Treating celebrities differently

[Winterlight]

For anyone who is looking for the experience of meeting a Latin music star, I hereby advise that they routinely kiss their female fans.

OK, I will cop to having kissed someone famous when I met him. In my defense, I was about thirteen. (It was Tito Puente, a well-known Latin jazz musician.)  He thought it was cute and hugged me. 

A dear friend of mine who regularly met and worked with HUGE rock stars lost her mind meeting Tito Puente one day.  Seal?  Played it cool.  Lenny Kravitz?  Ditto.  Tito Puente?  Shreiked and jumped up and down (his entourage was most amused).

I bet he got a kick out of it- he was very sweet.

Venus, they were totally fabulous, weren't they?

[Venus193]

Por supuesto que si!

[McCutieBelle]

If any thespians or writers from ehell make it big we must remember them as etiquette mavens

[McCutieBelle]

So I ushered at the show I worked on and got to see my cast one of the actors just finished an independent film with a pretty big actor who was at the show tonight so in short I met Kevin spacey tonight sweet

[Fluffy Cat]

I don't treat them any differently.  Although, I admit I've only run into a celebrity once and it happened to be my family's hick hometown.  I think if you are introduced to someone who is a celebrity its okay to say something brief about your admiration for their work, like anyone else, but normally I think anything else is bordering on or is rude (outside of announced autograph/book signings, conventions, etc.)

[McCutieBelle]

I am not sure if it is just me, but I don't look at them as being very different then you or me... their jobs are just more high profile... or maybe it is the people I have worked with... maybe they are not so A List that I feel like I should treat them differently...

[Ereine]

I've only once interacted with someone famous and managed to treat him like everyone else, though as I only had to say a few words, it was easy. I was working at a book fair and one of our writers had written a book that was going to be featured at a tv show where a famous politician was going to talk about it (I guess the writers are sort of famous as well, but only in the "reviewed in the biggest newspaper in the country but nobody recognizes them" sense) and the politician came to ask if the writer was around. He was very polite and I was surprised that he introduced himself.

I'm not sure how I would react if I was invited to a dinner and there was someone hugely famous there. I'm shy so I probably wouldn't say anything to them, I guess that's treating them like anyone else as I don't talk much to strangers If I saw someone very famous on the street I would probably look (I think that I once saw someone famous on the street but that's only because I recognized that they were with a well-known celebrity journalist who was treating them like they were famous), if I noticed and recognized them, I would try not to stare. And I'd never approach them (being shy). I don't think that I could be completely cool about meeting someone very famous, I hope that I could act reasonably normal (for me) but it would be exciting. I still remember going to our capital city a few years ago (when I go there at least once every year and usually don't remember much) and seeing our president at a market. I didn't say anything to her, of course, but it was exciting.

Someone I know once insulted a celebrity by treating them like everyone else. She was working at a polling station and they were supposed to id people they didn't know and as she didn't recognize a famous comedian she asked for an id. The celebrity was very insulted, didn't she know that everyone in Finland knows him.

[Perfect Circle]

I have had few celebrity and famous people experiences, sometimes through work and sometimes not.

The most famous person I have ever met was the Queen of England I had lunch with. She was a patron of the school I went to at the time. There was definitely no treating her the same way as everyone else though. We were given lessons in advance on how to address her, how to behave etc. And the security was so tight. It was like "don't put your hands in your pockets near her because security will shoot you" type of thing.

But the Queen isn't really a celebrity, she's a head of state, so it's understandable.

I have also met a number of ambassadors and other dignitaries. They are usually very polite, nice people. Or at least that is how they come across.

I don't really move in the upper circles of society as a norm, but my work sometimes takes me to these events as my old school networkr used to - I'm not particularly involved anymore, so it's far less now.

And then when it comes to celebrity, my most personal experiences were with one of my best friends who won a big singing competitions back in home country and enjoyed a year in the limelight before tragically dying in a car crash. Going out with him during that year was bizarre. To me he wasn't a celebrity, he was my friend, but going to a festival with him was absurd as hundreds of people wanted a piece of him. I found it very intrusive and almost scary and decided never to get famous. It's worked pretty well so far!  

[kherbert05]

To me it is different if they are at an event or just going about their daily life. At an event they are "on stage" and being nice to polite fans is their job. They should be left alone in their daily life.

What scares me is when a celebrity has his/her children with him/her and the children get pushed around by reporters or fans.

[nolechica]

I've met a few celebs (pro athletes and a few singers) and treated them with respect.  I am sure they appreciate that.

As much as I wanted to be the fan-girl type that screams etc, I had to restrain myself until after I was out of their presence.

I've never given stuffed animals to celebs. However, I've heard about fans throwing things onstage including scrabble toys!

Yeah, I keep my composure until after.  As for stuff on stage, yeah, no stuffed animals at the shows I went to. ;-)