A colleague of mine told me today she was a huge Elvis fan and saw him in person in the early 1950's at the Paramount Theater here in Atlanta. I love stories like that. I have a friend who is a professional actor (Jeff Joslin) and he has some great stories about working with celebs like Tyler Perry and others.
What I have found, generally, is that most celebrities are nice and friendly to fans. I've read that the bigger the celebrity the nicer they are, if approached in public.
I interviewed a celebrity who was on a sitcom many years ago in Knoxville, when he was in town doing a charity event. He was not nice. I was a cute little 18 year old girl and at nearly 5'4 I was taller than him, which might have had something to do with it.. I had convinced my editor to let me do the interview (this guy was not a big star at all) and wrote up a nice piece about the actor, but wow was he a jerk. I could never figure out why. His agent, who barely spoke English, mailed me a press package and addressed it to Dee Fahnsen. That was after I had spelled "Thompson" into the phone about four times.
I have only had a few other instances of being close to a celeb, in my life:
1) I saw boxer Evander Holyfield at Houston's in Buckhead in the late 90's. He was pure muscle. I followed him from the restroom back to his table and then veered off before he could call the cops and have me arrested for stalking.I was fascinated to see someone whose body appeared to be carved out of stone. Wow. I kinda understand why Evander has 11 children.
2) Many years ago I worked at the daily newspaper in Knoxville and Dick Van Dyke was in town in a touring production of Damn Yankees. I got to tag along for the interview and meet him -- they wouldn't let me do the interview as I was only 17. He was incredibly friendly and genuine, and incredibly skinny.
3) in 1983 I was in New York visiting a friend and I snagged tickets to a preview of Death of a Salesman. I was 3rd row center, no more than 8 feet from Dustin Hoffman for much of the show. Incredible performance.
4) I ran into an actor named David Keith [he is best known for An Officer and a Gentleman] in a video store in Knoxville back in the mid 80's, and he was buying copies of every James Bond movie in the store. I introduced myself and we chatted a few minutes. We knew some of the same people from his time doing theater at UT. He was incredibly nice.
5) I saw Burt Reynolds and Dinah Shore at a UT football game in the early 1970's. Spent more time looking at them than the game, which irritated my dad. LOL
6) I sang in the Knoxville Opera Chorus after college, for a few productions, and one of them was Faust. Jerome Hines was the star, and a super nice man. We sat and chatted backstage and he remembered going out with my parents in Augusta many years before, a big thrill for my mom who was an opera fan and on the opera guild board. (She could have sung opera but chose to get married instead.) I like opera but only to sing, not to sit and watch. I did a production where Roberta Peters was the star and she was a teetotal diva.
As my grandfather used to say, they put on their pants one leg at a time, just like I do. He was a major league baseball player and had met quite a few celebs. They never impressed him.
I like to think of them as regular people with strange jobs. It helps me to not deify or vilify them.
