I’ve been told that Nashville is kind of Mecca for some celebrities (and not just country music stars) who don’t want to be constantly disturbed by the paparazzi or unruly fans. Apparently, all of the concentrated midwestern/southern hospitality, common sense approach to living and general immunity to being overly star struck that comprises most of the population here makes for a warm and inviting city; a city free of the depredations, constant scrutiny and overexposed Kardashians of say a New York or an L.A.
Stories of celeb sightings by my friends abound; Keith and Nicole seems to be pretty common along with Ben Folds, Taylor Swift, Ashley Judd, Jack White and Zooey Deschanel to name a few…
*sigh*
…Sorry…
…
…Give me a second to wipe the Zooey #nerdcrush drool off my chin. #HateYouSoMuchBenGibbard
UPDATE: Apparently they’ve separated! #SoYoureSayingTheresAChance #ThatWasInappropriate #SorryZooey #CallMe
Unfortunately, I only know about these sightings secondhand as in the 5 and 1/2 years I’ve lived here, I have yet to see even one single celebrity; unless you count Christian recording artists Derek Webb and his wife, Sandra McCracken who I saw at the mall once. But other than Mr. Webb being a personal songwriting hero of mine, he’s not exactly a huge star.
I did once meet Nicole Kidman’s personal assistant at a free outdoor concert last summer and if I remember correctly, I think I gave her a hug at the end of the show. At the very least we shook hands at one point in the evening. So in a way, assuming she’s hugged and/or shaken hands with Nicole, I’m totally on 2-degrees-of-separation hugging terms with Ms. Kidman. We’re practically BFFs.
I don’t know why I haven’t seen any celebrities. I’m not the most social butterfly in the world, but I’m not exactly a crazy old hermit who never leaves his cave either.
I have a sneaking suspicion that one of these days, I’m going to walk into a restaurant or a bar and all of the celebs I’ve missed seeing will jump out and surprise me and be like, “Sorry Matt. We weren’t intentionally avoiding you; we just wanted your first Nashville celebrity sighting to be extra special because you’re such a swell guy!”.
…And then Zooey Deschanel will ask me to make out with her.
Hi Matt. I want you so bad. For reals.
…Yeah…that’s the ticket…
Hi Matt. I want you so bad. For reals.
Gaaaahhhh!!! What the…?!?! Stop destroying my dreams, Ben Folds!
Questions:
Who’s the most famous person you’ve seen or met?
Were they cool or were they total douchenozzles?
My hometown is a secret hotspot for (in)famous and nonfamous people.
I saw Britney Spears at the beach with Justin Timberlake. He was looking sexy.
Wow, that must have been waaaay back in the day. They’ve been broken up for like 10 years haven’t they?
I have lived in Nashville (well, the suburbs) for 26 years and have only managed to see Ben Folds and a smattering of Ten Out of Tenn folks “in the wild.” And Steven Curtis Chapman’s daughter, but I don’t think that counts. I never talk to them, because I’m from Nashville, so I’m expected to be cool about such things.
I don’t know if Ten Out of Tenn folks count as they’re more famous locally than nationally. I saw Madi Diaz in a bar recently and although I’m a huge fan of her music, it wasn’t a big deal. She was just there with some friends.
Also, if you want to change where the link on your name directs to, you should be able to just hover over your name/picture on the upper right of your wordpress page until the drop down menu activates, click on “Edit My Profile” and then towards the bottom of the page you should have a section called Links where you can delete your old link and put in the new one. Hope that helps.
Yeah, I don’t really count the ToT-ers, they seem more like friends of friends than celebrities.
I tried that with my profile, and the only one linked is my actual, current blog. The one my pic links to was more of a rough-draft that I can’t delete. I can’t figure it out at all.
Here are the instructions for deleting a site. http://en.support.wordpress.com/delete-site/
I had to do this when I first made my site a couple of weeks ago. About an hour after I had gotten the name mylifeinhashtags.wordpress.com I decided I wanted to change it to just lifeinhashtags.wordpress.com. I couldn’t find any instructions on just changing the name that didn’t involve the more complicated offline version of WP so I just registered the new name and duplicated the site over there before deleting the old one. I don’t know if that will help with the linking issue, but if you get rid of the rough draft site, it might. Just be careful you don’t delete the wrong one.
Did that. Now it directs to a this-blog-no-longer-exists page. Seriously, that blog is nowhere on my profile. I’ll just have to email them or something. Thanks for the help, anyway!
Really? Because I just clicked on your name and it went right to your current page…
Maybe it just took a minute to kick in. Success!
I have Hacksaw Jim Duggan’s autograph. That’s all I need to say.
You win. You totally, totally win.
