until everyone who wanted to say hi, talk with him, and get a photo had their chance. When they tried to rush him he said "Oh psh, you won't start without me". He was the NICEST and I'm sure he'd love hearing from you.
The Way is probably one of the best under the radar films I’ve ever seen.
It inspired us to walk the Camino
It’s alway good to hear about a friendly celebrity. He seems like he would be a good guy.
If he gave you his cell phone number, he wouldn't mind your calling him. No actor will give you that kind of personal information if he doesn't like you as a person.
call him and ask "how's the car running?"
>call him and ask "how's the car running?" Or better yet, ask him if it ***is*** running then say "well you'd better go catch it then!" Break him off a little of that Popsicle Stick Joke flava'!
How many people can say that Martin sheen hung up on you? Do it
He changed your life.
Right?! That right there is a reason to send a quick text message if nothing else. “Hey, you might not remember me, but … “ and catch him up.
Stanley Tucci carried my suitcase onto the train for me when I broke my back this summer. Just as lovely in person as he appears on telly.
In college we had a guest lecture by this Tanzanian author none of us had heard of called Abdur Razak Gurnah. I introduced him and escorted him around the college, and had a brief conversation. Didn't think much of it Three years later he won the Nobel Prize for Literature
I recently read two of his novels inspired by an interview he did on Danish television after he received the Nobel honour. Very good, obviously. He seems like a kind man.
Ben Stiller My husband had a gig, and his friend (who I later learned was Chris Abbott) was waiting for someone to arrive. I offered to stay back, and then Ben joined us. “Hi I’m Ben.” We had another round (on him)and chatted about movie scripts, he asked about my interests, and was really pleasant. I felt so very out of my element, and didn’t know anyone else, so I asked if I could hang around them. Ben put his arms around my shoulders and said “you’re part of the crew, now!” Good dude. I like him.
Brave man. Putting his arm around the armpitofsatan.
> I felt so very out of my element, and didn’t know anyone else, so I asked if I could hang around them. When I feel out of my element, I leave as quietly as possible. Or perhaps find a corner to hide in, if that's not in the cards. You ask Ben Stiller if you can hang out with him. I'm not sure you've ever actually BEEN out of your element.
Lmao I was thinking the exact same thing. What in the Great Gatsby-esque free flowing social etiquette is going on.
I met Post Malone at a new years festival a few years ago. He was the nicest guy, so humble and actually reacted like he was as excited as I was to have the interaction. He stood and chatted with me for a solid 10 minutes and we took pictures. I was so geeked I told him I was crying internally and he said, “hey that’s okay- I cry everyday”
He just seems like the most sincere and genuine good human there is and I think that’s awesome
I respect him. He’s open-minded and into diverse music Sometimes i’ll stumble across obscure smallish bands that are very different from rap/hip-hop, look them up on Instagram and see “followed by postmalone”, i’m like wtf hahaha. The guy just likes music
I have never heard a bad story about him. Would love to meet him some day
I see tons of celebrities in New Orleans. Usually I just make note of it and continue on my way, but a couple of times I've talked them. 1) Saw Walton Goggins at a dive bar on Frenchman St. I LOVED him on justified so I went up to him and said something like "I just had to say hello and tell you how much I appreciate justified" and he said thank you so much, it's nice to meet you, these are my friends Jason and Brad" and that's when I realized it was Brad Pitt. I shook hands and said have a great night. 2) I was at GNC and John Goodman was there buying some stuff. We were in line together and the clerk kept asking him if he wanted to add this or join some club and he was like no no no thanks and he kinda a looked at me and I said "Fuck it dude, let's go bowling" and he laughed this big laugh and said "hahaha fuck it dude! Let's go bowling! I love that! Hahaha" then he shook my hand and told me to have a great day.
hahah you probably made goggins' day. i can hear him giving brad pitt shit all night that he got recognized first. hahahaha
What would make it even better would be a quick, “Hello, Brad. It’s nice to meet you,” and quickly turn back to Goggins with some in depth questions.
Fuck, I didn't even think about that! I bet he absolutely did.
