Celebs both well known and obscure that you have met

[quote="Knight" post=397152][quote="Paul Massell" post=397145][quote="section10" post=397144]
gene keady - before SJu - it was a dead recruiting period. i read that he was a big yankee fan. i go to the bathroom in yankee stadium. gene is at the next urinal. i said coach i am a big fan of yours. he continued with his business.
[/quote]

A guy looks over at me at the urinal and says he's a big fan. I stare straight ahead. :whistle:

For my History of Jazz class at St. John's one of our assignments was to go to a NYC jazz club. My date and I are sitting at a small table right in front of the band. It was great. After a set I go to the restroom, the drummer comes up next to me smoking a joint. Asks me if I want a hit. So I guess it works both ways at the urinal with celebrities... I believe that is the third 'at the urinal' anecdote in this thread...[/quote]

Paul, your a pisser. :)[/quote]

Back in the day Madison Sq Garden had a bowling alley. Bobby Bonilla hosted a charity bowling event which was attended by many sports stars which I was invited to. I'm in the men's room taking a leak and in walks Kirby Puckett. He takes the urinal next to me and says "that's a load off my mind". As we're talking, in walks Ozzie Smith with a tuxedo on a hanger and proceeds to get dressed. Kirby tells him he looks like a pimp but smells like the sewer. The two of them continue going back and forth ranking on each other as I'm enjoying 2 of my favorite players.
 
Not a real big celeb, but once out at the Hillcrest campus, got my season tickets in person from wonderful Annemarie Cary, and sitting in our offices was Lenn Robbins then of the NYPost, nice enough guy seemed to know everyone at SJU athletics.

Where is Lenn now, wrote a lot of good stuff over the years, as does Mike Vacarro who I met while rehabbing a knee, he broke his leg tripping over his dog at home. Mike also had good things to say and still does about the Johnnies. He is a huge Bonnies fan, as he put four years in at Olean NY with them.
 
Met Brian Dennehy when he visited Chaminade. Lived in the same dorm as Sarah Silverman and Julie Benz. Used to hang out with Timothy "Speed" Levitch in college. Met Anthrax's Scott Ian at a Mr. Bungle concert 30 years ago. Dealt with Carole Baskin for work too many times, though never met her in person. Met Alfred Molina in Schiavoni's in Sag Harbor. Met mjmaherjr's fiancée after the game in San Francisco.

I know there have been encounters with minor celebs during college and out on East End but can't remember the rest.
 
[quote="L J S A" post=397206]Met Brian Dennehy when he visited Chaminade. Lived in the same dorm as Sarah Silverman and Julie Benz. Used to hang out with Timothy "Speed" Levitch in college. Met Anthrax's Scott Ian at a Mr. Bungle concert 30 years ago. Dealt with Carole Baskin for work too many times, though never met her in person. Met Alfred Molina in Schiavoni's in Sag Harbor. Met mjmaherjr's fiancée after the game in San Francisco.

I know there have been encounters with minor celebs during college and out on East End but can't remember the rest.[/quote]

Passed Brian once. I was going down the stairs to the old China club on Broadway and 74th St, as he was getting carried up the stairs. His arms around 2 very strong men. He could barely stand up. Probably around 1985. Massive guy. One of Chaminade's finest. Great actor. My 2 fav roles of his: Willie Loman on Broadway, and John Wayne Gacy.
 
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Great thread Otis. I've really enjoyed reading all the stories. Realize that I've lived a pretty celebrity sheltered life, lol.
When my best childhood buddy and I were about 12, we met Dodger great Carl Furillo who ran a deli in Flushing in the 60s coming back from a baseball game. He signed autographs for us with the black marker he used to mark meat packages, very nice normal guy.
Back in the late 90s early 2000's my company leased space in Louisville, Ky. to Knick Allan Houston's parents who had a trucking company there. Mrs. Houston was a wonderful lady and when I told her I was a long suffering Knicks fan she had Allan give me autographs to my 4 kids all of which said God loves you, Allan Houston. They lived on the same block with Ali and his family growing up and were good friends with him.

My wife and I had a very nice meeting with Jill Biden in Charlotte in February of this year; genuinely nice person.

Finally a reverse celebrity laugh. My real name is Bill Murray so have been often mistaken for the great one. Funniest story is my grammar school buddy who made his fortune in sales in the garment district in NYC told his secretary that I was that Bill Murray. So whenever I called him in the late 70s to meet after work, she would laugh at no matter what I said and say you are so funny Bill. Best was when he told her I might be able to get her tickets for SNL. When I called that week she asked hesitantly if I could get tickets for her and her boyfriend. I said possibly if she agreed to come backstage alone; she was speechless and shortly thereafter my buddy told her it was a joke and his friend Bill Murray was just a Johnny fan.
 
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2009, on the set of the very forgettable movie 'Cop Out', which was filmed at one of my properties:

Kevin Smith(Director): Nice, reserved
Adam Brody: Very nice, especially to my then 10 year old daughter and her best friend. Needless to say, they were smitten lol.
Kevin Pollak: Truly awesome guy. Actually thanked me for letting them use my property, and had my daughter and her friend hysterical laughing
Bruce Willis: A dick

Had no clue how many celebs I've met till Otis started this thread lol.
 
