When it comes to your favorite celeb, most people agree that we shouldn’t be looking too closely. Don’t read too many interviews. And under absolutely no circumstances, meet them in person, because the version of them that exists in your head is almost certainly better than the reality. Unfortunately, some people ignore this logic. This thread is what happens.
An online community recently asked people to share their worst celebrity encounters in the wild, and the responses range from mildly disappointing to genuinely character-revealing. These infatuations, it turns out, only work in one direction. And it works best from a considerable distance.
More info: Reddit
#1
At first I thought it was going to be bad but he turned it around with one small gesture. Dwayne Johnson. Long story short, he agreed to take pics with kids taking karate when he was done at the gym. He tried to to leave but the owner’s wife wasn’t having it. Got him to come back and he agreed, but only 1 pic with the whole group. When he was done my kid looked at me and I told him to ask. He said “Excuse me, it’s my birthday. May I take a picture with you?” HE AGREED! Had that blown up to poster size!
Image source: Otherwise-Wall-6950, Esquire
#2
The weekend once called my friend ugly to her face while she was at work. She was working in a heavily scripted, super popular haunted house and one of the rooms was… the weekend themed? I don’t know. You would have to d**g me to get me to go to a haunted house. But anyway there was a weekend character in this show who gets “k****d” by a girl and he came early to view the scene. My friend was the girl. After they did their scene, the weekend remarked to the show manager that it was “not going to work” because the girl k*****g him needed to be “much hotter” than my friend, and that he wasn’t going to be m******d by someone ugly. Real d******d.
Image source: Joebidensvalium, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
#3
The worst: Miles Teller. Egotistical, rude, unreasonable, total j*****s.
And to avoid being negative Nancy, the BEST: Queen Latifah. Such a gem, kind and sweet to everyone, posed for pics with staff and fans, talked with the chef about her table’s meals and was very complimentary.
Image source: PossRuss, Theo Von
A parasocial relationship is an entirely one-sided emotional connection a person develops with someone they have never met, like a celebrity. In this, one party invests genuine emotional energy, loyalty, and attachment, while the other party has absolutely no idea they exist.
The reason parasocial relationships feel so real is that they’re built on real emotional responses. You laugh at the same jokes, share the same values, and feel genuinely invested in someone’s well-being and success. The brain processes this connection through the same neural pathways as actual human relationships, which is why a celebrity disappointing you in person can feel disproportionately gutting.
You weren’t just meeting a stranger. You were meeting someone you had, without realizing it, built an entire relationship with. They just hadn’t been informed of any of it. Social media creates the illusion of intimacy and access that makes the distance between fan and celebrity feel smaller than it ever actually is. It isn’t smaller. It’s exactly the same distance it always was. The content is just better at pretending otherwise.
#4
Years ago I was in a restaurant in Aspen and Steve Martin was at the next table. He was awful to the waiter… broke my heart to see him act that way.
Image source: WildWonder6430, Jimmy Kimmel Live
#5
Courtney Love. This in the late 90s and I’m sure she was going through it at the time but god she was a monster. She came into a small vintage boutique I worked in. She screamed at everyone not to look at her, proceeded to destroy two vintage designer dresses that were too small for her. Took off everything but her underwear to try a jacket on, pranced around that way for about 20 minutes, got mad again because we were staring. Made a huge mess and didn’t buy a thing.
Image source: Turbulent-Pension-31, The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan
#6
Bruno Mars. I was sitting on a couch outside a studio at Westlake Studios in Los Angeles waiting for my roommate to get off work as an engineer there. He just comes up out of nowhere, sweating looking geeked out and says “Where the f**k is my car?” I look back at him and say “Who the f**k are you?” Lmao. This was back around 2009-2010 and I genuinely didn’t know who he was.
Image source: CranberryFree5203, TheEllenShow
In 2022, following a frustrating 1-0 loss to Everton, Cristiano Ronaldo was walking off the pitch toward the tunnel when a 14-year-old autistic boy held out his phone to film the players leaving. Ronaldo, visibly agitated, slapped the device aggressively out of the boy’s hand, shattering it on the ground.
The incident was caught on camera, went viral within hours, and resulted in a police caution, a significant fine, and a two-match ban. The boy’s mother described her son as devastated. He had gone to the match specifically hoping to see his favourite player.
The Ronaldo incident is a particularly uncomfortable entry in the celebrity encounter hall of shame. A child. Autistic. At a football match with a phone. The threat level was, by any reasonable assessment, zero. The moment revealed something about how some people in positions of extreme fame begin to relate to the humans around them. They simply see people around them as an inconvenient feature of the environment.
#7
Naomi Campbell, I worked at a 5* hotel in London, she refused to speak to the staff and instead would relay her order to her PA who would then tell the waiter. If you tried to speak to her directly, she would be incredibly rude.
