It must be awfully awkward as a celeb to have to fly and sit next to other people. Seriously, I know I like to get on a plane, extend a cordial greeting and then meld into my seat and my book/music, etc. (yeah, see introverted thread) - I hate having to have small chat. I can’t imagine being famous and having to deal with interactions in such a close space.
That’s why I never begrudge those that choose to use private planes. On a plane, you can’t even walk away from it. I would never want to be a celebrity.
Neighbors:
John Elway lived in the trailer next door to my sister’s trailer one quarter in college. I never met him, but she did, frequently. He was pretty full of himself, not without reason.
A flamboyant rock star bought a house three doors down from my family’s house when I was in high school. I never saw him there, though. His mother lived in it.
Famous radicals: A neighbor of mine, and member of my synagogue, is an ex-Weather Underground member who spent time in prison (and on the FBI’s most wanted list). She is an energetic, committed person who does tons of grass-roots activism and has adorable children and a very stable long-term relationship.
A set of my cousins spent years living and selling real estate in Malibu, which of course is a great way to meet celebrities. One of them lived for 7-8 years on a property abutting Bob Dylan’s complex. My cousin was furious that Dylan failed to trim his trees and they eventually blocked my cousin’s ocean view, and wouldn’t even let my cousin pay to have them trimmed. He was even more furious when Dylan started using a corner of his lot closest to my cousin’s house as a scrap dump. I don’t think my cousin ever met Dylan, though he saw Dylan a few times. (Dylan is not there much.) Dylan eventually made him an offer he couldn’t refuse on his property.
‘That’s why I never begrudge those that choose to use private planes. On a plane, you can’t even walk away from it. I would never want to be a celebrity.’
When I sat next to the guy from Happy Days, I just smiled and nodded when he sat down next to. I was reading caselaw and he kept engaging me and then told me about how his kid was thinking about law school and asking Me questions since I was young and had just finished. At the time he on a series a of commercial (for Banquet frozen dinner, maybe?) so he was constantly flying around the country as a spokesman. I asked him if he got bothered a lot on planes and he said. “People in First class think they are too cool to bother someone like me. I’ve been on flights with Henry {Winkler…who was like the number one tv star at that time] during the height of everything and in First Class people act like you have no idea who you are but I usually like to talk to them because they usually have interesting jobs.” But when I walk through the airport it can get more crazy." Sure enough when we were off the flight and headed to the exit people were staring and pointing and coming up to him. And he was a minor star. Can’t imagine what it would be like for the biggies.
I know many of you won’t believe me but here it goes: The actress Katherine Hepburn was once my babysitter in the late '50s.
Unfortunately, I was too young to remember this or to know why she was “somebody.” My dad was apparently painfully passing a kidney stone one evening while at home, and Kate’s brother was a urologist living just a block away from us in West Hartford, Conn. Anyway, Kate was visiting her brother’s house (the Hepburns all grew up in Hartford), and she volunteered to watch me and my older brothers while my dad and mom received the aid and advice of her brother.
If Kate and I shared any conversation, it was probably her telling us either to stop fighting, don’t cry, or go to bed. She apparently played the role of babysitter quite well, and without any script.
The saddest celebrities I ever saw (both now deceased ) were Whitney Houston and her daughter, who attended the same private school as my S (she was several years older than he was). Even then both of them kind of looked like lost people when I saw them at school, like the weight of the world was on them (may they both rest in peace).
I went to a restaurant with a friend and his family in Albany a bunch of years ago. My friend’s mom saw someone she knew who looked kind of like William Devane and started chatting with him. We sat at the table next to his. A couple of minutes later, she looks up and yells, “Billy boy!” Yep, it was William Devane, in town visiting his brother. It turns out her family and his were both big in Albany politics and they had grown up near each other.
