Originally Posted By 999HAUNTS Saturday night I had to go pick my dad up from the airport. He was arriving from London. The flight was delayed, but only by about an hour. We got coffee, and found a spot on the railing where you can view the passengers arriving. I almost dropped my coffee....coming right up the ramp was Quentin Tatantino!! He was on the same flight as my dad. I ALWAYS ask for autographs when I see famous people (that's just how I am) - but this time I froze and just stared at him and watched him exit the arrival gate. Duh!! Piratebrittany just looked at me and laughed....she knew mom had blown her one time opp to meet her favorite movie maker.
Originally Posted By 999HAUNTS Many years ago I was flying to Las Vegas for my birthday. I saw Hank Azaria waiting for the same flight, and we had a very brief but pleasant conversation. He was a really nice person. He was married to Helen Hunt at the time. I flew to Vegas, had a great time, and was waiting at the airport to fly home. Believe it or not, there was Mr. Azaria again, but this time he was with Helen Hunt and some of her family members. (This was the year that she had just won an oscar for As Good As It Gets). I asked her if I could take a picture with her, but she was really mean to me, and yelled at me and called me names. I won't go into to details as to what was said because it was very, very hurtful, but all I know is that Hank told her to take it easy and told her that he had talked to me earlier and that I was cool...not a crazed fan. She then calmed down and told me that I could take a quick picture, but I told her to kiss a certain part of my body and I walked away. This made me curious as to if anyone else has seen a celebrity at an airport. How did you react? What was said? Did you get a picture or an autograph?
Originally Posted By DVC_dad A good friend of mine is a Captain for Delta. He sees and meets all kinds of interesting people. Most noteworthy in my opinion is John Smoltz.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper My wife literally ran into Jim Brown (Cleveland Brown's football) as she was boarding a plane in Ft. Lauderdale. She had her arms full with the kids and their accompanying stuff but he was very nice to her. I flew on a plane from LA to Hawaii when I was a kid (in the Boy Scouts) and Tom Selleck was on the plane and talked with our group for a few minutes (that was back in the Magnum days). I ran into the entire Atlanta Hawks basketball team in Ft Lauderdale (Spud Webb, Dominique Wilkins) and most of them were buying porn magazines at the gift shop. I saw Stone Cold Steve Ausin riding the elevator in the Atlanta airport. I'm not one to go up and get autographs in that kind of environment. Traveling as a celebrity must suck enough without me bothering them as well.
Originally Posted By Lisann22 Being I travel a ton for business I've seen a lot of celebrities. I do not ask for autographs, not really my thing but if I'm sitting next to them and they want to talk I will. I generally just respect their privacy as I once dated long term a professional athlete so I know the life. Tom Cruise & Nicole Kidman: "Tom" and I were both shopping for books, he struck up the conversation. Then I ended up sitting across the aisle from them in first class and he introduced me to Nicole. They were both VERY nice. It was a LONG time ago. Jerry Garcia, Clarence "Big Man" Clemons and Richard Dean Anderson(MacGyver: Flight from Chicago to San Francisco. Didn't talk to Jerry but I did talk with Clemons (very nice guy)for a long time and exchanged pleasantries with Anderson. Dennis Rodman: Sat next to him on a flght from LA to San Francisco. I actually had met him before at a function so we played catch up and then he fell asleep. LOL Diane Feinstein, Barbara Boxer and Willie Brown: I flew home from Chicago the weekend of the Democratic National Convention and they were all on my flight. I sat next to Feinstein and in front of Boxer and Brown. Interesting to listen to their conversations. They were all extremely nice! Kevin Pollack: Arrogant short little creep. Ugh! That's all I'm going to say. Golden State Warriors: Back in the late 80's. Nice guys. Gary Bettenhausen: Race car driver, that was a thrill as he was one of my dad's favorites. He was a wonderful gentleman and we talked the entire flight from Atlanta and Oakland about racing. Those are a few off the top of my head. I'm sure I'll remember more. Oh Joe and Jennifer Montana on a flight from Oakland to Phoenix. She was a jabberjaws, he was really quiet but pleasant.
Originally Posted By Ursula I remember one flight from Vegas to L.A. That chick Delia-something from that Touched by an Angel show was to be on our flight. She needed to be touched by a baseball bat. She was rude to the crew members and was a total snot. She was very upset that the plane didn't have first class for her to sit in, so she made everyone else miserable about it. I will ask for autographs. I can't in my line of work, so if I see someone (out of the office, of course) and the moment is right, I would compliment them on their body of work and decide from there if it is appropriate to ask.
