Heh, Peter Chattaway comments on his recent sighting of Keanu Reeves in the lobby of a local theatre:I have met and interviewed lots of actors, on film sets and press junkets and whatnot, so the mere presence of celebrity, per se, is not such a big deal to me any more. But those events are usually very controlled and very predictable, so it's still fun when an accidental sighting like this one comes along.
I've had a couple of these encounters of my own, heh. In the "controlled and predictable" arena, I've met the likes of Robert Kennedy Jr. and then Attorney General Janet Reno in my professional writing days. (Yeah, I know, they're politican types, but in this day and age, they seem to also count as celebrities.) I also briefly met Madeleine L'Engle at a writing conference at Seattle Pacific University a long time ago.
On the "accidental sighting" end (and for some reason, they are more fun, go figure), my first encounter came during a high school youth group trip to Disneyland, where I ran into and had my picture taken with Bobby Sherman. (Okay, by that time he wasn't such a celebrity anymore, but I think it still counts.) Another, more recent encounter was in a local restaurant in Montgomery, Alabama, around which Tim Burton was filming Big Fish (in which many locals--including some good friends--were extras). We were having dinner with another couple (hey, Lenore!) and looked over to see Steve Buscemi dining a few feet away.
You'd think I'd have had more of these with the folks I've known in the industry, but I guess I'm never in the right place at the right time. Oh well.
(Image: Hollywood sign via Wikipedia, public domain)
