Celebrity SC's.

[Anakah]

Linkin Park came to my city to perform a concert. They happened to come into the theater I worked at. Unfortunately, I had a call in (there are certain days where we call in to see if we are needed or not) and I wasn't needed. One of the girls I know got to serve Mike Shinoda at the concession stand. He was quite nice I was told. Another guy I was worked with was in shock that he got to meet them. I was pretty envious.

Mike Shinoda is really nice. His fiance Anna went to my high school in CA. She arranged it so that he would be interviewed by my newspaper class. It was back in 2002 and it was awesome. I have a pic with him, me and some of my friends. I don't know how they kept it so low key but he is a really nice guy. Shorter than I thought (nothing wrong with that either) but it was awesome of him to answer a bunch of questions from a bunch of 16-17 year olds.

He was so cool that he signed CD's for us. My fiance was all awed because he even put his name on it. Like: To Andrew. It was the best present I ever got him.

[Severen13]

I've met Bruce Campbell twice during his various book tours. The last time was back on June 22, 2005, which happened to be Campbell's 47th birthday. I got the first piece of his birthday cake. He's such an awesome guy!

[Jester]

Yep, there were more I forgot. Well, one I forgot and one that didn't actually happen...but should have.

I am a huge Fleetwood Mac/Stevie Nicks fan. She also happens to be from the Phoenix area, where I am from, and yes, I even know where her house is. I used to go bicycling past it before they gated off that community...nothing stalkerish, just happened to be in a great place for bicycling through. And yeah, it was cool.

Anyway, one day I called off sick from my job at the brewpub. I almost NEVER call off sick, so this was a rare event. The guy who filled in for me, who had my section waited on none other than Miss Stevie Nicks herself. When I found out about it the next day, I was beside myself. I still get pissed thinking about it. (He said she was a sweetheart, for those who are wondering.)


The other one was very entertaining. When I was a broadcasting major at Arizona State University, I took a broadcast newswriting class. Our professor was not a famous person, but had worked for CBS and had, by chance, been the first reporter on the scene at the Ted Kennedy Chappaquiddick incident. (He was on a sports assignment in the area by chance.) Anyway, one day he told us we were going to do a mock news conference, where a subject would come in, talk to us, and we would ask various questions, and then write stories from said news conference. He said the subject was an old friend of his, that had made time out of his busy schedule to come do this for us, and as a favor to our professor. And then his friend walked into the room.

I have met a lot of celebrities, as noted, but it is one thing to meet someone famous for being an actor or musician, and quite another when former Senator Barry Goldwater walks into your small classroom to give you an impromptu mock news conference!

Now, this was in 1989/1990, so there was a lot going on in the world (Iron Curtain falling, attempted coup attempt against Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela/South Africa), in the U.S. (Clinton instituting the "don't ask don't tell" policy about gays in the military) and in Arizona (governor being impeached). And much to our professor's delight, we did not throw Barry any softballs, but asked him hard, tough questions. To his credit, he took every question in stride, and answered them all with his sincere opinions. And was a complete gentleman the entire time. To us 20 greenhorn broadcasters, it was an amazing experience.

And that is one thing I must say about Senator Goldwater. I may not have agreed with a good number of his views or positions. But when he spoke and opined, you knew he was not telling you what we wanted to hear or what he thought was popular or running high in the polls, but his honest opinion on the matter (as opposed to today's politicos). And while I may not have agreed with him politically all the time, I had nothing but the utmost respect for him after that day.

Definitely one of my all-time highlights.

[Dragon_Dreamer]

I've met all of one SC "celeb," and frankly, she's only a celeb in her own little world. :P

She's the daughter of Metallica's former manager. Not about to say which one, as said daughter may read this post and try to hurt me. :P Her little sister, on the other hand, is *wonderful.* Such a sweetheart!

Art Garfunkel lives in my area, but I've never met him, Ween's from my hometown, as are/were a few children's book authors, such as Nancy Van Laan (Rainbow Crow, and The Big Fat Worm; I went to elementary school with her eldest daughter), and the authors of a certain series of children's books involving Bear Country, USA.

The Rock went to high school near where I first went to college. I know exactly where this school is, because my ex-fiance was a wrestling fan, and would *always* make sure to point it out.

At GenCon, I met people I would consider celebs, but only because I'm a geek, like the City of Heros dev team and such. Plus, I'm friends with many of the people who work for FanPro, from online. I also know a former extra from Star Trek from online, but I'm not sure he'd like me using his name here, y'know?

There's at least one other author I know, who I won't mention, to protect her privacy, but she's fairly well-known in the Fantasy world. Again, a sweetie, but I don't get to talk to her too much.

Ohyeah, and one of my friends is the great-great-grandnephew of Captain Kidd.

My favorite "celeb," and the only one I've gone FanGirl on, is well-known in the Neverwinter Nights modding community. Lisa was very, very understanding, but I think I scared her a bit. Met her while helping to organize seminars for NWCon.

I know a few others who *might* count as "celebs," but for the most part, MOST people who have a public persona either try to be normal people, which in many ways, they ARE, or are too full of themselves.

