Disastrous brush with a celebrity?

Point taken, but only half the story is told here. A snub is one thing--and who knows maybe I'm a jerk (not really, hopefully)--but based on observations of behavior and changes over time, concerns of this individual about catching a cold, some physical attributes, and (especially) remarkable performance improvement, something else might have been going on.

I lived in Denver and tended bar at this rather upscale place. John Elway was newly signed to the Broncos --he was the rookie savior of the team. He and a couple of friends were drinking at my bar. They sat and drank for over an hour, and left me a one dollar tip.

So I'm sitting at the bar having a pint with a co-worker at Kell's in downtown Portland. A couple sits down next to me. I don't recognize either of them when my buddy elbows me and says that the guy starred in some TV show that involved some type of talking Trans Am (I still don't remember his name or the show) and the girl was Melissa Gilbert.

At the time I wasn't even sure who Melissa Gilbert was and he was incredulous that I knew neither of them. They overhear the conversation and join in. All three of them start grilling me on what I watched as a kid and how could I not know any of the shows they worked on. They were in town filming a movie, were very self deprecating and it turned out to be an enjoyable conversation.

Around 1993 I was running a 8k in conjunction with the Portland marathon weekend and right about the 2 mile mark I was caught by a pack of runners headed up by Frank Shorter. I ran with him until about a half mile to go when he drifted away. Afterwards I told Frank that when he dropped me it was a feeling that Cerpinski should have felt in a more perfect world and he just glared at me.

No messups, but since this is a running forum...I lived on Central Park West for a few years, and in that area have run by Tom Brokaw, Seinfeld, Ralp Lauren, Faye Wattleton, the black dancer from Fame (the one who died of AIDS). A little close to Broadway, have run into the black guy with the dreads who as in HBOS's Oz (the one who was in a wheelchair) and Dennis Miller (think he lived right across from the old Ollie's in the West 80s. Also lived in Londson for a while and one time Johnny Gray came up to me with his coach after a track meet at Crystal Palace to ask for directions to the train. I remember being horrified that an athlete of his caliber was taking the train like everyone else. I also remember seeing Jim Spivey banging out repeats at a local track in Norht London...forget which one it was, but I went there for whatever reason and there he was going at it...pretty cool.

Oh, I do have one semi-disastrous brush...ran into Harry Belafonte in the andes. I was wearing an indigenous style hat, and I'm not white, so I'm not sure if he mistook me for a local or what, but I he started taking pictures of me. Once I realized who he was and started chatting him up, he all of a sudden got very cold and stopped taking photos and retreated to his waiting taxi.

AK-53 wrote:

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"Brian Olfield, a US Olympic shot putter, and he's going to train in Oslo for a few weeks before the Olympics in Munich."

So not much of a meeting, but I did follow his career after that and he set some world records (rendered "unofficial" because he was a professional by then) and was somewhat of a 70s celebrity and one of the most colorful characters in track and field.

My wife collected his autograph at the 1988 trials.

It was Rupp - but I understand you might have a connection with Nike and don't want to get fired or killed.

I was in that same race. I was passed by Shorter at about the same spot. At the finish I told him that his Munich win inspired me to take up running. He looked at me and walked right past me. I met Bill Rogers in Portland in 1996 for the Portland Marathon. He took a group of us on an easy run. He was the most cordial and friendly guy, telling stories the entire way.

About a year ago, I stopped to get gas at an Exxon station at a rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike. I went inside the store to pay and, when I got back to the car, saw that someone had the door open and was stealing change from the ash tray. I ran over to the car and yelled “What the f***?” at the man, who was dressed in gray sweat pants and had a faded tie dye shirt on. I got to the car right as the man got out and, to my surprise, saw it was Bill Murray!

I stood there looking at him for almost a minute, totally shocked. He looked right at me and smiled. After a moment, he calmly said “no one will ever believe you” and then walked away.

I was drunk the first time I met Alberto Salazar. It was at the '08 Olympic Trials and pretty much every night after the races we'd go to the Villard St. Pub. The night of the 10000m, he was there with Rupp. I walked up to him and shook his hand, saying something like "Alberto! You're so awesome!" Like the guy with the Billie Joe Armstrong story, I'm sure I was more obnoxious than I thought, being drunk and all. My friends picked on me for a while after that, saying I was "flirting" with Alberto Salazar.

txRUNNERgirl wrote:My friends picked on me for a while after that, saying I was "flirting" with Alberto Salazar.

I forced Jim Tressel to resign.

Oh, I almost forgot: I caught Ratko Mladic.

A few years ago (probably 7), I was visiting friends in San Diego and they were taking me all around. We were getting ready to get some lunch and we see Ric Flair crossing the street toward us with a hot blonde next to him (very much younger). My buddy takes his phone out to get a picture and Flair just stares at him with that look of "don't f*ing take my picture".

As he passes us, Flair says to my buddy, "jerk" and then kinda turns towards me and just looks at me.

I am not thinking anything of this look and Flair says, "Where do I recognize you from?" I mentioned that I had rented him a car just a few weeks ago for a one way rental when he missed his flight the day after a show (I was the manager of a rental car branch at an airport at the time). Flair says, "Thanks again for that. Appreciate you helping me out like that. What are you doing here?"

When I replied that I was just visiting friends, we did the small talk thing for about a minute or two. He gave us a few places to eat that he likes and we went our separate ways.

