Celebrity Encounters

[nrgbeat]

Has anyone ever spotted or actually met a celebrity?

I have had two celebrity encounters.

I was on an elevator with Joe Namath once in the mid 80's. No, he wasn't wearing panty hose.

I met Lou Christie (60's singer) at a concert several years ago.

What about you? I'm sure Marky has met some living in LA.

[Nano]

Well, I worked for a music mag some time ago and did get to know some people. Nobody in the disco field, though. And not many I was dying to meet, either (one bad thing of journalism: the editors always reserve the best people/concert tickets/etc. for themselves).
I did personally interview Air Supply (!), David Morales, then Guns n'Roses manager Wendy Laister (there were some problems in their Argentina concerts), lots of Latin stars... I also talked by phone with Duff McKagan (GN'R), Jane's Addiction drummer, ZZ Top's drummer, Silverchair's drummer (hey, what's this thing with drummers?) and some other people I don't remember now.
Also was in press conferences and small group interviews with people like Robert Plant & Jimmy Page, Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, the Bon Jovi band... Oops! I told you, for every one worth listening you get ten guys you don't know anything about, or just don't care.
There's more, but I don't wanna make it too long. (Must leave space for Marky!)

[Outsider]

I met Laker coach Phil Jackson at a Mexican restaurant. I got his autograph. My fiancee was also happy to have met him (she got his autograph too). I'll tell you, you may see or meet celebrities at the most unlikely places.

[markydefad]

Gawd, to quote Lorenz Hart, "If they asked me, I could write a book".

Where do I begin?

OK, the grocery store. Ralph's on Sunset Blvd. or Pavilions in WeHo.

Francis Ford Coppola, Pierce Brosnan, Estelle Getty, Catherine O'Hara, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Ursula Andress, Marlee Matlin, Seth Green and more I'm sure. But, off the top of my head...that's a start.

More later. It would be easier if you gave me names and I'll tell ya who and where I've seen em. I am good at celebrity spotting and I've also obviously met a lot through work.

I can say I've NEVER seen Tom Cruise in person. Damn!!!!! You know I woulda taken a photo of Tom & me at the Faultline beer bust!!!!

[DJ P]

Umm... Celebreties that one has met. During my DJ'ing days one of the clubs I spun at had several 'track' dates (no live band, dat tape mixed from the booth provided the music-singers used wireless mikes) and I had the chance to meet several artists/groups. We had Stacey Q (one hit wonder with 'Two Of Hearts), The group Company B (Fascinated), Pet Shop Boys (this was at the 'Suncoast Record Pool' before a concert date), Jermaine Stewart (Jody, We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off), Stacey Lattisaw (Dynamite, Jump To The Beat), Vanity (Nasty Girl). Also at the shop that I work at, Evil Knieval (motorcylist daredevil) is a regular customer. I almost forgot, one nite in the late 70's (when I had a nite off from DJ'ing) I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Thelma Houston. This post has brought back alot of forgotten but pleasurable memories. All the best, DJ Phil

[nrgbeat]

Didn't Jermaine Stewart die?

[Boodikka]

Living in NY, we really don't get excited about celebrities, you run into them all the time. I'm fairly jaded....except for the time
when I was in the same charity event as SALMA HAYEK!!!!!Yes, you guys all know the story, but I just like writing THE NAME!
OK, Boodi gonna take Prozac and calm down now....

[DJ P]

Hello nrgbeat, from what I heard Jermaine Stewart did pass away. But my meeting with him was when Jody and We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off was released in the early '80's'. He did a track date at a club I was spinning at called 'Biarittz' in Clearwater, Florida. His music was enjoyable and dancable. He is missed. It would be amazing to speculate on what music artists that have left us would had released today! All the best, DJ Phil

[Funky Dude]

Well I haven't met face-to-face with celebrities but I did attend the auditorium in Sydney Australia with my grandmother sometime around January 1995 to see Bill Gates demonstrate Windows 95 and let's just say we were seated roughly 200 feet away from where he was standing demonstrating Windows 95. At the time when I got a glimpse of Windows 95 I thought wow this is cool and was thinking IBM GUIs are looking more like the Macintosh computers. However Windows 95 wasn't released in Australia until roughly August 1995 and it obviously had bugs in it like any other Microsoft product that had a rush job to get it completed and released.

