What celebrity have you seen in person that surprised you?

Sarah Jessica Parker probably close to 20 years ago. She was in jeans, sneakers and no makeup. She was very, very pretty, her eyes were just striking. She is itty bitty, like child sized.

Didn't a DLer say he saw Max Miller, the Tasting History YouTuber, and that Max is short and pudgy?

SJP here as well. In a grocery store. She was really nice.

I saw Faye Dunaway many, many years ago & was not prepared for how spectacularly gorgeous she was in person.

I can vouch for Dunaway's former gorgeousness in person. She used to drink at the old Ritz bar in Boston when she was married to Peter Wolf. Wasted out of her mind but gorgeous in those days.

Corpse came to one of my tag sales in East Hampton. I wasn’t surprised how ugly she looked. She kept asking me if I was selling a men’s sweaters. I said no. Then I told her she couldn’t light up and smoke on my property. She immediately left.

I've heard she has very striking eyes. Aren't most actors surpringly small?

Jeff Probst. Total Asshole.

Martha Stewart, more than a few times. She's exactly as she portrays herself - there is zero pretense.

I went to en event where I could meet Matt Bomer. I wanted to see if he was as handsome & charming as he seems. He is. Was very nice to everyone and showed a sense of humor, too.

Judith Light - stunningly beautiful and super nice.

Seen others - live in LA but she was the one that stood out.

Roger Daltry - much shorter than I thought he’d be

Belinda Carlisle - much funnier/nicer (at a gay event with her son)

John Cena - very quiet and well spoken (also at a charity event)

1986-ish, Irvine California, Donny Osmond, he lived there. Surprisingly just like his photos and all teeth. Wife gave off a bitchy don't talk to us air which I didn't find very Mormony.

Tiger Woods in a barbecue restaurant in Windermere Florida about ten years ago. Not attractive in my opinion. Had an entourage trying to buffer him from the public.

12 years ago, Clooney at a distance on Como. Surprisingly looked shorter in real life to me. Most people say celebrities look skinnier in person; this guy looked shorter. Do they do fancy camera angles with him on screen to make him look taller?

When Isaac Hayes was in my city on tour he suddenly appeared at my gym one day. He wore a caftan! and was flanked by two bodyguards.

This thread should serve as a cautionary note. Celebrities can look better or worse in person. So our assessment of their looks from afar should be couched with the understanding that they may be more or less attractive in person.

Brad Pitt. Elevator, Century City CA. I'm not into blonds and had never been into him. He was always handsome, of course, just not my thing and not 'to die for' just handsome. Au contraire mon frere. In that elevator I was this close to hitting my knees right then and there. Absolutely stunning and movie star charisma coming off of him in waves. Surprised the hell out of me.

A few weeks ago I was walking downtown when a man walking uptown said, "I like your shirt mate" - it was Hugh Jackman and that really surprised me.

Aimee Mann — she was beautiful, tall, and impossibly thin.

David Morse — also tall, quiet/shy and very polite.

A.M. Homes — I was/am a real fan of hers. She was not one bit friendly and seemed unkind and above it all.

Suzanne Vega — also tall.

Duncan Sheik — small and adorable.

Tony Hawk — tall and very friendly/down to earth.

Sylvester Stallone — shorter than I could’ve imagined.

It's his standard pick up line r17.

What does Brad Pitt look like in person other than jaw dropping?

Nick Nolte is creepy

Kelly Osbourne. She was talking to me and standing right in front of me and it took a few minutes for it to register.

Jackie Kennedy - really attractive - had an aura about her - I swear I think she had a halo.

Liza Minnelli - it was late afternoon and her makeup made her look like a circus clown.

Seconding SJP--a sweet person, very friendly and unpretentious.

Circush clown

Jennifer Aniston - absolutely gorgeous. Flawless skin.

Keith Morrison - tiny, skinny, even wrinklier in person than on TV.

Jane Fonda - much shorter than I thought she'd be.

Eric Swalwell - also much shorter than I thought he would be.

R18 short and fat

Melanie Griffith - black fingerless gloves only underscore she looks elderly. Her face is a Jack-o-lantern of plastic surgery. Tattoo on her saggy arm looks janky. I was shocked.

Charlize Theron....other worldly gorgeous in person. That was a long time ago though.

Queen Latifah, Beverly Center. Stood behind her in line at Rubio's Mexican Grill where she eventually turned around to me and said, "I just can't wrap my head around a fish taco." Which me, the San Diego native loved, hence being in line.

Lauryn Hill, right as "Miseducation" dropped. Also at the BC. Buying red patent leather pumps.

Mariah Carey at some event where I was behind the scenes. Much taller in person than I expected. Dropped the diva and dahling act backstage.

Josh Brolin was a guest speaker at a film event for students, drove a pickup truck, wore cowboy boots, and refused the valet parking it himself, and also refused any wining and dining and star treatment we offered.

Brandy, also at the BC, very thin, braids all down her back. Big smile. Seemed nice.

Jodi Foster- with her wife. She looks serious and sober. . Not unfriendly but not much to say. Skin is great and her hair color is sensational.

Bono. Tiny. Wears massive shoe lifts.

[quote] Aimee Mann — she was beautiful, tall, and impossibly thin.

Was she working as your house cleaner?

Debbie Harry - short

Brooke Shields - SIX FEET TALL, plus boots

Diane Keaton - jabbering to an assistant, rigged out in one of her wide belted men’s jacket ensembles AND a hat

Steven Webber - kind eyes, buying Eggo waffles

Anjelica Huston - tall, regal and quiet. A lady. Sleekly and quietly dressed.

Heather Graham - the most beautiful person I’ve ever met in person. Perfect skin, perfect features… long, heavy, blonde streaked hair. Could play Helen of Troy!

[quote]Queen Latifah, Beverly Center. Stood behind her in line at Rubio's Mexican Grill where she eventually turned around to me and said, "I just can't wrap my head around a fish taco."

I am just amazed at this turn of phrase having come from Queen Latifah.

The jokes write themselves, I guess, but truth is stranger than fiction.

Apolo Ohno has the most beautiful skin I have ever seen. His face was glowing.

Blair Underwood is very handsome with a warm, beautiful smile.

Teresa Giudice before she started working out. She was tiny and better looking in person than she appears in photos or on tv.

Huma Abedin is quite beautiful.

I worked in costume a bit and met quite a few celebs but this was way before that. In college, Madonna sat in front of me at a Sandra Bernhard show. She was with Tony Ward and Ingrid Cesares. Tiny little people. Madge looked pretty with dark hair and wearing a beret. She was so tiny. She was probably 32 or so and already had crow’s feet. I stared at her the entire time-I just couldn’t believe it.

Countess LuAnn in Gramercy. Not a tall as the other housewives make her out to be!

Clooney backstage at SNL when Anthony Edwards hosted. Super handsome though shorter than I expected. Flame away but I got a dudebro vibe from him.

Ncuti Gatwa. I had sex with him.

[quote] Ncuti Gatwa

Who?

R42 that's Dr.Who

[quote] that's Dr.Who

Rolls eyes at R42.

JGL. Super Fem off script.

R41 sizemeat verificia? Although he's super attractive regardless of dick size

Garbo, K. Hepburn, Gloria Swanson....other worldly.

[quote]Jackie Kennedy - really attractive - had an aura about her - I swear I think she had a halo.

Yes. And bigger, taller than I expected. She sure came off that way.

R46 relatively good size. Totally smooth body. Amazing ass.

Fantasia Barrino. Her and her family fucked up my AirBnB

Also Jackie Kennedy with that Maurice guy in a high toned upper east side Italian restaurant and what surprised me was that she looked exactly like what you expected her to look like.

Her son in a small vegetarian mostly empty restaurant who I didn't recognize by himself behind the NYU law school reading a newspaper. I was totally bowled over by this incredibly impossibly handsome stranger who seemed surrounded by a glow like in a religious painting of the renaissance. I finally realized it was John Jr. There was an old man near him staring at his newspaper and John asked if he wanted it and gave it to him. The old man clearly didn't know who he was and unfazed by his other worldly beauty didn't care he just wanted that paper.

Many many years ago in a crowd and I look next to me and right there was Richard Gere. He never did anything for me on screen. But right there gorgeous with charisma coming out of every pore. Still couldn't care about him on screen but it didn't do him justice.

Again many years ago upper west side Tower records classical department looking for Jussi Bjorling recordings a very pregnant Mia Farrow so damn pretty with the most beautiful skin I've ever seen.

Her old mother walking with a friend up 8th Av near 51st street. What was Maureen O'Sullivan the star from MGM's golden age doing in such a seedy part of town?

The Nixons meeting them in their home in NJ for a cocktail party. Such polished elegant classy people despite Dick being a war criminal. Pat was especially lovely. She said in the most unpretentious sincere way 'Bless you.' Ok lady you got me for life.

I had a chat with Jimmy Page on a London street about ten years ago and he was much thinner and granddaddy-looking than I expected, having grown up with this:

R51, I’ve heard of JFK, Jr’s glow. Connie Britton also has a glow - she was a member at my gym but I only saw her once in street clothes. She looked like a star. Just beautiful.

Robert DeNiro is very short like 5’5max. Maybe even shorter. The ones that surprise,you are the tall actors. Katharine Hepburn or Gene Hackman who looked well over 6 feet. How did he star in movies along side short actors like Dustin Hoffman and Pacino?

John Cena around 2004. Beautiful skin, tons of charisma and bizarrely small hands.

R27, R18 here. I am fat. I’m 6’3”.

I saw her standing at a bus stop.

I was surprised that she was even fatter than I thought.

You know. What's her name.

R8, please explain why Jeff Probst was an asshole.

R33, I saw her at a book festival. I was standing alone trying to figure out where I was going. She came over, guitar strapped to her back, and made a tiny bit of small talk.

Paul Newman was very small and lithe.

Joel Grey was incredibly tiny.

I met Heather Locklear in 1983 and she was the prettiest girl I had ever seen in my life. Just All American perfect. And she couldn’t have been nicer.

I’ll third SJP in real life. Much prettier than I would have expected, gorgeous tiny body and also as nice as could be.

Linda Lavin has a sort of hunchback and is a bitch, but that’s no surprise.

I've met many as I work in the business but the nicest ones were Jim Carey and Sharon Stone on the same night. They had no reason to be overly polite but they both spoke as if we had been old friends. A few crazies like Paula Abdul and Elliot Gould but no one was ever nasty to me.

Also JFK JR. Work situation - unbelievably handsome - walked right over and introduced himself “Hi, I’m John.” Yeah… no kidding.

Bowie and Iman walking along 57th Street many years ago looking otherworldly beautiful.

Robert De Niro is around 5'6, and so incredibly shy to the point of being unable to make eye contact.

Diane Keaton and Woody Allen, in 1977. I was walking east on E. 86th, they were walking west. Diane walked up to me as if she knew me, talking to me about some script she was reading. I told her how nice it was to meet her, but I wasn't who she thought I was, which caused her to laugh out loud. I had a doppelganger those days.

Candice Bergen in the men's department at Bullock's in Beverly Hills in 1978. I was holding sweaters and pants up to my body and she helped me decide which my best choices were.

Another John-John sighting, in the men's room at the bar attached to the 1789 Restaurant on the Georgetown U. campus. He was on his way out as I was on my way in. I couldn't help but stare, and he smiled and waved, as if to say "Yeah, it's me."

Henry Winkler on the subway. Add him to the list of tiny actors.

Not the biggest star, but I met Mitch Pileggi when he was on 'X Files.' He was not just nice but he had the best body, lean muscles and a fine ass.

[quote]Diane Keaton and Woody Allen, in 1977. I was walking east on E. 86th, they were walking west.

I saw them probably around the same time arguing in front of the Colosseum bookstore. A scene right out of one of his films.

R29 - I saw Charlize in person, too. She was definitely otherworldly. You couldn’t help but look at her. This was probably around 2008.

Ruth Gordon walking down 5th Ave. Another shorty. Jackline Smith and her mother in an antique store. She was stunningly beautiful and bought a lot of stuff.

Donald Trump leaving JFK in 2010. He was taller than I imagined and although I’ve since come to loathe him, I was struck by what a commanding presence he was.

Now here's on for you: I'm walking up upper Madison Ave. and coming toward me is Donna Karan with A L Talley. They started waving and smiling. I turned around there was Ralph Lauren.

^ R47

These are interesting, keep them coming!

I didn’t know DeNiro was that short. I thought he was 5’10” or so.

Madeline Kahn waiting in a movie line by herself upper east side. very petite 5′ 3″ tall apparently.

R26, your comment about Fonda seeming shorter than expected is interesting. I saw her in person, speaking at a small-ish gathering in the mid-80s, and I thought she seemed a good bit taller than 5'7"; her hair was longer in those days, thick and wavy, and she was just stunningly beautiful and glamorous.

I say this as someone who really loathes her, BTW!

I'm showing an Italian friend the lobby of the Lowell Hotel. The elevator door opens and out walks Meryl Streep.

I get into an Elevator at Macy's and out walks Tommy Hilfiger.

I'm waiting to be seated at the Buffalo Roadhouse....but they gesture to the guy standing behind me. It's Rod Stewart.

Outside of the Plaza, a guy asks me to take a photo of him and his family. It's Hal Linden.

I'm in the men's department at Bloomingdales shuffling through a shelf of sweaters. The guy with the English accent standing next to me? Elton John.

It's pouring rain a guy runs under my umbrella and asks if I could help him get a cab. It's Paul Dooley.

I guy calls my phone (land line). I say hello. He says "Hello, this is John Wesley Shipp, may I speak to.... "

R77, I hope you’re not the “He is [insert celebrity name]!” troll.

Pro dancer Artem Chigvintsev from “DWTS”— pleasant chat at a bistro (he was on a rehearsal break with his celeb partner, Melora Hardin from “The Office”). He’s stunning in person, with ice-blue eyes and a gentleness that doesn’t translate on camera. Melora was luminous, even with barely any makeup: very down-to-earth and gracious.

Also sat across from Angela Bassett at another restaurant— it was mid-afternoon, but she was decked out in a killer orange pantsuit and looked hitter than prime-era Naomi Campbell. Simply a goddess.

Arnold Schwarzenegger. Perhaps strange to say, he has a calming, warm, reassuring presence.

That should’ve been “hotter than Naomi” at R79, but with Naomi, both apply.

No, R78 - R77 is the “never was taught to use the past tense” troll.

When I was in high school, Jackie O was in front of me in a Merit Farm on Lexington buying cigarettes.

Helen Hayes at a day honoring Lady Bird Johnson at the Capitol. She was tiny but with a wonderful smile

Woody Allen and Laura Bush (when she was FLOTUS) at tables next to me in NYC restaurants. He looked like a little old man. She was lovely.

Bill Murray on the subway

Jack Nicholson on the boardwalk on the Jersey Shore.

The Queen Mother and the Queen on a London street on two separate occasions.

- Another JFK Jr. He was seated on a bench in front of a former pastry shop/cafe on W4th near Charles St (late 80s early 90s). He was alone, except for his bike. Even in the darkness of night he glowed. A dared not to say a word and kept walking.

Billy Crudup, small and well-dressed. His kid graduated from the same university as mine.

Unknowingly standing behind Bob Newhart at a hotel desk and the clerk said “Thank you, Mr. Newhart” as he turned around. I was so awestruck, I could only squeak out “Well…Hello”. He paused and looked at me with the bemused half smile and said “Well, Hello” and waled off. Not an exciting encounter or story but he looked and acted exactly like on TV. I felt like one of the Darryls.

