Celebrity Sightings

[AdamSmith]

Alan Dershowitz au naturel on the clothing-optional beach at Chilmark, Martha's Vineyard.

[uwsman2]

About ten years ago when I was president of my co-op apartment building board, we interviewed Al Pacino for a sublet. He was excellent at playing the role of an applicant for a sublet - without a script. We approved him and I ran into him in the elevator several times over the following year. He was sweet, charming, and incredibly short!

[nate_sf]

(in order of appearance)

 

Belinda Carlisle filming a video on the Santa Monica Pier, late 80s.

 

Princess Diana and the young princes shopping for Christmas gifts at Harrods, 1991. I was working there at the time on an exchange visa, and staff was told in advance they might be walking through. When they came through the whole department fell silent (staff and customers alike) - it was like all the air had been sucked out by a vacuum. She was gorgeous!

 

James Brown in the Vancouver BC airport making his way through security, and then on the UAL flight to SFO, about 10 years ago.

 

David Lynch in the elevator across from me at the Eugene OR Hilton, about 10 years ago. Apparently he was in town giving a talk at the university.

[+ purplekow]

At a local gym here in Jersey, near closing time, two of us there, me and Bruce Springsteen. Admittedly Bruce sightings in NJ are hardly rare.

Cher and Diana Ross running down an alley from back stage to a shared limo after seeing Jekyll and Hyde. Though the two of them together barely weigh as much as my breakfast cereal, they nearly knocked me down scurrying into the car.

At a local Jersey Steak Restaurant with my mother seated at the next table was Geraldo Rivera. When I mentioned it to my mother, who was legally blind, she kept asking as she spun her head around whether she was looking at him or not. It is a very small restaurant and was not very crowded. On the way, Geraldo stopped by and briefly said hello. I do not know if he was usually that interactive with the public, but it was very nice and made my mother very happy.

At a party in Venice California, met and had a nice conversation with a young woman who mentioned that she just made a movie in which Aliens burst out of peoples abdomen. I told her that the movie would probably not do much for her career as an actress. Alien was soon one of the biggest hits of the year. I wonder if Signourey Weaver ever thinks of that conversation and says "Waht a Putz"

Lots of others in and around NYC.

 

By the way, Prince Charles at Hamlet and laughing, hmmm must be lots of laughs over at Buckingham Palace.

[rvwnsd]

• Roseanne Arnold (as she was called at the time), Maria Shriver, and Jamie Lee Curtis in Georgetown during the filming of True Lies. Roseanne and Jamie Lee were very friendly with the crowd. Maria, not so much.
  
• Oprah Winfrey (she still had a last name back then) at the bank for which I worked during college.
  
• Former Chicago mayor Jane Byrne many years after she lost the race for a second term. Waiting for a light to change, I recognized her, said hello, and mentioned that I had met her 10 years prior when she was mayor after the sanitation chief in my childhood neighborhood told her that all of the streets had been plowed after a major snowstorm. (She was elected due the her opponent's failed attempt at clearing streets during the blizzard of 1979. The opponent was the sitting mayor. Unlike in New York, Chicagoans oust mayors who can't handle snow, but I digress). In fact, only a few residential streets had been plowed, mine not being one of them. She told me she remembered and I thought "yeah, right." She then went on to recount how she walked the neighborhood, saw the impassible street, was jumping up and down screaming at the sanitation chief and how the big snow blowers from O'Hare airport were summoned to plow the several foot high drifts that had accumulated. That was exactly what had happened. When we were parting ways, she thanked me for recognizing her and for chatting and said "I had that man fired immediately. No one lied to Jane, particularly about snow removal. Your streets were plowed after every subsequent storm, weren't they?" Indeed, without fail they were.
  

[Boink]

I've been lucky enough to cross paths with some long-standing crushes I have of the hunk variety.

- Dan Cortese. Years ago on the Third Street Promenade when he still had long hair. And then again a few years later I sat right behind him and his (now ex) wife on a plane to Pittsburgh - in coach.

- Michael Bergin, gorgeous Baywatch stud, in the lobby of an office building that had some kind of casting office in it.

- Matt Batagglia, one of Phoebe's two hunk boyfriends in a classic episode of Friends. He was in a FedEx Kinko's making large copies of some blueprints.

- Matthew McCounehey - at LAX soon after 9/11. He was waiting for a plane in the boarding area along with the common folk. He had a hat on and I don't think many people recognized him. But I did.

[+ Charlie]

Reverse sighting: engaged in spirited repartee with my dinner companions at a Manhattan restaurant, I glanced over at the next table, and found Andy Warhol staring at ME.