[quote="Monte" post=397253]2009, on the set of the very forgettable movie 'Cop Out', which was filmed at one of my properties:

Kevin Smith(Director): Nice, reserved
Adam Brody: Very nice, especially to my then 10 year old daughter and her best friend. Needless to say, they were smitten lol.
Kevin Pollak: Truly awesome guy. Actually thanked me for letting them use my property, and had my daughter and her friend hysterical laughing
Bruce Willis: A dick

Had no clue how many celebs I've met till Otis started this thread lol.[/quote]

Kevin Pollack, one of THE all time great impressionists!
 
My childhood idol and all time fave NYY Bobby Richardson. Met him in Charlotte Douglas airport in N.C. a few years ago. Chatted with him and his wife for about 20 minutes. As you might expect he was gracious and very happy to talk with me. We exchanged cell #'s etc. Fluke encounter. His wife said "I made his day" LOL....quite the opposite.
footnote: as a 10 yr old in 1962 I had made a Bobby Richardson scrap book I mailed it to him. He signed every page and mailed it back to me. Unreal. He said he remembered the item. And he may have since was lower on the popularity food chain. But I 100% believe him
 
I wasn’t going to do this. As everyone knows, I was a news reporter/writer for years. That means the famous people I met run in the dozens. I’ve literally written thousands of stories and a book, The Newsroom Confessions, which got awesome reviews from some household names of people I never met. I’m going to miss quite a few names because these all run together as I get older.
I’ll start with the first people who looked my way without talking to me…Dick Clark at a Korvettes opening on Long Island…Louis Armstrong at Freedomland in the Bronx…and JFK at a campaign rally in Merrick, Long Island. Later, I was blessed by Pope John Paul II.
In no particular order:
I interviewed the Dalai Lama for the Associated Press. I was a bit over my head plus I had a hard time finding sound bites I could use on the air because of his thick accent. I sat at the same table with Archbishop Iakovos, the “Pope” of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Donald Trump…the same today as he was when he was splitting with Ivana to get with Marla Maples. I was the usual reporter A-hole…trying to get that story rather than one of the projects he was promoting. Did Trump more than once.
Hillary Clinton…I’m mentioning her here for obvious reasons. Personally, I loved her. I couldn’t tell you how many dozens of times I spoke to her…between the time she ran for first lady in 92 up until a few years ago. She wasn’t comfortable with people. She wanted to be, for sure. We even had drinks with a few reporters…and she was awkward. Maybe she wanted to be liked too much.
Presidents: Gerald Ford…drank the alcoholic’s cocktail, Tonic with a twist of lime…and spoke mainly about his golf game. Jimmy Carter…personable with a quick smile. Ronald Reagan waved me off so he should be on the top of this page next to the Pope. He waved everyone off. George HW Bush spoke in political jargon…focused. Bill Clinton couldn’t have been friendlier. That’s ironic, because my read is he thought the working press was a bunch of douchbags. I was at a Clinton/Yeltsin summit in Hyde Park where they both openly laughed at us. Still, he knew how to work the room.
Then there were the candidates I met, some interesting, some not : John Glenn is in the interesting category from a history standpoint. So was Bill Bradley. Others were interesting in their own right. I’ll just go through the long list. George McGovern, Michael Dukakis, Al Gore, Jerry Brown (who I favored), Jack Kemp (too intelligent to be president), Elizabeth Dole, Bob Dole (very outgoing and friendly despite his “hatchet man” persona foisted upon him by his opponents), Joe Lieberman, I sat with Scoop Jackson at a fundraiser. He dropped dead a week later. Dick Gregory was surprised when I told him I voted for him in ’68, Al Sharpton was very personable, I was on a first-name basis with George Pataki who was underappreciated as Governor. We met each other’s families a few times. I loved Mario Cuomo. He personified the comment, “If you asked him the time, he’d tell you how to build a clock”. Rudolf Giuliani was a piece of work. If he didn’t like a story you wrote, he’d call you at three in the morning to complain. He tried to get me fired once. He had one of his mistresses call my News Director at WINS. She was laughed off. Gus Hall, the perennial candidate of the Communist Party, was cool to be with. I watched the election returns at his house in Yonkers one year.
There are too many local politicians to mention. Andrew Cuomo was kind of a dim bulb when he was in the Clinton administration. Robert Kennedy was practically brain dead. Congresswoman Bella Abzug was a piece of work. Her husband told me they stayed together because of “great sex”. Mario Biaggi was NYC’s most highly decorated police officer when he was elected to congress. He ran afoul of the law but was great with constituent service. Congressman Joe DioGuardi’s claim to fame was his daughter being a judge on American Idol. Dick Ottinger and Andrew O’Rourke are a couple of politicians whose names stand out. I gave Rob Astorino his first radio job when he was in high school. He ran for governor a couple of years ago. Former Congressman Hamilton Fish was around 100 when I interviewed him. He was newly married so he celebrated his “anniversaries” once a month. His grandfather was friends with the Marquis de Lafayette. I rode with war criminal Henry Kissinger on an elevator…
If you want, I’ll have another lengthy look at the interesting reporters, big-time actors, directors and athletes I ran into throughout the years. I won’t take it personally if you don’t.
 
