Celebrity Encounters: Good or Bad? (1 Viewer)

[Jay H]

When I was little kid, I kicked a few balls with Giorgio Chinaglia, who played for the Cosmos of the old NASL league when I was in NJ. My father worked for a bank that sponsored a signing at a local grocery store and I got to meet the guy who I had no idea who was because although I played soccer, I was really young and didn't really follow pro-soccer that much.

Jay

 

[Aaron Silverman]

in '79 I saw Woody Allen walking with Mia Farrow

Are you sure that wasn't Sinatra?

 

[BarryR]

Ha! Maybe she saw him the next day.

Anyway, Allen wasn't wearing a floppy hat like he's been known to do, so was easily identifiable.

If I had seen Sinatra I'd have given him plenty of room.

 

[RobertR]

Saw Tom Hanks walk by me at the Fox Village Theater in Westwood. Did not have the temerity to say hi.

 

[BarryR]

Saw Tom Hanks walk by me at the Fox Village Theater in Westwood. Did not have the temerity to say hi.

I understand. But I'm sure he would've been gracious. I bet these celebrities are reasonably understanding of people feeling somewhat intimidated despite it all.

 

[Jonathan Perregaux]

I was dating a woman in NYC who was next-door neighbors with Julia Stiles (of Bourne Identity fame). Julia kept to herself if she was home, which was very seldom, but I did run into her a couple of times in the hallway.

Once we were having a party and Julia came over with her boyfriend. I had a pair of light-up ForceFX Darth Maul lightsabers up on my girlfriend's mantel and these were making the rounds. So at one point I handed one to Julia and we had a little lightsaber fight.

For Christmas, my girlfriend was wondering what to buy Julia. I knew Julia was going to shoot The Omen remake soon, so I suggested we buy her the Omen box set on DVD—which would have definitely dashed her hopes of being in a sequel, given the character she was playing. My girlfriend thought that was a funny idea so we did it.

 

[BarryR]

Interesting twist--buying a gift for a celebrity!

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I've met many but the story people seem to love to hear the most is my encounter with Jack Nicholson.

Nicholson I met totally by accident while he was shooting the film The Witches of Eastwick. I happened to be in Cohasset the day they were shooting the scene in the film where Nicholson is bombarded by stuff as he struggles through town wearing some sort of pink cloak with a hood. This is the scene:



Of course this was shot in several parts and the part I was actually there for were the scenes where Nicholson is in the street being bombarded with feathers and leaves struggling against the wind and being blown along the pavement. I did see them blow the stuff off the bed of the flatbed truck at him too. The first time they did it with a stuntman dressed in the same get-up as Jack and then once they reloaded everything on the truck they shot the scene with Jack doing it.

I happened to walk out of this alley and end up right next to a tractor trailer truck which was actually the wardrobe truck. Stunned to see some fairly strange stuff going on I stood there watching the proceedings not knowing it was a major motion picture being shot. I did eventually notice police barricades and a whole crowd of people watching what was going on behind them. People ignored me being where I was and so I just stood there watching when I realized it was a film being shot.

A friend of mine was with me and we stood there for at least an hour watching them shoot this scene. We thought it was some kind of ice cream commercial because they had all these tubs of ice cream around and the guy in pink was carrying one and he seemed to be the key person in the scene. After they had done two takes of blowing stuff off a flatbed at the guy in pink (one with the stuntman and the second with Nicholson though I did not know it was him yet) on the second take the guy in pink remained laying on the ground for an extended period of time as people rushed out seemingly to help him. Then he jumped up with a flourish and threw his arms in the air and the crowd behind the barrier cheered. I just laughed not knowing who this ham was.

He walks over to the guy that appears to be the director they chat for a minute and then he begins striding away toward the wardrobe truck where I'm standing. He seems to be smiling and waving at the crowd behind the barrier. He still has not got close enough to me for me to recognize who he is. I hear the crowd yelling stuff at him but I'm not really paying attention. As he gets closer he seems to perk up as he looks in my direction and gives a small wave.

