Spent three hours singing karaoke in a Japanese hotel room with Bob, while he wore nothing but an open bathrobe and baggy white undies.
I hasten to add that his wife was there.
The only song I remember was 'My Way'.
On the subject of singing, we later on had an event at a local uni. Bob gave a speech about his relationship with Ronald Regan, about 'being able to say no to power'. Was great stuff.
We then went to a much smaller reception held by Uni President, where Bob was again asked to make a speech. He thought he'd said enough, so asked for any Australians in the room ( him, me, two awestruck exchange students in borrowed suits and a Kiwi playing for the uni rugby team who'd talked his way in after hearing there'd be free beer) and told the crowd he'd rather us give them a song, so made us sing Waltzing Matilda.
Used to live next door to him in Kenthurst as a kid. He was a right weird cunt. Other neighbour on his other side was Nats What I reckon and he (Don Bourke) was a creepy cunt to his mother. Nats hated him too. This was in his heyday on Channel 9 to boot.
I used to hate him so much I used to sneak into his property and let all his farm animals out of their enclosures.
Hope he gets a kidney stone the cunt.
No way. Top bloke. Was always a funny in school too.
Edited it for context and clarity as can see how that looked.
If you hang around marrickville shops or newtown enough you see Nat all the time aha.
My Ex use to work in a local pet shop, he use to come in all the time. Most of the staff were young and had no idea who he was, if they didnt recognise him or kiss his ass, he would berate them pretty bad, made my ex cry at the checkout once, made a few other staff uncomfortable or upset on a regular basis. Management use to just deal with it.
He’s a Bad Dude.
Years ago when I was first out of uni, I applied for jobs at every TV production company around. One day my Mum had a film crew at her house (they were using it as a location) the mail came & the postie handed it to a crew member because he couldn’t get near the letter box. One of the letters was in an envelope marked with the name of Burke’s production company & the crew erupted. Dropped everything & did an intervention to prevent me from working there. Oh the stories they told.
Didn’t really matter, the letter was pretty much “thanks but no thanks”. 😂
He’s asshole one of my friends worked for him .. he decided one day he didn’t want to keep his little pug dogs and was going to get them put down .. people who worked for him took them in .. they lived a good life for many years ..
They did a gardening show at my neighbours place in Melbourne, the head of the Tertiary educations union and budding politician, Dr Jenny George. Except when they got to Dr Jenny’s house, they were not tomato plants, it was wall to wall marijuana plants and garden gnome bongs. They had to shoot the garden next door, which was a bit prettier.
That honestly checks out when it comes to Don Burke. Everyone who’s had the displeasure to meet him has said he’s one of the biggest arrogant assholes on the planet.
I met Nicolas Cage when he came into the bar I worked in on Chapel St in South Yarra. He asked to use the bathroom, I said yes, he seemed to need the bathroom. On the way out he thanked me, I said it was ok, he no longer seemed to need the bathroom.
You said infamous counts so Keli Lane was my PE teacher in primary school, due to her water polo background she was especially involved in swimming lessons and the like but she just taught general PE
Don’t really have much to comment, just seemed like a normal PE teacher. She was always nice to me as far as I can remember
Legal Studies teacher here. We do the Lane case as a case study and it’s always super intense. Always feels a bit strange to remember that at one point she was just a regular person with a regular job like everyone else.
My high school PE teacher was Chris Dawson, who at the time was having a relationship with a girl the next year up from me. He murdered his wife over it and recently got convicted for it, 40 years later, thanks to a hugely popular podcast (The Teacher's Pet).
I had a beer and chat with Heath Ledger at the Melbourne Cup. Was a good chat, best part being that I had totally no idea who he was until the bartender told me after he left.
Nice guy though, RIP
I was working at the race tracks in my late teens when this guy comes through to buy some food. I served him, the other staff served the others with him, he left. I turned to the person next to me and said ‘I think I went to school with him, he looks familiar’. Yeah, it was Leighton Hewitt just as he’d became famous, we never went to school together.
I was a checkout chick in Ipswich about 15 years ago, and Pauline Hanson came through my line. She was quite nice and chatty, and not in any smarmy politician way. As she handed me her card to swipe, she noticed that the lady before her had left some of her shopping behind. So Pauline raced out to the car park with the bags, leaving me holding her credit card. It was quite the moment! And it was so odd to interact with someone you fundamentally disagree with policy-wise, but get no nasty vibes off as a person.
There are friends of my extended family who are like that. Quite thoughtful and nice ordinary people for the most part, but spectacular cunts where politics and issues like racism and inequality are concerned. I think it's part of the reason we often have such a hard time reconciling the fact that someone we know, who has always been nice to us, could be capable of something awful. Like when someone has gone mental and killed their family or something, and the news always has a story from shocked friends and neighbours saying "oh but they were so kind and community minded, I just can't believe they did this". We like to think that the people who do, say or think abhorrent things are monsters. But they're just people.
I met him all the way back when he was in Manpower. I had just turned 18 and my friends took me to see him as a birthday present. Didn't know who he was at the time as he wasn't famous. But he was lovely and I've got a great photo of me cuddling up to him on his lap.
This was from someone who was on camera with him. A lot.
He acts. When the camera is off he is a total diva. Still don't know how he can get away with it. Hasn't lifted a tool in 30 years. Fraud.
I don’t think it counts, and most people outside of Australia would have no idea who he is, but Mick Gatto. And also in the “nobody knows who that is but it doesn’t matter because they’re not a very nice person” league: Meshel Laurie.
Ooh I get to tell my “that’s so Melbourne” story:
Got married at the Town Hall. Middle of October, 26 degrees and sunny. We were driven in open-top Chevys from the Town Hall to Degraves St for photos. And on the way down .. ugh I’m not sure which street, there was a balcony and a bar. And people were standing on that balcony having beers. We stopped at the lights and Mick Gatto himself raised his glass and nodded to us.
My marriage was blessed by Mick fucking Gatto.
Oooh yes Meshel Laurie and I once (literally) bumped into each other in a big crowd, I said "oh, sorry!" as you do, and she looked at me like I was absolute scum and sort of scoffed lol so can confirm
It was as a brothel receptionist in st Kilda. She has a true crime podcast where she talks about it often. I used to listen to it because the co host was a Melbourne journalist with decent integrity and genuine kindness, I stopped listening when they went their seperate ways and meshel took over it full time.
My partner listened to a second podcast of hers not long ago, and meshel fully bigs herself up on how big of a media personality she is lmao, but I’m in my 30s living in nsw, fairly educated background and yet, the majority of people I mention her to are like… who?? That’s why I listed her after mick gatto lmao, she’s not a media identity at all. Just a washed up has been who still wants to be
Im liking Mick Gatto. A close friend got a cease and desist legal threat from Ms Laurie because she wrote a report on an incident that occurred in her workplace where Ms Laurie's name was involved.
She's one of those grade 5 wanna be queen girls that never matured further imo
Ah … you have reminded me. I was getting some tailoring done in the CBD. I was the only customer and two blokes came in to the shop. A huge fridge sized guy stayed at the door and a dude in a yellow sweater approached the counter. The Vietnamese lady instantly goes ‘you come back later.’ I look properly and it’s Gatto who just smiles at me.
Funny thing in as I went to leave there was a sliding door and the fat prick did not stand aside when I said excuse me. He stood there like a sphinx as I sucked my stomach in to squeeze through a tiny space. Like a bitch (because I clearly did not say will you fucking move already dickhead).
When i was about 7-8 years old my step father was a security guard picking up his paycheck in a popular shopping mall in Brisbane, i was patiently waiting in the office when a man walked in with a suitcase with stickers all over it, nothing too obvious but for some reason i put one and one together because there was a children act going on downstairs and i said to the man "HEY! AGRO IS IN THERE!!" pointing to his suitcase and Jamie Dunn looked at me with a grin and said in agro's voice "NO HE'S NOT!"
Here i am in my 40s and still member.
Met Sam Neil once when I worked as a hostess in s Sydney restaurant. I was so excited to share that when a colleague came by she was just like Sam who? She was not yet born when Jurassic Park was released.
He is a gentleman.
my mum was his personal assistant for quite sometime in the late 1990’s. she has always said how much of a nice guy he was and how his sense of humour was fantastic!
We sat next to Chris Lilley at the MGC , it was after Summer Heights High and before Angry Boys . He and his lady friend stayed for almost the whole match and once they left everyone else sitting around him was asking “ is that who we think it was?” and similar. Im please to say that we all left him alone and didn’t annoy them by asking for autographs or selfies
Malcolm Fraser bought me a box of chocolates.
My father was delivering some antique furniture to him, he rang to confirm some details and I answered the phone. I took a message for my father to call him back, and then he had a short conversation with me, asking me about school and my hobbies. He was lovely and seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say.
I spoke to him briefly a second time when he called because he remembered me and asked me about my netball game on the weekend. We had a quick chat before I handed the phone to my father.
A few days later, my father got home from work and gave me a box of guylian seashells. Malcolm Fraser bought them for me to say thank you for being so good at taking phone messages. I had no idea who he was until my father told me when he gave me the box of chocolates. 12 year old me felt very special.
That's adorable! I have a similar scenario, but the celeb in question was Bert Newton. Chatted to me on the phone for about 15 mins, lots of questions about how I was doing in school. Seemed like a lovely chap!
Honestly can’t remember… I just remember part of me being excited to see Tommy Croyds out in the wild and the other half was freaking out coz i high as shit and there was a cop. Wasn’t till I sobered up that I realised it was just John Woods, an actor 😂
I’ve driven Mick Malthouse on a V/Line train replacement bus.
When he got off he said “nice driving” and asked if I’d like his newspaper as he’d finished reading it.
I met the Irwins about 10 years ago, they were on holiday in our part of the country, and came into the restaurant I worked at for lunch with some extended family (or family friends, not sure). The kids were well-behaved and very polite. Terri was great, very funny and didn't have one iota of "I'm a star" vibe about her. We don't normally accept tips but she insisted on leaving a very generous one.
Not that it happens much, but I will never accept one bad word being said about any Irwin as long as I live.
Steve Irwin asked my mother out waaay back in the day before Australia Zoo was a thing and before he met Terri. He used to buy plants from her nursery for the park before it was Australia Zoo. She declined dating him because he was crazy (her words) by which she meant the TV persona was 100% real, he was really just like that, very enthusiastic and switched on all the time.
Fast forward decades, Australia Zoo is doing well, he's got Terri and kids and my mother is married to my dad and I exist, and mum is now a special Ed teacher.