None of mine are terribly exciting but:

Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki. Met them at a Supernatural convention. They are both personable and have a fun rapport together (in a buddy-buddy sort of way NOT a "we're secret gay lovers" kind of way) and both were incredibly attractive in person.

Former PA governor Ed Rendell. Met him at a political event. Personable and looked the same in person.

Nicholas Brendon from Buffy. Really funny - he could be a stand-up comedian. He was kind to the fans and seemed down-to-earth. This was before his legal troubles started.

Years ago, when I attended university in London, I saw Cate Blanchett on public transit. She was reading a book and didn't look like she wanted to be disturbed. But I asked anyways if she was Cate Blanchett. She nodded wordlessly, glanced at the book I was reading and asked how is it? I was on my way from class and was reading The Republic for an assignment. I remember I told her I have no idea what I'm reading, she laughed and went back to her reading.

Oh she wasn't shorter, uglier, skinnier, nicer, or taller than I expected. It was around the time Lord of The Rings came out. I didn't know her outside of that movie so had no expectations

Boy George in the late 80s at the old Barney's in Chelsea. Quite tall and built like a truck driver. An he was giggling with a girl friend the whole time.

that's me at R89

Wanda Sykes. TINY! So tiny. And exceedingly, generously polite when drunk me tried to strike up conversation.

Angela Bassett: beautiful and kind.

I was at a bar in Toronto in the 90’s and Kirstie Alley and Steve Guttenburg sat next to me. She was tiny. He was much better looking in person compared to how he looked on screen. I thought he was super hot.

R77, are you a doorman?

January 1985 we were going flying from San Francisco to Los Angeles on the red eye flight and we see Robin Williams at the ticket counter.

He was a really small guy. I had no idea he was so little- maybe about 5ft 6in.

[quote] please explain why Jeff Probst was an asshole.

R58 He was a TOTAL asshole. Met him during his "Rock and Roll Jeopardy" days. To call him rude seems minimal. I cannot imagine how time and Survivor have made him an even worse human being.

R15: “ So our assessment of their looks from afar should be couched with the understanding ….”

I will couch NO understandings!

Former US Senator John Edwards.

Much slighter in person than he looked on TV.

Good-looking in that that conventional handsome way, and of course, very smooth speaker and demeanor.

Add to the short people list: Harry Shearer.

Another itsybitsy: Mel Brooks. My 6’4” ran husband right into him at a Broadway show and he was maybe 5’5”. He was there seeing Mathew Broderick and Parker Posey (I think) in an Elaine May play. I think. My dad also pointed his umbrella at Mel’s back so I would see him.

Mel bought a Snapple.

Karl Urban is tall, handsome and very fucking funny. (We were doing drugs at an industry thing).

Ant Starr is sweet, handsome and not quite as warm as Karl.

Jay Ryan was breathtaking.

I just saw Owen Wilson the other day at the Hammer Museum in the Alice Waters cafe. He was as he seems in film. Handsome, sweet, nice height, and kind of fuckable. Nice smile.

Bruce Greenwood could jam it deeply, deeply inside me.

Same

Tyler Christopher back in 2014 in a grocery store. Absolutely stunning in person. Beautiful skin, eyes, and body. But what I found really striking were his full, pouty lips. God what a beautiful man he was!

I used to see Amy Sedaris all the time when I lived in the West Village. I know numerous people have stated that these various celebrities were super tiny - she is super duper tiny. I'd be surprised if she's even truly 5 ft tall.

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward in Kansas City where they were filming Mr. ans Mrs. Bridge. Paul was attractive but sideways very slim. Cher- Flawless skin, not a crease Dolly- Same as above Bette M- Walking thru Caesars with her HUGE body guard, No makeup , hair in a twist. Looks like nay other short lady gher age with no slap on.

I am a female and when I was younger very tiny, thin, short and petite.. I used to work the American Comedy Awards in the late 80s . One year I had to wait In a small holding area with Priscilla Presley and Leslie Nielson - I said before I was tiny - Priscilla made me feel like Lens Dunham - I felt like a hulk. She was delicate like a porcelain doll. She was exquisite looking - flawless skin and features and her eyes were winded blue. I think she was on Dallas then. I remember thinking that it was a shame that her beauty and size didn’t translate on camera. I can see where Elvis would see her as a little Doll. Leslie Nielson was much more handsome in person. He kept “big brother” like teasing Priscilla and making her giggle - you could tell that they like each other very much. I was invisible - they weren’t rude to me - I was just a non issue - they were having a private moment. ""'"……"……………… A few years later I was a sales director for a small hotel near Santa Anita Race Track and John Forsythe came in with some friends and had lunch - wow! Wow, wow, I felt like that old Doris Day /Cary Grant movie That Touch of Mink. He was a knee buckler - CHARMING - HANDSOME - he looked expensive he was in casual attire - but I always have remembered he was wearing a Butter colored Cashmere Golf sweater. He shook my hand and I don’t really remember much more - but he smelled great, too. He is someone else that although I had seen him on tv a million times I was blown away by what a movie star he looked like in person……….Has anyone met Robert Wagner in person? All Natalie jokes aside he seems like he would have that old movie star quality.

Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner at El Torito in Van Nuys, CA. They were so nice and saw we recognized them and came over to the table to chat with us and take pictures. They were awesome.

Joe Rogan when I briefly worked for the UFC. Nice guy. Tiny. Probably 5 ft 4 inches.

Jillian Michaels with her biggest loser contestants going to the gym near the Cineramadome. She was really short and talking on the phone loudly.

Lou Diamond Philips at a Starbucks in Chatsworth. He was sitting at a table with a bunch of guys who kept saying his name hoping people would recognize him. I walked right past him as he gave off a douche vibe.

Meredith Baxter before she was out at a lesbian bar.

Lucy Lawless, tall and beautiful.

Jodie Foster at a concert. She was short and seemed kind of paranoid.

[quote]Unknowingly standing behind Bob Newhart at a hotel desk and the clerk said “Thank you, Mr. Newhart” as he turned around. I was so awestruck, I could only squeak out “Well…Hello”.

He must have been thrilled to meet such a legendary daytime star, Ms. Dickson.

Mine vary from the well-known to the obscure and/or eclectic:

Matt Keeslar: Met him after he stopped acting. Good looking and tall, but not the sort of person you'd spot easily--he has an odd kind of generic look to him in person. Fairly shy and seemed a little sullen.

Janeane Garofalo: Tiny and shy, very sweet. Seemed to want to disappear into the background.

Dan Aykroyd: Wore a cheap suit covered in food stains. Seemed like he was on the spectrum, and was fat, but very friendly.

Donna Dixon: Fat and dressed a bit ridiculously. Very nice but New Age-y.

Simon Baker (THE MENTALIST): Shorter than i expected (he looked to be under 6 ft.), which beautiful sandy hair and a crinkly smile. Seemed incredibly self-confident.

Madeline Kahn: At the Metropolitan Opera, in the lobby. Very small, but beautifully coiffed and dressed at the time.

Morgan Spector: Hairy, obvious great body, deep-voiced. Friendly and intelligent, but reserved. Tall.

Peter Krause (SIX FEET UNDER, 911): tall, smiley-faced, well built. Very physically confident.

Ben Chaplin (THE TRUTH ABOUT CATS AND DOGS, WASHINGTON SQUARE): Absolutely tiny.

Donal Logue (GOTHAM, THE TAO OF STEVE): fairly tall and surprisingly hairy, very sweet and nice and friendly. His eyes look in slightly different directions (i.e. strabismus)

Samuel West (HOWARDS END, ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL): he was wearing a ratty stretched-out cotton sweater with giant holes in it to an art exhibition in London. He made a big deal out of not wanting to be noticed, and that plus the awful sweater made certain he was noticed. This was about fifteen years ago. He had begun to show a pot belly.

Mike Dukakis (spring, 1989): small and nebbishy. not commanding in the least.

George HW Bush (fall, 1991): tall, skinny, and uncharismatic.

Bill Clinton (spring, 1996); Tall, and so charismatic he seemed to radiate when he walked past even though he was outdoors. I had never seen that in a politician before.

The champion figure skater Rosalyn Sumners: ran into her at a book signing in Colorado. She had so much makeup glopped onto her face she seemed like she was performing in Kabuki.

Paris Hilton: At an obscure awards show event, maybe @ 2007. She walked like such a complete phony, and was glued to her cellphone (encrusted with shiny colored stones). The crowd booed her.

It was twilight. I was waiting outside a theater to see the live play Fortinbras, and happened to be next to the walk actors would use to get to the theater's stage door. I discerned in the dusk a figure walking from somewhere down the street approaching the theater, and it was none other than the show's star, Billy Campbell. No one else noticed him. He looked deep into my eyes, I looked deep into his, and . . . Well, anyway, to get to the point: Unlike many celebrities who have been mentioned, he looked exactly as he does on film, and seemed like a likeable, normal guy.

Lou Diamond Phillips was cute. I would’ve given him a smile. Douche or not.

R61 I’ve heard from others that Heather is a sweetheart. Also, at least before the drink, she was very reliable.

[quote] Ben Chaplin...Absolutely tiny.

I don't know why I think of him as tall whenever I see him on screen.

Chis Pine. More fem than you might expect

Esther Rolle, on an airplane. She kept alarming everyone by predicting the plane would crash. Then, when the flight attendants went by with their carts, she would stand up and fling things off of them onto the aisle, all the while shouting, "DAMN! DAMN! DAAAAMN!"

They’re all short and skinny with gigantic heads. It’s disappointing to see any celebrity in real life.

Most are tiny. However, I saw Kylie Jenner (not a real,star) and she was tall and not pin thin. She looked liked an old time movie star. Kim K is short and kind of zaftig. So props to,them for being almost normal sized humans.

Uma Thruman is much better looking in real life than she is on camera.

[quote]r23 Liza Minnelli - it was late afternoon and her makeup made her look like a circus clown.

That is hilarious. I’m hearing:

[italic]“Baby cried the day the Liza came to town…”

[quote]r45 JGL. Super Fem off script.

Joaquin Guzman Loera? The Mexican drug lord?

R52 What was he like? What did he say??

Helen Lawson drunkenly ordering Mexican food at a drive thru in her yellow convertible Coupe deVille. She kept trying to light the wrong end of her cigarette and I heard her say "Fish tacos? What the fuck, I'll try 'em.'

Al Einstein at Jerry's Diner in Princeton eating a burger and fries decked out with a Yankee's baseball cap. Laughing with his companion Bobby Oppenheimer who occasions lobbed spit balls at the next booth...

Clint Eastwood - this would be around 2010-2011. Very tall and very thin, a little stooped due to age.

Jane Fonda - Exactly how you would imagine she would look. She looked impeccable and polished. Also, extremely thin, height probably between 5'5 and 5'7.

Judd Apatow - met him at a high school he visited in the Bay Area. Looked like you would expect him to, Dad bod, a little shy and awkward, but polite and kind to all the kids.

Lady Miss Kier - from Deee-Lite and a great DJ. Walked by me at a rave, back in 1998 or so. Gorgeous, but so so tiny. Probably 5 feet tall, max.

Sam Smith, surprisingly slim and ultra-masculine.

Was recently at a restaurant table next to Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos. She’s much prettier in person (probably due to less TV makeup) — and, yes, super-tiny. Consuelos was kind of schlumpy and unimpressive.

George Michael in a deli shop in Hampstead: Much taller than I expected

Billy Ray Cyrus, before he was famous. He used to cut my grandparents grass. He had just gotten married and lived on the next street over. I went to visit them one summer and he came to cut grass. My grandma loved him, as he did have manners and he was very cute, too.

Jesus Christ—better looking than in pics.

Merv Griffin .. at his home in Beverly Hills, and actually came to the door to greet my boyfriend and me wearing a very colorful, multi-striped KAFTAN!

R132 were you surprised 😲 he was barely five feet?

Judy Woodruff. Dried up miserable cunt. Looked like her dog had just died.

Jane Fonda...beautiful lady. Comfortable in her own skin, and mischevious. Got two big kisses from her as a thank you for cookies!!

Michael T Weiss.

Tried to pick me up in a coffee shop 26 years ago today actually. Leaner than I had expected, lovely smile and beautiful but sad eyes. I had a bf and why he would even look at me I have no idea. I'm just an average guy.

Conan O’Brien- looked like he was carved out of a potato. Humorless. He looked constipated or something.

Kareem Abdul Jabbar - I actually bumped into him and he was very kind. Not short!

John Hurt - major leave me the fuck alone vibes. He was having lunch with his brother who was a regular at a cafe I worked at.

Cloris Leachman - I wanted to say hello, but overheard her saying something like, “why does anyone give a shit about things I did years ago?” Not in a sad way, just genuinely perplexed.

I also have a knack for spotting pro wrestlers. Always very willing to take a moment. Usually kind. Must be in the contract. I asked Braun Strowman to pick me up. He said it was beneath his dignity. It’s fun when they stay in character.

Gordon Ramsay. I used to see him occasionally in one his London restaurant/pubs which was my local at the time. He was nothing like his television persona. Every time, he was mellow and gracious with annoying people asking for selfies. What surprised me is he’s one of those people much better looking in real life. He’s over 6’ and nicely framed. Close-ups of his contorted screaming face on tv do him no favours.

R137, I admire your fidelity to your bf and will power. Weiss was beautiful in his prime.

I’ve seen many celebrities since I lived in LA and worked in Burbank for a few years but since we are supposed to talk about the surprising ones, I’ve skipped over many but here are a few that may be interesting:

The nerdy kid and Rain Pryor from Head of the Class were both really, really nice. Nerdy kid especially - he remembered specifics about me and would ask how things were going. Just a gem.

Adrienne Barbeau was stunningly beautiful and so so friendly. Very smiley. Petite. I guess not surprising but I still remember her.

Bobby Vinton was so friendly and outgoing - he was a delight to meet. Also smiley and petite.

I knew Johnny Grant pretty well in the early 90s (IYKYK) and absolutely adored him. He was NUTS in a good way and was silly and goofy and friendly and interested in everyone around him. And he loved being spoofed.

Dan Rather is much taller than I expected - my memory is of him being 6’1 or 6’2”. This was at CBS in NYC in late 90s.

I crossed 6th Avenue with Sally Field. Petite and in very good shape. Didn't look like she had too much done.

[quote] Has anyone met Robert Wagner in person? All Natalie jokes aside he seems like he would have that old movie star quality.

My late sister became friends with him when they were neighbors in Colorado (I don't remember if it was in Vail or Aspen). She adored him. She would have him call my father on his birthdays to extend birthday greetings.

[quote] Jodie Foster at a concert. She was short and seemed kind of paranoid.

Having a president nearly assassinated in your name could do that to you.

Ryan Reynolds at LAX- Very tall and stunningly handsome, a different handsome than the camera captures.

[quote] Kareem Abdul Jabbar - I actually bumped into him and he was very kind. Not short!

Where, in terms of location & his body, did you bump into Kareem/ And when was this?

Has anyone seen Gerard Butler? He's my dream bear.

[quote]I've heard she has very striking eyes. Aren't most actors surpringly small?

My eyes used to be big, now they're small and beady.

Robert Redford walked past me at a museum in NYC 25-30 years ago. Short, maybe 5' 9", red and freckled. Glasses. Not handsome in the slightest. That hairpiece is so oversized and all over his forehead, you'd think he was trying to hide something.

