Encounters with Celebrities who were jerks (Athletes or not)

This is my favorite random celebrity encounter:

Was with my now ex-wife and had a guy on the NYC subway ask me about my running shoes. Struck up a conversation with him during the 20 minute ride. Towards the end, a couple of people wanted photos with him. I asked them if they wanted me to take the photos. I did, they left and then someone else wanted a photo. No problem. Come to find out, we were all getting off at the same stop so we started walking together and chatting as we walked thru the station. This guy says "Where are you guys headed to?" I said we were grabbing some dinner before heading to a show that evening. He wanted to know what show, so I told him and he said it was one of his favorites and to enjoy it. I asked him the same question and he said "to the show he is in" and I kind of laughed like "oh, you are a performer. Cool. I have no musical or dancing ability so what you guys do is a mesmerizing" and he laughed. He asked how long we were in town for and we told him until Sunday (this was a Friday) and he said "If you guys want to see the show I'm in tomorrow, I can leave you some tickets. Have you heard of the show Hamilton?" I had not. The ex said she had but didn't know anything about it. He said to go to the ticket booth tomorrow before the show and he'd leave us some tickets and got my name to put them under.

We show up to the theatre the next day, go to the ticketing office. The lady says "Ah, yes. Lin left these for you with this note" and hands me the tickets. The note, which I still have reads "Thank you again for the great chat yesterday. Really enjoyed it. Hopefully the show today is as good as the one yesterday. I'll leave your name on the backstage list for after the show if you want to tell me what you thought and say hello again. Enjoy. Lin"

Turns out this random dude on the subway was Lin Manuel Miranda, who blew up pretty big shortly after our interaction. We've actually kept in touch over the years, met him a bunch more times while in the city for dinner, lunch, etc and I can tell you he is EXACTLY the same as that first interaction. Down to earth, grateful, super polite. One of the last times we hung out (pre-Covid), I cracked to him that "meeting me was the best thing that ever happened to you because your career took off after that. I know Vanessa THINKS its her, but we all know the truth, it's okay". I look over at her and she is almost doubled over laughing so hard. Lin replies "Wait, meeting you was a good thing?" Ah, great times.

I was at a diner and Phil Mickelson was there eating by himself .. he was talking to the server and she was telling him about college and student loans …. He left her $$$ to cover all of her tuition.

He also did the for a former NFL players kids

Michael Stember. 2000 NCAAs at Duke. His usual self centered jackass.

A good friend of mine would definitely answer Patrick Ewing. Alone on an elevator in some NYC building with the Knicks center back in the day.

Also, at the US Open tennis tourney back in the mid 80s, BILL COSBY. Way before his tendencies were known, he was making animal noises at the female players as they warmed up on the outer courts. Standing right next to me acting like some lunatic.

tlm1959 wrote:

I rode on an eight-seater plane from my house in Nantucket to the mainland with Vera Farminga. She is shockingly beautiful and polite. We have a film festival every year and I hope she comes back soon. I thought that stars might look normal in the light of day-not in Vera's case. it is clear why she is a star.

Tim, I rode one of those same Cape Air planes right behind Eunice Kennedy Shriver. A very nice person and made friendly small talk.

French Quarter, New Orleans, small smoky gin joint sometime in the summer of '82. Bartender poured me a double whiskey on the rocks and told me I just missed a hell of a show by this piano fellow known for his creole blues.

I been in the right place, but it musta been the wrong time.

Meg Whitman was aloof and self-important, her security actually knocked me over at concert that eBay put on for its top sellers as they tried to clear the way for her to exit. My back was turned and they literally pushed me out of the way and didn't stop to see if I was okay.

I worked at a concert venue outside of Boston during the mid 90s and we usually got acts on the way up or way down. Think Ben Folds, Ziggy Marley on one end of the spectrum and Heart, Dionne Warwick, Chicago on the other end. It was a smaller venue and things like dressing rooms etc. were relatively modest. Generally speaking the talent arrived a few hours early for a warm-up and sounds check chilled in their Bus for a while or sometimes the dressing room which was outfitted with the basic water and soft drinks, snacks and any reasonable rider request. This wasn't Madison Square Garden and the acts knew it and generally everything was smooth but not always. Eddie Money the late 70s, to 80s rocker of 2 Tickets to Paradise Fame is there for a show well after his star has faded. He shoes up early in the afternoon for a 8:00 p.m. show and looks like he just woke up. He proceeds to throw a fit b/c there's not a bar in the dressing room. Wanting to accommodate our talent the stage manager asks what specifically he wants so we could send someone to the local package store to get a bottle. His answer was a bar to which the Stage Manager calmly explains we do not have nor are we licensed to have but Money just gets angrier and proceeds to get his own bottle of vodka starts drinking until his band arrives and politely asks for coffee and starts to sober him up. We ended up having to delay the show by an hour to allow him to get his act together and he held it together reasonably well though lost his voice halfway through. Needless to say he wasn't booked the next summer.

