Who is the most famous person that you have met (actually shaken hands or talked with), and are you the kind of person that asks for a picture or autograph?

Matthew Bellamy was quite nice.
(Lead singer of MUSE)

@cage did you get your picture with him?

Mario Lopez, and yes i got his autograph and picture taken. And then i have run into a couple of spurs players and gotten there autograph. Ohhh and i got Simple plans autographs but that was after a concert and the same situation for transiberian Orchestra.

@tennesseejac sadly not. It was amazing too :(

When I was in the Army and stationed in South Korea in 1988–1989, the USO brought several musical acts to entertain the troops there. I was a Military Policeman so I helped with security for the shows on the installation and after the it was over, I got to meet all of the performers. I was able to meet the groups Foghat, Tower of Power, The Commodores (minus Lionel Richie), Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, and Randy Travis.

I didn’t get pictures or autographs because I was on duty at the time but I did get to talk to all of them and it was a great experience.

FOGHAT.

Me and some buddies drove down to a Birmingham one time to score some acid at a Widespread Panic concert. We dose then go somewhere in the nightlife part of downtown Birmingham called 5 points and walk around. My one buddy is from Birmingham and told me earlier that evening old WWF wrestling legend Junkyard Dog was a crackhead and hungout and bummed money in B’ham. Funny thing is when I kid I had a WWF wrestling book with pictures and bios and stuff. I always remembered me and Junkyard Dog had the same birthday me 12–14 -81 and him 12–14 51. Im tripping my nuts off walking around and this man approaches me about “Helping out the Junkyard Dog.” I shook his hand and told him I bet I could guess his age and birthday. He laughed then his jaw dropped when I told him. I was giggling hysterically. Anyways I sat and talked to him for 15 minutes. Hell im not sure how long. He told me his whole life story though. How good he had it. And about the now being in streets. It was a weird trip. I gave him a buck or two told him I wished him the best

I have groped Dane Cook, chatted with Mike Birbiglia, and hugged Eddie Izzard while he was wearing fake boobs. I’ve shook the hand of Jared Leto and all the guys from 30 Seconds to Mars and met a bunch of the American Idols from Season Two. Even had their e-mails. I have also met and spoken to Molly Ringwald for some time.

I’m sure I’m forgetting a few. Except for Dane Cook I have every autograph. I even demanded that Mike Birbiglia ‘sign my freaking hippo.’

Oh, and members of Little Anthony & the Imperials and The Four Tops!

Amanda Roocroft – - Famous Opera Singer. She gave me lots of good advice… which in the end helped me walk away from the business!

@buster that is one the coolest stories ive ever heard.

Bill Clinton’s the most famous person I’ve ever met. He came to my uni in 1992 for a day of campaigning. He saw me (or I saw him) at a rally and again at the student union. At the rally, he winked at me. At the union, he grabbed my hand, shook it and said, “Hey! I saw you at the rally!” Hillary was next to him, but she didn’t speak to me. She looked exhausted.

For all the famous people I’ve worked with (I used to work in film production), I have very few photos or autographs. I feel uncomfortable asking for that sort of thing. I don’t need a piece of them. The pleasure their work gives me is enough.

When I was a kid, I met quite a few. Probably the most famous was Cher (back when she was still with Sonny). I also met Bing Crosby, and knew Robert Goulet. Goulet is the only one I ever saw after I was an adult, too. George Michael (the sportscaster, not the singer from Wham) was a customer of a company I worked for. I never met him in person, but talked to him on the phone quite a bit. One of the Washington Redskins lived near me, and we shopped at the same grocery store. I never asked for autographs.

We have many celebs stop by our office for interview. We had Bret Michaels yesterday. We had some photos taken with him. He seemed very nice and cool!

Most of the famous people I’ve met are/were country singers. Most of these encounters happened when I was quite small and was dragged along with my parents to concerts and vacations in Tennessee and things like that. So it was always a quick handshake and/or autograph after a show or something. Off the top of my head, I’ve met: Little Jimmy Dickens (I loved him because I was about eight years old and he wasn’t much taller than me), Minnie Pearl, Chet Atkins, Bill Anderson, Charlie Daniels, Hal Ketchum, Marty Stuart, Aaron Tippin (I had a dragon painted on my cheek and he said he liked it and that I was cute. :D), Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Martina McBride, Clint Black, Brooks & Dunn…

More quick handshakes and “Hi, how ya doin’? Nice t’meecha” type things, with actors: Robert Duncan McNeill (at a convention, stfu), Jimmy Fallon (at a Thruway rest stop), John Stamos and Rebecca Romijn (in a Walmart).

