Miscellaneous Monday - Celebrity Sightings and Crushes

[Meg Holbrook]

My husband has a freakishly high luck stat in real life (well duh, I married him), and he always seems to be in the right place at the right time. 

This came up in conversation because through his work and everyday life, he's been able to meet a number of celebrities and famous folks such as Jane Goodall, members of The Deftones, and other miscellaneous actors and musicians. 

When it was my turn, I had no one. I guess I need to get out more or live in LA or New York?? In lieu of celebrity sightings, I offer to you my celebrity crush:

Yes, that's Mark Hamill. Yes, I want him to talk to me in the joker voice. 

Have you encountered anyone of cultural or entertainment significance in your life? Have the photos to share? Anyone you'd like to meet, but haven't had the opportunity to?

[Erica Moss]

@Meg Holbrook I love this topic so much, mostly because I'm a professional fangirl.

One of my most memorable celebrity encounters is Ben Platt, the original lead in my favorite musical of all time, "Dear Evan Hansen" — he was just as humble and sweet as I had imagined, and it was just plain cool to be in the presence of someone who, artistically, has had such a profound impact on me.

Dream celebrity encounter: Taylor Swift. ✨

[Meg Holbrook]

Erica, I'm going to write a really sad letter to Taylor Swift on your behalf about how the only dream you've dreamed since you were a little girl was to meet Taylor. 

The letter will make her laugh, it will make her cry, it will make her fly directly to New York and take you to lunch. 

Never mind that Taylor wasn't a thing when you were a little girl...

It's so awesome that you had an opportunity to meet your musical hero, though. I've spent many hours watching Les Mis on PBS wishing I had been able to see the original cast live. 

[Erica Moss]

@Meg Holbrook Haha, I appreciate you so much! I'm seeing her live on tour this Sunday, and I am over-the-moon excited. 😄

[Meg Holbrook]

So excited for you!!

[Jodi LeBlanc]

Oh my goodness @Erica Moss ! Taylor Swift was in PEI in 2010 for Cavendish Beach Music Fest! We were able to get to the front row for a few of her songs. Love her so much! :) Here's the link, you may be interested in coming for a future year:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavendish_Beach_Music_Festival

[Erica Moss]

@Jodi LeBlanc: OMG, a fellow Swiftie! My heart is happy.

[Jodi LeBlanc]

That's awesome@Erica Moss :)  Loved her from her first country album, she just keeps getting better and better. Haven't heard a song of hers I didn't love :)

[Jodi LeBlanc]

I just read your comment that you are seeing her Sunday @Erica Moss - that's so exciting! Enjoy every moment of it :)

[Erica Moss]

@Jodi LeBlanc Thank you!

[Jodi LeBlanc]

I was thinking back to all the celeb sightings I had but they are few and far between and most don't have photo evidence. I did meet Romeo Dallaire (twice), and of course Commander Hadfield and David Saint-Jacques (which I shared in a previous post). I also met David Usher, Chef Michael Smith (he's from PEI), and Regis and Kelly (they spent a week in PEI broadcasting their show live). Hmm..can't think of many others. I did however play a "celebrity" at East Coast Music Awards week, here we are accepting our awards lol! :) As for Celebs I would love to run into on the street, I would love to meet Julia Roberts and/or Kevin Costner. I grew up watching them, and they have had/have interesting careers :)

[Erica Moss]

@Jodi LeBlanc These props are everything. 🕶

[Meg Holbrook]

I'll take three pairs of sparkly cat eye glasses, thanks!

[Jodi LeBlanc]

@Erica Moss @Meg Holbrook it was so much fun! :)

[Jodi LeBlanc]

I completely forgot, I saw the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on their PEI visit a few years ago after their wedding :) Not sure if they are considered celebrities ,but every time I am at the grocery store they are on the covers of the magazines :) 

[Meg Holbrook]

@Jodi LeBlanc - I mean, I'd consider them famous. As soon as paparazzi takes pictures of you on vacation, you're famous. 

[Monique vdB]

@Jodi LeBlanc yeah they're pretty much the definition of famous!! Does Kate emit an otherwordly glow in person?

[Jodi LeBlanc]

Good point @Meg Holbrook :) @Monique vdB yes she really had a glow of kindness and genuine care and concern for the people she met :) They seemed to have had a really great time taking in Island activities, lots of smiles and laughter. My friend Janice organized their whole visit, she's the one in the white blazer, and black skirt. Also, I went to school (and played basketball) with the woman standing next to Kate (her name is also Kate) :) 

[Erica Moss]

@Jodi LeBlanc So cool!

[Jodi LeBlanc]

@Erica Moss can't wait to hear about your "celebrity sighting" from last night! I hope it was amazing :)

[Erica Moss]

@Jodi LeBlanc It was everything and more. 😭

[Jodi LeBlanc]

@Erica Mossso wonderful to hear!! I saw photos of the rain concert on the weekend, I will be sure to check out any pics you shared from last night! :)

[Monique vdB]

I love celebrity sightings and encounters!  I mentioned How I Met Your Mother here, and have been lucky enough to visit the sets and meet the casts of some of my favorite shows, including Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, and (seen below) The Office.

These are work environments so the etiquette when on set is to ignore celebrities and don't take pictures of them, but if they talk to you first, you're fine to have a conversation, and many of them have been friendly and lovely. 

