Celebrity Sightings (2 Viewers)

[Dan D.]

Scott - naw, I didn't say anything. Guess I'm not as quick as you.

 

[Mark Lee]

I seem to recall one of these threads a couple months ago, but what the hey....

Most of my celebrity sightings actually happened while I was at med school (NYU). One of the hospitals we rotate thru while there is the (in)famous Bellevue, which besides the well-known locked psych ward, also has a premier ER department. And that's where I've seen (and met) many celebs -- never as patients, though! (Then I'd be violating a coupla confidentiality rules.... ) I met Hugh Grant and Liz Hurley (who was wearing some really tasty black leather pants....

) as they toured the ER, doing some research for that utterly crappy movie of Hugh's some years back (what was it called?). Got their autographs on the back of one of my call schedules! Have also seen Andy Garcia popping his head out of a trailer parked outside Bellevue, and Dennis Franz and Jimmy Smits filming an NYPD Blue scene outside the ER. Other friends of mine saw Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts outside Bellevue when they were filming Conspiracy Theory.

I've also seen Mel chowin' down on a porterhouse at Peter Luger's. Met grinnin' George Foreman in the lobby of Mandalay Bay casino in Vegas the weekend of the Lewis-Tua fight (surrounded by hordes of fans, all of whom wanted pics with him puttin' up his dukes, and all of whom he seemed willing to oblige! what a nice guy!). Sat in the terminal at LAX next to Billy Zane, waiting for a red-eye flight to JFK. Sat one table away from Cindy Crawford at Planet Hollywood in Manhattan (and managed to sneak her into several of my photos from that outing.... )

Met and got the autograph of Keyshawn Johnson outside the men's room at Virgil's BBQ, only hours after he was drafted #1 by the Jets. Going back a bit, I also got to meet Tracy Austin and Bjorn Borg in their primes (there's a prominent tennis academy in my hometown).

The very best celeb sighting I've heard, though, was one that my friend Jay had while we were in med school together. He was dating a gal (now his wife) who lived in the West Village, and they went to see a movie (don't recall which one). One of the trailers that played beforehand was for that crapfest The Avengers (with Ralph, Uma, and Sean busily embarrassing themselves). Well, Jay isn't the most subtle of guys. He watches that trailer, turns to his date, and says (quite loudly), "Awww, that looked like it sucked!!! Who the hell would wanna watch that???" As soon as he finished saying it, he noticed, sitting two rows ahead of him, Ethan Hawke and....Uma Thurman!!! He immediately sank into his seat, and tried to avoid eye contact for the rest of the movie. He did notice Uma and Ethan glancing his way when the movie was over, tho.

 

[Tim Morton]

I met Wolfman Jack as he was getting out of a limo in front of a bar i was walking into the night before the SuperBowl in San Diego many years ago, was dopey enough to ask him for a picture with him Then inside the bar i saw Steve Garvey, but did not meet him.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

Just thought I would revive this thread to say I met Arte Johnson over the weekend. He was at a celebrity golf tourney here in town. Got my picture with him to go in the HT with my Bob Uecker photo.

He's pretty spry for being 84. And he's in the market for a digital camera... he asked to see my Canon Elph APS... (most people mistake it for a digital camera.. I guess because it's small)

Veeery Interesting!

I'll post the pic as soon as I get it developed.

Bob Donner was also there (aka: Exidor from Mork & Mindy) but, I didn't get a photo.. some years Leslie Nielson makes an appearance.. I'll make sure to be there then.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

Here... I said I'd post it:



He's the one on the right.

 

[Dick Smyrak]

My wife and I were staying at the Kailer Hotel in Rochester Mn. While she was at the pool I decided to take a steam, shortly after 2 men walked in and I kept glancing up at 1 of the gents, "not a very safe thing to be doing in a steam room to another guy while wearing a towel" Finally as I was about to leave I turned to the person and said" I apologise but I have to ask you if you are indeed Jim Nabors" Shazam it was and we talked for about 10 minutes before running out to the pool get some paper and a pen for him to autogragh for me

 

[Magnus Nord]

try to discreetly walk up beside very tall people just to see how much taller they are. I just get totally fascinated with doing this.

I suppose you would do that too me too since im 6'7" .

And for encounters... kinda low on those since i live in Sweden :-/ , when I was a child i met Olof Palme though.. the swedish prime minister who was shot in 1986.

Have fun everyone!

 

[JonZ]

I met and hung out with lots of wrestlers when I was training to become one. We used to do security for the ECW shows.

Not too long ago, my cousin met Anna Paquin in NYC.He called me but I didnt have my cellphone, so he left me a message - he gave the phone to Anna and she said Hi.

 

[John Alvarez]

Because I live in Jacksonville with the Jaguars and the Golf hall of fame I get to meet a lot of sports figures especially during the Superbowl. We aslo have a house in Miami and while there I ran into a celeb that I had mixed emotions about. O.J. simpson was in th bar at a golf course we played. I wanted to shake his hand for the football side but beat the crap out of him for the other stuff...

 

[Dave Poehlman]

Thanks for reviving an old thread, Jon... and reminding me how fat I look in that photo. :b

 

[Bill Williams]

When I was teaching school, I had a co-worker of mine who was a bartender at a local nightspot called The Dock, and he was working there the night that Sandra Bullock and Kiefer Sutherland came in to party while taking a break from shooting "A Time to Kill" up in Canton, Mississippi. They got Sandra's driver's license and made a photocopy of it and put it on a flyer that read, "If Sandra Bullock can get carded at The Dock, so can you." And my co-worker even showed me the flyer as proof that it actually happened!

