I've lost way too many hours reading the stories on this post. Very nice to see it evolved to having mostly positive stories.
I haven't had too many run-ins with celebrities, but with Atlanta getting more and more movies filmed here, it's become more common.
Was out walking in midtown one day (a couple years ago, now) when I saw a guy walking toward me with a Yankees hat pulled low. As he finally got close enough, I realized it was Jon Hamm (in town for Million Dollar Arm, I think?). My general rule is if a celeb looks like they've got someplace to be, I'll generally just nod or say "hi" with a quick "love your work." Well, Jon Hamm appeared to be heading somewhere so I just did the "love your work." But he stopped! And was so gracious and nice. I was working at an ad agency at the time, so we chatted a bit about that. He declined my offer to come up and see what a current era ad agency looked like.
Ran into Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes, the Walking Dead) the other day at Barnes and Noble, but he was with his kids so we just exchanged the "head nod."
A couple weeks ago, was out in LA with my niece for college orientation at UCSB. As we were checking into Fess Parker's Doubletree Resort, my wife noticed the gentleman checking in ahead of us looked familiar. Then she got all flustered and stammering; apparently John Stamos was a childhood crush of hers. She was too nervous to say anything, so while she was checking in, I wandered over to where he was sitting and struck up a conversation. Nothing fawning, as I had no skin in this game so to speak, but just general chitchat of two dudes sitting in a hotel lobby. Although I did ask if he'd mind taking a pic with my wife. And he kindly said yes. Very, very nice man. And I think I can pretty much leave the toilet seat up for the rest of my marriage.
Also ran into Tim Robbins during the same trip, but he was in the middle of directing a play in the park (Midsummer Night's Dream combined with My Little Pony friendship magic. Was certainly....creative.), so we didn't approach him.
It's been many years now (mid '90s, I think?), but I met James Doohan at a Star Trek store opening meet and greet. Quiet and reserved, but this was towards the end of the day so I imagine he was quite tired by that point. Still, got a great Polaroid (look it up, kids) of he and I that I treasure to this day.
The wife does corporate events so, on occasion, gets to hire celebrities and seems to have mostly positive experiences, as well. She found Snoop Dogg to be one of the nicest performers she's ever hired. He went above and beyond in every interaction and played an extra hour past his scheduled 90 minutes. DJ Jazzy Jeff is also very nice.
Looking forward to meeting Ron Glass at this year's D*C. Beyond that, we'll see who I run into.