[quote="newsman13" post=397316]I wasn’t going to do this. As everyone knows, I was a news reporter/writer for years. That means the famous people I met run in the dozens. I’ve literally written thousands of stories and a book, The Newsroom Confessions, which got awesome reviews from some household names of people I never met. I’m going to miss quite a few names because these all run together as I get older.
I’ll start with the first people who looked my way without talking to me…Dick Clark at a Korvettes opening on Long Island…Louis Armstrong at Freedomland in the Bronx…and JFK at a campaign rally in Merrick, Long Island. Later, I was blessed by Pope John Paul II.
In no particular order:
I interviewed the Dalai Lama for the Associated Press. I was a bit over my head plus I had a hard time finding sound bites I could use on the air because of his thick accent. I sat at the same table with Archbishop Iakovos, the “Pope” of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Donald Trump…the same today as he was when he was splitting with Ivana to get with Marla Maples. I was the usual reporter A-hole…trying to get that story rather than one of the projects he was promoting. Did Trump more than once.
Hillary Clinton…I’m mentioning her here for obvious reasons. Personally, I loved her. I couldn’t tell you how many dozens of times I spoke to her…between the time she ran for first lady in 92 up until a few years ago. She wasn’t comfortable with people. She wanted to be, for sure. We even had drinks with a few reporters…and she was awkward. Maybe she wanted to be liked too much.
Presidents: Gerald Ford…drank the alcoholic’s cocktail, Tonic with a twist of lime…and spoke mainly about his golf game. Jimmy Carter…personable with a quick smile. Ronald Reagan waved me off so he should be on the top of this page next to the Pope. He waved everyone off. George HW Bush spoke in political jargon…focused. Bill Clinton couldn’t have been friendlier. That’s ironic, because my read is he thought the working press was a bunch of douchbags. I was at a Clinton/Yeltsin summit in Hyde Park where they both openly laughed at us. Still, he knew how to work the room.
Then there were the candidates I met, some interesting, some not : John Glenn is in the interesting category from a history standpoint. So was Bill Bradley. Others were interesting in their own right. I’ll just go through the long list. George McGovern, Michael Dukakis, Al Gore, Jerry Brown (who I favored), Jack Kemp (too intelligent to be president), Elizabeth Dole, Bob Dole (very outgoing and friendly despite his “hatchet man” persona foisted upon him by his opponents), Joe Lieberman, I sat with Scoop Jackson at a fundraiser. He dropped dead a week later. Dick Gregory was surprised when I told him I voted for him in ’68, Al Sharpton was very personable, I was on a first-name basis with George Pataki who was underappreciated as Governor. We met each other’s families a few times. I loved Mario Cuomo. He personified the comment, “If you asked him the time, he’d tell you how to build a clock”. Rudolf Giuliani was a piece of work. If he didn’t like a story you wrote, he’d call you at three in the morning to complain. He tried to get me fired once. He had one of his mistresses call my News Director at WINS. She was laughed off. Gus Hall, the perennial candidate of the Communist Party, was cool to be with. I watched the election returns at his house in Yonkers one year.
There are too many local politicians to mention. Andrew Cuomo was kind of a dim bulb when he was in the Clinton administration. Robert Kennedy was practically brain dead. Congresswoman Bella Abzug was a piece of work. Her husband told me they stayed together because of “great sex”. Mario Biaggi was NYC’s most highly decorated police officer when he was elected to congress. He ran afoul of the law but was great with constituent service. Congressman Joe DioGuardi’s claim to fame was his daughter being a judge on American Idol. Dick Ottinger and Andrew O’Rourke are a couple of politicians whose names stand out. I gave Rob Astorino his first radio job when he was in high school. He ran for governor a couple of years ago. Former Congressman Hamilton Fish was around 100 when I interviewed him. He was newly married so he celebrated his “anniversaries” once a month. His grandfather was friends with the Marquis de Lafayette. I rode with war criminal Henry Kissinger on an elevator…
If you want, I’ll have another lengthy look at the interesting reporters, big-time actors, directors and athletes I ran into throughout the years. I won’t take it personally if you don’t.[/quote]

Very interesting read. Thanks for sharing.
 
Taking a cue from newsman
Some former NJ pols in order from worst to best
BobToricelli: paranoid control freak
Chris Christie: great as US Attorney, complete dick as gov
Frank Lautenberg: meh
Jon Corzine: a man who hated his job, never should have left the Senate.
Jim McGreevey; living a double life so at times great, other times awful, surrounded himself with bad people.
Dick Codey: extremely down to earth, grouchy at times.
Christie Whitman: very personable but had mean streak
Jim Florio: extremely bright, personable, but really wasn’t cut for bare knuckled politics.
Bill Bradley: really wasn’t made for political life, didn’t like grab handing, but one on one he was great,
Brendan Byrne, only knew him post governorship but a guy you wanted to grab a beer with.
Tom Kean: the best. Rare combo of personality, smarts and honesty (by politician standards).
 
