11.
I had the fortune of being on the same plane as Stan Lee. We were being shuttled to another part of the airport. I whispered to what I assumed to be his bodyguard that I didn’t want to lead others on who he was so please just let him know that I appreciate his work. He nodded then whispered into Stan Lee’s ear. He then smiled and put his head down in acknowledgement.
Rest In Peace big guy. You were a big part of my childhood.
12.
My friend’s mom (over 70yrs old) owns a small asian grocery store. Post Malone came walking in with his girlfriend and his mom had no idea who he was. A few cute things happened:
1. She was nervous because of his tattoos, but happy/not worried once he bought a lot of food. She had no idea he was a celebrity.
2. She gave him a free snack for buying so much food and told him to come back for lunchtime for cheap and tasty gyoza (he did come back the next day!)
3. She was worried he would get mugged going to his car because of 3 big men outside so she followed him outside (they were his bodyguards)
4. She really liked his “cool car” (it was a lamborghini)
She told my friend about the encounter that evening and he pulled up a youtube video based on the description – it was him. When Post Malone came back the next day for Gyoza she got a selfie with him (it’s on my friends phone so I don’t have the picture available right now). Whole thing is adorable with how innocent his mom is.
13.
About 5 years ago my dad was in LA for business and got into the elevator of his hotel to head down to one of his meetings. When he got in, he instantly recognized a huge, legendary, hall-of-fame LA Laker standing next to him. Normally, my father would never say anything but for some reason felt compelled to introduce himself. He stuck out his hand and said, “Shaq, it’s nice to meet ya.” He immediately realized he messed up and the guy responded, “I’m Magic Johnson but it’s nice to meet you too.” The secondhand embarrassment is real.
14.
Sigourney Weaver. I think I was in the middle of selling her a jacket and some art from the Whitney museum gift shop before I truly recognized her. She was amazingly tall and I got to bask in the glory that was Ripley. Totally makes sense why they casted her as the Xeno queen fighter she was. Just her presence alone was both intimidating and alluring. SO cool.
15.
Was walking out of a gas station over on Crescent Heights and Sunset and heard a “hey!…hey!” coming from a cracked window on tinted out range rover that was parked at one of the pumps. I walk over to the car to see Jeff Goldblum, who had somehow seen my gold ring I was wearing on my right hand from 20 feet away. He proceeds to tell me how he loves my ring and has been looking for one just like it and asks me where I got it. I tell him it was my grandfather’s and he asks to see it up close. I hold my hand up to Jeff Goldblum, he takes my hand, gushes about the ring for a minute and thanks me. I said sure and walked back to my apartment.
I like to think we’re friends now.
16.
My husband was vacationing in Arizona, killing time in a bar over a burger and a beer. A guy sits next to him and my husband has a nice chat with him. The guy leaves and my husband goes to close his tab and the bartender tells him it’s been covered by the guy he was talking to.
The bartender asks if he knows who he was talking to. My husband has no idea. Chuck Norris, it was his bar.
Edit: How embarrassing. It wasn’t Arizona, it is Woody’s Wharf in Newport, California and still exists today. The story is still true. I just flaked on the location. Thanks for all the fun comments!
17.
The Rock was at the Gold Coast, Australia to film San Andreas. He came into the place where I worked in Surfers Paradise with a woman and a young child. He was kind-of in disguise, had his head covered and had something partially obscuring his chin.
I served them and didn’t recognize him at first. The woman handled the talking, and he just kind of hung back quietly. I looked at him once, and probably wouldn’t have given him a second thought, but his eyes widened for that split second (possibly he was wondering if I’d recognized him and was about to cause a scene, it was a packed centre) and it just clicked in my head to connect the eyes with the news of the Rock being in town.
Once I made the connection, it was totally obvious who he was, and since I was still looking at him, I could tell by now he knew he’d been spotted.
Then I just wished the group enjoy their day and half-smiled at him, and he gave me a nod, and they went about their business.
I didn’t tell anyone at work, because I didn’t want the dude to get swamped when he was trying to spend time with his family. I didn’t tell anyone I knew, because it’s really not that much of a story. In fact, this is the first I’ve ever shared this story with anyone.
18.
Met Elon Musk in a Tesla store in LA. Really wanted to meet him but didn’t want to be that guy. Decided I had a plan, so walked up to him and said, “Excuse me, do you work here?”
He replied, “I mean yeah kind of”.
I say, “Ah what can you tell me about the entertainment console of the Model S?”
He says, “let me see if I can find someone to help you.”
To which I say, “nah I’m just f**king with you”
He laughed and shook my hand and walked off.
19.
I met Justin Timberlake and had no idea it was him until someone told me afterwards. Went to a basketball game with my dad and we stopped by the bar area in the arena first. The game had just started so it was pretty empty except for the bar itself. My dad goes to the restroom and I walk up to the bar to order a beer. There’s only one seat at the bar next to a guy in a baseball cap and sunglasses. I politely ask if the seat is taken and he just says “nope, it’s all you, man.” We shoot the s**t for a couple minutes. He’s sitting on my right and eventually he says he and his wife are going to go to their seats. He extends his hand and asks my name. I tell him and ask his name. He says, “Justin. Nice to meet you dude, have a good night.”
He and his wife leave and the bartender comes up to me and says, “You know that was Justin Timberlake, right?”
I immediately did a double take and couldn’t believe I didn’t recognize him even with the hat and sunglasses. I told my girlfriend at the time who was a huge Justin Timberlake fan and she couldn’t believe I met him without knowing it was him. She wouldn’t let it go for like a month.
20.
I was at a test screening of the movie Valkyrie. Me and my friends were near the front of the theater talking before the movie started, and I went on this big, loud rant about how “normally I like Tom Cruise movies but War of the Worlds was such a piece of s**t, one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, plot didn’t make sense, they strung a bunch of cool scenes together and put a s**t happy ending on it and called it a day. ” after I wrap up my 5 minute rant outlining everything wrong with War of the Worlds the person sitting behind us tapped me on the shoulder and point 4 seats down in my row to Tom Cruise glaring at me, I gave him the nod and sat there for what might have been the longest 10 minutes before a movie started ever.
Not quite what you were asking for but close enough for an excuse to tell that story.
TLDR: Didn’t notice Tom Cruise was listening while I talked s**t about one of his movies.