Someone met GaGa and she smelled up the stage with her hobo stank. Story in archived link.

Adrian Brody in the mid aughts at Dan Tana's. He is very striking and much better looking in person. Also has a commanding presence. Dan Tana's has a tiny bar and I went to use the restroom and he was on the phone. Then imagine being seated near him just for a bit. He was with Elsa Pataky at the time, who is also much better looking in person. They didn't have any airs of pretense or being better than anyone, and seemed nice and down to earth.

R76, that's because R26 is LYING. It happens all the time here - my favorite was someone who saw Julie Andrews and insisted she "was tiny." Bad bluff. I have met Julie, she's big and 5'7" - 5'8", not tiny under any circumstances.

What R151? I saw Adrien about the same year. So ugly. He looked like Miss Gulch’s son. Very skinny too. I

Paul Newman - very short

Gleb Savchenko. Gorgeous and very nice.

R153 I thought they were so good looking together. He had the short hair like in these photos. I've always dug him tho.

R12 Yeah, I was in an elevator with Roger Daltrey. It was a long ride up 50+ floors, so I got a good up close and personal look. I had heard he was short, but he's really really short. That reported 5'6 must be when he's wearing 3-inch boots.

R140 You're very kind....not too sure if it was totally fidelity but stunned that he'd hit on me. I'm Irish so perhaps it was the accent that got him interested. Still, he was stunningly beautiful and in manner despite his making advances, I think a quiet and thoughtful lad. I hope he's well.

[quote] Gleb Savchenko. Gorgeous and very nice.

GLEB.

Jodie foster - on street in NY - looked great, doesn’t look like she’s had much (if any) work done. Like someone above said - incredible hair color. Was with a friend and seemed normal, talking and laughing.

Sarah Paulson - at theater pre-covid seeing a show (in line behind her). She looked exactly like she does on screen, not better or worse. Very nervous energy.

Stephan Colbert on street on UWS. My frau friend waved at him and he waved back and smiled. Looked like he does on TV.

Portia de Rossi years ago. She was beautiful.

Matthew Morrison - Was in an airport wearing a scarf, carrying a ukelele and sitting in one of two rocking chairs in the waiting area while tons of other people stood around. Very “look at me” energy.

Jay Leno on a street in Mayfair, London. He looked like a cross between Lurch and a gorilla.

Diana. Out with friends to see a film at the old Whiteleys centre in London.Surrounded by security of course, but chatting happily with people brave enough to say hello. She seemed very sweet, and she was dazzling to behold in person.

Brooke Astor in the 90s.....tiny frail thing very heavily made up. She'd blow away in a gust of wind.

Ted Turner...down to earth guy.

Chief Justice Rhenquist...the embodiment of evil. If he were alive today he'd play Himmler to Trump.

r162 Diana Ross?

Jon Voight. Dallas-Fort Worth airport (American Airlines hub). Standing in the first class line to board a plane. The "dress up to fly" people will be glad - he was wearing a gray suit. He seemed tall and seemed like he was by himself. He was smiling and looking around the terminal. If ever I would have felt comfortable walking up to a celebrity and saying hello or asking for an autograph, this would have been the time. He seemed like he would have been open to it.

R152 God, some of these DL queens are illiterate bitches just waiting to put their hands on their hips.

Here's what I said about Jane Fonda, sweetie - "Much shorter than I thought she'd be."

That wasn't a lie, and I never said Jane Fonda was "short." I'm barely 5'10", and when I met her, I noticed she was shorter than I am. Whenever I saw her on TV or in the movies, I envisioned her as this tall, statuesque woman, towering above everyone and everything. That I looked *down* at her when I saw her was a surprise to me. Hence, the "much shorter than I thought she'd be" comment.

Get it?

I saw JFK Jr. on the street in NY on three occasions in the mid-late 90s. As others have said, he was stunning in person. Even if he hadn't been famous and just been some random guy on the street he still would've made people stop and stare.

Lisa Vanderpump.

And I say that only because I was surprised that she was as heavily made up and plasticized in person as she appears to be on TV.

Was walking around LA in 2009. A crowd of people had gathered in front of a theater which was premiering Public Enemies, circa 2009.

At one point, Christian Bale and Johnny Depp broke away and approached the crowd to sign autographs. They both were standing directly in front of me, and I was completely underwhelmed. Average height, average weight, average looks, nothing at all to suggest superstardom. If it hadn't been pointed out by the professional autograph seekers who they were, I never would have known who they were, they were that ordinary. They could have blended in with the rest of the crowd.

Will and Jada Smith. They were fucking spooky. Looked like Madame Tussaud's figures of themselves come to life.

Liam Neeson on Central Park West. He's huge, like a Sasquatch.

Chris Pine drunk off his ass, weaving down the sidewalk in Los Feliz at 6pm.

I saw Jon Voight too. 1993 in the A&P on Central Ave, Scarsdale or Yonkers (Central Ave goes thru several towns). He was exactly the way I expected - 6'3".

Nice try, R166.

Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote at bar near the United Nations sitting together side by side drunk while a piano player played.

Sean Connery walking up 57th street one evening. Alone. Very tall.

R174 Go get faux outraged somewhere else, sweetie.

I only have underwhelming ones, but I want to participate.

Gayle King I’ve seen twice. She looks exactly as she does on TV. She isn’t taller or shorter or thinner or prettier, she looks the same. Somewhat mellow energy, which is good, because people get nervous on account of her being Oprah adjacent.

Eric Lindros. If you’re a hockey fan you know he was the gorgeous franchise player for the Philadelphia Flyers back in the early 2000’s. He was huge. Massive. I think his looks were more striking in photos than in person, but his size made him stand out like crazy. Quiet energy. On a side note: his teammate Shawn Antoski was gorgeous. Incredible skin.

John-boy from The Waltons. Used to eat brunch with his family at the restaurant I worked at back in the early 90’s. They were quiet and chill. Reading the papers and eating.

Rupert Murdoch. Incredibly arrogant in the ‘how dare you speak to me?’ type of way. We were at the same party talking in a group. I didn’t even know who the fuck he was. He looked just like your average old guy.

Juliet Prowse coming out of a tailor. No makeup and she wasn't as tall as I thought but she was breathtaking. Her body was so slender yet athletic. She had the best body on a woman I'd ever seen and she had yoga pants on so I didn't see the legs. She obviously took good care of her skin because she was in her 50s at the time but she still almost glowed. Fantastic smile and so friendly and charming.

R178 Be prepared for R152 to say you're lying because you said Juliet Prowse wasn't as tall as you thought she'd be.

You’re being trolled r179 and you’re letting it get to you.

R179 No. I'm amused by R178's insistence that she knows all. :-)

Liars and "Liar!" shriekers, please cease and desist. You are not interesting, either of you.

Liza Minnelli, at a private screening on the Fox lot back in the mid 80s. She was clearly drugged out of her mind, and quite tiny.

R76 A friend and I saw Jane Fonda at the Century City Mall back in the early 90s. She was wearing a hat and was dressed stylishly, but she would have blended into the crowd completely anonymously if I hadn't looked her right in the eye and recognize her when she walked by.

My friend and I both thought she was looked smaller in person.

Timothee Chalamet. His ass was surprising hairy when he sat on my face.

R185 Liar! His ass is as smooth as glass!

I've mentioned this on other threads, but when I saw Hank Azaria naked at The Sports Connection, I was very surprised (and saddened) by his micro peen.

Kate Burton—warm, friendly, very intelligent, and unpretentious.

I had him when he was legal r186 and he had pubes and ass crack hairy by then r186. You shouldn't fuck around with 16 year olds!

Robert Klein walking down 42nd Street two years ago.

He was hunched over and looked like a little old man.

Then again, he was 80, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.

Robert Klein is a name from the past. Is he still performing!

R181, you have a very thin skin for someone who visits the Datalounge.

R192 Says the drama queen who can't believe I would *dare* mention that Jane Fonda looked shorter than I expected. :-)

GIRLS, GIRLS! you're both pretty! r193 and r192!

Remember that scene in "Down and Out in Beverly Hills" where Richard Dreyfuss runs around screaming, "Call 911" .. Well, I basically saw him do that IRL about three years before the film was made.

For about a year or more, Dreyfuss leased the main house on the property where I rented the guest house. .. I saw him often, but gave him his privacy, so we rarely interacted. .. But one time we were having one of those torrential Southern California January downpours, and the driveway was beginning to flood in front of the garage where his Mercedes was parked. .. He flew into a panic and was running around in the driveway ready to call 911. .. I was leaving to go to work (back when we actually wore dress clothes to the office), and I couldn't get all wet or be late, so I didn't have time to get involved with the mess he was facing.

All I could do before driving off was tell him to go in the garage and look for the long shovel hanging on the wall, then wade through the foot of water in the corner of the driveway where he'd find a large drain where the grate needed to be lifted up and cleared of all the debris blocking it. He kind of stood there looking at me dumbfounded.

The only celebrity I've seen in person is Alice Cooper (I waited on him). I'm 6'2" and he was probably 1 or 2 inches shorter than me, which was really surprising. He wasn't fat or thin, but kind of fit, which was really surprising. He had two legs and two arms, which was really surprising.

R193, you fail to understand that several people wish you would STFU and stop trying to hijack this thread.

Carry on, the rest of you.

I should get my aunt to post in this thread.

She used to work at the Sears in Santa Monica, and one evening over dinner she began to name off all the celebrities she encountered while working there (nearly 30 years). They'd come in from Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Bel Air, Beverly Hills, etc. .. Often to buy appliances, which is one of the departments she worked in. But there were also females who shopped in the women's department, another section she worked in. She named off at least 50, and said that if she thought about it long enough, she could probably name another 50. .. Loretta Young always bought her underwear there.

R197 You mad? You seem mad.

R197, you fail to understand that several people ALSO wish you would STFU and stop trying to hijack this thread.

Carry on, the rest of you.

Kylie Minogue at her Vegas show.

She's a midget.

I saw Pat Benatar before her show, as she was presenting some local awards. She had to come from behind the lectern because she could barely see over it. They moved the mic to the side - it was really cute.

Gavin Newsome - When he was Mayor of SF he came to our office to welcome us into the city. Charisma for days. He knew it too.

A millio0n years ago - working in a JCP behind a jewelry counter. Kristy McNichol at the height of her fame comes to the counter taps her nail on the glass counter. "That one. Let me see it." I looked up and smiled, "Say Please."

I've written this a couple of times and I swear I always forget the answer.

This is so long ago Rizzoli was on 5th Av. I was walking quickly up 5th Av after work towards 57th St. I'm looking down going my own way not noticing anything around me when I suddenly look up and right in front of me were Meryl Streep and Rober De Niro having a conversation in front of Rizzoli. I was so close I was practically between them but they didn't notice me at all. They had for some reason at that time of year Christmas packages. I thought well this is very strange. What in the world are these two people doing in front of me. I look around and see a camera crew. Oh a movie. I was walking so quickly and intently nobody noticed me and I didn't notice them which is probably why I got so close. I then just went on my way. Ok nothing surprising about them but just the fact they were unexpectedly there.

People always know which movie this is and I always forget the title and obviously have never seen it.

This is about a person I did not see. At least at that moment.

I went to see The Heiress at I believe the Cort. Maybe with Cherry Jones? When I was younger I had a job and left just as A Matter of Gravity had ended its performance. I would walk across 44th Street to get to the PA terminal and often join the crowd to watch Katharine Hepburn leave the stage door. You know because she was such a legendary goddess. I'd see Christopher Reeve leave as well but nobody noticed him except for me because he was so handsome.

Well as I was leaving The Heiress my friend said look Christopher Reeve! I had seen him so many times I didn't bother. It was later in that very week he had the accident that destroyed his life. It makes me sad thinking about it.

Yoko Ono sat next to me at the movie theatre on 64th and Broadway. Tiny thing, Asked me after what I thought of the movie. Normal and pleasant.

[quote]I look around and see a camera crew. Oh a movie. I was walking so quickly and intently nobody noticed me and I didn't notice them which is probably why I got so close. I then just went on my way. Ok nothing surprising about them but just the fact they were unexpectedly there.

I walked onto the set of "The King of Marvin Gardens" with Jack Nicholson and Bruce Dern filming a scene. I was young and cute and no one bothered to ask me who I was or what I was doing there.

Another JFK Jr sighter and as others have posted - amazingly stunning. I saw him walking alone on a street in DC. Really something mythic about him. Brooke Shields at a horse event in Virginia, very tall and absolutely gorgeous. Bill Clinton in a receiving line - as someone else said, there was a mesmerizing energy around him, it was indescribable and unsettling. Sean Penn in an elevator ag The Four Seasons in DC - shorter than me, beautiful hair and smelled wonderful. Not at all haggard looking but he lit up a cigarette immediately off the elevator.

Princess Anne, at a small function where I could get a good look at her, when she was in her late teens. The camera does not like her--she was very much prettier in real life. She was with the Queen, who looked as I'd expected from seeing her on screen.

Mel Gibson. Walked beside him in a strike for better actors' pay and conditions in Sydney, way back before he went to the US. I'm 5'6 and he looked to be the same as me or smaller. I didn't talk to him: never a fan of his work. That must have been his last left-wing action, though he didn't have any money himself at the time so he probably didn't think of it as political.

Stallone short. Dolph Lungren bow legs. Dolly tiny. Selleck massive. Shatner beachball. QE smaller than Dolly. Gyllenhaal garbage can sized head ect ect

The late Raquel Welch. She was very striking in person, and I saw her when she was doing Victor/Victoria on Broadway sometime around 1996. At the time I had no idea how old she was, but it turns out she was in her 50s and she looked great. b.1940 here she is with Rosie in 1996!

I remember my grandma was so impressed by meeting Fergie, Duchess of Pork, in person in the 80s. It was soon after she and Andy married. She got to shake Fergie’s hand, and Fergie had a little chat with her. It was some official tour. She always talked about how much she liked her and her beautiful red hair. She was dazzled.

[quote] Normal and pleasant.

So unlike Yoko Ono’s singing voice.

R138 I encourage tired the wrestler Kevin Owens at Universal Studios and I was thrilled! He looks exactly the same in person as on screen. Not bad looking at all if you’re into bear types. I told him I was a big fan. He was quiet,polite and had sad eyes. I saw him a few more times that day and he was never smiling. Kind of a dark energy,

*encountered* My god auto correct is terrible

[quote] Princess Anne, at a small function where I could get a good look at her, when she was in her late teens. The camera does not like her--

"Princess Anne! Such an active, outdoorsy lass. She loves nature in spite of what it did to her."

--Bette Midler

Goop and her mom at a Broadway premiere. Never thought she was anything special on screen, but she was luminously beautiful in person, as was her mother. They were both eating a big bag of gummy bears and looked like they enjoyed each other's company.

Donald Trump and Melania, the year he married her (I think) also at a Broadway show (might have been the same one). He is just as ugly in person, but very tall. His hair looked like cotton candy under the lobby lights and he was busy doing that fucking pointing thing that he thinks makes him look Alpha. Melania was quiet and civil and had a frozen expression on her face - I assume recent Botox. They left the show after the first song.

Debbie Harry, several times. Very sweet and very tiny. Had a dog in her handbag.

Sigourney Weaver several times (she is a friend's godmother). Always pleasant but intimidating and taller than I am, at least when she's wearing heels.

Anne Hathaway several times. She was delightful and down-to-earth.