My sister-in-law’s uncle is the Simon Cowell of Argentina. For reals. He gets recognized in Argentina.
Also, my friend from high school’s husband came second in the Chicago marathon. Yeah, I’m buds with the 10th fastest marathon runner in the world. He’s Kenyan. No big.
Sorry Amanda; I know he’s your Internet Worst Enemy, but Craven still wins.
THAT JUST HAPPENED
celebrities come to austin a lot, too, or live here, or film movies here. probably not as much as nashville, though. i’m not sure why, but i don’t care about celebrities, and i might have met/seen one or more in my life (i definitely know people who have, and who have gotten excited about it) but i honestly don’t think i’d remember unless it was meaningful in some way. i’m pretty disenchanted. but, funny post. i laughed.
especially the “update” part.
i’ve DEFINITELY known people who name drop and it buuuugs the crap out of me.
I don’t care that much either, but I think it would just be kind of neat to see one “in the wild” as Elizabeth noted above. And I actually just mean “neat”, not “ZOMG!!! I TOTES JUST SAW KEITH AND NICOLE AND THEY WERE EATING FROZEN YOGURT!!11!1!”.
With an obvious Deschanel exception to that rule of course.
I saw Martina McBride at Green Hills mall. Didn’t stop to say hi. Met Kenny Chesney (sp?) in Knoxville. He was a total douchecannoe. I also met Bear Reinhart after a show. He’s quite lovely.
Kenny Chesney seems like he would be. I bet Martina McBride is probably pretty nice though.
I had to Google Bear Reinhart. I’ve been hearing a lot about NeedtoBreathe; I may have to check them out sometime.
Does that mean he doesn’t count as a celebrity? Needtobreathe is pretty amazing. I highly suggest you check them out.
No, it just means to me he’s not a celebrity.
I live in the same small (5,000ish people) town as Jeff Daniels…and I’ve never met him. I’m that cool.
I’m pretty sure he just hates you. That would be my guess.
Yeah, probably. That’s how I roll.
I have met a couple current NFL players. Do they count?
Are they like the 3rd string kicker? Then no. If somebody we might have heard of before, yeah, probably.
I’ll let you judge:
Braylon Edwards, current San Francisco 49ers wide receiver
Tony Scheffler, current Detroit Lions tight end
I met them because they both have ties to the local high school football team.
Serena Ryder (awesome singer songwriter) is the most recent celebrity run in and it wasn’t in my home town – it was Portland – she recognized and acknowledged us – long story. I am sure I’ve run into celebrities, I know that I live in “Hollywood North,” but I don’t really care – they have a life and so do I and I don’t see why they need to overlap.
I met famous people. No one you’d know… But they’re really famous, I promise you. This just isn’t the place for name dropping.
I met Will Smith when he literally walked into me at the mall. He was really funny about it too. Definitely a wonderful experience.
Afterwards when you were parting ways were you all like, “Yo Homes, smell ya’ later!”?
Zooey Deschanel has magical powers over men. I envy her effortless prowess.
I have met George W. Bush and Chad Kroeger of Nickelback. And players from the Detroit Red Wings.
It’s kinda difficult to rip on Nickelback when Chad Kroeger is just the nicest Canadian you could ever meet. Difficult, but certainly still do-able
It’s a combination of cuteness, intelligence, quirkiness and just the right amount of awkwardness I think.
I have no problem ripping on Nickelback. Nice people do bad things all the time; they’ve just managed to do it consistently.
Funny! I was told to visit The Pancake Pantry when I visited Nashville (once in ’08 and once in ’09). I was told there would definitely be a celebrity sighting. While I did not see anyone famous, I did sure enjoy the “chocolate sin” I indulged in, while my mom ate “sweet pot” (that is how it came out on the receipt anyway). That’s how my mom and I roll though.
I’ve gotten photos with the ladies of Point of Grace, Jaci Velasquez, Nathan and Christy Nockels (Watermark anyone?), Detlef Schrempf (retired basketball player), and, most recently, one of my all-time favorite bands: Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist of Over the Rhine.
I also met Zooey Deschanel once.
Just joking… I couldn’t lead you on like that.
I don’t get star struck, except for maybe I did a little bit when I met Linford and Karin. They are my heroes in songwriting
I also live in Nashville and I totally count Christian recording artists as celebrities, mostly because I don’t ever see any of the other big ones around town.
However, one time T-Swizzle did wave at me. Does that count?
Maybe. If I knew who that was.
Wait. Is that some young-fangled way of saying Taylor Swift? Because if it is, then yes, I’d say that counts.
yes, T-Swizzle= Taylor Swift. Sometimes I like to pretend that we’re friends… hence the nickname.