My life as an amateur paparazzi and obsessive fangirl...

Ever since I was a little girl, I've loved celebrities. Actors and musicians were my heroes growing up. And I know they're just regular people, blah, blah, but they're famous! And I have always wanted to rub elbows with them or even just see them in the same vicinity as me. I didn't even need to speak to them, I just wanted to revolve in their orbit for a minute or two. Now, I've never met anyone REALLY famous. I've only met or seen some lesser known people, with a couple big names thrown in for flair. And just for the fun of it, I'm gonna share my celebrity stories and the lengths I went to in order to catch a glimpse of someone even slightly well known.

My first ever celebrity sighting was when I was about eight years old and driving around Hollywood with my mom and my brother? This guy:

Yep, we saw Barry Manilow driving a Corvette and he was at the stoplight with us. So being that my mom is just as crazy as I'd grow up to be, we followed him! We pretty much stalked poor Barry Manilow, meanwhile I'm attempting to capture his picture in a moving vehicle with my Le Clic camera (does anyone remember those pieces of shit??) I didn't get anything but some blurry pics of traffic and my own fingers over the lens. (I was eight!) Anyway, so we chased Barry for several miles, up Mullholland Drive, until he finally shook us. Not sure if he realized this insane family in the blue station wagon that looked like the Family Truckster, was actually tailing him, but he disappeared.

The second celebrity sighting I remember is this woman:

Yeardly Smith. Honestly, I'd never watched The Simpsons in my life (and to this day I still have never seen more than maybe two minutes of an episode) But I knew who Lisa Simpson was, and I knew this lady was her voice. Now, we didn't stalk her, she actually made a public appearance in Florida at Disneyworld or Universal or somewhere. But I remember being right up front next to her and I was so excited, even though I'd never watched the stupid Simpsons. That's how lame I was. But I think I was around 12 at this point. All I remember is trying to get her picture and then a wind came up and blew her skirt up and her thighs had bruises all over them. I just wondered to myself, "what on earth does she do in her spare time? Wrestle alligators? Why all the bruises???" I'll never know. And I never got a decent pic because people kept getting in my way. I think I got half her head and that's it.

Next person I had a run in with. This dude:

David Leisure. Aka Joe Isuzu from the late 80's early 90's commercials for cars. He was also on the show Empty Nest at the time, which I used to love. Anyway, he was staying at our hotel in Florida. And we saw him in the lobby first, wherein, our whole crew hid behind potted plants in various spots and tried to get pictures of him. He disappeared into the elevator, but not before a friend of mine jumped in after him and found out which floor he was on. He reported back the findings, and the next day my friend literally sat outside this man's hotel room and waited to get an autograph, while I snapped photos of the whole process. Mr. Leisure seemed a little startled, yet flattered any of us actually gave a shit about his presence, and he happily signed autographs and let me take pics. He was super happy to be noticed, which was a plus, because we were obviously stalking him like weirdos. But he was a great dude.

My next brush with incredible fame (and this time it was actually INCREDIBLE) I saw this guy:

James Hetfield. The lead singer of Metallica! Metallica, yo! It all happened on a summer's day as I casually grocery shopped at the local Raley's. I'm walking down the frozen pizza aisle and suddenly there HE is. Right in front of me! He was with his daughter, and this man is really tall and imposing looking, but he was smiling and happy. Just doing some shopping with his kid. I looked like a deer in the headlights and my mouth was open in shock. He looked right at me, smiled more, laughed, then waved a little and said "Hi!" To which I mumbled, "um, hello?" and then he just walked away. If I had been 12 again, I might have chased after him. But I was an adult now. And also, this was before camera phones, so no luck capturing the moment. But I watched him walk off to buy milk. James Hetfield buys milk at Raley's! I about passed out.

Next brush with fame, this guy!

Ashton Kutcher! This was back when he was still playing Kelso on That 70's Show. He was walking down Santa Monica pier with some girl and he had a trucker hat on, and I literally ran into him. I felt dumb and was like, "I'm so sorry!" then I looked at his face. That's when I almost died. Ashton just smiled and said, "No harm done!" Then he patted my shoulder and kept walking. And I just stood there dumbfounded going, "OMG I just TOUCHED Kelso!!! He SPOKE to me!!!" Fangirl moment! No time for pics, and he seemed busy, so I wasn't gonna chase him down and ask for an autograph. But he spoke words to me and I touched him. Slammed into him, more like it. But contact was made! I was super, super excited.

My next person, I sought them out purposely. I knew where they'd be, and I traveled 7 hours to be there. It was this guy:

James Marsters of Buffy fame. He's been on Supernatural and Smallville now (and probably other stuff) but back then, he was on Buffy. And he had a band that wasn't very good, and I traveled several times to LA in order to see him and meet him. This time I got loads of pics. No autograph. But I did say hello, and stand right next to him for almost 30 minutes while he chatted up the little crowd of people who gathered outside the club. I had many encounters with him, so I'll just lump them all together. Sometimes he was hella cool. Once he was a jerk and refused to even speak to his fans. Another time he gave hugs and autographs and spent hours in the crowd. Another time he made a brief appearance, then went and hid. I think he's moody. Who knows? But he's really cute. Although I missed the fake British accent he had on the show. Much sexier than a California surfer guy accent.

I also met these people from Buffy fame. I'm just gonna lump them altogether and tell the story. But here they all are:

Amber Benson and Adam Busch (used to date, even though his character murdered her character!)

And Danny Strong, Tom Lenk, and Adam Busch again.

I first met Adam at the same place I met James Marsters. A bar in Santa Monica. He was much less well known, so he was just sorta hanging out in the parking lot. I ended up talking to him a lot, getting my pic with him, having him autograph my CD (He had a band too) and just chilling with him. Then his real life friends, Danny Strong and Tom Lenk, who played his friends on the show, just walked up to meet him and hang out. And it ended up being just a group of me and my friends and these three fellows, and we chatted forever and had some good laughs. Danny has gone on to play in several things, like Mad Men, and also he's most notable for winning several Emmy's for writing and also had a hand in writing The Mockingjay screenplay. Tom Lenk is super funny but I don't think he's done much since. And Adam Busch has been on a few TV series. But they were my favorite celebrity encounter, by far.

I ended up running into Tom Lenk again at a convention where I staked out the lobby of the hotel and we met up in the gift shop. Then I spied Amber Benson go into the bathroom, so I ran in there and no I wasn't being creepy! Not really! I just waited and washed my hands next to her and smiled and said hello. Even I'm not so weird to accost a celebrity in a bathroom, but in my eyes, the sink was okay and I just said hi! I didn't ask to touch her or dry her hands for her...

Anyways, this is my life as a celebrity stalker. I've also met some writers and spied William Shatner across a room once, and I also have been to LOTS of concerts, but I don't count concerts because I never MET them or got anywhere near them. Except for David Lee Roth who I actually touched his hand as he was led on a surfboard through the crowd and reached out to high five people. Does that count? Maybe. There was contact. Have any of you ever met or seen anyone famous, outside of a concert experience? Unless you actually had backstage passes or something, then it still counts! Anyone? Does anyone else even care about famous people but me? I might the lone weirdo...