Writer's Block: Brush with stardom

[xwacky]

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Since we are talking "stumble" here, I'm only going to include the run-ins. This means chatting with Bradley Thompson when he came to my area to give a "Battlestar Galactica" related talk or getting autographs and taking pictures with Jamie Bamber & co. at Dragon*Con 2007 are excluded.

Let's see, I'll list them in chronological order:

• In May 2007, my family and friends took a vacation in Cannes, France. It happened to be the 2nd week of the 69th Cannes Film Festival. One night, we were walking down the street and here's what happened (excerpt from my old blog): We then continued making our way on the La Croisette Blvd. Along the waterfront, tents were setup for many private parties. When we walked in front of a tent facing the Hilton hotel, we noticed the music from the tent was particularly lively, and there were a group of men with heavy duty cameras waiting nearby. We decided to take a break to rest our feet and see what would happen. Several minutes went by, and I noticed a slender girl exited the tent and walked up to a man in suit sitting not far from where I was standing. Immediately, I went and whispered to my girlfriend that this girl was a really good look-alike of Mini Driver! The girl ended up with her back toward me and was talking to the man she approached. I kept whispering to my friend how this girl had the same hair, eyes, nose and profile as Mini Driver. Before long, the paparazzi noticed the girl as well, and they shouted her name to get her autograph. It was when the flashes went off that I realized it was indeed Mini Driver herself! Anyway, after signing a few autographs, Mini Driver quickly walked across the street towards Hilton, inside which was another private party being held. I was a little embarrassed and hoped she never heard me whispering that she was a very good Mini Driver "impersonator!"
  
  My impression of the star? She is so tiny! Not that I expected her to be big or anything, but she's even skinnier in person.



• During the same vacation I mentioned above, one night, we drove all the way to Monte Carlo to have dinner. After our meal, my friends wanted to check out the casinos, and it was then we had another encounter with a celebrity (excerpt from my old blog): The center of the casino is a room with gaming tables. It was in this room I saw most people gathered around a blackjack table. One of my friend told me my other friend was there watching Beyoncé play! Really?! I went and joined the on lookers around that table, and sure enough--there was Beyoncé with her boyfriend Jay Z playing blackjack! Or, I should say more accurately--Beyoncé was there quietly watching her boyfriend playing the €5000 minimum blackjack! She was fairly easy to spot because of her trademark "big hair" (she wore it down and curly.) Instead of being dressed up, Beyoncé wore a pair of Jeans and a white cotton shirt. She also had a black Pashmina to keep her warm. Even though she didn't appear to wear lots of makeups, she was still very pretty! I wish I could've snapped a picture. It was then I realized why there were people with big cameras waiting outside the casino!
  



• Although I won't count the "purchased meetings" with the celebrities at Dragon*Con in August 2007, my friends and I did run into Richard Hatch (the actor, not the survivor) unexpectedly in the Conference Hotel's hallway. What a nice guy he was -- he stopped and without prompting, gave me and my friends each a bear hug and posed for pictures with us. Not only that, he really is still quite good looking.



• Also in the same Con one night, my friend and I ran into "Number One" and "Data" at the hotel (not the Con Hotel) we were staying. Here's an excerpt from my old blog where I mentioned the chance meeting: As we walked out of our hotel, we ran into Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner sitting on the hotel bench outside smoking cigarettes and waiting for the valet to bring their car around! Apparently, they dined at the restaurant in the hotel. We approached them excitedly and told them we enjoyed their panel discussion on Friday. They looked at us "suspiciously" and asked us how did we know anything about their panel. We told them we were right there in the audience! We explained we were here in Atlanta attending the Dragon*Con. They asked where we were heading to. We mentioned we were going to a Pirate Party eventually. They wanted to know how come we weren't dressed in costume, stilettos81 replied that she was--she was dressed as Elizabeth from Pirates of the Caribbean. Jonathan Frakes quipped: "I see you have a subtle Pirate thing going..." Then he looked at me up and down and asked: "And what about you?" I laughed and said I indeed had a real pirate costume hidden in the bag. When we bid them good night, they told us they wished to see both of us stopping by their autograph table at 11:30 am sharp the next day. Not knowing what the next day schedule was at the time, we promised we would and went on our way.
  
