1. J.K. Rowling
I was friends with a girl and her brother when I was younger. Their mom suddenly died of cancer while they were still young. A short story contest came up at school that was nation wide & the prize was to visit the Harry Potter set in Europe and meet JK Rowling herself, along with some cast members. The prompt was something along the lines of “if anything from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter could come true, what would you like it to be and why?”.
To cope with the pain of her mother passing, my friend ended up writing an essay on how she would like a potion that could bring her mom back or just be able to see her and speak to her again. Weeks passed and she got the news that she, out of thousands of entries, won the contest.
She got everything they said she would win – the tour and meet and greets. I remember showing us pictures when she got back of the whole experience and how truly kind everybody was.
2. Brad Pitt
In 2005 I was in my last year of medical school at The university of Arizona when hurricane Katrina hit. In the aftermath a bunch of us got permission to from the Med school dean to head down and help the real doctors. There were so many of us that we had a lottery system (I think UofA had a grant or donation to pay for 5/6 of us and basically the whole class volunteered). Well I got picked and went.
It was hard, sad and grueling work. On the second or third day this new guy showed to more of the “grunt” work in our little section (trash pick up food delivery and hand out, etc…) I didn’t recognize him at first but after minute the place was abuzz with the news that Brad Pitt was working with us…and sure enough it was him. He absolutely worked his ass off too and after the first day the shock wore off it became no big deal. On many occasions over the next few days Brad Pitt emptied out my trash cans, got me clean linens and even lunch (those military pre made meals is what we ate). He could not have been more down to earth or nicer or more accommodating and he never once asked for special treatment. he even sort of learned my name and called me Doc K—. As you can imagine the patients just glowed upon seeing him and he was always gracious and friendly and took what time he could to hang out with all of us. To this day, I’ve never seen that he’s sought or received any praise or notoriety for what he did–contrast that to the other guy who had photo ops done of him standing in a canoe with a shotgun plastered all over the media.
He left very unannounced and we were told it was because he didn’t want fanfare and his departure to distract from what we were doing. Still to this day one of the most memorable experiences of my life and I will always have a tremendous respect for him.
3. Donald Faison of ‘Scrubs’
I won a contest with my brother to spend the day in LA with Donald Faison. Personally Scrubs was one of my favorite shows so I was beyond excited to go. Donald was super cool, he even let my brother and I do the “eagle” Additionally because it was the last taping of the season for his show “The Exes” he took us to an after party and we spent time with Wayne Knight (Newman from Seinfeld). While they were taping, I got a VIP pass and Donald told everyone that basically I could do what I wanted (which included walking behind set, meeting the cast and crew’s family, and eating the food behind the set) It was one of the coolest experiences ever. Donald was an amazing host, a real down to earth guy and a genuine person. My only regret is that we didn’t stay longer.
4. Half The Star Wars Cast
When I was 10 years old, I was a huuuuge Star Wars fan. My mom happened to be dating a dude who was pretty into the convention circuit at the time, and so he took me to a Star Wars convention. This was ’96, Cons weren’t a huge thing, but the lineup of cast was actually pretty good. Among them were Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Kenny Baker(R2-D2), David Prowse (Darth Vader) and Jeremy Bulloch (Motherfucking Boba Fett).
I’ll never know if we actually won this contest or if Mom’s boyfriend pulled some strings, but he disappears for a minute and comes back saying we won a dinner with the cast! At the Spaghetti Factory (my favorite restaurant at the time!)
As we were leaving, we see Jeremy Bulloch walking through the parking lot. We pull over and ask what’s up, and he says he missed the bus to the restaurant, so he’s going to skip it.
HELL NO, we gave Boba Fett a ride to dinner.
There I am crammed in a bench seat of a pickup with my goddamn idol, and he is this totally weird old British dude. He keeps whistling softly and then saying “I think I hear a bird!” and then like, looking for the bird? I guess he was trying to entertain me but I was too starstruck to understand what the hell was going on.
Dinner was awesome. I sat across from Kenny Baker and I remember being amazed at how tall and beautiful his wife was. Peter Mayhew was the coolest. He was wearing a tie-dye Chewbacca shirt, and went out of his way to come and joke around with me. I haven’t seen it in years, but I used to have a picture of him giving me noogies. Just the friendliest dude.
