Celebrities are just like us. Of course, not always; they make millions of dollars, live in giant mansions, and travel on private jets. But when you strip them away from all of the wealth and glamor to just a person visiting a zoo or having a coffee, we might not even recognize them.
A few years back, Redditor Kimantha_Allerdings asked other users to share their funniest "I met a celebrity but didn't let on that I knew who they were" stories and their post (as well as the comments) has been making a comeback, so we decided it would be a good idea to show you the wildest ones.
Now, can you believe everything anonymous people on the internet say? Probably not. But these anecdotes are still entertaining.
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My mom yelled at Pierce Brosnan. She and my dad were at a ski resort getting lunch. My mother gets quite hangry (an unfortunate trait I inherited) and was waiting in line to order. Right as she's about to order a guy tried to cut in front of her and interrupt her. She snapped and told him to go to the back of the line like everyone else. She got her food and went back to my dad sitting there mouth wide open in shock.
"Do you know who that was?"
"No?!"
"That was Pierce Brosnan. You just yelled at James bond"
"Well he shouldn't have tried to cut me"
🤣🤣🤣 True! I'm Bond! James Bond! And I'm Smith! Susan Smith! GET BACK IN LINE!!!
Load More Replies...She's right....don't cut in line, it's rude. Go take a 007 number and get in line.
Who effing cares who they are? I'd have done the same, even knowing who he is. Who cares? Wait in line like everyone else.
Good! Why should anyone get special treatment? Especially famous people! Wtf. I hate that s**t. Famous ppl get paid more than they're worth, they get loads of free s**t, loads of free services, treated like royalty... even though they could afford to buy it all and basically end homelessness in their home city and still have money left over... but them still expect to be treated like they're special even though they already do... no. Not happening on my watch. Side note. Stephen Baldwin used to come into my Whole Foods every so often, usually around the holidays (this was a few years back in Chicago) and he'd buy the whole staff lunch/dinner and have it catered to us. Usually portillos or chipotle or whatever was close by. Not sure why he did this but he also made a point to use our names and ask "personalish" questions.. like where we're from, hobbies etc. and hed usually only spend like $100 on dried fruit and cheese. Lol. Still weird that he bought us food but we appreciated it.
My sentiments exactly. "You just yelled at Henry Caville", "yes, and i'll kick his fuc*ing a**e if he ticks me off again, despite the huge crush I have on him".
Hangry is hangry. Don't mess with hangry ppl. They could bite you. At least I would.
Celebrities shouldn't expect special treatment because of their fame. Good for her!
I almost yelled at Elijah Wood once :) Was at Billy Boyd's band's concert in NYC, the place was packed and I was standing near a table where a guy was sitting with his friends. They all looked like they were in their early 20s and they were chatting and giggling non-stop. I was getting mad and wanted to lecture them on how some people are there to actually listen to the music, but that would have meant leaving my good spot with the view of the stage so I did not have to yell at them (and that would've disproved my point LOL), so I did not say anything. When the show was over and the lights were on I realized that the guy I almost yelled at was Elijah Wood :) Howard Shore was at that concert too, BTW, - great times!
I'd do the same. Celebs are no better than anyone else. Back of the line!!
As she should have. That wasnt hangry. That was putting a person in their place.
This is the second time I heard bad things about him. Also James cordon said he was really rude to him.
This happened yesterday! My wife took my son to the zoo, and he wanted to read every little plaque in the reptile area. My wife was distracted for a moment, so he asked the nearest stranger to read the plaque for him. My wife turned around to see Scarlett Johansson happily reading the info to him.
My mom is a big sports fan. One time she was shopping at and saw a really large, fit looking man who she didn't immediately recognize but seemed familiar. She thought it must of been a professional football player or something, so she went up to the only other person in the shop, who was this smaller wierd-looking guy, and asked him if he knew who the athletic looking man was. The short guy looked at my mom and said "That's my bodyguard, I'm Elton John."
I used to be a server at a Mexican restaurant right outside LA in the late 90s. One day Leonardo DiCaprio came in with who I assume was his mom to have lunch. This would've been post Titanic so really at the peak of his breakthrough mega celeb status. He was wearing a ball cap, sunglasses and unshaven but I recognized him anyway. I didn't let anyone know and I wrote something like "your movies are awesome, I hope you liked our food" on his receipt when I dropped it off at the table.
After he left, I swung by and picked up his payment and he had left me a note back that said "thank you so much for not blowing my cover" with a $100 tip. S**t was awesome I was only like 19, I went and got some Playstation games with it after my shift ended.
This doesn't count because it's about my father in law, and he legitimately didn't know who she was, but we were vacationing in Maine and spending a lot of time on the beach. My father in law would walk his dog early everyone morning. He met this lady and they would meet up and walk their dogs together then go their separate ways.
One morning I got up early to come with him, and to my surprise, we met up with Sigourney Weaver and went for a walk.
My dad met Robin Williams in an elevator. He got in and they rode a few floors in silence. They stopped on a floor and s bunch of fans ran in and started getting pics with Robin. My dad said he was gracious and took pics with everyone. The doors closed and they rode a few more floors and my dad turned and said “does that ever get old?” and Robin smiled and said “Nope. Never.” Then my dad got off on his floor and they nodded to one another and my dad went on with his day.
I helped Steven Spielberg move his daughter's bags into her college dorm.
I was working a shift helping first-years move in and I see a guy in a hat and sunglasses who is unmistakably Spielberg. I strike up a conversation, ask if he needs help with the bags, etc. First names only -- "We're from CA. My wife, Kate, and I sent all our kids to East Coast schools though." Stuff like that.
Later, when his daughter opened the door for the first time, he whipped out a camcorder and, wearing the biggest Dad grin, recorded the whole thing before turning the camera on my friend and me to ask us about the city.
So, I have a supporting (the luggage), speaking role in a limited release (home movie) film shot by Steven Spielberg.
I was in a book store in RI and was in the horror section. Picked up a book by Stephen King, and flipped it over and saw his picture on the back (or inside the cover, I don't really remember).
I look up, and in the next aisle over, right across the book shelf from me, is a guy that looks exactly like Stephen King. So I hold up the book and say "is this you?"
"Yeah."
"Good books"
"Thanks"
And that was that.
I worked at a Barnes & Noble in NY as a clerk, but once or twice I'd be called over to the in-store Starbucks cafe to help out whenever they were understaffed. One time, Alan Rickman came up and ordered something, I can't recall what. I wrote "Hans Gruber" on his cup though. He smiled at me when he noticed it.
I was 10 years old in 2002 when my mom took me to the Bronx Zoo for the first time. It was a rainy day so we practically had the whole place to ourselves except for 3 British kids running around, chaperoned by a woman. My mom quickly befriended the woman while I made like a kid and joined the hoard, looking at spiders and scorpians and sharing in the awe and excitement of the animals.
After about an hour when we said our goodbyes, my mother told me that the kid, Daniel, who I had been hanging out with had played Harry Potter in the movie that came out last year.
I had thought he looked familiar.