All the actual one-on-one conversation sort of meetings I’ve had with famous people were authors/editors, and all of the sci-fi/fantasy set. Gardner Dozois, Spider Robinson, China Mieville, Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, George R.R. Martin. And while I’ve not met her face-to-face, I’ve had… conversations… with Anne Rice. And Poppy Z. Brite, as well. That went quite a bit better.

The only ones I really count out of all of these are PTerry, Mr. Gaiman, GRRM and PZB, as they’re the only ones I talked to long enough or frequently enough to possibly be remembered.

I don’t ask for pictures, and I only ask for autographs if I’m actually at a signing or something. I’m always worried about being an Annoying Fan (with capital letters and everything!).

@MacBean you sure do get around. and yeah, I’m always worried about being that Annoying Fan…. even though, I know they get tons of them and I would just be another one (but with a picture!)

I was in the restroom at the Nashville Aiport the other day just minding my own biz at the stall and a guy walks up to the stall right next to me and I notice he is wearing sneakers with a suit (like a basketball coach or something). When I went to wash my hands the guy walked up and it was Ben Stein, so I said “whats up”, but no handshake because that would’ve been weird in the bathroom. That guy is awesome.

@asmonet: He signed your “hippo”?!

@augustlan: Tell us about Bing Crosby.

@MacBean: Great stuff.

@buster: I find that story so sad – the poor guy.

Elton John: I designed a stage set for a private concert he did at Boston’s World Trade Center. He was very nice. He was warming up on piano while we installed the set.

Conan O’Brian: I was the creative director for Harvard Lampoon’s 125th anniversarry party. He was our emcee for the night. He’s extremely tall.

Nancy Kerrigan: I was the senior designer for an ice show she did; Footloose on Ice (of all things). She is not very pleasant, unfortunately.

There were others I saw a little of when I did event design here in Boston – but these are the guys I worked with directly.

I met and shook Eddie Vedder’s hand last year in NYC. Nice guy and short, just like me :)

Bob Hope, Honolulu air[ort and no autograph.

I’ve met “the Trailer park boys”, Eminem, Dr Dre, Eric Lindross(I don’t know if correct spelling of last name), Ozzy, Tom Hanks, Mila Jovavich(same as above).
I don’t collect sigs or pictures.

only three, i think: dr. ruth – shook hands, carrot top – literally bumped right into him in a street festival in charlotte, and barry williams (greg brady) – got his autograph and had my picture taken w/ him.

I was 10 years old, at the airport in Vegas waiting for my dad to come home from a business trip, when out of the corner of my eye I saw Jimmy J.J. Walker. I said to my mom “dy-no-mite!” it’s J.J., please take me over to him so I can say hello! We walked up to him and said hello, he was very kind to us and signed his autograph for me. Very sweet indeed.
I rode in the same elevator as Barry Manilow, didn’t bother him but I remember a strong scent of cologne.
Growing up in Vegas, I lived a few blocks from Liberace. Every Halloween we would go to his house to receive a bag full of pennies that his doorman would hand out to the children. Never met him though, but his limo with piano keys painted on the side would always drive by our house.
I’m not really a star struck person, don’t need the pictures and all of that, but I would change my mind if it were Bill Clinton. Love that man!

I’ve met a few famous people, but most of them are friends of a friend… so pictures and autographs weren’t usually appropriate. I did allow myself a picture with Boy George, Cameron Mathison, and Alicia Minshew, but I met them when my friend wasn’t around. Otherwise, I’ve met Rosie O’Donnell, Susan Lucci, I have a friend who was nominated for a Tony a few years ago for Best Lead Actor in a Musical… Elijah Wood, Neil Patrick Harris, Joey McIntyre, Robert Sean Leonard (be still my heart), Raul Esparza, Kris Kross (LMAO)... there are more but I just woke up and can’t remember.

Matt Skiba asked me out after a show. I was too young to get into any bars though, and the show was in New Orleans :( It was more of a friendly thing, I think. I did get a kiss though!

@ All – you all have some amazing people!!!

I haven’t met any celebrities yet. I’ve been to a few PGA tournaments. Sat down in the grass about 10 feet behind Tiger Woods and watched him cranking balls (obviously I saw everyone else warming up too but I consider him the only one worthy of mentioning lol4rl).

Collin Powell
Bill Clinton
George Bush
And other high government officials
A bunch of presidents, including presidents form Iran, Ecuador Chile and so on…
And Hollywood famous, Brad Pit, Russell Crowe, Meg Ryan… mmm, I think that’s it :s

Alex Trebek. Had my picture taken with him and he autographed a book. I also have autographed books from Ronnie Milsap and Debby Boone. My mom used to run a bookstore and I went with her to booksellers convention several times—those conventions were the best places to meet celebrities because everyone’s written a book. I’ve also met Garrison Keillor, Marvin Hamlisch, and Tony-award winner Jarrod Emick (my husband went to high school with him).

