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What's your random encounter with a famous person?


HemiBeers
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I was just reading the thread about Jack's encounter with Bill Murray and thought it would be a good thread to start for anyone that randomly encountered a famous person. Here's my story.

 

About 6 months ago, we go to the Kalamazoo Cracker Barrel for dinner (because that's where cheap old folks eat). We get seated by window and the waitress takes our orders. She then whispers to us "if I'm a little slow, there's a high maintenance group in the table right there....it's Jesse Jackson (as she nods towards his table). He stops here occasionally when he's in the area". Now this Cracker Barrel is right on I-94 halfway between Chicago and Detroit. Jesse is out of Chicago, so it's plausible that he would travel from Chicago to Detroit.

 

My back was facing away from their table, so I couldn't get a good peek, but my wife confirmed it was him. He was with 3 other gentlemen, one or two I assumed were bodyguards, so best not to approach. I probably wouldn't anyway. When they left I got a good view and it appeared to be him from the back.

 

Since we had a window seat, we could see what he was rolling up in. His driver pulled up in this beefy F250 club cab with a huge bumper guard on the front that said 'don't f**k with me'. Jesse got in shotgun seat.

 

After he left, waitress came back griping to us. "whenever he comes here, my manager always comps him and I never get a tip...even though he's really high maintenance. oh well" I guess the 'honor' of serving a celeb is enough to survive on.

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When I was 17, I bagged groceries for Nick Clooney, the famous WKRC-TV News Anchor and father of George Clooney.

 

That's it! My life = Dull. :LOL:

Edited by Principled Man
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On my 4 block commute to work I met or saw:

 

- The cast of Law & Order SUV dedicated 53rd and 8th as Jerry Orbach Way

- At 2am at a corner store I met Jackie Mason holding court with some locals

- I saw Mickey Rourke going into the Ed Sullivan Theater

- I saw The blind guy from Contact parking his Lambo - this guy https://en.wikipedia...illiam_Fichtner

 

In the airport I was in line behind Cynthia Dixon. She was with her mother, and someone in a wheelchair ran over my foot, pushed me out of the way, and tried to give Dixon a bunch of materials and a script or something. Dixon wouldn't take it but signed a shirt for the lady.

 

I am friends with a member of LFO (the one with the backwards cap): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHuGG_FsC20

 

I've had lunch with Garrison Keillor twice.

 

A couple of times I got hammered with this guy, who was a pretty big pop star in China: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROh_fPQk5_o

 

Zheng Yijian punched me out when I was an extra with 4 lines in this movie (my lines were cut): https://en.wikipedia...Man_Called_Hero

 

Shu Qi was in that movie as well and I got to practice my shitty Chinese with her. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/entertainment/2006-07/17/content_642521_2.htm

 

I was a friendly acquaintance of Ben Mulroney in high school and we used to play foosball together; other high school semi-friends are Tom Dolby https://en.wikipedia.../wiki/Tom_Dolby and Matty Herr (we were on the same floor as freshmen and juniors) https://en.wikipedia.../wiki/Matt_Herr

 

The guy who coined the term Net Neutrality was a professor of one of my classes at law school and we drank together (as part of class events) at least twice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Wu

 

I said thank you to Ray Daniels at MSG on the last tour. Supposedly there were a lot of famous people in the area but I didn't recognize them.

 

I've stretched the definition of encounter and famous, so forgive me. I'm actually pretty sure I'm missing some bigger ones, but, oh well.

Edited by LedRush
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Wendy Williams was the most recent.

 

I go to a dermatologist every 6 months since I've had skin cancer a few times in the past. Two months ago I went for my appointment at 2pm and the waiting room was empty... just me. A few minutes, the door opens and in walks a very tall woman in a long red coat and I thought, this is someone famous. She checks in and sits down.

 

I looked over and thought her face was familiar. Ah !!! That's Wendy Williams !!! I said "Hello Wendy". We started to talk and continued to talk for about 15 minutes. VERY nice person. I don't watch her show but after my random encounter, I'm a fan. How ya doin'.

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I wake up beside myself every day. You can read the double (or triple) meaning into that...

