I literally ran into Paul Newman on 91st and MAdison a while back. Almost walked right into the man, and then after I said "excuse me" turned to the woman who had seen me do it and went- is that who I thought it was????

I don't know if they count as a celebrity, but I've met Cornell West once and Henry Louis (Skip) Gates a number of times.

Because I work on a college campus (lots of speaker series and lecture series, etc...) I've been fortunate to meet a lot of newsmakers.

President Clinton (coolest white dude on the planet. period)
President Ford (this guy is not young)
George F. Will (columnist) (kinda kept to himself.)
Jacob Lawrence (artist.) (Regret I'm wasn't up enough on Black art to truly appreciate his talent when he was here)
Bro. John Hope Franklin (Historian) (along with Clinton, truly a highlight for me. The bruhs hosted a nice reception for him.)
60 Minutes' Ed Bradley (the word cool was invented for dude)
Rev. Calvin O. Butts (Kappa)
Rev. Joseph Lowrery (SCLC)
Rev. Al Sharpton
Linda Chavez (fmr. Sect. of Labor)
Sam Donaldson (ABC News)
Cokie Roberts (ABC News)
Pierre Salinger (JFK Press Secretary)
Martin Luther King III

Last year I met Hillary Clinton. She was standing on the corner of 23rd Street and Lexington Avenue. She was supporting a candidate who was running for office (forgot what position). I was more fascinated with her than the guy who was running. lol. She was very gracious and shook everyone's hand. Very cool person. :cool: :D

WOW! Can I hang w/ you Tony??? How did you manage to meet all these people? Are you in the Young Dems or something?
Maybe you could help a sista find a job or something..lol..

I also met Rev. Butts yearsss ago before he realllly blew up at a MLK Breakfast w/ my Dad in Harlem, wow like 12-15 years ago now? gheesh I am getting up there!

I did PR before my current govt. relations assignment. As such we set up all the media opps. and pre-press/tv events before speeches and such. Funny thing is most of these people are really down-to-earth --- it's their pushy HANDLERS, and AIDES that think they're the isht!

Rev. Butts (KAY) gave a tremendous speech. ...I guess Alpha can't have all the talent. :D

I'm noticing a trend here....I'm I the only one who hasn't met Hillary Clinton? lol:)

When I was in the 7th grade, my best friend and I were asked to present gifts on behalf of our junior high school's student council to George and Barbara Bush. This was in 1988 when he was VP and was running for pres. Our school was one if his campaign stops.

Next, when I was a freshman in high school, Montel Williams came to our school. This was before he got the talk show. He gave the top students in each class like $20 for good grades and the girl who was most likely going to become valedictorian (this program took place at the beginning of the school year) about $100 or so for her achievements. Then he started asking random questions to people in the audience and he called me and when I got my question right, he gave me $10. :D

Junior year, author Clifton Taulbert (Once Upon a Time When Were Colored) came to my school to promote his book. He is from my hometown and he singled me out as a very good writer and read some of my work from our literary magazine (I was the editor that year as well as asst. editor of the newspaper). This really gave me the push to pursue writing a book eventually. I'm working on that now. ;)

I have also met the following people:

Grant Hill and Tamia
Kid Rock
Colleen Dixon (author)
Jason Richardson (basketball player-Golden State)
DL Hugley
Sugar Ray
Prince

I got to tell this story. This past summer, Hubby, Son and I were flying home from Mississippi after my family reunion. We flew out of Memphis and then switched planes in Chicago before returning to Saginaw. Now, sitting at O'Hare waiting for our plane, Hubby thought he saw Cedric the Entertainer. I look at him and I'm like YEAH RIGHT :rolleyes: I told him that he just wanted see some Kappas since he's one. Hubby swore up and down that he saw Ced. I roll my eyes and tell him to take our son to the bathroom before we get on the plane. On the plane Hubby pointed out this man who looked so scruffy and bummy and wearing sunglasses and said that he thought it was Ced. Now we know that Ced is usually so fresh and so clean so I just gave Hubby this look again and settled in for the flight home. We get off the plane and while Hubby took Son to the bathroom again :rolleyes: the scruffy man passes by me and says, "What up, Greek. You wearing that Delta shirt." I look the man in his eyes and it WAS Cedric the Entertainer. :eek: I almost fainted dead away at the airport but composed myself enough to get an autograph, introduce him to Hubby and Son, and tell him that my grandmomma and I had a grand old time laughing at him on Comic View and The Steve Harvey Show the night before. It turned out that he was doing a show at the casino. All the way home, Hubby was like I told you so, Nupes know other Nupes, blah, blah, blah. But I shut him up with who got the autograph though?? :p

Sorry this was so long. I have lots of interesting cleb stories.

