So I went w/ Brian and Greg to a tasting at Maggiano's yesterday. (More on the tasting later. Just a little morsel of gossip for now while I have a moment before bed..)
So our waiter informs us that Rita Rudner is having lunch right next to us. So wanting to get a cool pic for my blog, I go over and tell her all apologetically that I'm sorry to interrupt her lunch, but I've really enjoyed seeing her, and I saw her w/ Dennis Miller at the MGM like 14 years ago, and could I just get a quick picture w/ her... and she's like, "Well, I'm kinda eating lunch right now, so no, but I will say hi - what's your name?" And I'm thinking... what the hell is that? But I just said thanks anyway and left.
Totally shut down by a C-list celebrity. The more I think about it the more it irritates me. Being a bit of a freak myself, I can understand not wanting to get harassed during lunch by a stranger. But, honestly, I'm not making any money on said strangers harassing me. If I were, I might be singing a different tune. It's not like she's top-notch Vegas entertainement either. I mean, every fan counts as far as her numbers are concerned. Anyway, Rita is now dead to me..
New Roof - Summer 2019
4 years ago
12 comments:
Oh C'mon! What if people wanted to take your picture everyday because they've seen you around and you're super tall? It's not whether or not people are making money off of you, it's that you wanted to eat your lunch in peace. How many times must she have stopped her lunch, swallowed her irritation, forced a smile, and allowed someone to take her picture with parsley in her teeth before she learned to say "no?" She could've been worse to you, she just could've said "no" and nothing more.
i think that she should have said ok, but next time wait until im leaving....
I think Rita-the-bitch and I are two totally different animals. If someone asked me for a photo-op, it'd be because through no doing of my own, I'm a freak. It would be like going up to someone w/ a huge tumor and saying, wow, that's disgusting, let me get a picture.
Rita though is a low-grade celebrity who makes her money whoring herself - her name, her likeness, her personality - to the public. Being a public whore, I don't think it was out of line to ask her to whore herself out one more time for 3 seconds. Maybe if I had a 2-for-1 local's ticket in my hand, she would have put out out a little more?
Whatever.. Jennifer Anniston would have done it. Everyone says she's really nice to her fans.
When my cousin was here in like '98, she got shut down by both Tony Danza and Paul Reiser (sp?) at one dinner. Paul Reiser? Reisner?'s dinner companion THREW Paul's toothpick wrapper at her and said, "Here, you can show this to your friends". And she didn't approach either of them until they were getting up to leave. Tony DANZA, people. He's like, C-List at best. And Paul Reiser. He was in ONE TV show. AND we blew lik $200 I couldn't afford on dinner because we were going celebrity hunting in Malibu (The 'Bu). I fucking hate hoity toity shit-list celebrities. They can suck it. And so can Rita Rudner, whoever the hell she is.
If you want anonymity, move to Utah or something where people are polite.
See honey, I disagree. I could understand if I approached her in a rude manner. If I was like, "Yo Rita, come over here and pose, ho!" But that's not what happened. I complimented her.. aplogized for disturbing her (her and her lunch companion were entirely silent throughout the meal, mind you).. name dropped some show she played like 100 years ago! I see this as comparable to giving a non-celebrity a compliment on their outfit and then wanting to know where they got it. Give a little love, get a little love.
Yes, you're *technically* interrupting their lunch, but people do that kind of stuff all the time to one another for positive reasons.
No, she didn't have to say yes. But it would have been nice of her to do so. So if she's not into maintaining good will with her fans, then she is basically screwing herself.
Maybe you have a point with Paul Riser, Sweet Coalminer. Maybe at some point in their careers celebrities can stop trying to create a fan base since they know their star has pretty much fallen for good.
Besides, I would have regretted not asking more than I regret asking.
I'm actually really nice when people are nice about it. You know I talk to old ladies all day and tell everyone who asks where I get my clothes. This issue here is not whether she's human or whether she has to do anything. The issue is whether she was rude for shutting me down. I think she was, and I'm the one buying tickets to her show, so maybe she should take that into account.
It could be argued that I was the rude one for approaching her in the first place, but from my perspective, it's not an unusual request. If she wants to have a chip on her shoulder and shut people down, even when they're complimenting her, that's her choice.
I'm with Brian on this one. I don't think it matters how you approach someone. If a person on the street asks me for money, and I simplly don't want to give, I will say so regardless of whether their approach is rude of kind. Afterall, I'm doing them a favor by giving. I dictate the terms of the relationship. Celebs are in a similar boat for me. They don't owe their fans anything more than what they already give in terms of their acting, jokes, etc. Autographs and pictures are favors for their fans, something we, and not they, benefit from. What does it matter to Rita Rudner if you don't see her show ever again? There will still be plenty of other opportunities to please many more fans not during her lunch.
Maybe the 100 foot billboards of Rita doing the splits on the side of New York New York are the impetus behind her caustic reply. I'd be irritable too if I had to look at huge photos of myself and hear looped promo's of my voice everytime I went to work.
I have a feeling that the C-level celebrities like Rudner, Danza, and Reiser, probably have less patience for fans than A-level celebrites.
I imagine they encounter people who view their celebrity status in a kind of jokey way, whereas A-level celebrites are almost deified. I imagine Danza gets made fun of a lot. "Who's the boss now, Danza," could get really old.
That said, she has a lot to learn about PR.
We all have bad days.
Being on the other side of the height conversation - and being well recognized on campus for my social work...
I know that I've been exasperated a couple of times. While nobody has ever asked for my picture (thank god!), there are days when I just don't want to talk about Queer identity or be reminded that I'm the height of the average 11 year old.
Still, being a well known community activist makes me a commodity to those on campus who want to interrupt me whenever they have personal needs that they feel must be addressed "right now" (whether I feel that way or not). So generally I am accommodating to what they want, even if I am interrupted on my very short 10 minute lunch between classes.
Rudner, a C-list celebrity, is infinitely more recognizable. While I just have to get off campus (albeit still weathering the "Did you know how short you are?" comments), she probably has to travel to Ethiopia before she regains her anomynity. I'd get exasperated too, as Bri-Bri said. That being said, Clau as a point too, because getting shut down by a celebrity who makes a living out of her recognizablity, should nurture a bit of fan worship in order to sow the good nature of those fans later.
Statistically, I guess to her it doesn't matter. She probably comes into contact with less than 5% of those who are a potential fan anyway, and any loss revenue of pissing them off won't noticably impact her pocketbook.
Hmm.... possible future career possibility when I get old and bitter
I may be just one digruntled fan, but I talk a lotta crap, and my tale of Rita being less than giving with her celebrity persona has apparently reached as far as San Antonio. So yeah, like I said, you can choose not to give, but there are consequences.. DOWN WITH RITA!! DOWN WITH DANZA!! DOWN WITH REISER!
I have a couple of points to make here:
1. Maybe she didn't want her picture taken because she was afraid it would take her soul.
2. Claudia...how did you know that the only reason that we take pictures with you is because your are a freak.
3. Maybe pointing out that you saw her is a show 100 years ago, when you were a kid and she was a grown woman, only made here realized that she is old, at the end or here career and nearing an impending death by OD. And she did not want you getting a picture of her crying into her salad (which she has to eat since she can not afford to be an old and fat C-lister).
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