The love of a good celebrity run-in and the need for an oven mitt collided this week and brought me endless emails of celebrity fun! It's good to know that at least some cities have access to celebrities who don't wear cowboy hats. Not that there's anything WRONG with celebrities who wear cowboy hats, but one does wish to mix it up now and again.
Some I forgot but remembered this week:
1. Betty Witherspoon (Reese's mom) was our nursery nurse when I had Truman at Vanderbilt
2. I went on a blind date with Cybil Shepard's brother and boy was he not a fun date.
3. I went to the first Clinton inaugural and at the ball I met Stone Phillips who smelled like whiskey.
There were just so many great ones that I narrowed the winners down to 3 instead of 1 (and even those were tough to choose). Let's have an Oscar moment - a montage if you will - of some of the best celebrity run-in entries. I give you:
THE BRUSH WITH FAME SUPERLATIVES
Best Whaaaa? Factor - lisa c. who was forced to wait for an airplane because Little Richard had a toothache.
Best List of Sightings for Social Change - Linda who had a huge list that included Madeline Albright and Gloria Steinem and her sighting of vegetarian Natalie Portman in a burger joint.
Best Brush By Proxy - julia whose dad taught Ray Price how to play the guitar
Best Sighting of a Celebrity Who Lived Up To His Name: Andy Dick by sarah
Best Celebrity Line Overheard: anne who overheard John Kerry drop the F bomb.
Best "Thank God I Didn't Actually Have To Meet Them" Moment: Simily with living next to Hank Williams Jr. (but never actually meeting him) and Montgomery Gentry (who ran past her, but she didn't actually party with contrary to rumor)
Closest Bathroom Proximity to a Celebrity: april who peed next to Reba McIntire
Best Hawwwwt Brush: ann who spoke on the phone with JFK Jr. 3 times
Best Domestic Run-Ins: liz who runs into members of the Old 97s at Home Depot., stood in line behind Charlie Pride at Burger King, did her laundry with Emily Saliers of The Indigo Girls. Also, teresa whose mom worked with the girlfriends of Motley Crue members at a Vons, and elaine who saw Alice Cooper in a mall in Scottsdale, AZ. "He said 'Hi' to me and I said 'uh-huh'. I am a great big dork."
Best Brush With an Octogenarian Celebrity Who is Either a Little Person and/or Partially Nude and/or Pinches Your Ass - gale who says: "I spent a weekend in Chittenango NY (birthplace of Frank Baum) with the last 8 surviving Munchkins from the Wizard of Oz, to do a group portrait of them for an entertainment mag. The most charming octagenarian midgets I've ever met, but one of them pinched me on the ass! He copped a feel higher up too,but it was disguised as an accidental brush. How can you yell and act indignant at a horny little old man that is sweet as can be and is less than 4 feet tall? And fer gods sake was a real original movie MUNCHKIN? In another celebrity incident, while photographing Phyllis Diller, we didn't like the prim setting at an inn and decided to fill the bathroom's huge tub with bubbles and percht her on its edge. She put a big robe on over her undies, but the edge of her bra was showing. I kept asking her to shift around. Finally she roared her famous laugh, stood up, handed my assistant her robe, stripped off her bra with a flourish, handed it to me and said 'OK, how's' that.' I stood there thinking 'I'm holding Phyllis Diller's bra! And she's almost naked!'. "
Most All Around British Encounter: jane "My favourite celebrity encounter was watching the British magician Paul Daniels buying a Rumtopf. However, that's probably invalid outside the UK. Hmmm. I met the very first ever guy to play James Bond (Bob Holness) when I was in London at a music competition. Hmmm. I've seen Prunella Scales (Sybil, in Fawlty Towers) drunk. I've seen Barry Manilow outside a hotel. I've made out with a member of the Arlenes, and used the loo on the Levellers' tour bus."
