[OT] Brush with greatness

[A'koss]

Living in "Hollywood North" I've run across a lot of well-knowns over the years. Bruce Willis, Drew Barrymore, Jackie Chan, Sylvester Stallone, Ahrnold, lots of TV actors from the locally produced shows (running across "Cancer Man" was a little disconcerting )... I'm probably forgetting a lot of them as well.


Cheers,

A'koss.

 

[Skarp Hedin]

Donald Sutherland lives, or lived, just across the border from the town where I grew up. Used to see him in the local grocery store or putting gas in his car or whatever from time to time. Carried a purse.

Prior to a divorce, Sylvester Stallone used to have a house here (I think he lost it in said divorce) and he used to hang around with one of my players' uncles after they met once (the uncle gave Stallone a ride back to his house in the rain). Mostly they got really really drunk, heh.

Meet all manner of odd folk here in Vermont.

 

[KingCroMag]

Wilford Brimley owes me $75 dollars - for a service call I did to his house while working over summer break in college a few years ago.

-KCM

 

[Renaissance Man]

This is creepy - I can actually tie those last two posts together. A friend of mine, who happens to be from Vermont, had a celebrity encounter with... Wilford Brimley.

In a hot tub!

 

[Doc_Souark]

Generally speaking, the closer people are to forty, the more people wish they looked fifteen...

Speak for yourself Mark, I looked pretty bad at 15. I shook hands with then Governor of Arkansas Clinton once, my hands were slimy for DAYS afterwards.

 

[Pbartender]

The terrible B-rate horror flick Fever Lake was filmed at my alma mater, while I was still attending college there. Consequently, I had the dubious priveledge of briefly meeting both Corey Haim and Mario Lopez.

Back in high school, when I was working at the local golf course over the summer, I once shagged a ball for Tommy Smothers.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

This is creepy - I can actually tie those last two posts together. A friend of mine, who happens to be from Vermont, had a celebrity encounter with... Wilford Brimley.

In a hot tub!

That sounds like the right thing to do, and the tasty way to do it!

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

I've never bumped into any movie stars or anything, but I've gotten some good sports autograph stories.

When I was a kid in the early 80s, my stepfather and I saw Rickey Henderson coming out of a sandwich shop in Berkeley. We stopped the car and jumped out to get his autograph. He was very cool, nice guy. This was long before he set the stolen base record, so I'd imagine that autograph might be worth something now.

We went to a Reggie Jackson signing about 10 years ago, and had him sign an A's program from when he was on the team. I guess he'd been signing baseballs and other boring items all day, because he stopped to check out his own picture in the program before he signed it. My mom and I got a laugh out of that. He is EXACTLY the way you'd expect him to be.

The all-time greatest autograph feat was when my stepfather was driving through Martinez one day about seven or eight years ago and saw an old man walking down the street. He pulled over to get a look, and confirmed that it was Joe DiMaggio, who also happens to be from Martinez originally. Now, DiMaggio is my stepfather's IDOL. He knew he'd never get an opportunity like this again, so he walked up to Joe and asked for his autograph for his son (my brother, who was a star of his Little League team at the time). Joe signed a scrap of paper that said "To Adam, Best Wishes, Joe DiMaggio". Later, we read that A) He never signed anything for free, and B) He specifically never wrote any personal sentiment like "best wishes". So this was a real one-in-a-million encounter. The autograph is framed now, with a beautiful photo of DiMaggio in his playing days in the 40s.

 

[Fast Learner]

I shop at the same Costco as Alice Cooper and have run into him a couple of times. Frankly it's kinda weird to stand behind him in line and see him out of makeup in a t-shirt buying a case of something. Kinda blows the image. (But of course that's a good thing, really.)

 

[blackshirt5]

Wow, I feel sad. The only celebrity I've ever met was Stephen Lynch. We were going up to visit my aunt in North Jersey, stopped to get some subs, and he was sitting in the sub shop eating a sandwich. I got his autograph on a CD cover, but I gave it away to my uncle for his birthday.

Scratch, got a few more to add(although they don't really seem like celebrities):
I've been to Kevin Smith's comic shop; he's a pretty cool guy.
I've met Jason Mewes; let's not discuss that.
MY family got to meet Jack Osbourne, he was out checking out my brother-in-law's band, but I was sick that weekend, so I didn't visit my sister's house with the rest of my family. That so pissed me off, because even my mother said he was cool; he's actually very polite, if you can believe it.