Brushes with fame....a continuing thread from PattyL's post....

I've met a lot of celebrities through my work. I'm a milliner. I make hats and show girl type headpieces for Vegas, movies, cruise ships and other productions. For many years I've worked with Bob Mackie and he works with many older female celebrities. I would usually just see them around the shop and say hello or I would be measuring their heads or fitting hats on them. Most of them are so very sweet and gracious! Lets see, Cher, Carol Burnett, Bernadette Peters, Raquel Welch (beautiful and very nice), Diana Ross, Better Midler, Can't forget Ru Paul!! Whoppie Goldberg, Ann-Margaret, Angela Lansbury, Julie Andrews, Reba McEntire (super sweet!) I know there's more, but I can't think of them right now.

I was a hairstylist in my younger years and I cut the hair of Andrew Dice Clay and washed the hair of Joe Piscopo!

And a few days before surgery we were driving around and I noticed a cool very old car from maybe the early 1920. Then I noticed the driver. It was Jay Leno!

My husband does similar work, but he works for the movies. He just finished the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie. He met the entire cast, but at the rap party, I met a few of the cast members, but none of the main ones. It was still very cool.

I was reading this thread to my 17 yo, and she about flipped when she heard Bette Midler!   Can you believe my teenage daughter is obsessed with her?  We've seen her in concert everytime she has been here in Chicago since Angie (DD) was 8.  She feel in love with her in Hocus Pocus, and has been one of her biggest fans since.  She's a big movie buff, is a aspiring artist (already has a scholarship to the Chicago Art Institute as a HS Junior) and has talked about being a film director.  Maybe she'll be living by you in a few years!  Better yet, maybe you'll be adding her to your list of famous people, and momma will be living the good life off the kiddo LOL!

Your daughter sounds so cool! I wish her the best!! I met Better once, but I saw her another time. The first time I saw her it was right outside of this salon I worked in (I used to be a hairstylist). She was running out of this private one on one type gym yelling at this parking meter guy that just wrote her a ticket. She looked horrible since she had just been working out with her trainer. She actually said, "Don't you know who I am?!". She was really pissed!! But when I met her, she was so wonderful, friendly and sweet. I really enjoyed her.  I was a little nervous since I remembered how she was with this poor traffic ticket guy. But hey, we all have our bad days!!! I was also surprised at how short she was to me (I'm 5'10") since she has such a larger than life personality.

I met Dick Clark, and he autographed my notepad.  I met Peter Horton (anyone remember the show 'thirtysomething'?). Next time you watch Grey's Anatomy, you'll see he's now an executive producer! Cool, huh? 

My Gawd what a thread!  But fun I guess. I have worked within the music and entertainment industries most of my life; usually working for the stars themselves - as a portrait painter - or for organisations/management companies etc. linked with the above industries. Being British some of the people I have worked for might not be known to you but are, of course, British celebrities.  Funnily enough however, my career irtually began when Lindon B Johnson dedicated my portrait of JF Kennedy into the National Archives in Washington.  I was 14 yrs old at the time.  Things got a little crazy after that and I had a media 'career' for five years as a teenager - painting portraits of many names within the music industry (during the 60's and 70's mainly - Beatles, Stones, Walker Brothers) and the press were usually there to document the 'unveiling'.  My teenage years were pretty unusual in that respect. In the early 70's I had large exhibitions dedicated to varius musical themes , my favourite being singer/songwriters.  The record companies were always very interested in having their artists represented because of the publicity that went wwith my work,  I ended up working for Harvey Goldsmith (promoter ) Elton John, infamous Scottish comedian Billy Conolly (for whom I was Tour artist), Joni Mitchell, Randy Newman, French composer Michel le Grande (a great love of mine) and Neil Diamond, Barbra Streisand, Neil Sedaka, Leonard Cohen......Then I also worked for a couple of members of th British Royal Family. I also worked on painting commissions for British film studios at the time Superman and Star Wars ).  My Mum was most impressed when I met Bette Davies, David Niven, Gene Hackman and Christopher Lee!  (Liked her films did Mum). I ended up teaching some famous names to paint eventually.  I even ended up doing a short contract for television - production work for 'The Price is Right' (long story). Before leaving England I had my own Fine Art Trade Guild limited edition print company, which plunged me headlong into portaiture of famous sportsman - footballers mainly including David Beckham - you wait till Beckham fever hits the US!!!!

I guess the closest thing to celebrity I've done is go to high school with NASCAR racers Rusty and Mike Wallace.  When I was in high school a friend of my Mom's raced at a local track and I used to go with her and watched Rusty, Mike and Kenny Schrader race there.  At school, Rusty was kind of shy - nobody really knew what he was doing with the racing and I'd ask him how things were going once in a while.  Mike was much more open and talkative about things.  I followed their careers the entire time and now that Rusty has retired I just can't find a reason to watch anymore.

Wait just a minute here!  I thought I was the celebrity!

When I was 13, I visited Opryland and I met the nicest older man.  He told me he was a singer, and I told him that was great, but a hard way to make a living.  He agreed with me totally.  I also told him I played the french horn and piano, and he was suitably impressed.  I had a sack lunch, and gave him a big red apple out of it, and he said, "Oh thank you kindly, little miss".  As we were talking my Momma walked up, and just stood there, not able to say a word.  I was talking to Tennessee Ernie Ford.  (May he rest in peace, what a sweetie.)

My husband grew up with Mickey Thomas, who started singing lead for Jefferson Starship in the 80's.  They were in their first band together and are still buddies. So, of course, I know him too.  I still love "Fooled Around and Fell in Love" (with the Elvin Bishop band) more than any other song he's done.

My favorite celebrity EVER was Mrs. Lillian Carter.  My chorus teacher was a classmate of Jimmy Carter's.  We were on our way to Allstate Chorus and stopped in Plains to meet Mrs. Lillian.  What a spitfire!  What a lady, just as gracious as you could ever hope for.

Tommy, my husband, was on the road as a rock and roll drummer all through the 70's, and he's met a whole boatload of celebrities (mostly southern rockers).  But, I think what we're still most proud of is that Tommy's father started the very first public high school band in the state of GA... way back in the 30's in Washington, GA.  His dad went to college with John Philip Sousa, so that's pretty cool to us too!

My H is a chef at a resort where we live and he has met lots of famous people, he brought me home a Foreigner CD signed by the whole band.  He gets to meet people all of the time.      As for me?? My closest brush with fame was with Moe Collins from MAD TV, She wrote back a few times on my myspace and commented on my profile and one of my (older) pics of me. That's  about it.    I was once mistaken for Anna Nicole Smith at a store.  It was awhile ago, before I gained  weight .  I thought that was pretty funny. But I have never met anyone famous in person.

I rode the elevator with David Hasselhoff at the Aladdin Casino in Vegas.  The two gals I was with about lost it when they realized it was him.  I started to chuckle and he looked over (or more like down) to me and he got a chuckle out of it too.  That's all the girls talked about the rest of the day.   And yes he is very tall!