I've served Daniel Radcliffe in bar I was working at in Lake District (him and two stunt doubles) when they were recording second to last Harry Potter movie in Scotland. I didn't expect him to be this short, bar was quite high and before I've recognised him I was thinking to ask him for id if he orders anything alcoholic, but they all had diet coke with their meals. My gf's daughters were obsessed with the books and movies and I've rang her, she came down with girls and he sat with them for like half an hour talking, nice guy. One of the waiters kept his glass with his fingerprints as a souvenir, we got his autograph for kids.
I had the fortune of being on the same plane as Stan Lee. We were being shuttled to another part of the airport. I whispered to what I assumed to be his bodyguard that I didn’t want to lead others on who he was so please just let him know that I appreciate his work. He nodded then whispered into Stan Lee’s ear. He then smiled and put his head down in acknowledgement.
Rest In Peace big guy. You were a big part of my childhood.
I met him once too! He was the nicest guy. So friendly and sweet and unpretentious.
My friend's mom (over 70yrs old) owns a small asian grocery store. Post Malone came walking in with his girlfriend and his mom had no idea who he was. A few cute things happened:
1. She was nervous because of his tattoos, but happy/not worried once he bought a lot of food. She had no idea he was a celebrity.
2. She gave him a free snack for buying so much food and told him to come back for lunchtime for cheap and tasty gyoza (he did come back the next day!)
3. She was worried he would get mugged going to his car because of 3 big men outside so she followed him outside (they were his bodyguards)
4. She really liked his "cool car" (it was a lamborghini)
She told my friend about the encounter that evening and he pulled up a youtube video based on the description - it was him. When Post Malone came back the next day for Gyoza she got a selfie with him (it's on my friends phone so I don't have the picture available right now). Whole thing is adorable with how innocent his mom is.
About 5 years ago my dad was in LA for business and got into the elevator of his hotel to head down to one of his meetings. When he got in, he instantly recognized a huge, legendary, hall-of-fame LA Laker standing next to him. Normally, my father would never say anything but for some reason felt compelled to introduce himself. He stuck out his hand and said, "Shaq, it's nice to meet ya." He immediately realized he messed up and the guy responded, "I'm Magic Johnson but it's nice to meet you too." The secondhand embarrassment is real.
Sigourney Weaver. I think I was in the middle of selling her a jacket and some art from the Whitney museum gift shop before I truly recognized her. She was amazingly tall and I got to bask in the glory that was Ripley. Totally makes sense why they casted her as the Xeno queen fighter she was. Just her presence alone was both intimidating and alluring. SO cool.
Was walking out of a gas station over on Crescent Heights and Sunset and heard a "hey!...hey!" coming from a cracked window on tinted out range rover that was parked at one of the pumps. I walk over to the car to see Jeff Goldblum, who had somehow seen my gold ring I was wearing on my right hand from 20 feet away. He proceeds to tell me how he loves my ring and has been looking for one just like it and asks me where I got it. I tell him it was my grandfather's and he asks to see it up close. I hold my hand up to Jeff Goldblum, he takes my hand, gushes about the ring for a minute and thanks me. I said sure and walked back to my apartment.
I like to think we're friends now.
I imagine having a conversation with Jeff Goldblum to be like a really good acid trip or good jazz. It is surreal, never goes where you think it will, and you just find it delightful.
My husband was vacationing in Arizona, killing time in a bar over a burger and a beer. A guy sits next to him and my husband has a nice chat with him. The guy leaves and my husband goes to close his tab and the bartender tells him it’s been covered by the guy he was talking to.
The bartender asks if he knows who he was talking to. My husband has no idea. Chuck Norris, it was his bar.
Edit: How embarrassing. It wasn’t Arizona, it is Woody’s Wharf in Newport, California and still exists today. The story is still true. I just flaked on the location. Thanks for all the fun comments!
The Rock was at the Gold Coast, Australia to film San Andreas. He came into the place where I worked in Surfers Paradise with a woman and a young child. He was kind-of in disguise, had his head covered and had something partially obscuring his chin.
I served them and didn't recognize him at first. The woman handled the talking, and he just kind of hung back quietly. I looked at him once, and probably wouldn't have given him a second thought, but his eyes widened for that split second (possibly he was wondering if I'd recognized him and was about to cause a scene, it was a packed centre) and it just clicked in my head to connect the eyes with the news of the Rock being in town.
Once I made the connection, it was totally obvious who he was, and since I was still looking at him, I could tell by now he knew he'd been spotted.
Then I just wished the group enjoy their day and half-smiled at him, and he gave me a nod, and they went about their business.
I didn't tell anyone at work, because I didn't want the dude to get swamped when he was trying to spend time with his family. I didn't tell anyone I knew, because it's really not that much of a story. In fact, this is the first I've ever shared this story with anyone.
The thought of Dwayne Johnson trying to fade into the background is a funny one.
Met Elon Musk in a Tesla store in LA. Really wanted to meet him but didn't want to be that guy. Decided I had a plan, so walked up to him and said, "Excuse me, do you work here?"
He replied, "I mean yeah kind of".
I say, "Ah what can you tell me about the entertainment console of the Model S?"
He says, "let me see if I can find someone to help you."
To which I say, "nah I'm just f**king with you"
He laughed and shook my hand and walked off.
I met Justin Timberlake and had no idea it was him until someone told me afterwards. Went to a basketball game with my dad and we stopped by the bar area in the arena first. The game had just started so it was pretty empty except for the bar itself. My dad goes to the restroom and I walk up to the bar to order a beer. There's only one seat at the bar next to a guy in a baseball cap and sunglasses. I politely ask if the seat is taken and he just says "nope, it's all you, man." We shoot the s**t for a couple minutes. He's sitting on my right and eventually he says he and his wife are going to go to their seats. He extends his hand and asks my name. I tell him and ask his name. He says, "Justin. Nice to meet you dude, have a good night."
He and his wife leave and the bartender comes up to me and says, "You know that was Justin Timberlake, right?"
I immediately did a double take and couldn't believe I didn't recognize him even with the hat and sunglasses. I told my girlfriend at the time who was a huge Justin Timberlake fan and she couldn't believe I met him without knowing it was him. She wouldn't let it go for like a month.
I was at a test screening of the movie Valkyrie. Me and my friends were near the front of the theater talking before the movie started, and I went on this big, loud rant about how "normally I like Tom Cruise movies but War of the Worlds was such a piece of s**t, one of the worst movies I've ever seen, plot didn't make sense, they strung a bunch of cool scenes together and put a s**t happy ending on it and called it a day. " after I wrap up my 5 minute rant outlining everything wrong with War of the Worlds the person sitting behind us tapped me on the shoulder and point 4 seats down in my row to Tom Cruise glaring at me, I gave him the nod and sat there for what might have been the longest 10 minutes before a movie started ever.
Not quite what you were asking for but close enough for an excuse to tell that story.
TLDR: Didn't notice Tom Cruise was listening while I talked s**t about one of his movies.
A couple of years ago me and my sister were at Comic-Con. You tend to see some a lot of famous people there, but it's usually with them in booths with guards and stuff (with the exception of Seth Green).
