Disastrous brush with a celebrity?

During High School running camp @ Big Bear a few teammates and I saw David Spade eating at the local Denny's. I later went running by that Denny's practically nude for my initiation

I wouldn't say that I have had any experiences with mega-stars, but I've met a lot of people I considered it a big deal to meet:

Nick Willis - autograph

Dick Beardsley - picture and autograph

Jim Spivey - autograph

Bernard Lagat - picture

Shalane Flanagan - picture & autograph

Jack Daniels (the coach) - autograph and sat at his table for lunch at a running clinic)

Jay Bilas - picture

Nolan Smith - picture

Sheldon Williams - autograph (he was watching the Duke Inv. track & field meet near our team camp)

Amy Schumer (up and coming comedienne who has had a special on Comedy Central) - picture

All of the above people either let me get a picture with them or signed an autograph. Some did both. All of them were fantastic.

In the case of Jay Bilas, Nolan Smith and Bernard Lagat, all were being mobbed on the separate occasions I met them. I couldn't believe how well they all handled it, especially Nolan Smith as a college kid. It had to be highly annoying for all three, especially when they deal with it on such a regular basis.

When I ran into Jay Bilas it was late at night and he just wanted to get to his hotel, but was being mobbed for autographs and pictures. Every time someone would ask for something he just kept saying "I'd love to" and then did whatever they asked. He stayed until everyone's requests were satisfied. Most people would have pulled their hair out.

When I was a kid I was at a White Sox game getting autographs, and Frank Thomas decided to come over and sign a few. This was the mid-90s (when he was the best player in baseball) and he rarely signed anything. My friend and I were already there, so we got his autograph.

As soon as he came over, though, a bunch of adults streamed down to the railing to get his autograph, shoving my friend and I into the railing between the stands and the field. Frank saw that we were getting pushed around and yelled at everyone to back off, clearing them away from us. He then patted me on the shoulder, looked me in the eye, and asked if we were alright.

My dad accidentally tripped Michael Jordan in a bar in North Carolina once.

One time Jerome Bettis was making an appearance at an USO tour on the base I lived at. I knew he was somewhere in the halls of the building I was in (hospital), but wasn't sure. While walking I see this entourage and knew it was him coming. I had a football in my hand that I wanted him to sign, but he was moving quite fast and knew I had to do something to get his attention because he wasnt stopping to give anyone autographs. I see some crutches in a near by basket (like a drop off or something) and BING... got an idea.

So here comes Bettis, talking, putting on his happy social face when BAM. He runs into this poor fella on crutches and tosses him to the ground. Naturally he feels bad, and probably embarassed, and voila I get my autograph.

I was visiting my sister in LA and we were at a famous farmer's market. I saw Sinead O'Connor sitting there with a few friends, quietly enjoying her meal. I walked by, casually said, "You're Sinead O'Connor," and she brightened up at first. But I'll never forget the look of regret she had in her eyes as all of the autograph hounds somebow latched on to what I had done, it was like they had a radar or sixth sense. They came over by the dozens, disrupting her rare quiet time in public.

Sinead, I am sorry about that one!

I met Zach Galifianakis in Santa Fe, NM in Oct. 2009. I was staying at the nicest hotel in town for a work conference and it happened to be where all the celebs stayed that were filming in town. He was a pretty awesome guy. Very small in stature in person. He did start going off on a socialist rant once he realized why we were there (healthcare conf.) ... but had a bunch of beers with us before going off to film. Quite a memorable night! Apparently we just missed Mickey Rourke....oh jesus.

I learned that night that it is acceptable to heavily drink before filming......and now I want to be an actor. PS it wasn't a disastrous brush at all but wanted to share.

newmezicorulez wrote:

I met Zach Galifianakis in Santa Fe, NM in Oct. 2009. I was staying at the nicest hotel in town for a work conference and it happened to be where all the celebs stayed that were filming in town. He was a pretty awesome guy. Very small in stature in person. He did start going off on a socialist rant once he realized why we were there (healthcare conf.) ... but had a bunch of beers with us before going off to film. Quite a memorable night! Apparently we just missed Mickey Rourke....oh jesus.

I learned that night that it is acceptable to heavily drink before filming......and now I want to be an actor. PS it wasn't a disastrous brush at all but wanted to share.

forgot one more thing....same night met this guy:

He was a real smooth talker who offered to fly people back to NM to wine and dine them. Bit of an arrogant prick. He told stories of throwing people out of his restaurant because they wore cologne/perfume.

I met Mitch Albom once after a speaking engagement. He was an incredible speaker.

Anyway as he was taking photos and signing his book, I got to speak with him for a minute. I babbled incoherent nonsense and he looked at me as if I had a 3rd eye.