B***h, I’m right in front of you! Talk to me!
Eventually the owner of the hotel came down, she was fawning when he came over to her, and he simply said “if you refuse to speak to my staff, then they will not be serving you anymore”
She left.
Image source: Fickle-Watercress-37, The Michael Parkinson Channel
#8
Tommy Lee. He took my hat off my head and signed it. I wasn’t even interested in meeting him and was talking to somebody he was with.
I don’t think he’s a bad dude, that was just a bad interaction.
Image source: DistanceRelevant3899, Zach Sang Show
#9
Mike Tyson. I used to dance at Christie’s in Phoenix back in the early 2000’s. He came in with his body guard, who I was entertaining next to Mike in one of our raised sections. Not VIP, because Mike likes attention and for drinks to be bought for him by fans at the club, so stayed in gen-pop so people could come shower him with adoration and beverages.
Mike was shuffling through a cast of my lovely co-workers, when one tried to play the card of not knowing who he was. She was young, so… maybe… but it was pretty obvious and I’m sure they were buzzing back stage and the house mom likely let everyone know.
Ol’ Ear Nibbler, Pigeon Lover did not take kindly to the “what are you famous for?” line she tried on him. When she turned away from him during her dance he put his foot on her b*m and shoved. Poor thing on her 6 inch platforms didn’t stand a chance. I hopped up and helped her off the carpet and the body guard paid her.
They let him stay, which of course they did, I guess. He bailed out about half an hour later when a threat came in that someone was headed that way to fight him, which I think was b******t dramatics. He left so quick he “forgot” to pay the current girl crazy enough to dance for him.
Luckily I was spared having to have any closer contact than the chair to his left with his very kind, very generous body guard.
Mike was a grade A dirt bag.
Image source: Kind_Age_4916, Theo Von
In 2023, Doja Cat was approached by fans on Threads who asked her to tell them she loved them, a fairly standard parasocial transaction that most celebrities navigate with practiced warmth and zero sincerity. Doja Cat, who has never been accused of doing anything the easy way, declined.
“I don’t though,” she wrote, “cuz I don’t even know y’all.” When a fan pushed back, reminding her of their loyalty through difficult periods of her career, she responded: “Nobody forced you… you sound like a crazy person.” The internet, predictably, was divided. Half the responses were outraged at the bluntness. The other half were quietly, reluctantly, a little bit impressed.
Because here’s the thing: she’s not wrong. She doesn’t know them. Nobody forced anyone. The loyalty of a fanbase is real and meaningful, but it was also never a contract that the celebrity signed. Doja Cat said the quiet part loud, which is either deeply rude or bracingly honest, depending entirely on how invested you personally are in the parasocial agreement she just refused to honor.
#10
Vince mcmahon stayed at a hotel I worked at and demanded no one could see him. including in his notes that grounds crew could not come within 200 feet of his cottage.
I delivered a requested “knock and drop” room service to his cottage, which was literally just leaving a picnic basket, knocking, and leaving. well the woman he was staying with opened the door literally mid knock. he was standing in the kitchenette and started screaming at me to basically f**k off and go back to work and i’m not worth looking in his general direction.
Image source: nikki2pants, The Pat McAfee Show
#11
I work at Disneyland so have seen my fair share of celebrities. The vast majority of celebrities I’ve interacted with have been pleasant or just generally haven’t done anything noteworthy. The Kardashian sisters (Kourtney and Khloe) were surprisingly nice. Vanessa Bryant was rude, though. She rolled her eyes when I talked to her (and I was just doing my job).
Image source: maddiemoiselle, NBA
#12
Hulk Hogan.
He was sat next to my friends and me at a restaurant and was a giant a*****e to the server. We kept looking over because it was so uncomfortable and uncalled for. Hulk looked over at us and said “I don’t do pictures or autographs.” We laughed because no one was even thinking about approaching him and he said “F**k off. I am just trying to eat dinner.”.
Image source: CaptainObvious126, Chris Van Vliet
Chappell Roan has taken a different but equally clear-eyed approach to the boundary question. Rather than declining to perform affection online, she has actively and repeatedly confronted fans and photographers who have swarmed, followed, and physically crowded her in public spaces.
Her position is consistent and unambiguous: celebrity status does not entitle strangers to her time, her attention, her personal space, or her body. She’s simply drawing a line between the version of herself that exists as a public figure and the version that exists as a private human being, and asking people to respect it.
It is, when you remove the celebrity context entirely, just a person asking not to be followed or crowded by strangers. The fact that it reads as controversial says more about what we’ve normalized around fame than it does about Chappell Roan.
#13
I’m a guy who had long hair when i was a teenager. Frank Sinatra called me a girl.