Anyway, me and my sister were at one of the booths waiting for their giveaways when a man suddenly came up beside me all excited and in a bit of wonder. He told us how great everything was there and how much of an experience it was for him there, all in a while I was probably looking at him strangely because of how familiar his accent and his voice and his face and his blond hair was. He asked where we got our poster tubes, and that's probably when I remembered who he was but decided to just not mention it because I was kind of still in disbelief and pointed him to one of the far off booths where they sell poster tubes.
The man was Owen Wilson. I hadn't been sure it was him, because I always thought he'd be a lot taller. It was kind of warming to see how excited he was to be there in the crowds.
One of my best friends doppelganger is Ethan Hawke. Like it's scary how much he resembles him, to the point that during those stupid facebook challenges he just changed his profile picture to him and nobody realized it. Also his favorite story was one time at San Diego Comic Con he actually confused Rosario Dawson at a hotel bar.
Anyway one night I'm walking home from work in NYC, and I see who I thought was my friend, John just walking on a kind of secluded part of of 9th ave around Hells Kitchen, and I yell "JOHN!"
He doesn't turn around.
So I decide to yell it again, and instead of responding his pace quickens. I decide the best thing to do is to run at him which seemed to terrify him as keep in mind it's late and there are very few people around. Anyway I catch up to him and say "Oh, you're not John" and then walk away from what was a very frightened Ethan Hawke.
I want to hear more about how your friend confused Rosario Dawson!
My cousin rode a ski lift with Jack Black in Vail. Just the two of them. Her husband and I were in the lift behind them, freaking out. When we got off the lift they’d gone their separate ways. We made our way to her she was like “wow, that guy on my lift was so nice.” We were like NO S**T THAT WAS JACK BLACK. She was like “THE SCHOOL OF ROCK GUY?!?!”
She was so embarrassed. She said she rambled on about living in Iowa for most of their conversation. We laughed our asses off.
When I was younger with fewer responsibilities I used to just drive around for the hell of it. To me, driving is a hobby. Late at night was my favorite time. The streets are empty. My uncle is like this too. I asked him if he wanted to meet at American Coney Island. We sat down in a booth. A couple guys walked in after us and sat down behind us. Eminem, Dr. Dre, and a guy I later found out was Jimmy Iovine. We paid them no attention, but we knew who they were. They finished before us and as they were walking out, Eminem nodded at us and said, "thanks for not making a big deal about this. We got you." He and the other guys disappeared around the corner.
It irritates that people think every entertainer owes them a recognition award when they're out. Yeah, sure we watch their movies and such, but hey please let them have some life. I've met celebrities several times, not once have I gone all crazy. Bets are off over Jason Mamoa though.
I served Daniel Radcliffe brunch one time. All the other servers were freaking the hell out that he was in our restaurant, so, given I don’t care much about actors and would remain professional, I was chosen to take care of him. He ordered the eggs Benedict, no sides, extra Benedict. I dubbed it “The Quad Benny”. He was incredibly polite and appreciative, tipped well, and his accent was downright intoxicating. After that experience, I became a big Radcliffe fan.
My dad and I bumped into Michael Jordan at a Walgreen's near Chicago. This was back in 2006 or so.
We were picking out birthday cards for my mom, and MJ and his son came in the same aisle browsing some cards. My dad kept his cool and continued to look through different cards, giving him his personal space. I, on the other hand, was 9 years old and in awe, sort of staring at him. After MJ picked out his card, he winked at me and gave me a walk-by fist bump.
Didn't really set in until I was older how cool that was.
Used to work at a posh hotel and we had wedding there all the time. I was pretty young at the time, say 15.
David Tennant was at one wedding, Doctor f**king Who and I was pouring him coffee.
At first I was sat there thinking is he/isn’t he so I was playing it cool. I went back to the kitchen to top up more coffee in my coffee jug and the staff were talking about it too before deciding it actually was David Tennant.
Spent the rest of the night playing it cool because I was in that yeah whatever stage of teenage life. Inside I was freaking out.
What fun! Our favorite Doctor and yet so creepy in the Harry Potter movies.
Jared Leto. I work in an outdoor goods store in Boulder CO, which for those who don’t know is one of the biggest climbing towns in the US. He came into the store to get some stuff as he’s known to travel here and climb with other big pros, notably Alex Honald who is a buddy of his. He had been outted in the middle of the footwear department by a coworker on mine in front of a big group of customers so by the time he got over to the climbing area where I work he was really on edge and unfriendly. I walked up to him and honesty just acted like he wasn’t hot s**t. I acted like I didn’t really know who he was and just spoke to him like any other customer even breaking conversation with him at several points to answer questions for other folks as opposed to giving him my full undivided attention.
After about 5 minutes of that he totally relaxed and his entire demeanor changed. He went from being somewhat rude and cold to being very chill, calling me bro etc. and I ended up walking around the store with him for like 25-30 minutes helping him shop. The only time I implied I knew who he was was towards the end as I was ringing him up. He asked me to recommend some climbing spots close to town like the flatirons. It was a beautiful Saturday and I said to him that those places are great but he’ll get bombarded by people if he goes there and I recommended some spots just outside of town instead. He sorta leaned in and thanked me for my discretion and that was it. It seemed like he really just wanted to be treated like a normal guy.
My father has the best one.
He was coming back from work and was stepping around a bus that was outside the Port Authority in NYC. As he's coming around, someone else is coming the other way and they bump into each other. My father apologizes and the guy just gives him a smile, letting him know it that it's cool. As walks away, he looks back again and realizes that it's Henry Winkler, AKA The Fonz, and he almost knocked him on his ass. This was before cameras in phones were a thing.
Not sure if this counts but when I was 15 I was really into playing Starcraft (being a 3 month old game at the time) on battle.net. I did mostly 3v3 games. After finishing this one particularly epic match (close game, we won), we all got into a chat room to talk about how fun that was. Iirc, one of them says something to the effect of "not sure if you all care but you just beat Ben Affleck." Of course we all ask him to prove it, so he told us to wait a minute and visit his official website's message board (benaffleck.com or something like that). He had just made a post in red (red being Ben Affleck himself) about just losing a game of Starcraft.
We briefly chatted with him and that was it.
I didn't meet him but a friend did. In our town Brendan Fraser was shooting a film, he went out to a local beach to (I assume) take some pictures abd just generally relax. Well, out of the blue my friend, his brother and and another guy rolled up in their s**tty beat up nissan micra. They got to talking, and somehow convinced him to hop into the car handed him a can of beer and went diffing. Best part was they didn't know his actual name so they just kept calling him george of the jungle.
Not surprised. Such a loveable person. Very enjoyable as an actor too.
I've shared this story on Reddit before...I actually had no clue I was sitting next to a celebrity in an airport for about 90min.
People asked him for his picture. Some people asked me if I should be in the photo. I declined. The celebrity asked me to smile and play along if anyone else asked for a picture of us both.
At first I was confused, as time wore on I was a little embarrassed. He told me he was on TV and we chatted about where we were flying, what books we were reading etc... but I didn't want to ask who he was because it seemed rude.
After he left someone asked me how I knew him. I said I didn't. They told me he was Michael C. Hall from "Dexter"...saddest thing is I watched that show but didn't clue in.
