Celeb sightings...
I was talking to a friend the other night about the celebrities I’ve met. Met? Well. Not quite. Seen. Talked too. Been in the same room with. That kind of thing.
Soap Stars. In high school I watched the guiding light. Every. Single Day. I skipped school to watch it. Favorite character was Jennifer Richards. I wrote the show a letter. From the small town I grew up in (Hallstead, Pennsylvania) population at that time was oh, around 1,000 people. Yeah That small. Sending a letter all the way to NYC to an actress was a really big deal.
Well, the actress, Geraldine Court, wrote back. We were fast friends. Before my high school graduation I had been to the set of Guiding Light in NYC a total of four times. Met all the main actors. Let me think. Jerry VerDorn was the cutest. I lost touch with Geraldine after I graduated and she was let go from her contract. She didn’t win the Emmy that year. Bummer. It was a thrill to be on the set.
In Texas my family met some of the stars of Dallas. Does that count? I wasn’t there. Bummer.
While in L.A. when I was 17, I saw Jimmy Stewart standing at his doorstep opening mail. I have that on my mini camcorder that my parents bought me.
While working as a front desk clerk in Binghamton, New York, I checked in Sophia Lauren. She was promoting her new perfume at the time, “Sophia,” and the local department store, where I also worked nights, had her come in to do a publicity stunt. Great fun. Sophia flew into the local airport on a chartered plane. The owner of Boscov’s – the store where she was doing her publicity – owned the plane. The owner of the hotel – the Hotel De’Ville – where I worked and she stayed – loaned her his white Lincoln stretch limousine to get from the airport to the hotel. She was lovely. Very nice person but the room – or suite – that they stayed in was trashed. She asked that all the wire hangers be removed and replaced with the cloth fluffy ones. Oh, how mommy dearest of her. She also had to have 100% cotton towels, robe, and cloths in the suite. Dinner was to be served promptly at 6pm. Not one minute late. Breakfast was at 7am. Promptly. She was only at the hotel for 2 days but hundreds of her fans lined the street by the hotel to welcome her day and night.
The Shah of Iran’s widow also stayed at the hotel. She seemed nice. Her codeword was something like “little woman.” It reminded me of the play, novel, little women. I had to change her room though as she didn’t like the suite she was staying in. I moved her to a new suite and all seemed well although I seem to remember that she had quite a few problems with the phone and dialing out. I remember her soft voice saying excuse me all the time.
While working at the Forum Theater, also in Binghamton, I met David Copperfield back stage. Or, I ran into him I should say. No one was allowed backstage while he performed. I was the house manager. A toilet was clogged. I had to go backstage. He was very nice, very nervous, extremely tall and really, really, really, hairy. That’s all I remember.
After I moved to NYC in the summer of 1988 I saw quite a few. Jackie O’ dashing from a retail store to her limo, Liza Minelli walking down 10th street in the village. My friend tom actually saw her. He was a flaming queen. As we walked by her I smiled thinking damn what a short woman. Tom then screamed her name at the top of his lungs. She turned and smiled. Who else? Celeste Holm (older actress. Not sure if I spelled her name right and too lazy to google) She was standing on the corner hailing a cab. All dressed in off white with an off white fur hat and coat. Gorgeous. Tyne Daly crossed in front of us as she was leaving the Broadway theater where she was performing. I remember thinking how frumpy and dumpy she looked.
While I lived in NYC and went to school I worked on TV shows like Inside Edition and A current affair, so of course I met Maury Povich. He seemed nice. Not too chatty with the help if you know what I mean. He used to arrive to work every day in a Jaguar stretch limo. I had never seen a jaguar stretch limo before. Haven’t since either. I also met Bill O’Reilly, who now has his own show on cable again. But when I met him he was the original anchor of Inside Edition. He wasn’t the first. The first I can’t remember! He was british. I remember that. He used to fly in on the Concorde to tape the show. He would stay until Friday afternoon and then blast – literally – back to London. I cannot for the life of me remember his name but it was Robert something. While there I saw, not met, Janet Jackson and her sister Latoya. Latoya was wearing – yes wearing – a boa constrictor while in the green room. What a mess they made.
