Autograph Stories

[Ender]

In my experience, some of the nicest people to fans are the people who have worked with Joss Whedon. James Marsters (played Spike on Buffy and Angel), especially. He comes to Dragon*Con every year, and could not be a nicer, more wonderful person to the fans. Adam Baldwin is also super-nice, as is Jewel Staite (who enjoys hanging out in the hotel bars with fans), Morena Baccarin, and Felicia Day. And I can't say enough amazing things about Nathan Fillion. That man is genuinely a great human being.

My favorite autograph moment, though, was with Andy Hallett (RIP ), who played Lorne on Angel. At Dragon*Con a few years ago, he wandered into the Buffy track during a Buffy Karaoke panel late one night, and spent the entire time trying to fix the karaoke machine for us and joining in singing with people. After we were booted out of the room, he came with us up to one of the hotel bars, where he sat with us fans and ate lots of ice cream and chatted. He gave everyone free autographs, despite that management was charging for them during the day, because "I just like that people like me! I have the coolest job!".

On the other side of autographs, I was a huge fan of *NSync when I was 17 or so, and met them a few times in various autograph lines. Most of the guys were great. Justin Timberlake, not so much.

[MizB]

>snip<
My favorite autograph moment, though, was with Andy Hallett (RIP ), who played Lorne on Angel. At Dragon*Con a few years ago, he wandered into the Buffy track during a Buffy Karaoke panel late one night, and spent the entire time trying to fix the karaoke machine for us and joining in singing with people. After we were booted out of the room, he came with us up to one of the hotel bars, where he sat with us fans and ate lots of ice cream and chatted. He gave everyone free autographs, despite that management was charging for them during the day, because "I just like that people like me! I have the coolest job!".

This just made my day. I had a nice sized crush on Mr. Hallett and was very sad when I heard of his passing. I am so glad he was as nice as I had always hoped.

[Piratelvr1121]

The only autographs I've ever gotten were from costumed Disney characters.  LOL.   I've seen famous people in person, but haven't gotten the chance to get an autograph.   In high school I got to see Matthew Broderick in "How 2 Succeed In Business Without Really Trying" at the Kennedy Center, and in '04 I got to see Van Halen in concert with Sammy Hagar.   

I still am holding out hope I'll get to meet Johnny Depp myself!  I've known 3 people who have gotten to see/meet him.  The first was a woman I used to work with.  She was in her 50's and back in the 80's she was going into her bank when a security guard stopped her for confirmation that she did have an account at that bank.   When she went in she saw Johnny dancing for the jailhouse scene in "Crybaby".   Second was the friend's encounter I told about upthread.   Third was recent, a girl who was a neighbor before we moved said she met Johnny when he was in New York recently, and she got an autograph and picture. 

[dks64]

I've seen so many celebs, I can't name them all off the top of my head. Most of them I haven't met, but saw during tv show filmings (both sitcoms, Kimmel, and a few other random things like Pepsi Smash). The only autographs I have are from X-Files people. At the LA Film Festival in 2008, the fans who showed up for the interview with Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz, and David Duchovny got autographed posters. Later, they had more events with Frank, Chris, Rob Bowman, Mark Snow, and a few others where we got to actually meet them face to face. Gillian surprised us at a book signing, but she didn't do any autographs herself. She's so fun and down to earth. She said she didn't have a copy of the movie (I Want To Believe), so I gave her my copy. Everyone missed the photo opportunity though, I was sad. The most friendly person out of the group is Frank Spotnitz. He's at every event and you can actually talk to him (get in touch with him on his website). I know he's not really a celebrity, but he is in the X-Files world

I can't think of a single person I saw/met who seemed rude. I got to meet Martin Landau at the X-Files movie premiere, he was very kind. I didn't bother asking him for an autograph.

I miss living near LA

[kelnectar]

>snip<
My favorite autograph moment, though, was with Andy Hallett (RIP ), who played Lorne on Angel. At Dragon*Con a few years ago, he wandered into the Buffy track during a Buffy Karaoke panel late one night, and spent the entire time trying to fix the karaoke machine for us and joining in singing with people. After we were booted out of the room, he came with us up to one of the hotel bars, where he sat with us fans and ate lots of ice cream and chatted. He gave everyone free autographs, despite that management was charging for them during the day, because "I just like that people like me! I have the coolest job!".

This just made my day. I had a nice sized crush on Mr. Hallett and was very sad when I heard of his passing. I am so glad he was as nice as I had always hoped.

I had no idea he had died until just now.  That's awful.

[Carnation]

. I wanted to meet him, so the promotions director of the other station arranged it for me.

- and the guy from the other radio station took our picture.

Anyway...I received a copy of the photo in the mail shortly thereafter;

Now, this is class.

And lots of it.

[PrettyPinkPost-its]

Story 1:
My dad is a business man in Brad Pitt's home town, and has met him at a charity event.

Story 2:
BG -- We have a huge retailer of mobile homes here called . . Pitt's Mobile Homes. 

I live very near Brad Pitt's home town.  His family still lives there.

Brad Pitt's brother, Doug (who looks a lot like Brad  ), has established a charity to help local children.  It's a wonderful cause. 
End BG

The public school where I teach is a part of Doug Pitt's chairty organization to help needy children.  Mr. Pitt came to our school to talk to the teachers about the charity and to recieve donations from local businesses.  It was really neat.

