what to do when Donald Sutherland comes up to you...
 

A bit of LA-surreal last night. The g/f and I went to dinner at a local Santa Monica seafood place. There was a wait for a table, but there were two seats at the end of the oyster bar so we sat down. Kind of an L-shaped bar, and sitting around the corner of the bar was Donald Sutherland, eating dinner with some friends. I caught him eyeing me somewhat oddly, and I wondered if I was staring or what the deal was. Next thing I know he gets up and walks over to me. Says, "I apologize if I gave you a strange look, but my friend was asking me who was going be doing the marriage ceremony for my son and I said, 'how about that guy?' I thought you were wearing a cleric collar." I was actually wearing my Sigarms turtleneck, where the logo is on the mock turtleneck. From a distance I guess it looked like a priest's collar. I laughed and said, "no problem" and then we went back to his spot at the bar and continued dinner.

I almost went over later to offer to get my Universal Life minister degree so I could help him out. :D

A priest is nothing i am likely to ever be mistaken for. Great story man.

Didn't Letterman used to run a "Brush With Greatness" segment at one time? I think those stories are fun. Best I can do is running into Garth Brooks at Academy Sports one time. Oh well. Oklahoma doesn't compare to SoCal, I guess.

I have a pic of Richard Simmons with one arm around my wife's shoulders and another around my mom's.

We were all stuck in Newark Airport together.

Talk about surreal.

Six degrees of separation. I sat down at my barbershop last year and Donald Sutherland was in the next chair over. We started talking. He was doing a one man show/autobiographical talk thingy that evening — and suggested I come along if I "was really bored". We went and ended up having beers with him. Charming man. Great raconteur.

I sat next to Joe Biden in the Senate barbershop many years ago. His plugs looked bad then too.

I would burn that!

More "brushes with hollywierd" than I care to think about.

Greatness would be meeting Col. Oliver North, Rush or Sean sometime...

Absolutely nobody famous lives in Lebanon, Oregon. I like it that way...:cool:

Dude, that's too easy. You do the Donald Sutherland invasion of the body-snatcher's thing.
That's what I would have done. Seriously.

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I've met Oliver North a few times. But below is the only Rush I've met.

http://fototime.com/9BBAD5E8CA543F0/standard.jpg

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I thought he was great in "Kelly's Heros"
YouTube - Negative Waves

Isn't that who he meant?

He meant the big blowhole on the radio.

My favorite run-in with a celeb was the time I bowled over the dude from 'Webster' in the Atlanta airport. We were both turning a corner in a hurry (he to the gate, I from) and I had a bit of a size advantage.

ya... that one that pulls fact straight out of his ass....

I hung out with Capt Lou at LAX once. He said he recognized my jersey accent and felt like chatting. He had lost a lot of weight but the rubber band was still in his beard!

I prepared dinner for Joe Biden and his wife last year just after he got elected. I did a little post on it in OT and it was immediately moved to PARF. Don't think anyone gave a whoot over there.

MY mother dated Timothy Leary...

My mother was a campaign manager for Vice President BiteMe years ago, so I met him many times.
I've also met, Al 'the about to be single lunatic' Gore (I was like 6 and he was an absolute dick), Billy Bob Clinton (Pretty nice guy... at least to me), Tom Harkin (taught me my first obscenity, 'Bull*****')
Robert Irvine from 'Dinner Impossible' on Food Network works out at my gym and I've seen Patricia Cornwell at Starbucks.

I almost flattened Martina McBride at a truck stop. Same thing that happened to Scott. Turned a corner, and there she was. Little bitty thing. Her eyes are really that awesome blue in person, and a smile that can melt a mere mortal man.

My brushes with stars:

- I ate salad at Lou Pinealla's house - his daughter went to my church's youth group when I was a counselor there.

- Coming home from vacation, my wife and I flew home from LA on the same plane as Dick Clark and his wife. (They - first class, us - coach. :( )

- Met a bunch of washed up celebs at a few "Chiller Theature" celeb autograph events. Got a pic with Lou Ferigno, and Joyce Dewitt/Pricilla Barnes (3's Company), and met Pee-Wee Herman, Adam West, Richard Hatch, and some others.

- Ate dinner with David E. Davis, and after a PCA monthly meeting, drove him back to his hotel. Very wonderful man! Others I've met through the PCA: Hurley Haywood, Vic Elford, John Fitch

- Met Chris Swedo - the guy who created the "Lime Rock Park" documentary.

U wud no

The funniest brush with fame I've had was getting drunk with Joe Rudy, Tim Wallach, my oldest brother and a couple other Angels players and driving those Malibu grand prix cars until we couldn't stand up. The track was right next to A stadium at the time (long since plowed over).
IIRC I was just a tad shy of 21.
By tad I mean 4 years or so.
That was a long time ago and it was a different world.

I went to high school with video store girl in Men in Black 2. :)

I thought Milt was a priest when I first saw him.

He wanted you to marry Keifer to someone?

I had late breakfast with meathead and his family at the counter of the BH Hotel coffee shop a few Sundays ago. (Rob Reiner). Politics aside, he was a nice guy and he's a good family man. You can't fake that stuff when you're with the wife and kids.