Another time I was behind Brian Dennehy at a grocery store checkout. A friend of ours was good friends with one of his daughters who had just gotten a tv role. I tried to offer my congratulations but he cut me off and told me not to bring any attention to him. Jerk. There were only a few other people in the store and one of them told me they already knew he was not a very nice guy.
I have met lots of politicians at small fundraisers–best meeting/photo op was with President Obama. Also met and chatted with Elizabeth Warren, Niki Tsongas, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Joe Biden. I have met a few movie stars (Glen Close and Meryl Streep) but only shook hands and said hello (it was at a film festival where we got invited to a private festival party.) They were both very friendly.
I met Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) at a Bat Mitzvah in Chicago a few years ago. Very nice guy.
I shared a slow elevator with Elvis Costello the day after he had a concert in Telluride Co. After trying to make small talk and compliment him on his set, Costello was obviously not wanting to engage in conversation, was rather curt and couldn’t have ran out of the elevator any faster. Forever wrote him off as a jerk!
Well, one of my dogs and one of Carrie Brownstein’s dogs had a conversation at the dog park a few years back… one of those conversations where both dogs have to be walked away with a hand in the collar while you apologize because your dog is so rude. She has two German shorthairs, I have two poodles. (And Fred Armisen lived in my son’s building for quite a while, too.) But everyone in Portland has a Portlandia story, so that’s not a big deal.
@Darthdad, I was talking to the owner of a well-known restaurant in the Bay Area. He gets lots of celebrities in the restaurant and has trained his staff to treat them like any other customer and, whenever possible, to shield them from other diners. As a consequence, they come back regularly. Some people actually like their privacy. By virtue of being the owner, he is also something of a minor celebrity and says he is careful about what he wears whenever he goes out. He has had people wave/honk at him while he is driving across the Golden Gate Bridge.
Another friend of mine told me about his friend who is dating a attractive, very well-known young actress. She flies to NY and they never leave his apartment. While one might surmise that the sex is great, she does so because there are paparazzi out all the time and even a walk to pick up bagels would show up in the papers. What if she wasn’t wearing makeup? There was a terrific documentary (I think it was called Eight Days a Week) about the young Beatles on tour and one of my take-aways was about the extreme difficulties of dealing with that kind of celebrity.
It is a first world problem (Oh too many people are demanding too much of time because I’m rich and famous). But, I can certainly understand why celebrities might want privacy and why Elvis Costello might not be a jerk (no idea either way).
My mom tells a story of the time she was at a small luncheon with then-CIA director George HW Bush. Everyone was trying to ask impressive questions or give fabulous answers. Bush said, “These are times of innovation. My grandfather travelled by horse and buggy as a kid and lived to see the landing on the moon. It’s quite possible my grandchildren will live to see civilian travel to the moon.”
My mother offered, “Oh, I would never travel to the moon.”
Bush asked, “Why is that?”
And mom replied, with a straight face, “Because it would be just my luck to arrive during a half moon and we’d miss it.”
Haven’t met many famous people except for politicians but my husband has signed a couple autographs as
“John Denver” (they did look a lot alike at a young age).
Not many famous people -
Bob Fosse - I auditioned for a show once as a dancer. It was very brief, usually if it was a no, your number wasn’t called and you just left. He was up on stage watching each dancer, he said you aren’t right for the show, but don’t give up.
Christopher Reeve - we were waiting in the small commuter plane area of DC airport and my son was being a total terror - he says to me, he sure looks like a handful, my comment - you got that one right.
The guy who played Blake Carrington on Dynasty, I was at Radio City Music Hall, I thought he was one of my father’s friends, he clearly thought I was losing it - I say, I didn’t expect to see you here, what are you doing? He says he’s coming to see someone in a show. I say, small world.
I climbed Bruce Springsteen’s fence as a teenager and after we landed on the ground the security guard caught us and took us for a ride on his golf cart around the property before kicking us off.
I chatted with Cal Ripken at the spa at the Ritz in Naples, Fl.
