Celebrities and artists of note are just people, too. That is the first rule to remember when coming face to face with a star. They are no better than the rest of us mere mortals. That realization should ease the anticipation or disappointment should they prove to be less than kind. However I've had encounters and heard stories were the celebrity couldn't have been nicer. Meryl Streep is a gem. Idina Menzel is a sweetheart and Lady Gaga is super tiny. So my divas were on point.
Redditor u/Qazival wanted to hear about the times they've encountered the famous by asking.... Which celebrity did you meet and found they were much kinder/ruder than you expected?"I Love Your Shirt!"
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A few years ago Tenacious D played a concert in Kuala Lumpur. The building the concert was in was pretty small, and there's no way they made a lot of money from the show.
Despite that, after the show was over, Jack Black came back out on the stage and just chatted and joked around with people for like an hour. My buddy yelled out, "I love your shirt!" Jack Black yelled back, "I love your shirt! Trade me!" Then he took of his shirt and threw it to my buddy, who threw his shirt to Jack Black. Jack Black threw my friend's shirt back after pretending to try it on (my friend is much thinner than Black, haha), and then told him to keep his shirt from the concert.
It was a great experience!
Renee
I met Renee Zellweger and she was so much kinder than I ever could have imagined. This was when hurricane Harvey hit Texas. I was working at Austin Pets Alive and we took in thousands of animals from hard hit areas. It was insane. One day Renee Zellweger just showed up to volunteer. No warning, no fanfare. In fact, the only reason I noticed her is that she was wearing long sleeves and long pants and it was august in Texas. She spent a week volunteering.
She did laundry, cleaned out poop covered crates, and drove vans of dogs from Houston to Austin (not a pleasant job with the smell and the barking). I hope this doesn't get buried because she was truly amazing. So so nice and hardworking. The laundry room was next to my office so we became friendly over the week she was there. There are multiple news articles about this so it's legit. Forever a fan.
A Kinder Soul
I met Gordon Ramsay once at a book signing event, I was just walking around the area and ran into him on his free time. He was actually so nice and down to earth. Talked about food for a few minutes and how he's liking his trip so far. Super nice guy and nothing like you see on his cooking shows.
The Aussie
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I met Liam Hemsworth at a supermarket in a small coastal town in Australia earlier this year. I almost didn't even notice it was him as he fit in seamlessly being the down to earth, laid back Aussie guy he is. He was super nice and genuine and even made an effort to thank the employees and the store's security on his way out.
When in Malta
Brad Pitt is a top-notch guy in real life
I met him in Malta while he was filming Troy. I was guiding a group of students as a group leader on a holiday trip and we saw Pitt just walking out of a cafe. He took time to take lots of pictures with all the kids and was really nice to everyone. Among my group were a bunch of teenage girls who almost fainted. Hilarious day all around.
Arnie....
Also i recall a comedian being impressed when he met Arnold Schwarzenegger. The man has a bodyguard who has to stop him from talking to a single fan for too long, otherwise he would have never stopped on time for the rest of the fans to get their turn to speak to him.
Imagine being so nice to your fans that you need someone to stop you...
The Fass
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Haven't had many rude experiences, but I can definitely attest that Michael Fassbender was a kind man who acted more excited to meet me than I was to meet him. Very satisfied by that experience!
Nicole
Kinder - Nicole Kidman. To be fair, this was back in the 80s before she hit the big time. She was, however, making movies then and had a profile. I did ask her what it was like being in films and she replied: 'Oh good, but, you know, Tom (Burlinson, her then boyfriend) gets all the good roles'. She struck me as a very genuine, decent person.
The Good Guys
David Beckham - not just a nice guy, but when his kids came to the secret event we were filming and some people spotted them, he came across and told the public who could see him that he'd do any photos or signings they liked, but to please leave his kids alone as they were not in the public eye and he wanted them to be afforded privacy. Good dad.
Jamie Lee Curtis - we chatted about cameras for ages before I realised who she was (after we finished chatting). She had a very nice Leica.
Skater Christina Lenko was an absolute diamond, playing with someone's kids on set between rehearsals, I fell a little bit in love watching her.
