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I met Vince Vaughn in Chicago when he was filming The Breakup. He was really nice, very talkative, welcoming, and seemed to be a personable guy. He was shirtless and just coming from playing basketball, if the fact that he was carrying a basketball was any indication. I chatted with him for about a half hour on the street. People were walking by and when they realized it was him, their head would whip around and they'd say, "Oh my God! That's Vince Vaughn!" You could tell that he really liked it, but he wasn't a jerk about it. He's very tall. He hugged me and I got pit sweat on my cheek.
I'll show you how none of this matters and you can't tell anything about what these people are like at all from these meetings. In the late 80's when I was in high school I had a job working for NBC at Notre Dame stadium during their TV broadcasts. Basically helping set up the miles of cables and everything else. In addition to that on game day I would stay with the sideline reporter during the telecast and assist them. I spent probably 30 entire day's with O.J Simpson. Nicest guy you would ever want to meet. Remembered my name from day one and even though I wouldn't see him for 8 months he would remember all the stuff I had told him about myself and ask how it was going. Even gave me his card and told me to use him as a reference if needed which i never asked him for.
A really good person might just be having a bad week, and somebody who seems like a really good person might 5 years later murder two people and leave his two young children alone 100 feet away with the door open to find their mother like that.
So, as a continuation of the earlier "Meeting Paul McCartney" post I wrote, our band was in London getting signed to EMI Records in 1968 to do an album. We were huge Beatles fans, and EMI asked us if we'd like to take a tour of the studio where we would eventually record our album months later. This is now known as "Abbey Road Studios" but then was simply called "EMI Studios." We arrived and a little old man in a lab coat started walking us down the halls and showing us everything. Suddenly, a large man came out of a doorway and as a Beatles fan I recognized him as Mal Evans, their trusty roadie, and one who had played a recurring bit part in their movie "Help!."
"Mal Evans!" I said. He smiled and nodded and I think he was delighted to be recognized. He tagged along for the tour and we were delighted. When we got into the famous Studio 2, where most Beatles records had been made, we felt like were on hallowed ground. Studio 2 is a large studio, and unlike most studios, has a it's control room upstairs looking down upon the studio. A flight of steps leads up to the control room door. So we are walking through the studio and all of a sudden one of the other band members whispers to me "Hey, that looks like George up there!"....I looked up at the control room window and sure enough it did look like a Beatle looking down at us. "Excuse me, Mal....is that.....George??" I asked.
Mal nods in the affirmative.
"Any chance he would come down?" I asked.
"Oh, he's pretty busy right now..." said Mal.
The tour continued with the little lab man talking about microphones and Mal looking the other way so I figured "What the heck, what can I lose?"
I looked up at the window and made a huge motion with my arm as if to say "COME ON DOWN"....
George immediately turned his back to the window and vanished.
My band member friend (Bob) said..."Oh man why did you do that???"
BUT.....
Then the door to the steps opened.
George Harrison looked down at us and saw my Mother....who was our business manager ( I was 17).....holding a fair sized camera.
"Are you with a magazine?" he asked.
"NO! I said....(knowing George especially disliked the press). "We're just a band that's going to record here and we're taking a tour!"
"Oh" says George. "OK."
And down the steps he came.
My friend Bob looks over at me and under his breath says "My God he's coming down.." lol
George walks up to us and extends his hand ...
"Hi, I'm George...." he says, as if he has to identify himself to the most frightened and ardent Beatles fans in the world.
"Hi, I'm Tom," I said.
He stood there for almost 25 minutes answering endless questions about guitar sounds, while every once in awhile getting a question in to us, like..."Where are you all from?"
He was funny, charming, and wonderful.
When he finally excused himself to go "back to work" upstairs, I looked over at Mal and he gave me a look as if to say...."Hey I'm glad for you."
Later we would meet all of them at various times as we recorded our album, as they were busy recording their final studio album simply entitled "Abbey Road." We saw them daily but never got used to it.
But that day meeting George?
As a Beatles fan and guitarist, it was the thrill of a lifetime.
I've never liked Matt Lauer.....
An acquauntance of mine actually had the displeasure of meeting Matt Lauer in person.
He was bartending at an exclusive place-
Matt Lauer & his wife were extremely rude, arrogant & acted entitled.
They even insisted the place stay open just for them.....
And after all the pampering they got-
They didn't tip.
I'm interested in hearing about real-life conversations that you've had with famous, or quasi-famous, or influential/powerful "behind-the-scenes" people. By "quasi-famous" I mean people who might not be very famous to the general public, but who are well-known within a particular realm of life, e.g., well-published scientists, authors of all sorts, philosophers, etc.
I'm especially interested in how you felt when you met them, and how they seemed to you. Even the smallest details you can remember would be helpful.
My own example: Several years ago I met Kate Mulgrew (Capt. Janeway on Voyager who is now "Red" in Orange is the New Black). She was shorter than I expected (maybe 5'4"?), petit. She had just done a "one-woman show" stage performance in Youngstown, Ohio (her husband ran for a Senate seat in Ohio) where she played the part of Catharine Hepburn. (Of course people are constantly comparing her to Hepburn, so I think that's how this show came about.) Through certain connections, I had an invitation to a party after the show. I hung back for about a half hour while she chatted with a variety of people and I built up the courage to introduce myself. After a couple of mundane pleasantries, I said something sorta sappy about how much I enjoyed her role in Star Trek. I'm not sure what I said that was different that the usual sorts of things that I presume other people say, but somehow my comment hit the spot for her. Or maybe I was just making big puppy-dog eyes...I don't know...but she said "Oh, that's so sweet!" and gave me a hug. She had not been giving hugs to many others, so I felt kinda special. Anyway, my overall impression of her was certainly warm and friendly. I wish I could remember what shirt I was wearing that night. I could probably sell it on ebay.
I've never liked Matt Lauer.....
An acquauntance of mine actually had the displeasure of meeting Matt Lauer in person.
He was bartending at an exclusive place-
Matt Lauer & his wife were extremely rude, arrogant & acted entitled.
They even insisted the place stay open just for them.....
And after all the pampering they got-
They didn't tip.
I don't like even looking at him. I can get that he's rude and arrogant. It's how he comes off on TV and I don't watch Today because of him.
I worked in a hospital in Greene County, NY in the early 80's and we had a patient who had been a limo driver for the Beatles. I think when they were in NYC?? Can't recall. He had a foreign accent himself. Was a great guy. He used to draw the nurses taking care of him--penciled drawings of us, and kinda funny. I had one some where. Funny the things you remember.
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Celebrities you've actually met