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[quote="MainMan" post=397370]Taking a cue from newsman
Some former NJ pols in order from worst to best
BobToricelli: paranoid control freak
Chris Christie: great as US Attorney, complete dick as gov
Frank Lautenberg: meh
Jon Corzine: a man who hated his job, never should have left the Senate.
Jim McGreevey; living a double life so at times great, other times awful, surrounded himself with bad people.
Dick Codey: extremely down to earth, grouchy at times.
Christie Whitman: very personable but had mean streak
Jim Florio: extremely bright, personable, but really wasn’t cut for bare knuckled politics.
Bill Bradley: really wasn’t made for political life, didn’t like grab handing, but one on one he was great,
Brendan Byrne, only knew him post governorship but a guy you wanted to grab a beer with.
Tom Kean: the best. Rare combo of personality, smarts and honesty (by politician standards).[/quote]

Great insights, although Bill Bradley would have made a very good President who could transcend party politics with his honesty, integrity, and brilliance.
 
[quote="MainMan" post=397370]Taking a cue from newsman
Some former NJ pols in order from worst to best
BobToricelli: paranoid control freak
Chris Christie: great as US Attorney, complete dick as gov
Frank Lautenberg: meh
Jon Corzine: a man who hated his job, never should have left the Senate.
Jim McGreevey; living a double life so at times great, other times awful, surrounded himself with bad people.
Dick Codey: extremely down to earth, grouchy at times.
Christie Whitman: very personable but had mean streak
Jim Florio: extremely bright, personable, but really wasn’t cut for bare knuckled politics.
Bill Bradley: really wasn’t made for political life, didn’t like grab handing, but one on one he was great,
Brendan Byrne, only knew him post governorship but a guy you wanted to grab a beer with.
Tom Kean: the best. Rare combo of personality, smarts and honesty (by politician standards).[/quote]
I left off a couple of New York senators...Al D'Amato. I didn't like his politics...but his constituent service was second to none. He'd go out of his way to help anyone who asked. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Totally aloof, to a point where he wouldn't even return phone calls on his own news releases.
 
While on a vacation in Italy, we were at the Roman Colosseum when a large gentleman with a very attractive woman walks by us. My son yells out, "HEY BRICK". As die hard JETS fans he was recognized immediately. Well, D'Brickashaw could not have been more engaging, posed for some pictures and talked with us. We crossed paths about an hour later inside the Colosseum and he came over to us to chat some more.Fast forward to the NCAA Sweet 16 at MSG, who is sitting directly in front of us to watch University of Virginia play? Yep, D'Brickashaw Ferguson. When he saw the pictures taken in Rome he asked for a copy of a photo of my son and him.
 
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[quote="BrookJersey Redmen" post=397199]Not a real big celeb, but once out at the Hillcrest campus, got my season tickets in person from wonderful Annemarie Cary, and sitting in our offices was Lenn Robbins then of the NYPost, nice enough guy seemed to know everyone at SJU athletics.

Where is Lenn now, wrote a lot of good stuff over the years, as does Mike Vacarro who I met while rehabbing a knee, he broke his leg tripping over his dog at home. Mike also had good things to say and still does about the Johnnies. He is a huge Bonnies fan, as he put four years in at Olean NY with them.[/quote]



I had lunch with Lenn Robbins in February at Dock's in Manhattan. He went to work for the Brooklyn Nets after leaving the Post. Then he took time off to get his Master's Degree in Journalism from NYU.

At the present time, he is a Columnist for NY Sports Extra, his columns are seen in the Wall Street Journal, ESPN, NY Post,and MSG Network. Column is called ROBBINS NEST.

He also teaches Sports Journalism at NYU and Rutgers.
 
[quote="panther2" post=397387][quote="BrookJersey Redmen" post=397199]Not a real big celeb, but once out at the Hillcrest campus, got my season tickets in person from wonderful Annemarie Cary, and sitting in our offices was Lenn Robbins then of the NYPost, nice enough guy seemed to know everyone at SJU athletics.

Where is Lenn now, wrote a lot of good stuff over the years, as does Mike Vacarro who I met while rehabbing a knee, he broke his leg tripping over his dog at home. Mike also had good things to say and still does about the Johnnies. He is a huge Bonnies fan, as he put four years in at Olean NY with them.[/quote]



I had lunch with Lenn Robbins in February at Dock's in Manhattan. He went to work for the Brooklyn Nets after leaving the Post. Then he took time off to get his Master's Degree in Journalism from NYU.

At the present time, he is a Columnist for NY Sports Extra, his columns are seen in the Wall Street Journal, ESPN, NY Post,and MSG Network. Column is called ROBBINS NEST.

He also teaches Sports Journalism at NYU and Rutgers.[/quote]

I'm pretty sure I saw him signed on here once under his real name, but Paul could verify that.
 
