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Unexpected encounters with celebrities

Ambulance Chaser

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Originally Posted by Tokyo Slim
Not really an "unexpected" encounter, and I'm not sure how many people would consider him a "celebrity", but he's been in a ton of movies - many of which are horrible (Pearl Harbor, Brain Smasher: A Love Story, Robot Jox 2), some of which are GREAT (The Karate Kid Part II, Real Genius, Better Off Dead, The Game).

I spent my 26th birthday in Yuji Okumoto's restaraunt here in Seattle. We ate Hawaiian food. We watched The Karate Kid Part II with him in the bar. I got wasted. He signed my TKKPII DVD.

Nice guy.

YujiOkumoto-KK.jpg


860c2786937ab2e3a4afa0b971.jpg

He's aged better than Ralph Macchio:
ralph-macchio.jpg
 

weeks

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3 encouters with "famous" people, all in Atlanta.

I met John Rocker in front of the women's restroom at Lakewood Amphitheater during an Aerosmith concert. I was waiting on my girlfriend and he was waiting on the extremely hot blond he was with. We sat there for a few minutes making small talk, until people started to pester him for autographs and such. He seemed like a nice guy.

A couple of years ago, I walked past Andre 3000 at Lenox Mall. He had a pretty big entourage with him so I didn't bother to approach him.

I met Ludacris on several occasions when I was in college. I lived in this ratty old house. Next door was this strange office building that always had nice cars out front at night. No one was every there during the day. We assumed that it was some organized crime front or a drug ring headquarters or something. There was always a big guy outside sort of standing guard at night. We later found out it was a rap studio. One evening we had a keg and invited our neighbors over. I came out of the front door and Ludacris was standing out there drinking with some of my roommates. Very surreal experience.
 

Connemara

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Originally Posted by weeks
3 encouters with "famous" people, all in Atlanta. I met John Rocker...He seemed like a nice guy.
crackup[1].gif
John Rocker a "nice guy"? That's like saying Hitler really wasn't a mean-spirited fellow!
 

kwilkinson

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Originally Posted by shoe
according to history, Hitler was very nice and gentlemanly to his staff and workers.

According to history, Bill Clinton was a very nice guy to his interns...
 

FLMountainMan

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Originally Posted by Connemara
crackup[1].gif


John Rocker a "nice guy"? That's like saying Hitler really wasn't a mean-spirited fellow!



Actually by all accounts, John Rocker is. He let new teammates (most of whom were black or hispanic, BTW) stay at his house when they got called up from the minors. He's crude, homophobic and not very worldly, but it's not like ever beat his wife, was involved in dogfighting, or anything like that.
 

romafan

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Did you bring the DVD knowing you were going to his restaurant, or did he have copies for sale?
confused.gif


Originally Posted by Tokyo Slim
Not really an "unexpected" encounter, and I'm not sure how many people would consider him a "celebrity", but he's been in a ton of movies - many of which are horrible (Pearl Harbor, Brain Smasher: A Love Story, Robot Jox 2), some of which are GREAT (The Karate Kid Part II, Real Genius, Better Off Dead, The Game).

I spent my 26th birthday in Yuji Okumoto's restaraunt here in Seattle. We ate Hawaiian food. We watched The Karate Kid Part II with him in the bar. I got wasted. He signed my TKKPII DVD.

Nice guy.

YujiOkumoto-KK.jpg


860c2786937ab2e3a4afa0b971.jpg
 

Tokyo Slim

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Originally Posted by romafan
Did you bring the DVD knowing you were going to his restaurant, or did he have copies for sale?
confused.gif


I brought it, arranged to watch it there, and have him be there for my birthday. The signing was just a bonus. (although I was hoping he would)

smile.gif
 

sonlegoman

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Originally Posted by shoe
according to history, Hitler was very nice and gentlemanly to his staff and workers.

Really? Cause didn't he also kill a few of them? I may be wrong. I wouldn't want to totally slander the guy.
 

Osprey Guy

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For a lot of years I worked in Radio and TV (I was on the advertising side)...and had quite a few celeb encounters. Back in the 70's they often brought music acts around to the stations to do a meet 'n greet with the staff. We also always got backstage passes to all the regional concerts. And I was also involved with concert promoting and of course met quite a few that way as well. Same thing when I managed a high-end nightclub. Although this all took place here in Baltimore we had more than our share of big name acts come through here over the years.

