As Close as Can Be
He said "Hey" leaving the restroom, holding the door for me.
I said "Hey" back.
I now have zero degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon, and you have one.
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Brushes with Fame
Your stories of an encounter with a celebrity who unexpectedly enters your world.
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By Mike_Summers 1 years ago Paisley Imprint
I took a gentleman's order through the speaker box at the Starbucks drive-through. He ordered a drink and a blueberry scone. "Absolutely," I chirped to him over my headset. "Come on up to the window!"
As I gathered his order, I realized we were out of blueberry scones. "Crap!" I thought to myself. "I hope this guy doesn't give me a hard time about the scone."
The man arrived at the window … Read more »
By Kelli_Jean 1 years ago Rude Chewbacca
I always liked the character of Chewbacca in the Star Wars movies. He just seemed lovable and cuddly. So I was excited to hear that Peter Mayhew, the actor who portrays Chewbacca, was going to be in town at the comic-book convention.
It was my first year at the convention, and I was overwhelmed, in awe, of how many celebrities were there! I saw Jason Mewes and Joss Whedon, who were … Read more »
By Joy_Griffin 1 years ago An Unexpected Encounter with History
I was leaving a Sears department store in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1960 when I noticed a phalanx of police, reporters, and people gathered as a parade of sorts. So I thought, Who is coming down the street?
The streets and sidewalks began to fill up to the doors of the store. I needed to get home, so I pushed my way toward where my car was parked, but I was … Read more »
That Kid
I thought, Why is this weird black guy with a fro staring me down?
Then Corbin Bleu smiled and took off his glasses, and I freaked out. I feel bad that I thought he was creepy.
Wrote Norman Mailer as a Teenage Queen
Although at the time I wrote to Norman Mailer I was a 36-year-old rounder, con man, and literary hack, I pretended to be an 18-year-old cheerleader named Buffy. He wrote back and extolled the virtues of my story "New Jersey Turnpike," which I had sent him.
After I few months, I revealed my true identity. He still continued to write. Said that his favorite author was Tolstoy and that (at the … Read more »
By Jim_Beattie 1 years ago Tim Gunn: My Hero
My son Simon loves celebrities. But Simon, age 25, is different from most fans. He has fragile-X syndrome and is mentally impaired. His disability is obvious: He has the typical odd, long face and stick-out ears of fragile-X. His speech is difficult to understand; when he does talk, he often repeats the same few phrases over and over. One of those sentences is, "I met Tim Gunn!"
Simon is not your … Read more »
By Nancy_Abrams 1 years ago Fame and Frozen Yogurt
The old truck had been giving us problems. We decided to take it in for service before work one morning, but we had to get a rental car at the airport first—it was the closest location for my partner and me. So off we went, extra-early, so that we could maneuver through the traffic on the roads and the traffic of the business travelers hoofing it through the wide hallways … Read more »
Tom Waits Growled at Me
I work in a hotel in San Francisco. Tom Waits's son (also kind of cool as people go) was staying with us.
One evening, around eight o'clock or so, the son ran past me at full tilt. I didn't think much of it. By and by, I guess two minutes later, a white SUV the size of an aircraft carrier somehow squeezed into the loading zone. Once again, I didn't … Read more »
My Dinner with Tommy
My stepmother and I were getting horrible service in a restaurant, simply because we were wearing jeans. After we we sat down, a young couple was seated next to us—so they could get terrible service, too.
Well, my stepmother and the young man were soon up in arms, standing next to each other and screaming at the maître d' a number of expletives not really fit for print. I'm actually surprised … Read more »
Hey, 19
I couldn't stop staring at his hand. The hand that had thrown so many touchdown passes—the hand that had passed the Colts to victory in the Greatest Game Ever Played—was a mangled claw. He held the Sharpie in his closed fist, yet still managed to scratch out one perfect autograph after another. He was presented with all manner of memorabilia and other objects to sign, and did so with grace … Read more »
Unforgettable
Every time I hear the remastered duet of Natalie and Nat King Cole singing "Unforgettable," I think of what a cool guy Nat was.
The year was 1959. There I was, 19 years old, not quite star-struck and cursed with the inability to recognize anyone famous. Great skills for the receptionist at a theatrical business manager's office.
One of the clients was Nat King Cole. He frequently came in with little Natalie … Read more »
Mr. Big Head
It was summer, hot and steamy, and we were in the second-level bleachers watching a Reds game. There was a commotion, hard to describe, but the word Dustin was coming out of many mouths and heads looking over the balcony.
Of course, curiosity gets the best of us, and I looked, too—just in time to see a tiny little leathery-tanned man with a huge head and messy black hair climbing the … Read more »
I'm a Q-lister
My sense of fame is off-kilter. I worked at The Tonight Show and got this close to Halle Berry, Hillary Clinton, Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, Tom Petty, Steve Carell, and a slew of others. But I was never totally amazed by any of it. You walk by someone that famous and you sorta feel like there's nothing to it because it's a setup—it's staged, this Hollywood thing.
I was always more … Read more »
By Alessandra_Rizzotti 1 years ago Almost a Brush
Everyone has their moment with someone famous—well, almost everyone. True to type, I remain the paradigm for Murphy's Law, a legacy I lay at the feet of my grandmother, Maggie O'Guin.
While I was living and working many years ago in Bloomington, Indiana, my coworkers had various brushes. One, for instance, was having ice cream at a local shop, where he was able to meet and talk with John … Read more »
Sorry I Puked on Opening Night, Mr. Shawn
I'd never seen a famous person up close in my life, and I had tickets to the opening night at the Woolly Mammoth of The Fever, a play written by Wally Shawn. I know. Inconceivable!
The night of the play, I went out for a beer and a meal, and cut down to the theater. It's a small place where everyone is seated close together, and I was … Read more »
She's Still Making It After All
I don't get to big-name concerts much (still on the to-do list: see Prince, Madonna, and Tina Turner). But when Joan Jett came to Webster Hall, I jumped at the chance. I'd loved her when I was in grade school and had rediscovered the joys of her music as an adult when she did a cover of the theme song to The Mary Tyler Moore Show a … Read more »
Apocalyptica Now
May 11, 2008—I remember it just like yesterday. My grandmother and I went to a concert I thought she would like...and I ended up bonding with her most of the time after the show.
Apocalyptica is a Finnish cello metal band, as in they play heavy metal on cellos—very awesome. I'm obsessed with every Finnish band I listen to, because to me they make some radical music!
Back to the story: My … Read more »
By Aryelle_Amador 1 years ago Date Night with Sherman Alexie
It was a rainy date night in Seattle, one of those rare times when parents manage to sneak away to watch a movie on the really big screen. The theater was full, but the seat next to me was empty, saved by a woman to my right.
We chatted and joked—whether about kids or defending the lone seat from predators, I don’t remember. I felt jovial, and it was great … Read more »
Gawker
A friend at work recommended a book embarrassingly titled How to Get to I Do, which advised that, in order to be successful (which all losers know means getting married), a women needed to decide if she's the woman or the man and then stick to that role in a relationship. It all starts with that first glance, the book said. If you're the woman, you've got to smile and … Read more »
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