Brushes with fame

[CujoSR]

I had a run in with Rob Schnider (Big Daddy, Duece Bigalow, The Hot Chick) once. While working as a cashier inside BFB I noticed a Guest Relations CM taking a picture inside our location. This was a rare event on it's own so I kept a good eye on them. After the photo was taken I noticed who was in the picture. Rob then came up to my window and and orders a cappachino and a double espersso (for his HOT model girlfriend!!). Unsure as to how to talk to a celebrity guest ("treat them as you would any other guest!), my general lead took the chance to break the rules and chat up a storm with him about his next project. Good example Marco. 8) I did get his autograph in the form of a signature slip. I wasn't sure if I should ask for his "Autograph" or his signature (guess which one I picked. :mrgreen: ) BTW Rob was really nice and shook everybodys hand weather they helped him or not.

Then there was Marie Osmond. After noticing the Guest Relations CM in line for BBC, I saw who they were escorting but could place a name to the face. I was scooping at the time so I schimmied around the frezzer and looked over the shoulder of the CM on cash. After that I went over and scooped the entire order for Marie and her "Posse." Wait it gets better, right after I was asked to go cover the busser for his break. Boy did they leave a MESS!! First I scoop it then I clean it up.

This time I was taking out the trash and on my way out and I saw a Guest Relations CM sitting with some kids backstage. After walking by a nearby guy on a cell phone, I had to turn around and do a double take, it was Ray Ramano! If he had ever gotten off the phone I would have said hello to him but he seemed very serious to whomever he was talking to, Not in the mood to meet fans at the time. Oh well.

Now the smoking area behind TPG is quite a busy area. Smokers, Custodial and a CM backstage entrance all share that same space. This is also the main route where VIPs are escorted on to Soarin'. Now I am one to say I never get "star-struck," I have seen many a celebrity walk through that area for Soarin' but the time I got to see Jeri Ryan (Star Trek: Voyager, Boston Public) I had chills go down my spine. She is as beautiful in real life as she is on TV.

Now kids what lesson have you learned from me today? If you wish to spot a celebrity look for the guys and gals wearing the plaid vests that call themselves Guset Relations, They might just be escorting your favorite star.

[BirdMom]

She is not one of my favorites...one time put on a show for us over at pirates...don't know if they still do the Osmond telethon from the park (Children's Miracle Network), but it was a telethon weekend and she and her hubby Brian and some of their kids were in the first couple of rows of one of the boats. No big deal to exit, right? Wrong. The tour guide and her friend were pretty good about getting the little kids out, but she makes this big show of first standing up (in the front row where all four crowded queues can see her) and smoothing out her dress. Then she smiles and stands up on the seat and just stops...waits for hubby to come back over to her, holds her hand out (like kiss my ring, you fool) and lifts the skirt of her dress up (so everyone can see that she's cool, cuz shes wearing Doc Martin boots under her foo-foo dress) and ever so daintilly steps out of the boat - in the meantime, we're all counting the seconds away because you only have a very limited window to get the boats unloaded and loaded and dispatched before the ride shuts itself down. It's not enough that she had to take her dear sweet time getting out - nooooooooooo, now she had to block the exit dock.

The woman had a t.v. show, has sold lots of records (who's buying them, I don't know, but what the hey, she's famous, so we assume she has a lot of money). Anyhoo, she had one of those cheapo umbrella strollers, and she's trying to strap two kids into this stroller built for one baby - the kids were both toddlers. Hello.... In the meantime, her group is all standing around her blocking the area leading to the exit so that there's this big bottleneck of guests trying to get the hell out of the attraction, but Marie's big ass is in the way surrounded by her friends and no one is helping her strap these two squirly kids into a stroller that's built for one. I just wanted to yell at her to make the little one walk or make hubby carry one of them and just get the hell out of my ride already, lady!

:?

[BirdMom]

I remember someone in Merch. getting fired for walking away from her cash register at the Emporium to get Michael Jackson's autograph.

Who have I seen - jeeze I worked there so long saw some people (like Jacko) many times. Who do I remember today - Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa (Nobel Peace Prize winner), Fergie with her daughter Princess Beatrice, Whoopi Goldberg and family, Ted Danson with first wife and family (several times), Corbin Bernson & Amanda Payes, Andie MacDowell and her first hubby & kids (all gorgeous), Julie Andrews (much taller than I thought and very nice), President's Reagan & Bush1, Robin Williams, Phil Collins, Pierce Brosnan & family, several Osmonds aside from Marie, John Travolta, Eddie Murphy & family, David Hasselhoff, Danny DeVito & Rhea Perlman, Woody Harelson, a couple of guys from The Who and The Beach Boys, along with teenybopper stars from t.v. shows and boy bands of the past - I think just about everyone from Cheers was there for one private event I worked - and of course the infamous Elizabeth Taylor birthday bash was fun - had to hold one lead back from the trash can containing Richard Gere's discarded popsicle stick...lol. That was fun except for the noise from the stupid helecopters circling the park - I don't know how those huge stars can stand all the scrutiny! I've seen a hell of a lot more famous people than I've named here, have some other stupid famous people stories, but it would take a long, long time to write them all. Suffice to say that since this is a site open to the public without vouching (unlike Hasbeens) that there are enough stories about some of these people floating around and that they do deserve some privacy.

