Leave it to Leonor #119

This week, I'm thinking about celebrity encounters. Jezebel did a round up of celebrity encounters and that, combined with the comments, was highly amusing, so here are some of my best encounters. All embarrassing because that's just who I am. I am not counting photo shoots or plain ol' sightings such as seeing Julianne Moore walking down the street more times than I can count, three Gossip Girl cast members on the same flight as me, Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal together in DUMBO, Tyra Banks at the Times building, Harrison Ford at my current office, Heidi Klum at a Project Runway event, Liev Schrieber at Shake Shack, Samuel L. Jackson at the movies, etc. I live in New York City, so I see a lot of people, but without actual interaction, those don't really hold a candle to the ones I share below. Please, enjoy my humiliation. . .

It was the mid-90's and I was doing the AIDS Walk with my aunts and other family friends. I was obsessed with Reality Bites as many girls my age were at that time. I was wearing an ENORMOUS white t-shirt with a big red ribbon drawn on it and a baseball cap with the Tasmanian Devil on it  (my god, the shame). I don't remember at one point in the day this happened, but suddenly, there he was, at the peak of his hotness, Ethan Hawke. I can't be sure who encouraged me to ask for a picture, but I did and my god, he scowled. I am pretty sure he rolled his eyes. He did not smile, but I certainly did. BIG HUGE cheesy smile next to a sullen, dirty, grunge-y Ethan Hawke. The picture lives on the wall at the compound because OF COURSE IT DOES. 

In 2007, I was at The Whitney for a Taryn Simon opening. I wandered into a fairly empty room and was looking at the art when I tripped. Over what? My own two feet, but it was really bad, I was tumbling towards the wall and grabbed the closest arm. That arm happened to belong to Chris Martin. The artist, Taryn Simon is married to Jake Paltrow, brother of Gwyneth, who was then married to Chris Martin. He looked up shocked, I looked at him, stunned and grateful and then immediately panicked. My hand was still on his surprisingly muscular arm (who knew??). I felt my entire face go red, I mumbled a thank you and raced out, but not before catching a glimpse of Gwyneth, whose back, which had cupping marks, made me do a double take. 

From 2006 to mid-2009, I lived in a high rise in Fort Greene. Sometime during 2008 the building was abuzz because Lance Reddick was subletting an apartment. Everyone was freaking out because it was Fort Greene gentrifiers plus an actor from The Wire. People talked about running into him in the lobby, in the elevator, at the nearby stores, but I still hadn't seen him. I was going on and on about not seeing him while walking to the nearest grocery store and as I walked in, he was there. Instead of acting like a normal person, I said, as though I knew him, "Oh! I was just talking about you!" He looked at me, very confused as I tried to explain, but it was hopeless. A few weeks later, I ran into him in the lobby and we rode the elevator up together and at some point, I offered to loan him my DVDs of The Wire because he said he didn't have any. I am just a mess. 

And finally, Joshua Jackson. Sweet, sweet Pacey. My love for Joshua Jackson knows few bounds. I was deeply invested in Joey picking Pacey at the end of Dawson's Creek, I got tickets to see him in a play in London (when I lived there), I watched every season of Fringe, I even watched the last season of The Affair. In February 2014, I was going into the Bowery Hotel for a photo shoot and a man in a hat stood back and held the door for me. I walked in and said thank you, he said you're welcome and the voice was so familiar, that I looked up. And there he was, looking me right in the eyes. I totally froze. I may have said thank you again? It was my big chance to have him fall in love with me and I missed it. 

Well, these have been throughly humiliating to relive, so readers, please share your best celebrity encounters with me. The more unexpected and embarrassing, the better! 

​This week in reading. . .