My paternal grandparents hung out with F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda, in St. Paul back in the 1920s and early '30s. They were good friends. Their names are carved in the bar together at The University Club on Summit Ave.

I've met or known scores of famous people in politics, literature and entertainment but that one rocks me the most. If that freaking bar could talk...:cool:

I'm a loser. I've never met anyone famous...

i drank beer with stephen stills. and still have his autograph on my friends check which was the only thing he had that stephen could write on.



i had beer thrown on me by frank zappa during the "overnite sensation" tour thats gotta count for alot.



my aunt as the secretary to the prez of lockheed corp stationed at JFK got me on airforce one when it was a boeing 707.



i guess im just lucky.

Spooky. First Todd and the Donald. Now you and Reiner.

We spent an evening chatting to Rob Reiner when we were seated next to him at L'Ami D'Louis in Paris. He was eating alone. Very nice guy.

Well, seeing someone at the BHH coffee shop is not such a stretch. It would be unusual if no one recognizable was there. He is a nice guy.

When you come to L.A., breakfast there is on me. It's a real local's spot and the food is ridiculously good.

Ridiculously. :)

Had the "pleasure" of dining next to Mr. Limbaugh a few years ago in NYC. You know the old saying you can tell a lot about a person by the way they treat the waitstaff; let's just say those of us around him (and those waiting on him) were more than thrilled to see him leave. :rolleyes:



Coincidentally, I ran into Kiefer at JFK about a year and a half ago. Very mellow and low key guy. Like his dad apparently...

That's really cool, Denis!

How bout as a kid back in the very early 1960's having a 57 4 door Chevy with Liz Taylor in the back seat and her then hubby Eddie Fisher in the front passenger seat pull up next to you at a stoplight on Wilshire just east of Rodeo Dr late one Sunday afternoon. we waved they waved and we drove off after the light changed.

Or Julia Roberts walk by and give a second look...

The one that I would swear to, but might not be...is Keith Richards walking out behind me at a Gemco Store in Glendora, CA in early 72???? So improbable but he was in LA at the time..If it wasn't him it was a double.

Elizabeth Taylor is the grandmother of two of my closest friends. One of said friends is a major gearhead who lurks here. She's cooler than Fonzie.

I managed a store called Beverly Hills Motoring Accessories in the 80s to early 90s. It was on Robertson a block off Wilshire. Our customer base was celebrities. TV & Movie actors, Pro Athletes and rock musicians daily were in the store to buy goodies for their cars. At first it was hard not to go WOW when someone you've seen in movies walks in your door. But quickly I learned to treat a celebrity like a regular person, and treat a regular person like a celebrity. It really paid off!

Still my favorite star incident was with Calvin at Jake gylenhaals b-day party at his parents house in the Hollywood hills (ex g/f was close to the family). About 20 people, one of whom was Penelope Cruz. At one point Calvin was playing dominos with her, and of course at age 10 he was oblivious. I'll remind him of it again once he's deep in puberty :p

I managed a restaurant at my university's student Union. The Union Club Hotel was attached to the restaurant/visitor part of the facility. I would be working late nights, and I'd send my staff home so I could finish up the cleanup, when different people would wander down from their rooms for a late snack. The restaurant would be closed and I'd be cleaning up when I'd hear a knock on the door...would often let them in for a quick snack.

Late night patrons included:

Maya Angelou (made us a couple of sandwiches and fries)...munched food/chatted with her
Several Astronauts (including Armstrong...he had a double cheeseburger and chocolate shake)
Couple of Members from Kronos Quartet
Lots of different musicians

I had been sitting all day drinking and eating oysters at the New Orleans Hilton. Must have been there for 4-5 hours at the same table when Rick James take a seat since all the other tables were taken and I was alone. thought it was pretty cool until he started nudging me with his leg trying to get me to leave him the table. told him i WAS NOT getting up, it's my table. A little later, the nasty bastage blows his nose in his hand and wipes it in his even nastier hair. Acted like a complete dick the entire time. After a couple hundred $$ of Vodka and oysters I was feeling no pain.. I blurted out "you can dress em up, but you can't bring em out, it ain't the money that makes the man" well, that didn't go over so great. if if wasn't for his 3 gigantic bodyguards calming him down, we would have thrown down right there. We had a few more words before he left. after he walked out, everyone applauded for me standing up to the "celebrity" I wasn't impressed. Years ago, we were out in a bar just having fun drinking and watching the band. Elvin Bishop and his band walks in after their concert in town, gets up on stage and plays a few numbers. he had a couple hits at the time. after that, he walks over to our table and asks if they can join us. he said we looked like the wildest group of Mofos in the bar and he wanted to have some fun. that was a pretty wild night.

Great advice. I first heard a variation of this when I was a busboy @ Nick's Fishmarket, sort of a fancy shthole back in the '80s that was located in the space where Bar One was later. It was a cheesy place where Vegas mobsters and whores hung out but also quite a few New York-type actors and music people.

The Maitre'D once told me, "Treat the up and comers like big stars and the big stars like regular people..." I followed that advice through many jobs and got along pretty well with everyone. :)