Brushes With Celebrities

[The Unknown Poster]

I have a funny Jason Botterill story.  When I worked at a local nightclub, we'd often gets sports stars come down, usually CFL or AHL.  Rarely, NHL.  A lot of CFL & AHL players werent immediately recognizable but the process was, they'd show their PA card and get in.  So when I was a kid, my parents had bought me one of the early EA NHL games for the computer and for some reason Jason Botterill was amazing in that game.  My best player.

So one day, huge line and this group comes in.  And this guy, vaguley familar, says "do you have courtesy for NHL players?"  I said yes, may I ask your name.  He says Jason Botterill.  I sort of laugh and say you were the best ******* player in NHL *whatever year*.  He laughs and we chat for a moment and one of his group leans in and says "is there a problem here, do you know who this is?" angrily.  Jason pushes him back and shushes him and says theres no problem.

Anyway, silly story but he was a super nice guy.

Man, I have a few stories like that.  Maybe the best is either Teemu Selanne coming into Grapes when I worked there (2 or 3 times) or when Shannon Rempel came in - she had been denied entry to another bar because they didnt believe she was an Olympian.  So she went home, got her Silver Medal and brought it to our bar to prove it in case we wouldnt let her in.  Let everyone take pics with the medal.  Awesome.

[Brandon]

2 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

 

Man, I have a few stories like that.  Maybe the best is either Teemu Selanne coming into Grapes when I worked there (2 or 3 times) or when Shannon Rempel came in - she had been denied entry to another bar because they didnt believe she was an Olympian.  So she went home, got her Silver Medal and brought it to our bar to prove it in case we wouldnt let her in.  Let everyone take pics with the medal.  Awesome.

I feel like a thread should be created for funny celeb stories....  I have a wrestling one. 

Back in the 80's we were at the airport in Los Angeles waiting for our flight to come home.    We hear a commotion and see two very familiar men drunk (possibly on drugs) screaming at some air port security.     One man looked to be Iranian with a giant black mustache and a thick accent... the other man was tall with long curlier hair.      I was very young at that point and was trying to understand why the Iron Sheik and Jake the Snake Roberts were sitting together since they would be enemies on TV.      It turns out that they didn't allow them on the flight because they were really messed up,   they had a house show to go to in Winnipeg and missed it since the airlines didn't let them on the plane.   I did get two autographs out of the situation.

My other fun local celebrity memory is when I was a teen in the 90's working at McDonalds and both Chris Walby and Miles Gorrell helped on Ronald McDonald Big Mac Day behind the counter....   I never felt so tiny as I did standing between two absolute behemoths.   Both super awesome guys though. 

 

 

[The Unknown Poster]

I agree. Maybe @Rich can split off to a celeb encounters thread!

[Jimmy Pop]

1 hour ago, Brandon said:

I feel like a thread should be created for funny celeb stories....  I have a wrestling one. 

Back in the 80's we were at the airport in Los Angeles waiting for our flight to come home.    We hear a commotion and see two very familiar men drunk (possibly on drugs) screaming at some air port security.     One man looked to be Iranian with a giant black mustache and a thick accent... the other man was tall with long curlier hair.      I was very young at that point and was trying to understand why the Iron Sheik and Jake the Snake Roberts were sitting together since they would be enemies on TV.      It turns out that they didn't allow them on the flight because they were really messed up,   they had a house show to go to in Winnipeg and missed it since the airlines didn't let them on the plane.   I did get two autographs out of the situation.

My other fun local celebrity memory is when I was a teen in the 90's working at McDonalds and both Chris Walby and Miles Gorrell helped on Ronald McDonald Big Mac Day behind the counter....   I never felt so tiny as I did standing between two absolute behemoths.   Both super awesome guys though. 

 

 

My best recent one was bumping into Kyle Wellwood's parents in Tampa in 2012. Mom and I were there to see friends and catch a game that February. So there's the group of 6 of us walking downtown Tampa en route to the rink when we catch 2 other Jets clad fans on the same sidewalk right behind us. We slowed down kinda, let them catch up, made some small talk. "Oh cool, you came all the way here just to see the Jets?!" the couple remarked to me. When I asked if they were doing the same they said not really, they were there to watch their son play.  So there's me going from straight excitement and intrigue; "soooo cool! Who's your son?!".  Kyle Wellwood.   "oh.....uhh....right on! One of my faves!"

