Best Meeting A Non-MST3K Celebrity Story?

[FreemanLowell]

I’ve led a somewhat Forrest Gumpian life, so I’ve been fortunate enough to have met a good number of well-known musicians. One encounter with someone who wasn’t a celebrity herself but celebrity-adjacent is kind of amusing.

Many years ago, my friends and I knew a woman who frequented the record store where we worked (we’d also see her about town and at shows). We just knew her as this very nice woman with an accent who often dressed akin to Stevie Nicks.

At some point, this woman opened a small vintage clothing store. I went in one day with a buddy who was a bassist. It was clear from my buddy conversing with her that he knew her. Their conversation turned to music and, I gathered from context, that her late husband had been a musician. I said, “Oh, was your husband a musician?” and she smiled sweetly and replied that he had been.

We left store and my buddy turned to me and asked, “Do you know who that was?” I replied that I didn’t; I just knew her to say “hello” and exchange pleasantries.

It turned out that her husband had been Nicky Hopkins, one of the most successful and respected session players in the history of rock music. His credits are lengthy, but among them were playing on every Rolling Stones record from 1967 to 1981 and performing on solo albums by all of The Beatles.

I had no way of knowing this beforehand, but, in retrospect, I still felt a little silly asking, “Oh, was your husband a musician?”

[justabob]

Shatner - not so much the meeting itself, but how I got there is what is memorable.

My wife and I attended a convention in Chicago around 2005 that featured a blood-drive. Those who participated were entered into a contest to win a meet-and-greet with William Shatner at the convention, get an autograph, and have a photo taken with him. As my wife and I commonly give blood twice a year, it was a no-brainer to sign on.

The winner was to be announced the next day after Garrett W*ng (VOYAGER, the page here won’t allow me to post his last name) spoke. My wife wasn’t feeling well, and decided to head back to the hotel room, while I went to hear Garrett.

At the time I was having a lot of problems with my hearing, with sporadic attacks that would hit me like how your hearing gets after a loud rock concert - muffled voices and a bit of tinnitus - that would vanish just as quickly. As Garrett spoke, I could feel such an episode coming on, but decided to stick it out to see who won the blood-drive contest.

So Garrett W*ng stuck around to announce the winner and they had a goldfish bowl brought out for him to pull a name out. He reached in and pulled a name out and read it and it was as muffled as hearing Charlie Brown’s teacher speak.

… boy that sure sounded familiar, but couldn’t quite make it out. Was it my name? Hmm … no one is going up. Maybe they couldn’t make it? Going to look like an idiot if it’s not me and I go up there. I’ll wait.

Garrett called it again and … yeah, maybe my name. Maybe not. If it is me and I don’t go up, they’re going to pick another name and I’ll be kicking myself. No one is going up.

So, after all this internal conflict, I s-l-o-w-l-y get up from my seat and cautiously, reluctantly, walk towards the stage, feeling someone was bound to go up and claim it that was the rightful person.

Turns out it was my name, and that was great. But I realized later how the optics of the moment probably made it look like I was really, really reluctant to meet Shatner. “Ahhhh, do I have to? Can’t you pick someone else before I get up there? What crap is this?” Heh.

Anyway, later that night, we got to meet Shatner after his signing. We talked briefly and then were ushered into a room for our photo with him, with us sitting in front of him and him leaning over the chairs behind us.

“Boy,” I joked, “this is just like getting a picture with Santa.”

“Well, you’re not sitting in my lap,” was Shatner’s response.

He signed a couple of things for us (including a GENERATIONS poster that already had Koenig’s and Doohan’s autos on it from previous conventions), and was off. A brief, nice meeting, but like I said, the setup for it is probably more memorable than the payoff.

[txodo]

Hey, I was at that Space City Comic Con, too. I did manage to get Karen’s autograph. As she was signing I asked her if she could add some hashmarks to the signature (to reference the “Silence”, the aliens who make people not remember them). She said “Oh, can’t forget to do the hashmarks!” and I responded “Well, you might.” Took her a second to “get it” and she laughed as I walked away.

[txodo]

My favorite moment with meeting a celebrity was at a Xena Convention. I had been going to Xena cons almost every year for more than 10 years and I always got a photo op with Renee O’Connor (Gabrielle) each time but never really got to chat with her for more than a moment or two when getting autographs. I always figured that she never remembered me as she meets so many people each year. Well, this one time when I went to stand next to her for the photo op, she turned to me and said “You know,… I think I’ve known you for more than half my life.” I swear I almost fainted! That is one of the nicest surprises I’ve ever received. Then they took the photo and I had a very surprised (but happy) look on my face.