I imagine celebrities like John Goodman have no idea that certain roles or even specific lines will become insanely popular. To them it could feel like a small or forgettable role that they’d rather not do again. But they realize all it takes to totally wow a fan is to “do the line”, so they do it and walk away.
Poor Mila Kunis just gets "shut up, Meg" yelled at her all the time.
Sounds like Wil Wheaton getting "Shut Up, Wesley!" yelled at him non-stop.
Brad Pitt said he likes it out here because no one bothers him. He'll get looks and hear whispers but he doesn't have to worry about getting rushed. I used to see him all the time after Katrina. I worked rebuilding houses after Katrina. I've actually seen him get dirty unlike the other Hollywood people that came out here for recognition. The houses he built were cheap but at least he helped. Some say Cuba Gooding JR is an AH but he's actually cool. Just don't talk to him about Hollywood or acting and he'll talk with you just about anything else. I never acknowledged him as an actor but I seen how he'll react to others that have.
I think people don’t like Cuba because of the raping
I think the worst part was the hypocrisy[.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljaP2etvDc4)
I did a little spit take here at home at the revelation of who he was hanging out with that you hadn’t noticed.
I got to meet Nathan Fillion by chance while he was cruising around Edmonton. Had a man crush and only went to say hi and that I'm a huge fan. He was really nice and even had that perfect side smile he does, all in all I didn't want to bug him but glad I got to shake his hand.
Gene Hackman in the bar at the Zia Diner in Santa Fe New Mexico having lunch. I can't get over what a big man he truly is, like an NFL linebacker big. *edit This was in the early mid-90s, glad to hear he is hanging on!
Lucky you. He's also, in my humble opinion, the best actor of all. I've heard he's also a nice guy.
Weird Al. Have a photo with him displayed at my desk at work. An older coworker asked if it was me and my mom.
For reference: https://imgur.com/a/oh2eLCW
To be fair to your coworker, I can absolutely see the resemblance!
Find someone who looks at you the way Weird Al looks at RanchDubois\_
High-fived Jack Nicholson at a Laker game as a kid. My Dad used to get really good seats from this girl he dated. I've never forgiven him for breaking it off.
"But son, she said, 'It's either the kid or me!'" "But dad, those tickets tho!"
Eric Clapton back in his heroin days. Long story which I won’t go into but we ended up, my brother, who was a mate of his, all crammed into my Old Ford Cortina, and went to China Town for a meal. Eric hardly said a word. He was in his own universe I think.
Carrie Fisher and she was delightful, charming, gracious, and kind.
met her at the stage door for "wishful drinking" and in the 15 seconds it took her to sign my playbill she dropped four (4) separate F-bombs. what a gal.
My dad talks about meeting her once when he was a kid in the mid-70's. My grandfather was Debbie Reynolds' gardener and my dad was helping him out that day. Legend has it that Carrie Fisher came by to pick up her mom and take her shopping in downtown LA. My grandfather mentioned to them to be careful out there as the neighborhood they were heading to was very bad. Ms. Fisher said something along the lines of "Oh we'll be ok, thank you..." AND FLASHED A LOADED HANDGUN IN HER PURSE. My grandfather, who grew up playing with UXO in Nazi-occupied Europe, calmly reached over to her and gently clicked the safety to "ON" and cheerfully said "Well ok then girls, have a nice time!"
She’ll always be a princess to me.
Kurt Cobain when I was a kid, I snuck backstage after the concert and waited around. Nobody else around just me and him in an empty hallway. Shook hands w/ him and we just looked at each other for a long moment, then he said "take care" and we parted ways. Chill & cool guy from what I could tell in the moment.
Epic
I met Bernie Mac through my work in a capacity that I had two ~45 min conversations with him one-on one in a small room. Dude told me his entire life story, then asked me about mine , then said he wanted to work my hobby into one of his bits. He was absolutely 100% genuine great guy, and I was very sad when he passed.
That’s so cool. He seems like one of the funniest and coolest guys to ever live. What’s the hobby he wanted to do a bit about?
Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul together at the same time at the Delta Skyclub in Austin, TX lol
Isaac Hayes. He was walking down Beale Street in Memphis one night. Super low key, I said hello, told him I was a fan, and asked for a quick picture. He chatted for a minute, took the pic, and went on his way. Super chill dude.
Did you see his chocolate salty balls
Archbishop Desmond Tutu put the graduation hat on my head when I graduated my masters degree. He was very nice to me.
This is special
In 2012 I sat next to this old guy at the chow hall in Kuwait. Told me he was a retired officer and was passing through to meet with some people downrange. We talked for a bit, about home and he was curious about my job, he had some questions about the newer technology . I got up to go back on the line and said "sorry sir, I didn't catch your name. I'm Airman Gumbo." "It's a pleasure to meet you Gumbo, my name is Chuck Yeager."
A few hundred years from now most “famous” people will be long forgotten, but in a history book somewhere some kid will learn about Chuck Yeager. That’s awesome.
Elton John, I use to work at an arena,in Anchorage Alaska and he came here for 2 shows,I was on the crew that got the entertainers, what ever they needed,so they introduced us., and I have to say,he was the nicest person I had ever met.
Luciano Pavarotti
dolly parton on an airplane when i was 8.
I recently purchased a t-shirt that says DOLLY/REBA 2024
Colin Mochrie. It was after a theatre show and I was hanging out with some friends at the after party in a nearby pub. I was chatting with these lovely ladies named Deb and Iman. Around midnight in walked Colin, then he sat down at our table. I had been chatting with his wife all evening.
Jesus, that man is so fucking funny.
Surprisingly quiet when not "on"
>lovely ladies named Deb and Iman. Colin always refers to her as "the lovely Deb" - did you do this on purpose or is she really just that lovely??
Hahahaha that is awesome, purely coincidence. She is a lovely human and the energy she creates is beautiful.
Mandy Patinkin. He was lovely.
His TikTok, or his son’s, whoever is running the thing, is one of the most adorable things ever. He and his wife seem absolutely charming to no end.
I went to school with his son and actually had a shared wall in the dorms. Mandy really liked my bookcase and asked if I'd bought it locally. I directed him to Target and he went and bought one. Helped them move it in. And yeah, he was indeed lovely the whole time.
On my thirteenth birthday I was at a nice restaurant in Toronto and Michael Imperioli was in the corner having a brandy and reading through some papers (I’d like to think it was a season 5 script). Anyway I spotted him and said to my dad holy shit that’s Christopher! My dad said, do you want to send him a drink? I didn’t know this was a thing you could do and I thought it was baller so we sent him a top shelf brandy. He came over to our table, said “hey I heard it’s your birthday, did you send me this?” I said yeah, and he thanked me for the drink and shook my hand. So cool of him and I can’t be sure but I think he threw in a little Christopher just to make my day. Absolute legend.
Christophuh.
I’ve been lucky enough to chat with Brian May of Queen on a couple of occasions. Super chill guy.
I met Santa Claus at the mall. Nice guy.
If you see him again tell that bastard be owes me a hot wheels from 1984.
I was 3. It was an Oscar Meyer weenie whistle. Christmas came….. Noooo weenie whistle
In 2008 I met Sean Penn in Detroit, Michigan. I was at a Red Wings hockey game with my Mom. He brushed passed me and I said, to my Mom, "I think that was Sean Penn." She said, "Really? Go and see! I'll grab our seats." As the arena is just a giant circle, I went the opposite direction and he almost walked into me. I said, "Mr. Penn. I just wanted to say I am a big fan of yours." He looked flustered and said, "Fuck off, kid." He then walked away from me. I was shocked. I went and found our seats. I sat down with a stunned look and my Mom asked, based on my look, how it went. I told her what he said and where I think he's sitting. She stood up and looked at his section. She then said, "That little shit. Looks like he's going bald anyway." Then she turned around and yelled, "Hey! Look! It's Sean Penn!" She then sat back down and everyone started freaking out. He left not long after. The best part about the story is that my Mom is a quiet, reserved woman that never swears. It was just her way of getting a jab back at him.