Speaking of Bill Gates, I remembered the moment when Bill Gates got pied by some irate person and thinking about it makes me laugh. I even downloaded a computer game called "Pie Bill Gates" and it's so funny because you see a bunch of 1980's Bill Gates heads pop with glasses and cheesy grins and you splat as many as you can with a pie in around 30 or 60 seconds. It's hilarious even though I'm not a Bill Gates hater.

Anyhow I've still got my ticket and it's tucked away somewhere in with my odds and ends.

[paul]

On 2002-06-10 18:44, Boodikka wrote:
Living in NY, we really don't get excited about celebrities, you run into them all the time. I'm fairly jaded....except for the time
when I was in the same charity event as SALMA HAYEK!!!!!Yes, you guys all know the story, but I just like writing THE NAME!
OK, Boodi gonna take Prozac and calm down now....

Don't even go there with Salma Boodi

[JussiK]

I danced next to Grace Jones at Bond's disco, Times Square. She boogied - in a very sexy manner - to her own record, of course and looked fabulous. At the overhyped and overall sad Studio 54 I gawked at Diana Ross as she staggered foward looking completely confused. She finally stumbled over a sofa. Minor celebrities I could not quite name were trying to utter sentences and drooling spit over their sweaty faces. Liza Minnelli looked like a dead fish. Diana, however, looked somewhat better the next time I saw her while skating at The Roxy, but still I do think her eyes had somehow a funny distant haze in them.
- Best of all, I saw ANITA EKBERG in the flesh in Riccione, Italy, around 1969 while I was a kid. There was a huge mob scene and I climbed up a tree to have a peek and there she was, sailing towards me like a huge iceberg.
- Other than these I've seen The Queen of England who looked really inbred. They should get rid of those Royal morons, the Brits, don't you think, and gain back some credibility.

[Nano]

OK, here's my requests:
-Marky: of course you didn't meet Tom Cruise... he doesn't exist. I saw Coppola in a conference three years ago and he was brilliant (and fat, of course). Did he make you taste that Californian wine he makes? On the same level of importance, is Marlee cute in person? (Seemed to have an amazing body in pictures.)
-Boodi: I don't know about your Salma story. Where do I have to look?
-Jussik: you have to name ALL the names man, that's the good thing of Internet gossip! I have an American Photo issue with several pages dedicated to Studio 54 and other discotheques. I remember one vivid photograph of Liza, Betty Ford and the other I think was Liz Taylor. Must have been taken at 4 in the morning, they looked so WASTED! Also another one of Truman Capote and old Gloria Swanson (probably thinking "where the hell am I?"). Did someone see that?

[jack]

On 2002-06-10 18:44, Boodikka wrote:
Living in NY, we really don't get excited about celebrities, you run into them all the time.

that's true...here we let the celebs just do their own thing...i've met iman { lovely }, david bowie { in space } , grace jones { in deeper space } etc in NYC..and countless others..i won't go on and on. i used to live in the same building as Chris Blackwell { Island records / resort hotels } and currently i live 2 floors below Matt Laurer of today show. they are all just normal people. Two special instances come to mind though. About 10 years ago i was walking thru the theatre district at 4pm or so...and I ran into Richard Dreyfus, Robert DeNiro and someone else { i forget } all going to their respective stages for the evenings performance. and just this last weekend i was waiting to go into a museum that was "off limits" due to a parade, when Rudy Guliani and George Pataki both walked by.

[HustleBaby]

I don't run into celebs that often nor do I get excited when I see them but here are some that I've seen or met:

1.Benjamin Bratt(Barneys NY) - Not only does he look better in person, but he's also down to earth and has nice soft hands. YUM!!!
2.Russell Simmons & Kimora Lee(Bloomingdales)
3.Henry Winkler (60th street)
4.Isaac Hayes(Saks Fifth Avenue)
5.Angie Harmon (Saks Fifth Avenue)
6.Richard Dreyfuss(Bloomingdales)
7.Spike Lee (2x - Jungle fever movie premiere and West Houston st.)
8.Daryll Strawberry & Chuck Knobloch(5th ave)
9.Dan Akroyd(62st & Madison)
10.Diana Ross(Bergdorf Goodman) - This is when she used to wear that humongous weave and thats how I recognized her. It seems like everyone else also recognized her because the next thing you know, EVERYONE started running after her inside Bergdorf.
11.Diana Rigg(Saks fifth Avenue)
12.Rudy Guiliani(61th st)
13.Brad Pitt(While filming "The Devil's Own") - HE'S STUCK UP!!!
14.Ashford & Simpson (Bloomingdales)

*DISCO DELIGHT*

[Nano]

Hey Hustlebaby! Please tell me about Mrs. Peel. I just adored her in The Avengers and that 007 movie. She's more than sixty now, but right then she was one of the most beautiful people on Earth.