A few of the more memorable ones that come to mind: Going back to the dressing room with Santana, and having my girlfriend coereced by Mike Shreeves to leave town with him for the weekend (only a teenager and he was already one of the great drummers of Rock 'n Roll). She and I broke up when she got back home on Monday. True story.

Hanging out with Frank Zappa at a post concert party. It was at the downtown Holiday Inn which used to have a revolving tower. He and I sat at the window looking at the people on street while he talked about his days living in Baltimore.

Taking the members of Shanana out for a post concert snack and sitting with "Bowser"...He was an absolute riot!

One night Liberace was in town for a concert and after the show we invited him to join us at our night club (I sent over a bottle of Dom wrapped in one of our club T-shirts, along with an invitation). He showed up with his entourage (all young men) around midnight...He was wearing the T-shirt! Great photo-op! He and his group hung out with us until 4:00am! Incredibly nice guy!

Grace Jones once did a concert at our club...this was in the early days of disco when you could still book her for around $5k/night. She was a major prima donna...2 hours late coming onstage, but the show was hot!!! A huge success!. The rest of her group left town after the show, but she decided to spend the night at the hotel and leave the following day. The next morning I was elected to pick her up and drive her out to the airport. It wasn't yet 9:00am and she was scrounging through my ashtray hoping to find a joint...She didn't and got mad at me. When we got to the airport (BWI) she threw a major fit when the airline refused to treat her like royalty and she was forced to actually stand in line with everyone else (like I said...this was when she was just beginning to get some notoriety. A year later you couldn't book her for less than $25k).

More recently,...for about 4 years I owned a vitamin manufacturing company. We specialized in kosher vitamins (there's actually a big market for that). One day my sales manager and I were in a Manhattan vitamin store doing an in-store demo...when Cindy Crawford walked in with her baby (this was about 7 or 8 years ago). She was really interested in our line of products and we wound up talking with her for over 1/2 an hour. Nice, intelligent lady. Good-looking kid (obviously got Mom's incredible looks...and all those vitamins must have helped).
wink.gif


Dennis
 

mr monty

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Originally Posted by modsquad
After 15 pages it's finally occurred to me to ask. Anybody ever go to bed with a celebrity?

I know I treat her like a celebrity
blush.gif
 

gnatty8

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Originally Posted by Ambulance Chaser
He's aged better than Ralph Macchio:
ralph-macchio.jpg


Wow. That picture of Ralph does him no favors. To be fair, he actually looks much better than that. I found this picture from a 2007 event.
 

Tokyo Slim

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Originally Posted by gnatty8
Wow. That picture of Ralph does him no favors. To be fair, he actually looks much better than that. I found this picture from a 2007 event.

So... hairpiece or plugs?
 

rnoldh

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I was at the Whole Foods Market on Kirby Dr. here in Houston, today at 5:45 PM, paying for my granola on the check out line. It's a very nice Whole Foods.

In front of me was a very old man in a mechanized wheel chair with an assistant. I took a closer look at him and recognized him as Dr. Michael DeBakey, the famed heart surgeon. We were right next to each other so I figured I might as well talk to him.

He was a total delight. He definitely looks his age, but his mind is sharp as a tack(and perhaps sharper than my tack ). I asked him if he was a centenarian and he said "Lord No, I won't be 100 till September
laugh.gif
!". His extended DeBakey family is quite well known here in Houston, and I know some of them.

I wanted to talk politics with him but didn't think that would be a good idea and I don't know that his assistant would have approved. But DeBakey definitely has a sense of humor. When I told him that my mom is 90 years old and healthy, he said, "Oh, to be young and healthy again!". He really was delightful.

The VA Hospital is rightfully named for him here in Houston. When I mentioned that a few of my friends had been treated there recently and that they received very good care, he said, "That really makes me happy, but I only had a very little part to do with that".

It's nice to see that a legendary figure is still kicking and seems to be happy and thriving. I hope that there is a celebration for his 100th birthday in September, and I'd like to go.

I will note that Debakey had a legendary reputation as being imperious and difficult to deal with. Perhaps that was earned and was part of what allowed him to succeed as greatly as he did. But he certainly has mellowed as I imagine most people that reach the age of 99 are prone to do.

He looked about like this:

debakey3GOOD.jpg


But a few years older, if you can imagine that. And in a wheel chair.
 

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