Originally Posted By Big Thunder I too travel a lot for business and have bumped into many celebrities in airports and have flown on same plane's as some celebrities. I'm not one to ask for autographs. I have a tendency to downplay it if I see celbrities in public. [a separate story about that later] I think I've encountered more famous pro athletes than I have entertainment stars in airports and on flights. I'll share a couple... My favorite encounter at an airport, and probably the only time that I was starstruck and in awe. It was 1987, we'd just gotten married, Mrs Thunder and I were in the international terminal of LAX taking off for our honeymoon. While in line, I notice a crowd forming around somebody and people taking pictures. My first thought was "oh no Mrs Thunder is gunna get weird and rush the crowd" because she LUVS meeting celebrities. I asked who the person was and she said it was a Spanish movie star, but she didn't have much interest in him personally. As I watched the crowd get bigger and more frenzy was building around him, I saw group of guys in suits standing nearby, I said to my bride, "hey that sorta looks like BB King and his band" then I realized... hey it *IS* BB King, I had never approached celebs prior to that and I found it hard to admit that I was excited, my wife said "go on over and ask if we can take a picture" at first I didn't want to, but then I did anyway. Being a big blues fan, I was psyched. BB gave me a guitar lapel pin and a guitar pick. They graciously posed for photos with us. It was obvious in the pictures that I was totally excited. Which is funny to people who know me because I usually downplay celebrity sightings. George Lopez. I've talked with George Lopez before but not in an airport. Friends of ours used to perform the same circuit as him before George made it real big. This celebrity encounter was strange though because he had since reached big star status, he had his ABC TV show, I considered him well known at the time. He was standing next to me in line at McDonald's in LAX terminal 1. He was by himself, I recognized him and figured any minute fans would begin approaching asking for autographs etc. However nobody did. I thought it was odd, I usually notice celebrities because *other* people notice them, but nobody did. I didn't approach him either. Then later he came and sat next to me in the terminal, I couldn't resist now, I felt bad that a celebrity was in the house and nobody gave him any attention. So I said "hi" acknowledged that he was funny man George Lopez, brought up some of the less than famous comedians that he used to perform with on the Latino comedy circuit, he chit chatted about them, praised some of them, etc. It was all very normal, and the whole time nobody else ever recognized him. I wondered if he preferred it that way. Again, I've seen many other celebrities and well knowns in airports and on planes, but I usually don't approach them.
Originally Posted By Big Thunder OK here's my separate story about celebrity sightings. My wife loves meeting celebrities. When we were dating I used to get embarrassed because back then she had no problem showing her enthusiasm when she'd see a celeb in public. Once at the Hollywood Christmas parade a cop said to us "I'm only going to tell you this one last time, if she runs out into the street one more time you will be removed." She, along with other fans were going out to the movie/TV stars as they drove by in the back of convertibles along Hollywood Blvd. This was typical stuff of Mrs Thunder. One Saturday we went to lunch at the Boulangerie in Venice CA. As we were being seated, my GF [now Mrs Thunder] spots actor Abe Vigoda having lunch with people two booths away from were we were sitting. I, being be one who gets embarrassed by Mrs Thunder's giddiness for celebs, immediately went into defense mode. Mrs Thunder said "hey isn't that that guy who played "Fish" on TV show Barney Miller?" I knew that it was him, but not wanting her to interrupt his meal and make scene said "no way, that's not the guy who was in the Godfather or Barney Miller, that guy's dead!" She was puzzled and replied "are you sure that actors dead?" I said, "yes I'm surprised that you of all people wouldn't know that since you read all the magazines... what happened was that he was jogging along Malibu and he had a heart attack" Mrs Thunder replied "hmmm yes I think I do remember something about that" I expounded... "yes but that's not what killed him, apparently what happened was his driver used to follow him in his car while he ran, and this day he was talking to his girlfriend on a mobile phone [not popular back then] not paying attention when Fish fell from the heart attack... the driver ran him over." Upon hearing that, Mrs Thunder seemed sceptical. I insisted that I couldn't make something like that up, and she bought into saying "that's right, I do remember something like that" Relieved that we were going to avoid a scene I said "yes so just drop it, quit staring and let's enjoy our lunch." Mrs Thunder was still unsure and kept staring anyway and commented that the guy sure looked a LOT like the actor, but I would defused it and beg her to ignore it. Then, Abe Vigoda and his party got up to leave. As he walked past our booth Mrs Thunder was staring intently, I was now nervous that she would say something to him. He looked directly at my date, smiling he shook her hand and gave her an autographed note he'd written, and said "Hi, my name is Abe Vigoda, I was known as Fish on Barney Miller" He then turned to me as if to shake my hand, but immediately retracted his hand, his smile turned to a frown and he said "I may not look it but I am very much alive thank you." I was totally busted, I was red faced as they all laughed at me. He'd heard my whopper of a story. The worst part was that Mrs Thunder had the last word and got to through it in my face.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper Willard Scott from the Today Show got my table at a nice restaurant on Sanibel Island a few weeks ago. We had to wait at the bar until another table became available. I'm not bitter.