Everyone was super cool, but at 10, I spent most of it being quiet and shy and not understanding most of the grown-up talk. It was still one of the greatest experiences of my life.
5. Lenny Kravitz
Won a meet and greet with Lenny Kravitz backstage, just prior to one of his Australian concerts – was awesome.
Tour Manager came and got us just after The Cranberries had finished their set and took as backstage where we waited beside a whole heap of their road cases and also just outside “the Wolf Den” which was Wolfmother’s backstage dressing room.
The Wolfmother guys kept us entertained as they regularly paced back and forward to “the Wolf Den” in various states of drug-induced dishevelment.
When Lenny appeared from his backstage room, he seemed to have the relaxed demeanor of someone that just had 10 valium – pretty sure he had been meditating or something, though there was a woman who I assume was his make-up artist too.
Guy was shorter than I anticipated and smelt really “exotic”. Was super friendly with us, posed for photos, spoke to us and was one of the most humble, laid back people I ever met.
He then walked on stage and killed it.
6. Kevin Bacon
My mom won a contest to have dinner with Kevin Bacon and his brother while they were touring with their 2-man band. I was too young to go because they went to a Hard Rock Cafe “after hours” when they were almost exclusively serving alcohol. She said he was arguably one of the funniest people she’s ever met and that his brother (while not as big a celebrity as him) was also very down to earth and nice.
I’m slightly disappointed because this brings my seven degrees of Kevin Bacon, down to one.
7. Designer Mark Ecko
I won a contest when I was younger, like 14, to fly to New York and meet Mark Ecko. I was this skinny Midwest white girl meeting a clothing designer for street, urban styles. I mean. Me and my dad looked so out of place. But he was the chillest dude. He showed us around the office. Gave us food. Let us sign some skateboards and walls. He had me do a photo shoot in his kids line. we even went shopping in Manhattan with him and he bought me like $500 worth of brand name clothes. When we were out shopping he had a photographer with us and a personal shopper. People on the street were like “who is she???” Because they thought I was famous. Lol. He was the chillest dude and didn’t mind at all that we were there. He was doing a collaboration with 50 cent and let me meet him and take a photo. It was such a weird experience and the only reason I won was because my dad entered tons of random contests and won a lot. But this was definitely the biggest he ever won. I love getting to tell people I’ve met 50 cent. They never believe me.
8. George Takei
I won a lunch with George Takei through a charity auction. We met for lunch on the Paramount lot in Los Angeles. The auction was through a Japanese organization, so he ended up spending a lot of time talking about his experience with WW2 internment camps. It was really interesting to hear his perspective first-hand. Star Trek never came up, which is fine because I’m more of a Janeway fan than a Kirk fan.
After lunch, he took us (there were 3 of us total, me and two friends) for a tour of the studio lot. There wasn’t any Star Trek stuff to see, except for one really neat little tidbit. He showed us where they filmed the part of Star Trek IV where, at the end of the movie, the crew is splashing around San Francisco Bay with a bunch of out of time whales. Turns out, it’s just part of the parking lot at the studio. It’s inset, so they flood it. There is a big wall behind the lot that they paint to look like the sky.
Finally, before we left, George insisted that we have something autographed by him. We all went into the studio store together. He looked around, trying to find anything Star Trek related, but he couldn’t (this was several years ago, before the new movies came out). He walks up to the lady working the register, and he says, using that very distinctive voice/tone of his, “Hello, ma’am… do you have anything Star Trek related?” She looks at him oddly, probably a little star struck. She doesn’t respond. George is looking a little hurried and annoyed, “You see”, he says, “I was on the show!” Cue everyone breaking into hysterical laughter, except him.
Yeah, yeah… maybe you had to be there to appreciate it, but there was something remarkable about the way he almost apologetically asserted himself. He was humble and lovable, a true character. Having lived in LA for several years at the time, I’d met a lot of celebrities, but none of them ever were as gracious as Mr. Takei.
