Getting To Know You Thursday...Celebrity Meetings

On a previous post, I mentioned that I always wanted to be an actress.  I also mentioned that I had been to several open casting calls for extras on movies filming around Arkansas.  I never had the chance to actually be "in" a movie, but I have visited a movie set while they were filming. 

When I was about thirteen, the mini-series The North and South came to Arkansas for several weeks of filming on and around the railroad in south Arkansas where I grew up.  In a small town, news travels fast.  Everyone knew about the film and the stars that were expected to grace our town with their presence weeks before they arrived.  There was only one nice hotel in town so everyone knew where the stars would be staying.  The entire town of busy bodies descended on the hotel on the day the stars were expected to arrive.  There were people pushing and screaming to catch a glimpse of the stars.  There were people sneaking in to the hotel, cameras were flashing non-stop.  It was a wild scene.  Was I one of those idiots?  You betcha!  Wanna know who I saw????  Nobody.  My mom met Genie Francis (Laura, from general Hospital) in the elevator though.  I signed up to be an extra and waited very impatiently, but the call never came.  UGH!  How was I ever gonna meet the stars????

Well, as luck would have it, I had a couple of friends whose father was a local historian and was "in the know" about the railroad and got an invitation to the filming on the railroad so they invited me to tag along.  We went to the set in the middle of nowhere, after dark, mosquitos everywhere in the humid heat of a south Arkansas summer night and stepped back in time.  There were women in hoop skirts and bonnets, men on horses carrying guns,  a working coach car, men in civil war era soldier uniforms, and George Sanford Brown, and Kirstie Alley and.....Patrick Swayze.  It was as if I had stepped into my dream.  I was on a real movie set with real movie stars.  We met several extras who were hired to play soldiers.  We talked to them for a long while and they introducted us to George Sanford Brown.  He was very nice.  A few minutes later, we were watching the action as the horses raced up to the train.  They did the take several times before we heard the director call for Patrick (Swayze) to come to the set.  He was coming right towards me.  My friends and I begged him for an autograph as he tried to rush by us.  He stopped and signed autographs for each of us and he kissed me on the ...nose.  He was kissing me on the cheek and I moved and he got the side of my nose.  I'm such a dork!  He smelled of cologne and whiskey.  He was very, very nice to three giggling little girls while the director was yelling for him.  I will never forget that night.  I swore I wouldn't wash my face, ever.  So, here I sit 26 years later with a very dirty face!  HA!  Just kidding! 

A few days later, I was patiently waiting in line at McDonalds.  It was summer and lunch time so there were kids everywhere.  There was a lady in front of me in a blue swimsuit and flip flops with a towel wrapped around her.  She was waiting for her order.  She turned around and it was....Kirstie Alley.  Oh my gracious!   She was lovely.  She was giggling and talkative and just very, very nice.  She even signed my McDonalds napkin.  I still have it and my Patrick Swayze and George Sanford Brown autographs. 

Now, tell my your famous celeb stories.  What famous person have you met?  Did you act like a big ole giggling dork like me or were you calm, cool and collected?  I can't wait to hear your stories!