I think about it and laugh...someone got a picture of me and Dexter and showed it to their friends trying to figure out who the other guy in the picture was.
I walked right past Stevie Wonder in a small hallway once. My face lit up with excitement, but he didn’t know.
Robin Williams used to walk around my lone childhood country town near SF. I saw him once (after hearing many rumors about his sightings, not entirely unlike Bigfoot or Nessy sightings).
My brain didn’t fully comprehend what it was seeing. But I could tell he was trying his very best to remain incognito and not draw any unwanted attention.
We locked eyes. He smiled, I smiled and nodded back, and we both went ur separate ways.
I met a celebrity but I didn’t realize who he was: I posted before in a thread buried in 10k comments. Doubt anyone saw it.
Years ago, like 20 years ago, I went to see Adam Sandler standup at a small comedy club. Clearly I knew who he was because I got tickets to his show. My date and I were running a smidge late and ran into a guy in the lobby. A guy I used to work with, so I was like, “Hey! Danny, how are you doing, what have you been up to?” He was like, “I’m good, how are you?” I responded that I was good, but running late for the show, had to run and he said, “ok, have a good night” and walked off. As my date and I walked into the club, he said, “you know who that was?”
It wasn’t Danny. It was Adam Sandler. But, gotta say, he played the part of Danny well. One of his better roles.
I worked at a movie theater in Albuquerque at the time they we're filming the first avengers film. Captain America was about to come out, I remember because we had the huge standee of him in the lobby. I was reading in the box office when three people came up. Guy asked for 3 tickets to Bridesmaids. It was dark out and he had a green baseball cap and sunglasses. He paid with a credit card. Christopher Evans. I stared at the card after I swiped it. Handed it back. "I need you to sign the receipt" he did. And then he walked in.
Edit: thanks for all the comments guys. Just to add on. I didn't recognize the other two with him. One was a blonde woman and the other was a guy with buzzed hair and a six o'clock shadow. Also I only lived in ABQ for a year in 2010-2011
Samuel L. Jackson was on my flight. I was second to last to board the flight and there was all this commotion with the flight attendants and gate crew. Once I approached the door of the plane I realized they were all looking at Samuel L. Jackson. He was standing by the cockpit making himself available to passengers/fans. I played it cool. Didn’t say a word. Turns out, I’m shy around celebrities. I’m just glad I didn’t make a snakes on the plane joke.
Missed opportunity for that joke 🤪 but I understand completely. If I attempted, it’d probably come out a weird jumbled mess of words haha. I know this because it’s how I speak normally (chronic lack of sleep lol)
In the Mid 90's I was a cab driver. Our service was like a cross between a limo and a taxi, and we serviced some fancy resorts. As I dropped off my passenger at a resort, another guy asks if I'm a taxi, and I say yes, so he tells his friend their cab is here.
His friend got in the car and said "this ain't no cab, smells too good to be a cab" in that unmistakable Chris Rock voice.
He and his friend just bulls**tted with each other for the ~15 minute drive to a local night club. There was a white kid trying to talk to a yellow-cab driver ahead of us in the parking lot and Chris Rock started imitating the kid, like "I need a ride, yeah, I'm drunk, but I need a ride", and I was trying really hard not to laugh out loud.
He wasn't nearly as famous yet at the time, but I had seen his stand up routines on Comedy Central and knew exactly who he was, but didn't go fan-boy on him.
10/10 would drive Chris Rock again.
Not sure if this counts as a celebrity, but last fall I was flying from LA to Dallas and the person sitting next to me was a real housewife from Bravo. I didn't recognize her since I don't watch her show, but she did mention it to me multiple times during the flight. She wanted to apologize in advance in case there were fans hounding her at the baggage claim. Spoiler alert - there weren't.
Hours later when I was checking into my hotel, she was there in the lobby and made sure to tell me again that she was on TV.
Was at a convenience store in LA when me and a very nicely-dressed black gentleman walked up to the cashier at the same time to pay. It was night time and he had his dark shades on and was talking on his phone. I gave him the "after you" gesture and he nodded and said "thanks buddy", paid and left. It wasn't until he was out of the store that I realized he was Jamie Foxx.
Before I realized who he was, Shaun Alexander asked me if I liked football. I told him I liked the Steelers. He said, "Yeah, I lost to them in the Super Bowl." I felt pretty stupid, but he thought it was funny. Super nice guy.
I was at IKEA in Vancouver and noticed this lady in a low hanging hat had dropped something. I helped her pick it up and noticed it was Sarah McLachlan. Didn't let on that I knew who she was because I couldn't think of anything to say.
I was in Tokyo Japan and was visiting the square cutout tower with my grandparents, we were trying to take a family picture when an American business man offered to take the picture for us, he did we said thank you, and afterwords as after he was going down the escalator one of his Asian entourage told us it was Jeb Bush. My grandparents nearly s**t themselves.
I was on my way to a Rams game, back when they played in St. Louis. I was headed for the Metrolink station, in the middle of a crowd of people who were all wearing Rams gear, and clearly going the same place I was.
The station is right smack by Barnes-Jewish hospital, and we're walking by buildings that are part of the hospital complex or Wash U's medical campus. As I'm walking towards the stoop of a brownstone, I see someone step out, and react in surprise. I immediately recognized him as one of the team's defensive tackles, who was on IR at the time with a foot injury. He looked surprised to see the crowd, then worried, which I took to mean he was concerned he might get caught up by fans wanting to get autographs or take a photo.
Nobody recognized him. They just kept walking by. I was going right by the steps where he was standing, so I stepped to the side and said, "Hey man, if you go back in and take a right, you'll be able to go out the north door, and there'll be less people there." He nodded, said "Thanks", and headed back inside.
40 minutes later, and there he is on the sidelines, right in front of me.
Bumped into David Gilmour while walking down Newbury St the day after I saw him in concert. A bunch of apologies and we kept on our way. (Addit - TBH we were staring at the girl on his arm more than him)
I (almost literally) ran into Shaq at a small restaurant in LA. He was standing in the doorway. You know how some people are so tall you don't "see" them? So I'm exiting the doorway, and say "excuse me man" and he stepped aside so I could leave. He is one large human being.
My husband and I are both tall. I cannot tell you how many times people have almost run into us because they don't see us. I thought it was just a weird "us" thing. Is not seeing tall people an actual thing?
Ashley Tisdale. I was her waiter...a 36 year old guy who was the furthest thing from her "target market". I didn't let on that I knew her cause I didn't know who she was. Took care of her and her date the whole time. A couple of times when I was explaining the menu and asking if she'd been there before she had a smirk on her face. Looking back I guess she was probably thinking "I guess this guy doesn't know who I am." Later that night I was watching TV and there she was. I was like WTF?! I just waited on that girl tonight!? GF was like...yeah that's Ashley Tisdale.
She plays Rachel King in the newest installation of The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes.