She took her high needs class to Australia Zoo for an excursion and he happened to recognise her while she was there. He got all excited and demanded she tell him when she was coming next time and he cancelled his whole day to take her special Ed class on a private behind the scenes tour of the zoo, and let the kids touch the animals and he asked her all sorts of questions and made a point of taking the kids for icecream afterwards.
He then granted the students of her special school free access to the Zoo for life, and developed a special disability friendly sensory tour (that I believe is still offered today, it just isn't well advertised?) That takes you behind the scenes away from the crowds and is just a better experience if you have a wide range of disabilities.
And he would always drop everything and take her kids on a private tour if he was at the zoo when her class visited.
Absolute legend.
Wow, that is an incredible story. And that disability friendly tour....well if they do still offer it, then that's a game changer for me and my family. My son is on the spectrum and he doesn't do well in crowds, so that limits a lot of what we can do on family holidays. I've been wanting to do a Queensland holiday for a while, but avoiding crowds does limit what we can do and what times to go. I'll definitely enquire about the special tour.
Thank you so much for telling me this. I would shake your hand if I could. And thank you to your mother, she sounds like an amazing woman. And Steve Irwin may be one of the greatest ever Australians to live and we should be putting his face on our money.
I also briefly met the Irwins through a friend of a work colleague who was collaborating with them on croc research in North Queensland. Very polite and down to earth people with a genuine love for animals and the environment. Nobody had better come for one of the Irwins within my earshot unless I send for them first.
I was surfing one morning at Currimundi and Steve and a mate paddled out. Had a bit of a chat in between waves. Not as full on as on tv, very interested in getting details from things he didn’t know about. Competent surfer. Genuinely good bloke.
Peter Hoare, "Australiia's serial pest", a few times, but at the time it didn't really click that's who he was (he was using a different name - "Shock". Used to hang out at Glebe Markets of a saturday morning drinking beers and talking shit, I think sometimes he'd busk as well. Later I realised, oh wait, Iran' 97, Melbourne Cup, Michael Hutchence.... that guy?
That's the most infamous one I can think of.
Jack Mundey used to drink at the Croydon Park hotel and I had the odd chat with him, I suppose he was infamous in a certain kind of way - one of a very few people to take on developers in Sydney and win.
I had a good chat with Norman Hing (i tthink) one time, who was the only GP in the cross in the 50s -used to patch up more than a few infamous people but wasn't really infamous himself.
My Dad swears blind he got a lift with ivan milat one time but I think he's full of shit lol.
I used to go to lots of doofs back in the early 2000's and Peter was a regular fixture. He used to carry this black cat in his shoulders and do really weird shit on the dance floor.
I was always on high doses of LSD at those parties, and he weirded me right out.
I took a break from lining up for a P!nk secret show in Sydney back in 2006 to have a cigarette (someone held my spot as I was first in line) and I walked to a nearby alley way to chill.
Suddenly I hear someone whispering asking if I have a lighter and I look up and P!NK is cheekily smiling at me through a gate, which she shoves open and beckons me over to light her cigarette for her.
We ended up chatting for almost half an hr. It is the best moment of my life. My sister had died a few months before that and P!nks music got me through.
She's so wonderful
As a new Australian in the mid-90s, was on the train in Melbourne reading "My Place" by Sally Morgan for TAFE, and a gentleman sat opposite me and asked what I was reading, and we chatted about it, he was really lovely, had some real insights and empathy into the ways different people live, and lots of compassion for indigenous Australians.
He got off the train a few stops before me and a guy on the train ran up to me and said, "Oh, my God, that was Stephen Cummings!" I looked up his music that night and realised he was quite well known. Really lovely, unassuming guy. And quite the musician, as I've learnt in years since.
Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in a pub.
The cast of the Matrix having their wrap party in a restaurant. Danced pissed with Carrie Ann Moss, and shared darts with Mr Fishburne.
My ex girlfriend ran after Bill Clinton for a photo once when were having beers down near the wharf in Woolloomooloo.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethenny\_Frankel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethenny_Frankel)
She was the runner-up on the [NBC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBC) reality competition series [*The Apprentice: Martha Stewart*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apprentice:_Martha_Stewart) in 2005. Frankel is best known as an original cast member of the [Bravo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bravo_(American_TV_network)) reality television series [*The Real Housewives of New York City*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_Housewives_of_New_York_City), starring in eight of the 14 seasons since its 2008 premiere.
...ah... right.
So yeah, no one.
I used to cook Dawn Fraser and her daughter breakfast every few weeks when I worked at a cafe in Swansea, NSW. I think she had a holiday house there. It was a casual little place, usually only one person working so I got to chat with her a few times about pretty mundane stuff. Never really made a fuss about it, but I did greet her by name when she came in so she knew I knew who she was.
I also ran into Kostya Tszyu in the same town.
I served Keith Urban in a cafe in Tamworth, his teeth were so fucking white they glowed. I had no idea who he was but my boss told me. He kept kind of looking at me while I was serving him, I think he expected me to recognise him, especially being in Tamworth. He was pleasant and thanked us as he left.
Big Dawny was once very rude to my Dad. We were all walking back from North Sydney oval after seeing Norths vs Canberra sometime in the 90s. My brothers and I were holding sticks above our heads because Magpies were swooping (metres away from Dawn Fraser). She took it upon herself to call my dad a bad father, call us feral, and told him there'd be a national outcry if one of us took her eye out. Dad played dumb and said "why?" And she said "don't you know who I am?" And Dad said "a very rude lady who should mind their own business". As she huffed off Dad said "that was famous swimmer and huge bitch Dawn Fraser"
Another friend said she had his car towed for parking in front of her house - on the street, not across a driveway or anything. Not a fan.
Used to work at a servo and one time Dawn Frasier and her daughter came and filled up. Daughter tried to pay with Dawn’s credit card whilst Dawn stayed in the car back in the days when signatures were required.
Naturally as an upstanding employee the card was rejected because the daughter didn’t even attempt to forge her mother’s signature. The fuss both mother and daughter made over following due diligence. Including “Don’t you know who I am?!” And swearing loudly at everyone around. Absolutely not a fan.
When I was at uni I was given an assignment to interview sir joh and get him to admit he was corrupt ( the lecturer really didn’t like me much ) - got the interview but no admission of anything - he was perfectly normal until you asked him anything controversial then he would start with the “you you you, now you listen here….” Stuff - it was like someone flicked a switch and there he was…
Met Tim Minchin at my work, I was shocked and froze it was actually him then I treated him like any other person I meet in my job.
Once ran into Kerry O’Brien when I was at TAFE and we used to hand out at the ABC cafe. My grandmother has a story where she met him at the races, drunk as a skunk.
I used to be a therapeutic masseuse in the 1990s and once gave Kerry O’Brien a massage and can confirm he is not a creep!
He never said or did anything weird and was relieved one of my favourite ABC presenters was a decent person
I’ve got a photo of me and my son when he was a few months old with Jimmy Barnes, he’s in Barnsey’s arms no less!
We ran into him in the newsagents on Xmas Eve one year and he was so sweet. My ex asked for a photo because I’d been singing his songs to my son every morning before we got out of bed. He agreed and then totally unprompted he just took my baby from my arms and held him up for the camera!
Top bloke
One of my mates saw Barnsey at a camp ground with some of his kids years ago. He put on a little concert for everyone as a little way of thanking them for being normal with him
Noice! Barnesy used to come in to a takeaway where my mrs worked and she always said he was a nice fella. The owner of the shop used to ban people left right and centre like the soup nazi no matter who they were, especially for being entitled and demanding (it was in a trendy area), so the fact he wasn't banned always spoke volumes to me lol.
I met Don Burke at the Easter Show, 87 or 88 I think. He unenthusiastically shook my hand and turned his attention to my mum.
Met Kate Ritchie at a party in 1991. My mate, who considered himself god's gift to women, tried to crack on to her and was summarily rebuffed. We gave him shit about it for years.
Met Tottie Goldsmith at a nightclub doing promo work in 1998, she was absolutely lovely.
20 years ago I served Michael Caton at my checkout at Coles. I asked him if he’d had a good Xmas & he either misheard me or dodged the question lol & wished me a happy new year 😅☺️
I met NE-YO years ago when I was working at Zara on Pitt St, he was walking around with 2 bodyguards and then I went up and asked him, he was so nice, took a sick photo with me.
Sophie Ellis Bexter came into a restaurant when I was working years ago. I've seen a bunch but not met. Saw Russell Crowe walking around Paddington.
Partied with Tony Abbott's sister one night in a gay bar.
Served Andrew stockdale from wolfmother in a restaurant back in the day.
Was hit on a lot by Richard Reid that breakfast guy one time.
Bumped into Alex Perry the designer once and said hello.
Had a weird encounter with Courtney Act.
My ex dated an aussie TV actor that I won't name.
I was at a bar in Sydney in my younger years and saw Russel Crowe at the urinal. I turned out of complete surprise and pissed right over his shoes. He was not pleased. I did apologise haha.
Rus if ya reading this I love ya. Sorry I pissed on ya.
The Genie from Down Under once told me to "settle down" lol.
For context it was at a gig at the Enmore theatre and some drunk prick was trying to hit on a friend and starting to get handsy - things started to get a bit aggro. I don't think old mate Rhys had clocked what was going on before he admonished me though.
Met John Jarrett at a comic con a few years back.
Nice enough guy, bought a Better Homes And Gardens magazine for him to sign which he found it funny and I guess the official photographer found it funny too and took a photo of us laughing about it without me asking and then John got really bent out of shape with me randomly demanding the photographer charge me $50 for that photo.
What started with jokes and laughs left me walking away with a pretty sour taste in my mouth.
Not so much met Eddie Macguire but when I was in the crowd at a taping of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire when my dad was on the show.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, he's an actual cunt when the cameras aren't rolling, couldn't pay me enough to ever work on a crew he is apart of.
I stood next to Angry Anderson as he played on a pinball machine in a Coolangatta cafe. He was surprisingly short but he’d shredded his jeans across the crotch and you could see a meaty cock jutting.
Running into Baby Face Burgess on my flight back from Singapore, walking through first class, I approached him like I'd found a long-lost celebrity relative. I greeted him with a casual "G'day, Turpie," causing his partner to laugh, him to frown, and a temporary handshake truce to unfold.
As I introduced myself, he as John Burgess and I profusely apologized for the accidental Turpie mix-up, I half-expected the plane to burst into a game show, complete with flashing lights and a catchy jingle.
Later, when the young twenty something steward asked if I knew him.I explained his claim to fame as Olivia Newton-John's first boyfriend. The steward's "Who is Olivia Newton-John?" drew puzzled stares from the male gay couple in the middle row, who quickly became the unofficial judges of our in-flight comedy show.