I’ve done dozens of shoots as a background actor/extra. I don’t want to bore anyone with them all..so here are a few highlights:

PUZZLE…My first shoot was at a church in Yonkers. Kelly MacDonald, who was in No Country for Old Men, was the star…Marc Turtletaub (Little Miss Sunshine) directed. I ended up on the cutting room floor.
THE POST…Spielberg directed. I got to work with Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks among others. They fooled around a lot…kept things light. This was supposed to be in Washington, but was filmed at the New York Post facility in the Bronx.
BOTTOM OF THE NINTH…I was in a scene with Sophie Vergara and her husband Joe Manganiello. Vergara was very friendly and sat down with us for lunch. I didn’t know her husband could really act. In one scene, he had to burst into tears. He did it perfectly in all 16 or so takes.
THE SINNER…I spent more than a dozen hours in a Yonkers bar with Jessica Biel and others. That’s another that landed me on the cutting room floor…but they paid well.
THE PATH…I hadn’t seen Breaking Bad…so I had no idea who Aaron Paul was. Same with Michelle Monaghan (Gone Baby Gone). These things are wasted on me. I played a Parisian ice cream vendor. There was a huge green screen behind me. We were on the Hudson River…but if you watch the show (and no one I know did, including me) you’ll see me in a Paris street scene.
THE IRISHMAN…I did three scenes, two with Al Pacino. This guy can really act. He also jokes around to keep it light. Ray Romano is a favorite. He hung with everyone, joking and trading stories. Pacino plays Jimmy Hoffa. He gets out of prison in Pennsylvania…but the shoot is at an armory in Brooklyn. It’s supposed to be spring, so that’s how we dressed. Unfortunately, we were freezing. We went through a scene with stand-ins more than a dozen times. Then it was Pacino and Romano’s turn. They did one. Then a second. Before the third, Pacino says to Martin Scorsese, “Hey Marty, this is the last one”…and it was.
LAW AND ORDER…I did four of them. In one, I was in a lineup with Hal Linden. I told him several police officer friends of mine said Barney Miller was the most realistic of all the cop shows. He said he heard the same. In this scene, this elderly woman with Alzheimer’s claims she was raped. They brought us out numerous times…and she kept saying, “They’re so OLD”. Not good for my ego. Mariska Hargitay was very friendly. I’ll say she threw out a fair share of “F” bombs in her general conversation.
RUSSIAN DOLLS…You may remember Elizabeth Ashley as this super beautiful actress from the 60s. Now she’s pushing 80. I played her late husband in the first episode. OK, not really played. We did a photo shoot together which turned out to be a double head shot of us on her mantle. I can say I’ve been groped by Elizabeth Ashley. Our picture is one of four on the mantle. The others were of her three late husbands. Mine is on the right behind an urn where my ashes are resting. That’s one way to get written out of the show.
ESCAPE AT DANNAMORA. Patricia Arquette was super friendly. I was taken aback by her bad teeth. I didn’t know at first it was a prosthetic device. The scene took place in upstate New York…but we shot in the south Bronx. Here we go again with the weather. It was supposed to be summer. I changed into shorts and flip flops at holding…then had to walk a couple of blocks to a bodega which was supposed to be an upstate mini-mart. It was snowing in the Bronx…the streets were slushy…and I looked worse than any homeless person walking past the locals. The bodega was also cold. Director Ben Stiller said the heater was making too much noise. I spent much of the day next to him…freezing while he was wearing a winter coat and earmuffs.
WHEN THEY SEE US…Ava Duvernay directed. I didn’t have much contact with her. I drove my car around Harlem…to the cutting room floor.
JOHN WICK 3. This was a rain scene downtown outside Delmonico’s…which was changed for the set. I worked with Ian McShane and Lance Reddick. Above us was a giant fan/propeller that covered both sides of the street. When the shoot started, it rotated, bringing down a deluge. I was thinking about Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain while I was getting soaked.
NEW AMSTERDAM…Worth mentioning because I played an ICU patient. That meant, I would lay in bed all day. At one point, I fell asleep and the director told one of the PA’s to wake me because I was supposedly snoring.
THE LOUDEST VOICE…I worked with Seth McFarlane and Sienna Miller. Nothing interesting there…except it was about FOX and Roger Ailes…a combination I knew all too well.
UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT…This had Jane Krakowski, Elle Kemper and Carol Kane in a scene where I was a stand-in.
THE HUNTERS…The first episode was in Coney Island. Nathans sent over unlimited hot dogs. I haven’t eaten one since. Logan Lerman and Kate Mulvaney were in the scene. I was a stand-in for Josh Mostel in another episode… I got to hang out with him, Saul Rubinek and Carol Kane for much of the day. They were all very nice. I should say stand-ins are treated like regular cast members.
THE DEUCE…James Franco. This was filmed at a topless bar in Sunnyside. My wife was pretty cool about it.
KING OF STATEN ISLAND…Judd Apatow was there directing…Steve Buscemi and Pete Davidson were on the set. This apartment house fire was filmed in Yonkers…not Staten Island as was the rest of the movie.
HIGH FIDELITY…I was put in a hospital gown by the costumers…then went to set on Roosevelt Island. When I got there, the director said this was supposed to be a maternity ward scene. I had to change and act as if I was a visitor. Back to the cutting room floor. Zoe Kravitz was the main star. I couldn’t get over her random junky tattoos.
THE WEEK OF…Adam Sandler is probably the most focused…least BS actor I worked with. The scene I shot was in a diner on Long Island. Somehow, casting found two identical looking men whose legs were amputated from the hips down. Sandler had to carry one of them from a car outside into the diner. Fortunately for him, there was a prop that looked exactly like the men. That’s what he mostly carried through many, many takes.
SNEAKY PETE… Giovanni Ribisi was the star…but he directed my episode.
LOVE LIFE…I spent a few hours with Anna Kendrick. Nothing to say one way or another.