I was 10 visiting Aunt and Uncle in Chicago. We're walking along and see kids surrounding this guy. Uncle asks me if I knew the guy. I thought-Chicago-Ernie Banks. Go get his autograph. My sister tore a piece off envelope her future husband mailed letter to her, handed it to me, and off I went. To get Ernie's autograph. Got it, brought it back, Uncle looked at it, tells me, "You just got Muhammed Ali's autograph"! I replied, "Who ?" I still have it. M Ali
That’s funny. I got Ernie banks signature. In Washington DC.
Load More Replies...When I worked in Belgravia (London's posh neighborhood) I used to go for a walk on my lunchtime and seen many TV actors around, but a couple of times I've crossed paths with this older gentleman, very tall, very well dressed, and he always smiled and said "Hello darling, how are you?" and we exchanged a couple of words. I just thought he was a very nice man. Then many months after I left the job I saw him on an episode of Dr Who (Matt Smith at the time) - it was Tom Baker (the 4th Doctor)!
So lots of American celebs there, in fact I think all are, except Potter. So here's one. 1986. In a lift ("elevator") in Johannesburg, South Africa (for those who don't know where it is). I'm with my mom. Behind me in the lift is an african lady with a really awesome hat made out of wound fabric, and a few really large guys in suits. As I got in my eyes must have gone big. Anyway we get out on our own floor, she's obviously still going up. I say to my mom, "WAS THAT???" and she says "Yep. Her lawyers are in this building." It was Winnie Mandela.
David Tennant isn't, neither is Elon Musk, nor Alan Rickman.
Load More Replies...I was on a plane with REM, but I didn't recognize them and we talked the whole flight about what stuff and also on what we were going to do in Amsterdam. They were like, yeah we are going to go see about some gigs, maybe do some music. It wasn't until we landed and got our luggage and they were swarmed by fans that I realized maybe they weren't just some startup band... They waved at me after, so I guess I didn't make too much of a fool of myself.
I was on a plane with Hooverphonic - they were sitting right behind me, I even borrowed a pen from them to fill out my customs document, and didn't recognize them for a second, even though I absolutely love their music! They looked like a bunch of regular (albeit creative) people, easy-going, not at all like the famous musicians they are. Only one person really recognised them once we had landed, and asked for an autograph. It was then that it clicked with my husband, but I was still totally onblivious. When he told me (outside of the airport) I couldn't believe that I had not recognised them.
Load More Replies...I ran into George Lucas in a bookstore, he lives nearby. Nobody cares. Not George, not me…nobody. We like it that way.
Working at a gasstation in the Netherlands late at night a big luxury bus stops and a group of normal middle aged guys gets off. They come in and ask me for all the stroopwafels we've got. They buy the entire stock. Really nice guys! Last in line is the driver, he goes "you have no idea who they are right?" Nope. Apparently they were The Beach Boys.
Celebrities are just regular people,wanna enjoy the small things like us.We're all the same.:)
My friends and I were lost, trying to find a restaurant in London. I stopped to ask a man for directions, he was outside a cafe, drinking coffee and reading the paper. He started giving me directions and telling about a shortcut. As soon as I heard his voice, I looked at him again. By this time, my friends had caught up and shouted "OMG, are you Bill Nighy?" It was, and spoke to us for a little while about our evening before reiterating the directions for us! The shortcut was just what we needed and he was a true gentleman.
My husband and I lived just East of Seattle and would frequently drive down I-405 to Tukwila or Auburn. One day, my husband was driving and started to complain about the guy behind him that was tailgating him. I said "Pull over in the other lane and let him pass." As the car approached on the right, my husband looked in the driver's side mirror and said "No Way!" I wasn't sure what he was so shocked about until a black Merkur Scorpio passed us with the license plate "Doo Fame" on it. Yep! That was James Doohan (aka Scottie from Star Trek) going warp speed past us.
I was looking for the shuttle bus to get me to the Supanova convention in Melbourne, and overhead a guy in the hotel lobby speaking with an American accent. I figured he was probably there for the con, so I went over and said "Hey, are you here for Supanova too?" The guy, who was a black man with greying hair, gave me this wonderful friendly smile and said yes, he was. Which was when I realised I was talking to Ron Glass! He was so lovely. We chatted on the bus and I remember him talking about a really good curry restaurant he'd been to recently. I was gutted to find out he had died a few years later.
My husband was walking through a casino and stopped to play slots for a bit. Casually asked the guy next to him if he was having any luck. They made small talk for a minute and played in silence. Then after maybe 20 minutes the guy got up and wished my husband a good night and left. It was Paul Hogan from Crocodile Dundee. He knew who he was but just didn’t want to act all star-struck.
Not me, but my sister's roommate's Mom. She came from a tiny town. This was in the late 80s. She was very nervous about visiting our "big city" with all the crime, etc. She treated herself to the best hotel in the city. She gets in the elevator and after her walks in a little guy and two very scary mobster-looking guys in suits with hard expressions. She was immediately fearful that some shooting was about to take place and stands by the buttons frozen like a deer. One of the big guys says, "Hit the floor" (meaning punch in the floor button). She takes it as "Hit the deck!" and immediately drops to the floor. So, Prince and his two bodyguards immediately fall around the place laughing. They paid for her room, I think. She said she had met some very nice young men. She had no idea who Prince was.
When I was like...9 or 10, I sat next to Jackie Onassis at the ice cream shop on the Island in Maine where we spent our summers. Took a lot of explaining from my mother to understand who she was. We had a nice conversation. Another time, there was a bar in NYC on 3rd. st. that my buddy and I would go to on Thursdays, because we could get off work early, and their happy hour started at like 11 am. Went in there and drank beer with some dude and his friend for a few hours - we were the only ones there - later saw him on some show called "ER". George Clooney.
I ran into Jeff Bezos once. I was on a business trip in Seattle and was walking near the Amazon Spheres and the Amazon HQ and I see this group of black cars roll up in front of me by the sidewalk. In the middle of the cars is a Rolls-Royce. The back door flys open and Bezos speedwalks into the building. The cars then went into a nearby parking garage. The only reason I recognized him was because of his bald head and I got a good look at his face for a moment.
I watched a Star Trek movie when my mom walked in and said "oh i met this guy some 20 years ago" she was a hotel maid and Leonard Nimoy was her guest. She didn't realize he was a star until 20 years later when she saw him accidentely in the TV.
How did Nimoy accidentally get in the tv? That’s pretty hard to do.
Load More Replies...I work security for special events, I've run into a few celebs without realizing it till later. Michael Rapaport, had a pleasant conversation with him backstage at a concert. Carlo D'Allesandro at a football game, he was in a group taking a photo. They were blocking the exit so I asked them move to the side. I randomly selected Al Roker for medal detectors, he was very nice and cracked jokes. Andy Serkins at Comic Con, walked right past him. There are others, but these were the ones I didn't know until after the fact.
A friend of mine from high school went to LA in the late 90s to see family. She ended up chatting to Heath Ledger at In N Out for about 15 minutes in line, and had no idea who he was. This was right after 10 Things I Hate About You was released, so her cousin was standing behind the two of them freaking out. My friend had no idea who he was until her cousin bombarded her with questions after they got their food and sat down. She said he was very nice and chatted away about random topics until they got to the head of the line.
