The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Arts & Entertainment => Topic started by: side_show on October 09, 2003, 02:39:11 pm
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I've had a great deal of weird celebrity run-ins because of my work.
I've witnessed:
Keifer Sutherland drunkenly hitting on my friend on a bar patio while his children slept on the ground under the table.
Keanu Reeves as Hamlet refering to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as "my most excellent friends" (I'm not kidding - this was during a preview performance and there were at least 200 other witnesses).
Seeing Joanna Kerns (the mom from Growing Pains) in direct natural light and clearly seeing the line around her face where her face lift ends.
Anyone else?
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I saw John McCain in the airport.
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I saw John Tavolta at the Air & Space Museum but it was before both Pulp Fiction and disco nostalgia so my mom had to explain who he was.
Also, I saw Sissy Spacek at the mall in C-ville standing in line for Sabarro.
There was also a few people at the Film Festivals I worked at. Stan Winston (special effects for T2, Aliens, among others) taught us a drinking song.
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Well, I saw Paul McGann on a train once. Sat across from us at a table in fact .
He didn't look in the mood to talk, but he was carrying some very expensive shoes.
And I've met Alan Rickman and Janeane Garrofolo, who were both very nice. I spent an afternoon with them on the set of one of their films.
I saw William Gibson at a bar post-reading in Edinburgh counting his change and hitting on undergraduate students, and my brother with his arm round Iain (M) Banks' shoulder (he decided they were good friends?!?!).
And I'm related to Jenny Agutter, which just makes watching Logan's Run and Walkabout massively disturbing!
I think I'm forgetting some of the less important ones, but who probably were more interesting. I've met a few authors and actors and musicians but generally not for long, and some of them weren't exactly famous.
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As the world-record-holder for longest-standing crush on Michael J. Fox (with the possible exception of his wife, Tracey), I have to say that I am pleased to know that a nice guy thinks he is nice. Also, I like short guys and hockey.
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My friend saw David Hasselhoff spray breath freshner into his mouth and because of this decided she hated all celebrities.
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Oh man. I'd love to meet Michael J Fox. Ever since Back to the Future I've just thought he was class, and he has always seemed like a really nice, genuine guy. Good humoured and talented.
I forgot the best of mine, which is a little disjointed from the actual guys (what with death and all) but I live just down the road from Chaz Chandler's wife (widow) and went to school with and dated for a while their daughter, Katy. All of this means that upon visiting them I get to play Jimi Hendrix's guitar! Well, one of them. It's rather dead, but it was nice to get to play it.
Again, they're really nice people.
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I don't have many, and certainly not to compare with those in the list here. I'm dreadfully envious of Slink getting to play Jimi's guitar.
Lessee:
I was at Churchill Downs one day and was walking through the doors from the grandstand to the clubhouse not watching where I was going. I bumped into a guy, pretty hard. Turned out to be noted gambler and racist Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder. Didn't talk to him, just said "Scuse me" and walked on. I didn't realize it was him until later.
I ran into former U of Kentucky basketball coach Joe B. Hall in a Chinese buffett about a month ago. We had a nice chat about the hot 'n' sour soup.
I went to high school with the drummer for the Black Crowes, Steve Gorman. There were 12 people in our senior class. I once spent 17 hours in the back of a van with him, on the way to Sarasota, Florida for our senior trip. I think he played "Radio Free Europe" 70,000 times. He was the first person I knew into REM. Nice guy. Gave me backstage passes to one of his tours. I still see a couple of his brothers at school reunions.
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I was at a Vancouver Grizzlies game a few rows away from Snoop Dogg. That dude just EXUDES coolness. He doesn't take himself over seriously, which is refreshing.
When I was in college I did this honors seminar and I met Charles Krauthammer and Jeane Kirkpatrick. THAT was pretty cool. They have huge, huge brains.
My wife had much cooler run-ins than me. She was president of the May 4 Task Force at Kent State University and a member of the student programming board.
She has :
driven William Kuenstler around in her Chevette
driven Adrian Cronauer around in her Chevette
had breakfast with Spiro Gyra
shopped for guitar strings with Joe Walsh
and participated in the scoring a certain amount of white powdery substance as part of the "unwritten" contract with the Ramones.
And she still occasionally hears from Alan Canfora, who was one of the people shot at Kent on May 4, 1970. Not exactly a celebrity, but...
Accursedly, all of this was way before we met.
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Talking of white powdery substances for stars, well, not the same, but my ex met Less than Jake after one of their gigs and hey wanted to come to my flat for a smoke, but with me hating them, and me and my mate being concerned that from the sound of it they were just going to smoke all our pot I said no. So I didn't meet them thankfully.
One of my friends got to meet Serj Tankien from SOAD, which I'm stupidly envious of, since he seems like such a cool guy.
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Oh, well if we're going to go back in the day, in my college radio days I...
had pizza with Social Distortion
drove the guitarist from Screaming Trees around in my car
met Kris Novoselic, he talked falsetto into my tape recorder
had King Missile (of "Detachable c*ck" fame) in the studio for an interview, they did all the talking
had a beer with Ed and one of the Chads from Live
got scolded by Chuck D in front of a big crowd
I know there were other encounters like that, but those are the most memorable.