Good times,

Turd

Curious Iced T wrote:

When I was 10, I met Charles Barkley. I took a picture with him, but I was wearing an Alonzo Mourning jersey...he looks incredibly annoyed in the picture.

Can you post that picture? That sounds hilarious.

The year was 1989 or 1990. I was working as a short order cook at a tennis club and Golf Course at the golf course in Monarch Beach, CA (now the site of the St Regis). A handful of famous people came in there at times. One of them was OJ Simpson. Around that time was when the first reports of OJ beating Nicole Brown had surfaced.

OJ walks into the lobby and heads toward me at the snack bar. I had heard he came in occasionally, but this was the first time I had seen him there. As he approaches, the first thing that enters my mind is "Nordberg!!" (The Naked Gun was one of my favorite movies at the time). The second thing to go through my mind was to (sarcastically) ask him how his wife was doing. Not wanting to get the crapped beat out of me, I decided not to make any wise cracks about his wife.

He walks up and says "Give me a beer". Being a 16 year old who didn't know much about beers responds "What kind?". OJ says, "Doesn't matter as long as it is cold". So I walk over to the cooler to get him a can of beer and I look at the choices with no idea what to give him, I think to myself, Ex football player.....in to my head pops the old commercial from when I was a kid "tastes great, less filling!.........so I grab him a Miller Lite.......as I hand it to him he says "Lite beer, really? I offer to get him something else but he says that is fine and keeps the beer. I muster up the courage to ask for an autograph (and probably risking my job though I did not think of that at the time) and he kindly obliges and signs a paper plate for me. I then have him sign his food tab which is usually turned in at the end of the day and added to his club membership account. After he leaves I decide to keep his food tab as a souvenir rather than putting it in the cash register as I was supposed to do as it has his autograph on it.

20+ years later, his wife is dead, Naked Gun is still one of my favorite movies, and I still have both autographs.

I dont know if this counts but I head noded bernard lagat

Not a bad experience but I saw Penn and Teller's live show a couple of years ago. They put on a great show and after every show, they have a meet and greet in the lobby of wherever they are performing, which is the least they can do I suppose when you pay 100 bucks to see them. Well anyways, they answer questions and take pictures and they actually seem like nice people. It was Vegas so needless to say I was plastered so I get a picture with Penn, and I say, "Wow you are tall as f***!" And he says, "No, I am 5 inches taller than f***."

When going to Whole Foods in Palo Alto, I made a slow turn around the corner and almost hit a little kid running wild in the parking lot. I looked up, and Steve Young was staring at me and the kid. My face must have dropped, because he just started laughing at me. I fled to Safeway.

Anti-Christian Cults wrote:

Steve Jobs is a member of the Islam Cult.

Wrong.

In college I managed swimming pools during the Summer. One of the kids was Martin Lawrence. One day I kicked him out of the pool for rough-housing and on the way out he told me he was going to get his brother and his brother was going to kick my ass.

I looked Martin in the eye and told him, "You go get your brother right now. When I tell him about all of the wrongdoin' you been doin at the pool today, he and I are both going to kick your ass!"

malmo wrote:

In college I managed swimming pools during the Summer. One of the kids was Martin Lawrence. One day I kicked him out of the pool for rough-housing and on the way out he told me he was going to get his brother and his brother was going to kick my ass.

I looked Martin in the eye and told him, "You go get your brother right now. When I tell him about all of the wrongdoin' you been doin at the pool today, he and I are both going to kick your ass!"

I just read the whole thread and Malmo's was the only one that made me laugh out loud.

I met Bush Jr in somewhat private circumstances before he became president, and he was pretty hilarious. We were both laughing pretty hard when someone took a picture, so I have this nice shot of us both laughing. This was disastrous because I'm a Democrat and can't *STAND* his politics.

When I was in high school there used to be some statues in the Walker Art Center sculpture garden in Mpls that looked exactly like obelisks in Edward Gorey drawings with lots of cross-hatching. A couple of years after I graduated from university I was at a puppet show in Woods Hole and Gorey was there. I went up and asked if he had had anything to do with the sculptures and he looked at me with complete scorn and said no. I'd heard he was a difficult guy but I still felt like an idiot.

way back in the day (1980 I think) when attending university of Maryland. At that time the Terps were ranked in the top 5 in the country and my buddy, who was a diehard Terp basketball fan, and I were walking near Cole Field House and We ran into Lefty Drisell the famous basketball Coach.

My buddy got up some courage and went up to Lefty and asked "how's the team gonna do this year coach?" Lefty just looked at my buddy and said "You ain't on the team and I ain't your coach"! My buddy never got over that incident after that he could never fully enjoy a UMD basketball game