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Your stories of complete assholes in the entertainment industry
Raybies666
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
OK so I got inspired by the Boondock Saints 2 thread, so I decided we'd all get together and tell heart warming stories of our personal experiences of industry douchbaggery, no matter the level you're in at.
As I mentioned Boondock saints, we don't need to know about Overnight.
We don't need to know that Roman Polanski is basically on the run for statuory rape.
We don't need to know that Robert Evans is MR casting couch.
Unless, y'know, Robert Evans nailed you saying you'd get the part, while Polanski pretended you were 13 and Troy Duffy screamed at you the whole time. That would be some story.
The level of douchebaggery I've personally experienced is not at any great height, ground level really.
I joined a band a few years ago when their lead guitar player quit to work abroad. We entered a Battle of the Bands where the prize was getting to play at a large music festival. The competition had a series of heats, then the winners of each heat went to a final.
The night we played was a thursday night. Me and the drummer went out for a smoke through a private door in the club. Another band were out there smoking joints. They finished their joints and went back inside when I saw the door closing and ran to stop it (about 10 feet away), but was too late. Then I hear a load of laughing from the other side of the door.
Did I mention this door couldn't be opened from the outside? Those fuckers laughed and walked off, leaving us locked out. Luckily our bass player still had his phone switched on and let us back in after about 15 minutes of us trying to get in contact. We played well when it finally started, but as we were on first, the place was still empty apart from people we brought ourselves. We got a chant going from the crowd, which was pretty cool, but not enough people were there to vote. We were on way too early in the evening
The band who locked us out were on last. We noticed at the last moment that they stopped playing and singing a couple of seconds before the sound stopped. It started becoming clear that this was rigged to high heaven.
Turns out later, the competition organisers (involving a popular radio station) allowed for a wild card entry into the final. There would be a draw. The organisers stated that every member of the band had to be there to be eligible. Your drummer has an emergency at the last minute, but the rest of you are here? No dice.
They also wanted the bands to pay into the venue on the night of the draw. Given that there were 7 heats, with at least 4 losing bands and assuming an average of 4 people per band, the wanted at least 112 people paying in. It was between €5 and €10, which isn't much in general, but that's a potential of (at the very least) €560 just from the door and just from the bands themselves.
In short, in a rigged competition, the "winners" were content to fuck with other bands and the organisers tried to gouge money out of the people who never had a hope of coming anywhere.
Like I said, this is low level stuff, but share away, no matter where you are on the pole.
Especially if you were sitting in a FOX office saying "let's make a good Xmen 3", surrounded by people saying "lets fuck with Superman Retuns"
As I mentioned Boondock saints, we don't need to know about Overnight.
We don't need to know that Roman Polanski is basically on the run for statuory rape.
We don't need to know that Robert Evans is MR casting couch.
Unless, y'know, Robert Evans nailed you saying you'd get the part, while Polanski pretended you were 13 and Troy Duffy screamed at you the whole time. That would be some story.
The level of douchebaggery I've personally experienced is not at any great height, ground level really.
I joined a band a few years ago when their lead guitar player quit to work abroad. We entered a Battle of the Bands where the prize was getting to play at a large music festival. The competition had a series of heats, then the winners of each heat went to a final.
The night we played was a thursday night. Me and the drummer went out for a smoke through a private door in the club. Another band were out there smoking joints. They finished their joints and went back inside when I saw the door closing and ran to stop it (about 10 feet away), but was too late. Then I hear a load of laughing from the other side of the door.
Did I mention this door couldn't be opened from the outside? Those fuckers laughed and walked off, leaving us locked out. Luckily our bass player still had his phone switched on and let us back in after about 15 minutes of us trying to get in contact. We played well when it finally started, but as we were on first, the place was still empty apart from people we brought ourselves. We got a chant going from the crowd, which was pretty cool, but not enough people were there to vote. We were on way too early in the evening
The band who locked us out were on last. We noticed at the last moment that they stopped playing and singing a couple of seconds before the sound stopped. It started becoming clear that this was rigged to high heaven.
Turns out later, the competition organisers (involving a popular radio station) allowed for a wild card entry into the final. There would be a draw. The organisers stated that every member of the band had to be there to be eligible. Your drummer has an emergency at the last minute, but the rest of you are here? No dice.
They also wanted the bands to pay into the venue on the night of the draw. Given that there were 7 heats, with at least 4 losing bands and assuming an average of 4 people per band, the wanted at least 112 people paying in. It was between €5 and €10, which isn't much in general, but that's a potential of (at the very least) €560 just from the door and just from the bands themselves.
In short, in a rigged competition, the "winners" were content to fuck with other bands and the organisers tried to gouge money out of the people who never had a hope of coming anywhere.
Like I said, this is low level stuff, but share away, no matter where you are on the pole.
Especially if you were sitting in a FOX office saying "let's make a good Xmen 3", surrounded by people saying "lets fuck with Superman Retuns"
Beat me on Wii U: Raybies
Beat me on 360: Raybies666
I remember when I had time to be good at games.