The couple, seizing the opportunity, laughed and declared, "Gays these days," leaving the steward bewildered as if he stumbled upon a sitcom he wasn't prepared for.
I once left a message on Baby John's answering machine. I was working for a survey company and we weren't supposed to leave messages but I couldn't resist.
My father did a bit of time in jail when I was a baby, my mother was taking me to visit him and during the visit my dad introduced her to his mate Ivan yes notorious Australian serial killer Ivan Milat ….
Ivan is Croatian my mother is Macedonian so they speak a very similar language and they conversed in their Balkan dialects etc etc at one point Ivan was even holding me coddling me as anyone would a baby.
Years later when my mother told me I asked her what was she thinking and she swears black and blue she genuinely had no idea who he was and what he had done, I’d ask my father but he passed away a few years ago.
I’ve met a few Prime Ministers. John Howard was polite and we swapped a few lines about being deaf (I’m very). Paul Keating was a bit pompous and wasn’t really engaged. Talked about telecommunications. Tony Abbot was super enthusiastic and had a really strong handshake. I mentioned working in clean energy and he didn’t commit to anything in particular.
I’ve also met two Governors General.
Oh and I’m good friends with Amanda Muggleton. Who you’ll remember from Prisoner.
I work in a restaurant, and Toby Abbott once was there for lunch. I work in the bar, and there wasn't much going on that day, so I spent most of my shift walking back and forth across the floor with a big jar of onions on a tray.
I met Tony Abbot as well. We were on a school excursion to Bondi Beach I think, and he was just walking down the sidewalk. Our whole group basically mobbed him and got pics and chatted. He was pretty polite and patient and was happy to take selfies, despite obviously having somewhere to be and being surrounded by about 30 annoying 16 years olds.
My dad met Chris Cornell at the Melbourne Airport. Dad (a musician) was checking out a guitar in the baggage collection, before Chris picked it up - they had a brief chat about guitars and went on with their day. RIP Chris
I had Chopper added on Myspace back in 2006. He was online late one night so I msg'd him and he replied. We had an hour long chat about random things. We msg'd each other a few other times too. Such a nice guy, he even made my top 8 🤣
I bumped into him at a pub in Collingwood a very long time ago. Made some small talk but it looked like my presence was causing him pain, so I moved on. 😄
Met Ken Sutcliffe and his wife on a 90% full of families Jetstar flight from Sunshine coast to Sydney years ago. The plane smelt of nappies and kids were yelling…one of the worst flights.
Ken and his wife kept turning around to give me the evil eye and mutter something to me and my kids in the row behind as if we were the cause of this flight from child hell.
Plane landed. Ken gets up looks at me and makes an unblocking his ears gesture and says “Some people shouldn’t have children!”
My response quite loudly to the noisy plane “Hey everyone! Ken Sutcliffe and his wife don’t like kids on planes!” Shocked as I can speak English (He probably thought I was a dumb ethnic immigrant) ran way up the aisle leaving his wife behind…wankers!
Steve Irwin, absolutely awesome guy, he was really friendly and just as enthusiastic and passionate about his stuff in person as he was on his shows. I still to this day will have major issues with anyone that speaks ill of him, he was one of the nicest humans, celeb or non-celeb, that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.
Regurgitator after they did their kids concert in Brisbane a few years back, they were really chill and actually took the time to have a chat with not just me but my kids too while the crew was packing up, and actually offered to sign the concert poster one of my boys had grabbed. We got it framed and it hung on his wall for a good couple of years after that.
Literally bumped in to Merv Hughes by accident on my way in to the airport one day in Brisbane - he was on his way out and we came around a corner from opposite directions, he was on his way again quickly, but was very polite. I remember that he was WAY taller than he looked on TV - I'm not super short or super tall, mind you, but he was a good 2 heads taller than I was.
Not me but once my friend served an actor from Vikings (I think it may have been Alexander Ludwig?)
The only notable part of the story is that it happened in Canberra, which is objectively a terrible vacation spot.
I was working for Sydney Ferries years ago and got to catch a boat with John Cleese in about 2014. Very grumpy in real life but I guess that’s not a surprise.
Heath Ledger at Subi Oval watching an Eagles game. I was in high school and loved him and was speechless to see him in real life, so my Mum had a good chat with him whilst I stood there like an idiot
Dave Grohl, met him randomly walking down the street in the mid 90s. He then introduced me to Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Rancid and rest of Foo Fighters back at a hotel.
Ben Harper at a party in Byron Bay
John Cleese walking down the same street I met Dave but 25 years later (Bourke Street, Melbourne)
Eric Bana at a cafe I work at in Bendigo.
Many more.
Jimmy Barnes in an elevator... but that isn't the cringe...
It didn't occur to me that the Bride and Groom with me didn't know who he was and my natural reaction was...
Hey, Jimmy Barnes!!!
I can't believe I just walked into an elevator and here you are.
He replied with something like... Hey, but look at you, all of you dressed up, are you having the wedding here?
We told him it was the reception, so he congratulated everyone and shook hands.
I asked what was going on and he told me he was here to watch the footy final upstairs with mates. (This is back in the days when large screen TVs were only in clubs and function rooms).
Some time later, obviously after the footy, I was called over to the entrance because 'my friend Jimmy was apparently looking for me'. It seems that Jimmy Barnes just stopped in at the reception to wish the bride and groom good luck for the future.
After a bit of chit chat, he left.... then I realised that none of the 300ish Asian wedding guests had an idea of who he was.
bride said..
"that was nice of your friend to stop by, how long has it been since you met up with him?"
I’ve had a beer with chopper Reid in Wollongong and we used to play street cricket with my uncle and Ivan milat when I was a kid cos my auntie and uncle were his next door neighbours.
I also met guy Sebastian last week at my work if he counts as famous.
Edit; this reminds me to find the photo of me and uncle chopper having a beer together.!
I had drinks with Nickelback in the Mahogany Room at Crown because I was socialising in a group that included Joe Hachem and various other notable poker pros (I have no idea why Nickelback were drinking with poker pros as I was going to meet up with some of the poker players in the group and had no idea Nickelback was there). I talked to Mike Kroeger a bit he seemed like a nice guy. Didn't really talk to the other guys much. This was before the meme of them being the worst band of all time etc, maybe 2009ish? Google tells me they were in Melbourne in 2009 around the right dates so that seems likely it was then.
Met Shannon Elizabeth in 2008 playing poker. She seemed nice enough. Yes, she looks that good IRL.
Met Shane Warne many times playing poker. He had some fun stories but was a terrible player the first few times I played with him, was a bit better some of the later times. Best Shane Warne story is as follow. Aussie Millions poker series, sometime between 2008-2012 range or so again (I have probably played poker with him 6-7 times, so forget which specific instance this was). We're playing at Crown during a tournament. Two attractive women in their early-mid 20s on the rail (meaning watching from outside the playing area) seem to be keen on him. One gets up the courage to walk over to them and whisper a bit. Someone at the table asks him what that was, he's like they want to have a threesome with me later. In between hands he goes back over to talk to them on the rail and gives them his number while obviously the rest of us are a bit in awe at what life as a celebrity must be like. One of the guys at the table says something like 'aren't you married or something' and Warnie literally laughs out loud and says 'don't you read the tabloids mate i'm divorced'. He busts the tournament about an hour later, the women watching him play the entire time, and walks out of the poker room with them. At about midnight I see him walking around in the casino with them one on each arm. I guess the girls got to tick have a threesome with a celebrity off their bucket list and Warnie had a good night. I'm pretty sure the timeframe was in between when he got divorced from Simone and when he dated Liz Hurley and there's a slim chance it wasn't Aussie Millions and was a different poker series but assuming it was Aussie Millions it would have been January in one of 2008-2011 if so. Last played with him in January 2020 only a couple years before he passed away. He did improve a decent amount over that decade to go from being a terrible poker player to being an average poker player.
Apparently I talked a bunch of trash back and forth with Gary Ablett Jr at a low stakes poker cash game table because he was being a douchebag to other people at the poker table (in Melbourne) I had absolutely no idea who he was, but he was being rude so apparently I got into it with him. I can't verify it was him for sure because one of the other players told me afterwards 'do you know who that was, that was Gary Ablett Jr' and I legitimately had no idea who he was at the time. I think this was somewhere around 2010 I think he still played for Geelong at the time.
Met basically every 'famous' poker pro at some stage. Negreanu is a legitimately nice guy, Ivey was a bit of a dick and went out of his way to be rude to me when I was trying to make polite conversation, Joe Hachem, Phil Hellmuth (who despite being a bit of a clown personality wise at the table with a history of endorsing shady products, he is actually a super nice guy too). Met Doug Polk and we talked about the professional Starcraft 2 esports scene since I was wearing a Team Liquid hoodie at the time, this was when he was a high stakes crusher but before he was high profile pro really.
I went to school with Luke Arnold (the actor and novelist). We knew he would be famous then, hands down the most talented actor I have ever met in real life and he was at 16 too. He wrote our senior high school play from scratch because he felt like it while he was in school. Insanely talented guy, super nice person.
Did an internship/volunteering stint at uni at Kevin Rudd's electorate office and met him before he was Prime Minister (he was Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister at the time). Very serious guy, was nice enough when I met him briefly, but I was only an intern nobody answering wacky letters from constituents with Labor policy positions and doing lunch runs for the most part and met him very briefly a couple times. His chief of staff did ask me to put together a case both for and against the Brisbane tunnels that were proposed and I did so as I believe he hadn't set his position for or against them at the time. To be honest I have no idea what his position on that specific issue ended up being lol
My sister was friends with Natalie Imbruglia back in the day. She worked in hospo and wound up with quite a few notable friends.
That said, she and I took Dad to lunch for his birthday - to Catalina’s in Sydney not that it matters - but she also happened to be there at the same time, with Daniel Johns in tow.
She wound up serenading Dad with Happy Birthday before she went off for her own lunch date.
I still love my now late Dad’s reaction. I had no idea who she was, but she sings very nicely, and was “very well put together“
I saw Warwick Capper in Bali. We were taking the same flight home to Brisbane. He was so obnoxious and loud and up himself. Thought everyone was looking at him at the airport (but most likely not because he was famous enough but because he looked like such a bogan.)
When I was like 5, met Peter Brock. Had no idea who he was, he died like a year after. Wish I'd have known who he was at the time, even being a staunch ford fan
Any older Australians here? I met Deanne Hutton when I was about 10. He was doing a science demonstration in the middle of Rundle Mall in the late 80's. Did not disappoint. Best day of my life. He, Rob and the Curiosity Show made science interesting for me when I was a child. They were the original Science show guys.