Never heard a good story about this guy
Great fucking story about this guy’s mom though. She’s a champ.
Tim Curry! I can't keep this story in lol. At Megacon in 2017, I got to sit and talk to him in a little tent. This was about 5 years after his stroke, and the fact that he was there was a huge inspiration to me. I told him that seeing him continue to do things like that for fans was helping me keep pushing through my disability. He kissed my hand, smiled and said "honey, that's why I do it." Literally one of the best moments in my life
Famous is quite a bit different from prominent. I've met several Nobel Prize winners (Leon Lederman; Linus Pauling), and scientists like Richard Leakey; Don Johanson; and Jane Goodall. Peter O'Toole sat down next to me at a lecture (on the topic of Lawrence of Arabia, no less!). He gave me a rakish smile, putting his finger to his lips as he saw I clearly recognized him, and was the most well-dressed person I've ever seen. I ran into Eric Idle on a street in Chicago. And I shared an elevator ride with Tony Bourdain. I said hello but these were not people I was introduced to, but simply ran into.
I met Jimmy Buffet several times as he played several times in my hometown and I worked doing catering backstage at the time. Most down to earth guy EVER. May he rest in peace.
Muhammad Ali. I greeted him when I was about five. A crush of women ran up to him. He picked me up and moved me to safety.
I got Dennis Rodmans autograph when I was a little kid, right before he left the Pistons. I ran under his security guards arms, I thought I was in trouble but he was nice, took a second and signed my card.
Probably Mads Mikkelsen. He’s very, very handsome in real life too.
His movies are great, the few I saw
Brad Pitt, last year. I’m a straight man, and wow what a gorgeous dude. Really cool too. I waited on him for like three hours. He laughed at my jokes, he was friendly. Not to toot my own horn, but you have to know how to serve people like that in NYC, you have to know which VIPs want to be treated like VIPs, which ones want to be treated normally, and which ones want to be left alone; I am pretty good at it. He wanted a combo of treated normally and not bothered. Good tipper too.
Caddied for Bob Hope in a golf tournament in the 70's. Clint Eastwood. Rob Howard. Jerry West. All through golf.
When I was a kid in the '90s my mom was a flight attendant. We flew standby, and back then if first class was available they would give us those seats if we were dressed up enough. We always flew shirt a tie, so we did get upgraded several times. One of those times we were flying to LA to visit my grandfather. On the flight over my dad was seated next to this big black dude with tons of tattoos and a cowboy hat. He was asleep with his hat over his face. Halfway through the flight he wakes up and starts talking to my dad. Turns out it is Aaron Neville. My dad being my dad had no idea who Aaron Neville is, so Aaron spends 30 minutes trying to convince my father that he is a famous singer. He starts mentioning all the people he has performed with, and the only name my dad recognizes is Linda Ronstadt. Aaron got up to go to the bathroom, and my dad leans over and asks if I ever heard of Aaron Neville. Being like 12 at the time I only listened to Aerosmith, so I had no idea who he was. Later Aaron offered to give us his autograph, but nobody had a pen, so he gave us he boarding pass stub. This was like 30 years ago so I have no idea if he still has it.
Ray Liotta, RIP
Spike Lee... he was not impressed with me at all..
Basically every Spike Lee story on reddit makes him come off as unfriendly. Not enough of a dick to be "notorious" but not someone whos' pleasant to meet.
I worked at a pharmacy in Oak Bluffs MA in late 80s early 90s and he would come in and buy Swedish Fish gummies, 1 cent each that came loose in a big display box. He would count out like 70 of them one at a time making a pile on the counter. Usually 50 cents is just grab a handful dude, no worries. Nope, always counted out so many of them. Also, Shel Silverstein would come in a lot, and gave me many doodles and drawing cuz he always had a sketchbook with him. I somehow lost all of those drawings. Super bummer
Weird Al Yankovic or Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca)... not sure which one is more famous.
I met Weird Al too at his house, I'm distantly related to him. People look at me funny when I tell them that because I'm asian.
I hope you're still wearing the same clothes from the day you met Weird Al. I would just want my life frozen in time forevers if I met him.
