Encounters With Celebrities/Monica Lewinsky

I'm sure that everybody remembers who Monica Lewinsky is and even though she became famous for...uh.... perhaps the wrong reasons...well.... she has become quite successful. I met her maybe a few years after the trial when she was shopping for a dress and I was holding the door for her. She was buoyant about the dress that was displayed in the store which was in Soho and asked the salesperson how much it was as soon as she walked into the store after I held it for her. Now... I'm a gentleman.... mind you... but was taken aback at the enthusiasm that she had  for the dress. I thought that it was cute though.... kind of like a child seeing a dog in the window and asking the parent how much it is. It was one of those moments where I was flabbergasted and in awe at the same time..... primarily because.... uh.... um.... she's part of history. I didn't necessarily think about the reason why when I held the door for her but when you come to think of it...... I think that she knew what she was getting into when she did....uh.... what she did..... don't you? I'm sure that other people think so.

Encounters With Celebrities/ Hank Azaria

I've recently had the pleasure of interviewing Hank Azaria because I was covering a press event for the Smurfs movie in which he plays the villain called Gargamel. He is multi-faceted and involved in pretty much every aspect of the film as well as the television business because he's producing along with directing several features. He also voices several memorable characters for the Simpsons television show but one of my favorite characters that he has played in the past was the one in the Birdcage which was that of a gay butler to Robin William's and Nathan Lane's characters. That movie was a riot from beginning to the end and Hank Azaria is quoted as saying that he grandmother influenced him for that role. How funny! One of the questions that I asked him was who influenced him for the Gargamel character and he said that his mother did. Imagine that! I had so much fun at the press event because the press people got insight into how the Smurfs were created via software and how the movie came to be in the first place.....plus.... I got a Smurf!

Encounters With Celebrities/ Marisa Tomei

Marisa Tomei is one of my favorite actresses so my reaction to meeting her was not nonchalant because I was quite excited. I'm not one to jump up and down or hound for an autograph so I just admired her looks quietly but with glee. I've met her twice.

One time was in front of a Wild Oats supermarket in West Hollywood a few years back and then again a few years later in NYC during a MAC cosmetics party. She was just leaving and waved at me which I thought was cool since I don't know her personally. The MAC cosmetics event was a party that I sort of crashed but I didn't spend much time there because there wasn't much to do and I'm not a woman. There were some beautiful women there.... though.

Marisa looked fit as a fiddle when I first saw her in West Hollywood and I just looked at her but she was funny about it because she told me to keep quiet about seeing her....uh... you know how hot-blooded these Italian women are. She didn't want any attention drawn to herself so I just respected her wishes because that's the cool guy that I am. My favorite film of hers is My Cousin Vinnie because it's the film that got her an Oscar. She's gone on to do numerous roles and is currently working on a movie called The Ides Of March.

Encounters With Celebrities/Gary Busey

I was in Malibu once in a mall when I see Gary Busey and tried to say something to him .... like what's up.... but he was talking on his cellphone. What struck me as funny was the fact that he was murmuring into his cellphone and not actually pronouncing any words. I met him after his highly-publicized mental breakdown.... which... in his defense.... is bound to happen... especially with his past movie experience.

He's described as someone who " often plays weird or psychotic characters with bizarre background. " on the imdb.com site and that makes sense to me since he seems to parlay the character who is tortured in some way... so when I saw him then I just went my own way.... know what I'm sayin'? It wasn't that I was afraid of him but it was just that I wanted to give him his own space. He seems like a cool guy and is quite entertaining. I would put him in a movie if I was doing one. He's now doing a movie called Veteran's Day with Daryl Hannah.

Encounters With Celebrities/Woody Harrelson

I met Woody Harrelson a few years ago when he was with his kid from him and his girlfriend. It was an odd encounter because I absolutely love his character in Natural Born Killers so took the liberty of using a curse word to express my joy of seeing him. He didn't seem to mind but I walked away while asking myself as to why I would make a fool of myself in front of his kid. I guess that I didn't since he didn't seem to mind. He is one of my favorite actors. He always seems to play characters that are edgy.... which is what I like..... never mind the subtle character that an actor may or may not play.

Mickey Knox was a heroic-type of character from Natural Born Killers that people rooted for because of his tenacious and fearless nature. Juliette Lewis played her character along side Woody Harrelson with ease and she was just as naughty as well as filthy. I've actually met couples of that nature. If a person who is reading this post hasn't seen it then.... do it! It's well worth the two hours of your time. It's also got Robert Downey Junior as a flummoxed journalist who is covering a prison riot that Mickey and Mallory Knox are involved in and Tommy Lee Jones plays the warden. The riot is designed so that the two serial people can escape.

Encounters With Celebrities/Billy Preston

This is one of the more intimate encounters that I've had because I was in a limo with Billy Preston when I met him. I spent a little time with him and he showed me his favorite places like the Toi restaurant in Hollywooooood..... as well as some nightclub that is....or was.....I don't know if it's still there... stuck in some corner of a mini-mall. I got to know him a little but.... he didn't sing! He didn't ask me to sing either.... which disappointed me a bit but I had a good time nevertheless.

He recently passed away in Arizona but his career was primarily as a songwriter and his most prominent song was...yup...you guessed it...called You Are So Beautiful which was made famous by Joe Cocker. What a name that is....huh? Anyway.... an interesting fact is that Billy Preston was known as the fifth Beatle. He left the quirky group to make his own music..... now that's what I'm talking about! I never got to see him again but it was cool to sit with him in a limo nevertheless...... know what I'm sayin'?

Encounters With Celebrities/Diana Ross

Diana Ross is one of the most svelte performers out there. She always performs while wearing dresses with long trains attached.... but I had an encounter with her while I was working in the Scandinavian Ski And Sport Shop which is no longer there due to the length of the lease expiring.... too bad. The shop had pretty much every one working there from Norway....with names like Boo and Lars as well as Oslo. It had two levels and sold high-end ski-wear with equipment to boot..... it was a chic place. My job was to organize everything in the stockroom so that when a diva like Diana Ross needed a size of something then I could run into the stockroom to get it.

She was there to purchase a few items which did not require me to run like crazy but I had only found out that she was there when I saw her impeccably dressed body guard at the top of the stairs...so.... something was up! When I went over to the cash register to pick up some hangers then I saw her with her flowing black and semi-curly hair along with her coco-brown skin. I was surprised about her height.... which was at about 5' 7"... because she does appear as taller..... or maybe it was the admiration that I had for her that made her seem taller.

It was a funny moment because there was a french woman who worked there and when Diana Ross pulled out $1,000 in cash to pay for the clothing then the french cashier backed away because she had never had to deal with that amount of cash before. Diana Ross is currently on tour in smaller venues....so I guess that means that she is taking easy. She could easily do a show in Las Vegas..... right? Who wouldn't want to see Diana Ross in Las Vegas? They would be nuts not too. She was Michael Jackson's mentor before they split apart....for some reason... and they lived together while she sported him on how to perform. I guess that she
mothered him somehow.