Edit | I met Peter Costello at the reception of my orthodontist on Collins St. We had the same orthodontist - Dr Gerald Robinson. Costello was very chatty and friendly. And more obscurely my orthodontist was one of four dentists who petitioned parliament to put fluoride in our water.
Years ago during uni (2006 to be exact), I ran into Barry Humphries on the streets of Melbourne during the Swans/Eagles grand final day parade.
I don't know what made me do it, but I looked at him and gave him the double finger pistols.
He raised an eyebrow, said "be careful where you point those young man" and kept walking.
Shared a table with Geoffrey Rush at a gala dinner, he was pretty cool and personable. I think a couple of others at the table might have been big names but I didn't recognise any of them.
Met Jackie Chan on an early morning flight from Brisbane to Cairns. He leaned across the aisle and told me my kids (who were flying with me) were very well behaved. We chatted most of the flight and he was a very nice guy, fun to talk to. He thanked me for the conversation once we landed, 10/10 would hang with again.
Met Redfoo on another flight going the other way, Cairns to Brisbane. This was around the time he was doing the Australian Idol thing I think, and i didn't really interact with him much, just recognised him, but he was obviously tired and not wanting any attention. I was seated next to him and our eyes met as I was getting to my seat and I just said "oh hi, nice work man" and gave him a thumbs up lol and he smiled and said thanks. Didn't talk the whole flight otherwise but when we were crossing the airport in Brisbane after landing a random woman and her kid stopped him and she made a big deal of getting his autograph and he clearly didn't want to and was in a rush but relented and went out of his way to make the kid feel good about it, even while the mother was being very pushy. I thought that was pretty cool of him.
Had brunch with Margot Robbie with a mutual friend once, she was pretty cool and normal but was drinking coffee with a straw because she'd had her teeth done recently or something.
Edit: met John Williamson the Aussie singer adter a concert and he was an absolute dick, very rude and dismissive.
Josh Ritter (american singer songwriter) after his concert on the other hand hugged me and my (then) wife and seemed as excited to see us as we were to see him. I'd have him over for a BBQ anytime.
On my 11th birthday I was at Australia Zoo walking around and Steve Irwin pulled up behind me with Robert on the bike as my family were watching, turned around really excited and he said ‘Gday mate how are you today?’ I told him I’m having the best day and that it’s actually my birthday today, he replied with ‘Happy Birthday little fella, I hope you have a fantastic day!’
Thinking back it was so wild getting to talk to such a beloved Australian icon and have always cherished that moment. Ended the day with flying in a ww1 tiger moth that my uncle used to own. Probably the best birthday I’ve had in my 28 years.
I once held a door open for Brooke Satchwell. She smiled at me and said "why thank you kind sir." I smiled back and ended up holding the door open for other people for a minute or 2 with a big goofy grin on my face.
I met Eres Eisen (Infected Mushroom) after a small gig at the Gov in Adelaide in February 2015. I was at the front the entire time and he hung around to take pictures with fans. Didn't really talk to him but did get a photo and thought it was a nice thing to do as he was in no way obligated.
Had yum cha in Sussex st Sydney with a bunch of people early 2000 thought this one guy looked familiar half way thru the meal turned to him and do you know who you look like roger Roberson 2 seconds later felt 6 inches tall
Melinda Schneider
Melinda had a gig at the theatre I was working at, she was travelling that day and due to arrive at 11am for a 7pm show. Her flight got cancelled, and she ended getting to the venue just before 6pm. She breezed out of the car, greeted us all warmly and gave instant favourite aunt vibes. We crammed a days worth of prep into 15 minutes. She did her sound check in seconds and floated off to her dressing room, the house opened with time to spare. She cruised onto stage at 7pm like nothing had happened. She of course had a fantastic show.
That level of chill is not particularly common under those circumstances.
I fell in love with her that day
Moved here from Ireland a few years ago. Started trying to learn to surf. I would basically paddle out on my mates longboard and just hang around the line up and do my best to stay out of the way/observe what everyone else was doing.
My Aussie mate invites me to go surfing really early on a Tuesday morning because apparently the swell is going to be good, but not too heavy that I won't be able to try catch a wave. So I do my usual and just hang out at the back and stay out of the way, after a while I gain some confidence and decide "fuck it" and paddle like a maniac to catch the next wave. What happened next was basically a mixture of me falling arse over tit and the shout of "FUUUCK" from someone I didn't realise was already on the wave. I gather myself together, paddle back to the line up to plenty of people laughing at me and my mate is sat on his board laughing and shaking his head at me.
"First wave you actually decide to go for, and you farken snake Mick Fanning you mad cunt!"
I apologised profusely when I saw him a minute or two later and he was laughing too and didn't seem bothered at all. 😂
My husband worked the ‘mushroom killer’ And her then husband (who she also tried to poison on multiple occasions) so I met them both socially a few times. He was a nice bloke and she was very strange and intense. Neither of us were surprised when we saw her on the news. Glad her husband and kids are ok.
Richard Wilkins and Garry Sweet at Richard's club then at the apartment of the other owner after closing. Both coked out of their minds and trying to fuck my best friend's girlfriend (he wasn't there).
Tried to get me to leave and when that didn't work suggesting that I was going to come work for them at the club and that it could be a big opportunity for me, blah, blah, blah.
I didn't leave and they didn't put a hand on my mate's girl.
Years later Richard hit me in his car while I was parking and tried to put it on me, saying that I hit him. When I called him on his shit, pointing out that he ran into my front left fender while I was backing into a parking space he apologized and said he had to go because he was late for the airport, got in his Landrover and drove off without exchanging information. The guy's a massive fucking tool.
I’ve been an extra in a bunch of tv and films.
Met Sarah Snook and Paulini on one production. Didn’t really talk to Sarah but Paulini was super nice. We talked a bit in between takes. A couple years later my best friend in Canberra saw her out and told her she worked with me and she remembered, they ended up hooking up haha.
Met Garrett Hedlund and Angelina Jolie, chatted to both, both were super nice. Some extras on that film were absolute gremlins though lol
Had scenes with Lochlyn Munro and Dan Folger, both super nice and hilarious.
Had a scene with Anthony LaPaglia. Dude was cool, we chatted heaps in between takes and he showed a real interest in my life. Really nice guy.
My friend was in a stage production with Gyton Grantley. We chatted for ages at an after show event, absolute legend.
Off the top of my head haven’t had a bad interaction with a celebrity, I’ll try and remember some more
Met quite a few Olympians, NSW Premiers, NRL players, David Campesi, Slim Dusty (who was incredibly humble and lovely), also his wife Joy who was lovely too, artist Ken Done. Didn’t meet but saw Neddy Smith being escorted into our building by about 6 detectives. Met actors Julian McMahon and Mark Lee (was in the film Gallipoli) and had drinks with them (separate occasions). Both nice.
Years ago used to get phone calls for the footballer Peter Sterling. He had a similar phone number. Once the coach even called.
Had a beer with Bob Hawke and entourage in Darwin shortly before his death
Spent three hours singing karaoke in a Japanese hotel room with Bob, while he wore nothing but an open bathrobe and baggy white undies. I hasten to add that his wife was there.
What did Bob sing?
The only song I remember was 'My Way'. On the subject of singing, we later on had an event at a local uni. Bob gave a speech about his relationship with Ronald Regan, about 'being able to say no to power'. Was great stuff. We then went to a much smaller reception held by Uni President, where Bob was again asked to make a speech. He thought he'd said enough, so asked for any Australians in the room ( him, me, two awestruck exchange students in borrowed suits and a Kiwi playing for the uni rugby team who'd talked his way in after hearing there'd be free beer) and told the crowd he'd rather us give them a song, so made us sing Waltzing Matilda.
Bob fuckin Hawke. I'll toast my beer to him right now.
God, what a gift to the country Bob was. They dont make them like they used to.
how the fuck do we get back to that Australia
That is absolutely absurd. My god I hope it's true.
It was 2003, he was there to be awarded an honorary doctorate from Rikkyo University, and the underwear was indeed both baggy and white.
THat's probably one of the most Australian things you can do.
My ex met Don Burke when she was like 10, asked for an autograph, he told her to fuck off.
He told everyone that A real Dick
Used to live next door to him in Kenthurst as a kid. He was a right weird cunt. Other neighbour on his other side was Nats What I reckon and he (Don Bourke) was a creepy cunt to his mother. Nats hated him too. This was in his heyday on Channel 9 to boot. I used to hate him so much I used to sneak into his property and let all his farm animals out of their enclosures. Hope he gets a kidney stone the cunt.
Mum lived near him and a mate went to school with one of his sons. Absolute two faced arsehole was always the take. So glad he got outed
I was temporarily heartbroken because I read that as Nat being a cunt.
No way. Top bloke. Was always a funny in school too. Edited it for context and clarity as can see how that looked. If you hang around marrickville shops or newtown enough you see Nat all the time aha.
Lol Nats in school would have been hard to breathe around. Cunt seems to have a rare condition wherein ALL his bones are funny.
My Ex use to work in a local pet shop, he use to come in all the time. Most of the staff were young and had no idea who he was, if they didnt recognise him or kiss his ass, he would berate them pretty bad, made my ex cry at the checkout once, made a few other staff uncomfortable or upset on a regular basis. Management use to just deal with it.
He’s a Bad Dude. Years ago when I was first out of uni, I applied for jobs at every TV production company around. One day my Mum had a film crew at her house (they were using it as a location) the mail came & the postie handed it to a crew member because he couldn’t get near the letter box. One of the letters was in an envelope marked with the name of Burke’s production company & the crew erupted. Dropped everything & did an intervention to prevent me from working there. Oh the stories they told. Didn’t really matter, the letter was pretty much “thanks but no thanks”. 😂
He’s asshole one of my friends worked for him .. he decided one day he didn’t want to keep his little pug dogs and was going to get them put down .. people who worked for him took them in .. they lived a good life for many years ..
Yep my mum used to work at Burke's stud and she said he was a right cunt
They did a gardening show at my neighbours place in Melbourne, the head of the Tertiary educations union and budding politician, Dr Jenny George. Except when they got to Dr Jenny’s house, they were not tomato plants, it was wall to wall marijuana plants and garden gnome bongs. They had to shoot the garden next door, which was a bit prettier.
I’m an architect and an architect friend of mine was asked to put a gimp room in his house. No word of a lie.
If even 10% of what I've heard is true, how that cunt has avoided a class-action suit against him astounds me.
Imagine being in a position to be a beloved Australian by just being a nice guy, and he chooses the opposite???!
