Celebrity Sightings Galore

My parents came to visit and over the span of just two days, we managed to get in a bunch of celebrity sightings. First, we went out to dinner where we were seated just a few feet from Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart. My mother didn’t really react because she and Harrison had “met” in an elevator in New York years before and I didn’t really react because I don’t care that much about either of them and whatever Calista was eating looked far more interesting to me than her or Harrison. The next day, we went to Cut, Wolfgang Puck’s steakhouse, where, sure enough, Wolfgang Puck himself was seated at the next table.

Again, despite the fact that all I ever do is watch Food Network, I felt nothing but a brief moment of excitement which quickly transformed into an excitement for the upcoming dinner. Within 24 hours, we managed to see a few substantial stars without even trying and yet neither my parents nor I had any reaction to them other than indifference. I think that many people who have lived here, in New York, or both have similar reactions because after a while, you realize that celebrities are just, to be clichéd, “people” and that it’s actually really tacky to approach anyone while eating.

Yet for me, this reaction is always interesting because if you ask anyone from my high school about me, they’ll mention at some point that I’m “obsessed” with celebrity. It’s understandable considering I was obsessed with celebrity and I did start a celebrity blog last year. But for someone who spends so much time reading US Weekly, I rarely get star struck. The few times I have felt speechless have been when I’ve unexpectedly seen one of my favorite stars—people who aren’t just celebrities, like Calista Flockhart or Harrison Ford (in the sense that although they each have their reasons for being stars, I’m not particularly invested in either so I lump them in the general celebrity category with other actors), but people who are famous for participating in something that I love. People who are “my” celebrities.

So, when I randomly saw Sarah Michelle Gellar, I nearly had a heart attack because she’s not just SMG, she’s Buffy. Same thing for Lindsay Lohan—she’s not just Lindsay Lohan, party girl extraordinaire, she’s Cady Haron, the main character of Mean Girls aka the movie I’ve seen billions of times. I guess in the end, contrary to everyone’s assumptions that every time I see a celebrity I freak out (or in the case of my parents, that I actually came to school out here just to see celebrities…because clearly there are NO celebrities in New York), I don’t fall apart every time I see one. And the only times I do are when I see those people who made me “obsessed” with celebrity in the first place.