Robert Downey Jr. and Molly Ringwald on the set of The Pick-Up Artist (my cousin was one of the kids Downey's character was supposed to be teaching and I visited when they filmed at the American Museum of Natural History). He led a flashlight tour of the dinosaur rooms (the movie was filmed at night) for us kids. Someone finally yelled at him and said "stop playing with the kids!" Molly peeped into the room where the extras were waiting once or twice. She had a "Oh no...more people?" expression on her face.

Robert Redford in Park City, Utah. Very short, very skinny and very wizened. I couldn't believe how short he was and how craggy he looked.

I've posted this before but I smoked a cigarette with Lisa Stansfield on the sidewalk outside a restaurant in Soho (NYC) back in 2003. The camera does not do her justice, she is luminously pretty in person. Just has a glow about her. We were both half in the bag on some really strong drinks and had a nice chat, she was lovely.

It seems that of all the very handsome men in Hollwood history Robert Redford has aged the worst. And yes I'm including Brando.

R204 The Meryl Streep/Robert De Niro movie is called Falling In Love.

Somebody sure likes the word luminous.

[quote] Somebody sure likes the word luminous.

Luminous beings are we not this crude matter!

r222 sure sounds like a cunt.

R224:

[quote] [R222] sure sounds like a cunt.

A cunt R222 is.

95% of these posts just recount celebrity sightings, not ones that were particularly surprising in any way. Wonder whether op is miffed!

Goofy-- a lot stronger and hornier than I would have thought.

[quote] Aren't most actors surpringly small?

Not really. I live in the Hamptons. Short celebs are usually people who started out as child stars.

I've seen Marisa Tomei around town for years. She always looks very natural and quite pretty. She just turned fifty-nine which is remarkable, she looks way younger.

I doubt she's a Datalounger, but I guess she qualifies!

[quote] I doubt she's a Datalounger, but I guess she qualifies!

She’s fat and cunty?

Brad and Angelina.

Brad was orange like Trump orange.

Angelina was exquisite.

Steve Buscemi: insanely charming and attractive in person

Henry Kissinger: a horrible aura of evil

R211, did Raquel swing her arms when she walked? That bitch assaulted me on Amsterdam Ave in the early 90s.

Waiting for a genuine surprise, like... "I met Dick Cheney, and he was a bounty of mirth, a true joy to be around, and children naturally flocked to him"

r222 Don't forget 'other worldly' as well

i should have mentioned that kissinger’s horrible aura wasn’t actually a surprise at ALL, i guess i just wanted to throw that sighting in there. Was around 2007 at some ladeeda literary event at CUNY in manhattan, and everyone was bowing down to that war criminal during the cocktail part after some dumb reading. I ended up dumping someone over it because they were defending him.

Do any of the celebrities have a smile that would light up a room? Or is that description exclusively reserved for the poor souls profiled on Dateline?

Lots of cruises back in the day when they weren't cheap, and the dress code was strict. There were frequently celebrities (or titled aristocrats or business titans) onboard as passengers, or owners of the ship in a few cases.

Generally these were on vessels with anything from a few dozen guests to just a couple hundred.

Out of that the most exciting for me was Donald "You only live twice, 007" Pleasance. He was very nice, but quite shy and modest.

[quote] Out of that the most exciting for me was Donald "You only live twice, 007" Pleasance.

I've found him fascinating in every role in which I've seen him.

Stevie Nicks at the Safeway Market in Paradise Valley over 25 years ago. Petite and in shape, her hair in a bun with sunglasses shopping with a female assistant, barking "I told you get turkey burgers!' - she was laughing at the magazine rack and I knew who she was, and saw she knew. She gave a halting 'hi' and quickly moved away. i did not bother her any further, but her throaty laugh was great.

Also had a pleasant encounter with SJP and Whitney Houston was much cooler than her p.r. - Joan Rivers was nice and more relaxed than on t.v.

Nicole Kidman walking out of a local educational toy store. She wearing Docs and was exactly my height, 5’9. She’s tall for a woman, but not astonishingly so. The reason I noticed her at all is because she was so thin, I thought she was a teenager and noticed I was staring at a woman in her 40s.

Blake Lively waiting to get into a restaurant. She pointed out that we arrived before she did when the host cooed over her. Very pretty and warm, almost lit from the inside. Surprisingly curvy, almost strapping, but then again she’s usually pregnant.

Charlie Sheen and myself were late for a flight and milled around, embarrassed at the gate. He was tipsy (shocker) but very friendly and low-key with beautiful manners.

Mel Gibson in a lift, circa Apocalypto when he had that beard. We made pleasant small talk. He has a potent, powerful charisma, he takes up space if that makes sense. The penny didn’t drop for me until the later that day when I saw paparazzi pics of him leaving that same building. What a way to live.

Martin Freeman scowled at me for no reason when walking into the National Theatre. Ugly prick.

Nigel Havers checked out my mum in the Harrods food hall when we did the tourist thing. She was thrilled and remains so til this day.

Second hand, but the person whom Jennifer Aniston asked an opinion about wine in a liquor store reported to me that she’s very good-looking in real life.

Vince Vaughn. Probably 10 years ago. Tall and stating to get beefy. He was walking down the street chatting with a friend. Ooozed casual charisma.

I met two very tall and nice celebrities.

Max von Sydow when I was in my late teens. Like a human skyscraper. Quite handsome in his late sixties and very “normal” and understated as a person. Beautiful blue eyes.

Brooke Shields about six years ago. Her most distinct feature was that she was over six feet tall as a woman - otherwise she was soccer mom pretty. Chatty.

I’ve had other sightings that surprised me - Scarlett Johansson is under five feet tall and slim, the formerly stunning Jennifer Connelly looks like a decomposing skeleton below the neck, and Kathy Bates circa 2001 had the most incredible skin I’ve seen in my life. I can’t think of the rest now.

R226 OP here. No not miffed. It's just that celebrities look different in person than on TV and I'm always surprised. Just wondering if anyone else was. What has really surprised me about this thread is the "glow" around John Kennedy Jr. I honestly never thought he was that good looking in print, just your average run-of-the-mill model type.

Hillary Clinton. Her head seems huge but that might be because her body seemed superfluous. Just a huge head plopped on an ill defined blob of a body. She’s not heavy—but her body looked like something made by a kindergartener out of Playdoh.

Not saying this to be unkind. Just struck me how important her head is. She’s all brain. My boss arranged a meeting between us. Talked to her for about 5 minutes—correction—she talked for five minutes and all I managed to do was nod enthusiastically. Much warmer in person than her public image but serious. It was about after Trump got elected.

Another endorsement of SJP being kindly. She even personally called someone I know who had given her something thru a rep.

What strikes me about this thread is that there are so many people who are evidently more beautiful/charismatic in real life than they are on screen.

I think I shared this on DL before—I interviewed Sharon Gless for a magazine article about 15 years ago. She was awesome. Funny, down to earth, candid, warm. Chain smoked and drank several cans of Diet Coke. Told me a lot of great stories. She adored Robert Wagner and hated Cybil Shepard. Seemed to be happily married.

[quote] What strikes me about this thread is that there are so many people who are evidently more beautiful/charismatic in real life than they are on screen.

And luminous. Forget not luminous.

[quote] What strikes me about this thread is that there are so many people who are evidently more beautiful/charismatic in real life than they are on screen.

I'm thinking:

1. Beauty / charisma doesn't transfer that well to the screen, so you have to be extra-charismatic. Like how you look 10 lbs. fatter. (You've got to be extra-slim and fit for that to show up on screen.)

2. DL posters are just starstruck and shocked to see a celebrity in the flesh. Hence, every celebrity looks "lit from within."

Actually r251 many celebs are better looking in person and really do have a glow or something about them. All of us on this thread have seen them in person.

Leave it to some sour cunts on DL to fuck it all up with their bitterness.

[quote]2. DL posters are just starstruck and shocked to see a celebrity in the flesh. Hence, every celebrity looks "lit from within."

That's just not true in my case, r251. The only celebrity I ever saw who looked like that was Bill Clinton. As I posted, I also saw George HW Bush when he was president (he was accepting an honorary degree at Princeton), and he didn't look that way at all.

And I've seen much, much handsomer and more sexually attractive celebrities (like Morgan Spector and Peter Krause, whom I posted about), and they didn't have that quality. And I saw Madeline Kahn in person, who is about the only celebrity I think I would have made a fool of myself over had I actually spoken to her (fortunately I didn't get he chance!), and even she didn't have that quality.

R252. Exactly. Jane Fonda fitness guru will devour a plate of cookies. Trust me. I know. Away from the public they are just human like the rest of us.

r254 put down the bottle and go to bed. JFC.

The camera can magnify flaws so it’s not surprising many look better in person

[quote]Away from the public they are just human like the rest of us.

Surprisingly so, as a matter of fact.

I sat next to Jennifer Tilly at the bar at The Playwrite on 8th Ave. about 20 years ago. She was very nice and didn't mind a little conversation (but I knew when to stop bugging her). I asked her about getting an Oscar nomination for Bullets Over Broadway, because I was a big Woody Allen fan. She just said something like "Yeah, Diane won that one." so I dropped it. She's very different when not "in character."

My sister was Director of Development for a medical research center in New York in the 80s and 90s.

She is a very prosaic person and about as uninterested in celebrity as it is possible to be.

She was dining with a donor at the Four Seasons in 1986 or 1987 in the Grill Room.

She said "Suddenly the most beautiful boy and girl I had ever seen entered the room."

Evidently there was a very brief silence.

The were both very pale, black-haired, red-lipped and in full formal attire, the boy in black tie, the girl in a sweeping silver gown.

She described them as angelic vampires - or maybe vampire angels.

She said the boy was ebullient and playful, the girl far more reserved and elegant.

She thought she was seeing a brother and sister of some weird Eastern European royal family.

When she left she asked the hostess "Who are that rather amazing young couple?"

The hostess responded "Robert Downey Jr. and Jennifer Connelly, madam."

My sister said "Oh? Who are they?"

1987 Jennifer C was not very well known.

Neither was Robert Downey Jr., if memory serves.

Jennifer Connelly was in Labyrinth in '86.

And yes, she was beautiful.

RDJ was on Saturday Night Live.

He was beautiful too.

Robert Downey Jr. was in Weird Science in '86. And yes, he was beautiful.

Odd, but RDJ and Jennifer do seem to share an aesthetic, if not an appearance.

SHE'S ALIVE!

I concur with those who mentioned Charlize Theron being otherworldly. I sat near her on a flight, and she was among the most beautiful women I'd ever seen. She was almost in a cocoon of radiance with perfect hair, makeup, and deep, glowing eyes. And by otherworldly I don't mean she looked like the female Founder from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to whom I'd compared her prior to seeing her in person.

A strange thing for me was seeing Uma Thurman shopping in Fairway Market around 1990 (?)

1.) I was naively surprised she didn’t look supremely beautiful, because she often is onscreen. But she was painfully (almost horribly) thin, with lank hair twisted back into a knot. No visible makeup. Dulled and exhausted looking. And I immediately wondered if she had an eating disorder because she was dressed in that way women who hate their bodies do: layers and layers of long, drapey black. Like, black leggings, long black skirt, billowy black blouse over a turtleneck, a vest, a shawl… just SO MANY CLOTHES hanging off her at once.

2.) Her cart was full to the brim with vegetables. Multiple eggplants. Many many eggplants. Lots of bunches of carrots, celery, etc. It was strange. In retrospect, I figure she must have been hosting a vegetarian dinner party.

I love Uma Thurman - I’m not cutting her down. It was just such a surreal experience.

Living in NYC in the 1970s and early 80s, I saw A LOT of celebrities. Hollywood's Golden Age actors were still alive. You could see them onstage and off stage walking around town.

The two most memorable for me were Garbo and Gloria Swanson.

Gloria Swanson was like a precious art-deco object. Like something that would sell at Sotheby's for millions of dollars.

And Garbo played Garbo....as she passed she raised her hand to cover her face.

...precious antique art-deco object.

r269 from the pictures I've seen of her, Gloria Swanson was beautiful even into her old age.

Patti Lupone. Tiny AF. Except for her nose and MASSIVE ego. And pendulous udders.

Chita. Tiny. She is gracious, accessible, authentic and friendly. Not an ounce of pretense.

My theory is that Patti Lupone is a bitter bitch because she was too ugly to be in movies.

She was great as Evita, though.

Was Patti really ugly?

She looks pretty glamorous in Evita photos.

I didn't appreciate her shitting on Madonna's acting career (Not because she wasn't correct but because it seems petty.)

I've seen a lot because of a close friend's job, but posting about that seems like a betrayal. But they were all A-list, tiny, had enormous heads, and were neurotic if you stuck around long enough to observe them.

So apart from that, I grew up in Massachusetts in a middle-class family and we had a boat. We would take the boat to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket every year for a two-week vacation. One year we were cruising into the Nantucket Boat Basin and I was on the bow ready to toss a line to someone in the slip we'd rented. A big, fancy yacht was passing us, and there was a man on the bow. I waved to him and he waved to me because that's what people did. My mother had been sitting in the dinette in the cabin smoking a Virginia Slim, and she dashed out on the stern deck and said to me, "Do you know who that is? It's Frank Sinatra!" I did not have any idea who Frank Sinatra was. But for the next week we were in Nantucket we heard stories from shopkeepers and waiters about Frank Sinatra passing through with his then girlfriend, Mia Farrow.

I’m the one who was dazzled by Priscilla Presley’s beauty. I meant to say her eyes were WINDEX blue. I worked at a lot of those awards shows in the late 80s saw alot of celebrities - she was truly stop in your tracks lovely. I was very pretty in my twenties and I used to be able to turn heads - but Priscilla Presley in her 40s just wiped the floor with the younger women. She had a “Vivian Leigh/Scarlett” little tilt of the head. I remember years later on DWTS seeing her awful plastic surgery ……… In the early 1980s I saw Ricky Nelson in a small summer concert at the LA Arbortum. It was before John Lennon died and in hindsight it is freaky how close we were able to wander up close to the stage. It was a wonderful night. What a memorable voice! But he was TINY. ……… All of the Golden Girls were doing one of the Comedy Awards shows. I escorted Betty White - getting her to make up, her interviews, rehearsal, wardrobe etc - she had the knack of acting very personal with you - without being personal. She was” Betty White.” Another “she was much prettier in person” was Bea Arthur! She strutted around like a show girl to the music. The pianist and orchestra would play rehearsing the show - Bea would be one of those people who would get caught up with the music and sway and sing and bump and grind and respond to it. Even though she was an older lady she seemed much more youthful than Dorothy or Maude. ……..one Sunday at the bookstore in Santa Monica (was it Brentanos or Borders ?) A small familiar woman was in the same aisle. She seemed really familiar - but she looked more like an older nice teacher. Then I blurted out to her ! “Are you Linda Kaye Henning?!” How bizarre to meet my childhood hero Betty Joe Bradley.

Of all the people I mentioned the two who had that beautiful glow around them was Gere and John Jr. I had a few other posts and non of them had that glow, that aura.

Another who did not have that 'luminous' quality' was Mick Jagger who would shop at the BDalton at 666 building on 5th. I worked there and he once came in with that famous model he was dating. You all know her I've just forgotten her name. But it was a long famous affair. As beautiful as she was she didn't have that glow either. But he never had security with him. Just another customer. And when I saw him at the Garden his charisma filled the place. Jared now owns that building and because it was 666 we all thought something would happen there and it never did unless you think Jared is the devil which he just might be. Last I know it was a big basketball store. Maybe it still is.