[+ azdr0710]

• 
   
  
• Former Chicago mayor Jane Byrne many years after she lost the race for a second term. Waiting for a light to change, I recognized her, said hello, and mentioned that I had met her 10 years prior when she was mayor after the sanitation chief in my childhood neighborhood told her that all of the streets had been plowed after a major snowstorm. (She was elected due the her opponent's failed attempt at clearing streets during the blizzard of 1979. The opponent was the sitting mayor. Unlike in New York, Chicagoans oust mayors who can't handle snow, but I digress). In fact, only a few residential streets had been plowed, mine not being one of them. She told me she remembered and I thought "yeah, right." She then went on to recount how she walked the neighborhood, saw the impassible street, was jumping up and down screaming at the sanitation chief and how the big snow blowers from O'Hare airport were summoned to plow the several foot high drifts that had accumulated. That was exactly what had happened. When we were parting ways, she thanked me for recognizing her and for chatting and said "I had that man fired immediately. No one lied to Jane, particularly about snow removal. Your streets were plowed after every subsequent storm, weren't they?" Indeed, without fail they were.
  

 

 

wow, you talked about all that while waiting for the light to change?.....rather than snow removal, now I wonder if the Chicago stoplight cycle duration might be the test that brings down Emanuel??!!

[rvwnsd]

wow, you talked about all that while waiting for the light to change?.....rather than snow removal, now I wonder if the Chicago stoplight cycle duration might be the test that brings down Emanuel??!!

 

Hahahahaha, I think the light had changed several times by the time we parted ways. That said, the city has snow removal down pat. I was back there during the blizzard in 2011 that dropped a couple of feet of snow in a 24 hour period. Streets were passable the next day. Now Rahmbo needs to work on public transit, crime, so-called food deserts, parking...

[+ Charlie]

This thread is stirring memories in an old man. Seeing Pearl Buck leaving her townhouse in Philadelphia. Waiting to cross the street as a black limousine carrying Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson glides by on its way to the airport. Looking down from a friend's balcony as Elizabeth II makes a royal procession on foot through the street below during her Silver Jubilee.

 

In the late 1960s, I used to work out at the McBurney Y on 23rd St, across the street from the Chelsea Hotel. During my many forays through the block, I sometimes saw a tall, skinny young man, with a strikingly sensual face and wild hair, walking down the street, and I spotted him a couple of times in Riss's, a cheap diner that I frequented around the corner on 8th Ave. Years later he became famous as Robert Mapplethorpe. Patti Smith may have been with him, but I didn't pay as much attention to young women.

[bigvalboy]

This thread is stirring memories in an old man. Seeing Pearl Buck leaving her townhouse in Philadelphia. Waiting to cross the street as a black limousine carrying Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson glides by on its way to the airport. Looking down from a friend's balcony as Elizabeth II makes a royal procession on foot through the street below during her Silver Jubilee.

 

In the late 1960s, I used to work out at the McBurney Y on 23rd St, across the street from the Chelsea Hotel. During my many forays through the block, I sometimes saw a tall, skinny young man, with a strikingly sensual face and wild hair, walking down the street, and I spotted him a couple of times in Riss's, a cheap diner that I frequented around the corner on 8th Ave. Years later he became famous as Robert Mapplethorpe. Patti Smith may have been with him, but I didn't pay as much attention to young women.

Wonderful post.....A delightful visual vignette.

[EZEtoGRU]

In the late 1960s, I used to work out at the McBurney Y on 23rd St, across the street from the Chelsea Hotel. During my many forays through the block, I sometimes saw a tall, skinny young man, with a strikingly sensual face and wild hair, walking down the street, and I spotted him a couple of times in Riss's, a cheap diner that I frequented around the corner on 8th Ave. Years later he became famous as Robert Mapplethorpe. Patti Smith may have been with him, but I didn't pay as much attention to young women.

 

Charlie if you haven't already done so, read Patti Smith's book 'Just Kids' which details her early years with Mapplethorpe. Lots of references to their early life together and the time they lived at the Chelsea. A facinating read.

[+ Charlie]

I did read "Just Kids," and it, too, brought back plenty of memories.

[+ WilliamM]

Waiting to cross the street as a black limousine carrying Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson glides by on its way to the airport.

 

In the late 1960s, I used to work out at the McBurney Y on 23rd St, across the street from the Chelsea Hotel. During my many forays through the block, I sometimes saw a tall, skinny young man, with a strikingly sensual face and wild hair, walking down the street, and I spotted him a couple of times in Riss's, a cheap diner that I frequented around the corner on 8th Ave. Years later he became famous as Robert Mapplethorpe. Patti Smith may have been with him, but I didn't pay as much attention to young women.

 

Timely post given that Johnson's first State of the Union address on January 8, 1964 (50th anniversary of War on Poverty speech) has been in the news so much this week. I doubt that Johnson and Mapplethorpe would have gotten along. But, Lady Bird and Patti Smith might well have liked each other.

[EZEtoGRU]

I did read "Just Kids," and it, too, brought back plenty of memories.