 

Oh wait...I'm not famous. Except for being the guy that killed Star Wars.

Edited by toymaker
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I wake up beside myself every day. You can read the double (or triple) meaning into that...

 

Have you been cloning yourself again! That's illegal, and you know it! :eh:

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Meeting Tommy Morrison working a VIP booth at a music fest in 2006. It took me a few seconds to recognize him. He said he was making a return to boxing, which I thought odd. How odd to later hear that he was going to attempt just that.
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Met a lot of pre-NFL and NBA players who went to uni with me at FSU from ‘93-‘96. Some were in my classes, some got college credit at a research company I worked at part-time in those days, and some were through people I knew or just from being out and about. One of my flatmates used to tutor Warrick Dunn; he seemed like a nice, gentle guy. Derrick Brooks once challenged me in racquetball after watching me hit around with another guy. I ended up destroying him but good grief he was fast for a big guy.

 

Saw Michael Chang in passing and wished him good luck before a tennis finals match at Amelia Island Plantation in the early 90s. He wound up losing to Aaron Krickstein in straights. Dammit!

 

My favorite:

Telling River Phoenix “f**k off” after he was rude to me.

He f***ed off.

:hail:

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Met a lot of pre-NFL and NBA players who went to uni with me at FSU from ‘93-‘96. Some were in my classes, some got college credit at a research company I worked at part-time in those days, and some were through people I knew or just from being out and about. One of my flatmates used to tutor Warrick Dunn; he seemed like a nice, gentle guy. Derrick Brooks once challenged me in racquetball after watching me hit around with another guy. I ended up destroying him but good grief he was fast for a big guy.

 

Saw Michael Chang in passing and wished him good luck before a tennis finals match at Amelia Island Plantation in the early 90s. He wound up losing to Aaron Krickstein in straights. Dammit!

 

My favorite:

Telling River Phoenix “f**k off” after he was rude to me.

He f***ed off.

:hail:

 

 

I remembered that I posted the River Phoenix thang a loooong time ago in the same kind of thread so I had a look and found this:

 

Sorry no pics but here's what I've got that I can remember...

 

Living Colour (briefly)...seemed like a bunch of regular guys with heaps of talent.

 

(most of) Rusted Root...in a record shop where they played a few tunes unplugged. They seemed cool enough

 

River Phoenix (when he had a band)...at small club...he was rude to me because I was blocking his way even though my back was to him and I couldn't have noticed.

 

(a brief re-enactment)...

River: (very sarcastically) Excuuuuse you.

Me: f**k off.

 

(River f*cks off and goes towards the stage)

 

My friend: Dude, you know that was River Phoenix, right?

Me: I don't give a shit.

:LOL:

 

Pennywise (last April)...was in a back room [of a rock bar out here...I was there for the beer and the dj was playing good tunes] for band members only but I didn't know it. I thought it was the smoking room. And I didn't know they were Pennywise until after I left (not that it would've mattered). Most of them were a bunch of arrogant pricks. The guitarist was trying to get me to buy him a drink and go to some punk festival the next day. I found out the following day that they were headlining. I told the whole lot of them to f**k off too in the middle of their prickdom. :yes:

 

It seems like I enjoyed saying “f**k off” in those days :LOL:

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I worked in fine dining in Dallas in the 90's and met quite a few famous athletes and saw a couple of stars. People I've spoken with for a few minutes or waited on: Troy Aikman, and man he's a big dude! Hershall Walker, Gold medalist Michael Johnson, Tony Dorsett, ...... Aw screw it. I've met a ton of athletes. But the most fun encounter happened when another server friend and myself were asked to sit down and have a few drinks by Jerry Jones. I swear this is the truth. We talked for maybe a half hour or longer. He was drunk as shit but extremely nice and down to earth. My friend and I were telling him that he needed to trade Dieon Sanders, and he stared at us and said, "really?". Of course it didn't make a dent in his hard head. Dieon was with the team that year and it was the start of his decline. Jerry left the waiter $100 tip.

 

Jerry was easily accessible to the public in those days.