I worked at a fanfest baseball event in Boston where a bunch of current and former Red Sox players made appearances. I had a lot of different jobs but one of them was escorting the players from the autograph area and taking them in a golf cart to the VIP parking lot which was a several hundred yards away from the main activity area. Most of the players were nice and engaged in small talk, asked about my day and a few even gave me a tip. Clemens had brought his own handler who immediately told me not to talk to or make eye contact with Mr. Clemens. Those were his words and I was like okay d-bag if that's what you want and so we all drove in silence for the 4 minute trip.

Not negative per se but In 2003 Michael Keaton used to frequent a place in Venice Beach, CA called Hal's and he would just eat at the bar with this air of yes, I'm a movie star please stare at me. Honestly he had a very self-absorbed aura around him like look at me I used to be Batman, I saw him 3 or 4 time sand it was always the same spot and same weird look on his face. This was before his career resurgence with Birdman and Spotlight.

On the positive side I used to work as an instructor for a youth ski program at the Summit at Snoqualmie an hour from Seattle. Steve Balmer's kids were in the program and he often picked them in the evening and was quite nice and chatted me up a few times while he was watched them or waited for the session to be done. I remember thinking he was very nice and so different than his public persona as Microsoft's CEO.

I caddied for Huey Lewis in the early 90s he was very cordial and a good tipper but not the most talkative he seemed to appreciate being able to be anonymous for 4 hours.

chogun wrote:

Back when my Son was about 11 years old, I took him to a Orioles vs Tigers game in Detroit.

We were told to wait for autographs near the bus at the back of the stadium.

We waited 45 minutes, and there were only 2 kids there.

We were waiting for Cal Ripken Jnr.

Finally he came out at about 1 am. Just two little kids there and he brushed past them and hopped on the bus. Didn't say anything, didn't look at them.

What a prick.

Cal had a rule and the rule was he'd sign autographs after Oriole home games. He'd stay for hours doing that, but that's not good enough for you huh?

You wanted him to sign on away games.

I wish he had spit on you and your son.

Don't ever talk bad about Baltimore guys, got it ?

Enjoy:

https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=1475269

almostsbs1 wrote:

I was at a diner and Phil Mickelson was there eating by himself .. he was talking to the server and she was telling him about college and student loans …. He left her $$$ to cover all of her tuition.

He also did the for a former NFL players kids

Phil had about $50K in cash on him?

varicela wrote:

Flew on a plane with Jimmy Carter. He shook everyone's hand and spoke to some people. Seemed like a good guy. Flew coach with his Secret Service guy and the rest of us.

My boss & I (my boss did most of the talking) met with Carter & his wife for about an hour before a press conference when he visited the country we were working in. Both were friendly and unassuming, and obviously very intelligent without trying to show it. He seemed like a kindly retired college professor. Then he walked into the press conference, took a deep breath, and it was like he grew a foot taller and just took over the room. Never seen anything like it. My thought was, "OK, now I see how he got elected President."

Michael Johnson (after his running career) simply a rude a-hole

None of these are celebrities. Requirements to be a celebrity include having a Tik Tok channel. Until I see Jimmy Carter lip synching to Billie Eilish's "Bad Guy" or dancing to "Renegade" he does not qualify.

Benefits of Living and working in the Monterey / Carmel area

Best encounters: Reggie Jackson (caught him at the right time near his neighborhood) by himself at the time Talked a little Basball and autographed my hat.

President Bush Jr after teeing off(Monterey Country Club) turned and walked off green while I was standing in the street(alone) watching and shook his hand secret service made me very nervous

George Foreman jogging down a bike path stopped briefly and asked what kind of work we where doing(nice guy)

Dorris Day friendly but aloof

John Denver near his house at The Highlands in Carmel(Waved and said hi)

Joe Montana walking downtown Carmel (said Hi)

John Madden near his house in Carmel on His Vespa (huge guy on a tiny Vespa Cycle)said hi

Danny Sullivan (Indy race car Champion) near his home in Pebble Beach friendly

Allan Shepard Apollo astronaut at his home in Pebble (friendly guy)

Nick Dias (MMA fighter) very nice shook my hand in Vegas

Mario Andretti nice guy

Worst Encounters: Joe Morgan Baseball player asked him for a autograph and he said "I don't give autographs"!!

Believe it or not last but not least.. Clint Eastwood total dushbag ...dosent like to be bothered