Yes, yes I KNOW ViviEn Leigh with an EEE - I KNOWW!!

Falling in Love. I knew Love was in the title. But I guess I keep forgetting it because it is the most inane movie title ever. Maybe that's why I've never even bothered to see it.

I saw Joan Rivers once on 5h Av interviewing people and her plastic surgery was more horrifying in person and it looked like all her skin had been gathered at her neck as if nothing been cut off. Scary.

Sean Penn is tiny and wizened (this was in 2006 so I can imagine he's even more wizened now)

Aaron Ekhart: fit and small (also 2006)

I had coffee and dessert with Kathy Bates around the time of MISERY (I arrived late and didn’t know she was dining with my friends.) I was taken aback by how lovely she was: very smooth, clear olive skin, large eyes, even features, good teeth, dark glossy hair.

It really says something about Hollywood that when an otherwise attractive woman is physically bulky, she gets cast as a monster.

Most surprising for me was meeting Ashton Kutcher at SXSW one year. He was not nearly as good-looking in person. He also had a very off-putting, manic energy. Demi was with him and he would interrupt her any time she started to talk.

My sister saw Sean Penn at JFK airport. Sis is short. Said that Sean Penn is tiny. I don’t know about wizened, but that makes sense, considering the smoking, etc.

[quote]What does Brad Pitt look like in person other than jaw dropping?

To me, he's a good looking man but his looks never awed me (but I'm immune to blonds). I met him by chance, however, and we were introduced as having a shared interest. He was uncommonly charming, very affable, a close-talker and soft-spoken, wants to look directly into your eyes at close range with a very focused charm which is always a little disarming in a goodlooking stranger. We talked only 5 minutes or so but, as with some other recognizable celebrities I've met, he seemed delighted to talk when the conversation was centered on his work or his celebrity.

I saw Jude Law in person in Tribeca.

Ah, another one just came to mind:

2008, TINA TURNER backstage (I had those "golden" tickets for a little meet & greet). Even with the heels and the big hair, she was tiny. Beautiful skin at 69 years old, incredibly charismatic. Some words, like "super" were pronounced with a bit of a German accent ("sooper")

Many years ago I was walking up E. 50th in NYC, and as I got to (what was then) the Helmsley Palace Hotel a limousine pulled up and stopped right next to the hotel. As I got a few feet from the car the driver opened the back passenger door and out popped Martha Graham dressed in a flaming red dress with a long flowing red cape. She looked around and growled to the chauffeur "is this where I'm staying?", and then swung around holding the seam of her cape which completely enveloped me. I started laughing, she started laughing, and she released me from her garment and apologized. I just said "no problem Miss Graham", which seemed to delight her that I knew who she was. What shocked me was how clown like she looked. She was the most heavily made up broad I had ever laid eyes upon, and looked just like she does in this photo. Her mouth looked 6" wide.

Sorry, I mistyped. It was Virginia Graham, not Martha Graham.

I met Dawson late on a Sunday and he wouldn't take my load.

Maybe 51 would have ruined the nice round number.

[quote]I saw Joan Rivers once on 5h Av interviewing people and her plastic surgery was more horrifying in person and it looked like all her skin had been gathered at her neck as if nothing been cut off. Scary.

I saw Joan and daughter Melissa at LAX and was struck by how much alike they were, especially how small and (it must be said) wizened they appeared, shrivelled starvelings the pair of them. When I lived in LA I noticed that a lot of actors have a similar look off-camera-- sort of puny and dessicated. I saw Jodie Foster in person and ever since she is my go-to exemplar of this unfortunate look. She wasn't at all old at the time (1991) but appeared older than her age. My guess is that this is a result of severe caloric restriction, possibly in concert with smoking, but who knows.

1996 - Rosie O'Donnell walking alone and crying on the UWS.

Years ago the playwright Edward Albee watched me swallowing loads in the smaller front room at Les Hommes on 80th at Amsterdam.

Melora Hardin, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lisa Stansfield, Richard Gere and John Jr. are luminous.

Mick Jagger lacks luminosity.

Thank you.

I was getting on a plane years ago and walked past Jack Lalanne sitting in the first class section. He looked like any little old man, not a legendary fitness guru. The seat he was in seemed to be engulfing him.

I've told this before. OJ Simpson. Obviously before the murders. I was invited to a party at a friend's house and he was there. Talk about charming, charismatic and handsome. Tremendous body. My mom was with me and he talked to her like he was talking to his own mom. When we left, he was leaving at the same time and was parked down a ways from us. We waved at him and he RAN to us, shook my hand and hugged my mom and said how much he looked forward to seeing us at the next party. The trial was hard for my mom because she couldn't believe that this man who was so kind to a stranger could be so savage.

Kristin Kreuk, Lana of Smallville. Sat next to her on an airplane from NY. About 5 feet tall and totally dazzlingly beautiful. We gossiped the entire trip.

R296 OJ was a hot piece of ass back in the day before he became a murderer.

R289, I sat at a table in a NY restaurant next to Virginia Graham (we were both alone) and she wouldn't stop bugging me.

Saw Kris Kristofferson around 1980 when he had cut his beard off, he walked past me and I got a good look. All I could think of was LEATHER FACE.

Likewise, Frank Sinatra walked past or hurried past me, 1980s. My companion pointed him out before or I wouldn't have recognized him. Short, tubby, and that "fat face" look one gets after plastic surgery.

Ray Charles being escorted through the terminal at LAX.

Again, another celebrity who was surprisingly shorter than I had imagined. 5'8" at best. I always thought he was at least 6'.

I was walking in West Hollywood when a tall, stunning guy asked me where Circus of Books was. I said I was going there so we walked the half block. It was Joey Stefano. Porn stars are mostly short but he was well over 6 feet.

Dawn Davenport eating a meatball sandwich right out in class!

I am not surprised that OJ Simpson was charming and friendly to strangers. He seemed that way. He had a lot of fans, he enjoyed his fans and made time for fans in his everyday life.

[quote] Ray Charles being escorted through the terminal at LAX.

Lazy and entitled.

[quote]Saw Kris Kristofferson around 1980 when he had cut his beard off, he walked past me and I got a good look. All I could think of was LEATHER FACE.

Kristofferson stood next to me in line at Houston's Hobby Airport many years ago. In keeping with my comment above at R291 about emaciated celebrities Kristofferson was extremely thin, with his clothes hanging off him like a scarecrow.

Stephen Baldwin, the crazy Christian right wing Baldwin brother, in line at the Starbucks at JFK airport.

I wasn't surprised by how short he was, but I was surprised (pleasantly) at how polite he was to everyone. "Thank you, ma'am," "excuse me, sir."

I figured that since he was a Baldwin, he'd be a total asshole.

I was waiting for a friend backstage after Fiddler on the Roof and Andrea Martin walked past me. She was beautiful.

Maggie Gyllenhaal. Surprised at how much more attractive she was in person.

R299, I waved at Ray Charles one time in an airport and he didn’t even respond.

[quote] Saw Kris Kristofferson around 1980 when he had cut his beard off, he walked past me and I got a good look. All I could think of was LEATHER FACE.

He was only 44 in 1980.

Celebrity in prison? I guess Wednesday Snipes from that Dagger movie.

I've learned from this thread that celebrities are:

Lilliputian

Skeletal

Luminous

R311, that’s me rolled all into one!

At a Star Trek thing a couple of years ago before the final season of Picard aired, Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher on the show) sat down in front of me. She was tall and yes, impossibly thin but slumped in an osteoporosis kind of way. Of course, in Picard she was kicking ass in fight scenes. All movie magic. Jerry O'Connell came in and sat a few seats down, all smiling and waving. Maybe high? His brow ridge was frozen like a Neanderthal's.

[quote]Of all the people I mentioned the two who had that beautiful glow around them was Gere and John Jr. I had a few other posts and non of them had that glow, that aura.

Diana, Princess of Wales is the only celebrity I've met that had that aura/'luminous' charisma about them. Admittedly I have not met that many celebs - plenty of minor ones.

O.J. did not kill Nicole- or even intend to. He hired a drifter to rob her house after the lights went out, so he could retrieve jewelry he had given her (as we saw later, he hates to feel ripped-off). Unfortunately the hired thief was psychotic, got into a deadly altercation with Ron Goldman on the sidewalk and slit Nicole's throat when she rushed outside screaming.

So O.J. could very well be as nice, sweet and charming as he appeared to be.

R314 Kahrershma, loomnoshty, shiksha wun...

[quote]Kahrershma, loomnoshty, shiksha wun...—Lizsha

You mock but perhaps you've just never experienced it.... Charisma is a thing.

Mohammed Ali sitting alone on a bench against a wall in the baggage claim area at O'Hare, back in the 80's. He looked quite sad, and a bit pathetic. I was shocked there was no one there to protect him. Luckily while I had him in my view no one bothered him. Frankly, I don't think most people realized who it was.

r317

R318, was that before his Parkinson’s affliction was announced?

[quote]I was shocked there was no one there to protect him.

This is pretty funny when it's Muhammed Ali. He did publicly release his Parkinson's diagnosis in 1984 though (he'd have been in his early 40s then).

R317 That glow, the aura you find so convincing, could just be grease on your glasses from the french fries.

R322 So you don't believe that charisma exists?

[quote]The trial was hard for my mom because she couldn't believe that this man who was so kind to a stranger could be so savage.

Genuinely, it was hard for a lot of people (such as myself) who are of the age to have been around when he was a huge celebrity. His charm was always off the charts and he broke through color barriers at a time when it was very difficult for black people to do so. Personally, I couldn’t watch the trial and kept my distance from the whole situation as it unfolded because it made me so sad.

Has anyone met Barack Obama?

R315 = Sydney Simpson

R297 - damn! That is an incredible body and dick!

I've told this story here before, but now I can tell all of it, because the celebrity is dead.

I was at a lunchtime AA meeting in Storrs, CT in1995, and after the meeting, I walked up to a stranger to the meeting and said, "You look just like Peter Tork from the Monkees!" He replied, "That's because I AM Peter Tork from The Monkees!"

He was incredibly nice, normal, chatty (for a New Englander), and, believe-it-or-not, brilliant. No, he wasn't short -- I would say about 5'11". Lanky. He was there visiting his family -- his father was a professor at UCONN (where I was in grad school) and had a big house not too far away from my apartment. We went out for lunch, and I spent the entire afternoon hanging out with him. He ended up offering me and my gf backstage tickets to that evening's show.

Sadly, I was overwhelmed with work for my Ph.D., and I had already lost a chunk of work time hanging with him, so I declined. But he was such a great guy -- so funny and smart and so much fun. I was very happy to have met him.

BTW, he told me that Davy Jones was the REAL drunk out of the four of them.

Speaking of the Monkees, I saw Micky Dolenz when, in 2007, we were both in attendance at Feinstein’s at the Regency watching Peter Gallagher sing. I tried making eye contact to signify recognition, but he was not interested in the least.

I saw Val Kilmer in a Tower Records but I didn’t recognize him, someone pointed him out to me. He wasn’t at all remarkable and had bad skin.

"Jesus Christ—better looking than in pics."

Was he tiny and/or luminous?

R281 That is exactly what I was struck by meeting Kathy Bates too. She’s so often cast as homely women because she’s fat, but she had much lovelier features than many “beauties” I’ve met.

I mentioned this in the May December thread but I met Julianne Moore a few months ago and she is elegant in a way I’m not sure many current stars are - actually reminded me of von Sydow in that she seemed intelligent and understated. And she must wear tons of SPF considering her skin is amazing for a 62 year old ginger in a way beyond the power of surgery.

I saw Goody Proctor dancing with the devil!

Also, used to visit Kim’s Video Store in the early 2000s often as my best friend worked there. Lots of celebrities, more on the indie director side, but ones I remember distinctly:

- Harmony Korine was small and nerdy and acted like a petulant little child. Chloe Sevigny was with him and very unremarkable looking but much quieter and seemed embarrassed.

- Vincent Gallo came in to glower at the children’s movie section. Looks exactly like he does in photos/on screen. Wore very high heeled boots, which is interesting because I’ve seen him without them and he’s not that short, probably around 5’9.

I was very lucky in my younger years to meet a few famous politicians and two of the greatest athletes of the 20th century.

To reply to R325, I met Obama in 2011 after a speaking engagement at a local university. He was articulate and energetic, and exuded confidence and humble charisma. In a word, presidential. Surprised? Not really. But I felt so fortunate to meet him during his Presidency.

I used to travel to NYC quite a bit. I shook hands with Bill Clinton after an ESPA fundraising dinner in NYC in 1999 (Hilary was too hard to schedule, but Bill was on his way out and easier to invite). There was a receiving line after his speech. In an unexpected burst of exuberant self-confidence, I blurted out "Hello, Mr. President, my name is Gay Gayerson and it's a pleasure to shake your hand, sir!" He locked eyes with me and said calmly "Hello, Gay. It's an honor to meet you." He moved on to the next in line - two screaming women who wanted a selfie- before the term "selfie" was really a thing. I was blown away by his ability to make me feel like I was the only person in a crowded room, when everyone was pressing forward to shake his hand.

Prior to that, I met Al Gore at a roundtable event in NYC in 1998, shortly before he announced his candidacy for President. I went in expecting to meet a stuffed shirt with good hair and a big ego. To my complete surprise, he was refreshingly disarming and down-to-earth. He was hands-down the most intelligent person I'd ever met, listening attentively and asking questions with uncanny insight. His ability to immediately understand and empathize with someone was acute. I'd never witnessed anything like it - and I walked out determined to volunteer for his campaign. I did exactly that.

Around 2002, I was having breakfast with a friend in the lobby of a hotel on 54th St. A classy, well-dressed black family was seated at the table next to ours, and they displayed impeccable manners. It was Muhammed Ali with his wife and their two youngest children. My friend whispered to me who he thought we were sitting next to, and we did our best not to oggle. When our eyes happened to lock, Ali gently smiled and nodded in a polite greeting. And yes, I was surprised by their gentility.

To this day, the greatest and most dynamic of the famous people I've ever met was Secretariat. I did my undergrad in Lexington, Kentucky in the late 80s, and worked for a florist who had clients among the wealthy, gentried horse farm owners of the Bluegrass. One client in particular often sent flowers to her friends at other horse farms. This occasionally included deliveries to Caliborne Farm, where Secretariat was stabled and literally put out to pasture after his retirement. With the permission of the lady of the house, I stopped many times at the paddock before my exit, and Secratariat would come right up to the white-painted wood fence to say hello. I'd rub his nose and forehead (my family had quarter horses at our farm in NY State, part of the reason I was allowed to stop) and scratch behind his ears. He was a total ham, and I spent enough time with him to fall in love with his greatness and his humble, yet stratospheric personality. He knew exactly who and what he was - brilliant and regal. For a few brief moments, he was all mine. I'll forever be grateful.

[quote] To this day, the greatest and most dynamic of the famous people I've ever met was Secretariat.

R335 puts the Sarah Jessica Parker posts to shame.

R335, it’s often been noted that, in opposite ways, the public images of both Clinton (charming) & Gore (stiff) so belied the men people encountered off stage.

Robert Redford had the worst acne I've ever seen on an adult.

Lens Dunham was bigger than she appeared on my tv screen. Nastier too.

Jimmy Fallon was fall=down drunk last time I saw him. In the last year.

"To this day, the greatest and most dynamic of the famous people I've ever met was Secretariat."

You sure that wasn't SJP?

More detail on your Lens encounter please r338.