Finally I see his face, his hair wild from the scene he just shot and I think "Oh my god, that looks like Jack Nicholson." He continues on his path directly toward me smiling right at me. Within seconds I realize it is Jack Nicholson and the guy is walking right up to me. Needless to say I'm a little stunned and it only gets worse because he reaches me and sticks out his hand for me to shake it and asks "When did you get in?"

Out of pure instinct I shake his hand and actually stand there for a second trying to make sense of what he just asked me. "I just got here." I say really not knowing what I'm saying. He stands next to me making small talk and waving and smiling at the crowd behind the barrier. He asks me if I've already seen "Michelle"...I have no idea what he means but I'm also sort of shocked to be standing there talking with Jack Nicholson and he is acting as if we know each other. My friend is standing next to me looking back and forth from Jack to me like he can't believe what's going on. A woman in the crowd behind the barrier pushes her way to the front and leaning over the barrier she screams at Nicholson "Jack, hold my baby!" and with both arms extends her baby out over the barrier.

"Jesus." I say looking at her thinking this whole scene is getting even weirder. Jack, begins making faces at the baby and waves to them (but never moves a step closer to them) and turns to me and says with a grin "Yeah, you never wanna hold their babies." as if this has happened to him before. Out of the blue I manage to ask how things are going on the film (not knowing what film he is even there shooting) and he puts his hand on my back, gives me that big Nicholson leer and says broadly "Ice cream!" and laughs "This one is all ice cream."

I have no idea once again what he means but seeing all the tubs of ice cream around I figure he is making some kind of film about ice cream or maybe he is playing a guy that makes ice cream. He is dressed all in white and is wearing a pink cape (???) so I think that is an outfit you could picture an ice cream man wearing. There also seems to be ice cream on his pink cloak... and he just filmed a scene getting blown around the street so maybe he is an ice cream man having a really bad day.

I think I must be the most baffled person on the planet at that moment until I look at my friend John and realize he is trying to figure out how or why I've kept it a secret that I know Jack Nicholson. Things get even worse as Jack starts giving me instructions on meeting him later that night at his hotel. Tells me where to go, who to ask for, and a number to call up to his room. I'm so stunned by all this all I can manage to do is nod. Honestly I feel like I'm in some sort of weird dream because the last thing I expected to happen was to bump into Jack Nicholson and for him to act as if we know each other.

At this point Mr. Nicholson is called back over to the director and he says his goodbyes to me and begins heading away only to look back and say "I'll see you tonight."

I am speechless so I just wave.

Mayhem ensues as now I feel the need to get the hell out of there. I head for the alley I came down thinking it must be the rabbit hole that leads out of this wacky wonderland. My friend John hot on my heels asking me why I never mentioned I knew Jack Nicholson.

"I don't know him!" I blurt out quickly heading for my car. "Bullshit!" he says "He just told you to meet him later!"

"I don't know him!" I say again rummaging for my keys.

"You're lying!" he says.

"Why would I lie about something like that?" I ask climbing into the car.

"Because you don't want anybody to bug you about introducing them to your buddy Jack Nicholson." he says angrily.

"I don't know what just happened back there." I say feeling like I want to get out of there before I get caught impersonating somebody.

"It sure seemed like you knew what was happening back there. You came here went down that alley and stood by that truck waiting for him to come over. Then you made plans to hang out tonight with your buddy Jack Nicholson."

"No, I had no clue that was going to happen."

"He walked right up to you and shook your hand."

"He obviously thought I was somebody else."

"Bullshit."

This argument continues to rage as we drive back to my girlfriend's place. When we arrive before I can say a word to her he demands "So, did you know your boyfriend is pals with Jack Nicholson?"

This begins a whole new round of "Really, I swear I don't know him!" which gains even more momentum because my friend John is pushing that I am "hanging out with Jack tonight" and for whatever reason my girlfriend is buying it. The two of them are glued to me for the rest of the evening thinking I'm going to try to sneak off for my "meeting with Jack."

