When I turned on the TV this morning and saw the clip of "A Streetcar Named Desire", I was pretty sure Marlon Brando was dead. It could have been Malden, but I'd just heard something about Brando's health, so I was almost certain it was the Big Man.
While the news chopper hovered over his estate off of Mulholland, the reporter mentioned numerous times Mr. Brando's desire for privacy/seclusion.
This afternoon, while shopping for "bar furnishings", I walked past an actress/wife of a sports celeb loading her baby into the carseat of her new Rover. Earlier, I'd practically rubbed elbows(OK-overheard a lengthy cell conversation) with an actor/husband of an actress/business owner. (If you haven't noticed, I prefer backslashes to hyphens.)
That got me thinking, if I manage to get some celeb(s) to show up at the Grand Opening of The Nut House(July 14-18), I should give the non-celeb guests a heads-up on "How To Behave Around A Celebrity".
A little background for those from non-celebrity centers of the world. My first "real" celeb sighting was in Los Angeles, it was Gene Hackman. He was standing on one of those parking lot concrete curb/planters in a lot shared by a bank, a multiplex, and an office building... in the San Fernando Valley! For those of you not familiar with the snobbery aimed at "The Valley" by those over the hill(B.H. WestHolly, the Westside...the list goes on), if you saw the "Sex and the City" ep. when Miranda tells the girls she's moving to Brooklyn, that's about right.
Anyway, back to behavior in proximity to celebrities. The following is only applicable when said celebrity is NOT working, work including PR/Promotion.
I must give proper credit to my(oops, there's that possessive word again)man. He came up with the M.O. while shooting low budget movies with lots of gratuitous nudity(boobs). We are not talking pornos, we are talking super low budget...mostly schlock. After a couple of these shoots, Mr. Man realised that he reacted to these topless women the same way he'd reacted to people with a physical handicap. They are extremely hard to ignore, but you try not to stare. Eventually, if you are a well adjusted adult, you get used to the boobs, the wheelchair, the missing limbs...or the celebrity.
The topless woman, amputee, or celeb may be having a bad day. Try to read his/her body language and use some common sense before approaching. In other words...BE COOL.
Imagine you are sitting down to a quiet dinner and the telemarketer calls(God I love the "Do not call" list).
Or you're taking your kid to the park and an un-named proselytizing religious organization's representative targets the two of you.
Or that the annoying/somewhat scary person at work gets up to get coffee everytime you get a refill.
Let's try not frighten or piss off our celebrity friends at The Nut House.
RIP Mr. B.
Chinquapin
Posted by chinquapin2
at 11:06 PM PDT
Updated: Saturday, 3 July 2004 12:39 AM PDT