[KHalleron]

I’ve actually met a lot of celebrities: I’m really good at sneaking backstage. I don’t talk about it much, because people think I’m lying.

But if I had to pick ONE to talk about, it’s gonna have to be Secretariat. A friend who was a big fan arranged for her family to tour Claiborne Farms and they let me tag along. His groom even gave us some hair from his brush as keepsakes.

We also got to pet Seattle Slew while we were there.

[Zack1991]

Got to meet Werner Herzog when he came to town. A very nice guy. I feel like he puts on the persona everybody expects from him.

[Edward_S_in_NJ]

Best celebrity meeting for me was Professional Wrestler Booker T.

A lot of meet and greats are pretty sterile…take a pay, take a pic shake a hand move along.

Its not always their fault…a lot of people want to meet them and time is a premium…also sometimes they do this stuff so much it becomes a thousand yard stare situation.

BUT…Booker T was seriously a different meeting. I paid they had me wait at the door to the room he was in. Booker waived me in with a big friendly, “Hey man come on in here!” as if I was an old friend he had not seen in a while…shook hands, took a pic and then proceeded to tell me a lengthy story about the time he tried to get The Undertaker to do a spin-a-rooni (Bookers ridiculous breakdance move). Never once did he or any of his handlers try to hustle ANYONE in the room out of there…you just stayed and hung out with him for like 20 mins or so…eventually his handlers would ask people to move on…but there was no pressure, and Booker was just the nicest dude ever.

Like I said he literally treated everyone as if they were his old buddies…I half expected if he had a beer he would have offered it to you.

[AoAnne]

I was at MegaCon a couple years ago and John Barrowman was doing signings and went absolutely insane taking selfies with a lady. Like he was jumping around and doing all these outrageous poses with her. It was wild! (In comparison, David Tennant was in the booth next to his, and refused photos, but did write he loved me on his photo.)

[Eevee]

John Barrowman did panto local to us a few times. We went to the stage door every time
The first time the theatre had recently been renovated and the stage door had been moved so we went to the wrong place first and then had to run around.
We had my elderly nan with us so my aunt told John “Yoda wants an autograph”

We also went to see his concert one year and he wasn’t allowed to do autographs etc due to a contract with a con company. But Scott, his husband, was out doing photos and autographs. Sweet guy. I told him that the stories John had been telling about them getting married in different countries as they passed equal marriage laws had made me cry and he went “aww don’t cry!”.

[GodDamnitRuss]

This was either Boston or RI comic con. But, I remember being in line, waiting to get a picture, planning out a pose for us to do. Something along the lines of serious rap album cover. The moment I got behind the curtain and saw him, I completely lost it. Forgot everything I planned to say and pose. I started rambling ‘OH MY GOD! I love the life aquatic, jurassic park, Nashville. Oh man I f*ckin love you man’ and he goes ‘oh no no no nooo… i… I love you! I love you my dear!’ Then we took this magical photo, and during the hug he held on for 5 extra seconds and did an arm squeeze that felt like a more than a brother but less than a lover. It’s one of the greatest moment of my life

Jeff Goldblum is 10000% the Jeff Goldblum you hoped he’d be.

[nschornhorst]

At Dragoncon, I met Alex Kingston (River Song from Doctor Who) and she was so very nice. I was probably the only person to want to talk about Transformers Rescue Bots, which she voiced a character for.

Another fond celebrity meeting I recall was George Lowe who played Space Ghost on Space Ghost Coast 2 Coast. I’d drawn some Space Ghost pictures and he enjoyed drawing all over them.

[RyanLohner]

My uncle was an extra on The Sopranos, in a scene at the Bada Bing, which meant quality time with a bunch of the show’s major stars. He also played golf with Joe DiMaggio.

[KHalleron]

OK, I’ll throw in another one - I’ve had lunch with Lois McMaster Bujold twice.

Once on purpose - I was visiting a friend in St. Paul (also did the MST3K studio tour on that trip) so I emailed LMB and asked her to have lunch with us, and she accepted. We met at her favorite restaurant and it was a blast.

The second time was by accident - she was doing a book signing in Salem, Oregon. I arrived early and went looking for a place to have lunch, but it was Sunday and the only thing open near the bookstore was the IHOP, and yeah, that’s a no.