Then while working as a manager at an antique store (John Sallibello Antiques) on the upper east side I saw quite a few celebs. My shop was right next to Serendipity café. Quite the little hot spot for stars. Candice Bergen came into the shop twice. She was very nice and very funny. Her designer Bunny Williams (who is quite famous in her own right – just look through AD – Architectural Digest) was just as nice. They were shopping for a chandelier I hadn’t been working in the shop for more than a month and I was cleaning a mirror one day. The shop owner was still standing in the shop with me so I couldn’t have worked there for more than a week or two. As I was cleaning the buzzer rang letting me know that people wanted to come in. I hit the buzzer and then ducked under the chandeliers to get to the mirror that I was cleaning. As I was cleaning I heard someone ask, “Can you tell me about this chandelier?” As I turned and ducked she said, “Watch your head! It’s close quarters in here isn’t it? Geesh!” As I looked up I saw that it was Candice Bergen. I nearly died. I looked at the tag and read off what it had said. “I could have done that!” She said with a hearty laugh. I laughed out loud and told her that I had just started working there and wasn’t sure what it was. “Well, I read the tag too and I’m not sure I still know what it is either!” Candice said with a smile. I loved in instantly. A month or so later she and Bunny were back. This time I was alone sitting at a desk near the back of the shop. Candice walked in, spotted me, and said, “Oh, it’s the new guy! How’s it going?” I said that I was settling in just fine and thanked her for asking. Bunny said they had come back to look at a particular chandelier. I found it. Pointed it out. Candice looked at it again and said, “Oh. I think it’s too fu-fu Bunny. It’s just too fu-fu.” She then turned to me in horror and said, “I hope I didn’t just offend you!” No. I said. I laughed again. I told her that I wasn’t the owner of the shop and that I had never heard anyone else use that term before. “Fu-fu?” she asked. Yes. I said. I couldn’t wait to go home and tell my partner that Candice Bergen used the term fu-fu too! Bunny called her Candy. I thought that was really neat but I didn’t dare. As she left I just wished her a good day and said how beautiful it looked outside. It was a gorgeous fall day.
Soap star Susan Lucci came into the shop twice too. Now she was teenie tiny. She didn’t buy anything either come to think of it, but she was so very nice. She took a “memo” which was a photo and a business card and asked me to put a “hold” on a mirror. Before I could ask her name she said softly, “My name is Susan. Susan Lucci.” She then proceeded to spell it for me. I thought that was so cool and down to earth. Her chauffer driven Rolls Royce, black of course, was parked out front waiting for her. She called about a week later like clock work and asked me to take it off hold. “Michael?” she asked. “Yes,” I said. “It’s Susan Lucci. I was in the shop last week and placed a mirror on hold. Do you remember?” Of course I did. I couldn’t believe I was talking to her on the phone. “Well, please, Michael, take it off from hold. It’s just not what I’m looking for and I don’t want to keep anyone else from having the opportunity of purchasing it. Oh. I have to go. Okay?” I nearly died. She could NOT have been nicer. I did LOVE having the red hold tag on the mirror with her name spelled out so that people would stop and see it! I hated taking it down.
The prime minister, or former, PM of Isreal, Benjamin Netanyahu also came into the shop. I didn’t know who he was. His wife came in first followed by at least half a dozen security guards. They were truly men in black. Complete with black sunglasses. The shop was tiny so they all stood in a line. Then PM then came in behind them. He looked around. Said something I couldn’t understand and then left. John Cusak stopped in quickly with another celeb who was working on the move “serendipity.” There is a shot in the movie during winter where you can see the antique shop. Terrence, the other manager, got his heels into that shot. I wasn’t asked. Bitch that he was! The location scout came into his shop first and he brought her down to my shop. They were both hags and ended up liking one another. End of story. That same balding nasty watched the shop for me while I peed one day and said that Jason Priestly walked down the isle. Unreal. I missed it.
Martha Stewart never came into my shop but her magazine staff did. They would take items out for magazine shoots and then bring them back. The shop would then get credit in the magazine. One time they took a pair of lamps, and the last time they were doing a red themed room so they took an umbrella stand. It was copper from what I remember painted with a red laquer. Stunning. John called to complain as they never did credit the shop. Nasty. I asked the one little worker bee what Martha was like and she quickly turned on her heel and said, “She’s a complete and total ass bitch.” Then out the door she went. I laughed and shouted that it sounded just like my boss too!
Ms. Mica Ertegun from MAC II, a huge design firm in NYC used to come into the shop. Mario Buatta another famous designer for the stars, took out two sconces for Mariah Carey’s spread in Manhattan. He was a wonderful designer and a really really nice man. Mariah didn’t keep the sconces nor did she come into the shop. Mica was working with Robert Dinero on his summer home right next door from us now in Gardiner, New York.
David Hasselhoff, pre-rehab and post-Baywatch, was running into Serendipity with his wife and family. My Aunt Donna nearly passed out. She had come to NYC to see the store fronts and said she wanted to see a celebrity.
That was about three years ago – no make that five or six years ago. I left the antique shop and worked at a TV station for three years and I’ve been in school for one, almost two, so wow. It’s been nearly six years!
