Celebrity sightings are nothing unusual in Las Vegas, especially in the big hotels and clubs on the strip. But get a couple miles off the strip and things get relatively normal, fast. Soccer moms, shift workers, and lots of really old luxury cars are the norm in my neighborhood, and I like it that way…seeing fancy millionaires dressed down and drunk doesn’t really appeal.
So imagine my surprise when I ran into a real, live celebrity (read: someone you’ve heard of and who has more money than you, although you’re not sure why either of those things are so) at my neighborhood Whole Foods!
Okay, I didn’t actually run into him…more like almost ran over. With my cart. Luckily, he’s a tall and healthy specimen who would’ve likely not only survived the impact but done so without displacing a single golden lock.
That’s right, folks.
I’m talking about Fabio.
Was he shopping for yummy vegan, muscle-toning munchies? Nope.
Cruising the organic produce section for a new, fitness model girlfriennd? Wrong again.
Oh wait, I know! He was there to meet for lunch with a producer and wanted to seem ‘down to earth’. That’s it, right? Yeah, no.
Fabio was at the Whole Foods store hawking his new line of something. Honestly, I can’t tell you what it was because his jeans were so excruciatingly tight that everything within a six foot radius became blurry. Also, cowboy boots. Cowboy boots with supertight skinny jeans. Can I just tell you that this is not a good look on anyone? (There’s a reason you don’t see this image on the cover of any Harlequin romance novels.)
Anyway, the ladies were all aflutter and I overheard one well-dressed woman say, succinctly, “Oh god. Oh god. Ohgod ohgod ohgod.”
Viva Las Vegas….and D list celebrities.
– Dana
One of my former classmates of high school days ran into a famous singer in an elevator at Harrah’s. It was Robert Goulet. He was dressed in ordinary clothes with a baseball cap pulled partly over his face. It took her a minute to realize who he was.
I was at a Reno gun show with a friend of mine and I got to meet Gary Burghoff. He was showing and selling his paintings. He is an excellent painter and I got to talk to him for a while about his paintings and the animals we have seen. He got the idea for his animal paintings from an experience with a fox when he was young. The eyes in his animal paintings are exceptional. I wish I could have had one of them. He was happy to talk with me for a while about our animal experiences that I refer to as rendezvous. It was really neat to meet him.
Bobbie Jo,
Prior to the Fabio Encounter my closest Las Vegas celeb-passing was Flava Flav, who was standing ahead of me in the taxi line at the airport one night. Not terribly exciting, although I admit that not much would excite me – maybe Elton John or Prince…
When I was nine, we went to Harrah’s in Tahoe and saw the Lawrence Welk show. We were sitting at a table that was up against the stage. I was sitting right at the edge of the stage. The Irish tenor, Joe Finney, got down on one knee and sang to me. He then leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. What a moment that was!
My dad knew Bill Harrah and we went to Harrah’s in Reno or Tahoe a lot, so I had opportunity to see a number of stars perform in person. It was a lot of fun for us.
I HATE seeing guys/men/college boys in skinny jeans!
My brief celebrity encounters consisted of being right up in front of the stage at a Stevie Nicks concert and able to shake hands with her. At another pre concert my friends and I were able to see Pat Benatar and her hunk hubby and say Hi and shake hands with both of them. :)
A non encounter occurred about 8 years ago. I went with my aunt to visit my cousin and it was my first and only time in D.C. At a train station we happened to glance to our left and saw Pierce Brosnan walking by. LOL
Alexis,
Pierce Brosnan might get a second look from me, but most of ’em aren’t that impressive. I once saw Jake Ghyllenhallll (is that the right spelling there?) at the Hollywood Farmers Market – he’s cuter onscreen.
Ahem… Jake probably wasn’t wearing any make up, ma’am. LOL.
The time that we drove my grandmother to San Francisco International Airport to catch her flight back to San Diego, we noticed a celebrity sitting near us wearing a baseball cap. My sister noticed him first, so she said, “You are” and pointed at him. His reply was, “no, but she is”, as he pointed to my pregnant aunt. The celebrity happened to be Robin Williams. He asked us to not give him too much attention because he got enough of that. We got his autograph, and let him be as he requested. That was an awesome time.
Anna,
I’ve heard that Robin Williams isn’t the most accommodating to his fans, so I guess you’re lucky you got that autograph..very cool!
Dana,
You are right, Robin Williams wasn’t too keen about giving his autograph to us, so we were lucky to get it. I think Nascar race car drivers are the most accommodating and approachable though.
I’m sort of impressed and disappointed in this at the same time. Given your line of work, I think it’s refreshing that you don’t automatically see a spanking in normal life situations. We amateurs, on the other hand, might go to the dreamy place given a flattering (or unflattering for the opposite reason) pair of jeans, especially on a celebrity behind.
BT,
A tight pair of jeans on the right behind sends me there every time…but (butt) Fabio? Yeah, no. Not interested.