Have you ever had a chance to meet a celebrity?

[King_Stannis]

My mother met Stevie Nicks in a bathroom in Sarasota Florida in the eighties. In fact, I think she was lamenting about not having make-up or something (probably because she just did a kilo of coke or something like that), and my mom gave her an extra compact. By all accounts, Ms. Nicks was gracious and very, very nice. Though, as I said, given the time frame she was probably as high as a kite.

For myself, it's slim pickens. I've met Carl Yazstremnski when I was about 8 years old, he was a real jerk. Same, too, with Mike Schmidt. Jim Rice was pleasant (if you can't tell, I am a long-suffering Red Sox fan).

I also met a local actress who was in the adult film industry. Her name is Nikki Dial. My wife and I were out one night, and some guy she used to hang out with in high school was with Ms. Dial. We exchanged a few "hi's" and "pleased to meet you's" in a very crowded bar, and that was that.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

From autograph signings, I have met:

Stephen King (very nice)
Anne Rice (very nice)
Matt Groening (very nice--he rules! his autographs (at least at the time) were cartoons that took a lot of time to draw)

Pure chance meetings:
walking down the street, some friend and I ran into Quentin Crisp (in New York City). He is very nice.

And once I went to a movie in NYC, and then-mayor Ed Koch was in the theater sitting a few rows in front of me. But I didn't talk to him or anything.

I'm not from NY; I think the celebrity density is just higher in Manhattan than any place I've lived, and I used to visit NYC quite a bit.

 

[JDragon]

Nothing spectacular here, only thing would be that Ross Valory (bassist for Journey) and his wife are friends of my wifes. (she lived next door to them growing up. They came to our wedding and he helped us pick the muisc.

BTW - Claude Raines - are you out at Lawernce Livermore? and if so are you going to be attending DunDraCon this year?

JDragon

 

[Valmur_Dwur]

Ok I don't have any Fan/Sci-fi ones BUT I was on the same plane out of Phoneix as Glen Campbell. The better of that was went I was in the Marine Corp and some of us went to Palm Springs for the weekend. Was doing the tourist thing and got hungry so popped into the nearest eatery. Now only the fact that we had our very distinguishable jar-head haircuts were we even allowed in. So we get to a table and the waiter looks at us as if we just climbed up from the sewers Anyway $17.50 for burger and fries! So as we get ready to eat a lady up in the reserved booth partition section sends our waiter over to our table. He asks "Are any of you from Iowa?" I say yes and then he says the lady at the table would like to pick up your tab. So after much jousing I'm "elected" to go thank her. Come to find out it's Delores Hope(Bob's wife) and she has some Iowa roots so I talk to her for about 15 minutes. Then she politely excuses herself and when I tell the guys they freak!

 

[Dreeble]

Cons

Heya:

A couple decades ago a friend and I were on our bikes in a mall (actually standing on the pedals because riding them in the mall wasn't allowed) and Mickey Rooney (I think, one of those old (really old) actor guys) said, "My kangaroo can ride his bike better than that!"

At a CreationCon Leonard Nemoy was hyping his movie (he directed, that is) "Holy Matrimony". He practically showed us the entire movie in clips. He kept exhorting us (the audience) to see it. I felt bad because it seemed pretty obvious that (except for the suck ups) the vast majority of us had no interest. Someone asked if he'd ever direct another Star Trek movie and he went into this thing about the stories he wanted to tell versus the stories Paramount (or whomever) wanted to tell.

Went to a Neil Gaiman midnight reading at a ComicCon about 5 years ago. He's got an incredible voice. Probably mostly the fact that American's dig that British accent, but still.

At the ComicCon the year before last my old college roomie and his girlfriend went as Colonial Marines from Aliens. He had a Pulse Rifle (heavy as hell when I carried it for him) with nice body armor and stuff (he was sweating like a pig that day). His girlfriend was dressed as a pilot (Spunkmeyer was the chick with the mirror shades, right?). He had made tons of USS Sulaco baseball caps (I've got two) that he sold to people on the Aliens newsgroup and gave out a bunch to Frost (also played the Aryan bad guy in Shawshank Redemption), Vasquez (also played the stepmom in Terminator 2), the black guy (there was a black guy in Aliens? Hehe), and one other actor from the movie. They really digged my friend's costume. Good folks. The guy who played Garibaldi was also at that ComicCon and they were gaga over him.