I think, just think, that that is the last celebrity that I have seen. For now.
Soap Stars. In high school I watched the guiding light. Every. Single Day. I skipped school to watch it. Favorite character was Jennifer Richards. I wrote the show a letter. From the small town I grew up in (Hallstead, Pennsylvania) population at that time was oh, around 1,000 people. Yeah That small. Sending a letter all the way to NYC to an actress was a really big deal.
Well, the actress, Geraldine Court, wrote back. We were fast friends. Before my high school graduation I had been to the set of Guiding Light in NYC a total of four times. Met all the main actors. Let me think. Jerry VerDorn was the cutest. I lost touch with Geraldine after I graduated and she was let go from her contract. She didn’t win the Emmy that year. Bummer. It was a thrill to be on the set.
In Texas my family met some of the stars of Dallas. Does that count? I wasn’t there. Bummer.
While in L.A. when I was 17, I saw Jimmy Stewart standing at his doorstep opening mail. I have that on my mini camcorder that my parents bought me.
While working as a front desk clerk in Binghamton, New York, I checked in Sophia Lauren. She was promoting her new perfume at the time, “Sophia,” and the local department store, where I also worked nights, had her come in to do a publicity stunt. Great fun. Sophia flew into the local airport on a chartered plane. The owner of Boscov’s – the store where she was doing her publicity – owned the plane. The owner of the hotel – the Hotel De’Ville – where I worked and she stayed – loaned her his white Lincoln stretch limousine to get from the airport to the hotel. She was lovely. Very nice person but the room – or suite – that they stayed in was trashed. She asked that all the wire hangers be removed and replaced with the cloth fluffy ones. Oh, how mommy dearest of her. She also had to have 100% cotton towels, robe, and cloths in the suite. Dinner was to be served promptly at 6pm. Not one minute late. Breakfast was at 7am. Promptly. She was only at the hotel for 2 days but hundreds of her fans lined the street by the hotel to welcome her day and night.
The Shah of Iran’s widow also stayed at the hotel. She seemed nice. Her codeword was something like “little woman.” It reminded me of the play, novel, little women. I had to change her room though as she didn’t like the suite she was staying in. I moved her to a new suite and all seemed well although I seem to remember that she had quite a few problems with the phone and dialing out. I remember her soft voice saying excuse me all the time.
While working at the Forum Theater, also in Binghamton, I met David Copperfield back stage. Or, I ran into him I should say. No one was allowed backstage while he performed. I was the house manager. A toilet was clogged. I had to go backstage. He was very nice, very nervous, extremely tall and really, really, really, hairy. That’s all I remember.
After I moved to NYC in the summer of 1988 I saw quite a few. Jackie O’ dashing from a retail store to her limo, Liza Minelli walking down 10th street in the village. My friend tom actually saw her. He was a flaming queen. As we walked by her I smiled thinking damn what a short woman. Tom then screamed her name at the top of his lungs. She turned and smiled. Who else? Celeste Holm (older actress. Not sure if I spelled her name right and too lazy to google) She was standing on the corner hailing a cab. All dressed in off white with an off white fur hat and coat. Gorgeous. Tyne Daly crossed in front of us as she was leaving the Broadway theater where she was performing. I remember thinking how frumpy and dumpy she looked.
While I lived in NYC and went to school I worked on TV shows like Inside Edition and A current affair, so of course I met Maury Povich. He seemed nice. Not too chatty with the help if you know what I mean. He used to arrive to work every day in a Jaguar stretch limo. I had never seen a jaguar stretch limo before. Haven’t since either. I also met Bill O’Reilly, who now has his own show on cable again. But when I met him he was the original anchor of Inside Edition. He wasn’t the first. The first I can’t remember! He was british. I remember that. He used to fly in on the Concorde to tape the show. He would stay until Friday afternoon and then blast – literally – back to London. I cannot for the life of me remember his name but it was Robert something. While there I saw, not met, Janet Jackson and her sister Latoya. Latoya was wearing – yes wearing – a boa constrictor while in the green room. What a mess they made.
