Your brush with celebrity

[Arkay]

Met lots of celebrities, including three (almost four) US presidents. Spent a summer at a Congressman's summer house on a lake. Met plenty of famous musicians and a number of actors/actresses, and spent time with a few of them. They are just people like everybody else; many are very nice, some are not so nice, just like you find with any other group of people.

I have some sympathy for what they go through, though: back in the early/mid 1980s, I did some acting in a few TV shows here in Hong Kong. On one of them, just before Chinese New Year, I raped a woman and then killed her husband in a rigged (I cheated! ) sword fight, and insulted the Chinese people [they never let white guys be the good guys!]. That show had the highest viewer ratings of any that year, with more than eighty percent of the population watching it. When I went out on the streets after that, EVERYBODY would look at me, point at me, whisper about me. etc... At least people made a distinction between the actor and the role, and no one was negative about it. The attention was so strong that most of my friends wouldn't go out with me for a few months afterwards, until things quieted down a bit. Gave me a little taste of what real "celebrity" must be like. Frankly, although it has its advantages (you get good seats at restaurants, discounts at shops and generally better service everywhere), I'd rather be plain old anonymous me, able to walk around in casual clothes and scratch my nose without someone staring at me and gossiping about it.

Of course, since I recently started hosting my own weekly TV show segment here, and the station seems to be plastering my face all over the screen during the week advertising the show, I might not be so anonymous for too much longer... Fortunately, it is on the less-watched channel, so the effect isn't TOO bad, at least not yet.

[Earlsays]

Originally Posted by avionic

While on temporary duty at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas I got free tickets to a Tony Orlando show at the MGM (summer of 1982),The guy that got the passes was a retired ArmyAirforce WWII vet. After the show we went backstage and had a couple beers with the old guy and TonyO But no Dawn

You call this an island? you call this a resort? this is a swamp, morris we could've seen Tony Orlando in Miami Beach but NO!

[soundmotor]

Originally Posted by Arkay

Spent a summer at a Congressman's summer house on a lake.

Your name isn't Steve Gobie by any chance?

[Toasted Almond]

Because of my job, over the years I've met a boatload of "stars" and people like that. Pre-1981, Cathy Lee (Giffford) came down to fly with my squadron. I showed up for work as she was departing after her flight. Back then she was a little hottie, and I had no idea she was a horse's ass, so I asked her if she wanted to do a double-turn and come flying with me too. She grabbed my flying suit zipper, pulled it down to my waist, stuck her finger in my belly-button, and turned around and left with the rest of the tv crew.

Another time, not working, I had to take my mom to Filthadelphia Airport. We were walking down the jetway to her departure gate when I noticed a airport employee opening a vending machine that some travelers lost money in. One of those travelers was Crystal Gayle, and all I wanted to do was chloroform her and take her down to my car. My mom would've been okay by herself.

I can't stop the memories...they're all flooding back.....

Another time in the mid-eighties the squadron commander called me up and asked me if I wanted to come to his office and meet Bobby "The Shot Heard 'Round The World" Thompson. He also told me he knew I was a big Brooklyn Dodger fan, and that if I came over to meet him, he was going to pat me down first. I went over there and he was a nice guy and a BIG boy. Squadron commander should've realized the worst I could've done was punch him in the knee or something.

In the nineties, I'm on line waiting to check in at the El Panama Hotel in downtown Panama City, Panama and Alan Alda comes strutting from the pool area and through the lobby, all the while berating this really small guy who was with him. I caught him with a greeting and he immediately went into the big smile for the public and shit. As soon as they got into the elevator he started bad-mouthing the small guy again.

I hung around with a bunch of New Jersey governors, and Christine Todd-Whitman is no fun, but the guy from the eighties Tom Kean was. His wife wouldn't get on the airplane unless she was pretty blasted. Both of them were white-knuckle flyers.

I met and "hung around" with General Chuck Yeager for a few hours and that was no fun at all.

When I was a kid I was real lucky and got to hang around with The Brooklyn Dodgers. Nothing ever meant as much to me as those times with those guys.

[Arkay]

Originally Posted by soundmotor

Your name isn't Steve Gobie by any chance?

Nope, sorry. Who's he?

Edit: Never mind. I just Googled the name. Nope, I am most definitely NOT that guy!!!

[70salesguy]

Back in the 80s my brother put together a car show to be held at the Carolina Coliseum in Columbia SC (inside). For the centerpiece of the show he had the same type of cars that play prominent roles in the movie "American Graffitti",
the 55 Chevy, the white T-Bird and the 32 coupe. He signed Wolfman Jack to do a live appearance for a few hours for 2 days and tied it in with a live radio broadcast on the local oldies station.