My mom worked for a window installer in the city of Chicago before i was born.... The company had just redone some condos windows and there were so many windows the screens had to be delivered and installed separately....so my moms boss tells her to go deliver and install the windows and call when shes done so he can clock her out..... 5 hours later the boss calls the condo (well before cell phones were common) because my mom never called him to clock her out.... My mom was sitting in the condo baking cookies with Walter Petyons wife (after she finished installing the screens of course) and Walter Peyton came home.... She got a signed jersey from them... Coolest story from my mom
My uncle was good friends with dime back Darrell when I was little. No idea who he was just loved his gutair. My uncle has a photo of me sitting on his lap at 7 years old holding a stuffed tiger he bought me for my birthday. I still have it and ended up being a huge Pantera fan later on in life. Rip dude. I just remember him being super nice to me when he was in town.
I imagine celebrities prefer when people don't know who they are. Genuine human interactions.
Long ago during my first cross country road trip we ended up spending 4th of July in Aspen. Not knowing much about the area we went to the first bar to wait for the fireworks and drive out again. The bar got soon very crowded and I really had to use the ladies restroom which had a very long line. A very cute lady next to me wearing a big Feodora starts dancing and asks me to dance as well, I clumsily join, my turn comes, and as I finally relieve myself it hits me "She was that actress, that one!" I go back to my boyfriend to explain there was this famous blond actress we both like. Took me like a month to figure out was Heather Locklear, after browsing all blond actresses I even find a photo of her with possibly the same Feodora hat.
I don't have any stories of my own but I do have one my dad told me about. When he was younger, he used to live in California. He was going in to a building and just as he got in, he realized that someone had been behind him but he hadn't held the door for them so it shut in their face. It was Loni Anderson. The reason that story came up is because, at the time, I was absolutely obsessed with the 3 Ninjas series and would watch High Noon At Mega Mountain practically every time I turned on the TV. And for those who don't know, Loni Anderson played the head villain in that movie.
Working in a box office, we saw James Franco had tickets waiting. So naturally we all were waiting to see if he picked up his tix (often a representative will pick up) At one point the day someone said "James Franco picked up, who..." stopped in her tracks, she sees he signed in purple ink. That was my pen. Apparently, I didn't notice...put him through the regular regime of picking up his tix (would have asked him for his CC and ID) and didn't even realize it. He must have played along cause I had no difficult interactions that day.
I grew up in Westchester NY and my hometown used to have a Borders Books. I was at that shop all the time as a kid, used to go like once a week to buy comics with my allowance. I was there one afternoon when I was like 13, headed to the register to buy my comics, turned out of the aisle and almost bumped into this older man standing at the aisle front display. Said sorry, he said s'alright, I went to the register. As I'm paying my mother comes up to me, beside herself with excitement, and whispers in my ear, "That was Bill Clinton, that's Bill F*****g Clinton!!" I turned around to look and yeah, sure enough, I'd almost smacked into Bill Clinton. His book had recently been released and was being promoted on that aisle front display. He was reading one of the copies.
I don't know if anyone knows who the Sidewalk Prophets are, but I accidentally had lunch with them at a summer camp when I was a kid. They were running the music for the camp, and my group was assigned to sit way in the back. Adding to all of this, my glasses were broken and I am majorly near-sighted, so I had no idea what they looked like. In the lunch hall, I grabbed my tray of food, sat down where there was an opening, and talked with the adults sitting with me. Very friendly, I had fun. They told me about a few placea they'd traveled to together and I said something like "Wow you guys must be really good friends to travel to so many places together." I realize now they were talking about tours. Anyway, I got in trouble by my group leader after lunch was over for sitting with them, and I was kept on a much shorter leash after that. He didn't believe me when I said I didn't understand why I was in trouble for sitting with these random guys. Took me a couple days to learn what hap
When I was 11 the summer day program at my suburban Buffalo school took a bus trip to the Bills’ training camp. The kids mobbed a bunch of players for autographs but I saw my favorite player walking away with a buddy. I convinced my friend to follow them and we got autographs from Al Cowlings and O.J. Simpson.
We had just finished our bicycling vacation, having ridden around three of the Hawaiian Islands. As we finished the last of our ride and I was riding from the street onto the sidewalk, pulling our bike trailer with our luggage in it, and trying to stop the bike because of the added weight, I found myself headed for a man sitting on a bench by the hotel. Stopping the bike only inches from the man, I said something like, "sorry," then moved on. I looked back and realized that the man was Magic Johnson. It turns out he was there for a Fantasy Basketball camp, along with Jerry West and several other notable players of the day. This was during Magic's playing years. We were in our 50's at the time, and the one thing I remember thinking was how young he looked.
I was working demonstrating the Nespresso coffee machine in a store & offering free samples. Jennifer Anniston took a cup, and patiently listened to my spiel. I thought "Wow she looks like Jennifer Anniston." and them she thanked me for the coffee and it was her voice, so it WAS her
Many years ago I decided to take an art class at night from Arlington County in Virginia. I set up next to an older guy because he looked polite and quiet and I really wanted to focus. We rarely talked but I did help him chase down some papers in the parking lot once. Anyway, after a few weeks the teacher took roll (because he had to account for how many people actually showed up). He said the name William Rehnquist and the older man said "here." I was a young lawyer and did not recognize the Chief Justice of the US. Later I read that he loved painting and always skipped State of the Union sessions when the justices traditionally go. He simply preferred to spend a free evening painting.
No sympathy for celebrities! They chose a life of fame and fortune and that has consequences as do all choices. Those multimillions you earn come with privacy and social strings attached. Deal with it...
Why are people so surprised that celebrities walk the same streets as us? They are human beings. They just have different occupations to us (or are more successful in the same occupations).
I went into my favorite bar years ago. My friend Magic Mike--programming director for a big rock & roll radio station--was already there, chatting with some friend of his, a guy named Pete. Mike waved me over, so I sat next to them, and Mike introduced me to Pete. Mike had to get up early the next day, so after about twenty minutes, he said good night and left, leaving me with Pete. We talked for about an hour and a half--nothing special; just ordinary conversation--and then Pete said that he had an early flight the next morning. We shook hands and he left without ceremony. As soon as he was out the door, about a dozen people came up to me, asking about Pete. I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about until somebody told me who it was. Turns out, I had been talking to Pete Townsend the whole time and didn't even know it.
When I was 10 years old we went on vacation to Disneyland in Florida for the first time. As we were going into a building a smallish man was coming out. My mom let out a gasp and asked if she could take my picture with him. I had no idea who he was. At 10 I was already taller than him. He was very friendly and took the pic and talked to her for a bit. Afterwards she said it was Paul Williams, who I later found out wrote Rainbow Connection and other songs for the Muppets.
In 1967 our family traveled from Dallas to New York for a family wedding. My mother and two sisters were on an elevator with some famous movie star (I don't know who). My sisters got all excited and whispered to My mother who that was. My mother loudly said "who the hell is that?" The remaining minute of the ride was spent in silence while the man tried to fade into the wall.