I went to the Larry Elmore booth and got some stuff. The guy who took my order opened it up and started signing his name and I was thinking, "Um, why is he messing up that book?" Then I realized it was Elmore himself. Woo!

At this last ComicCon I met Rick Detorie, the guy who does the comic strip One Big Happy. Ultra nice guy. Also met Tycho and Gabe from Penny Arcade. Plus Batjew, the only one of them who actually looks the way he's drawn (or was drawn since they've apparently had a falling out). Keith Parkinson signed some stuff I got from him and when I said that he and Larry Elmore were my favorite artists he said, "High praise indeed." in a droll voice. Almost met Phil Foglio but I was getting a wee bit tired and left. Did learn that new XXXenophiles are on the way. Yay!

Ah, memories. Good times!

Take care,
Dreeble

 

[Airwolf]

What exactly counts as a celebrity?

Tonight I will be having dinner with some friends, the wife writes for All My Children and has won several Emmys and some Screen Writers Guild awards.

She also happens to be the daughter of The Ray Bradbury. Since that is the case, I now have a signed copy of the Martian Chronicles.

Does that count?

 

[Chauzu]

and if so are you going to be attending DunDraCon this year?

What is DunDraCon? Is it something here in Livermore???

 

[JDragon]

DunDraCon

Sorry to hi-jack the thread...

Chauzu
DunDraCon is a gaming convention coming up in Feb over Pres weekend (14th - 17th) at the Marriot Hotel in San Ramon off 680.

Check out their website for more info.

http://www.dundracon.com/

Now back to your regularly scheduled disscussion about celeb's.

JDragon

 

[Viking Bastard]

Celebs I've seen are:

Mel B - walked by me in downtown Reykjavik with her former Icelandic boyfriend. This was when the whole Spice Girls mania was at it's peak.

Sean Connerry - Saw him in a fancy restaurant in Germany talking to some guy with a very strong southern accent.

Kevin Costner - Came here for fishing last summer. I saw him stepping into a taxi outside a hotel when I came out of the movies.

I guess band members you see at concerts don't count?

.

Celebs I've met:

Micheal Chrichton - book signing. I don't remember what book he was signing but I didn't have it (or afford to buy it) so I brought my copy of Jurassic Park. When my turn came in line he said that it wasn't really allowed to bring other books than the one he was promoting. I just proclaimed I was a poor student so he just smiled and signed the book.

Damon Albarn (the Blur/Gorillaz guy) - My friend's older sister is friends with him. He spends a lot of time here in Iceland every once in a while. He owns a flat here. Met him twice briefly, both times he tried very hard to pronounce my name. He didn't remember me though.

One of the Rammstein guys - I don't remember the name (started with an 'O' maybe, Oliver?). We shook hands and he gave my friend an autograph (which he lost later that day). Since we didn't speak german and he didn't speak neither Icelandic or English, there wasn't much verbal communication.

.

Semicelebs of the world of comcis:

Warren Ellis - Author of comics such as Transmetropolitan, the Authority and Planetary. Really nice guy, if somewhat creepy. He has this chronic evil grin on his face, like he's thinking of bashing you with something pointy and sticking large quantities of broken glass up your rear end.

Grant Morrison - Author of such comics as the Invisibles, JLA and the New X-Men. He's cool. And I don't mean cool as in a pleasant nice guy 'cool'. I mean action movie star cool. There's something about him that just shouts kewlness. Think Morpheus in the Matrix cool. Nice guy too, if somewhat stoned.

Neil Gaiman - Author of... you SHOULD know! He's a great guy. Really nice. And you're not afraid for your life when close to him. Didn't get as much time with him though as the others.

Carl Barks - The adoptive father of Donald Duck. Walt Disney may have been the first to draw him, but it was Carl Barks that made Donald what he is. Nice 'grandfather-ish' guy. May he rest in peace.

 

[Sixchan]

Ooh! I remember one!

I once served Michael Stipe from REM an Apple Juice when I was bartending at a concert.

Not sure if it counts as meeting, though, since all he said something like "Can I have an Aplle Juice, please?" and all I said was "Yeah, sure", got him an apple juice and then served someone else.