9. Fleetwood Mac
In early 2009 – I had just gotten back from spending a year in Iraq … I went to see my favorite band Fleetwood Mac play in Chicago. I had bought tickets for the meet and greet with Mick Fleetwood before the show – turns out for that night only 7 people bought the package… 3 couples in their 40’s and 50’s and then me (I was 21 at the time). Anyways we start talking to Mick who is absolutely the nicest guy and I told him that their music really helped me through the war. He says “I bet Stevie would like to meet you!” And I laughed and said “oh yeah of course Stevie Nicks would love to meet me” … Mick laughed and after a few more minutes wrapped up with all of us.
Fast forward about 10 minutes later this guy comes and taps me on the shoulder and says “this is courtesy of Ms. Nicks” … it was a backstage pass and a front row ticket…. I was so excited I felt like I was going to pass out or thrown up.
During the concert Mick pointed at me and waved a couple times … he was really rad. The lady next to me thought that I knew him personally … I didn’t tell her different because it was hilarious at the time.
After the show I was brought backstage and the woman said “it’ll be a couple mins we just have to wait here until she’s ready” … about 5 mins later the door opened and I was led into Stevie Nicks dressing room where it was just her … her 2 dogs … and her personal assistant (I had thought there would be a crowd and I would just get led through for a quick autograph).
To say Stevie Nicks was nice would be the biggest understatement …. she was so sincere and kindhearted. She delicately asked me about the war – told me she was forever grateful for my service … shared with me that her father was a WW2 veteran so she cares deeply for vets – told me about her experience visiting injured troops at Walter Reed hospital and showed me around her dressing room telling me about her different outfits – also sharing a couple stories from the early Fleetwood Mac days.
After about 15 minutes I felt like I was overstaying my welcome and started to thank her and excuse myself when suddenly someone put me in a bear hug from behind …. I was starting to have symptoms of PTSD then and my first reaction was to fight whoever was behind me …Thankfully I didn’t throw a punch because it turned out to be Mick with his then wife (I believe they are now divorced) and twin daughters – he wanted them to come say thank you to me for my service – which really shows what a class act he was. Then we all sat down on the couches and chatted some more. It was fucking surreal.
After spending 45 minutes give or take – Stevie suggested we take a picture and the women who brought me back there took her camera out … I was between Stevie and Mick which was awkward because she is very short and he is very tall (I’m 5’8″ so I was right in the middle) but when I put my arms behind their backs for the photo I accidentally grabbed Mick’s ass – I’m a lesbian so it really wasn’t on purpose but I was mortified – he however was amused and it was laughed off.
When I got home that night I ran upstairs to wake my parents up. I told them that I hung out with Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood in Stevie dressing room … they didn’t believe me. It wasn’t until a week later when the woman who brought me backstage emailed me the photos that they were jealous and blown away by the whole story. It was the best night of my life.
Since then I’ve really struggled with PTSD and have attempted suicide more than once. When I get depressed I put on one of their albums and think about that night. They have no idea how much their music has kept me getting out of bed each morning. Sometimes it feels like it’s the only thing I have … I’ve spent the past few Christmas’ alone and their live DVD keeps me company.
10. Def Leppard
I had this happen once quite by accident. It was in 1987 and i was hanging out with a friend at her place. We were listening to the radio and the DJ came on saying he had tickets to a concert. I called and damned if I didn’t win. The concert was the next weekend, they said they were doing a remote out of the hard rock cafe that day and that i could come get the tickets there.
Ok, cool, we’ll get the tickets, grab lunch and then kill some time till the concert starts. We head down there at the appointed time, go in tell them why we are there and they lead us off to a side dining room and sit us down. They say we get lunch too and hand us a menu. As we are ordering other people come and sit down at the table with us. They look like typical ’80’s headbangers, then I realize they have British accents. I do a doubletake and think, damn, that guy looks like Joe Elliott, i glance around the table and seeing Rick Allen, confirmed it, I’m sitting at a table with fucking Def Leppard.
They were pleasant, although really, really tired, maybe hungover. They didn’t act aloof or like they were being taxed by doing it and were actively conversing with a couple of starstruck teenagers. Overall, it was pretty cool. They gave us Vinyl albums and autographed them, gave us shirts and all sorts of other stuff. Definitely a good memory.
Overall, it was a great experience.