I know this is (too) long. I still haven’t gone into my non-political newsman days.
 
[quote="newsman13" post=397391]I’ve done dozens of shoots as a background actor/extra. I don’t want to bore anyone with them all..so here are a few highlights:

PUZZLE…My first shoot was at a church in Yonkers. Kelly MacDonald, who was in No Country for Old Men, was the star…Marc Turtletaub (Little Miss Sunshine) directed. I ended up on the cutting room floor.
THE POST…Spielberg directed. I got to work with Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks among others. They fooled around a lot…kept things light. This was supposed to be in Washington, but was filmed at the New York Post facility in the Bronx.
BOTTOM OF THE NINTH…I was in a scene with Sophie Vergara and her husband Joe Manganiello. Vergara was very friendly and sat down with us for lunch. I didn’t know her husband could really act. In one scene, he had to burst into tears. He did it perfectly in all 16 or so takes.
THE SINNER…I spent more than a dozen hours in a Yonkers bar with Jessica Biel and others. That’s another that landed me on the cutting room floor…but they paid well.
THE PATH…I hadn’t seen Breaking Bad…so I had no idea who Aaron Paul was. Same with Michelle Monaghan (Gone Baby Gone). These things are wasted on me. I played a Parisian ice cream vendor. There was a huge green screen behind me. We were on the Hudson River…but if you watch the show (and no one I know did, including me) you’ll see me in a Paris street scene.
THE IRISHMAN…I did three scenes, two with Al Pacino. This guy can really act. He also jokes around to keep it light. Ray Romano is a favorite. He hung with everyone, joking and trading stories. Pacino plays Jimmy Hoffa. He gets out of prison in Pennsylvania…but the shoot is at an armory in Brooklyn. It’s supposed to be spring, so that’s how we dressed. Unfortunately, we were freezing. We went through a scene with stand-ins more than a dozen times. Then it was Pacino and Romano’s turn. They did one. Then a second. Before the third, Pacino says to Martin Scorsese, “Hey Marty, this is the last one”…and it was.
LAW AND ORDER…I did four of them. In one, I was in a lineup with Hal Linden. I told him several police officer friends of mine said Barney Miller was the most realistic of all the cop shows. He said he heard the same. In this scene, this elderly woman with Alzheimer’s claims she was raped. They brought us out numerous times…and she kept saying, “They’re so OLD”. Not good for my ego. Mariska Hargitay was very friendly. I’ll say she threw out a fair share of “F” bombs in her general conversation.
RUSSIAN DOLLS…You may remember Elizabeth Ashley as this super beautiful actress from the 60s. Now she’s pushing 80. I played her late husband in the first episode. OK, not really played. We did a photo shoot together which turned out to be a double head shot of us on her mantle. I can say I’ve been groped by Elizabeth Ashley. Our picture is one of four on the mantle. The others were of her three late husbands. Mine is on the right behind an urn where my ashes are resting. That’s one way to get written out of the show.
ESCAPE AT DANNAMORA. Patricia Arquette was super friendly. I was taken aback by her bad teeth. I didn’t know at first it was a prosthetic device. The scene took place in upstate New York…but we shot in the south Bronx. Here we go again with the weather. It was supposed to be summer. I changed into shorts and flip flops at holding…then had to walk a couple of blocks to a bodega which was supposed to be an upstate mini-mart. It was snowing in the Bronx…the streets were slushy…and I looked worse than any homeless person walking past the locals. The bodega was also cold. Director Ben Stiller said the heater was making too much noise. I spent much of the day next to him…freezing while he was wearing a winter coat and earmuffs.
WHEN THEY SEE US…Ava Duvernay directed. I didn’t have much contact with her. I drove my car around Harlem…to the cutting room floor.
JOHN WICK 3. This was a rain scene downtown outside Delmonico’s…which was changed for the set. I worked with Ian McShane and Lance Reddick. Above us was a giant fan/propeller that covered both sides of the street. When the shoot started, it rotated, bringing down a deluge. I was thinking about Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain while I was getting soaked.
NEW AMSTERDAM…Worth mentioning because I played an ICU patient. That meant, I would lay in bed all day. At one point, I fell asleep and the director told one of the PA’s to wake me because I was supposedly snoring.
THE LOUDEST VOICE…I worked with Seth McFarlane and Sienna Miller. Nothing interesting there…except it was about FOX and Roger Ailes…a combination I knew all too well.
UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT…This had Jane Krakowski, Elle Kemper and Carol Kane in a scene where I was a stand-in.
THE HUNTERS…The first episode was in Coney Island. Nathans sent over unlimited hot dogs. I haven’t eaten one since. Logan Lerman and Kate Mulvaney were in the scene. I was a stand-in for Josh Mostel in another episode… I got to hang out with him, Saul Rubinek and Carol Kane for much of the day. They were all very nice. I should say stand-ins are treated like regular cast members.
THE DEUCE…James Franco. This was filmed at a topless bar in Sunnyside. My wife was pretty cool about it.
KING OF STATEN ISLAND…Judd Apatow was there directing…Steve Buscemi and Pete Davidson were on the set. This apartment house fire was filmed in Yonkers…not Staten Island as was the rest of the movie.
HIGH FIDELITY…I was put in a hospital gown by the costumers…then went to set on Roosevelt Island. When I got there, the director said this was supposed to be a maternity ward scene. I had to change and act as if I was a visitor. Back to the cutting room floor. Zoe Kravitz was the main star. I couldn’t get over her random junky tattoos.
THE WEEK OF…Adam Sandler is probably the most focused…least BS actor I worked with. The scene I shot was in a diner on Long Island. Somehow, casting found two identical looking men whose legs were amputated from the hips down. Sandler had to carry one of them from a car outside into the diner. Fortunately for him, there was a prop that looked exactly like the men. That’s what he mostly carried through many, many takes.
SNEAKY PETE… Giovanni Ribisi was the star…but he directed my episode.
LOVE LIFE…I spent a few hours with Anna Kendrick. Nothing to say one way or another.

