The Cult of Celebrity

Celebs and Media

Here’s a useful list of all the celebrities I’ve ever met in my life:

Mr Dressup: He came to Brockvegas when I was a teen, experimenting with alcohol. Ricky Goldstein, Dave Tennant and I decided that we were going to go meet him by standing around the stage door of the theatre he was performing at. Actually we were bored and had nothing better to do. Dave and I didn’t really want to meet him but Ricky was acting all goofy and decided to REALLY hang by the door and wound up actually getting nudged by Mr Dressup as he came out. Ricky celebrated by tripping in the street, excited to get back to us to boast his contact with celebrity.

Catherine O’Hara: While wandering away from friends at the old Antique Market on Queen’s Quay, I turned the corner and there she was. In all her dressed down glory. Instantly my face lit up, like a kid on Easter Sunday who’s found the largest hollow chocolate egg. Her face lit up too, like Scooby Doo discovering the rogue robot for the first time. My face said “OH MY GOD! A CELEB–” and hers said “PLEASE DON’T MAKE A SCENE!”. And I didn’t. I smiled and walked on. She owes me one.

Silvester Stallone: While on a weekend trip to NYC, I got shoved out of the way by the Italian Stallion. Okay he brushed pass me and slapped my shoulder in celebrity “howyoudoin’?” kind of manner. He’s short.

Carole Pope: I’m name dropping here. One time I went to my brother’s girlfriend’s house for a party and there she was, the woman who, back in the 80s, had a firm grip on my developing sexuality through song. Apparently they’re good friends. She had an entourage of 3 girls swirling around her all the time like a celebrity dust storm. Without gushing (to this day I’m extremely proud of my restraint), I grabbed a tray of oysters and cut through the girls to Ms Pope. I offered her one. She took it. Smiled. Thanked me. I thanked her but put much more than just oysters behind the force of my voice. I think I freaked her out.

Peter Paige: During my time playing background fodder on the set of Queer As Folk, we were never allowed to come in direct contact with the actors. One day, Peter Paige (Emmett) snorted out a big sneeze right on my arm as I passed by him to get back to “ones”. He was mortified that he had got me with his spew, but I let loose with my standard response (“That’s ok. It will dry up and flake off.”) and he laughed.

Rick Mercer: I use to email commercial spoofs to him and after the third one, he responded by email: “Who is the cute guy in your gallery pictures?”

“My husband! Did you read my script?”

“No, my agent says I can’t accept any scripts unsolicited.” The End.

Shane Jacobson: The star of the Australian film Kenny. A truly great celebrity. He continually smiled, was patient for a couple photos and answered a few questions without being rushed. His girlfriend, however, not so nice. Leave her, Shane!

My Brother: Feh. I use to fetch his asthma medications at 2am in the morning.

14 thoughts on “The Cult of Celebrity

  1. Dead Robot

    Don: the first comment on that thread says it all.

    photog2: I saw him first!

    Butchie: Who?

    Pronk: Maybe you should…

  2. Phronk

    I shook hands with the long-haired guy from The Lone Gunmen (from the X Files) at a bar after he did a weird one-man improve show. I HAVEN’T WASHED MY HAND SINCE.

  3. normlr

    Dog the Bounty Hunter – he was 3’2″ I think.

    Was in a elevator with Mary J Blige – she was so cute.

    Howard Hessman – met him while he was filming a movie in Alcatraz (yes it was the 80’s).

    Erasure – skipped class to go see them at a CFNY 102.1 (back when it was a good radio station). Everyone had all these erasure albums that they wanted autographed, and I simply handed Vince my Upstairs At Eric’s LP.

    Backstreet Boys (this was last year) – Backstreet’s Fat Alright!

    Does Jeannie Becker count? Cuz I was at an event where she was in a silver, blindingly glittery dress, parading around and drunkenly singing Mony Mony and I Got You Babe on the dance floor. (shudder)

    I want to kick the Special K Fag in the nuts if he has any. Please do so on my behalf next time you see him Sharkboy.

  4. Evil Panda

    When I was a waiter, I slung hash at: Donny Osmond (whitest teeth ever), Mel Gibson (short, and had to stop women in the restaurant from harassing him), Julia Roberts (she was nice), and Joan Cusak was a regular of mine.

  5. SplitRail

    The “Friendly Giant” lived up the road from us.
    Well, until he died.
    Now we only have Jeannie Becker, Michael Gross and Elton John’s in-laws in the ‘hood. But Aengus Finnan is definitely our favourite local celeb!

    Split

  6. Pingback: Pages tagged "italian stallion"

  7. furrywolf

    Cool sightings, interactions. My partner liked Mr Dressup as a child.

    June of 83 on my first ever trip out of the country..the french class I was in Europe for 6 weeks we ran into David Bowie and Spandau Ballet performing on a street corner in London as a precursor to an AIDS benefit they were going to participate in during gay Pride. All of them were very polite and nice, but the autograph line was too long. I remember saying a bit too loudly that the lead singer for Spandau Ballet had on way too much makeup and he glowered at me. David Bowie laughed and said he was not as skilled at it as he was. We all laughed.
    My mother and I ran into the UNC basketball coach and demi-god Dean Smith at the Greensoboro Coliseum in 1982 prior to UNC winning the National Championship on his way out to have a smoke. We followed, shook his hand and had a wonderful conversation. When I went for my college application interview the next year, I had sent him a letter that I would be there and he left word for my mother and I to be allowed into the basketball stadium to watch basketball practice and to meet the team that day. VERY COOL.
    After a performance of Annie Get Your Gun in 1999 in the Marquis Theater in NYC, my partner and I met the stars Bernadette Peters and Tom Wopat(Luke Duke)afterwards. I could hardly say anything but did snap a few hot pics of Wopat’s extremely bulging crotch. He more than filled out his black wranglers. Alas, the photos were eaten by a virus on my hard drive two years ago. I remember he was pretty nice, very pleasing on the eyes and a bit short. Someone asked Bernadette why she and Steve Martin broke up and she turned and said Steve who? Guess that was not a happy question.

  8. Lew

    Mr. Dressup? Score! That’s the best of your list.

    I worked on a show in Buenos Aires one time and spent all day walking back and forth past a kinda cute, quiet girl sitting on some backstage steps. I figured she was with catering or something so I didn’t bother chatting her up.

    Turns out she was the “Cindy Crawford” of South America. Who knew? I could be living it up on the Patagonia eating steaks right now if I wasn’t so cool back then!

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