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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask what do you say when you meet a celebrity?

194 replies

Mollymoo78 · 13/08/2016 22:45

I feel like the only person who has never met a famous person and I wouldn't know what to say if I did!!

OP posts:
Lollyp333 · 13/08/2016 23:26

I met Madonna once (my cousin works for her PR team). I was quite pissed and said 'what was your name again?' She loved it. She was nice to me but I witnessed her being a total cunt to lots of others, including my cousin

Just5minswithDacre · 13/08/2016 23:27

If you meet them socially or via work, be normal; they're people.

If you see them about, leave them alone.

Simple Smile

nonicknameseemsavailable · 13/08/2016 23:28

due to work I have met quite a few over the years, most are just normal people and you just chat as normal people really, with it being a job obviously you don't ask intrusive questions but over time you do get to know them well. I have met others not through work and again, similar thing. SOME however love themselves and are complete prats.

Alisvolatpropiis · 13/08/2016 23:30

I acknowledge/ignore as I do with any other random stranger who does/n't make eye contact with me.

twostepsister · 13/08/2016 23:31

Earlier this year I met my crush Mr David Morrissey, I had been to see him in a play and bumped into him coming out of the stage door. He was such a lovely man, I was a bit squiffy and brazenly asked for a selfie with him, he was happy to and we chatted about the play.

BadToTheBone · 13/08/2016 23:32

Just5, that's exactly what I think. I've always met celebrities in social situations so actually easier to speak to as its on a level basis. Out and about and interrupting, I'd stumble over what to say too.

Seren85 · 13/08/2016 23:32

Never approached anyone in the street or anything, just after gigs or at signings. I got a bit overwhelmed and flappy when I met the band Thunder in Jillys in Manchester. The guitarist turned to DH who was stood behind me and said, "Is she with you?" DH replied that he'd never seen me before in his life. Cheeky fucker.

Idrinkandiknowstuff · 13/08/2016 23:33

My conversation with Alan Rickman

Us: Ohhhh, it's Alan Rickman
AR: Hello , how are you all today?
Us: We work at X place making X product.
AR: Ooo, that's nice, have you brought me any?
Us. 😔 Noooo

Disclaimer, said product is very low value snack type food.

Nofunkingworriesmate · 13/08/2016 23:34

I told my greatest crush Mary portas she was on my laminated list !!!
Thought she would be flattered and instantly become new best friends with me " hey let's go for a coffee!" . ..her assistant had to explain want a laminated list is ( friends reference)... While I blushed puce in time for a photo to be taken ( which Mary sweetly suggested) I then Felt I should buy stuff from her charity shop ( which she was busy opening) ...and scuttled off promising myself never to speak to anyone ever again. She was soooo nice xxlove herxxx

Just5minswithDacre · 13/08/2016 23:35

Just5, that's exactly what I think. I've always met celebrities in social situations so actually easier to speak to as its on a level basis. Out and about and interrupting, I'd stumble over what to say too.

Well it's like dabbling in a bit of amateur stalking behaviour, isn't? Grin

Approaching strangers randomly for a natter isn't something many of us have a template for.

TheRealAdaLovelace · 13/08/2016 23:35

oh i once came to face to face with Chris Eubank and was so pleased that I squeaked 'hi' at him.

namechanger1981 · 13/08/2016 23:36

Depends. When I met Bill Bryson at a book signing I told him about much he had inspired me to travel.

When I was introduced to Stuart broad through a friend I just said hi nice to meet you. He kissed me on the cheek and said hi back. Then I tried to act cool.

GiddyOnZackHunt · 13/08/2016 23:40

I've ranged from making a total tit of myself to them buying me a drink.
And in a professional capacity I've never been less than professional thank goodness.

Houseofmirth66 · 13/08/2016 23:40

I met Gwyneth Paltrow in a park. She asked me if I had a spare dog poo bag. We chatted about this and that for a few minutes and i got the impression that she was pleased to have someone to talk to about ordinary stuff. (The weather/dog/mud etc.) I've seen her a few times since and she always stops to say hi. She's lovely.

IamNotDarling · 13/08/2016 23:40

I saw a famous actress having a fag outside the theatre she was performing at. I happened to see her in the preview show the night before so I stopped and said "I thought you were excellent last night, thank you" to which she said "Really? That's so kind of you to say, I was very nervous." I smiled and walked on.

To be fair, I felt a right knob.

aurynne · 13/08/2016 23:48

I just try to imagine what an absoluite pain in the neck it must be for these people to have to meet 100s of gaping-mouthed, flustered, stuttering fans they don't know from Adam every single day. I also seem to have been born lacking the "celebrity awe" gene, and could never understand why meeting anyone famous who you don't know and is not interested in you at all is a thing, and what talking to them would achieve except for bothering them.

