4 or 5 years ago, we shared a VIP table w/ Tommy Lee in Vegas during my buddy's bachelor party. I forget the name of the club (it was at Treasure Island...I think it's changed names since then), but we had bought several bottles of booze and were pretty much keeping to ourselves when the hostess came over and said that we had to leave. We bitched, b/c we had made reservations and had spent a couple grand throughout the night, but she said we had to leave because a celebrity was coming in that needed our table. She told us that we would be comped one of our bottles for the inconvenience. Before she could get the check, Tommy Lee walked up and told us to sit back down. He pulled an extra table up for an entourage of really skeezy looking women and then boozed with us until the club closed down. He was a pretty chill dude, and despite the fact that we didn't end up leaving, he still got the club to comp us our bottle. It's my only legitimate run-in with a "Hollywood" celebrity. I've met tons of famous CEOs and businessmen, but I don't really consider them to be celebrities.
The bar I used to D.J. at in St. Thomas (the same bar that hockey star Joe Thorton got pepper-sprayed by the cops at) one night had former World's Fastest Man Donovan Bailey (he was faster than Michael Johnson and you fucking KNOW it) and former Blue Jay/Gold Glove Kelly Gruber. They were smashed and HILARIOUS, grab-assing every star fucker that was hanging off them and downing straight Jack Daniels like it was their birth right. Speaking of the above, I've met Joe Thorton at least a dozen times. He frequents his home town of St. Thomas often, usually he looks so dissheveled you'd think he stole his clothes from a scarecrow. The night that his brother graduated from the Bar in Michigan, he, his brother and his friends go PLASTERED beyond belief (when I played a Tragically Hip song for him he grabbed me around the waist and swung me around like a four-year-old kid), and later Thorton ended up jumping on the bar and giving a flying body-press to severl cops....all 6'5" of him. He and his gang were maced, zip-tied and thrown in jail. It was highly unusual for him to be acting like that, since he's always such a nice, down-to-earth and charitable guy to his community. He was NOT himself that night.
I interviewed Christopher Hitchens at 5:00p.m. once, and he was drinking from then until he gave a speech at 7:45 p.m. At the 9:00 autograph session, his nose was redder than Rudolph.
When I lived on Maui I was working at a restaurant and I was passing thru the dining room when I dropped something. I bent over to pick it up and walked straight into Clint Eastwood. A solid collision, and I manage "Holy shit! You're Clint Eastwood!" He looked me straight in the eye, paused, and said: "No shit. Excuse me." I thought I was going to have a goddamn coronary until he smiled. Not my proudest moment.
Most recently, I met Chad Johnso...I mean Ochocinco. I was in Miami eating breakfast at some place I forget (The News Cafe maybe? Is that even a real place?) He was leaning on his bentley and chatting up mediocre looking white girls. He payed some homeless man a sizable bill to do magic tricks. Seemed like a decent guy, and had really small, wiry legs, which bothered me for some reason. I also met Maddox. I went with one of my good friends who actually has a image submitted to maddox's site, so he was all pumped to go. Also a nice guy, and has, if I recall correctly, a very attractive asian girlfriend. Living in Chicago, there are a lot of celebrities fucking around and filming shit here. Also, little known to most people, Chicago is the improv capital of the world, and we've given you such acts as Tina Fey, Steven Colbert, Steve Carell, and Jim Belushi, along with 75% of the SNL casts throughout the years. I've seen Vince Vaughn, but didn't talk to him since he's got like 8 inches on me in height. Plus I hear he's a douche. The new Meet the Parents installment was filmed partly on my street. Actually, the movie trucks were parked on it, and the actual filming took place one block over. DeNiro and Stiller were in our neighborhood, but my room mate was the one to actually meet them. One of the first scenes of the movie Wanted was filmed 50 yards from my old place. I hoped to see Jolie, but only caught a glimpse of that main actor turd, who I didn't care much to meet. My mom met the crew of Dark Knight, as they shot a lot of scenes near her work, but that's not too exciting. I used to be involved in the local music scene, and thus met a lot of bands that emerged from the area. Most I don't care about, and most were/are on the fueled by ramen label (fall out boy, the academy, powerspace) but the guys I am proud to have met are Rise Against. I've also shot the shit with As Tall As Lions and The Exit, which I think are two of the most under-appreciated bands of the decade. Sadly, the Exit broke up, but I just caught ATAL at NIU a few weeks ago and they were as good as ever. Lastly, I've actually helped Giovanni Soto and Jeff Samardija of the Cubs at my workplace, but that's due to the close proximity to Wrigley Field. Both super nice guys, Soto's wife is gorgeous and he kept his daughter on a kid-leash which was awesome. Jeff's girlfriend was unbearably hot, and he was a pretty massive dude who was extremely humble and nice.