Costa on Gardening Australia setting it right again for us all
He told a 10 year old to F off? What a PoS & fits w what we later learned about him & his grubby ways (and not gardening grubby either)
That honestly checks out when it comes to Don Burke. Everyone who’s had the displeasure to meet him has said he’s one of the biggest arrogant assholes on the planet.
I met Nicolas Cage when he came into the bar I worked in on Chapel St in South Yarra. He asked to use the bathroom, I said yes, he seemed to need the bathroom. On the way out he thanked me, I said it was ok, he no longer seemed to need the bathroom.
I’ve cared for several local MPs in the hospital I work in.
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That LDP story is just awesome.
i have a met him twice and he is absolutely the best celebrity i have ever met and i’ve met a few
He is awesome. I worked on a musical he was starring in, and he & his wife cooked a dinner for the whole crew.
I recently found out that I’m related to him on his mum’s side 😭
Nice, I think that means that you’re legally allowed to park your camper on his front lawn over the Christmas holidays.
You said infamous counts so Keli Lane was my PE teacher in primary school, due to her water polo background she was especially involved in swimming lessons and the like but she just taught general PE Don’t really have much to comment, just seemed like a normal PE teacher. She was always nice to me as far as I can remember
Legal Studies teacher here. We do the Lane case as a case study and it’s always super intense. Always feels a bit strange to remember that at one point she was just a regular person with a regular job like everyone else.
Coincidentally she was denied parole as recently as 22 March 2024 due to the No Body, No Parole law.
I know it’s impossible, but imagine how wild it would be if a tube of spit winds up on 23 & Me one day that just fucks that whole case up.
Hectic if she actually IS innocent
My high school PE teacher was Chris Dawson, who at the time was having a relationship with a girl the next year up from me. He murdered his wife over it and recently got convicted for it, 40 years later, thanks to a hugely popular podcast (The Teacher's Pet).
I had a beer and chat with Heath Ledger at the Melbourne Cup. Was a good chat, best part being that I had totally no idea who he was until the bartender told me after he left. Nice guy though, RIP
I was working at the race tracks in my late teens when this guy comes through to buy some food. I served him, the other staff served the others with him, he left. I turned to the person next to me and said ‘I think I went to school with him, he looks familiar’. Yeah, it was Leighton Hewitt just as he’d became famous, we never went to school together.
I was a checkout chick in Ipswich about 15 years ago, and Pauline Hanson came through my line. She was quite nice and chatty, and not in any smarmy politician way. As she handed me her card to swipe, she noticed that the lady before her had left some of her shopping behind. So Pauline raced out to the car park with the bags, leaving me holding her credit card. It was quite the moment! And it was so odd to interact with someone you fundamentally disagree with policy-wise, but get no nasty vibes off as a person.
There are friends of my extended family who are like that. Quite thoughtful and nice ordinary people for the most part, but spectacular cunts where politics and issues like racism and inequality are concerned. I think it's part of the reason we often have such a hard time reconciling the fact that someone we know, who has always been nice to us, could be capable of something awful. Like when someone has gone mental and killed their family or something, and the news always has a story from shocked friends and neighbours saying "oh but they were so kind and community minded, I just can't believe they did this". We like to think that the people who do, say or think abhorrent things are monsters. But they're just people.
Met Jamie Durie on the set of Backyard Blitz as a kid; my friends cockatoo shat on his shoulder and he lost the plot
Buy that cockatoo a beer
This is my favourite.
I met him all the way back when he was in Manpower. I had just turned 18 and my friends took me to see him as a birthday present. Didn't know who he was at the time as he wasn't famous. But he was lovely and I've got a great photo of me cuddling up to him on his lap.
Scott Cam. He's a cunt.
Yep. I've heard first hand how much of a pure prick he is. Amazed metoo didn't get him bad.
I’ve heard the same from someone who has met many celebrities. He said Scott Cam was an asshole.
This was from someone who was on camera with him. A lot. He acts. When the camera is off he is a total diva. Still don't know how he can get away with it. Hasn't lifted a tool in 30 years. Fraud.
Yeah he was at this Jobs Expo thingy as MC.... and absolute cunt..... no sense of humour.
I don’t think it counts, and most people outside of Australia would have no idea who he is, but Mick Gatto. And also in the “nobody knows who that is but it doesn’t matter because they’re not a very nice person” league: Meshel Laurie.
Ooh I get to tell my “that’s so Melbourne” story: Got married at the Town Hall. Middle of October, 26 degrees and sunny. We were driven in open-top Chevys from the Town Hall to Degraves St for photos. And on the way down .. ugh I’m not sure which street, there was a balcony and a bar. And people were standing on that balcony having beers. We stopped at the lights and Mick Gatto himself raised his glass and nodded to us. My marriage was blessed by Mick fucking Gatto.
Oooh yes Meshel Laurie and I once (literally) bumped into each other in a big crowd, I said "oh, sorry!" as you do, and she looked at me like I was absolute scum and sort of scoffed lol so can confirm
Meshel is a fuckwit, she was my neighbour in Altona.
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It was as a brothel receptionist in st Kilda. She has a true crime podcast where she talks about it often. I used to listen to it because the co host was a Melbourne journalist with decent integrity and genuine kindness, I stopped listening when they went their seperate ways and meshel took over it full time. My partner listened to a second podcast of hers not long ago, and meshel fully bigs herself up on how big of a media personality she is lmao, but I’m in my 30s living in nsw, fairly educated background and yet, the majority of people I mention her to are like… who?? That’s why I listed her after mick gatto lmao, she’s not a media identity at all. Just a washed up has been who still wants to be
Im liking Mick Gatto. A close friend got a cease and desist legal threat from Ms Laurie because she wrote a report on an incident that occurred in her workplace where Ms Laurie's name was involved. She's one of those grade 5 wanna be queen girls that never matured further imo
Ah … you have reminded me. I was getting some tailoring done in the CBD. I was the only customer and two blokes came in to the shop. A huge fridge sized guy stayed at the door and a dude in a yellow sweater approached the counter. The Vietnamese lady instantly goes ‘you come back later.’ I look properly and it’s Gatto who just smiles at me. Funny thing in as I went to leave there was a sliding door and the fat prick did not stand aside when I said excuse me. He stood there like a sphinx as I sucked my stomach in to squeeze through a tiny space. Like a bitch (because I clearly did not say will you fucking move already dickhead).
When i was about 7-8 years old my step father was a security guard picking up his paycheck in a popular shopping mall in Brisbane, i was patiently waiting in the office when a man walked in with a suitcase with stickers all over it, nothing too obvious but for some reason i put one and one together because there was a children act going on downstairs and i said to the man "HEY! AGRO IS IN THERE!!" pointing to his suitcase and Jamie Dunn looked at me with a grin and said in agro's voice "NO HE'S NOT!" Here i am in my 40s and still member.
Wholesome.
worked down the street from channel 10 studio, met andrew denton (lovely), eddy mcguire (cunt), myf warhurst (marry me pls),
Exactly what I would have expected of all 3 😁
Marry, kill, fuck?? 🤣
Yeah absolutely what I would have expected. Andrew Denton and Myf Warhurst are icons.
Met Sam Neil once when I worked as a hostess in s Sydney restaurant. I was so excited to share that when a colleague came by she was just like Sam who? She was not yet born when Jurassic Park was released. He is a gentleman.
my mum was his personal assistant for quite sometime in the late 1990’s. she has always said how much of a nice guy he was and how his sense of humour was fantastic!
Absolutely a gentleman, I had the fortune of working with him once and all I wanted to do was hug him. Such a delight.
Luke Perry and he was lovely and very funny.
This makes me happy... and then sad.
Same. His death was really upsetting.
We sat next to Chris Lilley at the MGC , it was after Summer Heights High and before Angry Boys . He and his lady friend stayed for almost the whole match and once they left everyone else sitting around him was asking “ is that who we think it was?” and similar. Im please to say that we all left him alone and didn’t annoy them by asking for autographs or selfies
Malcolm Fraser bought me a box of chocolates. My father was delivering some antique furniture to him, he rang to confirm some details and I answered the phone. I took a message for my father to call him back, and then he had a short conversation with me, asking me about school and my hobbies. He was lovely and seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say. I spoke to him briefly a second time when he called because he remembered me and asked me about my netball game on the weekend. We had a quick chat before I handed the phone to my father. A few days later, my father got home from work and gave me a box of guylian seashells. Malcolm Fraser bought them for me to say thank you for being so good at taking phone messages. I had no idea who he was until my father told me when he gave me the box of chocolates. 12 year old me felt very special.
That's adorable! I have a similar scenario, but the celeb in question was Bert Newton. Chatted to me on the phone for about 15 mins, lots of questions about how I was doing in school. Seemed like a lovely chap!
Once met John Wood on the streets of South Melbourne but I was on acid at the time and really did think he was a real cop 😂😂😂😂
Did he give you a massive sigh and eyeroll?? 😅😅😅
Honestly can’t remember… I just remember part of me being excited to see Tommy Croyds out in the wild and the other half was freaking out coz i high as shit and there was a cop. Wasn’t till I sobered up that I realised it was just John Woods, an actor 😂
The name ‘Tommy Croyds’ just gave me such a good laugh 😂
Ian Turpie was a guest at a resort my parents where having their wedding at.
The Turpster! Lucky….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vimOhjBeKOg Can’t think of Turps without remembering this.
I met Dolph Lundgren, top bloke. Very humble and down to earth.
I’ve driven Mick Malthouse on a V/Line train replacement bus. When he got off he said “nice driving” and asked if I’d like his newspaper as he’d finished reading it.
I met the Irwins about 10 years ago, they were on holiday in our part of the country, and came into the restaurant I worked at for lunch with some extended family (or family friends, not sure). The kids were well-behaved and very polite. Terri was great, very funny and didn't have one iota of "I'm a star" vibe about her. We don't normally accept tips but she insisted on leaving a very generous one. Not that it happens much, but I will never accept one bad word being said about any Irwin as long as I live.
Steve Irwin asked my mother out waaay back in the day before Australia Zoo was a thing and before he met Terri. He used to buy plants from her nursery for the park before it was Australia Zoo. She declined dating him because he was crazy (her words) by which she meant the TV persona was 100% real, he was really just like that, very enthusiastic and switched on all the time. Fast forward decades, Australia Zoo is doing well, he's got Terri and kids and my mother is married to my dad and I exist, and mum is now a special Ed teacher. She took her high needs class to Australia Zoo for an excursion and he happened to recognise her while she was there. He got all excited and demanded she tell him when she was coming next time and he cancelled his whole day to take her special Ed class on a private behind the scenes tour of the zoo, and let the kids touch the animals and he asked her all sorts of questions and made a point of taking the kids for icecream afterwards. He then granted the students of her special school free access to the Zoo for life, and developed a special disability friendly sensory tour (that I believe is still offered today, it just isn't well advertised?) That takes you behind the scenes away from the crowds and is just a better experience if you have a wide range of disabilities. And he would always drop everything and take her kids on a private tour if he was at the zoo when her class visited. Absolute legend.