11. Edward Norton
A friend of mine came to DC for Obama’s inauguration in 09. He’s standing outside and looks around just before it starts, and notices the guy next to him is Edward Norton. He doesn’t say anything because he didn’t want to be “that guy who ruined the experience” for him, but a few seconds later some other people start screaming and making a scene. At this point my friend has stepped over and he just busts a grin and says something like “Yo, Ron, you got a couple more idiots thinking you’re that actor.”
The fans hushed thinking he was a doppelganger, and my friend got to hang out with Norton after that.
12. Hozier
Not a date as such, more a phone call. I saw on the singer Hozier’s twitter he was doing a ‘ring this number’ and I’ll answer. Saw some people tried literally 100s of times. So I thought why not… got through first time, conversation lasted a minute, spent half the time asking if it was really him then just said so… how’s things? Briefly answered me then hung up.
13. Sarah McLachlan
I won a Seventeen Magazine contest to meet Sarah McLachlan on her tour bus at Lilith Fair. I was a huuuuuge fan and it was a thrill. She was really kind to me despite my being a nervous, stammering wreck. I gave her my favorite necklace and she wore it on stage that night. It was seriously a teenage dream.
14. Nirvana
I won a radio contest in Europe back in 1994 to meet Nirvana at their last concert. I did not care for Dave or Krist, though they were super nice. I was annoyed that Kurt did not make himself available until after the show. He invited me and my friend into his staging room and apologized for being a “dick” and not meeting us earlier. He was very cool, but I could totally tell this guy was burned and stressed out.
15. Metallica
When I was in high school I came in 2nd in a Guitar Hero contest and got a meet and greet with Metallica–this was right after Death Magnetic came out. It took like two hours to meet all four of them. Rob and Kirk were both fairly normal, but Lars was a little odd. He was nice but you could tell it was surface level. He got really close to me.
I had a Gibson Guitars shirt on at the time, and when I met James Hetfield he motioned to my shirt and said “you play some guitar, man?”
Me: “Yeah, a little guitar.”
Him: “Like a ukulele?”
I laughed way harder than I normally would at that joke. I was so nervous and it was such a dumb joke. But I mean, it was James fucking Hetfield. I was giddy.
16. Flava Flav
Got to meet Flava Flav at a private party. He was going to emcee the night for a small group of about 10 of us. If you’ve seen him on tv you get the impression that he plays the part of an ignorant douchebag, but that maybe in real life he’s more “real” and that was all just a show for the MTV cameras, etc.
Nope. He really IS that big of a dumb jerk. Maybe he was drunk, high, or some combination thereof, but the guy just seemed to be completely on another planet. Couldn’t even make sentences or coherent thought. And he was getting paid for the event, so you’d think a musical performer would be in full “game mode” just like a concert. Instead, he was like the ghetto rapper version of your weird uncle who sits on the porch drinking Old Milwaukee and yelling at squirrels.
17. Linkin Park
I met Linkin Park at a meet and greet. They didn’t do photos individually and if you asked for more than one thing to be signed they (security) threatened to kick you out. I was so sad at first. They also were just signing names no messages. I had only won one backstage and it was in my name but my friend told me that their songs got him through a teen pregnancy and helped him out a lot. I couldn’t really identify with that and I guess still can’t. When I’m depressed music doesn’t fix it? But anyways.. Mike came over to me when it was my turn and I politely asked for a moment of his time and told him about my friend waiting for me in the audience and if he could sign one thing for him. Mike wrote him a very nice and personalized note and was so sweet about it. My friend broke down in tears when I gave it to him. Can’t thank them enough.
18. Brody Jenner
A friend of mine won a date competition. When we were in university Brody Jenner was big for some reason. And my buddy was a bit of a class clown, smart enough guy, but just has a great sense of humor. He decides he wants to win this competition so he gets a big following behind him. The crux of the whole situation was that this competition was a “vote to win” format. Naturally, everyone voted for him, but in the end, Brody refused because my buddy was a dude. Fortunately, the campus bar felt bad about the situation and hooked us up with some free booze for the night.
19. Bill Murray
No one is going to believe this, but here we go. In 2003 I had entered a competition to go to a meet and greet in Tampa Florida at some kind of convention with a bunch of celebrities.