I'm still very sad I never got a chance to meet John Ritter, my first and longest-standing celebrity crush. At least there's still hope to meet Kate Winslet, my other major celebrity crush!

[Jodi LeBlanc]

This is awesome @Monique vdB and great pic ! Yes I loved John Ritter too, growing up I watched every rerun of three's company (x 10). Same thing for Seinfeld with me, never watched it when it was on air, but binged during the Seinfeld marathons over the years :)

[Meg Holbrook]

@Monique vdB is at it again with the jealous-making. Some people's lives are just more interesting than mine. 

We're a big Joss Whedon fan household, so meeting those casts would just be amazing. 

[Monique vdB]

@Meg Holbrook my sister actually worked on Angel too! The best part was before Firefly was on the air, when I knew nothing about it, I got to visit the set. The crew was filming on a different part of the soundstage so the ship was empty and I got to climb all over the Serenity.  So, so cool even then, not knowing anything about it!

(Also I accidentally broke the "don't speak to the celebrities" rule because I didn't recognize Ron Glass. Oops.) 

[Monique vdB]

@Jodi LeBlanc in that case here's my favorite celebrity-in-the-wild story. We had a new roommate moving from Boston and he was like "do you see famous people here?" and I was like "oh yeah, constantly, let me show you some." I was playing it off as if there were celebrities everywhere, although really, it's not like that.

I took him to Jerry's Deli in Studio City, pretending that it would be full of celebrities, and we walked in, and I kid you not, Jerry Seinfeld was sitting at the booth right in front of us. (I think he may have been with Larry David, but I didn't recognize him at the time.) I was excited but pretended it was an everyday occurrence. "Oh yeah, see, right there's a famous person. Yawn. Let's go bowling."

[Jodi LeBlanc]

@Monique vdB your story put the biggest smile on my face - "yawn let's go bowling" lol :) I don't think I would have been able to contain myself if I saw Jerry and Larry in a booth in front of me, good for you to stay nonchalant for your roommate :)

[Meg Holbrook]

@Monique vdB this is fantastic. 

[Ollie Guan]

At the premiere of Star Wars in Shanghai Disneyland at the end of 2017, I met Skywalker and Daisy. This is the first time I saw Hollywood movie stars at a close distance. They are very friendly to sign and take photos with fans.

[Meg Holbrook]

@Ollie Guan - I am eternally jealous. May the force be with you. 

[Thomas Schlegel]

I haven't really "met" any celebs in my life. Maybe I usually spend my time in the wrong places for that.

I've seen some of them in theatres (in the audience, not on stage) or in restaurants. I don't think, that they are well known outside of Germany, but here they are:

Udo Lindenberg (Singer) - Hannelore Hoger (Actor) - Marianne Sägebrecht (Actor) - Carmen Miosga (Anchorwoman of "Tagesthemen" - a newscast in German TV) - Olivia Jones (famous German Drag Queen)

I would love to meet Björk - she's one my most favourite artists and such an awesome, crazy, special person - and also, I would like to meet Neo Rauch - I love his paintings so much. They are so impressive, full of stories and riddles, dark and mysterious. Not easy to understand, but sooo awesome.

[Meg Holbrook]

@Thomas Schlegel -How's the drag community in Germany?!

I've met loads of Queens in California, and lots of local bars/events are going on regularly. Probably some of the best parties I've ever attended.

[Thomas Schlegel]

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[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Sadly, I've bumped into loads of famous people, but not really spent any time with them. 

I worked for the BBC for nearly 4 years, at the White City complex where they used to film all sorts of stuff, including the daily 7pm magazine program called "The One Show".  That had at least one celebrity of some sort every day.  So I've ambled past loads of people with varying levels of recognisable names.

I only really spoke to two - Brian Blessed was looking a bit lost, and John Cleese wanted to know if there was decent coffee anywhere nearby.  I've seen Peter Capaldi and Miranda Hart wandering around the office too, as well as most of the cast of W1A (which is a really odd program - most people seem to think it's a sitcom, but it's really a documentary made with actors)

It was also the production offices for Top Gear, so we ran into the Hamster, May and Clarkson quite regularly.

Before the BBC, the best I can do is shaking hands with the Queen on the 500th anniversary of the re-founding of my school, and my mum worked with Sandie Shaw for a while and I used to make tea when she came to visit.

[Monique vdB]

I love John Cleese! And also "shaking hands with the Queen" is pretty amazing.

[Meg Holbrook]

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist- still cool to be able to see some of these people even if it's in passing. Must have been fun at the very least to see them 'in the wild'.

[Jens Iwanenko]

During University I worked in the customer center of the local zoo. I once sold an annual season ticket to a German rapper without realizing (not that into rap music). I helped him fill in the form and then sent him to the cash registers. A colleague came up to me and said, "Dude, was that Samy Deluxe right there?" He zipped over to the cash register back-office to verify. Seems I helped Samy fill in the form, totally kind and professional.

We sometimes had events by invitation only, but at the entrance these are so busy that you don't even realize that you just shook hands with the federal prime minister or other "important" people. So maybe there were 1 or 2 in the crowd *before* me. 😉

Other than that I don't think I ever met any celeb at arm's length.

[Meg Holbrook]

That's an awesome story @Jens Iwanenko 

Sometimes those people have got to enjoy feeling semi-anonymous, I don't know if I'd be comfortable with instant recognition wherever I went.