Celebrity Sightings (1 Viewer)

Have you ever spotted a celebrity?

I never get a "brush with fame," but I'm sure there are several on the forum who have. I'd like to see if anyone here has any good "close encounters" stories.

The rules are simple:

1.) You or someone you know must be the person who personally spotted the celebrity. That is, you should easily be able to verify the story. "Cousin of a friend who was the brother of the former roommate of..." stories do not count.

2.) The sighting must have taken place in ordinary situations at public venues, such as restaurants, stores, or airports. Organized celebrity events (autograph sessions, studio tours, etc.) do not count.


So, who has the BEST story?

I sat behind Julia Child at the Ak-Sar-Ben Rodeo in Omaha when I was about 6...

Tony Hawk and the Birdhouse crew were recently in town doing a show at the local skatepark. I went down with my digital camera and was allowed inside the ropes to take pictures upclose of Tony Hawk, Bucky Lasek, Willy Santos, and 10 others. Best day of photographing in my life!! I got some killer pictures out of it too!

I've seen alot of other celebs in town as well. Bill Gates, Arnold Schwarzeneger (sp?), Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, Jean Chretian, Elton John, and many others. Kelowna seems to be a hot spot for them, as they all love it here and alot of them have summer homes here.

James Earl Jones once took my parking spot. I was meeting a friend for a party at a restaurant on W. 72nd Street in NYC and I found a spot, but the car in front of me took it and out walked James Earl Jones from the passenger seat side.

By the time I circled around, I found my friend waiting right by JEJ's car and he asked me to guess who he met. My friend works in the 60's on the East Side near Central Park and meets celebs a lot so this was just another encounter for him, but JEJ actually invited him into the car to talk when a minute a later a cop knocked on the window. JEJ thought he was going to ask his driver to move the car but the cop just wanted to know if he was going to be in Star Wars Episode I!

My friend then got out of the car and saw me coming and told me JEJ was leaving so in the end I wound up getting the spot, but not meeting the celebrity.

And that's my celebrity sighting

One time I was at Gates BarBQ in Kansas City and Sam Donaldson was in line right behind me. He was eating with his producer, they were in town doing a story on the Kauffman Foundation. Ollie Gates himself, a well known Kansas Citian and founder of the restaurant chain, was eating with Otis Taylor, a former KC Chief wide receiver at the time they won the Super Bowl. They introduced themselves to Sam Donaldson after he had finished his meal, who was seated at a table right next to me.

I've nearly bumped into a couple of local celebrities during lunch in that same part of time. When I say bumped, I mean it literaly. I was walking back to work after lunch one day and George Brett stepped out of the Peanut, a bar on Main St. south of the Plaza in KC, and I almost walked right into him. I didn't even notice it was him, my boss pointed it out.

A couple of times I saw Walt Bodine at a barbecue place at 51st and Main St. He's a well known KC TV and radio personality and food critic. He's mostly blind now, and almost grabbed me as I walked past him one time thinking I was his assistant.

Olympia Dukakis was the guest speaker at my college commencement. I got to talk with her and have my picture taken with her after the ceremony. She was very friendly and gracious.

I've had a few of those. I sat two seats behind Lee Majors on a flight to Florida a few years ago. I found myself standing on a street corner near Radio City next to Tony Shalhoub late one night. Years ago I would see David Letterman out on his morning jog when I was driving to work. I was at the airport waiting for a relative to get off her plane and Jay Leno was the second guy off. Gregory Hines asked me if I knew where a payphone was at MacWorld San Francisco.

I just remembered this funny story. A former co-worker of mine went to school in Utah. He was working someplace near the hotel a bunch of basketball players were staying at for some big event, possibly the all-star game, I don't recall. He saw a bunch of limos pull up and players get out, then one limo pulled up and stayed parked for quite a while. There was some movement of the limo though, just not forward or backwards. Eventually the door opened and who popped out? Why it was Dennis Rodman and Madonna. One can only wonder what was going on in there.

I met Gene Simmons in a giftshop at Vegas.

I also saw David Suzuki boarding a plane at Pearson(I guess he's more of a canadian celebrity).

A few years back I was in a restaurant in San Fransisco. We had just finished eating and were getting ready to leave. As we were walking out I spotted George Lucas at a nearby table. He hadn't gotten his meal yet and no one else seemed to be paying attention to him so I walked over and spoke to him. I couldn't believe my luck.

No, wait a minute, that wasn't me. Nevermind.

I was waiting for a connecting Southwest flight in Albequerque when I saw Wayne Newton come off the plane I was about to board. I wouldn't think he'd have to slum it on SW Air like that.