All of it was a strange business that confused and frustrated me. I would have loved to talk with him in another capacity but the entire ordeal ended up being just a comedy for people to laugh at later.

 

[Greg_S_H]

My encounters have been pretty minor:

I went to a Riders in the Sky show, and I was asking the merch table people if they had a certain out-of-print CD. The bass player, Fred "Too Slim" LaBour, walked up and said, "I think we have some in the bus." We walked back together, and he rummaged through some boxes. All he could find was the cassette--also out of print--but he gave it to me for free and gave me the e-mail address of his assistant, who he said could probably get me the CD. She didn't have it either, though I later found it in the depths of Tower Records' website as they were going down.

In the early '00s, I was heavily into the Phantasm movies. In fact, I joined the HTF in order to ask the studios to release II and III on DVD. Well, I went to a small town in east Texas to see the Sons of the San Joaquin, a family band consisting of a father, his son, and the father's brother. As the show started, I was thinking, "Why does Lon (the son) look so different? Is it the lack of glasses? He doesn't look anything like himself!" A few songs in, the leader said, "Lon can't be here, so we give a big thanks to our neighbor, Bill Thornbury, for filling in." It didn't hit me at first, but I was really shocked when I pieced it together. "BILLY THORNBURY?! JODY FROM PHANTASM?!" I talked to him after the show, and he was as shocked as I was that somebody recognized him from the movies. Western audiences tend to be more on the elderly side, and he figured he was pretty incognito. He was very gracious and I think pleased.

When my family got to our resort in Hawaii, Kevin McCarthy (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) was just leaving. We didn't speak to him.

On a trip down the California coast in 1987, Robert "Juan Epstein" Hegyes crossed the street in front of our van. All four of us were crowded at the front window like it was the Millennium Falcon, gawking at him. He smiled and waved as if to say, "Yeah, it's me."

. . .

In the '70s, my dad was staying at a motel (or hotel) in Albuquerque, when he saw a familiar-looking guy at the bar. He approached him and said, "Where do I know you from?" He said, "Story of my life. I'm a character actor and I was in. . . ." I'm not sure who he was, but he said, "We're shooting a movie in town and we have a little gathering in one of the rooms, if you want to come up." When he got there, there was Kris Kristofferson, Ernest Borgnine, Ali MacGraw, and other members of the cast of Convoy. He said they mainly talked about how great the recently-released Star Wars was, and about politics. He said Ernest Borgnine was the friendliest, and really down-to-earth.

 

[BarryR]

All of it was a strange business that confused and frustrated me. I would have loved to talk with him in another capacity but the entire ordeal ended up being just a comedy for people to laugh at later.

Truly hilarious. I wonder who Nicholson was actually expecting?

 

[BarryR]

. . .

In the '70s, my dad was staying at a motel (or hotel) in Albuquerque, when he saw a familiar-looking guy at the bar. He approached him and said, "Where do I know you from?" He said, "Story of my life. I'm a character actor and I was in. . . ." I'm not sure who he was, but he said, "We're shooting a movie in town and we have a little gathering in one of the rooms, if you want to come up." When he got there, there was Kris Kristofferson, Ernest Borgnine, Ali MacGraw, and other members of the cast of Convoy. He said they mainly talked about how great the recently-released Star Wars was, and about politics. He said Ernest Borgnine was the friendliest, and really down-to-earth.

Borgnine sure seemed up there as far as being an accessible star to talk to.

Speaking of dads, mine was in WWII and saw Marlene Dietrich perform during a USO tour. He thought she was old. Hey, she must have been at least 40!

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Reggie, I CANNOT BELIEVE that you didn't go to meet Nicholson at his hotel! What were you thinking???

I would've been way too curious to know whom he thought I was.

 

[Malcolm R]

Reggie, I CANNOT BELIEVE that you didn't go to meet Nicholson at his hotel! What were you thinking???

I would've been way too curious to know whom he thought I was.