I get to the event and have my ticket and everything ready however there seems to be an issue with something in the system and they reject my entry.
At this point I was super bummed and just kinda sat over on a bench looking out at the convention hall looking sad, and that’s when Bill fucking Murray sits next to me eating a hotdog and casually just asks what’s wrong. Now at the time and shame on me I had no idea who this guy was, I was very little when most of his movies came out and then into my teenage years never saw them, yes including Ghostbusters.
Well I tell him what happened thinking he’s some normal dude and he tells me to follow him to an event he’s going to. I figure why not since my afternoon was shot.
What processed with the strangest two hours of my life as Bill Murray takes me to these random and sparse art collections around downtown tampa. We stopped by a few Bohemian like groups of people just hanging out in alleys and then a couple of warehouses with scrap metal statues on display.
After that we head over to Ybor city and he takes us to all these really out of the way and hidden gems of restaurants and bars. We stopped by the tampa bay brewing company and when he came in he just kinda knowingly and wordlessly nodded at the bar tender and walked us to a back room where we tasted microbrew.
I finally ended up heading home and only learned it was bill from a friend that ended up freaking out at some of the pictures I took of the art was saw (With bill in the pictures) and to this day I can confidently say I’ve met bill Murray and yes, he is delightfully insane.
20. Counting Crows
In 2001 I saw Counting Crows at the House Of Blues in Orlando. Waited around until after the show and met the band outside. There were about 8 of us and Dave (guitarist) was outside having a smoke and I struck up a conversation with him he was super cool and then Charlie and David came out and we all continued to talk, like a normal conversation. This was before 9/11, actually a week or so before if memory serves. About 30 minutes later Adam Duritz (lead singer) came out the big gate to the right of the building to hang as well, and still we all talked like we knew each other for years and my girlfriend at the time was STAR STRUCK.
Adam said the absolute coolest thing I’ve ever heard. He looked at her and asked if she wanted a hug or something and she kind of a DID while mumbling under her breathe and crying, he then said ‘I’m just a person’
That was the coolest and most humbling thing ever. He said “I am just a person and I’ve made some music that has touch you and that touches me.”
I know a lot has been said about him in the media but I always remember his kindness and approachable nature, the whole band really.
I realize at that moment that he was the most down to earth person to have his fame but he didn’t use it as a crutch. We spoke about the recording of Hard Candy at the time, working with Steve Lillywhite and how the process was really hard for them, Steve is a profectionist and they liked to record in a more fly by the seat of their pants and record the feeling.
As it turns out they did use another producer to refine that album. It was one of the coolest hour/moments of my life. I still love their music and I’ll never forget ‘I’m just a person’. So great.
21. Prince
A good friend met Prince while working at a custom RV/tour bus manufacturer. There are several in our area and celebrities routinely fly in for a day to check up on their tour bus, film lot trailer, etc.
She said that Prince would not speak to anyone directly, but instead used his weirdo religion space man language to just make grunts and incoherent sounds. His “spiritual interpreter” would then translate into English something like, “Prince said he prefers the mahogany trim,” and so forth.
The entire time he just chortled around the factory, spewing out Dr. Seuss style words and letting his minion translate for us mortals.
This was during his “non-Prince, now I’m a symbol” phase. Also, the guy was into a bizarro religion called Eckankar and the minion guy kept trying to convert them in the middle of discussing fabrics and furniture placement.
22. Chuck Norris
I always hesitate to tell this story because most people don’t believe it after the whole Chuck Norris Facts thing became huge, but here it is. When I was young, probably around 8, I took karate lessons as it was “the cool thing to do.” It wasn’t that cool.
Anyway, one of my Karate instructors, I believe they were called Dojo Masters, worked as a stunt double on a movie with Chuck Norris (I wanted to say it was Bloodsport 2, but just looked it up and Chuck wasn’t in that one) and apparently became somewhat of friends with the guy. So Chuck is big into karate, right? Well, our Dojo Master convinced Chuck to stop by one night and give a demonstration. It was very cool, and honestly my only memory from karate.