In a Baltimore hotel ,in the elevator, with Jason Priestley. He was so small he could have been a child. Made serious eye contact with me but never spoke a word.

A local celeb and big baseball name, Joe Nuxhall at Kroger back in the early 90s.

I had an arm full of dog food and he had a cart of groceries. He kindly let me go in front of him, since I only had 6 items.

Looked just like he did in the commercials.

R342 I saw Jason Priestley in Mastro's in Beverly Hills, probably around 2015 or so. We were sitting on the upper level but could see the downstairs bar. He came in and sat at the bar, pretty much silenced all the conversations of those who could see him. He's incredibly good looking. Then later, he came upstairs and sat in another more private section but we saw him coming up the stairs. Very striking eyes. Seemed to be casually enjoying himself. No, he's not tall but he's very hot.

But did any of these people have charisma? exude charm? other worldly?

I saw the charismatic Matt LeBlanc exuding charm at a car show. He was other worldly. He looked 100% like you'd think, other than his skin was worse because he was not wearing makeup, I guess.

r315 is the dumbest motherfucker in America.

I was lucky enough to meet Thumbelina at the height of her fame. She was bigger than I expected - at least four inches high, and so luminous that in a dark room you could read by her!

Bette Davis dining at the Oak Room restaurant at the Plaza Hotel in the late 1980s. She was smartly dressed in a jade green dress and was with an elderly man and a very attractive young woman who I believe was her personal assistant in her later years. Bette Davis was very tiny and very thin and frail-looking. This wasn't too long before she died and you could tell she wasn't well. She was smoking, of course. The waitstaff doted on her and she was very friendly to them, and I saw a few people approach her for an autograph and she pleasantly obliged.

I've seen a lot of celebrities in person, but Bette Davis was my ultimate sighting.

John Mayer, closeup in a Publix back during his Atlanta years in the late 90s, before he was famous. I had seen him perform in a local club, but from way back in the crowd so I couldn't tell much about him. Closeup he was (at least in my opinion) exquisite and quite tall.

Have told this story before, but my smart, stunning (late) sister recounted her meeting two celebrities at a 1996-adjacent Democratic convention event in Chicago, where she lived. One was JFK, Jr. The other was Kevin Costner. As to JFK, Jr., her take was simply that there was "no there there." But Costner was another matter entirely. Although she had never before been much of a fan, she was taken aback by his looks and his charisma.

Liar! Thumbelina is at least 6" tall!

^ at it again.

So much charisma, R351

r351 "no there there." Is your sister, um, special?

I’ve seen Costner in person. He was hansome, maybe smaller than I would have thought.

I was working at a hotel where he was staying and he was looking at the Christmas decorations in the hotel interior.

He had a nice demeanor. He was by himself, just looking around.

I wouldn’t say he was luminous or charming.

r356 But was he charismatic?

That’s neat, R356.

She sure was special, R351. I remember meeting one man who told me she was “one of the most beautiful woman walking the face of the earth.”

R324 that’s how I felt about Bill Cosby. I loved him as a child. He was hilarious, warm, fun and everyone wanted him for a dad. Turns out he is a total creep and sexual predator rapist. I have never been more shocked about a revelation about someone and it was honestly hard to believe—but it is true.

This isn’t about a star’s appearance, but their behavior. Two words: Shelley Winters.

My friend is an actor who’s gifted, realistic minded… he’s about the most non-neurotic actor I know. He works a lot in supporting roles. In 1995 he had a small part in HEAVY.

As he was walking to the set on his first morning, Ms. Winters lumbered out of her trailer. She locked eyes with him, pulled her robe around herself, and shrieked, “Stop staring at my tits! STOP STARING AT MY TITS!!”

He was rather taken aback, and continued on.

It’s hard to imagine HOW one should respond to that…

What dumb cunt apparently is too far right on the autism spectrum to believe in "charisma"?

Joan Rivers when Melissa was a Penn undergrad. They were buying lunch from a food truck (Snow White truck, the one everyone thought was the best). She was tiny, tiny. Very friendly and chatty with anyone who dared say hi. Melissa was TOTALLY EMBARRASED and wanted to die!

R300 Fail. Nick was 5'9" tops. Even lying on his back ,which was mostly where I saw him.

R357, no. No charisma was emanating from Kevin Costner. None that I could detect, anyway.

Are you a gorgeous woman, R365?

r362 You're an idiot, dear. Not a single person said they didn't believe in it, goofus. Numerous people were just making fun of how many people used that word. You'll be okay - lighten up.

r361 Watch this funny old guy talk about his work with Shelley Winters.

I had to look up Larry Randolph.

[quote]R291 I saw Joan and daughter Melissa at LAX and was struck by how much alike they were, especially how small and (it must be said) wizened they appeared, shrivelled starvelings the pair of them.

Joan passed her sickness(es) on to her (worthless) daughter.

R67 wait Mitch from the X-Files? Did you ahve sex with him and are you male because that man has an amazing body - Big dick?

I lived and worked in London for a while, at one point got free tickets for a royal thing at the Palladium (? I think it was). Charles and Diana were still together at the time so it was a million years ago. Ugh, I'm not a fan of the royals but it was something different so we dressed up and went. Good seats, close to the royal box, perfect view of Diana.

She was beautiful, absolutely stunning; I really could not take my eyes off her. I had no idea what was happening on the stage most of the evening, and the person I was with was really pissed at that but, my god, Diana was incredible.

The tiresome trolls who find it hard to believe that the few specimens who are paid tens of millions of dollars to have their faces projected onto an enormous movie screen with the goal of drawing hundreds of millions of dollars in ticket sales are somehow exponentially more beautiful than the flabby and blemished masses are too much.

Carry on DL, with your stories of the most luminous and charismatic among us! And especially if they’re tall. I love tall. Bonus if they smell good.

[quote]r373 …more beautiful than the flabby and blemished masses…

I’m [italic]BIG BONED!

r335 you need to write a book! amazing tales!

i was in a children’s choir in canada that performed for the queen and prince philip.

afterwards there was a receiving line we all stood in as they walked past. she was unsurprisingly short, he was much taller than I’d imagined.

She exuded a strange almost eerie energy/vibration, which i guess is normal as the most famous person in the world? Philip had some of that but with a more bored affect.

[quote]r376 the queen… She exuded a strange almost eerie energy/vibration

Meth, it’s been said.

My family for years went to a Labor Day church festival, St. Anthony's Church in Batesville IN. They would feed you an incredible 'dinner', actually around noon. Leaving, John Cougar Nellencamp arrived, longer hair, smoking a cigarette with a much younger girl. I had never thought he was that hot before, but he looked really good. Nobody ran up to bother him, just heads turned at realizing it was him.

I met Jimmy Somerville who I knew was short, at 5'1". But I didn't know he was incredibly well hung, not just for a short guy. He's also incredibly hairy.

I'm 6'3" so he didn't have to bend too far down to suck my cock.

Julianne Moore with her kid years back in the West Village. Sat morning she was in green t and denim skirt with flip flops. Chatted with the Afghan vendor and kid was so well behaved. Said good morning to me wasn't it a beautiful morning. Didn't expect anything less.

r378 John Cougar Nellencamp sounds like a drag name.

How is my luminosity unrecognized?

R373 Even Chrissy won't finish that sentence.

I have never encountered a glowing person in my 50 years. I have seen less than ten people that I considered to be unbelievably beautiful. Maybe even less than five because I can only recall four.

[quote]I have never encountered a glowing person in my 50 years. I have seen less than ten people that I considered to be unbelievably beautiful. Maybe even less than five because I can only recall four.

Most of us haven't amongst ordinary people but met that one or two rare major celeb who did. That's the difference.

R384, where do you live? How many celebrities? Many DLers are in the entertainment business and/or live in LA, NY, etc. and it's very easy to see stunning people there. Hell, in LA, I used to see waiters I thought were better looking than some stars. As for the celebrities, that glow comes from serious skin care as well as heredity.

I’m R384 and I have always loved in California as well as spending substantial time in LA. I grew up around females who ended up as actresses, models and one who made covers of magazines. So it wasn’t like I grew up in a state with a lot of fuglies.

In the mid 1970s, I saw songstress Lena Horne getting into a limo with many bags, in Boston I think. It was cold out and she was covered in fur, and was a glamorous 50-something lady. A couple of people waved and she smiled back. Accompanying her was a short white women I thought was probably her assistant, but I've learned it was Kitty A'Lessio, pres of Chanel USA. A close "friend."

Ya know who had luminosity? Helen Lawson, that's who. A strange almost eerie energy/vibration, glowed so hard you could light a Virginia Slim off her face.

In Shaker Heights I saw lustrous songbird Irene Carisma with mesmerizing raisin titty nipples that glowed incandescently. I remember her name!!!

Anne He he had that rare radiant luminescence, as if lit from within.

I used to work near the Fox News building and would occasionally see scumbag Bill O'Reilly on the street. Very tall, always had a scowl on his face and looked mean. I would also see the other scumbag Sean Hannity. He looked like your drunk Irish uncle on his way to the bar. Looked fatter in person. Shepard Smith was always outside the building smoking on the sidewalk. Very thin, his eyes look even more wide-set in person. I saw various blonde women who were Fox anchors (I never knew their names) and they all looked like call girls on their way to meet a client. Kind of whorish-looking.

r379 how hung? I mean at 5'1" it must look huge.

So many of us who see celebrities in real life are surprised at their shorter stature. We're all so used to see them on the big screen, looking bigger than life, that when we see them in person looking like the rest of us, it's jarring.

When you see Joan Crawford in movies, she looks tall and imposing. It's hard to believe she was only 5'3".

My sister sat behind Madonna at a concert some years back. She said Madonna’s platinum blonde hair reflected light in a way that gave her a bit of a glow. She also said Madonna was really short.

Lena was 5’6” or so, just as I had imagined her. The girlfriend was shorter than I would have imagined her. If I had imagined her.

I really need to know if anyone has seen Chrissy Metz in person and if she is really as big as she seems, or did the camera add 50 pounds?

Only after she finished eating it, R397

Helen Lawson. I thought the carpet wouldn't match the drapes.

I sat within spitting distance of Kate at a matinee of Lillian with Zoe Caldwell. She looked like what I had imagined she would look like.

Doing extra work, I thought Robert Urich had an ample caboose.

R400, which Kate?

Hepburn

Nellie McKay is tiny.

WHET Nellie McKay?

Michael Imperioli, Christopher from The Sopranos, a restaurant in New York, a dwarf with a head the size of a pumpkin

Mick Jagger at a small book party many years ago in Manhattan. He had a cold and was hoarse. Super wrinkly, purple shiny blazer, engaging, smart, hair looked oddly brassy (dyed?). Good manners; helped some old lady to a chair and got her a drink. Oddly I completely forget the book.

Ben Stiller on E 10th. Furtive electric blue eyes.

Matt Damon and his happy-seeming brood at a MA toy shop. Left in a massive black Suburban.

Dominick Dunne at a DC party. Mole-like, rumpled. Stood alone. Sure wish I'd talked to him.

R405 so he has a huge head to go along with his huge nose? Sounds really fug

[quote] Matt Damon and his happy-seeming brood at a MA toy shop. Left in a massive black Suburban.

What did his ass look like in person?

R404 Nellie is a singer.

New to DL, r409?

[quote]R389 Ya know who had luminosity? Helen Lawson, that's who. A strange almost eerie energy/vibration, glowed so hard you could light a Virginia Slim off her face.

Well, wasn’t she doing some quick, money-grab club dates near Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the mid 40s?

She was criticized for it at the time, like when Linda Ronstadt played South Africa.

what is it with all these actors who have skinny bodies and huge heads? I heard Ben Affleck has a huge head too.

A few years ago I saw “Light in the Piazza” at the Mark Taper Forum. Renee Fleming and Dove Cameron were super. I sat in the balcony. Waiting to go into the door of the balcony I spied a 4 foot tall wood nymph - kidding - it was everyone ‘s favorite Phoebe Figerlilly - Juliet Mills. Aside looking like she has shrunk to doll size - she looked exactly like herself. She wore that same hairdo - you know bare forehead and no bangs. She wore a little black velvet skirt and black tights and little black flat slippers. Her companion was extremely solicitous of her - he looked like a balding King Charles before I realized - sweet God that balding old man is Maxwell Caulfield!!!

R412, it makes them look taller onscreen when they’re sitting down or lying down. Also easier to frame shots with short actors. The opposite of modeling where they have to look normal sized from a distance.

A few months ago I saw Mel Gibson walking in the street. I had heard he was short so seeing that was not a surprise. What was a surprise was that he was still wearing the mountain man beard which draws more attention to him than he probably realizes.

“Which” and “who”, OP.

R393 - very thick, long and uncut. It would look awesome on anyone. He's 100% bottom though, which some may see as a waste!

r437 did you blow him at all? 5'1" it must have looked like a handle lol

Legend has it that Merv hired Vanna because her big head eclipsed her competitors’.

Yeah, a big head is supposed to be a good thing for actors and actresses. Marilyn Monroe had a large head and face.

Brooke Shields has a small head and face.

R400 - Urich did indeed have an ample caboose (still from "Vegas").

Betty White had a huge head. I was watching the GG episode where her daughter and granddaughter visit and Betty's head was twice the size of the daughter actress. I found it very unsettling.

I've told this story before. In about 2012 I was at a stoplight near my office building and Christopher Plummer crossed the street directly in front of my car. he was about 5'6" with a giant head and wearing a rumpled grey suit.

[quote]r40 Yeah, a big head is supposed to be a good thing for actors and actresses… Brooke Shields has a small head and face.

Thank you! I think.

I saw Mary Murphy in a restaurant. I only noticed her because she was a teeny tiny human bobblehead and I had never seen that before live.and in person. She also had makeup caked on and an elaborate long hairdo that exaggerated the bobblehead.

Madonna. So pale (such white skin) and short.

Tori Spelling is a different league of ugly. She looked deformed and wears about 40 lbs of makeup.

Mary Murphy? What does Marie Osmond say about this?

I get the giant head thing. It makes sense.

And I get the thinness explanation.

But why are they so short?

The Chloë Grace Moretz body obsessives on DL are a very particular type of weird

I turned around and shared the sign of peace with Don Ameche and Ron at St Thomas More once. He was so nice, and actually spoke to me, re: Heaven Can Wait. Said Lubitsch was a genius. In another year or so he was gone.

^ Cool story

30 or so years ago Gloria Steinem.

Rail thin, her trademark, famous, chin-length, hair-bob in its glory, cheek bones for days. Aloof.

Robert Urich's ass glowed like in a religious painting of the renaissance.

R434 It had an otherworldly glow about it. It was luminescent.

I volunteered for years at the Western & Southern tennis tourney - I still call it the ATP - and met many tennis heroes. Mac was a surlu ass after he lost, Connors was cool, he signed my media guide, Fed is prissy and you can't get near him. I overheard MJ Fernandez who was a few rows from me, telling her kids(I guess) roger was upset to be playing nadal in a qf, he thought they should only be a final.

Tom Wilkinson by the Covent Garden market in central London, a few years ago. I noticed him because he was elaborately dressed in a bright blue jacket, and even bluer shirt and an oversized, multicoloured scarf. He dramatically crossed the square walking in a very stiff, exaggerate manner and stood by the colonnade in one of the CG's adjacent buildings, with an expression that was equal parts conceit and expectation - it was evident that he WANTED to be noticed and when several people approached him, it was a huge boost to his ego. His face lit up like a Christmas tree and he was obviously delighted to be fawned all over by his fans. He looked like an average fifty-something British father: about 1,80 metres tall (5'11") and had a slight paunch. Needless to say, I was unimpressed by his appearance and thought that his behaviour was foolish, but I must clarify: he was VERY friendly toward all the people who approached him and appeared to be very nice, even if ridiculously vain.