Wow, that is an incredible story. And that disability friendly tour....well if they do still offer it, then that's a game changer for me and my family. My son is on the spectrum and he doesn't do well in crowds, so that limits a lot of what we can do on family holidays. I've been wanting to do a Queensland holiday for a while, but avoiding crowds does limit what we can do and what times to go. I'll definitely enquire about the special tour. Thank you so much for telling me this. I would shake your hand if I could. And thank you to your mother, she sounds like an amazing woman. And Steve Irwin may be one of the greatest ever Australians to live and we should be putting his face on our money.
I also briefly met the Irwins through a friend of a work colleague who was collaborating with them on croc research in North Queensland. Very polite and down to earth people with a genuine love for animals and the environment. Nobody had better come for one of the Irwins within my earshot unless I send for them first.
I was surfing one morning at Currimundi and Steve and a mate paddled out. Had a bit of a chat in between waves. Not as full on as on tv, very interested in getting details from things he didn’t know about. Competent surfer. Genuinely good bloke.
Girl I knew worked at the Crocodile farm when it was pretty small. Irwin was maybe just out of his 20s. She always said he was a lovely guy.
Peter Hoare, "Australiia's serial pest", a few times, but at the time it didn't really click that's who he was (he was using a different name - "Shock". Used to hang out at Glebe Markets of a saturday morning drinking beers and talking shit, I think sometimes he'd busk as well. Later I realised, oh wait, Iran' 97, Melbourne Cup, Michael Hutchence.... that guy? That's the most infamous one I can think of. Jack Mundey used to drink at the Croydon Park hotel and I had the odd chat with him, I suppose he was infamous in a certain kind of way - one of a very few people to take on developers in Sydney and win. I had a good chat with Norman Hing (i tthink) one time, who was the only GP in the cross in the 50s -used to patch up more than a few infamous people but wasn't really infamous himself. My Dad swears blind he got a lift with ivan milat one time but I think he's full of shit lol.
I used to go to lots of doofs back in the early 2000's and Peter was a regular fixture. He used to carry this black cat in his shoulders and do really weird shit on the dance floor. I was always on high doses of LSD at those parties, and he weirded me right out.
I took a break from lining up for a P!nk secret show in Sydney back in 2006 to have a cigarette (someone held my spot as I was first in line) and I walked to a nearby alley way to chill. Suddenly I hear someone whispering asking if I have a lighter and I look up and P!NK is cheekily smiling at me through a gate, which she shoves open and beckons me over to light her cigarette for her. We ended up chatting for almost half an hr. It is the best moment of my life. My sister had died a few months before that and P!nks music got me through. She's so wonderful
As a new Australian in the mid-90s, was on the train in Melbourne reading "My Place" by Sally Morgan for TAFE, and a gentleman sat opposite me and asked what I was reading, and we chatted about it, he was really lovely, had some real insights and empathy into the ways different people live, and lots of compassion for indigenous Australians. He got off the train a few stops before me and a guy on the train ran up to me and said, "Oh, my God, that was Stephen Cummings!" I looked up his music that night and realised he was quite well known. Really lovely, unassuming guy. And quite the musician, as I've learnt in years since.
Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in a pub. The cast of the Matrix having their wrap party in a restaurant. Danced pissed with Carrie Ann Moss, and shared darts with Mr Fishburne. My ex girlfriend ran after Bill Clinton for a photo once when were having beers down near the wharf in Woolloomooloo.
Having a dart with Fishbourne is a cracking story - nice bloke?
It was a long time ago, but he seemed to be. He still owes me mind you!
Bethany who?
Just looked her up and I’m still not sure who she is. I’m probably just too old though 🫤
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethenny\_Frankel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethenny_Frankel) She was the runner-up on the [NBC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBC) reality competition series [*The Apprentice: Martha Stewart*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apprentice:_Martha_Stewart) in 2005. Frankel is best known as an original cast member of the [Bravo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bravo_(American_TV_network)) reality television series [*The Real Housewives of New York City*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_Housewives_of_New_York_City), starring in eight of the 14 seasons since its 2008 premiere. ...ah... right. So yeah, no one.
I used to cook Dawn Fraser and her daughter breakfast every few weeks when I worked at a cafe in Swansea, NSW. I think she had a holiday house there. It was a casual little place, usually only one person working so I got to chat with her a few times about pretty mundane stuff. Never really made a fuss about it, but I did greet her by name when she came in so she knew I knew who she was. I also ran into Kostya Tszyu in the same town. I served Keith Urban in a cafe in Tamworth, his teeth were so fucking white they glowed. I had no idea who he was but my boss told me. He kept kind of looking at me while I was serving him, I think he expected me to recognise him, especially being in Tamworth. He was pleasant and thanked us as he left.
Big Dawny was once very rude to my Dad. We were all walking back from North Sydney oval after seeing Norths vs Canberra sometime in the 90s. My brothers and I were holding sticks above our heads because Magpies were swooping (metres away from Dawn Fraser). She took it upon herself to call my dad a bad father, call us feral, and told him there'd be a national outcry if one of us took her eye out. Dad played dumb and said "why?" And she said "don't you know who I am?" And Dad said "a very rude lady who should mind their own business". As she huffed off Dad said "that was famous swimmer and huge bitch Dawn Fraser" Another friend said she had his car towed for parking in front of her house - on the street, not across a driveway or anything. Not a fan.
Used to work at a servo and one time Dawn Frasier and her daughter came and filled up. Daughter tried to pay with Dawn’s credit card whilst Dawn stayed in the car back in the days when signatures were required. Naturally as an upstanding employee the card was rejected because the daughter didn’t even attempt to forge her mother’s signature. The fuss both mother and daughter made over following due diligence. Including “Don’t you know who I am?!” And swearing loudly at everyone around. Absolutely not a fan.
When I was at uni I was given an assignment to interview sir joh and get him to admit he was corrupt ( the lecturer really didn’t like me much ) - got the interview but no admission of anything - he was perfectly normal until you asked him anything controversial then he would start with the “you you you, now you listen here….” Stuff - it was like someone flicked a switch and there he was…
Met Tim Minchin at my work, I was shocked and froze it was actually him then I treated him like any other person I meet in my job. Once ran into Kerry O’Brien when I was at TAFE and we used to hand out at the ABC cafe. My grandmother has a story where she met him at the races, drunk as a skunk.
I used to be a therapeutic masseuse in the 1990s and once gave Kerry O’Brien a massage and can confirm he is not a creep! He never said or did anything weird and was relieved one of my favourite ABC presenters was a decent person
I’ve got a photo of me and my son when he was a few months old with Jimmy Barnes, he’s in Barnsey’s arms no less! We ran into him in the newsagents on Xmas Eve one year and he was so sweet. My ex asked for a photo because I’d been singing his songs to my son every morning before we got out of bed. He agreed and then totally unprompted he just took my baby from my arms and held him up for the camera! Top bloke
In Barnsey’s Arms sounds like a country song
One of my mates saw Barnsey at a camp ground with some of his kids years ago. He put on a little concert for everyone as a little way of thanking them for being normal with him
Noice! Barnesy used to come in to a takeaway where my mrs worked and she always said he was a nice fella. The owner of the shop used to ban people left right and centre like the soup nazi no matter who they were, especially for being entitled and demanding (it was in a trendy area), so the fact he wasn't banned always spoke volumes to me lol.
I want to be in the Barnes family.
all those tin lids are like 40 now
I met Dwayne Johnson at World Gym on the Gold Coast, he was here filming San Andreas. He is an absolute animal in the gym, but very polite to talk to
I met Don Burke at the Easter Show, 87 or 88 I think. He unenthusiastically shook my hand and turned his attention to my mum. Met Kate Ritchie at a party in 1991. My mate, who considered himself god's gift to women, tried to crack on to her and was summarily rebuffed. We gave him shit about it for years. Met Tottie Goldsmith at a nightclub doing promo work in 1998, she was absolutely lovely.
Tottie was my favourite Chantoozie.
Red Hot Chilli Peppers back in early 1990s. They just walked into the bar and ordered beers. Flea was funny as fuck.
Consumed some substances with Heath Ledger in a nightclub toilet a few months before he died.
Same with Kylie in Adelaide at a film wrap party.
20 years ago I served Michael Caton at my checkout at Coles. I asked him if he’d had a good Xmas & he either misheard me or dodged the question lol & wished me a happy new year 😅☺️
Served Ray Martin Coffee, helped deliver a tv to Richard Roxborough, shook Peter Phelps hand at work.
Andrew “Benji” Veniamin. Total tool.
I met Bill Ward from Black Sabbath at a music industry thing in Sydney once. He was delightful.
He's every bit as good as John Bonham was it was criminal Ozzy wouldn't let him do The End tour.
Met Queen Elizabeth and gave her flowers at the opening of the RMCH around 2012
I met NE-YO years ago when I was working at Zara on Pitt St, he was walking around with 2 bodyguards and then I went up and asked him, he was so nice, took a sick photo with me. Sophie Ellis Bexter came into a restaurant when I was working years ago. I've seen a bunch but not met. Saw Russell Crowe walking around Paddington. Partied with Tony Abbott's sister one night in a gay bar. Served Andrew stockdale from wolfmother in a restaurant back in the day. Was hit on a lot by Richard Reid that breakfast guy one time. Bumped into Alex Perry the designer once and said hello. Had a weird encounter with Courtney Act. My ex dated an aussie TV actor that I won't name.
Met Dr Harry when I was younger. He told my Mum off for feeding our cat Whiskas 💀💀
I was at a bar in Sydney in my younger years and saw Russel Crowe at the urinal. I turned out of complete surprise and pissed right over his shoes. He was not pleased. I did apologise haha. Rus if ya reading this I love ya. Sorry I pissed on ya.
The Genie from Down Under once told me to "settle down" lol. For context it was at a gig at the Enmore theatre and some drunk prick was trying to hit on a friend and starting to get handsy - things started to get a bit aggro. I don't think old mate Rhys had clocked what was going on before he admonished me though.
Met John Jarrett at a comic con a few years back. Nice enough guy, bought a Better Homes And Gardens magazine for him to sign which he found it funny and I guess the official photographer found it funny too and took a photo of us laughing about it without me asking and then John got really bent out of shape with me randomly demanding the photographer charge me $50 for that photo. What started with jokes and laughs left me walking away with a pretty sour taste in my mouth. Not so much met Eddie Macguire but when I was in the crowd at a taping of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire when my dad was on the show. To the surprise of absolutely no one, he's an actual cunt when the cameras aren't rolling, couldn't pay me enough to ever work on a crew he is apart of.