[AFpheonix]

I went to high school with pne of Gilbert Godfrey's 2nd cousins.


No, I never got to meet Gilbert Godfrey, although this boy apparently got to meet him once at a family reunion.

[Arcade Man D]

My mother frequently gets the Baldwin brothers' mother in the grocery she works at. Though she served her more often when she was still in deli. Now that she's in prepared food, not quite as much.

Myself? Closest I ever came was the Iron Enforcer from the Superhero reality show Stan Lee did. I'm not entirely certain, but he definitely looked just like him ((Though it was hard to tell out of costume. It's a little more of a change than just glasses, you know )). This one was at the arcade.

I was hoping that Dan Marino might go around the mall ((maybe to the arcade? please?)) before or after he was doing his signing over the course of two days. ((I had to work both of them, so I couldn't get my Marino jersey signed ))

Of course, neither of the two actually met were SCs, in fact, Iron Enforcer was pretty cool.

[DesignFox]

I've met Bruce Campbell twice during his various book tours. The last time was back on June 22, 2005, which happened to be Campbell's 47th birthday. I got the first piece of his birthday cake. He's such an awesome guy!

No way! I met Bruce Campbell at a book signing, too! I went to the one on June 22, 2001 for his Birthday...the signing was at the bookstore in the World Trade Center....
Guess he likes to tour on his birthday, huh? My friends and I got birthday cake, pics taken, and our books signed of course. I didn't realize he had another book out, but I loved If Chins Could Kill.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I've never had an celeb SC, but my last store got Deborah Harry and Jon Bon Jovi's mom. I never saw them, or if I did I didn't recognize them. But they were cool. Debbie even ordered books from us so she's in the system.

My cousin went to HS with Miranda Richardson (Dr. Bailey on Grey's Anatomy)

one of the professors at my college is the son of Eric Sevareid: [Wikipedia] (Arnold) Eric Sevareid (November 26, 1912 – July 9, 1992) was a CBS news journalist from 1939 to 1977. He was one of a group of elite war correspondents—dubbed "Murrow's boys"—because they were hired by pioneering CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow.)

We've had a few sucky celeb book signings though. We had Sylvia Brown (psychotic--I mean, psychic) who did a reading and signing, all in about 20 minutes and then she left. And a certain food network sweetheart who shall remain nameless, who promised to stay until all the books were signed but left with over 500 people still waiting cuz she was tired. they got plenty of returns that night (I wasn't working at that store at the time tho). We had Giada di Laurentiis too, she was really cool.

But I do have a picture with Emeril Lagasse, my first major event at the bookstore, absolute chaos, but he stayed signing books until 11:30--signed EVERYONE's books, then stayed to take a pic with all the staff. he was cool. Then our district manager bought us all drinks next door

[janitordba]

My roommate almost buffed ronnie james dio several times one night,which was amusing. Dio and his bandmates were having a good time pushing eachother around in shopping carts.

Same roommate angered Billy Bob Thornton. This was when my roommate was working at another store. V (roommate) was working as a cashier,and a whole slew of people came through his line. He was the only one checking at that time,so he was aggravated by this. At one point he noticed that some guy was staring at him,which furthered his aggravation. He glared at the guy, and said "What?". The guy looked pissed off and left the store.
Seems the guy was Billy Bob,and he was on tour with is band or some such.
One of his bandmates attempted to get V to go out to their bus and apologize.

Gretchen Wilson came into the store one night. She was stinking drunk. Apparently she felt the need to video tape her drunken antics inside of Wal Mart. Wally world has a no video taping policy,so my manager told her to stop it. Getchen Wilson pulled out the whole "do you know who i am,ive got a number one single,i will have you fired etc." kinda thing on the manager.
This didnt phase my manager at all,and Gretchen Wilson got kicked to the curb.
A couple of months later,someboyd from Gretchen Wilson's record company called up and apologized to the store manager for her behavior.

Alien Ant Farm came in one night,at the height of their "popularity",and were dissed by my friend in the toys department. one of them asked him if he was a fan of AAF and he said "Naw they suck,with that stupid michael jackson song." It seems that AAF guy wasnt to happy with the response,so he didnt offer up autographs or anything like that.

Pantera came in one night,prior to my employment there. It seems they were very friendly dudes. Eve 6 got thrown out by the same manager who tossed Gretchen Wilson. They were trying on women's underwear and riding the register belts.

All kinds of KC Chiefs players come in,as their training camp is 10 miles away. I dont follow football,so i wouldnt know any of them from adam. Many of my co workers think its cool,though,as they do follow football.

At one point when i was younger,at the Chiefs traning camp,i met former Wisconsin governer Tommy Thompson. He had a very limp handshake. That was prior to Derrick Thomas' passing,so i was able to meet him and get his autograph several times. Very nice guy. I was saddened when i heard he died. Joe Montana walked by me once,as did Marcus Allen,and Andre Rison.

And finally,on the not so famous tip,i was drinking in St. Paul and got carded by this lady i saw on A&E's Intervention. She was a former Meth addict. It was strange. I'm not sure if a recovering addict should work at a bar. Her dad was working the door too,as i recall him from the show as well.

