My Summer of B-List* Celebrity Encounters, Part 4

I'd like to think that I don't get caught up in all the allure of celebrity.  That I don't really get starstruck.  That everyone is just another human being, no more or less special than the rest of us.

I'd like to think that.

Obviously this latest series of blog entries has you undoubtedly saying to yourself "Ya, right, this dude is practically a celebrity stalker…"

And I guess I can't deny it.  Because I was pretty excited to meet Russell Crowe.

Russell Crowe?  Surely you jest…  But let me assure you, my dear, blog-reading faithful: I never joke about Russell Crowe.  Ok, that was a joke… but I'm not joking about having had a chance to meet him. That said, before we get into that, I've gone and gotten a head of myself already.  Let's take this back a few steps first.

I'm not a huge Russell Crowe fan.  I loved Gladiator (what red-blooded man didn't?) and L.A. Confidential.  And he's always solid in the many great movies that he has been in (The Insider, A Beautiful Mind, Cinderella Man, etc…) and even the 'lesser' fare (like The Quick and the Dead, which I am actually very fond of) . So, I can't deny that he's a very good actor.  But good actors aren't always great people.  I'm not saying he kicks puppies or laughs at the elderly when they fall down or anything, but he still doesn't really strike me as first ballot Man Crush Hall of Fame material.

So, while I like to think that I am impervious to the phenomenon that is celebrity culture - tabloids, paparazzi, TMZ, Entertainment Tonight… all that stuff -   I still found myself as giddy as a fan boy at the Skywalker Ranch at the prospect of meeting this actor that I really had very little actual interest in.

Ok, I'll spare you the suspense.  I didn't actually meet him.  In case you don't know the back story, the television show that my sister works on was having him on as a guest star during the week that I was in town visiting her, so I figured that crossing paths with Maximus Decimus Meridius was an outside possibility.  I didn't get my hopes up, and I really wasn't that disappointed when it didn't happen.  But still, when I thought about how cool of a picture it might be to post on Facebook, I was a little excited.

And that's what I'm conflicted about.  What is the allure of celebrity?  If I don't really have an interest in Russell Crowe, shouldn't I care less whether I shake his hand or stand next to him while he fakes a smile and someone takes our picture?  I can't figure out what the actual draw is, but it's undeniably there.

I guess it doesn't matter, at the end of the day, because I didn't meet him anyways.  That said, if I was semi-excited to get a picture with a guy that I didn't have any vested interest in, then you would imagine the thrill I would feel to get my picture with a genuine Man Crush.  But of course, that is a story for another day.

(*Yes, I know Russell Crowe is a true A-List Celebrity, and therefore the title of this blog is misleading, but I didn't actually meet him, so I decided to stick with my already established convention.)