Karen's Celebrity Encounters
Mine and Cesar's celebrity encounters first started in 2007.
Our first red carpet premiere was in Hollywood in June of that year when we attended the star studded premiere of Ocean's
13.
The movie stars Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Matt Damon
and all were in attendance including Angelina Jolie who was there with Brad.
We were fortunate enough to be in the front row and met all
the stars. Since then we have attended numerous premieres, concerts and awards shows and I have had my photo taken with
over 100 of them and have had the stars sign various pieces of paraphernalia.
The nicest stars I have met are George Clooney, Angelina
Jolie, Matt Damon, Def Leppard, Snow Patrol, Paris Hilton, Jesica Alba and Jensen Ackles.
The worst are Robin Williams (not so much a funny man in
real life!) Billy Idol, Chris Cornell and Scott Weiland. All either refused to sign or were just plain rude!
Below is a summary of recent meetings.
December 2nd 2008
Cesar and I attended a charity auction at a gallery next
door to the LA INK shop owned by Kat Von D. Kat had sketched numerous portraits of her boyfriend Nikki Sixx of Motley
Crue fame.
The tattoo artists were present, Corey Miller and Hannah
Aitchison as was Nikki. Tom Araya from Slayer was also there even though he denied he was said person and a weird
conversation with him ensued! He eventually admitted he was Tom and signed and posed for a photo
Kat was present but was busy filming in the shop.
December 7th 2008
Knotts Berry Farm had the group Puddle of Mudd performing
a free acoustic concert for the holidays. They performed half a dozen songs including their smash hit "Blurry" and songs
from their new album. After the show the singer Wes Scantlin signed autographs and posed for photos, we got a cd signed
and I had my photo taken with Wes.
December 11th 2008
Cesar and I received tickets to see Snow Patrol at a chat
show. The band was performing an oudoor mini concert. Tom Cruise was also appearing on the show and signed autographs.
Unfortunately we were in line for the concert so missed out on Tom but we had met him twice before. Cesar and I were
front row centre for the concert, Snow Patrol performed five songs and ended with an amazing performance of "Chasing Cars".
After the show we went to the place we always go to try and
get autographs and the guys didn't disappoint. The singer Gary and the keyboard player Tom came over and signed cd's
and index cards for us and I had my photo taken with both. The guys were really nice and hung out for quite a while,
it was a good night!
January 8th 2009
Cesar and I attended the premiere of the movie "My Bloody
Valentine 3D" starring Jensen Ackles of Supernatural fame. We had a great evening, we got to hang out with
the likes of Jensen, Jessica Alba and Paris Hilton.
All in all we had ten celebrities sign and pose for photos,
these people were: Jensen Ackles, Jessica Alba, Paris and Nicky Hilton, Kerr Smith, Jaime King, Frank Miller, Corey Haim,
Katy Perry and Bruce Vilanch.
Everyone was great and very friendly and we even got a pair
of souvenir 3D glasses from the movie!
January 28th 2009
We went to the Kimmel show to see the band Disturbed.
We were front row off to the right so had a really good view. The band performed half a dozen songs and then signed
autographs and posed for photos afterwards.
February 14th 2009
We attended the Hollywood Collector's Convention in Burbank
on Valentine's Day. Amongst the celebrities attending were Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, Tony Curtis and Eric Roberts.
I chatted and got autographed photos from the above mentioned plus Joan Collins, Robert Picardo, Richard Kiel and Sean Kenney.
All the celebrities were very accomodating and polite if
not a little quirky. Joan Collins had her own room to sign in, I was told this was due to the fact that she did not
want the flourescent lights on. She was apparantly also complainig a lot that it was either too hot or cold for her.
Debbie Reynolds was lovely if not a little out of it, she
seemed almost in a trance.
Tony Curtis was nice, everyone who has seen the photo of
him and me keep remarking that they did not know he was still alive!
Eric Roberts gave me a 10 dollar refund so I only paid ten
dollars for his signed photo and to have my photo taken with him, bargain!
Richard Kiel I was shocked to see was in a wheelchair so
I never got to see his enormous height, he was very nice.
Sean Kenney from Star Trek told me he became an actor whilst
serving in the airforce. He was sent to Harrow in the UK and met a woman who was trying to become an actress.
He would read lines with her and picked up the acting bug!
Kevin Sorbo, of Hercules fame, was charging 30 dollars
for a signed photo and 20 to have your photo taken with him, total rip off, I got Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds combined
for the 50 dollars he was charging. I noticed his table never had much activity.
April 18th
We went to Hollywood for the Paley Festival at the Cinerama
Dome. We were lucky enough to get into a Desperate Housewives event. There we met James Denton (Mike) Kyle MacLachlan
(Orson) Neal McDonough(Dave) Kathryn Joosten (Mrs. McCluskey and also the entertainment reporter Terri Seymour.
April 25th
We attended a Hollywood Convention in Burbank. Amongst
the celebrities were Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers) Erin Gray (Wilma from Buck Rogers) Tia Carrere, Dawn Wells (Mary
Ann from Gilligan's Island) and Richard Eden from the Robocop tv series.
May 30th
We attended a charity yard sale being held by Scott Baio
and his wife. Amongst the atendees were, Scott, Jason Priestly, Larry Bird and Dannilynne, Kristy Swanson, Doug Jones,
Jeremy Jackson and the Clique Girlz.
We bought baby clothes which had belonged to Scott's Baby,
Jason's baby and Dannilynne (Anna Nicole Smith was her mum) We had the daddys sign them!