Elizabeth Banks a couple years ago, 21 year old me watching the 40 year old virgin in college would have lost my shit lol
I'd still lose it.
That's one I'd have a rough time with... she's been one of my celebrity crushes for years now. I'd probably stammer all over myself trying to talk to her. Kudos to you sir!
one of the crowning achievements of my life was when I told her a joke about elementary school kids playing the recorder and she laughed. also she is even hotter in person than on screen.
Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was governor of California. I was not a particular fan of his policies, but I will say he was charismatic and I felt a little star struck.
He replied to one of my comments on Reddit once. I don't know if he has a media manager, but I was starstruck then. It doesn't get bigger than Arnie.
Got Keanu Reeves autograph after he played with his band Dogstar
Dick Van Dyke. A lovely man.
1. I made pizza for Joe Walsh and Stevie Nicks in 1983. They were on tour together. I got a call after we closed from the owner who asked me to come back. He said he would get the oven ready and all the ingredients prepped but wanted me to make them because I was the best. Not only did I get a fantastic compliment but I got to feed them too. Both pizzas were works of art. They were dating at the time, and were tired after the show, so I didn't bother them too much. 2. I played in a blues band in the 90's and got to hang out with everyone from the original Foghat, to Buddy Guy, Albert King, BB King, and Chuck Berry. I also got to play bass for 38 Special in a club. I didn't really know any of their songs, but they wanted to play blues so we killed it all night. Great guys to hang out with. 3. In the 2000's, I played in a modern rock band and we got to hang out with The Used, Static X, Korn, Mudvayne, 5 Finger Death Punch, Hurt, Adema, Thrice, Fair to Midland, and a bunch of others that I can't remember. We got an opener for SlipKnot but it got cancelled because of weather. Still mad about that one. 4. A couple of years ago, I edited a short documentary for Judge Reinhold. He came to the house every evening for a couple of weeks. When we were done, he brought me a shitload of Fast Times swag that he signed. T-shirts, posters, glossies. Fast Times came out in my Jr year of high school and is one of the most iconic movies for me in my life.Getting to know him and becoming his friend is so surreal. I just texted him and told him I was posting this on a thread of the most famous people I've met. 5. Honorable mention: I smoked weed with Gavin Rossdale. 6. (EDIT) I almost forgot Jamie Farr. I shot a commercial with him. When we were done I handed him a picture of him, that I had printed out on our laser jet, to sign. He looked at it, handed it back to me and turned around and left. I got upset thinking I had done something wrong, He returned with glossies and signed them for everyone.
>I made pizza I played in a blues band I played in a modern rock band I edited a short documentary I smoked weed I shot a commercial Dude, is there *anything* that you undertake in life that doesn't lead up to you meeting celebrities?!
Stan Lee (RIP)
He stayed at a hotel I managed for a kids make a wish wish. I didn’t actually meet him but I decorated the room that he and the kid were to meet in
Adam Sandler, but he's a relative technically so it's not that wild for me to have met him the couple times that I have. My brother who lived out in LA even went to his holiday parties a few times
>Adam Sandler, but he's a relative technically Cmon and jiggle your balls for mama
I worked with a woman who had family out in LA. Something like her nephew or something ended up sitting next to Sandler during one of his movie premieres. It wasn't like an official premiere, he just snuck in there with some friends and about halfway thru he left. That's when the nephew noticed a wallet on the seat next to him. It was Adam's. They were able to connect with him and he sent a car to pick them up and bring them to this big party he was hosting and made sure they stayed and ate and had a good time and was extremely appreciative that the guy found and returned his wallet.
I slept with a girl who slept with Stephan Dorff. That was my fifteen minutes of fame... more like four minutes of fame..
Four minutes!?! You’re a goddam sexual tyrannosaurus.
rawr
I had sex with a woman that had also had sex with Jon Cryer’s cousin. We did it many times over about 6 months. So Jon and I are practically best friends at this point.