He first did one of those weird karate dance things everyone has to do to get their next belt, impressive I guess. Then he followed that by doing a sparring with our Dojo Master, I vividly remember Chuck knocking him down multiple times. And then, as a finale, all of the kids got to fight Chuck and the other instructors. Total mayhem, with Chuck Norris roundhousing smug little 7-year-olds all over the building. The kicker is, he did the whole thing wearing an American flag designed karate outfit with his 30th degree black belt. The guy was a true legend, wish I could relive this night again.
23. Britney Spears
Won a contest to meet Britney Spears and inadvertently wound up being onstage with her. It was a contest to get front row seats and I didn’t realize at the time that the winners would end up actually being part of the show. It was all very pleasant. Both she and her team were totally professional and couldn’t have been friendlier. I was notified via email about 3 weeks before the show about my winning the contest and the coordinator provided me with all the details I would need when the date came. I had to get to the venue a little early and meet with her security team and sign legal documents etc etc. Say I wouldn’t sue them if I fell onstage and all that jazz. A nice added surprise was that one of her handlers (her fiancé at the time) ended up taking me backstage to meet her where she signed a tour book and we chatted for a few minutes (sort of a meet and greet type deal) but as far as I know it wasn’t part of the “prize package.” Show time came, we watched from the front row, I did my little number with her (it was a little lap dance that she gave me during a song) and that was that. Had a great time. As a PS: her fiancé mentioned above was super chill and took pictures on his phone for me since mine was confiscated at the gate. Couldn’t have been nicer. Overall I have nothing but great things to say about the experience.
24. Beck
I won a radio contest to meet Beck, the Grammy award winning musician, and have him write a song about me. The contest was to write why my life is awesome enough to win, so I figured most people would just write boring crap.
So, I wrote completely insane, made-up stuff. The promotions manager later told me that he read about 10 or 15 before getting bored and skipped to email #147, which was mine. He loved it and picked it.
Met with Beck at Seattle’s big concert, Bumbershoot, and got to hang backstage and stand with his family offstage while he performed.
Was freaking amazing and got that song written about me, after the concert. It’s 12 minutes long about how I’m basically Jesus.
Beck was super chill and liked to make punny jokes that I totally didn’t get because I was star struck.
25. Snoop Dogg
Well, I didn’t win a sweepstakes or anything like that, but I did get to hangout with Snoop Dogg. I was front row for his concert at a festival, & at the end of his set, he started whispering to the security guards & pointing to me. Next thing you know, this random girl & I are being pulled over the barrier & taken backstage to hang with Snoop & his entourage. The level of excitement & disbelief I felt was unreal. The guards led me & this other girl to a van to ride back to his campsite with his entourage. That’s where things got a little weird… The one guy who is featured in a couple of his songs (goes by Kurupt Gotti or something like that) starts hitting on me & saying very suggestive things. I was twenty at the time & had zero interest in getting with this guy. So when we arrived at Snoop’s tent, I felt so relieved. I walked in and there was Snoop just standing there, all smiles with a blunt the size of a toilet paper roll in his hand. It took everything in me not to freak out. We talked for a couple minutes; he asked me where I went to college & what not. Then I got the balls to ask him if he could take a picture with me, stating that, “Nobody would believe this was actually happening to me.” He said, “Sure baby girl” & we took two separate pictures, one with him casually posing with me, the next with him taking a drag of the blunt. It was as epic as it sounds. He passed me the massive blunt directly after. I took one hit & felt the most high I’ve ever been in my entire life. Literally could not stop coughing, meanwhile the other girl was holding in her cough fine. Snoop passed it to me again & I had to reject because of how high I was.
Fast forward 15 minutes later & the security guards kick us out. As I’m on my way out of his campsite, Kurupt follows me, gives me him AND Snoop’s number, & invites me to the local casino for a night of some “fun”. I ended up politely rejecting & that was that.
