As I've mentioned, we live in Nashville where celebrity sightings--at least the country music variety--are not all that unusual. (I could drop some names here, but that would be tacky, wouldn't it? We even attend church with someone widely considered a country music legend...but, again, I won't drop names.) More and more, celebrities from other genres are discovering Nashville too because, for the most part, people here leave celebrities alone and respect their private lives. Sure, we're all gawking on the inside, but we have the Southern decency to be cool and act unimpressed.
Over the weekend, we had one such celeb sighting, as a Nashville power couple (he's a country artist and she's a bona fide movie star) attended a production of The Secret Garden, which just happened to feature my oldest daughter as the Robin. The coolest part is that the pair didn't know any of the kids in the show--they simply wanted to support their community and expose their daughters to local children's theatre.
That got me thinking about what may have been my very first experience at being "starstruck." It was the early 80s, and we were on vacation at--you guessed it!--Walt Disney World. Standing in line for the monorail to Epcot, we spotted a familiar bearded face...it was Randy Owen of the country group Alabama. Now, you must understand that this was perhaps the height of Alabama's fame. Clearly, many of those around him were quite aware of who he was. But everyone seemed to be letting him enjoy his family vacation...kinda like folks do in Nashville. (In full disclosure, I must admit that my paparazzi father took a picture--from a distance--and later did approach Owen when he was alone, to quickly shake his hand and thank him for his music. Sadly, the pic is in Indiana at my parents' house, so I couldn't post it.)
Since then, we have seen other celebrities at WDW, although most often in official capacities (performing/greeting) instead of on their family vacations. And I have Cast Member friends who've had their share of contact with stars while on the job. Due to location, more famous folks tend to take their kiddos to Disneyland than WDW, but there are still plenty who make the trek to Florida to see the World too. And you never know--when you least expect it, you may look behind you in line for Space Mountain and find a familiar face standing there!
How about my readers? Have any of you had a fun celeb sighting at WDW?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
We saw Kobe Bryant and his family at WDW June of 2011. I admit that we also took a picture! He was being escorted by a cast member and 2 body guards.
ReplyDeleteFun! That reminds me that back when DHS still used the actual studios and did filming there (the MGM days, probably the early 90s), we saw Shaq doing a Pepsi commercial. (There was a walk-through tour where you could watch from windows above). He was ENORMOUS in person!
ReplyDelete