  So yeah, these two were totally wonderful and nice and "normal". Plus they looked great too!



• A little over a month later, in October 2007, I "ran" into Barbra Eden at a hotel where my friend was having a big birthday party (see here). No, I didn't approach her because she was just hanging out with her friends and having a good time. So I didn't want to bother her. Boy, was she beautiful still!



• Lastly, in December 2008, about a week before Christmas, hubby and I were in Madrid, Spain. We stayed in The Westin Palace Hotel. One afternoon, while hubby was attending a conference, I decided to head over to the Thyssen Museum across the street. As I waited for the elevator while debating the merit of doing so since our room was on the 2nd floor, the elevator door opened and there she was, Paris Hilton chatting away on her cell phone in the elevator. To me, she appeared annoyed as she got out of the elevator and walked off towards the hotel's guest room hallway. At first, I thought it couldn't be her because there wasn't any body guard or entourage. But when I got down to the hotel lobby, there were lots of people either in black suits or wearing Time Warners lanyard around their neck and carrying heavy cameras etc. Turned out WB had a promotional event going on in the hotel on that day, and Paris Hilton was there for the function.
  
  My impression of her? She looked like a little girl.

Out of all these chance encounters, I have to say meeting Richard Hatch, Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner were most exciting to me! But chatting with Bradley Thompson was amazing. Really, nothing can compare with talking to one of the writers of my favorite television show I was obsessed with for years, especially when that person turned out to be so cool and nice. However I didn't "stumble" into Bradley, I totally sought him out so that didn't count.

Would I want to meet other celebrities? The answer is of course! To start with, since I'm currently obsessed with "Supernatural", it would be fantastic if I get to meet Ben Edlund, Eric Kripke, and/or Sera Gamble. For that matter, I'd be real happy if I can just turn into "a fly on the wall" in their writer's room. And if I ever have another chance to meet Bradley Thompson again, I would gladly grab it in a heartbeat! The same goes to the handsome and smart Jamie Bamber. I'm quite mesmerized just to hear him talk alone -- he's that interesting. Finally on the very top of my wish list right now is the fabulous Jensen Ackles -- when an actor is that talented and gorgeous, how can I not wish to see him up close? Fortunately for me (with my fingers crossed), that wish hopefully will get fulfilled soon since I paid "arm & leg" to attend Supernatural Con in LA later this month. In little over a week's time, I hope not only to see him, but also the ever wonderful Jared Padalecki, Jim Beaver, and Misha Collins!

Comments

[i-o-r-h-a-e-l.livejournal.com]

You're so lucky!!! :D

[xwacky.livejournal.com]

My luck sure cost me a whole lot of money! But I'm happy. :D

Finger crossed that no one else is going to pull out from the Con at the last minute...

[(Anonymous)]

I cannot wait to read your report of the LA Con!! Your writing always makes me feel like I am right there! Maybe you can convince them to head out this way sometime. ;)

Richard Hatch was super nice. Reading about your meeting with JFrakes and BSpiner made me remember the pirate costume--you looked awesome in it!!! That D*C was so much fun!!!

mick

[xwacky.livejournal.com]

Oh sweetie, thank you! *hugs*

Yeah, D*Con was so much fun. It's actually making me anxious about LA Con at the moment. It set my expectations so high if you know what I mean...

Richard Hatch was awesome in D*Con that year. He seemed really happy to be there, didn't he?

Frakes and Spiner were wonderful too. It's so cool that they spent private time together. When we ran into them, they seemed they were catching up with each other's life/projects, and they were really nice to us even though we interrupted their private moment.

Speaking of the Con, this reminds me I need to go buy a new flash card for my camera today. :)

[dreams-of-honey.livejournal.com]

Wow, you've bumped into a lot of celebs! I've never met a celeb in my entire life. *thinks on it* Well not one I can remeber anyway!

I don't know how I would react if I met someone I was a fan of or liked. It would be pretty, put it that way! lol