I was 10 visiting Aunt and Uncle in Chicago. We're walking along and see kids surrounding this guy. Uncle asks me if I knew the guy. I thought-Chicago-Ernie Banks. Go get his autograph. My sister tore a piece off envelope her future husband mailed letter to her, handed it to me, and off I went. To get Ernie's autograph. Got it, brought it back, Uncle looked at it, tells me, "You just got Muhammed Ali's autograph"! I replied, "Who ?" I still have it. M Ali
That’s funny. I got Ernie banks signature. In Washington DC.
Load More Replies...When I worked in Belgravia (London's posh neighborhood) I used to go for a walk on my lunchtime and seen many TV actors around, but a couple of times I've crossed paths with this older gentleman, very tall, very well dressed, and he always smiled and said "Hello darling, how are you?" and we exchanged a couple of words. I just thought he was a very nice man. Then many months after I left the job I saw him on an episode of Dr Who (Matt Smith at the time) - it was Tom Baker (the 4th Doctor)!
So lots of American celebs there, in fact I think all are, except Potter. So here's one. 1986. In a lift ("elevator") in Johannesburg, South Africa (for those who don't know where it is). I'm with my mom. Behind me in the lift is an african lady with a really awesome hat made out of wound fabric, and a few really large guys in suits. As I got in my eyes must have gone big. Anyway we get out on our own floor, she's obviously still going up. I say to my mom, "WAS THAT???" and she says "Yep. Her lawyers are in this building." It was Winnie Mandela.
David Tennant isn't, neither is Elon Musk, nor Alan Rickman.
Load More Replies...I was on a plane with REM, but I didn't recognize them and we talked the whole flight about what stuff and also on what we were going to do in Amsterdam. They were like, yeah we are going to go see about some gigs, maybe do some music. It wasn't until we landed and got our luggage and they were swarmed by fans that I realized maybe they weren't just some startup band... They waved at me after, so I guess I didn't make too much of a fool of myself.
I was on a plane with Hooverphonic - they were sitting right behind me, I even borrowed a pen from them to fill out my customs document, and didn't recognize them for a second, even though I absolutely love their music! They looked like a bunch of regular (albeit creative) people, easy-going, not at all like the famous musicians they are. Only one person really recognised them once we had landed, and asked for an autograph. It was then that it clicked with my husband, but I was still totally onblivious. When he told me (outside of the airport) I couldn't believe that I had not recognised them.
Load More Replies...I ran into George Lucas in a bookstore, he lives nearby. Nobody cares. Not George, not me…nobody. We like it that way.
Working at a gasstation in the Netherlands late at night a big luxury bus stops and a group of normal middle aged guys gets off. They come in and ask me for all the stroopwafels we've got. They buy the entire stock. Really nice guys! Last in line is the driver, he goes "you have no idea who they are right?" Nope. Apparently they were The Beach Boys.
Celebrities are just regular people,wanna enjoy the small things like us.We're all the same.:)
My friends and I were lost, trying to find a restaurant in London. I stopped to ask a man for directions, he was outside a cafe, drinking coffee and reading the paper. He started giving me directions and telling about a shortcut. As soon as I heard his voice, I looked at him again. By this time, my friends had caught up and shouted "OMG, are you Bill Nighy?" It was, and spoke to us for a little while about our evening before reiterating the directions for us! The shortcut was just what we needed and he was a true gentleman.
My husband and I lived just East of Seattle and would frequently drive down I-405 to Tukwila or Auburn. One day, my husband was driving and started to complain about the guy behind him that was tailgating him. I said "Pull over in the other lane and let him pass." As the car approached on the right, my husband looked in the driver's side mirror and said "No Way!" I wasn't sure what he was so shocked about until a black Merkur Scorpio passed us with the license plate "Doo Fame" on it. Yep! That was James Doohan (aka Scottie from Star Trek) going warp speed past us.
I was looking for the shuttle bus to get me to the Supanova convention in Melbourne, and overhead a guy in the hotel lobby speaking with an American accent. I figured he was probably there for the con, so I went over and said "Hey, are you here for Supanova too?" The guy, who was a black man with greying hair, gave me this wonderful friendly smile and said yes, he was. Which was when I realised I was talking to Ron Glass! He was so lovely. We chatted on the bus and I remember him talking about a really good curry restaurant he'd been to recently. I was gutted to find out he had died a few years later.
My husband was walking through a casino and stopped to play slots for a bit. Casually asked the guy next to him if he was having any luck. They made small talk for a minute and played in silence. Then after maybe 20 minutes the guy got up and wished my husband a good night and left. It was Paul Hogan from Crocodile Dundee. He knew who he was but just didn’t want to act all star-struck.
Not me, but my sister's roommate's Mom. She came from a tiny town. This was in the late 80s. She was very nervous about visiting our "big city" with all the crime, etc. She treated herself to the best hotel in the city. She gets in the elevator and after her walks in a little guy and two very scary mobster-looking guys in suits with hard expressions. She was immediately fearful that some shooting was about to take place and stands by the buttons frozen like a deer. One of the big guys says, "Hit the floor" (meaning punch in the floor button). She takes it as "Hit the deck!" and immediately drops to the floor. So, Prince and his two bodyguards immediately fall around the place laughing. They paid for her room, I think. She said she had met some very nice young men. She had no idea who Prince was.
When I was like...9 or 10, I sat next to Jackie Onassis at the ice cream shop on the Island in Maine where we spent our summers. Took a lot of explaining from my mother to understand who she was. We had a nice conversation. Another time, there was a bar in NYC on 3rd. st. that my buddy and I would go to on Thursdays, because we could get off work early, and their happy hour started at like 11 am. Went in there and drank beer with some dude and his friend for a few hours - we were the only ones there - later saw him on some show called "ER". George Clooney.
I ran into Jeff Bezos once. I was on a business trip in Seattle and was walking near the Amazon Spheres and the Amazon HQ and I see this group of black cars roll up in front of me by the sidewalk. In the middle of the cars is a Rolls-Royce. The back door flys open and Bezos speedwalks into the building. The cars then went into a nearby parking garage. The only reason I recognized him was because of his bald head and I got a good look at his face for a moment.
I watched a Star Trek movie when my mom walked in and said "oh i met this guy some 20 years ago" she was a hotel maid and Leonard Nimoy was her guest. She didn't realize he was a star until 20 years later when she saw him accidentely in the TV.
How did Nimoy accidentally get in the tv? That’s pretty hard to do.
Load More Replies...I work security for special events, I've run into a few celebs without realizing it till later. Michael Rapaport, had a pleasant conversation with him backstage at a concert. Carlo D'Allesandro at a football game, he was in a group taking a photo. They were blocking the exit so I asked them move to the side. I randomly selected Al Roker for medal detectors, he was very nice and cracked jokes. Andy Serkins at Comic Con, walked right past him. There are others, but these were the ones I didn't know until after the fact.
A friend of mine from high school went to LA in the late 90s to see family. She ended up chatting to Heath Ledger at In N Out for about 15 minutes in line, and had no idea who he was. This was right after 10 Things I Hate About You was released, so her cousin was standing behind the two of them freaking out. My friend had no idea who he was until her cousin bombarded her with questions after they got their food and sat down. She said he was very nice and chatted away about random topics until they got to the head of the line.