Everything was going OK until the limo to pick up Wolfman from the show and take him to dinner was in an accident on his way to pick up Wolfman. The limo company called and said it would be an hour before a replacement could be sent.

Wolfman was hungry and wanted to go to dinner, so my brother asked him if it would be allright if his brother (me) drove him in my Cadillac. I had an almost new Eldorado at the time. He said "sure" so I drove with Wolfman in the passenger seat and my brother and Wolfmans manager in the back seat.

He wanted to go to Fuddruckers for dinner!

We all went in and had a great time. He really was a nice guy!

After we finished eating, I drove him to his hotel and dropped him off.

He complimented me on how nice my car was and that I was a good driver.

Always special for me. Sad day for me when he passed.

[SSBN 618]

I was Navy submariner. I was attending some pre-deployment training in Pearl Harbor. We had to use the facility after hours in order not to disrupt the regular training classes held during the day. In the hallway outside of the restroom, about 10pm, a buddy and I run into a tall Lt. Commander wearing tropical whites. Very unusual to see an officer in that uniform, in this facility at this time of day. He says "Hi guys!". Something definitely wrong, no officer addresses enlisted men like that. His hair is a bit too long, he's not a submarine officer, and the ribbons and SEAL insigna he does have are not correctly displayed on his uniform. We are thinking it's some kind of security drill - intruder alert type thing and are ready to slam this guy to the deck. Need to be sure though, we ask, "Can we help you, Commander?" He smiles and replies, "I'm not in the Navy, I'm an actor. We're shooting in the other building". We think this is just a ploy, part of the drill. We actually grabbed his arms and are starting to take him down. Just then, a couple of civillians round the corner, followed by a Senior Chief we do know as an instructor at the facility. He yells at us, "What are you guys doing!?" and runs over. "He's an intruder Senior Chief, we got him!" Of course, he turns out to be Tom Selleck, shooting one of the first episodes, of the as yet unaired, Magnum P.I. Tom was very cool about the whole thing and apologetic. He asked us how we knew he was a fake. We explained how his ribbons and SEAL pin were in the wrong order on his unform. He said thanks and corrected them.

[Wornears]

Had my 15 minutes with Dean Rusk discussing politics while in college. Very approachable, but getting very old then. Also got to attend a seminar by the poet Stephen Spender -- back in my English Lit days.

Writing about NASCAR and other motorsports for about 20 years I've spent time with or interviewed about all the racing drivers and many crew and engine builders you can think of from John Force, Steve Kinser, Sammy Swindell, Richard Petty, Randy Dorton, Robert Yates, Junior Johnson, Bill Elliott, Tim Richmond, Dan Gurney, David Pearson, A.J. Foyt, Carroll Shelby (really larger than life), Earnhardt Sr. & Jr. Gordon, Yarborough, etc.

Foyt was setting a closed course record in the Olds AeroTech back in the '80s and is one of the bravest/craziest, most down to earth people I've ever met. Tough as barbed wire. Cale Yarborough the same. Richard Petty the most comfortable in his place in racing history and as real as it gets.

Followed Adam Petty from his short track ASA days and it really hurt when he was killed. The kid had his granddad's touch. Also when Randy Dorton was killed in the Hendrick plane crash. He always had time to explain engines and NASCAR politics to me.

[Doctordirt]

Let's see. I played basketball with Brad Lohaus. He was at a basketball camp I attended. I'll never forget seeing that 7'2" guy trying to ride a moped up a steep hill.

Spent the weekend with Bill "Superfoot" Wallace we invited to a kickboxing/MA event I helped promote. He's a great guy.

Have met the following at autograph sessions: Ernie Banks, Dan Dierdorf, Pat Tilley, Neil O'Donahue, William the refridgerator Perry, Neil Lomax, Bubba Baker, John Andretti (great guy), OJ Anderson, Harry Gant, Juan Crocier from Ratt.

I guess the biggest was Superfoot Wallace, he's a down-to earth, funny guy who was an absolute nice guy. Fun to work with and actually was a bit annoyed that we picked him up at the airport in a limo.