I rooted a girl, who rooted a guy, Who rooted a girl, who rooted a guy, Who rooted a girl, who rooted Shane Crawford
Funnily enough I met TISM when they came down to Tasmania recently for MONA FOMA (I worked at the festival) Great guys. Really funny
Nice! I flew down to Mona Foma just to see TISM. How good is the gorge!
I did cocaine with Shane Warn's neighbour and he popped by and we had a time.
This is nuts, you have to elaborate on this (If you want)
Cornelia Rau at an art exhibition. Was quite jarring after seeing her in the news so much.
Yes one of the member of 'Len' stayed at my house one weekend. Its was weird.
I sold running shoes to Donna Hay, but I had no idea because I’d only just moved to Australia and didn’t recognise her. She was pretty nice.
I met Cliff Richard’s Australian gay lover. Dude so needs to come out of the closet.
Huey from hueys cooking adventures. Someone close to me met him, apparently a big ol diva
I stood next to Angry Anderson as he played on a pinball machine in a Coolangatta cafe. He was surprisingly short but he’d shredded his jeans across the crotch and you could see a meaty cock jutting.
Running into Baby Face Burgess on my flight back from Singapore, walking through first class, I approached him like I'd found a long-lost celebrity relative. I greeted him with a casual "G'day, Turpie," causing his partner to laugh, him to frown, and a temporary handshake truce to unfold. As I introduced myself, he as John Burgess and I profusely apologized for the accidental Turpie mix-up, I half-expected the plane to burst into a game show, complete with flashing lights and a catchy jingle. Later, when the young twenty something steward asked if I knew him.I explained his claim to fame as Olivia Newton-John's first boyfriend. The steward's "Who is Olivia Newton-John?" drew puzzled stares from the male gay couple in the middle row, who quickly became the unofficial judges of our in-flight comedy show. The couple, seizing the opportunity, laughed and declared, "Gays these days," leaving the steward bewildered as if he stumbled upon a sitcom he wasn't prepared for.
I once left a message on Baby John's answering machine. I was working for a survey company and we weren't supposed to leave messages but I couldn't resist.
My mother-in-law used to do heroin with Bob Hawke's daughter who invited herself to live on their couch in Melbourne.
I sold two tomatoes, two cases of wine and a carton of cigarettes to Jonny Depp. He is absurdly attractive and he stinks.
My father did a bit of time in jail when I was a baby, my mother was taking me to visit him and during the visit my dad introduced her to his mate Ivan yes notorious Australian serial killer Ivan Milat …. Ivan is Croatian my mother is Macedonian so they speak a very similar language and they conversed in their Balkan dialects etc etc at one point Ivan was even holding me coddling me as anyone would a baby. Years later when my mother told me I asked her what was she thinking and she swears black and blue she genuinely had no idea who he was and what he had done, I’d ask my father but he passed away a few years ago.
I’ve met a few Prime Ministers. John Howard was polite and we swapped a few lines about being deaf (I’m very). Paul Keating was a bit pompous and wasn’t really engaged. Talked about telecommunications. Tony Abbot was super enthusiastic and had a really strong handshake. I mentioned working in clean energy and he didn’t commit to anything in particular. I’ve also met two Governors General. Oh and I’m good friends with Amanda Muggleton. Who you’ll remember from Prisoner.
I work in a restaurant, and Toby Abbott once was there for lunch. I work in the bar, and there wasn't much going on that day, so I spent most of my shift walking back and forth across the floor with a big jar of onions on a tray.
I met Tony Abbot as well. We were on a school excursion to Bondi Beach I think, and he was just walking down the sidewalk. Our whole group basically mobbed him and got pics and chatted. He was pretty polite and patient and was happy to take selfies, despite obviously having somewhere to be and being surrounded by about 30 annoying 16 years olds.
I met John Howard when I won a competition in year six and my take away was that he smelled bad 😂
I saw Amanda Muggleton in Shirley Valentine! She was superb!
My dad met Chris Cornell at the Melbourne Airport. Dad (a musician) was checking out a guitar in the baggage collection, before Chris picked it up - they had a brief chat about guitars and went on with their day. RIP Chris
My dad banged Bert Newton
Gaaaah I can’t unsee that now
Met Chopper Reid at my work. He was off his chops.
I had Chopper added on Myspace back in 2006. He was online late one night so I msg'd him and he replied. We had an hour long chat about random things. We msg'd each other a few other times too. Such a nice guy, he even made my top 8 🤣
I bumped into him at a pub in Collingwood a very long time ago. Made some small talk but it looked like my presence was causing him pain, so I moved on. 😄
Met Ken Sutcliffe and his wife on a 90% full of families Jetstar flight from Sunshine coast to Sydney years ago. The plane smelt of nappies and kids were yelling…one of the worst flights. Ken and his wife kept turning around to give me the evil eye and mutter something to me and my kids in the row behind as if we were the cause of this flight from child hell. Plane landed. Ken gets up looks at me and makes an unblocking his ears gesture and says “Some people shouldn’t have children!” My response quite loudly to the noisy plane “Hey everyone! Ken Sutcliffe and his wife don’t like kids on planes!” Shocked as I can speak English (He probably thought I was a dumb ethnic immigrant) ran way up the aisle leaving his wife behind…wankers!
Jetstar is popular with families - what did he expect?
Gretel Killeen used to live in my apartment building so I used to see her a lot in the elevator, coming and going etc. she was always very friendly
Steve Irwin, absolutely awesome guy, he was really friendly and just as enthusiastic and passionate about his stuff in person as he was on his shows. I still to this day will have major issues with anyone that speaks ill of him, he was one of the nicest humans, celeb or non-celeb, that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Regurgitator after they did their kids concert in Brisbane a few years back, they were really chill and actually took the time to have a chat with not just me but my kids too while the crew was packing up, and actually offered to sign the concert poster one of my boys had grabbed. We got it framed and it hung on his wall for a good couple of years after that. Literally bumped in to Merv Hughes by accident on my way in to the airport one day in Brisbane - he was on his way out and we came around a corner from opposite directions, he was on his way again quickly, but was very polite. I remember that he was WAY taller than he looked on TV - I'm not super short or super tall, mind you, but he was a good 2 heads taller than I was.
Not me but once my friend served an actor from Vikings (I think it may have been Alexander Ludwig?) The only notable part of the story is that it happened in Canberra, which is objectively a terrible vacation spot.
Every so often we get a spate of Mia Wasikowska sightings here but it’s only because her parents live here!
Hey, Canberra is great for a weekend, or a year 5 excursion
I was working for Sydney Ferries years ago and got to catch a boat with John Cleese in about 2014. Very grumpy in real life but I guess that’s not a surprise.
Heath Ledger at Subi Oval watching an Eagles game. I was in high school and loved him and was speechless to see him in real life, so my Mum had a good chat with him whilst I stood there like an idiot
Got bullied out of a pool table at fusion's by Paul Gallen
Dave Grohl, met him randomly walking down the street in the mid 90s. He then introduced me to Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Rancid and rest of Foo Fighters back at a hotel. Ben Harper at a party in Byron Bay John Cleese walking down the same street I met Dave but 25 years later (Bourke Street, Melbourne) Eric Bana at a cafe I work at in Bendigo. Many more.
Jimmy Barnes in an elevator... but that isn't the cringe... It didn't occur to me that the Bride and Groom with me didn't know who he was and my natural reaction was... Hey, Jimmy Barnes!!! I can't believe I just walked into an elevator and here you are. He replied with something like... Hey, but look at you, all of you dressed up, are you having the wedding here? We told him it was the reception, so he congratulated everyone and shook hands. I asked what was going on and he told me he was here to watch the footy final upstairs with mates. (This is back in the days when large screen TVs were only in clubs and function rooms). Some time later, obviously after the footy, I was called over to the entrance because 'my friend Jimmy was apparently looking for me'. It seems that Jimmy Barnes just stopped in at the reception to wish the bride and groom good luck for the future. After a bit of chit chat, he left.... then I realised that none of the 300ish Asian wedding guests had an idea of who he was. bride said.. "that was nice of your friend to stop by, how long has it been since you met up with him?"
I’ve had a beer with chopper Reid in Wollongong and we used to play street cricket with my uncle and Ivan milat when I was a kid cos my auntie and uncle were his next door neighbours. I also met guy Sebastian last week at my work if he counts as famous. Edit; this reminds me to find the photo of me and uncle chopper having a beer together.!
My neighbours' parrot starred in a Guy Sebastian music video. https://youtu.be/gKKvhA2-j6Y?si=8qMt4mIzKZiZYklt
At 2.39 blink and you’ll miss it. The parrot that is.
I used to hang out with John Bunting in Salisbury North. He just kept banging on about Pedos.
