The Celebrity Factor

Do famous celebrities get you excited? Do celebrities ever influence your decision making or lifestyle choices? Have you ever met and been around a famous celebrity in person, and been aw-struck? Or do you care zilch about "celebrity power?"

Personally, while living and working in New York City, and even here in Austin, Texas have had many a celebrity encounter. Some more welcoming, unique and memorable than the others. Personally, I think a celebrity run in, can be a cool thing, yet also reminds you, these FAMOUS people are simple humans just like you and I.

I recall onetime riding a subway car on a dreary morning in Manhattan while Ethan Hawke, the well known actor, was sitting across the way in the same cabin. He carried the same ho-hum demeanor as everyone else on that train, just trying to get from point A to point B. Another celebrity subway ride included, the actor James Marsden. The interesting part of this run in, and why I remember it, is because my ex girlfriend in her early 20's thought he was super attractive, despite James being at least a decade or two older than her. Girls in general like established, adult, aged, good looking men. We'll save that topic for another day.

Moving along. Are you OPEN MINDFUL to celebrities and famous people in general? Back in the day, I used to work at a posh hotel in the meatpacking district with numerous HOLLYWOOD talent guests. All of these customer service celebrity experiences were very fun, as the traveling celebrities tipped well & were enjoyable to talk to, help and assist. It is probably the coolest job I have ever had. That being said, one thing I did learn in being a small part of this celebrity world was that personally for me, I hope to never be obnoxiously famous. With enormous fame comes paparazzi, weird stalkers, loss of privacy, loss of personal life, media scrutiny, trendy stupid hoopla and more. In a perfect world, personally I would prefer massive riches over fame. In an ideal setup, I'd be quietly wealthy, and thus be able to spend money discreetly on the people and things I cared most about. How do you feel about fame? Would you the reader ever want to be famous?

Lastly for today, I'll leave you with this personal celebrity run-in story. Believe me I have tons of these things. I can never tell if my dates enjoy these real-life first hand stories or not? Hmm So.. I'm out at night, partying in the Lower East Side of Manhattan on Ludlow street, at a now defunct divey bar called MAX FISH (RIP) and low and behold Jason Lee (Mallrats, My Name is Earl, Vanilla Sky, etc) the actor cruises in. Being a fan, I said hello and bought a couple whiskey shots for us from the bar. I being in my mid 20's at the time, was getting more attention from the younger ladies, and tried sending a hottie or two Jason's way. So next up, our gang took the whisky shots, and continued imbibing to the divey merriment of the beautifully grungy LES. As the night progressed, I'm guessing Jason Lee had been getting his "lean on" even earlier and ended up getting into a fist-fight with a different Max Fish patron. The bouncer ended up physically throwing Jason out of Max Fish. He later tried to get back in, to no luck. That's the whole story, that's it. Call me if you'd like to hear some others, as I've got juicer, and more rad, real life celebrity stories in the memory bank.