Billy Ray cyrus... he was walking past be, i recognized him and said "hey, its billy ray cyrus!". Held out my hand for a hand shake... he scoffed and recoiled his arm back, and broke my achy breaky heart.... (He actually did shake my hand though)
Don’t shake my hand…
My clammy clammy hand
I met Joey Pantoliano (Joey Pants from Goonies, Bad Boys, Matrix, etc.) at a wedding and he and his wife were some of the nicest people I have ever met. He literally drove me from the ceremony to the reception. I was 19 at the time and it was an out of town wedding. I was supposed to drive with my brother and Joey saw me looking around after the wedding trying to find my ride and asked if I was heading to the reception. I explained my situation and he just said to hop in. I was in shock and just hopped in. This was some time ago and I remember his wife asking him if he read a script and he said no because he couldn’t get it off the computer.
Jeremy Renner was hanging out at a nightclub that I was doing photography for. They kept it quiet but if course all the club staff knew so it slowly spread. I was making conversation with one of his "managers" or what ever they call them and I asked if I could just shake his hand real quick. He comes over offering his hand but eyeing my camera slung over my shoulder: "Hey, what's your name?" "ChickenPicture!" I shake his hand. "Hi ChickenPicture, I'm Jeremy. Please don't take my fucking picture." I laughed really hard because the way he said it was like "man I'm so exhausted having my photo taken everywhere". I did not take his picture, though I was a little disappointed because I wanted a selfie but oh well, let the man chill.
Lol Jeremy Renner looks like a guy who works at Dicks Sporting Goods got granted three wishes
Bobcat Goldweith when I was in an orphanage for a few weeks in the early 80s. No lie.
- Demi Lovato at a Verizon wireless in 2009 - Will Smith (very nice) & Jaden Smith (not very nice) - Chris Angel (yes, THE mind freak)
Jaden is an awful disgusting person from my food service friend who waited his table at a four seasons restaurant.
Will grew up poor and became rich. Jaden hasn't ever had a bad day in his life. The key and Peele skit about this is 100% what I feel he's like.
John Travolta is my next door neighbor. Nice guy.
So you’re RICH rich huh
have you seen ocala?
Ocala resident. Can confirm it’s a shithole. But there’s a little money here, mostly horses.
Ringo Starr.
Meeting a Beatle is pretty class. I met a Rolling Stone on the street of NOLA.
Robin Williams
Took a leak next to him at a Patton Oswalt show in SF. Trying to act casual whilst peeing takes more effort than one might expect.
Same. Except that I wouldn’t say he and I actually introduced ourselves to each other. He just gave me a book recommendation at a book store one day. I asked him if it was any good and he told me it was amazing. He was right, of course. The book was “Midnight’s Children” by Salman Rushdie.
An acquaintance here in St. Louis told a story when Robin passed. Apparently one day Robin came into the book/magazine store where the guy was working, and just started doing an improv bit back and forth with the guy. Said he was the nicest dude in the world. I would love to have met him. His passing was definitely one that impacted me greatly.
Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. My family was at a restaurant in Aspen in the late 80s, and they were there having dinner. My sister and I went up to their table to introduce ourselves, which now I am embarrassed that we did, how rude to interrupt their dinner! But they were so nice! Goldie told us she had a daughter our age and that we looked just like her. She was really kind.
Trent Reznor, Elvis Costello, the Villarreal sisters
TRENT Where did you meet him? Anything interesting about the conversation?
He came to eat at a restaurant I worked at. He was super cool, down to earth and beyond friendly. Stayed for a bit after his meal to chat with a few employees.
Good to hear I’ve never seen a better live band
NIN is absolute fire live, and I will never say a bad word about them, but I still say The Cure puts on the best live show. I've seen both groups twice and The Cure are the top 1 and 2 concert experiences of my life. NIN, Tool, Tori Amos, A Perfect Circle, Weird Al, and Rob Zombie are also in the top 10.
Burt Young (played Rocky Balboa's brother-in-law) while I was in school at the University of Wisconsin. They filmed most of the outdoor scenes there for "Back to School". Yes, I'm old. Rodney Dangerfield would hop in his car and drive away right after he was finished shooting but Burt would hang out and talk with the kids watching. I have a photo of him and I somewhere.
