I feel like all I ever do now is complain in these posts. I'm sorry! I know it's irritating to read. I looked through a ton of my archives last night, and at one point I was actually writing somewhat entertaining entries here. I don't know what happened. I think I've lost my writing groove. I'm not sure what the point of this blog is anymore. I've thought about ending it recently. I dunno. I'm torn.

Anyway, I'm not ending it today, so whatever.

I've had a couple of star sightings in the last few months. A few weeks ago I saw Selma Blair and Ahmet Zappa at the movie theater at Hollywood and Highland. He gave her a piggyback ride as they left.

Last Saturday I saw Danny DeVito at ArcLight. He was standing at the top of the escalator that leads to the theater's exit, so he was surrounded by people leaving. He was extremely friendly to everyone who approached him. One guy said, "Hey! Mr. Louie De Palma (the character he played in Taxi, in case you didn't know, because I didn't)!" In response, Mr. DeVito smiled widely and stuck his hand out for the guy to shake. He seemed very personable and cool.

I completely understand why celebrities do it, but it still kind of irritates me when they're in public and they try to hide and whatever. Again, I totally understand it. I'm sure I'd be bugged if I couldn't go anywhere in public without being hounded, but it still kind of bugs and it's refreshing when you see a celebrity out in the open who is greeting his/her fans and being friendly.

On a related note, D told me recently that Steve Martin (I love, love, love this man to pieces, and I'd marry him if I could. I know he's not who a lot of people would find overly sexy, but I don't care. He's an excellent writer and very, very funny and smart. I highly recommend Shop Girl, if you haven't read it already. It's a novella, so it's fairly short and a great read - touching and poignant and witty all at once. Sorry for the long parenthetical note.) never signs autographs. Instead he carries business cards with him that say, "Here is proof that you met me," or something like that, because he doesn't believe in people bothering celebrities for signatures.

Now, I was kind of upset to find this out about my hero. It seems rather rude. I'm not saying that celebrities should be required to sign autographs every time, or even most of the time, they are asked, but to flatly refuse every time? And to give fans business cards printed with a snotty phrase? That doesn't seem right. It sparked some debate between me and D. D took the celebrity standpoint of "Although my job requires public exposure, it doesn't follow that I am public property, and I deserve my privacy." My stand was "Because you chose a job that puts you in the public eye, you should not be offended when your fans recognize you and want to talk to you sometimes. You should not have chosen a career that involves fame, if you are so completely opposed to the consequences of it."

Actually, my opinion kind of vacillates between the two extremes, if I'm being completely honest. Celebrities are not public property and do deserve privacy, but they should not completely shun their fans in public.

Wow. This post is going on a lot longer than I expected.

I found this on Gawker today:

The Black Table's Will Leitch, in discussing his obsession with celebrities, reveals the following about actor/comedian/writer Steve Martin: "Steve Martin (whom I haven't met) has this great ritual. He refuses to sign autographs, but if you approach him, he will wordlessly hand you a business card and walk away. The card says, simply: 'You have just had a Steve Martin Experience.'" [UPDATE from a reader: "actually, the card bears his signature and says something more like: 'this certifies that you have had a personal encounter with me and that you found me witty, charming and intelligent.' not exactly that, but something similar."

That's not quite as bad as "here's proof that you met me," and it's a little bit funny, so it takes the sting off.

And here's something I found that's even better, from crankycritic.com:

CrankyCritic: Didn't you used to give business cards instead of autographs?
Steve Martin: I did that years ago. It was a joke.

So now I am free to love Steve Martin again with my whole heart.