I am truly jealous!!!
 

His work is awesome. I can't wait to "grow up" so that I can purchase a Jacob Lawrence original.

I forgot about him....
 

do you remember him doing the concert i think in '96??? i met him then. ughhh, i did i forget!!!

Cool story. Ced's my favorite comic. Did he ever say why he was so scruffy?

Well being from Houston.......
H-Town (I went to middle school and Highschool with them)
Destiny's Child (Performed at TSU's Homecoming game 1 year)
Ex-Member LeToya (Came in the Galleria's GAP couple times
when I worked there. She was friendly.)
Scarface The Rapper (Mall, Clubs no big deal)
Big Mo (Purple Stuff) and Big Pokey Local Rappers (Went to
HighSchool with them)
Tom Cruise/Penelope Cruz (I work at NASA and ran into them
during their tour. He was very nice and outgoing, she was a bit
shy.)
Mae Jemison (Saw her in the nail shop and I spoke)
Warren Moon (Grocery Store)
Carl Lewis (Grocery store, he walked around very cocky)
Biz Markie (came to our Highschool in the early 90's)
Montell William's (came to our highschool in the early 90's)
Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff (had an autograph signing. They are very down to earth)
Charles Brown The Late Blues Singer (is my cousin the radio/commercials always wear his songs out at Christmas "Merry Christmas Baby", "Bells Will be Ringing, and so on.)
Countless other NBA and NFL Players in the Mall and Clubs

Re: I forgot about him....
 

I only HEARD about that concert cause I didn't start at UMCP till fall 97. I was SOOO upset to find out that he had been performing in the Hoff for only $7, and I was there a year too late!!!

This doesn't EEEEEVEN count, but I thought it was a funny story.

When I was in high school, I worked for JC Penney (the only one in Columbia and it's in the 'ghetto' mall). Well anyway, these guys were in my dept (I worked in Men's), looking around and I asked them if I could help them. One of the guys was like, "No, we're fine", but then he came over and decided to spark up a conversation. ALLL of the guys looked like scrubs and I wasn't EVEN interested. Now, my homegirls say I can be quite rude at times (who me :eek:?), and like I said...I wasn't trying to hear it. So the first guy asked me if I knew who the picture of the dude on his shirt was. I said, "No...am I supposed to?" :rolleyes: So he says, "That's that man right there!" pointing at one of the other guys in the group. So I was like, "...and he is...?" :confused: He says, "Trick Daddy". I say, "Who or what is a 'Trick Daddy'?" He's like, "Aww man, forget that!" and ends the conversation really quick and waves me off. So I tell my homegirl about it and she tells me he is this "new" rapper. I didn't get to excited about it at all, I was just like, "Oh well" Don't you know like 2-3 weeks later, the single Nann' came out and I was jamming off of it when I realized "Damn...so that's Trick Daddy!"

That's my jam too! :D

Being that I interned for a radio station in college, and have had just plain 'ol fortunate timing, I've met quite a few people. Some were good encounters. Some were not-so-great. Here's the rundown:

Brandy
Aaliyah (RIP)
Gerald LeVert
Tony Terry
Keith Sweat
The Whitehead Brothers
K-Ci and Jo Jo
Brian McKnight
Will Smith ("The Fresh Prince"- I went to high school with his cousin)
Bobby Konders (Remember the reggae song "Mack Daddy"?)
Musiq (saw him in the grocery store)
Rahsaan Patterson (R-N-B singer-we were camp counselors together)
Kobe Bryant (went to school with him and his sisters-I kinda keep this on the low now...lol)
Shanice Wilson (one of the sweetest people I've ever met)
Patra (um um um...no comment!)
?uestlove (Also known as Amir Thompson, the drummer with the pick forever in his 'fro from THE ROOTS)-we used to work at a Telemarketing firm together


I recently ran into that fine-as-may-wine Treach and Vinnie from Naughty By Nature at a rest stop on the PA Turnpike.

I've also met quite a few authors including E. Lynn Harris-my favorite author in the whole wide world!

This past weekend I met Sheryl Underwood-the comedienne (she's a soror!)

I've als met a few gospel artists as well.

That's all for now folks...

I think Ms. Destiny has taken over first place with the best "I got it like dat, dis who I know" list.

...although honorable mention props go to 9dstpm cause she met Ced-the-entertainer at 30,000 ft. altitude. :)