I ate dinner at a steakhouse bar with James Carville, also at the Ritz Naples where we discussed why I knew Trump was going to win - this was last February, before the primaries were even over. We talked about our kids, shared pictures, chatted about sororities in the south and he asked me why I had the political opinions that I did. I may very well have been the first regular woman Trump supporter who wasn’t a lunatic that he spoke with civilly.
I met Whitey Bulger in the clink back in the day and can I say, hes not a bad man up close. Better than the others I met in there, the rapists and all that.
My list is way too long. I meet them everyday in the film industry. The only time I got excited about meeting a famous person was when I was introduced to Neil Armstrong in 1987. And I was way too excited to talk.
I’ve been fortunate to meet several notable people, but for the most part, just enough to say hello and a word or two of chit-chat.
Phil Knight, at a party to commemorate the opening of a luxo Nike Store.
Martin Sheen, while exiting the subway. What a nice man! Told him I had been watching him since before ‘Apocalypse Now.’ He asked my name, thanked me and shook my hand.
President Carter. I was a student attending a national convention in 1980. I was in line as he exited the hall and greeted people. He grabbed my hand and squeezed it so hard I thought I was going to scream. For several days thereafter my mother answered phone calls from friends and family with the refrain “junior met Jimmy Carter and the President nearly broke junior’s hand!”
Jeff Smith, a.k.a the Frugal Gourmet, at a book signing. Some how the subject of politics came up, and when I told him I dipped a toe or two into the prospective campaign of a certain candidate, he grabbed me by the shoulders and said," if xyz runs for president…CALL ME!!!" Although he signed the book, I still had to pay for it. 
Hamilton Fish, at a reception. Congressman and commanding officer of the the famous Harlem Hellfighters unit of WW1. The guy was 90 then but still had quite a bit of fire in his belly.
James Brown, the GFOS, at Atlanta Airport. Very gracious man. I sat next to a woman in the ticketing area. Saw this guy with the famous head of hair who was built like a fire-hydrant. Said to the woman sitting next to me…“boy, that guy looks just like James Brown.” She replied "THAT IS JAMES BROWN AND I AM HIS EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT; WOULD YOU LIKE TO MEET HIM?’
Rosie Perez. She came to my office, stood near my desk. I nearly fainted. When I said I really liked her role in ‘Do The Right Thing,’ one of my knucklehead colleagues, a woman by the way, mentioned Rosie’s nude scene in the movie. Rosie did not look pleased and I wanted to hide under my desk.
Michael J.Fox waved and said hello when our cars were next to one another at an intersection. I didn’t recognize him at first and therefore ignored him thinking he was a wisenheimer. I gave him a “get lost” look. As he drove away I recognized him…and slapped myself upside the head for being so mean.
Carl Bernstein, the Watergate Reporter. Saw him in tee-shirt and shorts at the ice cream shop one summer at the ocean. I said “aren’t you supposed to be on one of the talking head TV shows this morning?” Thankfully, he laughed.
Tony Bennett at a museum, looking at an exhibition of paintings from Spain. Didn’t want to disturb him but finally worked up the nerve to say hello. Very friendly. Just a pleasant word or two from him. I was with my son, he of the Drake and Kendrick Lamar generation, who had no idea who Tony Bennett was.
I am sure I have never met a famous person. I guess I lead a boring life.
But James Carville, I would have loved that one.
Sat with BB King on a flight to Las Vegas from DFW and chatted quite a bit- about 2000 I think it was.
Bill Walton of basketball fame and now ESPN commentator. Spent an evening with him. I plead the 5th on that one! This was probably 1977 when he was playing for the Trailblazers.
Living in Nashville we run into lots of music stars and have normal conversations.
Had cocktails with John Dean of Watergate fame a couple of years ago at a legal conference.
okay, I spent a month with Larry David on a movie set when my kid was an extra and he was as amazing and cynical and embittered and hilarious as you would expect/want.