Best Naked Celebrity Encounter: Mim who saw Julia Louis Dreyfus in the buff
We mustn't leave out:
Crafty Brushes: Jennifer sat next to Kate Hudson at Purl in NYC. "I was getting help on a knitted bear, and she asked me 'did you get it all figured out?' and Susan - I got Bob Pollard (Guided By Voices, anyone?) to TRY to knit a row on my bar scarf last year at the GBV Hoot Night at SXSW in Austin. I even got a picture." emily says, "Mine is a NYC moment as well. My husband and I lived on the Upper West Side for awhile and several times saw them shooting Law and Order. (I sat across from Chris Noth on the subway once) but that was not THE time. "THE time" was when they shot a scene on the sidewalk DIRECTLY BELOW our apartment. Jerry Orbach, sitting in a chair, one floor below me (we lived on the second floor). Well you can bet your britches I was hanging out that window watching for as long as I could. But I had to go to work. I had a quilt hanging on the wall, you could see it from the street, and I left the light on in the apartment so that if they were shooting into the evening, my hope was that my quilt would make it into the shot, and of course I'd be totally famous." Good thinking Emily.
Most Cosmopolitan Celebrity Encounter: jessica was introduced to Princess Margaret while at a party on Mustique and also saw Mick Jagger and Nick Rhodes at at a dinner with bunch of models who all kept running to the bathroom to do coke. Pattie was a swimwear buyer and Princess Di was shopping and bought 2 swimsuits. "I had an armload of files to take out and was passing through a swinging door at the same time Princes William and Harry were coming in and there went the files! They were very nice and helped me pick them up after getting a mom look from Diana and they called me ma'm."
Weirdest: from jen who says, "I worked at an Outback Steakhouse in the 90s...the Hagar twins from Hee Haw were my regular customers. They always called me 'Lovey'."
Best Total List of Celebrity Run-ins: larissa whose list included a run in with wrestler Hillbilly Jim at Denny's.
Finally we come to... HONORABLE MENTION:
1. Cindy! Sterling Marlin changed her tire!
2. Julia! She ran into Rod Stewart at CVS buying peanuts (the same day she had tickets to see his show) but he denied that he was Rod Stewart. She asked his bodyguard if he was Rod Stewart and the he said no, "but he gets that a lot."
3. sheila! who was serenaded with Happy Birthday by Frank Sinatra.
4. cara who told Martin Scorcese to "keep up the good work."
5. and heather whose dog mauled Heath Ledger and who talked about tampons with Madonna.
AND THE MITTS GO TO:
1. Susan! "Robin Zander (cheap trick) walked in on me while I was trying to teach myself how to play "Surrender" on the guitar. I only knew 3 chords at the time ... so he showed me the "easy" way to play the song as he kindly sang back up to my extremely slow chord changes. We went through the entire song 3 times. When it was all said and done, I looked up at my friend, Dave who had just witnessed the whole event ... I guess I was smiling a little too gleefully ... because he proceeded to asked me never ever to attempt another cheap trick song on my guitar while the band was in the studio."
2. Nina in Nashville! "When I was a kid, my mother and I ran into Billy Carter (his brother was president at the time) and Tom T. Hall having an argument about which cold cuts they needed at the Franklin Kroger deli counter. Bizarre."
3. libby who didn't put this in the comments but just sent it to me a few minutes ago in an email conversation we were having: "There was the time I dumped coffee in Martha Stewart's lap, and then tried to make a joke out of it (I think something along the lines of 'That's not a Good Thing')"
Hurray! What a fun week. You 3 send me your addresses and I'll get those oven mitts to you pronto!
xo
P.S. to Ann, who claims that "My brush with fame is the fact that the above-commenting Ann talked to JFK Jr. three times, and she and I have the same name. That makes me practically a Kennedy." Ann honey, we need to get you in a new social circle here. You are totally missing out on the Tom Wopats of this town.
Posted by Angela at March 14, 2006 02:18 PMI missed out on the first one but since I sleep with the maker of the oven mitt I assumed wasn't elegible in the first place.