#14
Took my son to meet THE Adam West in I think, 2014? To this day I feel awful as we could have also met Burt Ward & Yvonne Craig but they were each asking $40 & I didn’t have the money at the time for $120 meet & greets. As we’re waiting in line the coordinator comes up to the line and tells us, “Don’t engage with Mr. West. Just pick a photo for him to sign, he’ll sign it and just move along.” Great. Really looking forward to this.
Three young women (older than my son, so probably 16-18) were in front of us, giggling. They have their stuff signed and move along. We get up to THE Adam West and he looks at us, looks at the girls and says to my son, “Ahhh if I was only your age..” We all laugh. He asks my name. I tell him I met him when I was 8 at a car show. He says, “I thought you looked familiar, maybe a bit older & fatter?” We all laugh. Asks my son’s name, and when he’s told it, says “I haven’t heard that name since before Batman!” and goes on to tell us about a guy who had his name and where they worked together on a show. THE Adam West was an amazingly friendly guy, but the celebrity handler was a jerk!
Image source: Uncle_Bug_Music, Pioneers of Television
#15
Had a date with a Producer’s asst. on the movie Chattahoochee (filmed in winter in South Carolina). Met Dennis Hopper, his ballerina wife, character actor Emmit Walsh, and Gary Oldman. Gary was so into his character, it was as if I was invisible and he couldn’t be bothered ( why should he be, I was nobody), Emit Walsh looked at me dismissive and instead of saying hello, nice to meet ya, he glanced at me and then asked the asst. Producer about something.,however, Gary Oldman’s sister Laila Morse and I cracked open several bottles of the Champaign I had brought to the set (I was the wine buyer for South Carolinas largest liquor wholesaler at the time, which is how I met the asst. Producer when they came to my workplace to purchase cases of champagne for the wrap party). Laila was a total hoot and we immediately hit it off as compadres. Overall, all the actors with the exception of Dennis Hopper were dismissive. Hopper was polite, his wife was elegant and we got along fine.
Image source: FlaminFlabbarghast, Rotten Tomatoes Indie
The reasonable conclusion sits somewhere between “leave them completely alone” and “they owe us everything.” Celebrities are people. Fans are people. And people, on both sides of that equation, are capable of behaving extraordinarily well or extraordinarily badly depending on the day, the pressure, and the specific circumstances.
The autistic 14-year-old with the phone deserved better. The fans who follow Chappell Roan to her car deserve to be told to stop. Both of these things are true simultaneously, and they don’t cancel each other out.
The parasocial relationship will never go away. If anything, it’s getting more elaborate and more intense with every new platform that creates a fresh illusion of access and intimacy. What can change is the shared understanding of what it is and what it isn’t. Watching someone perform, following their career, feeling genuinely moved by their work—that’s real, and it matters.
Expecting them to love you back, to perform warmth on demand, or to absorb whatever you direct at them in a car park is where the contract breaks down. They don’t owe you everything. You don’t owe them silence. Somewhere in the middle of those two things is a way of doing this that works for everyone.
Have you had a soul-crushing celeb encounter? Share your heartbreak in the comments!
#16
Weirdly, despite many years in NYC PR and encountering countless celebrities, Sandra Lee (the “chef”) was the absolute worst. She was so entitled and rude.
Image source: IAmSoUncomfortable, Sherri
#17
I met John Cusack at a Comic convention about 10 yesrs ago in Alberta. He was at a booth where you just go up and talk to him. I’m a huge Stephen King so I told him I enjoyed him in 1408 and he was a huge a*****e. Said it was a terrible movie, implied I was stupid and didn’t engage any further. I haven’t watched anything he’s been in since.
Image source: SharonButtah, The Howard Stern Show
#18
Used to work with Simon Cowell. Exactly the kind of self-centered obnoxious c**t you think he is. Had to fix something for him once and literally 10 seconds into looking at it he starts asking me if im done and that he has a really important meeting he needs to be in on so I need to hurry up. told him it will take 2 minutes and he told me 2 minutes of his time was worth more than a year of mine.
Image source: ShubbusDubbus10, The Interview
#19
This isn’t really “a*****e” level, just weird. I used to go to the same gym as **Mario Lopez**. I was on the treadmill, facing several TVs. Mario came in and changed the channel so he could watch Access Hollywood, starring Mario Lopez.
Image source: neoprenewedgie, DoctorOz
#20
Carlos Santana’s bodyguard hassled me at a brunch buffet because I was “getting too close to him.” I was trying to get eggs.
Image source: ChuckIeFunk, AXS TV
#21
Amanda Palmer.
When I was 16, I went to a Dresden Dolls concert. Afterward, she and Brian Viglione were signing autographs. I went up to the table they were at, gave her my poster, and said “the show was awesome!”