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AugustWest just reminded me I went to H.S. with Darren "Dexter" Holland of the Offspring.
I used to love the Offspring (OK, still do) back when I was a punk kid. My seventeen year old brother in law was all like, "I found this great band, they're all underground and indie, I'm sure you've never heard of them" and I was all, "dude, that's the Offspring, I was listening to them ten years ago on cassette tape." It cracks me up what kids today think is hip.
I went to college with a woman who went to high school with Woody Harrelson. He's a jerk. Also, my Mom kissed Burt Reynolds on the lips when he came to Toledo for a production of "The Rainmaker." And my mother in law met Eva Peron when she (my MIL) was a young girl in Argentina. They sat behind Evita at the theatre, and Evita gave my MIL's younger sister a baby doll.
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Oh, well if we're going to go back in the day, in my college radio days I...
had pizza with Social Distortion
drove the guitarist from Screaming Trees around in my car
met Kris Novoselic, he talked falsetto into my tape recorder
had King Missile (of "Detachable c*ck" fame) in the studio for an interview, they did all the talking
had a beer with Ed and one of the Chads from Live
got scolded by Chuck D in front of a big crowd
I definitely envy for meeting erm, the one of the ST brothers hehe. Can never remember their names, only Lanegan. He is a gear guitarrist though.
And meeting King Missile can only have been amusing.
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OK, this is definitely about a celebrity and skin: The other day, I got to show a naked mole rat to Robert DeNiro.
He was very nice, and gracious about the intrusion his whole bizarre entourage was causing. I decided he was nice enough against all odds (I have a prejudice against movie stars) that I let him hold the naked mole rat, even though it was really against the rules. Don't tell my boss.
He had an inexplicable mob of people with him. He seems to have about a million kids. There were some obvious airhead Hollywood types, and some totally normal grownups. We couldn't figure out their relationships to him. It was an interesting culture clash, with the airhead Californian guy talking about buying a chinchilla coat when we showed him the chinchilla (obviously unaware of how shocking that was in zookeeper company) and the airhead Californian girl who complained about how smelly the building was and said "Eeuw, don't you all have to shower like a hundred times when you get home?"
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Oh, and Sandra Day O'Connor came for a tour once. Is that a celebrity?
But mostly the celebrities just want to see the damn pandas.
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Oh, and Sandra Day O'Connor came for a tour once. Is that a celebrity?
But mostly the celebrities just want to see the damn pandas.
Only inside the beltway.
I think we were purposely given a panda whose name can't really be spelled or prounced in english just to mess with us.
And the whole Roy thing reminds me, is Taj still alive? Is it true they can't breed him?
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And the whole Roy thing reminds me, is Taj still alive? Is it true they can't breed him?
I know I should know this, but I do a very bad job of keeping track of the celebrity animals in other units...(just a little more small mammal resentment there. Nobody loves us.) He is or was the white tiger? They don't breed them because they aren't natural or something.
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I know I should know this, but I do a very bad job of keeping track of the celebrity animals in other units...(just a little more small mammal resentment there. Nobody loves us.) He is or was the white tiger? They don't breed them because they aren't natural or something.
Are there any small mammals non-celebrities are allowed to touch? Because that would totally push you past the reptiles.
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Actually, my eight-month-old daughter has better celebrity run-ins than I do. Loretta Swit from M.A.S.H. was on line behind us at the store and was all googly over her, as was the female doctor from E.R. ( Laura Innes? ) when she sat next to us at Louise's. And my wife told me there was a Sally Struthers run-in as well. Too bad she's not on a show whose title is an abbreviation for something else.
Other than that, not much to report. Rip Torn yelled at me over the phone once; I hung out at Andy Dick's house while a friend pitched him a movie idea; many years earlier, Paul Westerberg told me that their next album was going to be called Tim and I had no idea how to respond to that.
Oh, and when I was in Our Town in high school, Mira Sorvino played Mrs. Webb.
Nothing else leaps to mind.
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Are there any small mammals non-celebrities are allowed to touch? Because that would totally push you past the reptiles.
Yes, if they are my friends, and they wash their hands afterwards.
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Rip Torn yelled at me over the phone once
Oh, and when I was in Our Town in high school, Mira Sorvino played Mrs. Webb.
Did you threaten to kill him? Maybe it's just me who utterly hates him.
And, wow, despite the age difference I'm in about 17 shades of love with Mira Sorvino.
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I attended high school with failed astronaut Lance Bass.
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Are there any small mammals non-celebrities are allowed to touch? Because that would totally push you past the reptiles.
Yes, if they are my friends, and they wash their hands afterwards.
Am I your friend? What about my fiancee?
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I would make him wash his hands BEFORE touching the animals...