10 years ago, I sat next to Bill Murray on a flight from Charleston to Newark. In coach. I was heading home from a business trip in Charleston, which at that moment was bracing for a hurricane. The flight was packed with vacationers trying to get the hell out of Dodge before the storm hit. I had an aisle seat, and when I sat down there was a 6 year old (or so) kid sitting in the window seat, with an empty seat between us. I sat down and began reading a magazine, like I always do. Shortly before take off, a guy squeezes by me to sit next to the kid, saying "Excuse me sir" as he passes, then sits down and begins talking to the kid. I was engrossed in my reading material (Big 'Uns was running an expose' on Elvira), but I remember thinking "man, that guy's voice sounds familiar". As we taxi for take off, he says to his son "Why don't you switch seats with Daddy. This man next to me and I are big guys and I'm taking up too much of his space." And it clicked. This guy sounds just like Bill Murray. I glance to my left - Holy Fuck, it is Bill Murray. Sitting with his son, next to me, in coach class. We didn't say more than a few sentences to each other the whole flight, but he came across as one hell of a nice guy. He read books to his son and joked with him the whole flight, he was polite to me, he was extremely gracious when the flight attendants asked for his autograph, and he didn't bat an eye when the whole damn plane stood up to stare at him when we landed. I had a blast watching the flight attendants trying to figure out if I was with Bill, and if so, who the hell I was. One girl started to ask for my autograph while reaching across my lap to hand Bill a cocktail napkin to sign, then stopped herself when she realized I was not, after all, a well known celebrity.
Haven't met anyone incredibly famous but have had some pretty cool encounters with musicians: -Partied with the dudes from Against Me! -Met Jesse Lacey from Brand New -While they were filming "Viva La Bam" at the Mall of America, CKY played. After the show, some friends and I ran into Chad Ginsberg(Guitarist). He was incredibly drunk and rolling around the mall in a Rascal cart. Oh, and I interviewed James Sheppard and Josh Harding from the Minnesota Wild on the air. They were hungover and huge douchebags.
I was one of Donald Trump's personal chefs for the better part of a year. Great guy although out of the 100 or so plates I cooked for him I met him a total of 4 times. He's basically a "meat and potatoes" sort of guy, and while he's a bit of a control freak (I had to give a detailed menu to him and his dietician before I even bought food) he also had excellent taste. For a guy who never went into his kitchen he owned what might be the best culinary facilities of anybody I've ever worked for, private or pro. And no, he never said "you're fired" (to me at least).
Along the same kind of thing, I worked for Bryan Adams for a while doing his first major database-driven website. I therefore had an office in his recording studio in Gastown (in Vancouver, BC). He was a dietary control freak, and had his own personal chef that cooked all of his meals. I'm a big guy, and Bryan is, well, not. He was constantly telling me to "get off the hoof" (stop eating beef), and always sharing his lunch with me. Nice guy, if not a bit whacky sometimes. And no, I never did get off the hoof.
Besides witnessing Tyson having a melt down yelling at a dog in his yard, living in Vegas provided me with plenty of experiences with famous people. One day on my way home from work a Porsche pulled up next to me at a stoplight. A really nice 930. As I was eyeballing the car I glanced at the driver...it was Greg Maddux. I was in my turbo Z and decided "What the fuck?" and revved my engine for the hell of it. He looked over and grinned at me. I was about to have my ass handed to me on a platter and I knew it. The light turned green and I hit the throttle... All I saw was his taillights. I don't think he even really got into the engine, he just simply kept pulling away from me. (For the record we didn't exceed the speed limit (By much.)) A few years earlier I pulled up next to another 930. This one was a drop top, slant nose painted Porsche Raspberry (In other words...Pink) with a crunched front end. I was wondering what kind of asshole would drive a wrecked Porsche ...Andre Agassi, that's who.
I've had a quick brush with a few celebrities--it's pretty easy when you're in the restaurant business*. I had a martini with Ryan Phillippe (hot!) the night after Thanksgiving last year and am currently teaching his niece. It's weird to hear her refer to how she really liked "Aunt Reese" and "Uncle Ryan"'s newest girlfriend isn't as nice. To impress my fellow baseball fans, I met Cal Ripken, Jr last year. Fucking awesome guy and terribly cool. I ended up thanking him for creating his ballpark in Maryland, where my nephew was very psyched to play with his little league team. At the Philadelphia airport, my Dad and I ran into Richard Simmons. My father indelibly proceeded to call him a fag as well as a plethora of other insults (thank God they were all in Greek) and moved on. Thanks, Dad! But my favorite was when I met Barenaked Ladies. One of my best friends is a big fan of theirs and we all had tickets to their show. The night before the concert, they all walked into the bar where my friend was bartending. Couldn't have been more perfect. The band hung out and drank with my friends that night and had such a good time that some of us had our seats upgraded to front row and the others had backstage passes. The band was just plain awesome and ended up spending the entire night partying with us. After the concert, the band came with us to see our friends do a comedy/quiz show at a bar and actually played with us as a team. Later, we ended up going to a late night party all together where there was a karaoke machine. Fuck yes. Beer, GM shots, Barenaked Ladies and karaoke? Put me all in. By the end of the night, my girls were actively trying to hook up with the band members (shocking, I know) while Steven Page and I cornered the karaoke machine and sang duets to the entire Wham! Make It Big album. A true shining moment in Chirpy history. *IN THE INDUSTRY!!!111!!!
