Unexpected encounters with celebrities - Page 5

Jack Palance in Santa Fe. He's about 6'3" and was wearing sport coat, but had on these huge fuzzy house slipper things, no joke.

Living in NYC, this is virutally a weekly occurence (more frequent if you're a big party guy). Interesting last week for me was to see two TV actresses working out at the same gym at the same time - Julia Margiules was sweating on the stairmaster while Mary Louise Parker was with a trainer a level above. Is it "back in shape" season for TV actors?

You wanted unexpected - I was standing outside the Washington Square Hotel after dinner on a Friday evening a few years ago, and a familiar-looking guy walked by with his iPod headphones on. I gave him a shout-out - 'So I'm Mike D and I'm back from the dead...' - and he doffed the headphones, nodded and smiled and then kept going.

That's a pretty good 40-something twosome. How'd they look in person?

Yeah, I've bumped into Robin Williams (walking like he was drunk) and Harrison Ford (T. Anthony) on 57th Street. The Baldwin brothers also, but other than Alec are they really celebrities? Danny Aiello at Bryant Park. If you recognize foreign stars, you can bump into them all over the place in Manhattan also. Lastly, my mom is friends with the Sorvino's (Paul's dad/Mira's grandad) so I've bumped into them a handful of times.

Back in the late 90's, I literally bumped into Evander Holyfield in Lennox Square Mall.

Ran into TI a couple of times at a Marriot in Atlanta, as we were both staying there.

Also saw Jose Conseco in a bar in Charlotte, NC about 5 years ago.

MLP looked far better than JM. MLP actually looked really really hot

I bumped into Scott Ian of Anthrax yesterday in Soho.

I've also met Ralph Nader and seen him numerous times. He's pretty much a local fixture in CT.

I've also met Joe Lieberman.

Andre the Giant? Yeah, but was he really a celebrity? If the thread had been "guys I've watched hang a hooker out the window" I would've chimed in with him immediately.

Let's see:

- John Travolta - J Crew outlet in Freeport, ME (probably my most random encounter)

- Drew Bledsoe and about half of the New England Patriots - Daisy Buchanon's in Boston (not really surprising - lots of Boston area athletes go to this bar, or at least did at the time)

- Shook hands with Luis Tiant at Fenway Park

- Pete Rose at his restaurant in Boca Raton

- '80's rocker Corey Hart filming a music video (this was either at Glacier National Park in Montana or Banff National Park in Canada - I can't remember which)

- Geddy Lee at a hotel in Phoenix (my wife still laughs at me for calling this a "celebrity" sighting, but rock music for her begins and ends with U2)

- Not a celebrity, but when I was around 11 or 12, I sat next to Katherine Hepburn's sister at a performance of the Hartford Symphony Ochestra - I didn't know who it was until my parents told me afterward - I remember her being extremely friendly

- Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw at Brown University's graduation/reunion - there's an amusing story here (at least to me), but I imagine you'd be bored

- Dylan McDermott coming out of the men's room at the Union Square Cafe in NYC

- Conan O'Brien twice - once on the T in Boston in the '90s, and again just last year in a restaurant in Litchfield, CT

- Not me, but my sister saw Russell Crowe in a bar the same night that he threw the telephone at that hotel concierge (or whoever it was)

I ran into Debbie Harry a few years ago in a movie theater lobby.

I'd like to nominate this as my favorite post in this thread.

And yes, Andre the Giant counts as a celebrity, if for no other reason than that he was famous for multiple things: Old school pro wrestler and actor (admittedly with limited range, but he was pretty darned good in the Princess Bride). Edit: The fact that he is a hooker hanger is just a bonus.

Meryl Streep - Oak Room in NYC. Aging very well;
John Cleese - Walking his dog in St John's Wood London. Could have been a Monty Python skit;
Rowan Atkinson (Mr Bean) - Standing beside me looking in the Louis Vuitton window on the Champs de L'Elysée
Deng Zhou Peng - Rolling in his limo down the Mall in London.