Ricky Gervais and his wife in the National Gallery, also several years ago. His wife looked like a wrinkled old lady, rail thin and orange, but gave off a friendly and quiet vibe. He was extremely unpleasant, though. He had a hostile attitude, an expression that was equal parts contempt and disgust and walked in a very comical manner, taking as much space as possible. His entire demeanour showed that he thought that he was far too important to be among the peasantry and was almost offended by it. Needless to say, nobody dared to approach him and I thought that for someone who makes it a point to talk about how artificial, arrogant and self-serving other celebrities are, he was acting like a complete cretin. He was average size or a little shorter (around 1,75 metres, or 5'9") and rather portly.

Kate Moss, walking down the street in central London. Very petite and surprisingly short for a model, with rather plain features and an unkempt appearance. Her hair looked like she hadn't washed for quite a long time, she didn't have any makeup on and her clothes were mismatched - she was wearing a brown floral dress that looked six sizes too big, short black leather boots, a green sweater and carried a gigantic red tote handbag. She looked disarmingly normal, with very thin and wrinkly skin. To be honest, I couldn't believe that such a plain woman could be a supermodel.

I posted this before but I saw Elaine Stritch as a kid. She was based in the UK I think and has a sitcom called Two's Company which I used to see in one-channel land. I was looking in the window of a photography shop and this tall thin familiar looking woman was too. I leaned over and turned my head to get a better look....she turned, looked at me with a little smile at the corner of her mouth and winked at me. Definitely her. Unmistakable.

I saw a woman dancing around a fountain with some fat people. She glowed in a luminescent type of way, oozing her charisma all over the place. I could not look away. She was bathed in an otherwordly, incandescent kind of LadyDianaJohnJohn light. It was the most amazing feeling. I experienced bladder pain, cloudy urine and change in vaginal discharge. I'll never forget it.

I once used the ladies' room at the Brown Derby right after Katherine Hepburn. It was phenomenal, like nothing else in the world.

I work in film, so I see celebrities all the time. However who surprised me:

Charlize Theron at my vet- I saw an extremely well dressed tall woman from the back (she was at the counter while I was sitting), and I thought, "That person is someone". She turns around, and I have to say, I was disappointed- she didn't have a stitch of makeup on, and her face was a blank canvas- pale brows and lashes- so her features disappeared completely. She was buying expensive food for one of her dogs, named Daisy.

Eric Roberts circa 2009 on Rock Slyde- still really handsome, charming, and the most amazing head of silver hair that I've seen on a man.

Lady Gaga last year on Joker 2- extremely thin, and unfortunately ruined her looks with buccal fat removal and lip filler- from the profile, the lips looked ridiculous. However she was very kind to the BG, who had to sit with her in the court scenes. I wasn't there, but other crew told me that she would break out in song occasionally. Joaquin looked 80 years old- he needs to gain weight again (I heard he lost some for the role), but he was pretty amazing to watch.

George Clooney circa 2017 on Suburbicon- Looked and dressed like a suburban dad with baggy jeans and big white sneakers- you really wouldn't give him a second look if he were on the street like that. Amal and her family visited for a day and it was bizarre- she glided in from a page of Vogue- thin, tall and so well dressed. They looked odd together.

Sylvester Stallone (I forget what year, it was a foreign vodka commercial); Incredibly red faced, shorter than I expected, and has a shit ton of tattoos.

Ryan Phillipe circa 2011- looked impossibly young, great skin, but I was surprised to see he had fully tatted forearms.

Not surprising: Angelina Jolie circa 2019 on Come Away. Gorgeous in person, taller that I thought she would be. Dwayne Johnson looks the same. as did Jason Statham (Furious 7)

I did not like Heath Ledger in his role as “Joker”.

Charles Barkley at a bar in hotel in New York very recently. He's lost a lot of weight; he has said that he's taking Ozempic. He was quite nice with folks who wanted to take selfies with him.

[quote] Angelina Jolie circa 2019 on Come Away. Gorgeous in person, taller that I thought she would be.

Someone who worked for decades as a crew member on Hollywood film sets told me the same thing. They said she was extraordinary to see in up-close in-person.

And this will make some of her haters head's explode, but he also said something that surprised me- that she was very nice, friendly and down-to-Earth with everybody on the crew.

Maybe because she was an industry kid and grew-up in the business, given who her Dad is.

Lara Flynn Boyle, at my gym. At least I think that’s what that was. (Yeesh!) I was surprised because it looked nothing like Lara Flynn Boyle.

Matt Bomer, on the street. So pretty and shiny he took my breath away and he’s not even my type.

Finally, I can second (or ninth, whatever) that Jodie Foster is tiny. I’d heard she was at a party I attended and I spent a good half hour looking too high in the crowd. (That she was rocking a buzz cut didn’t help.)

r335 My aunt met Bill Clinton twice- the first time when he was running for his first term and then again when Hillary was running in 2016. She is just a volunteer at a Democratic organization, nobody high-up or important in the organization. Bill remembered her name, her kid's names, where they were going to college at the time they first met and asked how they all were. I said he was probably prompted and she said probably not considering he was just meandering around alone. She also said he made her feel like the most important person in the world.

R446 He had his assistant Andrea Sachs memorize all the names and histories of the people in the binder before the event and stand by him as he walked through the crowd greeting everyone.

I saw Bill Clinton speak and then shook his hand at a Dem get out the vote rally. He is an excellent public speaker. I was laughing and crying, listening to him.

That's what I thought, too, but she insisted he was alone just walking around talking to the few people there, so I don't know. I do know she's met a ton of politicians and she claims he has a charisma none of the others have. I've only met Al Gore who was ok but also what I would charitably call robotic. And pretty tall.

I saw Angela Lansbury at the Bed Bath and Beyond when it was on the North side of Olympic. She was shopping for Christmas ornaments and had a huge Santa in her basket. What surprised me was that she seemed like some normal Brentwood wife and mother, not some Broadway superstar.

R450, I take it she was in the Beyond portion of the store.

Ed Begley Jr. in an airport club lounge in the Midwest (I was returning from a science conference). We spoke about his cable show and his environmentalism. He was super polite and nice. I noticed he took his shoes off, had spotless bright white sport socks on. He’s older but still attractive.

r444, I'll add to that- with big name celebs, I tend to shy away, but after a couple of days, she stuck her hand out and introduced herself to me. She also was supercool with the kids on set- she sent them and her kids to a day at Universal.

I'll also add that Zendaya in person looks exactly like she does in photos, but she has an impossibly tiny waist and surprisingly taller in person, and Rihanna is a super cool chick (but her people are not). She's very pretty.

Can we combine threads and make it: "What's the ONE celebrity ass you've eaten that has surprised you?"

Gary Busey: publicly intoxicated (or high on coke) in the lobby of the Wiltern Theatre during the intermission of the 1985 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers concert and causing a very LOUD, obnoxious scene. This was 1985, so he'd just starred in a string of films, before his drug problem became publicized. What was to follow didn't surprise me, He had the motorcycle accident in 1988 and the near fatal overdose in 1995.

Speaking of Al Gore, his daughter Karenna gave a talk at my college during his 2000 campaign. She was strikingly pretty.

I was at school with JFK Jr. He did not glow and never did anything for me. He was in fact kind of douchey in how cool he thought he was. He seemed to have matured in later years.

Mr. Weinberger, JFK Jr. is sitting there glowing, right out in class!

[quote] I went to en event where I could meet Matt Bomer. I wanted to see if he was as handsome & charming as he seems. He is.

Alexis Soloski, the NYT writer who profiled him for this weeks' Sunday paper, agrees.

"I can confirm that if you are a person who enjoys the company of handsome men, it is very nice to sip herbal tea across the table from Bomer. He has dark hair, light eyes, a jaw so square it could be used for geometry tutorials. Wrap that up in an off-white turtleneck sweater, and it’s heartthrob city. I had mentioned to a few friends that I would be meeting him, and they all wanted me to ask the same question: How does it feel to be that handsome?"

Harrison Ford, shorter.

Martina Navratilova is surprisingly tiny and grumpy in real life. When I accidentally (didn't see her) knocked her over in a crowded airport she cussed me out in some obscure Eastern European language when I tried to help her up... Didn't even say thank you as she flounced off in a huff 🤨

[quote] had a huge Santa in her basket

Hawt.

I saw no aura surrounding Rita Ora.

Totie Fields pogoing down the housewares aisle in Zayre's. Fatter than I thought.

I saw the Virgin Mary glowing like a mutha fucka. She's tall.

"Glowing", reminds me of seeing Chrissy Teigen in person.

I never considered Chrissy Teigen anything special until I saw her kind of floating down East Houston Street many years ago.

Glowing, amber colored skin. A Paul Gauguin painting come to life.

[quote] Rihanna is a super cool chick

Nobody beats Rihanna!

R460 I thought Harrison Ford was about 6’3”? Maybe that was just how tall he seemed next to Carrie Fisher…

Except Chris Brown R467

Margaret Trudeau in the 90s in Ottawa. She had a lovely smile and was very pretty. I was wearing my school uniform and did a very Canadian thing: I was ahead of her in line in a shop, but I didn’t wave her ahead of me as she wouldn’t have wanted the attention,

Saw Margaret Atwood walking across the street at me with her huge frizzy hair in the middle of a beautiful snowstorm in Toronto. She seemed a little magical.

Ate in a restaurant in Toronto next to former PM John Turner who was very handsome, about a year before he died. He was alone and got the best seat in the house. He had zero security and apart from a polite restaurant owner, it was wonderful how a major politician could sit uninterrupted in Canada.

Saw Harvey Keitel walking down the street with his arm around a girl in her 20s. He looked incredibly sordid and yucky. I remember thinking I hope that girl is a daughter and not a girlfriend.

Saw Helena Bonham Carter who came to a hotel bar where she had a drink with a couple of people. She looks like she came from a Merchant-Ivory film, but was wearing a very modern black bodysuit. Was very small and slim with a pretty face. This was c. 1992. No one bothered her.

R468, no, he's not nearly that tall

Michael Kors is less queeny off-camera than on it. Parker Posey is more petite than you would ever guess from her films. Martha Stewart somehow manages to look older and at the same time prettier in person than on television, and she doesn't speak in that overly concise way.

Everyone who is mentioning glow: do you know the story of Marilyn Monroe walking unnoticed…and then she said something to her companion about turning it on and off. So she turned it on, and suddenly people recognized her and crowded around her. So, glow is something actors do…as they feed on the attention of the public.

Xxxoooxxx

Martina Navratilova seems to be married to a fame-seeking trophy bride. They both ended up on the Real Housewives. IMO, that's really beneath Martina to end up on a Real Housewives show.

The only A-lister who didn't really cheapen himself was Kelsey Grammer. He let it be known that this was his parting gift to his wife, Camille, who he was just about to dump.

Plus, Kelsey Grammer didn't have that great of a reputation, as a person, to start out with.

Don Henley at a Christmas party, Snowmass, 1990 or so. Shorter than expected (this is a trend!), with extremely piercing blue eyes, set off by longish jet black hair. Striking looking, I knew he was someone important before anyone even told me who he was. No lie, he was checking out my sister who was 16 at the time (I was in jr high myself).

Sam Donaldson, after an event in Boston where he gave a talk, early 1990s. He spent several minutes speaking to my mother about current events of the day, very tall, engaging, hair so stiff and dyed it seemed fake.

Al Gore at a campaign event, Summer 2000. Genial and engaging, but he was campaigning.

A delay in Boston for a flight to Chicago, circa 2008. Seated for some time in the terminal directly across from a petite blond with a guitar case, covered in rock band stickers. Speaking very loudly into her cell, drawing lots of attention. Knew she looked familiar, but couldn't place her. Later determined to be Nina Gordon of Veruca Salt.

[quote] Don Henley at a Christmas party, Snowmass, 1990 or so. Shorter than expected (this is a trend!), with extremely piercing blue eyes, set off by longish jet black hair. Striking looking, I knew he was someone important before anyone even told me who he was. No lie, he was checking out my sister who was 16 at the time (I was in jr high myself).

Good story. I don't remember Don Henley ever having black hair. How old did your sister look, at the time?

R461, you're full of it. Martina is 5'8", that's not "tiny." In the three times I've run into her, she was unusually friendly and nice for a celebrity. However, under the circumstances you describe, I'd have thrown you a left hook.

^ Oh, great, the asshole who follows me through life is here. I'm 6' 3", so she was tiny enough for me to accidentally knock her on her ass and I assure you when she's sitting on the floor in a busy airport she is NOT friendly. Instead of graciously accepting my apology and hand to help her up she just got angrier, cussed me out and stormed off. Of course, the crowd that had gathered and were laughing at this point didn't help

Now, go fuck yourself and never darken my doorway again

Very, very sensitive, R479. The Datalounge may not be the place for you, dear.

Re: Bill Clinton. A female friend (now 80) who was knock-out good looking (we're talking better looking than Jane Fonda was at the time, but the same across-the-room presence. If you were ever in Jane's presence you know what I mean) was at a fundraiser with Bill Clinton and said he was the most charismatic person she ever met. Looked into her eyes and touched her arm.

Which reminds me of the early scene in Primary Colors when the candidate (Bill) emerges from a private meeting with the head of the state teacher's association (female) and told his aide that he had just "locked up" the teachers' endorsement....

I stood behind Morey Amsterdam on an escalator.

R438, may...may I touch the hem of your robe?

R479 believes people follow him here. Sorry, this isn’t FACEBOOK.

Has anyone seen Gerard Butler, Keanu Reeves, Colin Farrell, or Eduardo Noriega in person? They're my favorites. Give me anything you got!

r477 my sister looked like a teenager. A sophisticated teenager, perhaps a bit older than 16. But still, young. And Henley's hair was dark, perhaps more a dark brown than black. I just remember the contrast between that and his blue eyes, it made him seem pirate-like.

About 20 years ago, I was in the Starbucks near the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles and in walked this stunningly beautiful woman. It took me a minute or two to realize that it was Annette Benning. I have never seen any woman looking so gorgeous in real life.

R486 I believe Henley’s been bad news for teen girls. Your sister is probably lucky she stayed clear of him.

r488, yep

R487 Can't believe out of all the men she could have had, she chose Warren Beatty. She's 65 and he's 86! I never found him attractive but she's beautiful.

Andy Cohen in NYC at a party. He is shockingly tiny. Like Prince Tiny. He was hyper too, like running around hyper. This was a pretty big party in the UES.

Hyper? Or coked-out?

Kevin Spacey, when I randomly crossed paths with him in an airport terminal and he stopped to open his trenchcoat and flashed me.

Frank Capra. Very short.

I saw Bette Davis in An Evening With Bette Davis back in the 70s when I was a teenager. She was way funnier than I expected, at the time. I hadn't seen her on any talk shows, that I recall. Just didn't expect how quick witted she was.

R487 needs to see BrendaD ickson at Gelson's in Century City!

R311 And often WIZENED. Don't forget WIZENED.

Elliot Page, on a stepladder, at a drinking fountain.

