Question of the Day

For Shaker rachael1978 (because): Got any good stories of a celebrity encounter?

Most of the occasions I've met famous people are not remotely interesting stories about meeting my favorite musicians/singers (Morrissey, the boys from Suede, Craig Wedren from Shudder to Think, Harriet Wheeler from The Sundays, Tim Booth from James, Martin Rossiter, etc.) because I was a goofy fangrrl who hung around outside venues the day of a show I was going to see, or stood in line back in the days when Tower Records used to have in-stores.

Once upon a time on a cutting room floor somewhere was footage of me interrupting a shoot on the set of the Bruce Willis film Mercury Rising, which was being shot right outside the building in which I worked. After being trapped in the lobby and prohibited from leaving for well over a half hour, repeatedly told that it was going to be "just five minutes!" as a crowd of people needing to leave for meetings, doctor's appointments, life gathered, I finally refused to stand like a corralled sheep any longer and walked past security and out the door, to the immediate sound of "CUT!" Bruce Willis yelled at me: "We're trying to shoot a film here!" I shot back, "I'm trying to live my life here!" then turned on my heel and made a dramatic (and swift) exit before I was detained by the movie police.

I also once spent an evening backstage at a Chicago comedy club managed by my then-boyfriend's brother sharing a spliff with a local comic named Brian McCann, who would go on to be a writer and performer on Conan O'Brien's various shows, and a then-unknown comic named Dave Chappelle. (!)

[Previously: Spudsy and Mustang Bobby.]