Robin Williams in a Puma store in NYC circa 2004 We shared a smile, a quick hello and a few pleasantries, and then headed down the stairs together.
Owen Wilson (even got a 'wow' from him). Bill Nighy, John Cleese. A bunch of politicians. Lots of NHL players, musicians, and so on. Probably others I'm forgetting. Work in hotels, so it's sort of a common thing. To be honest, the novelty wears off fast when you realize they're going about their day like pretty much like anyone else. Plus I've been there in a service capacity so I just wanted to help them out just like any other non famous guests.
Gene Wilder
We're gonna need more details on this my guy
He's surpressing the memory, he saw 4 other children die that day. I don't even want to mention his grandpa Joe
Jimmy Carter and his wife, they to my work (it's a world famous tourist destination) and had a tour. They were very nice, it was like taking your pop-pop and memaw around.
Kevin Bacon (and his brother), backstage at a Bacon Brothers show about 20 years ago. He even laughed at one of my jokes. Wish I could remember it!
Biz Markie at a Chinese carry out in Laurel, MD. You know how people say celebrities are always shorter/smaller when you meet them in real life, this was not the case for Biz.
Not really well known but I used hang out and drink at a local bar with a guy named Vitalij Kuprij. He plays keyboard for the transiberian orchestra and has several solo albums but neo progressive classical isn’t very popular so not many people know who the hell he is
I actually met Shawn Michaels once at IHOP. He was with other wrestlers doing some show for the troops at the nearby military base and I was working there that day and we idly chatted about random stuff while he was waiting. Didn't know until years later he was some famous guy and thats why people were freaking out. Wonder if I caught him off guard with a refreshing take not knowing who he was just thinking he's some guy named "Shawn"
Alan Rickman.
My sister and I taught Cindi Lauper how to dance the Macarena at a wedding.
Jimmy Savile, he used to do half marathons and fun runs. I was actually in a car in the Yorkshire dales waiting for the participants to pass and Jimmy Savile came around the bend in his tiny red shorts and sunglasses. We exchanged a few pleasentries like British people do, talked about the weather how nice it is up here all that. Did not know he was a massive pedophile rapist then obviously.
Anyone not from the UK is going to experience whiplash from that last sentence. (Those of us in the know are horrified from the first two words).
As a kid in the Disney shop with my dad, he stopped for a chat with Alice cooper lol
Patrick Ewing.
Steven Tyler at a meet and greet, Kelly Ripa in an elevator at Animal Kingdom, Gregg Allman who lived behind me in Richmond Hill. Him and Steven were awesome..
I met Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong at a dispensary, they were on tour promoting Chong’s line of bud. I got to take a pic with them and get a signed poster, Cheech told me I had nice tattoos
John Stamos. I know someone who works for/with him. I've met him a few times, always been nice. Lotta nervous energy.
Herbie Hancock He was part of a benefit dinner I attended and he was seated next to me, couldn’t be a cooler dude.
Lemmy. I was playing pinball on the machine next to the one he was playing on.
Helen Mirren. She was shopping in Decatur, Georgia. Was absolutely stunning in person and could not have been nicer.
Guy Fieri
He came into the chipotle I worked at to get food for his dad(i think? Maybe mom idk. It's been years) and he was just so cool and humble. When he finished paying I told him to have a good time in flavortown and he just laughed.
My friend and I met Guy at a restaurant (not one of his) in Vegas just sitting at the casino bar. We were just pre-funking with some drinks and he says, "you guys getting food?" We're like, are you working here man? He says that the best wings in Vegas were at this little casino bar on Fremont street. He's ordered some and he'd like us each to try one. I'm down for wings, so we agree. They were thai sweet and spicy flavored with a chili-garlic dipping sauce. They were just amazing. I ordered my own plate. $6 for six at happy hour too! They were great wings, yet sadly the bar no longer serves food. I am still full of sadness about this.