I know this is (too) long. I still haven’t gone into my non-political newsman days.[/quote] Great stuff. I just showed Nathalie this and she said Mariska was one of the nicest people on the law and orders when she used to do background in them. You just reminded me of a funny story. Long time ago she did some movie with Jon Voight and her scene was an outdoor scene outside of I think City Hall in New York and it was shit in like near zero degree weather. Jon Voight was in that scene. She’s texting me complaining how cold it is and Ibtell her she’s an actress act like it’s warm I don’t want to hear the whining. Fast forward a couple years later. We just land in Venice on a Sunday morning and our luggage wasn’t put in the plane from Rome so we have to wait for the next flight. The airport is empty. All the sudden she says “ there is Jon Voight “ he was waiting around fir luggage too. Nathalie says “ hi I worked on ..... he looks and says “ which scene “ she says the city hall or courthouse outside scene and he literally shivers and says “ it as so fucking cold that day “ that cracked me up. He was very nice. He was flying in to see Angelina Jolie who was in town with Brad Pitt one of them or both was filming a movie in Venice
 
[quote="mjmaherjr" post=397395][quote="newsman13" post=397391]I’ve done dozens of shoots as a background actor/extra. I don’t want to bore anyone with them all..so here are a few highlights:

PUZZLE…My first shoot was at a church in Yonkers. Kelly MacDonald, who was in No Country for Old Men, was the star…Marc Turtletaub (Little Miss Sunshine) directed. I ended up on the cutting room floor.
THE POST…Spielberg directed. I got to work with Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks among others. They fooled around a lot…kept things light. This was supposed to be in Washington, but was filmed at the New York Post facility in the Bronx.
BOTTOM OF THE NINTH…I was in a scene with Sophie Vergara and her husband Joe Manganiello. Vergara was very friendly and sat down with us for lunch. I didn’t know her husband could really act. In one scene, he had to burst into tears. He did it perfectly in all 16 or so takes.
THE SINNER…I spent more than a dozen hours in a Yonkers bar with Jessica Biel and others. That’s another that landed me on the cutting room floor…but they paid well.
THE PATH…I hadn’t seen Breaking Bad…so I had no idea who Aaron Paul was. Same with Michelle Monaghan (Gone Baby Gone). These things are wasted on me. I played a Parisian ice cream vendor. There was a huge green screen behind me. We were on the Hudson River…but if you watch the show (and no one I know did, including me) you’ll see me in a Paris street scene.
THE IRISHMAN…I did three scenes, two with Al Pacino. This guy can really act. He also jokes around to keep it light. Ray Romano is a favorite. He hung with everyone, joking and trading stories. Pacino plays Jimmy Hoffa. He gets out of prison in Pennsylvania…but the shoot is at an armory in Brooklyn. It’s supposed to be spring, so that’s how we dressed. Unfortunately, we were freezing. We went through a scene with stand-ins more than a dozen times. Then it was Pacino and Romano’s turn. They did one. Then a second. Before the third, Pacino says to Martin Scorsese, “Hey Marty, this is the last one”…and it was.
LAW AND ORDER…I did four of them. In one, I was in a lineup with Hal Linden. I told him several police officer friends of mine said Barney Miller was the most realistic of all the cop shows. He said he heard the same. In this scene, this elderly woman with Alzheimer’s claims she was raped. They brought us out numerous times…and she kept saying, “They’re so OLD”. Not good for my ego. Mariska Hargitay was very friendly. I’ll say she threw out a fair share of “F” bombs in her general conversation.
RUSSIAN DOLLS…You may remember Elizabeth Ashley as this super beautiful actress from the 60s. Now she’s pushing 80. I played her late husband in the first episode. OK, not really played. We did a photo shoot together which turned out to be a double head shot of us on her mantle. I can say I’ve been groped by Elizabeth Ashley. Our picture is one of four on the mantle. The others were of her three late husbands. Mine is on the right behind an urn where my ashes are resting. That’s one way to get written out of the show.