Ooh, I met Marvin Hamlisch several times! Super nice guy. I don’t remember much about Bing Crosby, because I was only 4. He and Robert Goulet were doing a show at the theater my mom, step-dad and a couple of uncles worked at. Goulet made the bigger impression on me because (having already met me a few times, and spying me sitting on my mom’s lap sucking my thumb during the show) he stopped in the middle of a song, popped his thumb in his mouth and joked (around his thumb) ‘How would you like it if I tried to sing like this?’ I was embarrassed, and buried my head in my mom’s chest. Of course, the audience thought that was just hilarious. :(

I didn’t think I’d met any celebrities until MacBean mentioned a few sf people, and I remembered that I’ve met a ton of writers at various science fiction conventions.

Of them, I’d say Isaac Asimov was the most famous, but Scott Card was the only one I had a serious discussion with, and that was only because I had about fifteen of his books for him to sign.

On the other hand, because science fiction is a relatively small and obscure genre, I don’t know if any of the writers I’ve met even make it to the “famous” level.

Here’s a partial list of the writers I’ve met
Isaac Asimov, Larry Niven, Orson Scott Card (actually had a conversation with him), Cory Doctorow (hanging out at a con for half an hour or so, waiting for the next panel—he wasn’t so famous at the time), Walter Jon Williams, Kathleen Goonan, Robert Reed, Nalo Hopkinson, Catherine Asaro, Greg Bear, Carol Emshwiller, Judith Berman, Karen Joy Fowler, Nancy Kress, James Morrow (member of the same workshop I used to be a member of), Frederik Pohl, Robert J. Sawyer, George H. Scithers, Lucius Shepard, Joan Slonczewski, Norman Spinrad (had to refrain from telling him how much I disliked his novel that he always talks about in his reviews—Bug Jack Barron), Michael Swanwick, Sheri S. Tepper (well, by letter, anyway), and Joan and Vernor Vinge.

@MacBean – Terry Pratchett! Sooo envious! The closest I got to Neil Gaiman was as a front row audience member at a talk he gave. :(

I love those guys.

James Brown, and I was shocked at how short an ugly he was. He was standing next to a 6-ft-beauty who was holding his hand. At first I honestly thought she was holding a pet monkey (no, I swear, it took me a second to realise it was another human being).

As a journalist I got to meet several politicians and as a singer several other singers, but I think James Brown was the most famous of them all. The only person I asked for an autograph from was a football player I liked as a kid. I bumped into him at an airport. Even though I’ve had to give out autographs myself and don’t mind it, I feel weird about asking for them. I feel as if I’m invading the other person’s privacy by simply recognising them if they’re not working. And if they are (eg after a concert) I know for a fact that they’re tired and just want to have a shower, not sign papernapkins with pens that won’t write.

(ok unless I also got to meet Terry Pratchett, in which case I’d kidnap him, lock him in my cellar and force him to write 10 novels a day, just for me!)

@ Daloon – wow, Isaac Asimov. how cool is that.

Marvin Hamliclish seems like he would be interesting to meet.

@ Flamboi – How is it you have met all these people, by way of your job? It must be amazing. Or not.

To be honest I am not sure how I would feel about meeting famous people.

Hmmm. I haven’t met many famous people. I met and got an autograph from Richard Leakey. I worked security for and escorted Dave Matthews to his tour bus. That’s about it.

@poof—Soooooo jealous of you for meeting RSL. I’d give up meeting ANY of the people I’ve met to have been able to even just stand across the room from him. That’s one of the few cases where I don’t think I would be able to help myself and I would turn into a completely brainless squeeing fanbrat.

@daloon—Do you know about http://escapepod.org/ ? I just discovered it before Christmas and I’ve been trying to spread the word as much as I can, because it’s awesome.

@april—When I met PTerry, the only thing of his that I’d read was Good Omens. But he was SO nice – he gave me a really yummy peanut butter cookie – that after the con I bought a few Discworld books and became an actual fan. XD

I had two jobs where I was able to meet a lot of people, from various professions. I’ve meet Colin Powell, Johnny Cochran (post OJ), Ross Perot (very interesting person!), Gary Sinise (pre-CSI NY days), Michael Jordan, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Tom Clancy, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf (retired), Bill Gates (meet & greet type thing), my FAVORITE was Johnny Depp – that was thanks to a good friend of mine – I LOVE Johnny Depp. :) Wayne Newton – no, not in Vegas, but it was part of the job – he’s actually a really nice man.