To this day I wonder if my face showed the truth. I didn't care much for their son. 

[Fatty Liver]

10 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

I have a funny Jason Botterill story.  When I worked at a local nightclub, we'd often gets sports stars come down, usually CFL or AHL.  Rarely, NHL.  A lot of CFL & AHL players werent immediately recognizable but the process was, they'd show their PA card and get in.  So when I was a kid, my parents had bought me one of the early EA NHL games for the computer and for some reason Jason Botterill was amazing in that game.  My best player.

So one day, huge line and this group comes in.  And this guy, vaguley familar, says "do you have courtesy for NHL players?"  I said yes, may I ask your name.  He says Jason Botterill.  I sort of laugh and say you were the best ******* player in NHL *whatever year*.  He laughs and we chat for a moment and one of his group leans in and says "is there a problem here, do you know who this is?" angrily.  Jason pushes him back and shushes him and says theres no problem.

Anyway, silly story but he was a super nice guy.

Man, I have a few stories like that.  Maybe the best is either Teemu Selanne coming into Grapes when I worked there (2 or 3 times) or when Shannon Rempel came in - she had been denied entry to another bar because they didnt believe she was an Olympian.  So she went home, got her Silver Medal and brought it to our bar to prove it in case we wouldnt let her in.  Let everyone take pics with the medal.  Awesome.

What a coincidence, that's the same name as my paper boy!   Jason and his little sister Jennifer used to deliver the Free-Press in Wildwood back in the mid-90's.  I wonder if they still have that paper-route....probably didn't amount to much, neither of them could ever hit my deck!

[FrostyWinnipeg]

I thought i was done hearing that name but now GM of an NHL team.

[sweep the leg]

5 hours ago, Throw Long Bannatyne said:

What a coincidence, that's the same name as my paper boy!   Jason and his little sister Jennifer used to deliver the Free-Press in Wildwood back in the mid-90's.  I wonder if they still have that paper-route....probably didn't amount to much, neither of them could ever hit my deck!

His grandpa and my grandpa were best friends and my Mom was good friends with his Uncle Chris. Weird we all have Jason Botterill connections.

[iHeart]

I had a few encounters now and then, in March....no February of 99 I was presented an autographed Moose  Pennant signed by the team and Scott Arniel gave it to me

 

also in 2008 I met Colin Mochrie and his wife after a Winnipeg Comedy Festival performance.

almost less than a year later Whose Live Anyway came to town and Chip Esten pulled me from the Audience to do the sound effects for him in the sound effects game, whenever I tell this story to Nashville fans they get sooooo jealous

 

oh and I met Burton Cummings at the Manitoba Museum when I was volunteering at a gala that was opening the Manitoba music experience in 2010

Edited May 13, 2017 by iHeart

[Taynted_Fayth]

only couple I can think of that make me chuckle is back around 2004 just prior to trading Khari Jones, I went to a movie at polo park silver city so to catch the 14 ellice home me and my kids mom had to cut across the bomber parking lot.  Walking out of the office there is a freshly shaved head Khari (had dreads prior) and I'm like omg that's Khari jones! she was like yeah right and didn't believe me, so we stopped walking and I was like "Excuse me, are you Khari Jones?" and his face lit up and he was like "Yes I am, would you like an autograph?" I was like nope just checkin and continued to walk towards ellice. Boy did that smile drop like a brick when i declined the autograph though.  We traded him a few weeks later to BC and in hindsight I kinda wish I had gotten that signature

I've actually met a lot more musicians than athletes, hugely in part to working at canad inns windsor park for a while and cowboys was still the Colosseum, on top of the free tix i got for everything, I used to have to load up and deliver the band's rider and usually i'd get to have a drink with them

[bigg jay]

Got tons of MMA-related stories.  Top ones would be when Mike Goldberg's girlfriend/wife grabbed my ass in an elevator right in front of him (she really just picked off something that was stuck to my pant leg but my version sounds better!) ?

 Matt Serra came to my hotel room & shot the **** for a few minutes the day before he had his rematch with GSP in Montreal.   He was in the suite next door and my friend slipped a note under his door wishing him luck.  He was grateful that we didn't try to disturb him or let people know where he was staying so he just wanted to say hello & thank us.  Thought it was cool of him to do that when he really should have been resting & recovering from weigh ins. 