[MK Tunnel Rat]

Okay, let's see......I helped out a guest and his family and then later realized that the man was the dwarf in the movie "Willow", I rang up Tim Robbins, saw the top of Sisqo's head from a distance, rang up some football player (after making a fellow CM swear he wouldn't ask for an autograph so he wouldn't get fired), saw Kelly Ripa and her bum-assed dressed husband and son after a guest starting calling her (Kelly! Kelly! - I'm like "Kelly who?" Oh, her.) And Merideth Veira (can't stand her!) wearing one of those stupid birthday cake hats that play music.
Have missed many, many celebs....John Travolta, Kid Rock, Jon Bon Jovi
Oh, can't forget.....Lance and Joey from Nsync as the grand marshalls. Jumped around like a damn fool teenybopper that day. Yup, a couple of guests laughed at me but I was enjoying myself so piss on em. Saw Starr Jones (The View) as grand marshall one day too. But my favorite was the day the original Mouseketeers were the grand marshalls. That was special.

[ec7k2o]

it's not at disneyland, wdw, or dca, but i've slept at eddie murphy's house more than a couple of times...

[BirdMom]

i've slept at eddie murphy's house more than a couple of times...

(gulp)...should we ask??? :?

[tourbunny]

guys i just have to step in here. from the point of beeing the one in plaid that must have someone famouse in tow: dont try to get those peoples attention, we will hiss at you like you've never been hissed at before. not because we want to but because we have to. the "star" will nodge us in the side and just tell us to get that pessant out of his face. so when i read that you all were trying to talk to them or catch them hanging out backstage, don't even try, they will be so mad and most of the time it turnes out that they are the rudest sons of ... anyway and you will be dissappointed. we as the guides are not beeing treated like anything more then the coffeeboy either. they all think they are royalty and everyone else is just at their service. now there are exeptions like tom hanks and rita willson (although they do demand their on monorail car when the line in dtd is almost to the lego store)
but ya, most of the time you will get in trouble for trying to chat up a celebrety. i mean this with all due respect so no "we hate you tourbunny!" replies please.
fun fact btw , heffner was the only one who ever insisted on having his splash, ehm flash mountain pix of his bunnies developed to bring them home and yes they did print them.

[tabacco]

I think I met some actress from a TV show once at the ticket booths. I was doing guest control, and just chatting with this lady while she was waiting for an open window. One opens up, I send her over. Afterward, the seller leans out and flags me down. She said something like "don't you know who that was? She's on [some tv show I've forgotten already]!" Apparently the name on her credit card had been right and everything. I can't remember her name or what show she was on, but apparently she's well known to people who watch stuff besides "Futurama" ;)

She was really nice, too, whoever she was.

[wheelieman]

I had a 2 hour conversation with Dustin Diamond [Screech from Saved By the Bell] while waiting for Fantasmic one night. He was a GREAT guy. Very nice, didn't have an escort or anything. His dad was with him, and they were both very open and chatty.

At my job with the GIANT TELEPHONE COMPANY I got the chance to be treated rudely by many a famous dork. Your Governor, for instance. Rude, demanding and very inconsiderate. I moderated his conference calls, and his team of jerks acted like "the little guy" [my team of teleconference specialists] was his to be urinated on. May he reign no more!

Dave

[BirdMom]

guys i just have to step in here. from the point of beeing the one in plaid that must have someone famouse in tow: dont try to get those peoples attention, we will hiss at you like you've never been hissed at before. not because we want to but because we have to.

Sometimes I wonder about some of the people you get stuck with tourbunny...it's as if they go out of their way with their appearance to attract attention, then they get mad when people won't leave them alone! One actress in particular stands out in my mind - Loni Anderson from WKRP. This wasn't too long after she and Burt Reynolds split up. Loni, her new flame and her son were at Pirates waiting to get backdoored onto a boat. I felt sorry for the little boy because it seemed that he was being ignored - he just acted like a real needy child - lonely - if that makes sense. The boyfriend was good - I knelt down to talk to the kid and the boyfriend was encouraging him to engage in conversation and he seemed like a sweet guy, but Loni was a witch. First of all, she had that big cotton candy bleach blonde hair in her unmistakable fluffball style, so you know it's her at 50 paces. Then she's wearing skin tight blue jeans, a sh** hot pink top (low cut of course) and this jacket with a Barbie doll and Barbie logo air brushed on it in bright colors, so she was not exactly blending into the woodwork. She looked like a Barbie doll. So even if she hadn't been famous, she would have attracted a lot of attention anyway just from her stylized appearance. But she's standing there with her head down, kind of holding one hand over her face as if to project "please don't notice me" yet she's dressed like a show pony. Mixed message at best. Either way, I thought she was a witch because she wouldn't talk to anybody. Not the hostess, not her kid, not her date. If they started chatting once they were in the boat and away from the dock, we didn't see it, but that woman was COLD...

In short, if you're famous and you don't want to attract attention - go low key or better yet, unobtrusive, for petes sake!