Amanda, without looking up at me and in a monotone voice, just said “I know” and signed my poster.
Brian at least said “thank you, my dear!”
I’ve disliked her ever since. When all the c**p came out about her and Neil Gaiman, I thought “yeah, checks out.”.
Image source: Vapor2077, Women of Rock Oral History Project
#22
Bam Margera. People find him to be a celebrity. He has a way of showing up on my vacation or flights for 15 years. He is vile. In 2012 my cruise was delayed for hours because he and his GF refused to reboard after a stop in Bermuda, he also of course was at the same small local bar as me that day. My last experience was 10/25 on a flight from lax to PHL. He was two rows ahead of me and we had a 6am flight. He was drinking scotch and being annoying and loud. After the flight I discovered his fans thinks he is sober.
Image source: gloriousvenom, The Nine Club
#23
Michelle Fairley, who played Catelyn Stark in Game of Thrones. I’d just seen her in a play, and I told her how much I enjoyed it. She huffed and just walked away.
Image source: tomuelmerson, Four Nine
#24
John Stamos – went to a filming of Full House as a kid and he was a jerk about signing an autograph for me and my brother (we were little kids). Stephanie on the other hand was super nice.
Image source: Delicious_External, Bobbi Althoff
#25
I worked at a fine wine store on the east coast in maybe ‘05 I think and Dan Aykroyd was going to set up a booth to sign his crystal skull vodka. I was next to him all day, and while not necessarily rude out of the 150 or so folks that bought a bottle and had him sign maybe 60% said how great he was in Coneheads or Ghostbusters. Some people put a ton of effort into home made costumes so they could dress like their favorite character. He seriously did not say a word in response to anyone’s comments or anything regarding his movies, not a d**n thing. This poor kid obviously poured his soul into that replica ghostbusters costume, and the older women did their conehead costumes with full blown paper mache all night; but unless you were praising his vodka, not a word. So not a*****e but rubbed me the wrong way as like no bud, your charging 50$ a bottle for average vodka in ‘05 that has a gimmicky bottle, they are not buying it for that, it’s because they loved you in those movies.
Image source: Medusavoo, AXS TV
#26
John Mellencamp
Let’s just say he wouldn’t do s**t for Jack *or* Diane.
Image source: BigDaddyTheBeefcake, PowerfulJRE
#27
Mindy Kaling, hands down. I told her I was a fan of her as Kelly on The Office and she replied, “Excuse me, do I know you?” and walked off.
Image source: nipplemouser, Bustle
#28
Tim Robinson. He yells.
Image source: ntwiles, Late Night with Seth Meyers
#29
Went to a convention for the TV show Psych. Whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth and honestly haven’t cared to watch the show since.
James Roday Rodriguez was easily one of my favorite actors. He wasn’t outwardly a d**k, but he seemed drunk and the rest of the cast kind of tried to cover it up. Very short with people and just looked like he didn’t want to be there.
Dule Hill was, and probably always will be, a f*****g rockstar and was polite as could be.
Image source: Muffles7, Psych Official
#30
Not me but for years my dad said Bill Cosby and Whoopie Goldberg were terrible people. He worked as a Black Jack dealer and in the 80’s either dealt to or knew people who dealt to them and they were cheap, rude and demanding. Never watched the Cosby show growing up cause my dad never liked Bill and for years I got offended looks from people when I told them about Bill.
Image source: Stumpy2584, Associated Press
#31
Miss Fame from RuPaul’s Drag Race. I really liked her in her season, and told her so, and she was so rude to me. Made me loathe her and fall out of love with drag race for quite awhile. Now I realize she is just small.
On the flip side, Courtney Act and Bianca del Rio were two of the nicest people I’ve ever met!
Image source: Fckconservatives
#32
Soleil Moon Frye (Punky Brewster) is the most entitled, wanna be famous person ever. It’s always the formerly famous, now D-listers who have something to prove.
Image source: GercektenGul
#33
I used to manage a hotel that the MN Vikings would stay at for training camp. Honestly, most were awesome, but Darren Sharper came to check in one day and handed me his Black AmEx. They were relatively new at the time and still somewhat of a status symbol. I said “huh, I’ve never seen one of these before.” His response “yeah, you probably never will again.” 20 years later, he’s still in prison for being a monster. Hope he never gets out.
Image source: milkman10169
#34
I was waiting at the elevator after checkin at the Nobu Hotel, Steve Harvey comes afterwards. When the elevator comes, his bodyguard shoves me to the side, and tells me to take the next one. F**k Steve Harvey, I was there first.
Image source: yakitorispelling
#35
Roseanne. She came into my bookstore and was just rude, standoffish and had a dark vibe around her.
Image source: Mockturtle22
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