Bette Midler with her daughter SophieThis is such a dorky story and is a perfect illustration of how truly freaking goofy I am. Except for the Andre Agassi thing, I had never had a negative experience meeting a celebrity. I need to post about meeting Aerosmith, and I have posted about meeting Rodney Dangerfield (it was one of my earliest posts so please excuse the language and typos). And the soap stars are very nice. Peter Bergman, who has 3 Daytime Emmys, even held my baby - hah! she is 23 now, so that was a LONG time ago. Oh, okay, back to Bette Midler.
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Eight or nine years ago, My Sweetie and I went to New Orleans for Thanksgiving, which is a great time to go, by the way, if you are lucky enough to NOT be married to someone who no longer gets the Friday after Thanksgiving off. Anyway, we went and had a grand old time and left on Sunday. As I stepped onto the plane, I was just inside the doorway by a closet and on the floor of the closet was a violin case and written down the side in big block letters was: B. MIDLER. I stared at it and thought, "Really?" And sure enough as I finally rounded the corner to head up the aisle, there she was on my right, big as life, except tiny, sitting next to her daughter in the first row of first class. I spent the whole flight (it's only about 90 minutes) thinking, "I'm on a plane with Bette Midler. How cool is THAT!?!?" I didn't expect to see her again.
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It was always my habit after a flight to find my baggage carousel and then find the nearest exit to smoke a cigarette before coming back inside to collect my luggage. As I was approaching the exit doors, I saw Bette Midler and her daughter standing inside the area between the two sets of doors (the vestibule?). As I walked throught the first set of automatic doors, I turned to my left and I believe I blurted out "I can't tell you how thrilled I was just to be on the same plane with you." But what happened was, as I opened my mouth to speak, Bette Midler grabbed her daughter, threw both arms around her and took a giant step back and was looking at me with crazy giant scared eyes as if I were an attacking rabid bear. Her extreme fearful reaction freaked ME out and I hurried outside and sat on a bench that was as far away from the door as possible. I was shaking like a leaf. I smoked a cigarette and my thoughts were racing. I thought, "I can't go back in now, what if she's still there? She'll think I left the airport and then came back! And My Sweetie will think I am SO RUDE if I do not go back in to help with the luggage. He must be wondering what is taking me so long!" I couldn't figure out what to do, so I smoked another cigarette.
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Finally, I realized I had to go back in. I imagined a million different scenarios, and I was so dreading having to walk past her again, but when I went through the first set of doors, she was no longer there. I was SO RELIEVED! I went over to the carousel, we retrieved our suitcases and I told MY Sweetie my crazy story. I think I decided that day to never speak to a celebrity ever again. It scared the hell out of me!
17 comments:
I spent an entire Thanksgiving Day at a Detroit football game with Donnie Osmond, his wife, and their little boy. Very nice family. He kept apologizing to me because people were reaching across my breakfast to get his autograph. It wasn't long and security had to move him into a private suite. I decided to stay right where I was.
Damn girl, you had me giggling at my computer screen. I love that story, so far from the usual: we shook hands and she was so nice stories.
Now, Agassi please.
'Cause me, I never met a celebrity. Actually I walk right by them and never even recognize them until someone says: Wow, did you see? That was so and so.
I'm so clueless
JR,
~~You ate breakfast at a football game?
Jazz,
~~There's not much to it. I was at the bar at Bennigans and one of the waiters told me Andre Agassi was at the front corner table. I walked up to ask for his autograph and he was an asshole. He signed the paper but let me know how rude I was for interrupting his business. I later threw it away. The weird thing was the business I was interrupting. He was discussing a yacht purchase. Who buys a yacht in North Texas?
Hmmmm, I have never scared a famous person before.
Except for stalker-types who scare famous people all the time, I suspect you're the only one who has ever done it unintentionally.
Way to go!
Tai,
~~Nah, I suspect it happens all the time. Maybe Bette Midler does that to everyone.
Geewits, that is too funny! Can you believe how much Bette Midler and her daughter look alike? Clones!
For the longest time, I had a mad crush on Brian Dennehy. One Sunday afternoon I was strolling around Granville Island, and I turned a corner and ran right into him. Literally. He had a chest like bull. We were sort of stuck together like that until one of us made a move (not me...). He kept apologizing and all I could do was stare. I went home thinking, "I touched Brian Dennehy, I touched Brian Dennehy."
Josie,
~~I like him too! I found a website for films currently filming in Vancouver. I'll check it out before my trip so we'll know who to look for!
Damn, I couldn't see the picture yesterday. Her daughter is an exact replica. That's scary.
I guess that Texans are just frightening people... ;o)
As for the picture, are they cloning now in the US?
Wow - the apple didn't fall far from the tree with Bette and Bette Jr.
Great story. Loved it.
That's a great story! Up until the last part, it sounded like a treat. I like the part when you noticed B. Midler on the suitcase. How fun!
Thanks for sharing! Let's hear about Steve Tyler!
I wonder what set that reaction off?
And I wonder if after you left her daughter said, "Whoa mom, chill! You probably scared that poor lady by going all Momma Bear on her! You should probably go after her and treat her to lunch..."
Coulda happened.
Jazz, Big Brother and Ian,
~~It IS amazing how they almost look like twins. When I saw them they did not look as much alike. I guess that's a face you have to grow into.
Scarlet,
~~I'll get to that one eventually. It's pretty goofy.
Spider Girl,
~~Maybe I did look like a crazy rabid bear?
And the thing is, I don't think Bette Midler scares easily.
You must have been horrifying.
Jocelyn,
~~I was going to say, "I beg to differ," but now that I think about it, after walking around for 3 or 4 days drinking on Bourbon Street I may very well have been horrifying!
I bet she does that all time. It is probably her way of getting out of signing autographs. We live near the White Sox spring training stadium (well, where it used to be) and my husband got Michael Jordan's autograph about a dozen times during his short stint trying to play baseball. It got to the point that MJ recongnized him and wouldn't sign for him anymore.
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