GREAT ONE LINERS SPOKEN TO ME BY THE FAMOUS
Bruce Springsteen
"Nice gun"
I had a 44 mag that Bruce would use to shoot out TVs in the video "57 Channels and there is Nothing On". Funny thing is we now have over 300 channels and there is very little on.
Neil Young
"Give me your boots"
He wore them for 24 hours straight in the video "Rockin in the Free World" while I stood barefoot on a crane running his spotlight. He intentionally would fake me out to make me point the light in the wrong place. How do I know? He would look at me and laugh. The director did not laugh.
Grizzly Adams - Dan Hagerty
"Have you ever had sex with a midget?"
He was late for the first day of shooting and I was nominated to call him. He was obviously drunk and proclaimed it was his birthday and he was having a great time with a bunch of prostitute midgets. He told me flat out not to expect him that day but I was welcomed to come over.
Madonna
" "
I was the special effects guy on the video "Rain" (which won best art directed video of the year).
I had one gag where water ran over plate glass. We created a black tent around the back of the glass and Madonna was inside. I did the test run and then when it was time to reset they said, "get in there and reset". I walked into a 4x4x10' area...just me and Madonna. She had on panties and a pair of combat boots - that was it. She had already fired someone for looking her in the eye so I jumped back out and said to the assistant director, "hey man, Madonna doesn't have any cloths on!". He said, "dude, get back in there, it's Madonna". I spent the next 3 hours in there with her and she never acknowledged I was ever there. I pointed out to a girl that I thought was an extra that "I wouldn't take here out in public (not very attractive)", turns out it was one of her girlfriends. I was not invited to her trailer.
Claudia Shiffer
"Please blow that harder at me"
The set was of the top of a NY sky scrapper. Claudia was on the very of the top. She is the only star that was actually prettier in person than on TV. I was blowing a fan to make her hair move around. When she requested that I blow hard I turned it up and went to town. The director, who is pretty famous but I can't remember his name said to me, "THIS ISN'T A WHITE SNAKE VIDEO! TURN THAT FAN DOWN!"
Later the sound guy motioned me over, Claude was with David Copperfield and they both had on wireless mics. They had forgotten they were wired and David was explaining to Claudia how hot he was and what he was going to do to her in the future. David was an uber geek, I concluded that she couldn't tell he was a geek because she was German. He was also making 50K a show every night in Vegas, that could have had something to do with it.
Tommy Lee
"Nice canyon"
I did the video "Without You" and created a scale grand canyon in a sound stage. It really did look real. I found if I got too close to the windows the groupies would start screaming. I really enjoyed this until the Motley Crue security guard threatened to break my kneck if I stood in front of the window again.
Vanessas Redgrave
"Good morning Jim, not too tight dear"
One job I had was to tie up Venessa Redgrave all day long in the remake of "Whatever Happened to Babby Jane". This went on for 3 or 4 days.
I'll stop there.
Oh, damn. I missed out on this when it was fresh! But I've got quite a few. I didn't realize until I thought about it for a few seconds:
1. My then-19-year-old daughter, while getting Matthew Broderick's autograph after "The Producers," said to him, "Good job." He looked her in the eye, amused, and said, "Thank you!"
2. I was the only other person on the lift (that would be elevator) at the BBC with Billy Joel. I didn't realize it at first and didn't understand why no one else got on the elevator when he was the only one on. The unabashed American (me) did! ;-) Then the door closed and I realized who it was.
3. I stood in line forEVER during intermission of Annie Get Your Gun in front of Kathie Lee Gifford. People kept stopping and staring and I had no idea why. Then someone said, "Are you??..." and she replied, "Yes, and this is...(whatever her daughter's name is.)" I still had no idea who it was, because I did not look behind me. It was not until she was in the stall next to me, helping her daughter pee that I recognized her distinctive voice and walked out with her back to the audience. She is TEENY. Frighteningly so!
4. I sat one person away from Jennifer Saunders at a performance in London. She was PISSED that I was looking (NOT staring) at her. (it's a very non-British thing to do -- to look at celebrities.) Geesh. She GLARED at me.