 

For me also.....although mine were in the later Detroit portion. I worked in Downtown Detroit in the Mortgage Department of a bank. Patti Smith had already moved from New York to Detroit to be with Fred Sonic Smith. They lived in a hotel downtown called the Book Cadillac (now the Westin Book Cadillac). Her bank account was at our bank and she was a regular visitor. I finally got to see her there and spoke with her about her music. I love remembering those moments that can never be repeated.

[+ LS299B]

Loved seeing Patti LaBelle last summer at Philadelphia airport in the United Lounge on Concourse D. . . . with her whole retinue of luggage and hat box carriers! She still had to check in like everyone else, and then walked back to a private conference room. The woman has presence!

[Irtwo]

I also saw the hunky Dan Cortese many years back, and Boink's mention of him made me want to look up what's become of him. And wow, he sure has aged well..... here he is at 46.

 

http://cdn02.cdn.socialitelife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/24/dan-cortese-shirtless-hot-cleveland-01242012-05-580x435.jpg

[foxy]

I went to Pratt with Robert Mapplethorpe. One afternoon sitting with a friend on the subway going back to Queens he approached us and tried to start a conversation. We basically ignored him. Not only were we rude but also stupid. I'm still kicking myself.

[unsub2O17]

I grew up in Las Vegas and saw lots of celebrities when they'd eat in the hotel's restaurant before the dinner show (from the Rat Pack to Lena Horne to Lucille Ball to Burt Lancanster and Jane Russell). Accidental sightings include John Malkovich coming out of a bookstore in London, Neal Armstrong in the lobby of the Beverly Hilton (just after the moon walk), and Dick Powell cruising down Sunset Blvd. in his De Soto convertible!

[EZEtoGRU]

Larry David today on a flight from MIA to LAX. He was in the row behind me and slept most of the flight. I loved his show Curb Your Enthusiasm.....and, of course, Seinfeld is a classic series.

[+ Chris Eisenhower]

I have to admit this thread is fun to read. My first question when meeting anyone from LA is pretty much always: "have you seen anyone famous?"

[Frankly Rich]

My experience is that there are a lot more celebs to be seen in New York than LA. Perhaps because of the geographic concentration putting them all in a small area.

But I've seen many there, off the stage, which I find more exciting than seeing them in the theater. So many though. I should write it all down sometime. I do remember Kevin Bacon at a red light, standing next to me. He saw that I recognized him and gave me this dirty stare telling me not to say anything. Most are more gracious.

[Samai139]

My first celebrity sighting was Kate Smith in Saranac Lake, NY, where I had a summer waiter job--for the young-uns on this forum, she was a very famous singer way back in the '40s and 50's---she was NOT particularly friendly to the wait staff .

Ralph Bellamy was a patient at a TB sanitarium near Lake Placid (Will Rogers) and he came in to our restaurant several times that summer of 1960.

Can't remember the tv show he was one, but he was pretty well known back then.

During Peace Corps training at UCLA, Geralding Paige lived in the same motel where we trainees were housed---very very nice woman, I had never heard of her before someone told me about her--this was 1962.

Sargeant Shriver came to our training and and spoke to us and chatted with many of us individually--remarkable sincere and engaging.

Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense for JFK, in Lagos, Nigeria, when he came to visit his daughter who was doing a six week volunteer stint there---he was very pre-occupied but I had several long conversations with her.

Two summers ago--Tilda Swinton at P'town FIlm Festival---very friendly and gracious to all---maybe three summers ago??

Same summer---Anne Curry shopping with her daughter in downtown P'town.

[monopolizer]

Rob Lowe at a Police concert in the 1980s at Hollywood Park. He looked so amazing and I kept walking over near where he was standing just to get a look at him. Also playing were Thompson Twins, The Fixx and Berlin.

 

Jack LaLane at the movie theaters at the Beverly Center also in the 80s.

[thickornotatall]

Living in NYC tends to numb me as far as celebrity sightings...always someone...sometime...everyday...no place like New York...The most incredible place in the world...

 

Diana Ross in hair curlers covered by a scarf waiting for the light to change on 5th/57th Sts....She sang STOP!! In The Name Of Love for me as we crossed the street...funny!!

Paul Lynde and Mimi Hines shared a water taxi going from Cherry Grove To The Pines...Mr Lynde wa so drunk he fell out of the boat at the shore amd later had a bowl of chili dumped on his head at The Blue Whale....Mimi Hines was very sweet....

Phyllis Hyman singing on the beach at Cherry Grove

Morgana King using grocery bags to haul her clothes out of rental home..her check bounced...bounced...bouced...

Patti LaBelle/Nona Hendrix singing Happy Birthday to me! at our apartment on CPW...along with Brenda Waty a superb backup singer

Carol Douglass...(Midnight Love Affair) I did her hair for the cover of her album...

Betty Davis...I washed her hair at Henri Bendel when I wa a assistant (she was almost bald)

Jeffrey Holder...he carried me across the street at Bergdorf Goodman when I fell on the ice....a very big man...