So I wandered downtown a ways until I found an open café, and a few minutes later in walked LMB and her daughter. Not really a coincidence, because Sunday in Salem, but still pretty nice. I called out to her and she asked if they could join me, so of course I said yes. I think we spent most of that visit talking about her daughter’s artwork.

[trdsf]

LMB is really great – used to see her a lot when she lived in Columbus, and when a bunch of us went to WorldCon (ChiCon V), we ended up quite by chance in the room across the hall from hers. We were having a room party during the Hugo ceremony… and when she won for The Vor Game, we suddenly found ourselves hosting a much larger room party than we expected as people came up to tape congratulatory notes to her door. She dropped in herself for a while after the ceremony, which was very cool.

[Starman]

Time for a second-hand story. It belongs to a friend, but I was there to witness it.

My friend Jeremy has this thing he does at conventions. He makes action figures out of pipe-cleaners based on the characters of actors he wants to get an autograph from. I was in line with him to meet John Barrowman and he had made a little Captain Jack Harkness.

Jeremy, should mention, was dressed as Buddy Christ from the movie Dogma. Of course this being a Sunday morning and Texas, most people thought he was dressed as Jesus for one reason or another.

In any case, Barrowman was delighted with the gift. So much so that he stood on top of his table, and declared to the entire hall, “LOOK EVERYONE! JESUS MADE ME!”

[GamerasMom]

Probably the nicest celebrity I ever met was Phyllis Smith, aka Phyllis on the US version of The Office. The roller derby league I volunteered with at the time invited her to a bout, and she accepted. (Phyllis happens to be a St. Louis native, and this league was based in St. Louis.) This photo was taken over a decade ago, while The Office was still on NBC. I was in my Jeerleader (roller derby cheerleader) outfit, as you can tell. It was taken after the bout. I came up to Phyllis and asked if she was having a good time. She responded, “I’m having a GREAT time!” Shortly thereafter, this photo was taken.
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[BooDooBoo]

It was 1997 and my first time in New York City, I couldn’t tell you where we were exactly, somewhere near SoHo I think, but lil’ English me was more aware of the sheer amount of STUFF around me, and my friend said it was like being on a movie set, she wasn’t wrong.

We were waiting to cross the road, the crosswalk was packed, and people would barge past us and just stroll into traffic, but English people enjoy lining up politely, so we just waited for the signal.

My friend was apparently chatting to someone, so I glanced around, and saw a tallish man next to me. The Man had a trilby type hat and sunglasses on, and clearly noticed me seeing him, which made me look back at him… it couldn’t be him, of course, just on the street, looking like him?

Naaaah.

But it was a little awkward that he’d seen me see him seeing me, so I just said “Mornin’”, and he replied “Mornin’” just as the crosswalk sprung to life, and I’ll be honest, that “Mornin’” did sound like him… but there’s no way that it was him.

We get to the other side of the street, and my friend excitedly says to me “Oh my god! I just met IMAN, the SUPERMODEL! SHE WAS SO NICE!!!”. Time stopped… that’s when I realized that I’d just met, and spoke to David Bowie.

[Joshua_Skaug]

I have met a few celebrities. I met Neil Gaiman in San Francisco, and Peter Davison, Christopher Eccleston, Geoffrey Beevers and Jeffrey Combs in Los Angeles at the Doctor Who convention, Gallifrey One

[FastidiousRobot]

This name will be unfamiliar to a lot of the younger folks, but my friend and I went to see Harry Chapin a number of times when he would come to the Albany area. We found out he welcomed fans backstage after the show, so we gathered up our courage and went back. He was so friendly and interesting to talk to, as well as putting on a highly engaging show. We ended up doing this several times and having a couple of fairly lengthy conversations with him. I felt a very personal loss when he died a few years later, a month or so before a show I was planning to attend.

[justabob]

I had a coworker whose husband back in the 1980s worked in racing. He wasn’t a racer himself, but worked in various crews when asked.

She didn’t go often with him, as she had nothing to do but sit around the trailers and gossip with the husbands and wives of spouses who were working, but she went one time and was leaning up against a trailer and drinking a coffee when a woman came up and complimented her shoes.

They begin talking for a bit and then my friend saw a rush of photographers moving towards them. The woman she was talking to quickly excused herself and went back into the trailer she was leaning against. These photographers came roaring up to my friend asking her what Joanne Woodward had to say to her,. She hadn’t realized that she was leaning up against Paul Newman’s trailer.

“Uh, we just talked about shoes,” she had to admit.