[Mark F]

Here's mine:  This is all true!

Once I was crossing Portage avenue, near Eatons, very few people around. stopped in the middle on the meridian, as a motorcade drove by, leading a Bentley, with the Queen at the  window, facing my direction.

She waved at me. stopped the car got out and grabbed my ass! (ok, the last part is not true)

Well, it is true that she had her hand held in the salute like wave that she does in those situations.

Also saw Milton Berle at the airport.

That's all I got.

 

Edited May 13, 2017 by Mark F

[nate007]

I saw Fred Penner in the Osborne Safeway  on multiple occasions when I lived in the village.  

My dad told me about  a time in the 70s when one of the current heads of the McCain empire visited their potato farm and he shook his hand (they were both in their teens at the time). Probably the richest person mentioned in this thread so far. 

[Fatty Liver]

Another Wildwood story, the first house we purchased in that neighbourhood belonged to "Uncle Bob" of Archie and Friends fame.  Never met the man but according to the neighbor he was one strange dude.  He lived alone with his puppets and never went outside except to walk to his car, apparently he subsisted on Gondola Pizza and a twelve of Molson daily.

[Mark F]

25 minutes ago, Throw Long Bannatyne said:

  He lived alone with his puppets

Which one is the puppet in that picture?

Quote

he subsisted on Gondola Pizza and a twelve of Molson daily.

Seems ok.

 

Edited May 14, 2017 by Mark F

[FrostyWinnipeg]

http://www.kentonlarsen.com/2012/04/heartwarming-tale-about-winnipegs-uncle.html

 

 

[Mark H.]

When a friend and I spent a weekend in TO, we ran into Paul Lapolice three different times - he was working for TSN at the time.

After the Argos game at the hotel, the next day at the airport and then on the flight home. The third time we asked him if he was following us. His response: 'oh ****.' 

I also sat between Henry Burris and Forrest Hightower on a flight to Ottawa. 

[iHeart]

oh yeah one of my cousins babysat Bif Naked back when they lived in The Pas

Edited May 20, 2017 by iHeart

[Jpan85]

Bif naked mooned me while I was driving to school one day as I was going through the village. Got lots of brushes with celebrities will,share a few later.

[Goalie]

I have a couple but I guess this one works and was super random. So I work downtown and on break I go to subway at times on Fort/Notre Dame. I was in line ordering when 2 guys walk in and start talking and they sound so familiar.  I order my sub and am about to pay and they both say... we will pay for everyone's meal in here. Sweet. (Reality was it was just me and them tho but still). Finally turned around to see who they were.... CM Punk and Kofi Kingston. Pretty cool. Got a pic on my old iPhone of the 3 of us taking a subway selfie.  Pretty cool actually.  Both were super nice and down to earth but u could sense that punk was a bit of a ****** lol. 

Still... that was pretty cool and random. 

Actually quite a few encounters over the years and all so random...legit accidentally bumping in to  Brad Pitt like literally walking in to him downtown one time when he was filming the Jesse James movie. Jets players. Bombers players and even a couple musicians mainly Green Day  Foo Fighters and Sam Roberts. 

Here. I'll throw in 1 random Jets player story.. 2011 I'm walking to work down Albert street. There's a guy in front of me and a bum in a wheelchair beside him. Bum falls out of wheelchair. Guy helps bum up and puts him back in wheelchair.  I see it all as I've caught up now and say something like that's very rare to see and guy says what is and I said seeing a guy help one of these guys out like that. He's like thanks. I'm like you're welcome and I said oh BTW I know who you are and he said oh do you? And I said yup. Go Jets Go. He laughed and went in to some random food store. That guy was Zach Bogosian.

 

[SpeedFlex27]

I was at Grand Beach in 1977 & was throwing the football with my friend. Back then, I was hitting the gym hard & was pretty jacked. I had shoulder length brown hair with a moustache. I was wearing a Blue Bomber home jersey with #5 on it as I had a sunburn. Random guy came up to me & asked if I was Dieter Brock. I frigging loved it.

