Monday, March 30, 2009

Confessions Of A Self Proclaimed Celebrity Stalker

My kids call me a stalker. I prefer the term tracker, or maybe pursuer. Or, maybe I am a celebrity shadow.
Yeah, I like that one. I am a shadow.
I am have no celebrity affiliations. None.
Unlike my BFF's Heidi and Jethro, or my blog buddy, Rick Rockhill, I don't regularly hobnob with the rich or famous.



I do, however, frequent events like The Sci Fi Con, and Soap Opera conventions.






Christina Schmidt





Once, I even met Christina Schmidt from Degrassi: The Next Generation at a Tim Horton's. Of course I was in my pj pants at the time. It was well after midnight when KC, Kayla and I decided to post flyer's for our garage sale the next morning.



She was incredibly gracious and sweet. She sat at our table and spent a couple of minutes chatting with the girls. Well, not so much the girls. Kayla was stunned into silence and as Christina was signing an autograph for her...When asked how to spell her name, Kayla replied.


'K..........."

Last night was no exception to my celebrity stalk - er - shadowing. Jabbawockeez were the special guests at the New Kids On The Block concert in London. Shawn, KC, Spencer and I all went, and poor Jessica, the Jabbawockeez biggest fan got stuck at home. I thought that I would take some photos for her and make her happy....
When Shawn and I saw the T shirts for $40, we almost didn't buy her one. I mean, forty freaking bucks?? That was pretty much all that I had in my wallet...Jessica never gets any concert t's though, and is usually left behind when any of us head off for a concert venue. We decided to bite the big one and get her a t.
Then, to our complete astonishment, we saw the dance crew sitting at a long table, surrounded by security and handlers, signing autographs! Whoo hoo! We high tailed it to the table, only to see the staff herding the dance crew off to whoknowswhere. Undeterred, we asked security if we could get the Jabbawockeez to sing our girl's t. No luck. We were directed to one person, then another, until I thought - 'screw it.'
I went to the Jabbawockeez themselves, past security and staff, and pleaded my case. They not only signed the t, but they offered to pose for photos (no thanks, I didn't want to be in one, I just wanted to be the photog) and paused to shake our hands!
I was so pumped that I could hardly catch my breath. I mean, these are just cool dancers to me, but to Jessica, they are...the epitome of celebrity and stardom. To a 14 year old girl, they are gods among men.
Meeting the Jabbawockeez was different than meeting Henry Winkler, or Kelly Ripa, or even my fav soap opera character. This was better, this surpassed anything or anyone ever before..This was for my Jessica.
































The rest of the night was beyond amazing, too. KC and I had soo much fun. We laughed so hard that my sides hurt.
At the end of the evening, when we searching for a bootleg t for Kayla, we passed the area where the tour buses were parked. The screaming built to a deafening crescendo, and at that point, we were struck by the mob mentality...We got sucked in. I mean, what if NKOTB were at the buses, right now?

She and I sprinted into a run, each going a different way. KC bolted past Shawn, pushing him hard into a bush as she went. We met up at the fence, only to see Jabbawockeez fleeing the crazed women and escaping into a van.

Sigh....So close, yet so far.

Maybe next time, The New Kids won't be so lucky.

I hear that they are coming back in June.

12 comments:

aims said...

I don't know if you remember this woman from the original Degrassi - but she was a teacher - long long hair. Her real name is Michelle Goodeve. We're friends. We still communicate after 25 years.

She left Degrassi for a 'career' which didn't take off. But she is a very talented pilot. She still has that long hair and looks almost the same as she did back then. Amazing woman.

Biddie said...

I do remember her! She taught in Guelph, right? Is that her? I loved Degrassi :)
How cool that you are still friends!

Burfica said...

That is so dang cool. I love americas best dance crew. That would have been cool to see them.

I have seen/met, a few celebs myself. Our little town is so popular for movies. Patrick Swayze, Marc Singer, Mel Gibson, James Garner, Jodi Foster (got 86'd from every bar in town), David Duchovney, and his co stars in that movie Evolution. Dam I can't remember now. hahahahaha

Biddie said...

burfica - You must know that I LOVE,LOVE, LOVE, Marc Singer! OMG.
Now I am sooo jealous!
They do a lot of movies in Toronto, and we have run into some celebs there, but OMG, I would trade in all of them for ONE moment with marc Singer!

dilling said...

i stalk therefore i am

Burfica said...

Biddie--he was very nice, would sit in one of the very small restaurants for breakfast every morning and just talk to people.

the two nicest ever were James Gardner and that Japanese actor, crap can't remember his name, but he was the general in the new Planet of the Apes. That was filmed alot here, the lake and desert scenes.

Heidi the Hick said...

I think it's so cool that you got it for Jessica! She must be tickled!

You know, all I can think of (other than Jessica smiling) is the crowd of screaming fans who appeared to be yelling just in case we were somebody famous. Which we aren't.

HOWEVER I did walk past several of the famous all weekend! Yep, I was in the same room! I didn't scream though, cuz Jethro would die of embarrassment.

Biddie said...

dilling - Well said! lol

burfica - I am soo happy to hear that he was nice! I have such a crush on him!
I love James Garner, too. I had a huge crush on him when I a kid. You know, the whole Rockford Files thing :)

heidi - Jessica was stoked! I know that she wishes that she had been there, but this is the next best thing!
When people scream at me, it's because they know excatly who I am! I would to be mistaken for a celeb.
I have gotten so much better at behaving myself around the famous people..No more repeats of the whole Tom Eplin/Ellen Wheeler incident.
~shudder~

aims said...

Yes - Michelle was from Guelph at the time. Her partner wrote for The Campbells - remember that? He wrote a pilot for tv about Vulcan which is located here in Alberta. They trained pilots there for WW11.
He wrote it as a comedy tho and at the time they wanted something serious.

I actually wrote an episode myself for the thing - a serious one - but when it didn't take off...

He's still writing and she's still flying.

We all worked together in the same hotel in Guelph. I use to hang out at their farm and watch the meteor showers.

And yep - we still email all these years later. Very nice indeed.

whimsical brainpan said...

Sounds very cool!

Coffeypot said...

I once set on the edge of the stage and talked to Peter, Paul and Mary. And I tossed a few beers with Billy Carter (Jimmy the Dictator Lover Carter's brother) and met a few others with I was with Coca Cola, but I don't stalke them. If they want to talk to me, they can give me a call, though.

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