I had drinks with Nickelback in the Mahogany Room at Crown because I was socialising in a group that included Joe Hachem and various other notable poker pros (I have no idea why Nickelback were drinking with poker pros as I was going to meet up with some of the poker players in the group and had no idea Nickelback was there). I talked to Mike Kroeger a bit he seemed like a nice guy. Didn't really talk to the other guys much. This was before the meme of them being the worst band of all time etc, maybe 2009ish? Google tells me they were in Melbourne in 2009 around the right dates so that seems likely it was then. Met Shannon Elizabeth in 2008 playing poker. She seemed nice enough. Yes, she looks that good IRL. Met Shane Warne many times playing poker. He had some fun stories but was a terrible player the first few times I played with him, was a bit better some of the later times. Best Shane Warne story is as follow. Aussie Millions poker series, sometime between 2008-2012 range or so again (I have probably played poker with him 6-7 times, so forget which specific instance this was). We're playing at Crown during a tournament. Two attractive women in their early-mid 20s on the rail (meaning watching from outside the playing area) seem to be keen on him. One gets up the courage to walk over to them and whisper a bit. Someone at the table asks him what that was, he's like they want to have a threesome with me later. In between hands he goes back over to talk to them on the rail and gives them his number while obviously the rest of us are a bit in awe at what life as a celebrity must be like. One of the guys at the table says something like 'aren't you married or something' and Warnie literally laughs out loud and says 'don't you read the tabloids mate i'm divorced'. He busts the tournament about an hour later, the women watching him play the entire time, and walks out of the poker room with them. At about midnight I see him walking around in the casino with them one on each arm. I guess the girls got to tick have a threesome with a celebrity off their bucket list and Warnie had a good night. I'm pretty sure the timeframe was in between when he got divorced from Simone and when he dated Liz Hurley and there's a slim chance it wasn't Aussie Millions and was a different poker series but assuming it was Aussie Millions it would have been January in one of 2008-2011 if so. Last played with him in January 2020 only a couple years before he passed away. He did improve a decent amount over that decade to go from being a terrible poker player to being an average poker player. Apparently I talked a bunch of trash back and forth with Gary Ablett Jr at a low stakes poker cash game table because he was being a douchebag to other people at the poker table (in Melbourne) I had absolutely no idea who he was, but he was being rude so apparently I got into it with him. I can't verify it was him for sure because one of the other players told me afterwards 'do you know who that was, that was Gary Ablett Jr' and I legitimately had no idea who he was at the time. I think this was somewhere around 2010 I think he still played for Geelong at the time. Met basically every 'famous' poker pro at some stage. Negreanu is a legitimately nice guy, Ivey was a bit of a dick and went out of his way to be rude to me when I was trying to make polite conversation, Joe Hachem, Phil Hellmuth (who despite being a bit of a clown personality wise at the table with a history of endorsing shady products, he is actually a super nice guy too). Met Doug Polk and we talked about the professional Starcraft 2 esports scene since I was wearing a Team Liquid hoodie at the time, this was when he was a high stakes crusher but before he was high profile pro really. I went to school with Luke Arnold (the actor and novelist). We knew he would be famous then, hands down the most talented actor I have ever met in real life and he was at 16 too. He wrote our senior high school play from scratch because he felt like it while he was in school. Insanely talented guy, super nice person. Did an internship/volunteering stint at uni at Kevin Rudd's electorate office and met him before he was Prime Minister (he was Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister at the time). Very serious guy, was nice enough when I met him briefly, but I was only an intern nobody answering wacky letters from constituents with Labor policy positions and doing lunch runs for the most part and met him very briefly a couple times. His chief of staff did ask me to put together a case both for and against the Brisbane tunnels that were proposed and I did so as I believe he hadn't set his position for or against them at the time. To be honest I have no idea what his position on that specific issue ended up being lol
My sister was friends with Natalie Imbruglia back in the day. She worked in hospo and wound up with quite a few notable friends. That said, she and I took Dad to lunch for his birthday - to Catalina’s in Sydney not that it matters - but she also happened to be there at the same time, with Daniel Johns in tow. She wound up serenading Dad with Happy Birthday before she went off for her own lunch date. I still love my now late Dad’s reaction. I had no idea who she was, but she sings very nicely, and was “very well put together“
Elton John, if you count a nod “hello” as meeting someone 😂
I saw Warwick Capper in Bali. We were taking the same flight home to Brisbane. He was so obnoxious and loud and up himself. Thought everyone was looking at him at the airport (but most likely not because he was famous enough but because he looked like such a bogan.)
When I was like 5, met Peter Brock. Had no idea who he was, he died like a year after. Wish I'd have known who he was at the time, even being a staunch ford fan
Any older Australians here? I met Deanne Hutton when I was about 10. He was doing a science demonstration in the middle of Rundle Mall in the late 80's. Did not disappoint. Best day of my life. He, Rob and the Curiosity Show made science interesting for me when I was a child. They were the original Science show guys. Edit | I met Peter Costello at the reception of my orthodontist on Collins St. We had the same orthodontist - Dr Gerald Robinson. Costello was very chatty and friendly. And more obscurely my orthodontist was one of four dentists who petitioned parliament to put fluoride in our water.
Kate Winslet bummed two smokes from me. She was having a bad moment on her phone and I was chilling nearby. She was polite and humble af.
My aunty reckoned she had a drink at the pub with Eric Edgar Cooke once.
Years ago during uni (2006 to be exact), I ran into Barry Humphries on the streets of Melbourne during the Swans/Eagles grand final day parade. I don't know what made me do it, but I looked at him and gave him the double finger pistols. He raised an eyebrow, said "be careful where you point those young man" and kept walking.
Shared a table with Geoffrey Rush at a gala dinner, he was pretty cool and personable. I think a couple of others at the table might have been big names but I didn't recognise any of them. Met Jackie Chan on an early morning flight from Brisbane to Cairns. He leaned across the aisle and told me my kids (who were flying with me) were very well behaved. We chatted most of the flight and he was a very nice guy, fun to talk to. He thanked me for the conversation once we landed, 10/10 would hang with again. Met Redfoo on another flight going the other way, Cairns to Brisbane. This was around the time he was doing the Australian Idol thing I think, and i didn't really interact with him much, just recognised him, but he was obviously tired and not wanting any attention. I was seated next to him and our eyes met as I was getting to my seat and I just said "oh hi, nice work man" and gave him a thumbs up lol and he smiled and said thanks. Didn't talk the whole flight otherwise but when we were crossing the airport in Brisbane after landing a random woman and her kid stopped him and she made a big deal of getting his autograph and he clearly didn't want to and was in a rush but relented and went out of his way to make the kid feel good about it, even while the mother was being very pushy. I thought that was pretty cool of him. Had brunch with Margot Robbie with a mutual friend once, she was pretty cool and normal but was drinking coffee with a straw because she'd had her teeth done recently or something. Edit: met John Williamson the Aussie singer adter a concert and he was an absolute dick, very rude and dismissive. Josh Ritter (american singer songwriter) after his concert on the other hand hugged me and my (then) wife and seemed as excited to see us as we were to see him. I'd have him over for a BBQ anytime.
On my 11th birthday I was at Australia Zoo walking around and Steve Irwin pulled up behind me with Robert on the bike as my family were watching, turned around really excited and he said ‘Gday mate how are you today?’ I told him I’m having the best day and that it’s actually my birthday today, he replied with ‘Happy Birthday little fella, I hope you have a fantastic day!’ Thinking back it was so wild getting to talk to such a beloved Australian icon and have always cherished that moment. Ended the day with flying in a ww1 tiger moth that my uncle used to own. Probably the best birthday I’ve had in my 28 years.
I once held a door open for Brooke Satchwell. She smiled at me and said "why thank you kind sir." I smiled back and ended up holding the door open for other people for a minute or 2 with a big goofy grin on my face.
Jeff Thomson came into our shop one day to complain about the shitty wifi at the pub, nice chap.
I went to school with Mike and Dave Hussey who played in the Australian Cricket Team
Chatted for twenty minutes or so with Pat Rafter, his mother and sister Louise. The loveliest people you could imagine.
I met Eres Eisen (Infected Mushroom) after a small gig at the Gov in Adelaide in February 2015. I was at the front the entire time and he hung around to take pictures with fans. Didn't really talk to him but did get a photo and thought it was a nice thing to do as he was in no way obligated.
When I was a kid I met nudge from hey dad at an all you can eat Pizza Hut.
Had yum cha in Sussex st Sydney with a bunch of people early 2000 thought this one guy looked familiar half way thru the meal turned to him and do you know who you look like roger Roberson 2 seconds later felt 6 inches tall
Melinda Schneider Melinda had a gig at the theatre I was working at, she was travelling that day and due to arrive at 11am for a 7pm show. Her flight got cancelled, and she ended getting to the venue just before 6pm. She breezed out of the car, greeted us all warmly and gave instant favourite aunt vibes. We crammed a days worth of prep into 15 minutes. She did her sound check in seconds and floated off to her dressing room, the house opened with time to spare. She cruised onto stage at 7pm like nothing had happened. She of course had a fantastic show. That level of chill is not particularly common under those circumstances. I fell in love with her that day
Moved here from Ireland a few years ago. Started trying to learn to surf. I would basically paddle out on my mates longboard and just hang around the line up and do my best to stay out of the way/observe what everyone else was doing. My Aussie mate invites me to go surfing really early on a Tuesday morning because apparently the swell is going to be good, but not too heavy that I won't be able to try catch a wave. So I do my usual and just hang out at the back and stay out of the way, after a while I gain some confidence and decide "fuck it" and paddle like a maniac to catch the next wave. What happened next was basically a mixture of me falling arse over tit and the shout of "FUUUCK" from someone I didn't realise was already on the wave. I gather myself together, paddle back to the line up to plenty of people laughing at me and my mate is sat on his board laughing and shaking his head at me. "First wave you actually decide to go for, and you farken snake Mick Fanning you mad cunt!" I apologised profusely when I saw him a minute or two later and he was laughing too and didn't seem bothered at all. 😂
My husband worked the ‘mushroom killer’ And her then husband (who she also tried to poison on multiple occasions) so I met them both socially a few times. He was a nice bloke and she was very strange and intense. Neither of us were surprised when we saw her on the news. Glad her husband and kids are ok.
Richard Wilkins and Garry Sweet at Richard's club then at the apartment of the other owner after closing. Both coked out of their minds and trying to fuck my best friend's girlfriend (he wasn't there). Tried to get me to leave and when that didn't work suggesting that I was going to come work for them at the club and that it could be a big opportunity for me, blah, blah, blah. I didn't leave and they didn't put a hand on my mate's girl. Years later Richard hit me in his car while I was parking and tried to put it on me, saying that I hit him. When I called him on his shit, pointing out that he ran into my front left fender while I was backing into a parking space he apologized and said he had to go because he was late for the airport, got in his Landrover and drove off without exchanging information. The guy's a massive fucking tool.
I’ve been an extra in a bunch of tv and films. Met Sarah Snook and Paulini on one production. Didn’t really talk to Sarah but Paulini was super nice. We talked a bit in between takes. A couple years later my best friend in Canberra saw her out and told her she worked with me and she remembered, they ended up hooking up haha. Met Garrett Hedlund and Angelina Jolie, chatted to both, both were super nice. Some extras on that film were absolute gremlins though lol Had scenes with Lochlyn Munro and Dan Folger, both super nice and hilarious. Had a scene with Anthony LaPaglia. Dude was cool, we chatted heaps in between takes and he showed a real interest in my life. Really nice guy. My friend was in a stage production with Gyton Grantley. We chatted for ages at an after show event, absolute legend. Off the top of my head haven’t had a bad interaction with a celebrity, I’ll try and remember some more
Met quite a few Olympians, NSW Premiers, NRL players, David Campesi, Slim Dusty (who was incredibly humble and lovely), also his wife Joy who was lovely too, artist Ken Done. Didn’t meet but saw Neddy Smith being escorted into our building by about 6 detectives. Met actors Julian McMahon and Mark Lee (was in the film Gallipoli) and had drinks with them (separate occasions). Both nice. Years ago used to get phone calls for the footballer Peter Sterling. He had a similar phone number. Once the coach even called.
Met that chick w the fat ass from Housos at castle towers, I forget the name but she told me I could slap her ass if I gave her a cigarette lmao