So, this entry isn’t meant so much for bragging or name dropping as it is a chance for others to add their comments on famous people they’ve met & their impressions.
Famous People I’ve Met/Seen:
PATRICIA NEAL – Mentioned this before. 1980s, Boston. High school very small/elite drama class, Patricia’s daughter in the class & she visited for 50 minutes of comment & critique on the one act plays we had written and were going to perform. My play was a one-woman show featuring a character similar to Bette Davis in “All About Eve”. Ms. Neal, despite her regal accent and enormous fur coat, was very down to earth and pleasant. I was walking on air for days after that.
SENATOR TED KENNEDY – Had lunch with just him and my father in the 1970s when I was a kid, in his Washington DC office. Office was covered with pictures of him with various famous people and him doing good works. Met him again not too long ago, shortly before his death, when he arrived on my island in his big yacht to visit a friend of his, a client of mine, who has a summer house on the island.
SHIRLEY MacLAINE – My brother was a nightclub party producer in NYC in the 1980s and put on a star studded birthday party for her at The Limelight. I shook her hand as she was leaving. There were a lot of famous people at the party but she blinded me with her star power and I don’t remember all the others. Plus a lot of vodka might have something to do with not remembering everything else.
SOPHIA LOREN – I didn’t meet her but I walked within a couple of feet of her as she hailed her car/driver outside of the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, in the 1980s. She had on an enormous black fur hat and what looked like a vicuna coat. And a shit-ton of makeup.
CORAZON AQUINO – Former President of Philippines and mother of the current President. In the privacy of my parents home in Boston, 1980s (so she was not President yet but was about to return to the Philippines to run for office soon). Very small dinner party.
JESSE JACKSON – Shook his hand at a political rally in Philadelphia in 1988. handsome at the time! And I voted for him.
SYLVESTER – Met him in NYC back in brother’s nightclub days. He had a very scrawny white boyfriend with him at the time and a big entourage. Talked with him for a little while.
MARTHA REEVES – Of Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. Again, NYC, 1980s, brother’s nightclub job. She was going to perform at the club one evening and my brother and I were there at the club (just her, her band, my brother, and I) the afternoon prior and she was doing a sound check. She asked me what song she should do for the sound check and I said : “Nowhere to Run”, which she then did and performed for me like it she was singing just to me. Awesome!
I’ve also met some extremely wealthy people in Montreal, Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Europe, and the Caribbean but that’s different – I was thinking about celebrity/famous people encounters.
Who are some of the famous people have you met or had some kind of encounter with?
MATTHEW'S ISLAND 
Bette Midler – I was heading to breakfast after a rather eventful night in West Hollywood. She was outside of her hair salon holding court with a couple of boys already when I passed her and recognized her voice. She was about 3’11” and had coke bottle glasses but was warm and friendly. It was nice to see she still knew her roots. Oh, and Ann Miller, but just saw her in a restaurant. She looked like a walking corpse.
Cool!
I know LA is a humongous, sprawling city but seems like you’d have a better chance of bumping into celebrities there than most places – especially more so than the remote island I live on.
I bet, but you’re probably the better for it.
When I moved to Chicago I thought that it was a certainty that I would meet Oprah, but alas. People see celebrities here all the time, but I seem to miss them constantly.
What? I thought everyone in Chicago had met Oprah?! LOL
The area I live in, though fairly remote, sees a lot of rich or famous people come through on their yachts in summer or have summer homes around here. Which reminds me – I saw Martha Stewart like 10 years ago (pre-jail) getting off a boat on a dock and walk past me. And I saw the yachts of Elton John and Eric Clapton several years back. Eric Clapton moored his yacht near my house and allegedly looked at a big parcel of undeveloped land next to mine that is for sale – but he didn’t buy it.
Jeez, no wonder I don’t see anyone famous. You’re hoarding, lol š
Matthew, this is great! What experiences. It is so much fun to cross paths with well-known folks. I’ll be adding some of my adventures soon, but first let me tell you about my brother. He was working in NYC and stopped into a small club to use the bathroom (and no doubt to visit his good friend, Johnny Walker). At the bottom of the stairs leading to the john was this large black guy in a loose dashiki, and David, always a master of prose, asked him “Hey Buddy, where’s the crapper at?” The guy pointed down the hall. When David came out the guy had come out on stage and was singing “Respect.” Miss Aretha Franklin.
Aretha! Now that would be a great one to have met!
Can’t wait to hear some of your stories of meeting movie stars, etc. – I know there have been a lot. But there’s plenty of space here int he comments section.
I met the Dalai Lama in the early 90s. He was on a visit to New Zealand, and was being welcomed on to Pipitea Marae in Wellington. I worked at National Archives, which was right next door, and a small group of us were on the footpath watching his arrival. He took the time to greet each one of us personally. A very nice gesture which I’ll always remember.
I also met the (ex-)Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands whilst at Archives too. She was very glamorous.
Peter Jackson, at a party, before he got famous…
Wow, meeting the Dalai Lama must have been amazing. Thanks for sharing your encounters.