[SpeedFlex27]

I can tell you from experience that Tom McGourran was a pretty good receiver. I played against him & the late former Bomber qb Bud Harden in the mid 80's in the Winnipeg Touch Football League. He caught everything that was thrown to him by Harden. Post corners & quick outs were their bread & butter against me. No matter how I covered McGourran he beat me nearly everytime. If I knocked down or broke up a couple passes then I was lucky that day. Otherwise he & Harden had me for lunch. Pretty frustrating game for me but McGourran & harden were having a good time.

I'll say this for Tom. Other than grinning a couple of times he never trashed talk me. He'd say, "Nice try" or "Good effort" if he made a catch & I was close to breaking up the play. Harden worked with my sister in law & I knew him pretty well. After the game he came up to me grinning, shook my hand & said, "Sorry man..."

[Logan007]

The only thing I have is seeing Brent Butt at his stand up comedy a couple of times.  I almost saw Martin Short...had tickets but got sick so my wife took my sister.  Sadness.

The one other time I saw someone famous was Judd Hirsch.  He was super far away filming a scene.  I could barely see him but I knew it was him.  I can't remember what show it was but a year or two later I had figured out what show he was filming as I recognized the scene.  But never met him.

Don't really care about meeting celebrities.  They could probably walk right by me and I wouldn't notice anyway.  I think Milt Steagall actually walked by me near the Convention Center years ago and I looked at him...he looked familiar but I never paid attention to what he looked like with his football helmet off.  So yeah...

I've been all over this friggen planet and I've never actually MET anyone famous.

[JCon]

Pavel Bure used to buy cigarettes from me back when I worked at a gas station in Vancouver. Camels.

[CodyT]

Met ron Jeremy at the viper room/ and then again at the rainbow on sunset Blvd about a month and a half ago now. 

Was super intoxicated, but he invited me to sit at his table actually and appreciated how friendly I was. (Canada eh)

he started going on about how a Canadian created youtube and they never got credit for it.

I feel really stupid now but I always said if I met a celebrity I would ask the question : "are there days you wish you were a regular guy?"

His response : "**** no"

 

Edited May 15, 2017 by CodyT

[The Unknown Poster]

Okay I have a few.  Most of you know Im a wrestling promoter so I've brought in a lot of guys over the years.  But Ill save those ones as Ive probably told them a few times already...except for a couple Ill share.

 

- Without going into great deal, Spent a day with Eddie Guerrero.  Unbelievably nice man.  To the extent that every one of us who had the pleasure of interacting with him for that one day felt a very strong affection for him.  And when he died it was heart breaking.

- The same event we also had Honky Tonk Man & Brutus Beefcake in town for 4 days.  Well, we happened to know Burton Cummings (Ill explain why below).  And Burton invited us all over to his big house on Park Av.  Long story short, I have video of HTM and Burton singing HTM's theme song together.  Plus video of Burton singing and playing his piano with HTM sitting on the seat beside him.  Burton hands HTM a guitar to accompany him and HTM says "actually I never learned how to play". 

- I worked for a hotel/nightclub starting in 1998 (until they closed for expansion in 2008).  When it first opened as The Palladium they had live bands and Burton used to be a regular to play VLT's, hang out and occasionally jam with whomever was on stage.  He became very close friends with the hotel owner's son.  So they partied alot.  They told a story that when Burton used to do the anthems at Jets game, there were many times he went to the game (when they were afternoon games) still hammered from the previous night and they'd literally pick him up and carry him to the entrance, he'd go on, do a perfect rendition, walk off, and go right to sleep.

So when I began working there, many nights Burton would be in the VLT lounge and invite us over (he always liked having people around).  He was very generous and would let people roam his house freely, drink his booze, smoke his weed etc.  He loved giving tours too as he had many collectables laying around (A Kareem Abdul-Jabbarr rookie card tossed into a random draw etc).

He would always play at his piano for us and Ill tell you, as energetic and emotional as he plays at a live concert, he is just the same in his home in front of 10 people.  Amazing.  He would never play his own stuff though "No one wants to hear that" he'd say.  Except...his last album, we heard tracks from it played live probably two years before it was released. 

One funny story is, I was dating a young server from the bar and she had no clue who Burton Cummings was.  Maybe she was 19 years old or so.  So I took her after work and showing her around.  She never "got" it but she loved how enthusiastic I was about it.  So we end up in Burton's bedroom and start going at it...in walks Burton.  He sees us, apologizes for interrupting, grabs what he came in for and left...lol

Ill tell a few more later.  Great thread!!