[SuperB]

Sam Elliot had come into my mother-in-laws cafe a few days in a row and while she thought he was familiar she didn't connect him. They would talk every day until she finally told him he looked familiar. He said, "Why, I'm Sam Elliot mam." Apparently she went fan-ape over it. Couldn't believe she'd been talking to Sam Elliot and didn't know it.

Joe Montana came in to my in-laws convenience/gas store they once owned and while my Father-in-law recognized him, the guy working for him at the time didn't. Joe was buying quite a lot of bottled water so he was offered a case. He was told to open the cooler door and ask they guy inside if he could bring a case out. He did, brought it up to the counter, set it on the floor and appeared irritated at being interupted. Didn't notice who it was for at all. (and was fair pissed when he found out later)

The celebrity I didn't meet: I stayed home one weekend to watch the Kings game. (playing at home) I get the call later from my mother who was working for me that Vlade Divac came into the store that evening. Apparently on his way to Reno after the game. She didn't know who he was until other customers started asking for his autograph. (and the autograph she did get for me I ended up giving to a nephew)

Danny Trejo was in the area for a "Dinosaur Days" (AA meeting speaker) weekend. It was right after Spy Kids came out and he was nice enough to meet my son and talk to him about the movie. ("See you in the movies" - he said to him on his way out. Nice guy)

Steve Saks used to frequent the in-laws cafe over 10 years ago. He was always in on Sundays and we left a baseball card there to have them ask if he'd sign it. Weeks went by and the day they were able to have him sign it was the day my son was born so he signed the card to him. (nice guy as well)

[ISellCars]

When I first moved down here, I got a job at a Nike outlet store. Now I've had friends who've seen him many times out and about, but I'd never seen him in person until about 2 months into working there.

In walks OJ Simpson. I didn't really get star struck and go whacko, but I did say Hi and shook his hand. Nice guy. At least he wasn't one of those "I'm better than you" celebs that I hear stories about.

[KamenRiderOsaka]

Ive met a few "special people" in my days. A friend of mine in HS was dating a hockey player, so I got to meet a LOT of NHL players. Big names like Patrick Roy, Peter Forsberg (ok, so all of the Colorado Avalanche) Sergei Fedorov...I could go on for hours.

Ive met Stevie Wonder at the LAX airport. He was very nice, very grateful that a young person knew who he was and enjoyed his music (I was only 17 at the time.)

Bill Romonowski back when he played with the Broncos. That guy is HUGE, but very nice. Same with Ed McCaffrey, who is very tall. John Elway is also very nice.

When I worked at Sam Goody in college, we had a lot of big name folks come in. The area I worked in was very "new money" and the mall was very expensive to shop at. Lots of high end stores. I got to meet Billy Idol and Jay-Z. Jay-Z was so nice and autographed a lot of copies of his cds and Fast & the Furious CDs. He posed for some photos as well. Billy Idol actually knew one of the managers at work (she was like, a roadie for him back in the 80's) and he bought us lunch. He did some autographs too, but no photos.

Denver is one of the best places to meet famous folks. Ive been lucky and everyone I met has been nice so far.

edit: omg, I forgot this. Im retarded. Ive also met and drank with Kyo from Dir en Gray (a japanese rock group.) Man is he small! But very nice...not as creepy looking in person. Ive also met and hung out with Koda Kumi (japanese singer) at a convention.

[Getoutofmylobby]

On an Epic Fly Fishing Trip a friend and I took to Jackson Wyoming, we had to stop at the local K-Mart for some necessities. We checked out behind some dude wearing a dirty sheep herder's jacket, sunglasses and a green bush hat. My friend and I didn't think anything of him at the time, he looked like any local. And as i recall were having an animated conversation about iodine tablets and the problems of drinking untreated water (It gives you the poops, among other things). The guy paid for his stuff, I think he bought jumper cables and other assorted car stuff said "thank you" in a very familiar voice, and left. As we got up to the checkout girl she smiled at us and said, I hope you know, that guy was Harrison Ford.

[Casino Jockey]

i was in moscow about 3 years ago and took a flight from moscow to st petersberg (first class thanks!) when a young lady sat down beside me. we started talking and she told me she was a russian music star. she gave me some of her CDs and signed them for me as well as i have an interest in "out of the ordinary music".

i listened to the CDs and enjoyed them, and that young ladys name: Zemfira

[powerboy]

I have also met Vic Mignogna. I got into an elevator with him, and my main Owner was with me, we were all talking, chatting and whatnot. Later he came by our booth, at a anime convention in San Francisco. He saw a figure, of one of his characters, that he does a voice for, and wanted. My boss thought that we had another one in stock, so he sold that one. After The Main owner and I found out, we went to Vic Mignogna, I explained everything to him even told him that we sere sorry for it, got a handshake and a hug. He is one hell of a nice guy. About 2 days later, he made a special trip to our store, just to buy a Broly figure, that only we had, that just happened to come in the day we left for San Francisco. Again, he is one hell of a nice guy.