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/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.