Edited by liquidcrystalcompass
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I don't have random run-ins with famous folk - I live in AL. The most famous people here are corrupt politicians, college football players and meth addicts. Edited by Wil1972
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I coached HS basketball, tennis and golf for over a decade, so I've met lots of famous coaches and players at clinics and other events. The coolest experience I've had was hanging out for a weekend with Arizona basketball coaching legend Lute Olsen. A guy I coached with had played for Lute, so we went down one timr to watch practice. We then went to Lute's where his wife cooked us burgers while we watched tape of Arizona's national championship season. Lute took us out for Mexican food later that evening...even picked up the tab.

 

How I ended up at a U of A frat party at 3AM that weekend is for another thread. ;)

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It's been awhile but back in the day when I used to live in larger towns I ran into and spoke to a few. Michael J. Fox, George Carlin, Willie Stargell, Dave Parker (both those are baseball players), Bill Clinton, Sen. Alan Cranston.

 

My mom and dad went out to eat with my sister this fall in Pittsburgh and sat at a table next to Franco Harris. My mom told me this and said she gave him a little wave and then left him alone because he was treating elderly relatives to dinner. My mom tells me this long story and I spoke to my sister later the same day. So I say, "I hear you ate dinner next to Franco Harris!" and told her what mom said. She says , "What?? My chair was sitting so that my back was to that table. Mom didn't even say anything! I wondered who she was waving at!" :facepalm:

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I was Ty Burrell's (Phil Dunphy on Modern Family) pest control guy for a year, and had no clue who he was for most of that time. Very nice man.

 

Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker is a high school classmate.

 

Will Hines, a college classmate of mine has had small parts in Brooklyn 99, and some Jimmy Kimmel skits and Geico commercials.

 

Rivers Cuomo of Weezer was also in a college class of mine in '87-'88 at UConn. He had big metal hair and moved out to LA the next year. Back then his name was Peter Kitts.

Edited by edhunter
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Eric Johnson rented a rehearsal space in the same music complex where one of my bands did some recording. We chatted for a few minutes once while he was out front waiting for someone to pick up some gear. Nice guy.
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I met the guys Dream Theater in front of a hotel about 10 years ago. They were all very cool; especially John Petrucci.

 

Met Jordan Rudess again years later at a Steven Wilson concert, he just happened to be in Minneapolis visiting, and saw that Steven Wilson was playing, so he showed up in the crowd at the Varsity Theater. That was an awesome night.

 

I got to spend a fair amount of time with NASCAR driver Elliott Sadler through a work event last year.

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I used to give sports commentator Colin Cowherd a hard time at the bar back in college (Eastern Washington). He was just breaking into the tv business as a local weatherman, and I razzed him about being a celebrity pretty hard. I guess he showed me, though! :P
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I used to give sports commentator Colin Cowherd a hard time at the bar back in college (Eastern Washington). He was just breaking into the tv business as a local weatherman, and I razzed him about being a celebrity pretty hard. I guess he showed me, though! :P

 

Back in ‘97, Cowerd sold his old sofa to my old flatmate & I after we had just moved to Portland a week earlier. Since we were new to the NW at that time, we had no idea who he was or even the tv station he mentioned. He had a pretty cool place in downtown Portland. He was even showing us pics and medals of his wife who was a pro runner. He helped us load his sofa into our van and that was that. Seemed like a nice guy.

 

Several weeks later in a pot-crazed blur, my flatmate & I saw Cowerd on tv reporting the weather. We laughed hard on his old sofa, patted it, and shouted “Colin!” We ended up doing this anytime we saw him reporting the weather: shouting the “Colin!”, patting the sofa, and...the other ‘stuff’ :blaze:

 

:LOL:

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I used to give sports commentator Colin Cowherd a hard time at the bar back in college (Eastern Washington). He was just breaking into the tv business as a local weatherman, and I razzed him about being a celebrity pretty hard. I guess he showed me, though! :P

 

Back in ‘97, Cowerd sold his old sofa to my old flatmate & I after we had just moved to Portland a week earlier. Since we were new to the NW at that time, we had no idea who he was or even the tv station he mentioned. He had a pretty cool place in downtown Portland. He was even showing us pics and medals of his wife who was a pro runner. He helped us load his sofa into our van and that was that. Seemed like a nice guy.