I looked at my buddy and said something to effect of, "Wasn't that so much better than just a pic?"

sLCsucks wrote:

I was in that same race. I was passed by Shorter at about the same spot. At the finish I told him that his Munich win inspired me to take up running. He looked at me and walked right past me. I met Bill Rogers in Portland in 1996 for the Portland Marathon. He took a group of us on an easy run. He was the most cordial and friendly guy, telling stories the entire way.

I've met Shorter on two separate occasions. The first was after a half marathon. Someone introduced him to me, and it was a normal interaction like you'd have meeting anyone.

The 2nd time I met him was at a dinner before a marathon. I took the goober approach and asked him for an autograph. It was funny because he had a black permanent marker in his pocket, because he knew people would ask. He was cool about it and small-talked a bit but I felt like a total knob the entire time. This was a big contrast to the first time I met him. I think asking for an autograph is somewhat humiliating. It is cool to have, though.

20 or so years ago, I'm running in Central Park and notice a film being made on the bridle path, near the reservoir. It is a nice day, I am on a recovery run, so I sit on a grassy knoll and watch. Sharon Stone is the actress, and she is filming a running scene - I think it was for Sliver. So I'm sitting there, and she walks up and sits down, 10 feet from me.

For some dumb reason, I immediately get up and leave. Sensory overload or something. I will always wonder if she sat there on purpose.

Maybe this should go in that 'greatest regrets' thread.

Not disastrous, but...

Was at The Melting Pot with my wife for dinner about two years ago or so. I am usually pretty easy going, cracking jokes with people, etc.

We had a server that we had a few times before while eating there. When she asks us if we are celebrating anything special tonight, I replied that I was just taking my mistress out on a date and not to tell my wife. Because of our good relationship with this server, she just cracks up and replies back with something witty. This continues throughout the night with us and the server just joking around.

While we were waiting for the dessert part to come out, the table next to us gets up to leave and a guy comes over and says that one of the other guys from the table wants to meet my wife and I outside. I had this look like "no way am I meeting anyone outside" and the guy mentioned that it was cool and not to worry. Our server had come over and said, "don't worry, it's fine".

We walk outside and see this guy from the table (hat, untucked shirt, jeans) next to a column. He sees us and just busts out laughing. The rest of his party was probably 25 feet away or so.

He says to us "You guys are freaking hilarious. You had us cracking up all night with the sh*t you were saying. I almost spit out my food with the comment about the mistress." My wife commented that I am like that with everyone and that I like to see people laugh and smile.

Someone from The Melting Pot had come out side by this point and were standing near the entrance to this restaurant. I am thinking they are just making sure everything is okay.

The guy asks us our name and we tell him. As I am shaking his hand, he replies with "Nice to meet you guys, I am Justin Timberlake." He removes his hat and I am like "Yeah, okay, whatever". His buddy comes up and says that it really is him and, meanwhile, Timberlake pulls out his "black card" with his name on it.

The lady from the Melting Pot comes over with a camera and he asks if we want a picture with him. My wife, of course, says yes. After a couple of pics with him and his party, the lady goes inside and Timberlake mentions that they need to get going due to some other plans. As we are parting ways, he mentions again "thanks for the entertainment tonight" and we walk away.

Right about the time we are getting ready to open the door to go back in, we hear someone yell "Hey". We turn around and, as he is about to get into his (or someones Bentley), Timberlake says "I took care of your meal. Enjoy." He gets in the car and closes the door.

Dessert and our server are waiting for us back at our table. The Melting Pot had printed out the pics for us to take and the server mentioned how Timberlake didn't want to make a big scene doing the pics with him and his party while in the restaurant. She said management was in on the whole thing and how he had one of the people in his party get the approval from a manager to talk to us outside.

Still never figured out why he was in town. I heard from others he was in town to do some stuff with Missy Elliott, Timberland and the Neptunes.

Some years ago I lived in a UES Manhattan building that was popular with models including one who was on the cover of the SI Swimsuit Edition in the 1970s.

As I come into the laundry room she is transfering her wash from the washing machine to the dryer using one of those wheeled tubs. I bump my elbow on an open washing machine door, my laundry bag slips from my arms, hits her tub and her clean laundry falls into a soapy puddle from a leaky machine. She is a good sport and we laugh as she piles her stuff back in to the washing machine. I offer to pay and as I take out a fistfull of quarters they go flying all over the place. She helps me pick them up. I feed her machine but now I don't have enough quarters for my wash so she gives me a couple of quarters. We small talk about small talk till the rinse cycle we put her clothes thru is finished. I get up to help her, she looks at me and says "sit". I drop to the begging dog position. She cracks up.

Yup you guessed it now she is short quarters for the dryer. I go back to my apartment to get some and grab a bottle of wine, two glasses and return to the laundry room...

of course I forgot the corkscrew!!

I met Ned Beatty when I was a kid and said "Weren't you in Rambo?" I had confused him with Brian Dennehy. He must've thought I was retarded but he was a nice guy and spoke with my dad for awhile.

I was in Osaka for the WC and on the way to the meet I saw two very attractive young women in the same car of the train. We got to the part of the line where we had to change trains and they didn't know how to transfer so I showed them how. We started talking and they said they were 100 meter hurdlers form Sweden. The prettier of the two said that she would like to do some sightseeing in Kyoto but she didn't know how to get around there or where things were....I said ..uh ...uh maybe you could ask someone in your hotel to help you..doh! Of course seconds after we separated I regretted my lack of intelligence.

When I got home that night I googled her and discovered she was one of the most famous women in Sweden and basically like a pop idol. She must have thought I was the biggest idiot/loser for passing up an opportunity half of Sweden would have died for...