Then while working as a manager at an antique store (John Sallibello Antiques) on the upper east side I saw quite a few celebs. My shop was right next to Serendipity café. Quite the little hot spot for stars. Candice Bergen came into the shop twice. She was very nice and very funny. Her designer Bunny Williams (who is quite famous in her own right – just look through AD – Architectural Digest) was just as nice. They were shopping for a chandelier I hadn’t been working in the shop for more than a month and I was cleaning a mirror one day. The shop owner was still standing in the shop with me so I couldn’t have worked there for more than a week or two. As I was cleaning the buzzer rang letting me know that people wanted to come in. I hit the buzzer and then ducked under the chandeliers to get to the mirror that I was cleaning. As I was cleaning I heard someone ask, “Can you tell me about this chandelier?” As I turned and ducked she said, “Watch your head! It’s close quarters in here isn’t it? Geesh!” As I looked up I saw that it was Candice Bergen. I nearly died. I looked at the tag and read off what it had said. “I could have done that!” She said with a hearty laugh. I laughed out loud and told her that I had just started working there and wasn’t sure what it was. “Well, I read the tag too and I’m not sure I still know what it is either!” Candice said with a smile. I loved in instantly. A month or so later she and Bunny were back. This time I was alone sitting at a desk near the back of the shop. Candice walked in, spotted me, and said, “Oh, it’s the new guy! How’s it going?” I said that I was settling in just fine and thanked her for asking. Bunny said they had come back to look at a particular chandelier. I found it. Pointed it out. Candice looked at it again and said, “Oh. I think it’s too fu-fu Bunny. It’s just too fu-fu.” She then turned to me in horror and said, “I hope I didn’t just offend you!” No. I said. I laughed again. I told her that I wasn’t the owner of the shop and that I had never heard anyone else use that term before. “Fu-fu?” she asked. Yes. I said. I couldn’t wait to go home and tell my partner that Candice Bergen used the term fu-fu too! Bunny called her Candy. I thought that was really neat but I didn’t dare. As she left I just wished her a good day and said how beautiful it looked outside. It was a gorgeous fall day.
Soap star Susan Lucci came into the shop twice too. Now she was teenie tiny. She didn’t buy anything either come to think of it, but she was so very nice. She took a “memo” which was a photo and a business card and asked me to put a “hold” on a mirror. Before I could ask her name she said softly, “My name is Susan. Susan Lucci.” She then proceeded to spell it for me. I thought that was so cool and down to earth. Her chauffer driven Rolls Royce, black of course, was parked out front waiting for her. She called about a week later like clock work and asked me to take it off hold. “Michael?” she asked. “Yes,” I said. “It’s Susan Lucci. I was in the shop last week and placed a mirror on hold. Do you remember?” Of course I did. I couldn’t believe I was talking to her on the phone. “Well, please, Michael, take it off from hold. It’s just not what I’m looking for and I don’t want to keep anyone else from having the opportunity of purchasing it. Oh. I have to go. Okay?” I nearly died. She could NOT have been nicer. I did LOVE having the red hold tag on the mirror with her name spelled out so that people would stop and see it! I hated taking it down.
The prime minister, or former, PM of Isreal, Benjamin Netanyahu also came into the shop. I didn’t know who he was. His wife came in first followed by at least half a dozen security guards. They were truly men in black. Complete with black sunglasses. The shop was tiny so they all stood in a line. Then PM then came in behind them. He looked around. Said something I couldn’t understand and then left. John Cusak stopped in quickly with another celeb who was working on the move “serendipity.” There is a shot in the movie during winter where you can see the antique shop. Terrence, the other manager, got his heels into that shot. I wasn’t asked. Bitch that he was! The location scout came into his shop first and he brought her down to my shop. They were both hags and ended up liking one another. End of story. That same balding nasty watched the shop for me while I peed one day and said that Jason Priestly walked down the isle. Unreal. I missed it.
Martha Stewart never came into my shop but her magazine staff did. They would take items out for magazine shoots and then bring them back. The shop would then get credit in the magazine. One time they took a pair of lamps, and the last time they were doing a red themed room so they took an umbrella stand. It was copper from what I remember painted with a red laquer. Stunning. John called to complain as they never did credit the shop. Nasty. I asked the one little worker bee what Martha was like and she quickly turned on her heel and said, “She’s a complete and total ass bitch.” Then out the door she went. I laughed and shouted that it sounded just like my boss too!
Ms. Mica Ertegun from MAC II, a huge design firm in NYC used to come into the shop. Mario Buatta another famous designer for the stars, took out two sconces for Mariah Carey’s spread in Manhattan. He was a wonderful designer and a really really nice man. Mariah didn’t keep the sconces nor did she come into the shop. Mica was working with Robert Dinero on his summer home right next door from us now in Gardiner, New York.
David Hasselhoff, pre-rehab and post-Baywatch, was running into Serendipity with his wife and family. My Aunt Donna nearly passed out. She had come to NYC to see the store fronts and said she wanted to see a celebrity.
That was about three years ago – no make that five or six years ago. I left the antique shop and worked at a TV station for three years and I’ve been in school for one, almost two, so wow. It’s been nearly six years!
I think, just think, that that is the last celebrity that I have seen. For now.
posted by Mike at 4:25 PM
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