Eartha Kitt - despite being mid-80's, she was doing 2 shows a day and would still use the show interval for a fan meet and greet, then her rider was "a salmon salad sandwich". A true star with true humility.
I won't go on about the fools. They tend to be mid-famous on the way up. The bottom rung are just so happy to be entertaining, the top rung have nothing to prove.
Hey Robin
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Robin Williams was shooting a film in my city he stopped by the nearest senior home just to say hello and take pictures with the residents. No other reason than to brighten up their day class act of a man. My grandma was a resident.
Flight club
Chris Noth (Sex and the City's Mr Big) sat next to my brother on a flight years ago. My brother can't have been more than 10 at the time and used to get super nervous and travel sick on flights. Chris Noth was unbelievably kind to him. Told my mum he was happy to keep an eye on him, made sure he had plenty to drink and extra blankets, and even offered him his dessert because he woke up after food had been around. He was just such a lovely man and made my bro feel loads better. Genuinely awesome guy!
Spoon full of sugar
Julie Andrews was a sweetheart. My boss was starstruck because he loves Mary Poppins so he went out to her table to do his chef thing and he said she was so down to earth and complimented his food.
Harry Connick Jr is also really nice, and so are his kids. They were having breakfast and his kids asked if they could please go to the pool after, and said "please" and "thank you" to the waitress. They were really polite and you could tell that their parents don't let them get away with bratty shit just because they're rich.
Best of Welsh
Michael Sheen - he does a lot of charity work for our shared hometown. I had no idea just how well known he was as a kid. Years ago he spent a night bowling with our youth club, it's been a decade and I'm still blown away by how caring and genuine he was. He's always doing something wonderful for the people in South Wales, and every time I hear about what he's up to I still can't believe my luck that I met him.
He's the best of the Welsh.
Thanks Batman
I used to work in the music and film industry (as a grunt, when I was in my early 20s), so I've met a lot of celebrities.
George Clooney was the nicest one - SO down to earth, and would play practical jokes on the entire crew very regularly. He had these t-shirts made for every crew member to wear with the director's picture on the cover of People's "sexiest man alive", lol. (This was not an attractive director - it was kind of a joke between them I guess.) He had his car drive people home if buses weren't on schedule or whatever. He'd eat lunch with the crew rather than in his trailer.
I had the pleasure of working a show on a David Bowie tour he did in theatres. Every member of his band made a point to thank the crew members. IDK if Bowie himself did it but I wouldn't be surprised.
My dad had a coworker who was in Lake Como and decided to go look at George Clooney's house. While he was standing there, he heard a voice say "Don't just stand there and stare, come have a beer inside" and it was frickin' George Clooney. So he did, and said it was awesome. This was before George was married with kids, so I don't think he'd do it now. (Disclaimer: the coworker could have been lying, but he DID have a photo of him clinking beer bottles with George Clooney, so they had a drink SOMEWHERE.)
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Some scams are not so criminal and are actually legit; however, they make consumers feel as though they've been taken advantage of.
"What's the biggest scam in America?"
Some people don't think twice about certain transactions.
Hidden Concert Fees
"Surprised no one mentioned ticketmaster yet."
– hopsteiner420
"They jack the ticket prices up with tons of hidden fees."
"A ticket will be priced at $50. Then Ticketmaster will tack on all kinds of bullsh*t like 'venue fees,' 'service fees,' etc. All of a sudden that $50 ticket costs you over $100."
– jthemusician
Popular Services
"Funerals, weddings, and pretty much every other thing we blindly accept have to be insanely expensive without even thinking about it."
– jcfeej
Dealing With Student Loans
"I think Student Loan servicers. For example, Navient manages Federally guaranteed debt for the US Gov in Student loans, has the IRS as their personal collection agency."
"They constantly, I mean CONSTANTLY f'k up to the extent they get dragged in front of Congressional Hearings, and their CEO is paid $7.7M annually."
– Firebolt164
Rent-to-own businesses were mentioned a lot in the thread.