Last Saturday night, I went to see GYPSY (third row orchestra seats) on Broadway and on the aisle of the row behind, in walks Vincent D'onofrio (from L&O: Criminal Intent), who my friend recognised. Throughout the performance, I kept an eye on him and, while his wife was watching the show intently, he fell asleep until about halfway through the first act. They left at intermission.

Another time, last year, I sat right behind Caroline Rhea at a performance of "Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune". She was with her boyfriend/significant other and, during the curtain call she asked him is she had to go backstage and say hello to Edie Falco and Stanley Tucci. He said it would have been rude not to.

Rafael

I don't know if this counts as a celebrity, but my brothers wedding reception was at a place called "Mahans Lake View" in Wolcott, CT. The owner of the facility (David Mahan) is part owner of the horse "Funny Cide" who will be attempting to win the Triple Crown this Saturday.

I talked to him a little bit on Saturday. I have a good feeling he will be a millionaire by Sunday

I was staying in LA and I was searching around in my hotel to see where I could buy some stamps. The desk clerk told me to head down the escalators, so I go over and there's Steven Spielberg heading down them. The Director's Guild Awards were being held there that evening, so I stuck around and saw James Cameron, Peter Weir, Kelsey Grammar, Roberto Benigni and some others. I can't remember all the other people I saw, actually. It was funny because there was a small crowd of middle-aged women from Florida hanging around and I kept telling them who all these directors were because they had no idea! I was bummed because I knew Scorsese was being honored that night but I missed him. (I was also hoping Lucas would show, but no luck.)

My friend & I were walking through the lobby later and litterally bumped into Beningi. That same evening I saw Ben Affleck walking through the lobby.

I attended a test screening of the new Project Greenlight film "The Battle of Shaker Heights" last night and saw the producer Chris Moore (Good Will Hunting, American Pie 1/2/3, etc.) and Jeff Balis (memorable to anyone who watched the Project Greenlight HBO show).

At a different test screening a few weeks ago for "2 Fast 2 Furious" I saw the director, John Singleton.

Nothing jaw-dropping, just cool sightings.

I got to act with Judd Nelson, Alison Eastwood and (my favorite) John Rhys-Davies this spring. The movie is called "Lost Angels" but I have not seen any word of it on IMDB yet. All were very cool people to talk to. John was much more aloof than the others and tended to always talk like he was acting in a play, but still a nice guy. Judd was very personable and was easy to talk to. I got lots of cool stories from him about everything from his dog to living with Robert Downey Jr. Alison was nice once she warmed up to you, but she sure hated it when people came up to her saying, "Wow! You're Clint's daughter!"
Anyway, I got to spend four days acting with those fine folk and loved every minute of it!

These kind of run together...

On our honeymoon in Maui, my wife and I stayed at the Grand Wailea, which is next door to the Four Seasons. We ended up meeting Maria Shriver and her kids. She said that she was spending most of the time at the Grand Wailea pool/spa while her husband, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was staying at the Four Seasons (where there was more privacy).

While we were there, the top suite ($5,000 per night) at the Grand Wailea was being used by Michael Jordan. During his stay, he was allegedly asked to trade his suite for another because some Sultan wanted to use the room.

The following spring, I was invited by a client to play golf at Bob O'Link golf club, a private club in Chicago's northern suburbs. I was sitting in the clubhouse with one other person (whom I did not know), when Jordan came in and sat right next to me. We had some light conversation before golf--he ended up being in the foursome ahead of us.

I was an extra on The Siege. Got to see Denzel Washington and Annette Bening (who I didn't know at the time) do the same take like 20 times. It was outdoors, next to the Brooklyn bridge. A cold damp sunday, not unlike the last one in the Northeast. I was one of the grunts.

No Bruce Willis though.

--
Holadem

Two degrees of seperation from me and DeNiro...

In the movie City By The Sea he plays Vince Lamarca, who just recently retired from his part time job in my office.

I got Vince's X on the DVD case, but in spite of my shameless pleading he wouldn't get DeNiro's for me. :frowning:

In h.s. a long time ago I sat across from Gene Hackman and is significant other? assistant? in a restaurant late at night downtown Chicago. He was probably there for filming "The Package".

I worked for a short while in a local television news station, where minor celebs were frequent guests. Some highlights, Captain Kangaroo, the Honkey Tonk Man (he was the best one of all ), Jerry Reinsdorf (owner of Sox and Bulls), Bill Wennington (former Bull), some race car driver (I think it was Andretti Jr? Cant remember)

Oh, and also back in H.S. I had a photo op with Mrs. Cleaver of Leave it to Beaver, what the heck was her name again?