Originally Posted By SuzieQ Hmm... I ran into Destiny's Child at the airport in Seattle. Beyonce was very nice. Great with the fans who were waiting in the airport.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 Like Lisann, I used to travel at a rate beyond what I am willing to do today for my job. I spent 4 years as a corporate auditor when I was much younger - where you live on the road - and at that time my company spent willingly for nice accomodations -- to keep it short - ( I also rarely if ever seek autographs - unless it is someone for my kids ) - nicest person - Roger Ebert - sat next to flying to New York - started conversation by telling him I had him for a class in film appreciation in 1972 @ U of Ill - Chicago - and from there we had a blast !
Originally Posted By beamerdog I've met celebs, but only one at an airport. I met Pat Burrell (Phillies much aligned left fielder) in Tampa. He was buying a bottle of water while I was getting a bowl of Mint Chocolate Chip. I smiled and said hi, and he sat down with me (and DH although I'd like to forget he was part of the experience, lol) and chatted and was really sweet. Made me want to pretend maybe we were on a date ;-) After he left, one of the women at the next table swooned and said, Wow, what a hunk. Who the heck cares if he turned out to be a fairly average baseball player.
Originally Posted By essbeeboyd We had the a whole bunch of WWE wrestlers on our flight from Sacramento to LA in October. In fact the Undertaker was sitting right in front of me. My husband had to tell me who they were so I would relax, because they were kind of scary looking. They turned out to be really nice people though. No we didn't ask for autographs.
Originally Posted By dsnykid i spent an entire flight from LA to Edmonton sitting on the lap of an Edmonton Oiler(Glen Anderson) and my brother sat on Mark Messier's lap because they were so impressed that a 8 and 10 year old recognized them. They took us up to meet the whole Oilers team, except Wayne Gretzky, who was sleeping. In customs after we landed Mark Messier brought Gretzky over and he thanked us for not waking him up and gave us his autograph. That was in 1983, a huge year for the Oilers and I still remember every detail. Another time we saw Hulk Hogan and Rowdy Roddy Piper in LAX sharing baby pictures of their kids - that's when my dad told us wrestling was fake.
Originally Posted By RangerPooh A few years back while we were checking in at the ticket counter at the Seattle airport we saw Maroon 5. They were checking in at the podium next to us (I noticed all of their gear stenciled with their name). However I wasn't completely sure if it was actually them until I saw them surrounded by a group of people a little while later.
Originally Posted By ilvdland <<George Lopez. I've talked with George Lopez before but not in an airport. Friends of ours used to perform the same circuit as him before George made it real big. This celebrity encounter was strange though because he had since reached big star status, he had his ABC TV show, I considered him well known at the time. He was standing next to me in line at McDonald's in LAX terminal 1. He was by himself, I recognized him and figured any minute fans would begin approaching asking for autographs etc. However nobody did. I thought it was odd, I usually notice celebrities because *other* people notice them, but nobody did. I didn't approach him either. Then later he came and sat next to me in the terminal, I couldn't resist now, I felt bad that a celebrity was in the house and nobody gave him any attention. So I said "hi" acknowledged that he was funny man George Lopez, brought up some of the less than famous comedians that he used to perform with on the Latino comedy circuit, he chit chatted about them, praised some of them, etc. It was all very normal, and the whole time nobody else ever recognized him. I wondered if he preferred it that way.>> <----JEALOUS!!!!!!!