If I saw a "celebrity" in the street I would do the same as if I saw any other unknown person, i.e. nothing. If I met them socially or someone introduced them to me and I found any aspect of their life interesting, I would probably ask them about that bit. However, I am quite uncommon in that I am usually not intersted in the personal life of people who do/write/produce things I like. I may love a song, but I am not interested in the singer or the song writer's life. In order for me to be interested it would really need to be a person who is deeply involved in one of my passions and from whom I could learn something, i.e., Sir David Attenborough. Now, that would be a conversation worth having!

TheRealAdaLovelace · 13/08/2016 23:51

I agree auryme - in my years in London I have seen many celebs in passing - they were just mooching about - I once saw Amy Winehouse in Camden! but she was just looking at shoes and being normal so I ignored her.

Having said that, I must confess to screaming 'CAK!' out of a car window to Alexei Sayle.....(in the 80s)

MidnightAura · 13/08/2016 23:56

I've met a few celebrities. Only got a bit flustered around Simon Cowell which was very weird and very unexpected.

I did get very flustered around my teenage crush, member of a ex boy band who sadly was not very friendly. Peter Capaldi is very nice and put my very awestruck DP at ease!

LaBrujaPiruja · 13/08/2016 23:59

When I was 16 or 17 a famous band was playing a gig in my hometown. A friend saw the singer and the bassist having lunch in the terrace of a cafe and called the rest of the girls of the gang. We were obsessed about this band and observed them from the other side of the road for ten minutes or so. We wanted to talk to them but were not bold enough. By then we had managed to get noticed and they were having a laugh about us. One of my friends said she would talk to them and they would stop laughing at once.
We crossed the road and this was the conversation:

Friend, smiley and very polite: Excuse me, we think we have met you before.
Singer, in a condescending tone: Yes?
Friend, looking embarrassed: Yes, totally sure but... Cannot...
Singer, starting to get angry: Cannot wtf?
Friend, looking positively embarrassed: Remember your name, sorry.
Singer, looking proud and terribly condescending: I AM XXXXX
Friend, very relieved: Oh! Sorry then, we thought you were our friend Tommy's dad!

We then left leaving the singer and bassist looking puzzled and poker-faced.

Some 15 years later another friend met the singer backstage after a gig in the same town. She told him she had been to their gig in town many years ago and he told her he remembered that gig. Because a bunch of teens had told him he looked like someone's dad and after that he felt old and unworthy of cool celebrity status for days. Hahahaha.

FloatyFlo · 14/08/2016 00:02

I saw Sue perkins and her girlfriend (the other TV presenter - can't remember her name!!) at about 1am in Swindon motorway service station. We stood next to each other in Costa. And I said...nothing. GBBO was on at the time and I really to say something but it was the middle of the night, they were obviously in the middle of a long journey (as was I) and I just thought fuck it. Leave them be.

Sparklesilverglitter · 14/08/2016 00:04

I was in a London pub about 20 years ago and a guy from a big band at the time was in there, he tried pushing in front of me in the queue Shock I don't think so, I pushed my way back in front. He was drunk and told me how to make the absolute perfect Virgin Mary while waiting behind me in. He was dick! Not the man I had imagined at all

hungryhippo90 · 14/08/2016 00:10

I've seen a few minor celebs about, I just give them a look, and a nod, from a distance.
I think it looks a bit like a knowing look, probably doesn't!!
I wouldn't want to be a pain, and anyway, I'd not really have anything to say.
If it was someone I loved, I would HAVE to go and make an arse out of myself...I usually do when my mouth moves!

NinjaLeprechaun · 14/08/2016 00:18

I've met a few celebrities in not-random settings. Most of the time I'm fairly normal. well, as normal as I get. One fella I'd had a crush on for years was kind of a dick, and I gave it right back - my friends were peeing themselves laughing about it afterwards, apparently he didn't seem to expect it.

But sometimes I'm somewhat less than normal - I met Wil Wheaton at a con last year. He was lovely, got very enthusiastic about the octopus my daughter's friend has tattooed on her leg (he has one on his arm). Then when I got up to talk to him, I said "Hello" (he said hi back) then I kind of burst out "I think I just became sixteen... I have to go..." rushed off and started crying. Blush Oddly, I don't even think I had a crush on him when I was sixteen.

dodobookends · 14/08/2016 00:22

I met one today, we ended up talking about holidays, and how he is scared of heights. Not sure how we arrived at either of those topics Grin

LaBrujaPiruja · 14/08/2016 00:24

I have met many famous people (fashion, music, etc.) throughout work and mos of them are normal people and feel embarrassed by the attention they get in "normal" life. However, as a PP said, there are a few that are unsufferable.

When I started in this business, 20+ years ago, I was in awe 24/7 but managed to keep cool and never made a fool of myself. However when I started to go with my then bf (now dh) to my PILs, who live next to a very very famous singer, I had a nearly faux pas with said singer. The poor man, who by then had seen me many times with his neighbours' son, stopped to say Hi and I got the giggles. Didn't manage to say a word.