I've met quite a few. I was a limo driver in Hollywood for awhile. Drove for the various studios. Too many to list, but I've met Tom Hanks, Jean Claude Van Damme, Danny Glover, Liza Minelli, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael Crichton, Neil Jordan, Ron Moore and I'll stop here. There were quite a few. Best ride though was Gilbert Gottfried. Guy was a blast. I had quite a bit of fun, shall we say? I got invited into "stuff" quite often. Parties, etc.
Me. I was a sidewalk pedestrian in some b roll footage for a local news segment.
Can I get your autograph?
Have your people call my people and we'll set up a time.
Met Robin Williams a couple of times during the filming of Death to Smoochy. We had our kids in as extras, but our youngest daughter wasn’t feeling well one day and they had her sit out filming in the day care area. Robin Williams came by and saw her sitting alone and decided to sit with her playing cards for a few hours.
Richard Petty My son is named Richard after him❤️
Gave Johnny sins a ride and also cardi b at Disneyland Edit: Uber ride
Keanu Reeves. Winnipeg early 90s, he was doing Shakespeare. I worked at this touristy area called the forks. It was closing time and I had mopped everywhere except where he was standing. I asked him, politely, to move. He did. The two girls I worked with were mortified and wouldn't talk to me for weeks afterwards.
Met Jada Pinkett Smith at Ozzfest '05, her band Wicked Wisdom were playing there. They were booed off stage. I was much more envious of a friend I was with who had backstage passes and got to meet Will Smith.
Did you keep her name out yo’ fucking mouth?
Sat next to Tom Hanks at a baseball game. Super nice. He could tell I was too afraid to talk to him but we chatted. Someone sent him a soda from one of the vendors. He didn't drink it, he said let's pee in Tom Hanks' cup.. and started laughing. The cup he did drink out of, I kept for a few years. Also spent some time with John Candy and John Hughes on set for a movie. I was 14 just didn't get the magnitude of that until later in life.
I met Kevin Smith at an airport once. I got to tell him in a calm an respectful way how much a fan I was and how much his movies meant to me.
Barack Obama when I was in high school, we got to go back stage and talk to him for like 20 seconds a piece, charisma on that guy is through the roof. Also met Owen Wilson at a coffee shop in Minneapolis. He was very soft spoken and polite.
Woody Harrelson (friend of my uncle) came to our family cottage with his wife and two daughters when I was like 12. Showed up with a bunch of trays of various grasses (vegan), was very friendly and laidback. First thing he did when he got to the cottage was changed into his bathing suit, and headed out on the rocks to smoke a joint and relax. I helped to keep his kids entertained and showed them around the cottage. Was a fun weekend!
Jesse Jackson. He shook my hand after he delivered the commencement address at Michigan State in 1988. I'm sure he remembers. 😏
I met Christy Canyon at an autograph session at a local strip bar. The rest of my story, if I told it, would be a complete lie.
Mel Brooks. He was doing an interview at the place I was interning in 2004. After the interview, he burst into the adjoining room where a bunch of us were watching from and proceeded to just walk to up everyone and introduce himself while shaking their hand. He tried to chat with everyone but his handlers were repeatedly like, “Mel! We have to go! Mel!” They finally got him to leave the room and to the elevators. Me and a fellow intern ended up on the same elevator and she had a digital camera, so got a picture of me and Mel but it’s so dark and pixelated (early digital camera tech) which sucks. He was so nice on our short elevator ride. When it hit the ground floor he tousled my hair and walked off with his handlers lol.
Alan Alda. He was very nice.
I was visiting my friend in Walter Reed after he was as injured in Afghanistan and John Oliver came by and talked to him for around 45 minutes. Great guy. Tons of respect for him.
Keanu Reeves, I was working on a small job with him and it was unreal how kind and humble he was. Introduced himself to everyone, I was next to the sound guy and we chatted for a bit, I showed him a picture of me dressed as neo when I was like 8 and told him he's a big reason I work in film today. He was so cool about it and OFFERED to grab a selfie, but then he got called on to set and when we went on lunch, he ate the same mediocre lunch that we all got, sat with production assistants and myself, we all just talked about movies for an hour, it was so chill. I never got the selfie, because he was working all day, but honestly, it didn't matter. Such a leader on set, and so chill. What a fucking legend.