<snicker>
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Ooh, ooh, I just thought of one. I just read Hunter Thompson's latest book, and in it he talks about growing up in Louisville. Imagine my surprise when I read that he dated my cousin when they were both in high school.
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I have a few celebrity stories, but it's probably better I don't mention them in a public forum.
Most of the people I've met are writers - and there was a particular writer of legal thrillers that a friend and I took to a strip club. For a millionaire, he was very stingy with the tips to the girls. I'm just saying.
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My ex girlfriend works in TV over here in London, so I've met quite a few British celebs socially, but by far my most starstruck occasion was meeting and interviewing Anthrax for the fanclub back in 1995. I was well in with the guy who ran the fanclub (a job he later offered me) and so I just got handed access all areas passes and chilled with them before and after their show. Interviewed John Bush for Kerrang! and then sat and chatted to the others after the show. Scott Ian is just the coolest, most down to earth bloke and so talented it hurts. Nice guys.
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Are there any small mammals non-celebrities are allowed to touch? Because that would totally push you past the reptiles.
Yes, if they are my friends, and they wash their hands afterwards.
Am I your friend? What about my fiancee?
OK, anyone who wants in on the Acheheads tour of the Small Mammal house, PM me and I'll see what I can do.
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Oh, when I flew back from London George Lucas, his daughter, and her friends bought all of first class. There weren't that many of them, they just bought a lot of empty seats to keep it private.
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I swear on a stack of bibles that I've met Thomas Pynchon, J.D. Salinger ,and that guy who stole that money and jumped out of that plane that the money was in.
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Here's a weird one: I escorted the President and First Lady of Portugal on a tour of the art gallery I used to work in, along with the artist whose sculptures were displayed. I'm sure this would have been a lot cooler if I had any links to Portugese culture. There were lots of puddgy secret service guys with ear pieces looking annoyed and hot.
Also the artist, Leo Mol, has a well hidden past of befriending Nazis to gain protection during WW2 which no one seems to want to hear about. And no one seems to be bothered by the multiple pre-teen naked girl statues the artist makes either. Weird how the general public (the gallery is a free out door one in the middle of a city sponsered park) can accept the pedophilic worship of nude females but would likely be outraged by the same type of artwork related to boys. I worked at the gallery for two years and I could see people just glaze over whenever I attempted pollitical discourse with them.
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Ooh, thought of another one. Nomar Garciaparra was on our flight to Las Vegas a couple years ago (he was in first class, natch).
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I swear on a stack of bibles that I've met Thomas Pynchon, J.D. Salinger ,and that guy who stole that money and jumped out of that plane that the money was in.
D.B. Cooper?
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I swear on a stack of bibles that I've met Thomas Pynchon, J.D. Salinger ,and that guy who stole that money and jumped out of that plane that the money was in.
D.B. Cooper?
Yeah, that guy. We shared a pack of honey roasted nuts from the bus station vending machine (he doesn't like to fly so much). Turns out he spent all the money on Wacky Packages and Nerds.
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Did Salinger mubble a lot? For some reason I imagine him as being sort of mubble-y.
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My friend's father sat next to the Dahm Triplets (http://www.dahmgirls.com/Freetour/freepics/free7.jpg) on an airplane from Las Vegas to LA. The same guy's mom goes to Temple with Orson Scott Card. And I know a guy (who wishes not to be identified) who had sex with Lucy Lawless. Yes, that's right. Before she was Xena.
Personally, I've never been lucky enough to know anyone famous. But I'm still young. There's time.
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All the talk of airplanes reminded me of an incident I must have blocked out.
About eight years ago my wife and I were flying to Florida, and I saw Wil(?) Wheaton, the kid who played the kid on Star Trek: The Next Generation, at our gate. I was all Oh, there's the kid who plays the kid on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
When we boarded the plane, I found myself looking into the kindly visage of James Doohan, who played Scotty on the original series, seated in the third row of the first-class section. I turned to my wife to say Holy shit, there's two Star Trek cast members on this plane, but I couldn't because Walter Koenig - that's right, TV's Chekhov - was standing up in the first row of the section fiddling with his carry-on bag, basically right next to me as I passed. I bit my tongue and kept going. In the last row of first class was a man reading a newspaper, which he put down just before I passed. George Takei. Sulu.
By the time we got to our seats in steerage, I had figured out that there must have been a Star Trek convention in Miami that weekend, but for about three seconds there I thought I was losing my mind.
( Then I saw William Shatner on the wing and I knew I had. Tee hee hee.)
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No no, Shatner was *in* the plane. The gremlin was on the wing, doing damage to the plane, but only Shatner could see it.
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About eight years ago my wife and I were flying to Florida, and I saw Wil(?) Wheaton, the kid who played the kid on Star Trek: The Next Generation, at our gate.
Cool. Not that I like TNG, or any Trek for that matter, or could even begin to stand Wes Crusher when I saw any of it, but I have come to quite like him from his wwdn, his blog/website.
I tend to support his political leanings, and he comes across as a sensible and nice guy.
Along with good little stories, including life affirming ones about hs relationship with his stepson.