[Fred Sanford]

This actually came up in conversation again over Thanksgiving weekend, so I've tried to list as many as I could remember. Here's what I've got so far (yeah, they're alphabetical, so I could make sure there weren't doubles):

Al Roker
Alec Baldwin
Amy Irving
Ben Vereen
Bill Cosby
Billy Crystal
Billy Joel
Billy Squier
Bob Tisch
Bruce Villanche
Bryan Trottier
Carey Lowell
Carl Icahn
Carlos Beltran
Charles Schwab
Chauncey Howell
Christie Brinkley
Chuck Barris
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown
Corey Glover
Deborah Roberts
Desmond Child
Donald Trump
Dr. Ruth Westheimer
Eric Carr
Everything But The Girl
George Benson
George Soros
George Winston
Goo Goo Dolls
Gun Club
Husker Du
Jay Black
Jerry Seinfeld
Jimmy Buffet
Kevin Spacey
Laurence Tisch
Leona Helmsley
Les Paul
Lucille Roberts
Madonna
Matt Lauer
Michael Caine
Nina Gordon
P Diddy
Patti LuPone
Patty Smyth
Paul Schaeffer
Paul Sorvino
Ralph Lauren
Ramones
Richard Gere
Ritchie Blackmore
Robin Roberts
Ronald Perelman
Scotty Moore
Steve Martin
Steve Stoute
Steven Spielberg
Sue Simmons
The Del Vikings
The Fall
The Fixx
The Four Seasons
The Four Tops
The Mekons
The Plasmatics
The Stray Cats
The Waitresses
Tom Hulce
Tommy Victor
Twisted Sister

...so there you go, that's got to be most of them except the really big finance guys, but I'm figuring they're not really "famous". I was actually surprised at how many of them I've met in 'regular life', and not through my day jobs.

Oh, and I was on network TV twice, once on 'Eye to Eye with Connie Chung", and once on 'Eyewitness News'. I think that's it.

je

[Duffinator]

The way this thread is titled I though it was going to be about what you did to be a celebrity. Growing up in So. Cal. and traveling a lot for business I've met lots of famous people. Two of the ones I was most impressed with were Bill Sharp and Harry Markowitz. Anybody know why they are famous? If you don't you probably should.

My cousin had an entire episode of Oprah Winfrey dedicated to her as she was interviewed.

Most recently I've been on television twice. Several years ago I did a commercial and had a speaking part but the one thing I did where I was on TV the most and people noticed me was a dance show in the early 80's and I can't ever remember the name. Richard Blade from KROQ was the host. My date and I wore some very bright "new wave" clothes and we were filmed a lot. They used the video of us in dozens of shows and I had people for a couple of years say they saw me on TV.

Personally I'd love to be rich but don't care to ever be a celebrity.

[Snade]

I worked with a guy that was friends and a neighbor of the Belushi family and knew John Belushi as a high school student in Wheaton, Illinois in the late 60's.

He said John was a bit of maverick and got the attention of the neighborhood when he was mad at a classmate and decided to get a shot gun and fire a round outside the bedroom window of this friend at 2am in the morning.

[MagneMan]

Met and shook Chuck Conners (The Rifleman) hand while he was in Nisswa Minnesota to film a Scorpion snowmobile ad. I wash that hand regularly.

I was assigned to be John C Stennis personal photographer.

Was living in downtown Honolulu in the late 70s, 3 attractive ladies came in the club I was in. One of them smiled at me and her friend came over and me if I would like to dance with her friend. Not being much of a dancer, I turned down the offer and she said, "Oh come on, how often does one of Charlies Angels want to dance with you?" I realized I was turning down Cheryl Ladd and smiled at her and waved and said, "no thank you" to her friend. It was sort of completely odd being pimped out by her friend or probably her public relations assistant, lol.

One of my photographs of an aircraft carrier and the USS Mississippi during sea trials was presented to Jimmy Carter and hung in the White House halls until it fell off and was thrown away. Or replaced. (demise uncertain)

I had a commercial photography studio in the warehouse district in Minneapolis and I would have late night parties there and it wasnt uncommon for Princes band members, Human League, and assorted others to be there. Nice people, all.

Paul Newman rented a cabin right next door to us on Gull Lake, Minnesota for a few weeks every summer when I was kid. He was friendly and completely normal...not in the least bit standoffish, rolled with the punches good. It was pretty weird to look out your front window and see Paul Newman floating on a life raft in front of your house though, lol.


OH OH OH, I forgot this one. My dads former wife babysat for Cindy Crawford!!! lol

[speedracer]

I spent the day with Barbie Benton at a golf outing about 25 yrs. ago.

[cubdog]

The mayor of Denver, John Hickenlooper is a friend of mine. My sister went to HS with Pee Wee Herman and my step father went to school with Jack Kevorkian. I also attended the same HS as Ronald Regan but don't hold that against me.

cubdog