5. My daughter went to high school at a school for the arts outside Boston, and one of her schoolmates was the son of a guitar player for Aerosmith, Brad Whitford. So we saw him a lot. He was so sweet. I poked my head inside a group of people who were demanding his autograph (rude buggers) and he was unhappily but dutifully signing. I said, "We really enjoyed Zach's (his son's) performance." His face lit up 1,000 watts and gave me a HUGE smile of true happiness. Oh, and did I forget to mention? My daughter played opposite Zach and they KISSED in the scene. Woo! ;-D
Well shoot. Susan totally deserves it, I laughed so hard I was crying while trying to read it to my husband, who got pretty hysterical too. Fact is, I thought for sure she made it up, but it doesn't matter, that was one funny story.
Posted by: Julia at March 14, 2006 07:47 PMI am so completely uncool. The only brush with fame I've had was to be kissed by Shamu at Seaworld.
Posted by: Gail at March 14, 2006 08:40 PMOne. Of. The. Best. Posts. Ever.
Hehehe....I needed a good laugh.
I did forget a neat one though - I'm buying a house from a man who has a photo of himself with Paul McCartny and Meryl Streep. It wasn't a simple snapshot either - more of a studio thing. Cool, huh?
Posted by: Sheila at March 14, 2006 10:17 PMWow, thanks! With so many great stories I never thought I'd get an honorable mention. I'm....honored. ;-)
Posted by: Cindy at March 15, 2006 08:32 AMOh, I forgot this till just now. When I turned 30, a woman I worked with was living with Jeff Healey, and they came to my birthday party! Half the people had no idea who he was and half the people were starstruck and wouldn't talk to him. He chinned himself on a bar we had up in the hall and bent it out of shape.
Posted by: Mary de B at March 15, 2006 08:48 AMStone Phillips always wobbles on Dateline--have you noticed that? I wonder why . . .
I can't top any of the above, but I did once meet and shake hands with Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart. He was a tiny little man in a badly fitted suit, and somehow that's always been comforting to me.
When I was a kid, I met either Buffalo Bill or Wild Bill Hickok's grandson and Gary Gabelich, who set a world land-speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. I asked him what it was like and he said "it was like" and he whistled and slid his hand in a "setting a new land-speed record" kind of motion. Oh, and I stuck my finger in one of the bullet holes (even though I wasn't supposed to and it almost stayed stuck) in the car Bonnie and Clyde died in. Good times, good times.
Posted by: Kymm at March 15, 2006 03:15 PMOkay, I just had to enter a lame, late entry, I don't know why. Anyway, I was in line behind Walter & Joan Mondale in the security line in the airport one summer. It was early in the morning, no one was around, so my daughter and I said "hi." He being the ever chipper politician brightened up & he & the missus exchanged pleasantries with us. Turns out they were on their way to R. Reagan's funeral. The funny part is - we were chatting it up so much that when their turn came, they didn't have their driver's licenses out, so they waved us to go ahead of them while they hunted in their wallets. I am SO glad they weren't given a pass, they are SUCH Homeland Security Threats, those two.
Posted by: Yet Another Ann at March 15, 2006 05:17 PMMine is "so Nashville"...
I was at Brown's diner for lunch one day while in college. It was packed, as usual. A guy comes over to us and asks if he can sit with us (no tables). Instead of saying "sure", my jackass self said (loudly) "OHMIGOD you're Vince Gill". He thought that was amusing (lame).
Later (years later) I ran into him and he told me I had pretty hair. No joke. I did not remind him of our Brown's Diner incident, because I was just sure if I opened my mouth, more jackassery would fall out.
Posted by: sibyl at March 16, 2006 11:11 AMAnd Angie-la has failed to tell you about the celebrity who had an "Angela siting" and has a mad crazy crush on her.
Hint: He's not a Wopat, and he's not Boss Hogg, but he knows them.