June 19th
We attended an awards show in Hollywood which was entitled
"A Father's Day tribute to tv dads" This event featured famous dads from tv shows. We managed to get Erin
Moran, Jon Cryer, Bill Paxton, Adam Rich, Douglas Smith and Christine Lankin despite extra tight security.
June 27th
We attended a free signing by the Los Angeles Dodger James
Loney at a BMW car dealership in LA. Cesar got him to sign a Dodger hat he had and we were given a free photo for him
to sign also. The car dealership also gave us free hot dogs (Dodger dogs!) and soda whilst we were waiting, not
a bad day!
July 18th
We attended a convention in Burbank. Amongst the celebrity
attendees were Henry Winkler, Lou Ferigno, Marion Ross, Tom Bosley, Shannen Doherty, Taylor Dayne, Davy Jones, Barry Williams,
Chrstopher Knight, Susan Olsen, George Lazenby, Greg Evigan and Rosanna Arquette.
Henry Winkler was really nice, he went around shaking everybody's
hands whilst we were waiting in line and he wrote I was lovely on my photo, awwwww.
Lou Ferigno was HUGE! His hands were like bear paws
(so Cesar said!) He seemed shy though.
The Brady Bunch cast were very chatty and eager to pose for
photos and the Happy Days cast were all very nice especially Henry Winkler and Anson Williams (Potsie).
August 1st
We attended a celebrity golf tournamnet held on Donald Trump's
course in Malibu. The event was star studded and amongst the attendees were Don Johnson, Michael Chiklis, Daniel Baldwin,
Jonathan Banks, Rick Dees, Joe Mantegna, Ron Perlman and more. It was a lovely sunny day, the golf course overlooked
the ocean and it was a beautiful place. All the celebrities were very friendly and posed for photos and signed autographs,
some of them weren't too bad at playing golf either!
Don Johnson had a bit of an attitude and said "Don't pull on me sweetheart" when
I tugged his sleeve!
Rick Dees gave me an oven glove which he signed "Karen, you are hot!" He
also gave Cesar a t-shirt from his radio show.
Bailey Chase from Ugly Betty managed to par his hole and when I congratulated
him he said he had done it just for me...awwwww!
Michael Chiklis from the Shield and Fantastic Four started speaking with an English
accent (which was not good) when he heard me speak. He said he liked spending time in England, obviously not enough
judging by his accent attempt!
August 22nd
We attended a classic car show in Burbank and were pleased to see car enthusiast
Jay Leno as a guest. He was happy to sign autographs and pose for photos.
October 10th
We attended the Hollywood Show convention in Burbank. Amongst the celebrities
in attendance were Sean Astin, Charisma Carpenter, Angela Cartwright, Claudia Christian, Patrick Duffy, Richard Hatch, Margot
Kidder, Peter Mayhew, Ray Park and Tiffany.
Everone was nice and friendly especially Tiffany and Ray Parks (he happens to
be English!) Ray asked me what I was doing in America and Cesar told him he had kidnapped me to which he replied
"That was a good kidnapping!"
Sean Astin heard my accent and asked me what "shire" I was from referring to "Lord
of the Rings" to which I replied "Yorkshire!" which he thought was funny!.
Tiffany said she liked my hair and said one of her favourite movies is "Calendar
Girls" which is set in Yorkshire and asked me if all Yorkshire women were like the characters in the movie!
November 11th
We attended a dog adoption event in Melrose, Hollywood. Amongst the attendees
were Ed Begley Jr., Kelly Carlson, Jillian Clare, Carolyn Hennesy, Greg Germann and Emmanuelle Vaugier. There were some
really cute dogs up for adoption and I really wanted to take one home but decided not to, maybe next time!
November 21st
We attended the CNN Heroes awards at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. We
were lucky enough to get Terrence Howard, Felicity Huffman, William H Macy and AnnaLynne Mccord before security told us not
to approach the stars. Damned mall cops!
November 29th
We attended the Kodak Theatre for the show Dizzy Feet which featured stars from
dance shows and movies. Amongst the people in attendance were Mark Ballas, Lil C, Sheila E, Greg Evigan, Mitzi Gaynor,
Robert Hoffman, Derek Hough, Rick Malambri, Gilles Marini, Matthew Morrison,
Kayla Radomski and Nick Zano.
February 13th 2010
The first convention of 2010 we attended was the Hollywood
Show in Burbank. Amongst the guests were Terminator stars Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton and Robert Patrick. Also
legendary stars Jane Russell, Ernest Borgnine and Richard Chamberlain. We also got to meet Verne Troyer from the Austin
Powers movies, Larry Hagman from Dallas fame, Lindsay Wagner from the Bionic Woman and Stefanie Powers from Hart to Hart.
All the celebrities were pleasant and approachable, Linda Hamilton grabbed my
face and planted a kiss on my cheek. She said I had a lovely smile and to keep on smiling, she was a lovely woman!
Robert Patrick was in a funny mood and joked around with me (which Cesar did not
like!)
Jane Russell exclaimed she was eighty eight years old when I told her how good
she looked!
Larry Hagman was sat in what looked like a baby's high chair but adult sized,
don't know if he had a disability, he was very friendly.
Stefanie Powers told me she had a friend who owned a dance company in Yorkshire
England when I told her I was from there. When she learned I was English she began talking with a strange American/English
accent, Cesar found this very amusing!
Verne Troyer was so tiny! He told me he goes to England a lot for promotional
purposes, I got a lot of comments on my English accent at this convention.