Chad Ochocinco is actually really quite and reserved in person. I've met him twice at each of the bars I worked at downtown. The first he was just eating with his girlfriend and the second was in the VIP section after he was injured a few years back. My buddy a hot head wanted to start shit with him because it was after his whole "I want to be traded" ordeal. My Aunt actually met Dustin Hoffman way back when they were filming Rain Man at the airport in Cincinnati. She was in the luxury room, or what ever it's called, and started up a conversation. He was surprised that she was talking to him since Tom Cruise was a new mega star at the time and the entire shoot the media and fans had left him alone and hoarded around Cruise. She said they were both pretty short.
I ran into a few celebrities on a single plane ride home from school last year. In the same row as me, but on the other side of the plane was Norm McDonald. Also, on that same flight I fell asleep not long after take off, so I wake up and go to the bathroom and when I come out, I see Tony Cox, aka the midget from Bad Santa, which having just woke up confused the shit out of me. I worked in the dorms at USC my last two years there. Usually the VIPs move in a few days early to avoid the rush on move-in day. Well, Arnold Schwarzenegger's daughter was a freshman and just happened to be living in the dorm I worked at. I ended up talking with Maria Shriver for 10-15 minutes answering her questions, but didn't put two and two together until after I got home from work and remembered who Arnold had married. His daughter was pretty good looking too. Finally, on my 21st birthday, my friends and I went to a bar in Hollywood, The Happy Ending. I go to the bathroom and see someone who looks familiar at the bar. On my way back I get a better look and see it's none other than Angel fucking Batista from Dexter, David Zayas. My friend Brad and I go over and say hi and tell him how much we love the show. The season finale of season 3 was two days away, but we couldn't wrangle any spoilers from him. He was nice enough to take a picture with us even though we didn't chat long.
I saw LaShawn Merritt at a track meet in Virginia literally no less than 3 weeks ago. He can run a 400m in less than 44 seconds, and is current Olympic 400m champ. I was starstuck, but didn't go up to say hi--I figured that would be annoying.
Ate dinner about a week ago next to "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and I believe his wife. He still looks terrifying. On that note, one of my relatives looks exactly like Stone Cold and was a sniper in the marines. You know that scene in "Saving Private Ryan" where the sniper is shot in the eye, through the scope of his own rifle? My relative has that exact (model) of rifle, and shooting a military sniper rifle under the instruction of a trained military sniper was awesome. Not sure if this really counts for the focus of the thread, but it was really cool.
I was in a bar on the weekend and saw Sam Greco , who according to Wikipedia played the stunt double for retired professional wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin in the 2007 action thriller The Condemned . He is a scary looking dude , but from what I've heard is actually quite the gentleman.
My job has allowed me to meet and interact with several bands and celebrities. Some of the more notable ones are: - Darryl Sittler Sittler was the keynote speaker at a golf tournament in Saskatchewan a year ago, and because our radio station sponsored the tournament, my golf-team and I got to meet him and have drinks with him. An overall nice guy who signed a ton of merchandise, and posed for a lot of photos. The definite highlight though was when he called my girlfriend, "pretty." As we were posing for a photo he stopped everything and loudly (drunkenly?) said, "I want the pretty girl beside me." My girlfriend blushed and shuffled between Darryl Sittler and me. What a moment! - Puddle of Mudd After I moved to the Prairies, I used my old Media Pass to worm my way backstage at a Puddle of Mudd show. When I got back there, Wes Scantlin greeted me a firm hand-shake and then threw me a Coors Light which I clumsily dropped. He mocked me for about two minutes, then threw me another one which I caught. His bandmates were awesome, but Scantlin was far more concerned with chatting up the five or six groupies. Can you blame him? - Brent Butt (Corner Gas) I sat next to him on a flight from Calgary to Saskatoon. We didn't chat for too long, but our conversation was extremely pleasant. Both of us were wearing Canuck hats, so conversation started rather easily. I had the window, he had the aisle, and unfortunately some chotch at the other side of the plane kept yacking his ear off, asking about the possiblities of a Corner Gas Movie? Did he ever hook up with Lacey? Is there an actual Dog River? Brent was clearly annoyed with the endless questions, and spent the second-half of his flight in silence, reading his book trying to ignore the other guy. - Gerry Dee He's the guy on the Gibson's Finest commercial who's trying on the orange and gray sweater, and rips it purposely so that he doesn't have to wear it to a dinner party. He's a great comedian, and was really conversational with my friends and I. Extremely easy-going.