 

Several weeks later in a pot-crazed blur, my flatmate & I saw Cowerd on tv reporting the weather. We laughed hard on his old sofa, patted it, and shouted “Colin!” We ended up doing this anytime we saw him reporting the weather: shouting the “Colin!”, patting the sofa, and...the other ‘stuff’ :blaze:

 

:LOL:

So you and I have a Cowherd connection? Could Colin be the Kevin Bacon of RUSH fans?
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I used to give sports commentator Colin Cowherd a hard time at the bar back in college (Eastern Washington). He was just breaking into the tv business as a local weatherman, and I razzed him about being a celebrity pretty hard. I guess he showed me, though! :P

 

Back in ‘97, Cowherd sold his old sofa to my old flatmate & I after we had just moved to Portland a week earlier. Since we were new to the NW at that time, we had no idea who he was or even the tv station he mentioned. He had a pretty cool place in downtown Portland. He was even showing us pics and medals of his wife who was a pro runner. He helped us load his sofa into our van and that was that. Seemed like a nice guy.

 

Several weeks later in a pot-crazed blur, my flatmate & I saw Cowherd on tv reporting the weather. We laughed hard on his old sofa, patted it, and shouted “Colin!” We ended up doing this anytime we saw him reporting the weather: shouting the “Colin!”, patting the sofa, and...the other ‘stuff’ :blaze:

 

:LOL:

So you and I have a Cowherd connection? Could Colin be the Kevin Bacon of RUSH fans?

 

:LOL:

 

It’s funny and FUN how he’s a pretty random name you came up with that I just happened to have bought a sofa from over twenty years ago! Small world!

 

Just a few years ago that same former flatmate, who’s still in Portland, told me how Colin Cowherd got to be a pretty well-known sports commentator. I said to him, “Colin Cowherd?! The guy who sold us that first sofa and who was the Portland weather guy?!” He goes, “Yeah, the sofa guy!”

 

Bacon for all !

Edited by JohnnyBlaze
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It's been awhile but back in the day when I used to live in larger towns I ran into and spoke to a few. Michael J. Fox, George Carlin, Willie Stargell, Dave Parker (both those are baseball players), Bill Clinton, Sen. Alan Cranston.

 

My mom and dad went out to eat with my sister this fall in Pittsburgh and sat at a table next to Franco Harris. My mom told me this and said she gave him a little wave and then left him alone because he was treating elderly relatives to dinner. My mom tells me this long story and I spoke to my sister later the same day. So I say, "I hear you ate dinner next to Franco Harris!" and told her what mom said. She says , "What?? My chair was sitting so that my back was to that table. Mom didn't even say anything! I wondered who she was waving at!" :facepalm:

Hey! If someone doesn't know Willie Stargell or Dave Parker, let them figure it out on their own. It may give them a nice sports education. Hell, maybe they'll see the We Are Family video. I was a kid back then and I always wanted a Pirate cap.
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It's been awhile but back in the day when I used to live in larger towns I ran into and spoke to a few. Michael J. Fox, George Carlin, Willie Stargell, Dave Parker (both those are baseball players), Bill Clinton, Sen. Alan Cranston.

 

My mom and dad went out to eat with my sister this fall in Pittsburgh and sat at a table next to Franco Harris. My mom told me this and said she gave him a little wave and then left him alone because he was treating elderly relatives to dinner. My mom tells me this long story and I spoke to my sister later the same day. So I say, "I hear you ate dinner next to Franco Harris!" and told her what mom said. She says , "What?? My chair was sitting so that my back was to that table. Mom didn't even say anything! I wondered who she was waving at!" :facepalm:

Hey! If someone doesn't know Willie Stargell or Dave Parker, let them figure it out on their own. It may give them a nice sports education. Hell, maybe they'll see the We Are Family video. I was a kid back then and I always wanted a Pirate cap.

The first time I made a bet I was 7 years and the Steelers beat the Rams in Super Bowl whatever in ‘79 or ‘80.

 

A glorious one dollar winnings victory! :blaze:

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