Trackers In The Merchandise
"I scrolled really far and was surprised I didn't see Rent to Own stores. They sell furniture and electronics type stuff to people with bad credit who can't really afford it, let them pay a small amount weekly."
"If people end up paying on time and pay stuff off, they will pay 2 or 3 times more than the item is worth. If they make a payment late the item is repossessed and re sold to someone else and the first person loses all the money they paid."
"There are used car dealers that do this same business model with cars too. They put GPS trackers in the car that also disable the starter. They collect $1000 down and once a payment is late they disable the car and go tow it, then sell it again and keep the downpayment."
"I worked at a shop that installed the trackers and these places would sell the same car to different people 5 or 6 times in a year because they kept repoing it."
– bgwa9001
An Insider Speaks Out
"I used to be the sales manager at my local Rent-A-Center years ago. It’s a huge scam and I feel dirty even having worked there. The worse thing I ever had to do was repossess a fridge from a single mother."
"She cried as she removed the items and kept saying 'I have no where to put these. They are going to go bad.' Another one was when i had to repossess a bunk bed from two kids. They asked their dad where they were going to sleep."
"It’s been years and I still think about it from time to time. Don’t rent from rent-to-own stores. Don’t give them business."
– MaxTimeLord
Another Testimony With A Special Message
"Same. The owner of the place I worked was a huge asshole. He went with me on this repo of a single mom that apparently he didn’t like for some reason. Same thing, it was a fridge. We get the fridge out on by the curb and it has a bunch of roaches crawling out of it."
"When we’d get TV’s with roaches we’d bag them with a fogger, vacuum them out and re-rent them. The fridge was too big for a bag and the owner didn’t want to put it into the truck. So he pushes the fridge up next to a tree, gets back into the truck and smashes the fridge up against the tree multiple times until it’s completely crumpled. I’m standing there like WTF just happened and he tells me to get back into the truck and we drive off."
"We destroyed a fridge from some lady who was down on her luck just so she couldn’t have it. Then the embarrassment of having a smashed fridge in her front yard that people were obviously going to ask her about."
"F'k you Dwayne."
– cokecan13
Cable Companies
"Cable TV/Internet monopolies."
– dan1101
"Seriously. The spectrum person that signed me up on the phone gave me a price and simply neglected to tell me it was a 'promotional rate.' Price goes up 50% after a year."
– valuethempaths
Cutting The Cord
"Comcast had such a monopoly in my area that cancelling wouldn't get you a promotion, just a simple we'll be sad to see you go."
"And after the third time putting a new plan under someone else's name to qualify for 'current promotions,' we just said f'k it and cut the cord."
"Maxed out our internet plan and it's still cheaper than the bundle they were forcing down our throat that included a landline that we didn't have a phone for."
– ultrastarman303
Paying The Price
"And Youtube TV is turning out to be the same sh{replace1}amp; different medium…. hey let’s keep jacking up the price, but let’s add on a dozen or so channels no one f&{replace1}amp;in cares about to keep everyone happy. No that did not make us happy because we’re not that dumb."
"It’s like Animal Farm."
– rigored
Some believe the biggest American scam was multi-level marketing (MLM).
Dodging A Bullet
"A few years ago my husband was keen on the idea of buying a franchise. He came across a scheme he thought was promising and asked me to go with him to meet the people selling it. As soon as we sat down my gut feeling was RUN, but being polite people we sat through their spiel. On the surface it seemed legit, but for me the absolute killer was when they started spouting on about how the big boss has bought a helicopter and how cool it would be for us all when we can do that too."
"They were very pushy, but I’m equally stubborn and held firm that we needed to think about it. As soon as we left I threw away the brochures and crap they’d foisted on us. Had a few emails and calls, but ghosted them. Husband was disappointed for a while, but then one day I was reading Reddit and came across a familiar company name."
"To this day I enjoy reminding my husband how we dodged being tied in with Herbalife."
– SoftandSquidgy
Cousin's "Business"
"My cousin is always involved in multiple MLMs and tells us all she’s a 'small business owner' and gets mad if we don’t support her 'business.'"