[NickNack]

I guess it's true --- we New Yorkers are COLD. You see them a lot and it becomes 'no big thing'.

The "music people" I've met are already in my interview for Bernie (I won't relist). I used to live right in the heart of the "theater district" in NYC so you were always seeing celebs.

Some I've seen and/or met:

Whoopi Goldberg
Lauren Bacall
The 'easy, slow-talking' cop from the old Barney Miller tv series (the name just vanished)
Racquel Welch
Wayland Flowers (Used to hangout in the club with "Madam" --- HILARIOUS!)
Al Pacino (filming "Cruising" --- Why they filmed it I've never out.)
Ron Perman & Everett McGill - promoting their movie, "Quest for Fire".

I'm sure there's more, but I can tell what I JUST REMEMBERED while doing this --- I met Tina Turner --- on the phone. She was doing a morning thing on WBLS, I believe, and they called my home. Unfortunately, I had just crawled in the bed from being out all night. When the person said, "Hi, I'm Tina Turner on BLS...", I said, "Who?". She repeated and I said, "Yeah, right, and I'm Jesse Jackson", and slammed down the phone. Of course, it was after the phone hit the cradle that I woke up and realized what I'd done. What a complete jackass --- I'd just hung up on the woman I've been crazy about since I was nine years old and she sang "Fool In Love". Damn, damn, DAMN!





_________________
Dancin'... A Thing To Free Your Mind

Nicky

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: NickNack on 2002-06-13 14:22 ]</font>

[HustleBaby]

On 2002-06-12 19:35, Nano wrote:
Hey Hustlebaby! Please tell me about Mrs. Peel. I just adored her in The Avengers and that 007 movie. She's more than sixty now, but right then she was one of the most beautiful people on Earth.

Hi Nano,
I was working in Saks during Christmas time five years ago when this customer wanted to purchase a cashmere Loro Piana scarf. I was tired and a bit grumpy so I didn't notice her right away (even though she was in my face) until she gave me her charge card. I read the name Diana Rigg and then it clicked seconds later that it was "Emma Peel"! I said "You're Emma Peel" and everyone looked at me because I was a bit loud but she was very pleasant with this huge smile on her face. At that time she was visiting the USA so I saw her in my department several times after that first encounter.

*DISCO DELIGHT*

[Nano]

Ah, HustleBaby... I envy you!
I remember Uma Thurman said she never had seen The Avengers before she made that horrible remake, and that every male friend she told about this prior to filming was babbling for hours about how insuperable she was and how difficult would be to fit her shoes, even for someone like Uma. Well, they were right!

[Funky Dude]

NickNack wrote:
I'm sure there's more, but I can tell what I JUST REMEMBERED while doing this --- I met Tina Turner --- on the phone. She was doing a morning thing on WBLS, I believe, and they called my home. Unfortunately, I had just crawled in the bed from being out all night. When the person said, "Hi, I'm Tina Turner on BLS...", I said, "Who?". She repeated and I said, "Yeah, right, and I'm Jesse Jackson", and slammed down the phone. Of course, it was after the phone hit the cradle that I woke up and realized what I'd done. What a complete jackass --- I'd just hung up on the woman I've been crazy about since I was nine years old and she sang "Fool In Love". Damn, damn, DAMN!

Is it too late for you to try and somehow contact Tina and apologise and explain that you were really tired when she called? If not, try and contact her, I'm pretty sure she'll understand.

[Boodikka]

Just wanted to add that most of the celebrities I've met have been great people. Keeping that in mind, here is Boodikka's WORST Celebrity List:
1) Richard Kline (Three's Company) - THE WORST! This has-been (or never-was) is a fucking jerk (sorry, Ricardo). Behaves as if he still has a TV show (not that Three's Company is a shining jewel on his resume).
2) Roberta Flack - nice lady, but a lunatic! I mean a rubber-room, straight-jacket, lunatic.
3) Greg Gumbel (CBS Sports} - a giant rectum. Everyone says Brian is supposed to be the jerk, but having dealt with both of them, I'll take Brian every day, any day.
4) Beau Bridges - arrogant cuss. Didn't inherit any of Dad's charisma, just his nose hair. Probably mad that Jeff got all the looks in the family.