I never really thought about my celebrity encounters until recently, but now that I have put some thought into it I realized that I have met a handful of celebrities on a number of occasions. I’m not talking Justin Bieber and Britney Spears, but some other people. Whether it be at Six Flags or a various restaurant in Prague, I somehow always manage to find a random famous person.
The first celeb I ran into was Bruno Mars at a hotel in Massachusetts. My family, my friend Erica and I were visiting Six Flags and stayed in a close hotel. This was early in Bruno Mars’ career, back when “Nothin’ on You” was the hottest song of the summer. We saw him walk in with a band but we weren’t sure if it was him. We continued to ask the front desk and they said it wasn’t him, but we didn’t take that for an answer. We waited in the lobby all night with our eyes peeled. The waiting finally paid off when we realized we were right. The next day we also ran into David Archuleta outside one of the rides, but unfortunately we were unable to get a picture.
A few years later, my family and I met Sela Ward outside The JFK airport while taking our luggage out of the car. This was after Gone Girl came out so I recognized her right away because she played a news anchor in the movie. No one else seemed to notice her but my mom just had to stop her and tell her how much she loved her.
That wasn’t even my only airport encounter with a celeb. My second sighting was at LaGuardia Airport. I had just landed after coming from Dallas, Texas with my cheerleading team and we were all stuffed inside a minivan waiting to leave, when I turned around and spotted Alec Baldwin. Since I was crammed in my car I opened the window and yelled for him but all I got was a glance. I was super upset I didn’t get a picture with him but I managed to get one of him.
My third random location was Cirque Du Soleil in New York City. I myself am I huge 80s’ movie fan, Pretty in Pink being my favorite, so when I spotted James Spader I geeked out. For those of you who haven’t seen Pretty in Pink, he also played Robert California in The Office. My mom and I spotted him and immediately had to go over and tell him how much we love his character in Pretty in Pink. He was with his family so we decided not to take a picture with him so he could enjoy the show without attention being drawn to him. I obviously had to sneak a picture because I was so shocked.
This winter I studied abroad in Barcelona with The University of Delaware, it was the best three weeks of my life and I was lucky to run into two celebrities during my trip. The first was a funny story. I was waiting in line for the bathroom and I was talking to some tall blonde in front of me. After a few minutes of talking, I noticed she looked familiar.
I turned back to her and said, “Has anyone ever told you that you look like Kelsey from Buzzfeed?”
She laughed and then replied, “I am Kelsey from Buzzfeed.”
I had just watched a few of her Buzzfeed videos before my trip because they are the funniest videos ever. I was so excited, I just had to ask her for a picture. After the picture, she held the broken bathroom door shut for me and then she disappeared to another place.
I saved the best for last. While abroad, I visited Prague for a weekend with my friend Dani. We landed around 5:30 and we were starving. Not ready to try goulash, we went to a Mexican restaurant. It was a cool little place right by the old town square, and it was super last minute. As we sat down and ordered our food, we noticed a rowdy group next to us having some drinks. I heard a familiar British accent and peeked over, realizing that Cara Delevingne was sitting ten feet away from me. I had my friend Dani Google her to double check, and we had a game plan to ask for a picture when we were about to leave. When the time came, I awkwardly told her that I didn’t want to bother her, but I loved her so I just needed to tell her and snap a quick picture. She was so nice and might have been a little tipsy as well.
I hope to meet many more celebrities in the future!