Got high off of shrooms a few months later & texted Snoop’s number… he actually responded & tried to FaceTime me. When I answered, all I could see was his eyeball creeping in the corner & a finely rolled blunt in the camera frame. Unfortunately & predictably, the number has since been changed. I texted it this past March to jokingly invite him to my 21st birthday, but it never went through. :(
26. Bruce Campbell
I won the “Dinner with Bruce Campbell” contest from the Army of Darkness Boomstick Edition dvd. Free trip to Hollywood, a suite at a Beverly Hills Hotel, and dinner at Musso and Frank’s with a living God amongst us puny humans. The limo picked me up from the hotel, took me on a star map tour (Bill Cosby estate, the Guvernator’s Compound), and then picked up the other contest winner – a “sweeper” in her 70’s who had no idea who Bruce Campbell was. When the limo picked up Bruce at his hotel, he acted exactly how you would hope. Friendly, loud, hilariously quickwitted with the perfect comeback every time. At M&F he had a surprise waiting for us, the entire cast of The Evil Dead was joining for dinner. They talked about how insane it was to make the film, Sam Raimi, the partying, all the pot smoked, and basically had a reunion right there in front of me as I took it all in. The sweeper lady just drank, she was pleasant and funny but didn’t have any idea what anyone was talking about. She had brought a beer stien for Bruce as a gift (one of her traditions for when she met someone through a contest) When it came time to order our food, I ordered a chicken pot pie and then Bruce, ASH says something like “Hey, that sounds GREAT, I’ll have that too! ” So that’s how I ended up eating chicken pot pie with Bruce Campbell, one of the coolest mutants ever. After dinner, he took us all to the premiere of a low budget movie he produced “Hatred of a Minute” which starred Gunnar Hansen, so I met Leatherface that night too. The old lady passed out drunk on the way to the premiere, so Bruce just had her sleep in the limo while we watched the movie.
27. Emma Watson
I was really lucky to meet my biggest crush. Emma Watson. I still think about that second when I was reading the email for the first time and I saw “Congratulation Tómas”
So, about 2 years ago I saw on some HeforShe twitter page that there was a competition. The only thing you were supposed to do was to write some things about gender equality. I am lucky enough to be working with teenagers and educate them about gender equality. I also wrote how revenge porn is one of biggest problem in western society.
I never thought I was going to win. I did this in my coffee break. Just for fun. Than day after I recieved an email. I was on of the 100 to participate in HeForShe QandA with Emma Watson. I remember reading the email and just shaking.
I flew to London from Iceland and then went to the conference the day after. I did not get a chance to ask any question but I saw her and was able to say one “hi”. She smiled. The whole thing took 1 hour. In my opinion it was just amazing seeing her but I was really suprised that they did nothing with those 100 people from all around the world. Right after the broadcast finished it was just like “Bye, thank you”
It was actually a fantastic trip. The best part was when I was going home from the HeforShe thing and I saw my friend from Iceland walking 20 meters away from me. He had been traveling around the world for 5 months. We got really drunk and had a really good time in London.
28. Robert Plant
In the 90’s I won a limo, dead center front row, dinner with Robert plant, and concert. Robert plant was something. Frankly, he’s the quietest and most positively normal man I’ve ever met. His opening act was Kings X, and they were quite loud, and they were also locals from my area. I had to practically put my ear to his face to hear him speak. I read that expose about him, bacon and dogs, the banana and vagina story, I buy none of it.
29. Shia LaBeouf
I don’t really know if this counts, but when I was like eight or so, me and my family were living in the panhandle of Florida. My granddad had this buddy who worked down in Orlando at Disney World in like Epcot or something and since my grandparents and my family would always come out to visit once or twice a year, we basically always ended up going to Disney World on heavily discounted tickets. One of the times we went there, there was this cool new ride at Animal Kingdom called Mount Everest and my family and I slogged in the line for like an hour or two to finally get on. But when I got on the ride, my parents were seated in a whole cart in front of me and I was alone in my row. I remember being super stoked.
Then lo and behold, this one guy hops into the seat right next to me, and I shit you not, Shia fucking Labeouf looks at me and is like “You ready man!?”, and to which I naturally lost my shit. The ride starts and we go through all of the parts, and he’s like screaming his ass off, and then we get to the part where the ride goes backwards and he like flips his shit and ugh. It was awesome. The craziest thing is that at the time, I didn’t even know who he was. Like, I’m sure I had seen him in Even Steven and definitely in Holes, but at the time, this was all before the first Transformers and stuff came out. But man, every time someone brings up Disney World. I tell peasants of my tale. It was awesome.