Most of these are from the late 70s and early 80s when I was a starstruck LA teenager:

Bette Davis in An Evening with Bette Davis--I had a front row seat and she stood at the front of the stage no more than ten feet ahead of me. Surprisingly short with huge bags under her eyes and that "gunny sack full of galoshes" figure, she still made the audience fall in love with her. Sharp, quick-witted, hilarious, she read the room perfectly.

Sylvia Sidney while walking down Hollywood Boulevard--tiny, sad, seemingly elsewhere, wrapped in cloak and smoking a cigarette.

Jane Fonda several times while campaigning for Tom Hayden, at other benefits or at film premieres--always impeccably turned out, polished, professional, personable, and TALL, but seemed to be sad underneath it all. That surprised me.

Lily Tomlin backstage after Appearing Nitely--surprisingly patrician, wearing a black embroidered cape and affably signing autographs. I was expecting Ernestine.

Bette Midler, surprisingly frumpy and bitchy, at a book signing for A View from a Broad.

Peter Cook, looking gargantuan next to dwarfish Dudley Moore, both charming as can be and probably well plied with booze

Richard Chamberlain at a couple of events, exchanging glances (more like me staring, him peering), gorgeous of course with surprisingly yellow teeth

Rick Nelson up close with a surprisingly large bulge in his faded jeans

Andy Gibb on Venice Beach in wet swim trunks-skinny, hairy chest and short but so very sexy

Suzanne Somers at a health food store in Santa Monica, looking at me imploringly not to blow her cover when I recognized her. I just smiled and walked away.

Rue McClanahan, drunk off her ass, bumped into me and jostled my popcorn as we were walking down the aisle to get our seats at a James Whale double bill of Waterloo Bridge and Frankenstein at a repertory movie theater. I didn't recognize her in the dark, but her voice was unmistakable when she laughed and apologized. When the lights came up during intermission, I turned around to make sure it was Rue, and she looked at me and winked.

Rue and Bea both liked their booze. Rue, Bea and Estelle also smoked like chimneys. Betty was the only one who didn't indulge.

R499, Dick Chamberlain, as he self-identified, used to post here as recently as the mid-‘10s.

Oh, I forgot:

Wilt Chamberlain, working out at the UCLA gym, impossibly tall and very, very friendly

Mitch Gaylord and Peter Vidmar in the UCLA locker room on their way to the shower without a stitch. Quite surprising.

^^Who the fuck are these people?

Clearly you don't follow sports history, R503.

[quote]Clearly you don't follow sports history,

Nobody gives a fuck about sports history. One of the most boring bullshit studies in Western culture.

You might change your mind if you saw Wilt, Mitch and Peter in the UCLA locker room.

Sorry r506. Fail.

I get it, R507. You haven't the slightest interest in sports. My first post included no sports celebrities, which is why they were an afterthought in R502. Different strokes, etc. Can we move on now?

r508 is making everybody sick. A sick bitch who makes everybody sicik.

[quote]I get it, [R507]. You haven't the slightest interest in sports.

Nobody does

Have a nice day, R503/R505/R507/R509/R510.

^^Bitch please

Sports talk on DL? In a celebrity thread?

It's trippy how everybody describes the same experience when meeting Bill Clinton; the other worldly charisma, the "making you feel like you're the most important person in the room when you're talking with him" aspect. I was listening to an interview with ex-CIA now journalist John Kiriakou the other day, and he talked about his experiences with Clinton and described the exact same thing.

[quote]Rue and Bea both liked their booze. Rue, Bea and Estelle also smoked like chimneys. Betty was the only one who didn't indulge.

Betty White was a Vodka hound.

R486. If you sister looked like a sophisticated teenager he probably thought she was 18 or 19, so legal.

I saw Andy Cohen walking around the village yelling into his cell phone. I wouldn’t call him tiny. He’s shorter than average but is not stick thin. He’s not a skinny midget with a big head like most actors. He looks more regular guy.

With all its sports-related threads, since when has DL been hostile to sports?!

R447 Uh-oh. R152 is back!

Wilt Chamberlain! I saw him at every NYC tennis event in the 1980s-90s, always alone. Once he was walking thru the gates of the US Open all dressed in US Open merchandise- sweatshirt, pants and hat, stickers and pins. A white guy went up to him and said, “selling?”

Jake Gyllenhaal when we use to hang out a Urth Cafe on Melrose. Always solo. Head the size of a garbage can.

R517 He wears shoe lifts. They are the heal sock kind so he can wear any shoe. This was before he was OMG ANDY COHEN. He was at Bravo and I think had just launched WWHL or maybe was still just hosting Housewive reunions. I have worked with and around him (we both worked at CBS, he was a PA on CBS This Morning, then worked in CBS News as an Associate Producer).

Deneuve when she was hawking her signature perfume. Everything you'd expect and more.

[quote] Can't believe out of all the men she could have had, she chose Warren Beatty. She's 65 and he's 86! I never found him attractive but she's beautiful.

Warren Beatty was only one of the most beautiful men to ever grace the silver screen.

And Warren Beatty is 6’2”

[quote] Mitch Gaylord and Peter Vidmar in the UCLA locker room on their way to the shower without a stitch. Quite surprising.

And? Why so coy?

(Mitch Gaylord was a gymnast who competed in the Olympics and tried his hand at acting.)

The less coy version: Both had bodies that were perfectly muscled and flawless. Vidmar was slighter, "steel and whipcord" while Gaylord had a round ass that defied gravity. Both nicely hung, though I wasn't close enough to get a full assessment.

Vidmar is a total Mormon homophobe who quit the Olympic committee because of the criticism of his opposition to same sex marriage.

In 1984-85, there was no one I wanted to be my gay lord more than Mitch Gaylord. If you'd kick him out because "eww, sports," you're not gay enough to be here.

I didn’t know until a few years ago that Mitch is Jewish. I figured he was “ethnic” of some sort but didn’t know precisely the ethnicity.

[quote]Now, go fuck yourself and never darken my doorway again

MARY!

R488, Don Henley is very well hung, according to groupie Connie Hamzy.

R466 What are you going on about?

I never see famous people, the ones you'd expect them to glow. When I was hiking with my rescue dog I saw Julian Sands, but he seemed stiff and unemotional, no glow at all.

Angela Lansbury - tall. Impeccably dressed. Burberry raincoat, scarf. Like a cool version of an English clubwoman. Claire Bloom - very short. Peasant blouse, long skirt, mesh bag. Bloom surprised me, I thought she'd be bigger.

Don Henley and Glenn Frey are mentioned in "You'll Never Make Love in This Town Again." Author said that Henley was a pig, basically, just fucking girls doggy-style, going from one girl to the other. Author said that Frey was a good lover, gave oral, etc.

What celebrity have you seen in person who despised you?

R534 maybe because he had no skin.

During the 1965 Manhattan blackout I was able to read a newspaper due to the glow emanating from Joey Bishop's rectum.

^ How witty

[quote]Sports talk on DL? In a celebrity thread?

Famous athletes are considered celebrities by most.

R2, I'm still reading the thread but I saw Max Miller at a book signing recently and would not describe him as pudgy. He looks like he does in his videos ,very handsome. seemed tall.

My boyfriend and I stood right behind Earl Holliman and his two twinks while standing in line to see a movie at the Sherman Oaks Galleria. It was a long line and moved slowly, so we got a good look. This would have been early 80s, so a few years after "Police Woman" had ended. Nothing too surprising to report lookswise. Holliman looked like he did in the TV series. All I could imagine is what he was going to do with those two young men after the movie date.

I'm R238 . I've discovered that after being around basically anybody at least daily, if not several times a day for 1, 2, or 3 weeks, the less singular they seem and become no different than the the schlupp you are or live next to. I mean, somebody who is a complete asshole or is very kind is no less an asshole or no less kind after 3 weeks, it's the appearance of uniqueness that disappears. The multi-Oscar winner is just as likely to forget their sunglasses in their cabin, the zillionaire is just as likely to spill their drink on someone next to them, blah blah blah.

Schwarzenegger was shorter than I expected Machine Gun Kelly taller than I expected Avril Lavigne shorter than expected also stand offish but very polite John Cena very professional Nothing surprised me about Cheech and Chong. They are their own selves.

I haven’t seen punctuation.

[quote] Nothing surprised me about Cheech and Chong. They are their own selves.

I was waiting in line to get into a popular sushi restaurant. Cheech and his date / wife (blonde lady) were also waiting to get in. Cheech was very quiet, calm demeanor, did not try to get ahead in the line.

When I visited the wax museum in LA, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s wax figure was about 5’9” and it is said that those are replicas of exact height.

As a Senate intern I stood in a long line to witness Muriel Humphrey being sworn into the Senate to replace her late husband Hubert. As I waited, I noticed advice columnist Dear Abby, bedecked in a full length fur coat, outside the line & showing no interest in associating with the huddled masses. I overheard her whisper to her husband, "Tell them who we are."

Tony Hawk was standing in line at this cafe and I almost knocked him over because I was walking fast to the bathroom and looking at my phone. But I didn't actually hit him. He looked at me surprised but I didn't apologize. He's really tiny and small. I asked the waitresses another day if he eats there a lot and they said yeah. I asked if he tips well and they all started rolling their eyes and the girl said "I guess so" with an annoyed tone.

Arnol is 5'9". I'm 5'9" and stood next to him and we were exactly the same height.

Debbie Harry. Tiny frame, huge head, like a doll. Or Alien.

The camera does not do her justice.

[quote] I almost knocked him over because I was walking fast to the bathroom and looking at my phone. But I didn't actually hit him. He looked at me surprised but I didn't apologize.

I hate when people walk around, looking down at their phones.

Lou Ferrigno looks huge next to Schwarzenegger.

R540 Your pussy.

President Bill Clinton. Taller than he looked on tv. Pleasant smile.

Stanley Tucci in a Toronto restaurant just before the pandemic. I was shocked at how sexy he was. What a gorgeous man.

R553 It was very rude of me. I would have been ashamed if it wasn't a celebrity.

Stood next to her a pregnant Kathleen Turner at Balducci's in the West Village. Her voice had a fairly strong NY accent and she was not as tall as I thought she would be. She was casually dressed and pretty. She seemed unpretentious and the girls behind the bakery counter were giving each other a look; they recognized her as did people on 6th Avenue when she left the store and got into a cab. Late 80s/early 90s I'm guessing.

Timothy Daley - surprised me because he was way better looking in person.

Anthony Edwards - doesn't have much star quality in person.

I think being in movies and tv causes people to light up.

Jay Leno looks remarkably average in person. Chilli from TLC is also petite. Goldie Hawn is very princess. Kurt is very likeable and fun. David Spade is short. Yoko Ono is weird. Ray Romano looks like his soul was squeezed out. Hank Azaria is very suspicious. Colin Farrell has a hot af energy about him. Tim Allen is fat. Jason Priestly is small. Jane Austen was stuck up. Jason Alexander ignores you unless you're a name. Sean Penn is on the smaller side.

[quote]r559 Stood next to her a pregnant Kathleen Turner at Balducci's in the West Village.

The daughter’s boobs are positively enormous : o

Which is curious, as Kathleen Turner is almost flat chested.

[quote]R561 Jane Austen was stuck up.

That’s just her face. She’s a lovely girl after a bit of madeira.

R563, We were roommates.

Emily Dickinson didn't get out much.

George Eliot was trans.

I saw the black guy, “show me the money”, from Jerry Maguire, going into a U2 concert in about 2015. He was very tall, handsome and charismatic, I only saw him for a few seconds, but visually, he jumped right out of a big crowd. His career hasn’t gone very well after a Jerry Maguire. He deserves better.

R552 Debbie Harry is one of the most beautiful and photogenic stars ever, how did the camera not do her justice?

That sounds like just a regular night in the bathhouse or porn cinema back in the day. The only difference is that this involved straights.

Angelina Jolie at the Bel-Air Hotel taking a lunch meeting with several execs. This was a *long* time ago- post Billy Bob, pre Pitt. Maddox was her only child and still tiny. But she was already *mega* famous at that point and at the height of her supposed beauty. I was with my mom a few tables away having lunch on the terrace. She was tall-ish. Quiet. And skin and bones. All elbows and knees and those scary, veiny arms. It was immediately clear that they were padding her out for premieres and perhaps adding curves digitally in the films.... but in real life she looked ill. The meeting lasted at least 1.5 hours (that we saw) and all the guys at her table ate lunch. She just nursed a black coffee the whole time. At one point, the nanny brought Maddox over for a cuddle and she left the table to hold him and say hi. She made a big fuss and it was a bit performative....but you could see she adored him.

R562, have you ever heard of breast implants?

R552 Debbie Harry is tiny with a huge, gorgeous head in pictures and video so I am also confused as to how that is different in real life?

Quite a few celebs have/had big heads on small bodies. Joan Crawford, for ex.

Henry Rollins, years ago in Chicago when he came into the store where I worked.

He was so short, it really surprised me at first. His official height listed is 5 ft 9 inches, but I think he's probably more like 5 ft 5.

Massively muscular and had the most intoxicating scent. A strong scent that was a completely pleasant smell of musk/ball scent. Alpha male in every sense of the word....yet very mellow and approachable, put everyone at ease.

R567 That's Cuba Gooding Jr and I agree. I kept waiting to see him in more roles. I liked him in What Dreams May Come.

He had a supporting roe in Norbit so you know things didn't go well for him;

R575 I liked him in Boyz N the Hood. There was a little controversy because some people didn't think he deserved the Oscar, and his Oscar speech annoyed some people. Also, he was in a lot of bad films post-Jerry McGuire.

R576, Cuba had some legal issues.

[quote]Has anyone met Robert Wagner in person?

I waited on him and Jill St. John many years ago. He is very handsome and very charming.

R579 And how was Jill?

Harrison Ford was in town to make a movie years ago. He was not tall and muscular. He was medium height (not short) and slender, and he is a very nice guy. Ordinary looking too. you could walk past him on a street and never realize it was HARRISON FORD.

R581 That's how I've always felt about him in the movies, too. Never got it.

R579, A friend on vacation in California was visiting Natalie Wood’s grave on the anniversary of her death when she noticed a blue Jaguar enter the cemetery and park near her.

It was Robert Wagner, who had come to pay his respects. My friend gave him some time alone at the grave and then he approached her and thanked her for visiting the grave and they had a nice conversation.

[quote]I liked him in Boyz N the Hood. There was a little controversy because some people didn't think he deserved the Oscar, and his Oscar speech annoyed some people. Also, he was in a lot of bad films post-Jerry McGuire.

Pshaaaawww!

I met Tony Hawk once and remember him as being tall.

R552 Debbie's nickname in high school was "Moon" for a reason.

Flat-chested Kelly Ripa's daughter has large breasts. This is her HS prom photo, so I would hope these are not implants.

I think it's just that the girl eats and her mother doesn't, R587.

R587, those are sooo implants.

[quote] Debbie Harry is one of the most beautiful and photogenic stars ever, how did the camera not do her justice?

Huh?! If she's photogenic by definition the camera does her justice.

Tony Hawk's height is listed as 6' 3".

I saw him once, he was coming down an escalator as I was going up the other escalator, and I said hi to him. He didn't look short.

Why didn’t Deborah Harry get implants?

They’d have MADE her.

[quote]those are sooo implants.

No they are not. She gets them from Dad's side of the family.

R590 my post was in reply to R552

[quote] those are sooo implants.

They look real to me, R589. Trust.

Bea Arthur.

Bea Benaderet

Benedict Cumberbatch

Hortense Cumberbatch

BUH BYE