Same here. I can't believe you stood up Jack Nicholson.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Well, obviously over the years I've had plenty of people ask why I did not go to meet Nicholson. That's really the fun part of telling the story now, when people talk about if they would have gone back that night to meet him. Lots of people over the years have told me I blew a huge opportunity and should have went. Many people tell me they certainly would have went to see him but I never considered it.

 

[BarryR]

Of course--someone would've been there impersonating you!

 

[Joe Lugoff]

Also, Nicholson got "stood up" by the guy he was expecting. What if he called him and yelled at him, and stopped speaking to him, and a lifelong friendship was ruined?

Here are the words that escaped the mind due to encountering a "celebrity," as if they're superhuman: "Mr. Nicholson, you think I'm someone else. I don't know you."Whereupon he would have said, "Man, you're a dead ringer for an old friend of mine."

I hate to be so prosaic about this. It was a fun story to read. But why couldn't that have been the way it played out?

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I'll tell you, Joe, after Nicholson walked away that was why I wanted to get out of there...because I felt bad I did not say "Hey, hang on a second, I'm sorry but I think you have mistaken me for someone else."

It all happened so quickly and I was so stunned to suddenly be standing there with him I was just trying to make sense of the situation. By the time I did he had walked away. He was in a very upbeat mood when this happened. I guess you could say he was "on" because he was working and so he was all smiles and doing all the talking. I mainly was standing there taking the whole thing in saying very little.

Yes, my big regret was that I did not stop him right away and point out I was not who he thought I was. I would say it was a "You had to be there!" moment though and the man seemed a ball of energy when he approached me. I think you really have to picture this guy walking up to you unexpectedly and launching into a conversation as if you know each other.

I will tell you I've met many celebrities and they do not intimidate me in any way and I do not think of them as superhuman. I was once surprised to have Al Pacino sit down next to me in an airport and that encounter went nothing like the one with Nicholson...mainly because Pacino did not walk up to me acting like he knew who I was and launch into a conversation.

It was just a confusing moment and I was slow to react because I was sort of...and this is funny...questioning the reality of the moment.

I will say this, I don't think the person Nicholson thought I was would have been a "lifelong friend" in fact my guess is and I have discussed this with people that are acquainted with Nicholson, that he was expecting a business associate or somebody making a delivery to him...most money is on the latter. So, at worst he missed a meeting or a delivery but more than likely whoever he was expecting probably showed up later. I don't think he would mistake a total stranger as one of his "lifelong friends" but I think he may have mistaken me for somebody he only met a few times or knew from a description, or had met but never paid much attention to. Also he was in the "zone" in terms of putting on a performance and so that may have played a part in his mistake.

 

[schan1269]

I bet Jack has his own story in reverse. "Yeah, this douchebag let me talk to him like I knew him..."

Kidding about the douchebag...but I can totally hear Jack saying the word...

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Well, that would be something, Sam.

 

[schan1269]

I met Jack at the Indianapolis Museum of Art once during one of those after movie Q&A with a procession afterward of "Hi, How are ya?"...NEXT

One of the funnest celeb encounters...

Me, my girlfriend, a friendly acquaintance and a 4th wheel all went to a screening of one of Crispin Glovers "What is it?" movies(forget which movie exactly).

I had taken my gf to a party where we met my "friendly acquaintance"(FA for short). My FA I've known for years. She was in the movie. I introduced my GF to her and we mentioned we were going to the IMA to see Crispin Glover's movie. The FA replied that of course she was going. The 4th wheel overheard the conversation and after several texts etc, had joined the three of us. I wasn't complaining...

Fetish model, my girlfriend and a former Miss Indiana...(once there, the four of us probably knew 80% of the people there...I run in a "very fun and strange" crowd)

Anyway, the 4 of us tried to get Crispin to hit Broad Ripple with us. He declined but after the movie and Q&A, we all went back to his hotel for some drinks and dinner.

As an aside...my GF had an uber-crush on Crispin. She was devastated to find out(from the FA) that unlike typical Hollywood stars...Crispin doesn't have the "casual fan sex" gene...(we were talking about that very thing at the party...)