Annie Leibovitz, at a book signing. She was so balls to the walls cool. We also share a birthday, which gave me something to talk to her about. I’ve met a few bands/singers/rappers here and there (Nelly used to play baseball a few blocks from where I lived, and I would see him around). I stalked Chris Noth, of Law and Order and Sex and the City fame, down 6th avenue once too.

Not sure what standard of fame to use; most of the names listed above are people I’ve never heard of. I guess probably by the most general standard, the best-known person I’ve chatted with at any length was Adrienne Barbeau.

I did shake Norman Mailer’s hand, and I crashed into Hubert Humphrey in a doorway. I’d have to include Olympic gold medalist Mary Lou Retton on my list. Oh, and there’s Jean M. Auel, but she might not count because I met and talked with her before she published Clan of the Cave Bear.

Tom Paxton. Dave Van Ronk. Ginger Baker. Chris Smither.

Oh, wait! Rudolph Nureyev! I almost forgot. I kissed him. Mwahh! Big smooch on the lips. I was about 23.

@MacBean, lurve for “completely brainless squeeing fanbrat.”

@MacBean: It was hard. REALLY HARD. I did turn into a brainless squeeing fanbrat after he’d left though. shivers I love that man. [runs off to watch House]

i’ve been going to concerts/meeting band members for about 5 or 6 years now, and at first i thought it was a big deal to get an autrograph from my favourite band members, but now i’m pretty content with just saying hi. of course, if the opportunity arises i will definitely go for an autograph, and occasionally a photo. and i waited about 4 hours after and 4 before for conor oberst to come out and he never did. i do get a bit fangirly, but i try to hold back until AFTER i meet them. i think it’s really disrespectful when people meet someone and act hysterical.
i definitely couldn’t hold back when i met my chemical romance though. they have had a HUGE impact on my life, and i held up okay through bob, mikey, and ray, but when i got to gerard i just started crying. oh my god, okay. i’m like freaking out now hahaha.

add one to the list when i was in DC this weekend i met Terry Moran from nightline, i got a picture with him and he was very nice. My mom said she loved his show and he was amazing and he told her that he had to go tell his wife ppl think he is amazing. Super nice guy

I fucked Slash along with a friend of mine, hung out with WeeMan a month ago at the Buick Open in Torrey Pines, and used to be good friends with Shane West, I met him at a Motorola skate party and we hit it off. But just as friends he was shorter than I was. I’m also good friends with Aaron Smith (you guys might know him as current hip-hop artist Shwayze, lol) who was in my French class a couple years ago at Grossmont College. He showed me all of his songs and was trying to get discovered. We hung out a lot, went to a club with a group of friends where Whitestarr was performing and he jumped on stage and started freestyling. The rest is history. Then he got famous, and I haven’t seen him since Warped Tour when he got me free VIP passes. Eh. That is all. Oh and I’m good friends with Steve Aoki and Devon Aoki, but they’re not that famous. I’m also friends with Jasmine Lennard, an LA-based socialite whose dating Dave navarro and who was the “other woman” who broke up Simon Cowell and his gf a the time. She also dated JC Chasez. She’s fucking insane. That is all.

Fucking Slash isn’t really something you want to brag about.

Hah, he’s so beautiful on stage. But without any clothes or that hat of his he looks kind of ridiculous.

Most people look kind of ridiculous without any clothes. Bodies are rather silly things. :D

The only famous person I’ve ever met is Boyd Tinsley (best known as violinist/mandolinist for the Dave Matthews Band) He did a meet-and-greet with fans at Borders during a promo tour in the fall of 2003 for his solo album, True Reflections. He was really laid back and very cool, and stayed afterwards to sign autographs, and signed my guitar and an old DMB shirt.

Ben Finkel (in diapers).

@gailcalled – Why were you wearing diapers!?

@Bri_L: She was just being prepared. You’d pee a little if you met Ben, too.

@MacBean – hehehe. two sh eh

well, I’ve met Tokio Hotel, and I almost cried when I saw Bill, I was like “I love you” xD
but now I don’t like TH that much….
but I have a picture with the band, and autographs. but that’s all in the past, I’ve ‘moved on’

I volunteered at a certain folk festival in Texas for many years, and had breakfast on a regular basis with Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary).

Also, I remember sitting backstage one day at that festival, listening to Peter and Dave Van Ronk reminiscing what it was like when “Bobby” first showed up on the scene in Greenwich village.

Being in the music business, I have also met (been introduced, shook hands with, exchanged pleasantries) with such notables as Edgar Winter, Olivia Newton-John, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Chuck Berry, Willie Nelson, and many others.