Anyone here met Axl Rose ? I want to hear about that.

John Landis stopped by my friend's booth at a local horror convention, then flirted briefly with said friend's girlfriend before moving on to browse the rest of the merch room. I was behind said booth drinking Jager at the time.

Not much of anything, but hey.

Giovanni Ribisi came into my record store today. one of the managers kind of barked at him without knowing who he was. He'd asked for a certain Criterion Collection DVD, and the he was given a brisk "whatever we have, we have" response. classic.

I met Don Rickles...the hard way...

slowriot wrote:Giovanni Ribisi came into my record store today. one of the managers kind of barked at him without knowing who he was. He'd asked for a certain Criterion Collection DVD, and the he was given a brisk "whatever we have, we have" response. classic.

He played a friend of mine in a movie, and got said friend's sad, hangdog look down pat.

He seems like one of those guys that kind of blends into his surroundings. A stealth celebrity, maybe. An actor like, say, Matt Damon you could instantly spot in a crowd, but Ribisi looks like he couldn't get recognized if he wore a clown suit.

burun wrote:Ribisi looks like he couldn't get recognized if he wore a clown suit.

And, in fact, I would not have recognized him had another employee not come up to me and told me he was in the store.

Conversely, I recognized Devendra Banhart a few weeks ago...but then again his stench was overwhelming.

Standing in line for autographs from Jim Leyland, who was the manager of the Pirates at the time and would later go on to win a World Series with the Marlins and an AL pennant with the Tigers, after a charity b-ball game between some Pirates and some local figures in my town; I was the first in line and he grabs me and goes, "alright everybody behind this guy right here!" He was smoking a big ol' stogie.

Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam, during a backstage meet & greet with his side project Brad; he was also smoking a big ol' stogie.

Richard Simmons did an assembly at my high school and I was within five feet of him at one point. He was smoking a big ol' pole.

(This thread seems to be more about chance encounters rather than arranged situations like the above; I don't really have any of those.)

I have been in the home of Rick & Rose from Poster Children on two occasions.

I am on a message board with Steve Albini.

"Celebrity"

Come on people! The members of AIDS Wolf and Thurston Moore do not count. We're talking James Brown here. Muhammed Ali. Pele. Al Pacino. Daniel Robert Chapman.

My adopted cousin is a political celebrity of some sort. She never held any major office but she somehow made it onto the Times 100 list a while ago. I remember, this was in a time when there was political upheaval in this country and shootings and everything, having christmas dinner at my mother's tiny house and there being two security dudes in the room, one at the door. I kept offering them wine just to fuck with them.

I met Sylvia Kristel once. Didn't like her.

I did peyote once with a Dutch soap actress that no one here will know.

I also met a bunch of writers when I was working in a bookshop. Michel Houellebecq is probably the biggest of the bunch. A strange guy that you instantly feel sorry without knowing exactly why. Kind of wore loneliness on his sleeve. I got him to sign a book of poetry.

I met Guillermo de Toro many years ago. It was right after he made Mimic. He was a pleasant guy.

I met Sean Connery outside the Hardback (old club here) in 1996 I believe. He was filming "Just Cause" in town. He had a ponytail.

I am pretty sure most people in Gainesville have met Joaquin Phoenix.


Jon