I got to see Jerry Clower twice, once when he spoke at a Sunday night service at church, the other time when he gave the commencement address at my college when I graduated.

In 1993 I went with a couple of friends to the Gulf Coast for a WCW pay-per-view, and the night before we went to one of the casino restaurants - and into the parking lot comes this big stretch Cadillac. Out of the front seat comes Sid Vicious, his girlfriend, and his trainer. We were flipping out because they just strolled in to eat dinner, and I got to shake hands with him and gave him my best wishes on his match the following night. He really appreciated that a lot, and my friends and I got his autograph as well. And they all put away some serious food - large salads, steaks with baked potatoes, mixed drinks, a whole lobster apiece, and they kept going at dinner after we left! The following night, after the pay-per-view we stopped to get Cokes at a local food mart, and we found out that we had just missed seeing Ric Flair there by about 10 minutes. I heard the clerk on duty tell another customer that Ric had stopped by before heading out to the casinos to party that evening.

One year at a St. Patrick's Day parade, I got to see Tiny Tim drive by in one of the parade cars.

About 15 years ago my parents and I went to dinner at The Elite, and we got to see Eudora Welty eating dinner there with a friend of hers.

The biggest near-miss of my life I will never shake was three years ago, when Christopher Reeve came to Ole Miss to accept a check for his paralysis foundation from the university's annual Charity Bowl to raise money for spinal cord research. He received a customized #38 jersey with his name on it, in memory of Chucky Mullins, a promising football player who had been paralyzed from the neck down in a football game and passed away a year and a half after the accident. I would have given anything to have been there to see Chris Reeve, because Oxford is only a couple of hours north of where I live, but I had to go to Albuquerque that weekend to attend a K-12 videoconferencing seminar as part of my job training. That's the one near-miss I will never live down.

 

[MarkHastings]

Most of my 'celeb' sightings have come from work:

-Scott Bryce came to work for my company. He is best known as the father from the WB series "Popular" and has also made guest appearances on numerous TV shows.

-Nile Rogers (guitarist for Chic) is friends with my boss and stops in a lot.

-Rob Reiner came in once to do a Voice Over.

-I also met the man who provided the voice for Batman in the cartoon. It was cool because he did the voice for me.

EDIT: I re-read the first post and realized my post may not exactly count, but oh well.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

-Rob Reiner came in once to do a Voice Over.

Being from the New York area, I've gone into Manhattan quite often and have met many celebrities but it's usually been when I'm going there specifically to obtain their autograph (I used to collect autographs a lot in the 1990s).

But the best story of an "accidental" encounter was back in 1993 when I went to see the off-Broadway show, "Blue Man Group"; as my wife and I were filing out of the tiny theatre after the show, we spotted Rob Reiner in the crowd who'd just seen the same performance we did. I got to speak with him outside the theatre and have my picture taken with him. A really down to earth guy.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Yeah, live performances are still one of the best venues in Manhattan for celebrity sightings. Just in the last few weeks, I've been to plays attended by Morgan Freeman (Gem of the Ocean, a few days before he won the Golden Globe) and by Amy Irving and Selma Blair (the revival of Hurlyburly with Ethan Hawke; it's the current must-have ticket off-Broadway).

Theater district restaurants can also be good spots. Not too long ago, my wife and I were having dinner after a show, and at the table next to us was Brooke Smith, who is best known for playing the Senator's kidnapped daughter in Silence of the Lambs. Midway through dinner, Dylan Baker, most recently seen as Peter Parker's college professor in Spider-Man 2, joined them and began talking animatedly about the play he'd just seen.

M.

 

[MarkHastings]

You guys just reminded me. I sat near Abe Vigoda (Fish from Barney Miller) during an off-Broadway play.

 

[Bill Williams]

Here's another one I just remembered, and this one happened last year at my office: if any of you saw "Benji Off the Leash" at the theaters, the dog who became the current Benji came by our offices along with Joe Camp. I oughtta know: I took Benji's picture in the front lobby!

 

[Dave Poehlman]

You guys just reminded me. I sat near Abe Vigoda

Did you say, "hey Abe, I thought you were dead!"?

[explanation of joke] People Magazine reported him as dead in an article over 20 years ago. [/explanation of joke]

 

[MarkHastings]

Did you say, "hey Abe, I thought you were dead!"?

No, but my brother and I were in hysterics because we both had just recently seen one of the Comedy Central Roasts, where Jeffrey Ross said "Abe Vigoda is SO old, that he tried to enlist at Old Navy"

I think there were other mentions of his age and the fact that people thought he was dead. Man, he kind of looked like the living dead too. I mean, he was OLD on Barney Miller!

 

[Jeremy Jones]

I've got 3. I was walking not 3 feet away from Davy Jones from the Monkees a few years ago. I didn't say anything, though.

I went to a Ringo Starr concert and during the finale, we all went to the front near the stage. I kept pointing at him, and finally, he smiled and pointed back at me.

But, the best was last year. I went to a Prince concert and again, tried pointing at him. He pointed back, and then made a goofy face. After the show, he passed by and I yelled, "Hey Prince". He stopped, and walked over and shook my hand. Coolness!

Oh, almost forgot. I met the guitarist from 3 Doors Down when he came in my store. I'd helped him for about 15 minutes before someone clued me in to who he was. Really down-to-earth guy.

 

[Micheal]

Almost 20 years ago I saw Rich Little at a Chinese food restaurant in Ottawa Canada. I wanted to go over for an autograph but I didn't want to bother him so I left him alone.

I've met other minor celebrities but for some reason this one struck me. My Dad was a big fan.