"Here’s the thing though. I would rather just send her a check every month so that I don’t have to be solicited with this protein shake or that skin care line. How much would it take? $50 a month? $100? Because I know she’s not making any money doing this. YET SHE KEEPS ON DOING IT!!!"
– ArhedisVarkenjaab
A popular scam in my neighborhood involves representatives from a "friendly energy" company going door-to-door and trying to convince tenants they are paying too much on their electric and gas bill.
They throw out a lot of jargon and detailed information and have a vague answer for everything.
The last time I encountered such a rep, I said I'd like to take the time to research this and I told him I didn't like being made to make a decision to upgrade my services on the spot.
When I asked for his business card, he gave a piece of flimsy paper with information saying they were "looking for newhires."
He peace'd out. And when I looked up the "service" he was offering on the internet, the information indicated it was a scam that took over your existing energy company and charged you triple the previous amount.
I dodged a bullet that day, but I definitely felt like spending time with him was a huge waste of energy.
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"What is a subtle sign that someone is really intelligent?"
The minds of really smart individuals never stop working.
Resourcefulness
"They draw wisdom from multiple sources. Wait but that might be more wise than intelligent... But I guess those two tend to be seen together a lot."
– Puzzlehead-Engineer
Inquisitive Minds
"They are curious about everything."
"To be intelligent you need to be knowledgeable and you cant be knowledgeable if you are never curious."
– soup54461
The way highly intelligent people interact with others is slightly different.
Social Adaptability
"They can switch up the way they talk to match the person they're talking to without sounding condescending. They listen to how others learn and explain it in that person's language of understanding."
– Wynonna99
Talking On Level Ground
"Talking to people as if they're intelligent at their level and without being condescending or even letting on that it's lower than their level."
"I used to work with a doctor - Tom Howard - and the day I realized he was a genius was the time he guessed every single condition a patient of mine had based on minute piece of information about him."
– Yoodei_Mon
The Humble Professor
"No joke. The smartest professor I had in engineering school was also the most humble. She was an astounding human being. By week 2, she knew everyone's names by heart in the intro engineering course. In College. With like 180 students. Later, in upper division classes, people would occasionally ask some really stupid questions."
"Like, it happens... you get so deep into some fluid mechanics derivation or something you forget something really basic. People would ask a question like this and everyone would be thinking like; 'Wow, how did you even make it this far?' but then... it's like she would spot the flaw in their understanding so perfectly, and then respond with such clarity and wisdom that the person asking the question would look less stupid and the whole class would be enlightened."
"And here's the thing... I pride myself on being really good at that exact skill. I tutored a lot of people. I was easily one of the brightest amongst my peers. But that woman was on another level. It was mind-blowing."
"And it wasn't just her intelligence, but her organizational skills, discipline, consistency.... And yet... she was so humble. She was quiet and physically quite small. But she just exuded competence and immediately commanded every room she walked into. I've never seen anything quite like it."
– EngineeringNeverEnds
A Positive Effect
"When they explain something they make you feel intelligent."
– gwoshmi
When In Doubt
"They know when their knowledge ends and say something to the extent of 'I don't know and anything else i say on this topic is ignorant speculation.'"
–blutoboy
Some with impressive IQs may deal with questions in the following ways.
Reaction To Delayed Responses
"'You really think about everything don't you?' - a doctor, to me, after he asked me a question and I took longer than 2 seconds to answer it."
"No, I just pull something out of my @ss every time and those extra seconds you waited for me to answer were purely to irritate you for my own enjoyment."
– Imakegoatnoises
The Really Good Questions
"They can ask really good questions."
"Edit: to anyone not understanding what mean, I’m talking about people who ask 'really good questions,' not just any questions, really good ones. I don’t know how one would achieve this skill(I know I haven’t)."
– milkmanbran
Taking Pause
"They spend time thinking before asking a question."
– ParkMan73
"Some of the smartest people don’t comment at all."
– metric-poet
I agree with many of the comments saying a really intelligent person knows how to cater the conversation towards another person's level of understanding.
They do have the impressive skill to convey something in a way that can easily be understood. Some of the most venerated professors at my university were like this, and their classes were always the hardest to get in to.
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