My mom worked for a window installer in the city of Chicago before i was born.... The company had just redone some condos windows and there were so many windows the screens had to be delivered and installed separately....so my moms boss tells her to go deliver and install the windows and call when shes done so he can clock her out..... 5 hours later the boss calls the condo (well before cell phones were common) because my mom never called him to clock her out.... My mom was sitting in the condo baking cookies with Walter Petyons wife (after she finished installing the screens of course) and Walter Peyton came home.... She got a signed jersey from them... Coolest story from my mom
My uncle was good friends with dime back Darrell when I was little. No idea who he was just loved his gutair. My uncle has a photo of me sitting on his lap at 7 years old holding a stuffed tiger he bought me for my birthday. I still have it and ended up being a huge Pantera fan later on in life. Rip dude. I just remember him being super nice to me when he was in town.
I imagine celebrities prefer when people don't know who they are. Genuine human interactions.
Long ago during my first cross country road trip we ended up spending 4th of July in Aspen. Not knowing much about the area we went to the first bar to wait for the fireworks and drive out again. The bar got soon very crowded and I really had to use the ladies restroom which had a very long line. A very cute lady next to me wearing a big Feodora starts dancing and asks me to dance as well, I clumsily join, my turn comes, and as I finally relieve myself it hits me "She was that actress, that one!" I go back to my boyfriend to explain there was this famous blond actress we both like. Took me like a month to figure out was Heather Locklear, after browsing all blond actresses I even find a photo of her with possibly the same Feodora hat.
I don't have any stories of my own but I do have one my dad told me about. When he was younger, he used to live in California. He was going in to a building and just as he got in, he realized that someone had been behind him but he hadn't held the door for them so it shut in their face. It was Loni Anderson. The reason that story came up is because, at the time, I was absolutely obsessed with the 3 Ninjas series and would watch High Noon At Mega Mountain practically every time I turned on the TV. And for those who don't know, Loni Anderson played the head villain in that movie.
Working in a box office, we saw James Franco had tickets waiting. So naturally we all were waiting to see if he picked up his tix (often a representative will pick up) At one point the day someone said "James Franco picked up, who..." stopped in her tracks, she sees he signed in purple ink. That was my pen. Apparently, I didn't notice...put him through the regular regime of picking up his tix (would have asked him for his CC and ID) and didn't even realize it. He must have played along cause I had no difficult interactions that day.
I grew up in Westchester NY and my hometown used to have a Borders Books. I was at that shop all the time as a kid, used to go like once a week to buy comics with my allowance. I was there one afternoon when I was like 13, headed to the register to buy my comics, turned out of the aisle and almost bumped into this older man standing at the aisle front display. Said sorry, he said s'alright, I went to the register. As I'm paying my mother comes up to me, beside herself with excitement, and whispers in my ear, "That was Bill Clinton, that's Bill F*****g Clinton!!" I turned around to look and yeah, sure enough, I'd almost smacked into Bill Clinton. His book had recently been released and was being promoted on that aisle front display. He was reading one of the copies.
I don't know if anyone knows who the Sidewalk Prophets are, but I accidentally had lunch with them at a summer camp when I was a kid. They were running the music for the camp, and my group was assigned to sit way in the back. Adding to all of this, my glasses were broken and I am majorly near-sighted, so I had no idea what they looked like. In the lunch hall, I grabbed my tray of food, sat down where there was an opening, and talked with the adults sitting with me. Very friendly, I had fun. They told me about a few placea they'd traveled to together and I said something like "Wow you guys must be really good friends to travel to so many places together." I realize now they were talking about tours. Anyway, I got in trouble by my group leader after lunch was over for sitting with them, and I was kept on a much shorter leash after that. He didn't believe me when I said I didn't understand why I was in trouble for sitting with these random guys. Took me a couple days to learn what hap
When I was 11 the summer day program at my suburban Buffalo school took a bus trip to the Bills’ training camp. The kids mobbed a bunch of players for autographs but I saw my favorite player walking away with a buddy. I convinced my friend to follow them and we got autographs from Al Cowlings and O.J. Simpson.
We had just finished our bicycling vacation, having ridden around three of the Hawaiian Islands. As we finished the last of our ride and I was riding from the street onto the sidewalk, pulling our bike trailer with our luggage in it, and trying to stop the bike because of the added weight, I found myself headed for a man sitting on a bench by the hotel. Stopping the bike only inches from the man, I said something like, "sorry," then moved on. I looked back and realized that the man was Magic Johnson. It turns out he was there for a Fantasy Basketball camp, along with Jerry West and several other notable players of the day. This was during Magic's playing years. We were in our 50's at the time, and the one thing I remember thinking was how young he looked.
I was working demonstrating the Nespresso coffee machine in a store & offering free samples. Jennifer Anniston took a cup, and patiently listened to my spiel. I thought "Wow she looks like Jennifer Anniston." and them she thanked me for the coffee and it was her voice, so it WAS her
Many years ago I decided to take an art class at night from Arlington County in Virginia. I set up next to an older guy because he looked polite and quiet and I really wanted to focus. We rarely talked but I did help him chase down some papers in the parking lot once. Anyway, after a few weeks the teacher took roll (because he had to account for how many people actually showed up). He said the name William Rehnquist and the older man said "here." I was a young lawyer and did not recognize the Chief Justice of the US. Later I read that he loved painting and always skipped State of the Union sessions when the justices traditionally go. He simply preferred to spend a free evening painting.
No sympathy for celebrities! They chose a life of fame and fortune and that has consequences as do all choices. Those multimillions you earn come with privacy and social strings attached. Deal with it...
Why are people so surprised that celebrities walk the same streets as us? They are human beings. They just have different occupations to us (or are more successful in the same occupations).
I went into my favorite bar years ago. My friend Magic Mike--programming director for a big rock & roll radio station--was already there, chatting with some friend of his, a guy named Pete. Mike waved me over, so I sat next to them, and Mike introduced me to Pete. Mike had to get up early the next day, so after about twenty minutes, he said good night and left, leaving me with Pete. We talked for about an hour and a half--nothing special; just ordinary conversation--and then Pete said that he had an early flight the next morning. We shook hands and he left without ceremony. As soon as he was out the door, about a dozen people came up to me, asking about Pete. I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about until somebody told me who it was. Turns out, I had been talking to Pete Townsend the whole time and didn't even know it.
When I was 10 years old we went on vacation to Disneyland in Florida for the first time. As we were going into a building a smallish man was coming out. My mom let out a gasp and asked if she could take my picture with him. I had no idea who he was. At 10 I was already taller than him. He was very friendly and took the pic and talked to her for a bit. Afterwards she said it was Paul Williams, who I later found out wrote Rainbow Connection and other songs for the Muppets.
In 1967 our family traveled from Dallas to New York for a family wedding. My mother and two sisters were on an elevator with some famous movie star (I don't know who). My sisters got all excited and whispered to My mother who that was. My mother loudly said "who the hell is that?" The remaining minute of the ride was spent in silence while the man tried to fade into the wall.