ESCAPE AT DANNAMORA. Patricia Arquette was super friendly. I was taken aback by her bad teeth. I didn’t know at first it was a prosthetic device. The scene took place in upstate New York…but we shot in the south Bronx. Here we go again with the weather. It was supposed to be summer. I changed into shorts and flip flops at holding…then had to walk a couple of blocks to a bodega which was supposed to be an upstate mini-mart. It was snowing in the Bronx…the streets were slushy…and I looked worse than any homeless person walking past the locals. The bodega was also cold. Director Ben Stiller said the heater was making too much noise. I spent much of the day next to him…freezing while he was wearing a winter coat and earmuffs.
WHEN THEY SEE US…Ava Duvernay directed. I didn’t have much contact with her. I drove my car around Harlem…to the cutting room floor.
JOHN WICK 3. This was a rain scene downtown outside Delmonico’s…which was changed for the set. I worked with Ian McShane and Lance Reddick. Above us was a giant fan/propeller that covered both sides of the street. When the shoot started, it rotated, bringing down a deluge. I was thinking about Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain while I was getting soaked.
NEW AMSTERDAM…Worth mentioning because I played an ICU patient. That meant, I would lay in bed all day. At one point, I fell asleep and the director told one of the PA’s to wake me because I was supposedly snoring.
THE LOUDEST VOICE…I worked with Seth McFarlane and Sienna Miller. Nothing interesting there…except it was about FOX and Roger Ailes…a combination I knew all too well.
UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT…This had Jane Krakowski, Elle Kemper and Carol Kane in a scene where I was a stand-in.
THE HUNTERS…The first episode was in Coney Island. Nathans sent over unlimited hot dogs. I haven’t eaten one since. Logan Lerman and Kate Mulvaney were in the scene. I was a stand-in for Josh Mostel in another episode… I got to hang out with him, Saul Rubinek and Carol Kane for much of the day. They were all very nice. I should say stand-ins are treated like regular cast members.
THE DEUCE…James Franco. This was filmed at a topless bar in Sunnyside. My wife was pretty cool about it.
KING OF STATEN ISLAND…Judd Apatow was there directing…Steve Buscemi and Pete Davidson were on the set. This apartment house fire was filmed in Yonkers…not Staten Island as was the rest of the movie.
HIGH FIDELITY…I was put in a hospital gown by the costumers…then went to set on Roosevelt Island. When I got there, the director said this was supposed to be a maternity ward scene. I had to change and act as if I was a visitor. Back to the cutting room floor. Zoe Kravitz was the main star. I couldn’t get over her random junky tattoos.
THE WEEK OF…Adam Sandler is probably the most focused…least BS actor I worked with. The scene I shot was in a diner on Long Island. Somehow, casting found two identical looking men whose legs were amputated from the hips down. Sandler had to carry one of them from a car outside into the diner. Fortunately for him, there was a prop that looked exactly like the men. That’s what he mostly carried through many, many takes.
SNEAKY PETE… Giovanni Ribisi was the star…but he directed my episode.
LOVE LIFE…I spent a few hours with Anna Kendrick. Nothing to say one way or another.

I know this is (too) long. I still haven’t gone into my non-political newsman days.[/quote] Great stuff. I just showed Nathalie this and she said Mariska was one of the nicest people on the law and orders when she used to do background in them. You just reminded me of a funny story. Long time ago she did some movie with Jon Voight and her scene was an outdoor scene outside of I think City Hall in New York and it was shit in like near zero degree weather. Jon Voight was in that scene. She’s texting me complaining how cold it is and Ibtell her she’s an actress act like it’s warm I don’t want to hear the whining. Fast forward a couple years later. We just land in Venice on a Sunday morning and our luggage wasn’t put in the plane from Rome so we have to wait for the next flight. The airport is empty. All the sudden she says “ there is Jon Voight “ he was waiting around fir luggage too. Nathalie says “ hi I worked on ..... he looks and says “ which scene “ she says the city hall or courthouse outside scene and he literally shivers and says “ it as so fucking cold that day “ that cracked me up. He was very nice. He was flying in to see Angelina Jolie who was in town with Brad Pitt one of them or both was filming a movie in Venice[/quote]

Nathalie is a real actress...not a background actor like me. I'm sure she has great stories to tell. BTW, Mariska knew everybody in the crew by their first names. Zero ego.
 
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