Recently, someone on Twitter said it was a good time, now more than ever, to Tweet about our random celebrity encounters. I love a good random celebrity encounter, so I couldn’t agree more! After choosing which one to tweet about, I thought I could probably write an entire blog post about them.
I’m not talking about the ones I’ve had while working, but the everyday life ones. The ones where we stood in line at the mall to meet our favorite teen pop star, 90210 star, or in my case, my favorite soap star – Genie Francis. One half of General Hospital’s Luke and Laura, the greatest duo to come out of soapdom in the history of soap operas.
In the early to mid-80’s they were it. If you’re not familiar, just Google it. Their TV wedding in November 1981 had 30 million viewers and to this day is the highest rated daytime hour on television.
I was in 7thgrade and she was going to be giving out autographs and talking about being Laura at the Northglenn Mall in the suburbs of Denver. The mall was about 20 minutes from my house. Even though I had a babysitting job that evening and I knew I wouldn’t make it back on time, I still went. I went because I used 7thgrade math to convince myself I would make it back on time.
It’s kind of like when a pair of shoes you loved didn’t fit you at all, but you convinced your mom they fit fine. Then you had to actually wear the shoes to school all day and it was excruciating. Me being late to my babysitting job was also excruciating.
Because I was late, the woman I was babysitting for was late to where ever she needed to be and the McDonald’s she picked up for dinner before coming to get me was cold. My dad was so pissed at me and I felt so guilty for what I did, I never did anything like that again. I mean, until I was an adult and then I just called in sick to work.
Luckily for me, as I got older and moved to more exciting cities, my random celebrity encounters improved. Side note, ten years later, while working in Beverly Hills I saw Genie Francis again at a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf with some friends who were visiting. I didn’t speak to her, but my friend did because he was a super fan and totally on board for the greatness that was Luke and Laura.
I’m Batman
Let’s talk George Clooney. For some reason I’ve had several encounters with him, most of them random, all at different times in his career. The first time I saw him was in the mid-90’s in Las Vegas at the Hard Rock Hotel grand opening. My roommate worked there, so while most people didn’t know it was open to the public, I did. The only way to describe that weekend was like being at a celebrity party, only you’re not sure how you ended up there.
They were everywhere including George Clooney, and it was right when ER started. It wasn’t even that big of a hit yet. He was very cool and he let my friend Ashley take a photo with him after we stalked him all night. But we don’t have the photo because that’s a different story.
The next time I saw him was in the late 90’s when I lived in L.A. My friends and I were at the Farmer’s Market getting breakfast on a Sunday morning. George and his buddy Grant Heslov were in line in front of us waiting to order pancakes. At this point in his career, he was Batman.
So, my friend John busted out with “I’m Batman” in his best, deep, gravely, Batman voice. Grant and George both slowly turned around and looked at all of us like we were fucking idiots. I wanted to tell him about the time he was so nice at the Hard Rock Hotel opening, but I just smiled instead.
About ten years later while working my first Oscars red carpet, George Clooney was trying to get from the press side to the fan bleacher side so fast and furiously that he almost took me out like a linebacker in a football game. Luckily, I’m super graceful in situations like that and I managed to side step out of his way. Also lucky was the fact that my sister was in the bleachers that year and she got this photo of him moments after he almost knocked me over.
He won the Oscar that night for Best Supporting Actor in Syriana.
At the Governor’s Ball I would pull a not-so-graceful “Jennifer Lawrence” when I tripped and almost fall flat on my face going up the stairs. Right in front of Eric Bana, my celebrity crush at the time. I have no excuses, I was wearing flats.
The final one I’ll share is another Batman, but he’s my favorite Batman – Michael Keaton. It was also in Las Vegas in the mid- 90’s after a U2 concert. The concert was at the UNLV football stadium which was basically in another state. If you know, you know.
We ended up at the Hard Rock Hotel after the concert. There he was, all by himself, wasted and could barely walk straight. It was super disappointing to see Batman in such a state. Cameron Diaz was also there, but I can’t remember if they were together or not. I don’t think so, but at one point they were talking.
Through work, I’ve also been in the presence of Ben Affleck and Christian Bale. But Michael Keaton will always be my favorite. Drunk or not.
If you have any random celebrity sightings, please share them in the comments! We all love a good celeb sighting story…
P.S. – I have a couple more I’ve already written about – my 90210 celebrity encounter, and long before the controversy, I wrote about a not-so-nice meeting with Ellen in the late 90’s.
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