Mr. Pitt told the following story during his speech:
He went to a local store in our town.
The cashier asked to see his ID for his debit card payment.
Cashier:  Are you from THE Pitt family?
Doug Pitt:  Yes . . .(thinking she's making the Brad Pitt connection)
Cashier:  You mean like from Pitt's Moblie Homes!  WOW! 

He said that she was really impressed by the Pitt's Moblie Homes connection. 

 

[Cathy]

. I wanted to meet him, so the promotions director of the other station arranged it for me.

- and the guy from the other radio station took our picture.

Anyway...I received a copy of the photo in the mail shortly thereafter;

Now, this is class.

And lots of it.

Well...it was more like professional courtesy, but I was still glad for the opportunity.

[MissRose]

I met Adam Lambert recently through a local radio competition thing.

He was very nice and made me feel much at ease.  He signed a cd sleeve for me, 1 for a friend of mine that couldn't be there, then he asked me for the promo pic the meet & greet record company guy gave me & signed it as well. 

Adam is very polite, nice, and more    .  I can't come up with enough good adjectives to describe him.

[LJM]

Any thread about autographs and etiquette would be remiss not to mention the late, great Ronnie James Dio (who sang for Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio, Heaven & Hell. Among others.).

There are so many great stories out there: of him standing out in the rain for three hours signing autographs to make sure everyone waiting in line for one got one; of people who met an chatted with him for 10 minutes-- only to be amazed when he recognized them by name when they met again several years later. Having just as much time & consideration for the obviously homeless person as for everyone else who was present. Of being called away one time and having to leave while there was still a line of fans waiting for autographs-- but instead of just leaving he walked down the entire line first to greet everyone & thank them for coming. Of going out in the rain to sign autographs for a group of kids that the fancy hotel he was staying in in Mexico refused to let into the lobby. And the list of stories goes on.

As they kept saying at his public memorial service: as amazing a musician as he was, he was an even better human being.

He is sadly missed. The Metal world is reeling from his loss, and will continue to do so. Rock in Peace, my friend \\m//

[Bellantara]

Dad likes to talk about Ann-Margret.  She did several USO tours during Vietnam, and to this day, will drop everything and take all the time in the world for one of her "gentlemen" if she sees them in an autograph line.

[LauraK]

I went to a book signing for Terry Pratchett. He was one of my favourite authors growing up so I was very excited.

I couldn't afford to buy his new book. It was only available in hard cover and cost I think $50 Australia. I was a student living away from home and on a very limited budget at the time. I ended up picking up a soft cover of The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. I'd recently borrowed it from the library and was particularly partial to it as I had pet rats and was very fond of rodents. Even buying that book was stretching my student budget, but I really wanted to meet him.

I joined the line with my friends. It was a pretty long line so I had a long time to wait and build up the anticipation. I can be a bit socially awkward so I was practising in my head how the exchange was going to go.

When I reached the front of the line the person before me had an old book that had been signed by Terry Pratchett many times. I saw how excited and friendly Terry was to see such a dedicated fan.

Then it was my turn and I went up to the desk with my copy of the Amazing Maurice. The whole exchange was really horrible. He was cold and scowling at me. I know I would have been grinning at him anyway as being super smiley is my defense in uncomfortable social situations. I didn't get one smile from him, he just signed my book with a scowl on his face and handed it back to me.

My friends went up after me and he was all smiles and warm to them. He gave one of my friends a hug and took a picture with them.

Even now, years later, I still can't work out what I did wrong. I know it must have been something I did because he was so nice to everyone else. The only thing I can think is maybe he thought I bought the cheapest book I could find or something. Also I put the book down in front of him when I came up to the desk, so maybe that came across as rude. It certainly wasn't my intent, I was just nervous and didn't know how to act.

It's a real shame because now whenever I read his books I get flashbacks of the book signing and it upsets me all over again wondering what I did wrong. I guess this is one of those, you should never meet your heroes, stories.

Incidentally my sister went to his book signing in New Zealand and had a really positive experience, said he was very friendly. She also got a copy of The Amazing Maurice signed by him for me (knowing my fondness for rats) so I ended up with two signed copies.

[think2x]

LauraK, that's awful.  One of my first posts here was when something like that happened to me, but it was only by a clerk in a line at the market. It would be worse had I thought well of the person in advance and looked forward to meeting them.     

The upshot I got from the responses was that it inexplicably happens and is not all together uncommon, and that you can never know what's going on in someone's head- I'm willing to bet you did absolutely nothing to deserve this treatment.

I'm a little different from many- I admire a few celebs, actors & authors, and I do not want to meet them at all. (The idea of them is surely more fun than the reality.)  Once one of these people shows him/herself as a horse's arse, I can never respect them again- and lose interest in their later works. Just the way it happens...

[BdwayBella585]

I hate hearing about that too :*(

I also hate hearing rumors or bad stories about people I may admire, if might color my perseption a bit, not that I put them on a pedastal, but I would like to still enjoy the persons work and not have that "I heard he was mean to a fan" or "threw a drink at a waitress" story in the back of my head...

[LauraK]

Aww I'm sorry to upset anyone!

To be honest I was hoping posting the experience here would help me get over it and realise you can't always control other people's perceptions of you, and I really appreciate the kind words!

I'm sure Terry Pratchett is a nice guy because I've heard and I saw positive experiences that other people had meeting him. I must have just done something silly that rubbed him the wrong way. It can't be easy spending hours signing book after book.