Beat me on 360: Raybies666
I remember when I had time to be good at games.
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Tim Allen ratted out his friends when getting caught with cocaine.
Johnny Cash burned down lots of untouched and protected woodland, and was completely unapologetic even though said fire almost wiped out a species that lived in the area.
Elvis treated his wife like utter shit and once said "that's how a man makes love to his woman" after coercing her into intercourse physically.
Rick James pretty much went Fritzl on a lady and got away with it.
Then there's O'Reilly and Glenn Beck, but those are mostly allegations.
Oh, and didn't Kanye West pretty much walk away from a car crash he caused while on pills despite the serious damage to the other driver?
But it's not really limited to the entertainment industry - even Einstein was a serious bastard fuck towards his wife. Even Gandhi had a sanctimonious and pretty shitty disposition towards his dying wife.
Oh what the fucking fuck. Someone ought to raise a guillotine somewhere within eyeshot of his house before he starts demanding tithe and milling taxes.
I saw most of that on cracked last week. Interesting stuff to be sure, but not really what I'm going for here. Keep it to personal experiences if you can, thanks.
That's unbelievable. My flabber is gasted.
Beat me on 360: Raybies666
I remember when I had time to be good at games.
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/comedy-goldmine/celebrity-encounters.php
So basically friend a and his parents make a day trip to the coast here in northern cali, and he's allowed to bring along friend b. As they're unpacking their car some sort of costly luxury vehicle rolls past, and friend b spots Kramer inside driving. He points out the car to friend a as it drives farther on in the lot and mentions he thinks he saw Kramer as friend a is a huge Seinfeld fan.
So they grab a pen and some paper out the car to see if they might be able to grab a quick autograph and a handshake.
Now they were basically going to the beach, but this is also apparently a spot where whales are often observed, and connected to the parking lot is a path that leads to a secluded raised scenic look type location for watching whales and they spot Kramer again as he disappears down the path.
They follow and as they approach the end of the path where the lookout is the see Kramer alone with his back to them looking out at the Pacific. Now he must have heard them coming because as they walk up he turns around and before they have a chance to say or do anything he just starts laying into them.
"I CAME HERE TO ENJOY THE FUCKING OCEAN, NOT GET GAWKED AT AND HARRASED BY YOU FUCKING KIDS!!"
Now they were planning to politely ask for an autograph and leave, but seriously, at that point for all he knew they were just there to look at the ocean, same as him.
Which is why when I heard years later about his comedy club blowup my reaction was basically "Meh, not a surprise at all, dudes a known douchebag."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8T25D6ku7E
I was going to write out a story or two, but just thinking about the man puts me in rage.
Not really an asshole story, but it was interesting hearing that, and then later getting into Curb Your Enthusiasm and seeing it from the other side, on TV no less.
One person didn't get it though, and that was the choreographer. She decided to start choreographing to ill-known versions of recordings. Why couldn't she wait until we actually had any materials? I don't know, but she added a part to the show to do a specific dance that she choreographed because she wanted to.
Well the books came and surprise surprise, our version didn't have the retarded little dance that only existed in one recording. I was shocked, let me tell you.
It should be noted at this time that we had a really wimpy production staff. The show I'm doing now we've got a full staff. I have an assistant, the Vocal director has an assistant, we have a rehearsal accompanist, basically every spot on the staff. I think, one week before rehearsals actually start, the only positions we don't have filled are things like assistant production manager and assistant master carpenter(or "Ass. Master"). The show in question? Nothing. I was acting triple duty as MD, AMD, and Rehearsal accompanist, and I wanted to kill myself for it. Also it wasn't until the week of the production that we finally found the entirety of the pit(minus Key2, but my Key1 doubled).
Anyways back to the story. It's no big deal, right? We ditch the stupid dance that doesn't exist, and everything goes back to normal. Well, no. We'd already apparently cast the "Featured dancer" for the stupid dance that doesn't fucking exist, and the choreographer insisted that she totally needed this dance, totally. Absolutely had to have it because it was such an awesome dance. Her solution? Have me transcribe this fucking dance music from the recording. Oh except the orchestration was also completely different. And I didn't have a pit yet, and it was hard finding one because I was already overworked. So in the final version we had a stupid minute of music or so that was a completely different orchestration than everything else, that didn't fit in the song at all, and that was also transcribed really shittily because I didn't feel like polishing up something because of a stupid choreographer that didn't have anywhere approaching the musical ability to transcribe something her fucking self so decided I would.
God I still want to strangle her several times. Fuck that show.
He probably saw what they had in their hands.
Also, might be a wee bit cranky from being harassed for autographs all the time.
I know a guy who roadied for Oasis and Liam and Noel had the same policy.
Being involved in a production is a wholly consuming process 24/7. To not want to throw a wrench in th works like that I understand, but of course this is still really weird. Similarly, a wikigrab...
Rick Pitino fucked some crazy woman on the top of a table in his favorite restuarant while his assistant coach was laying in the floor listening to them (this is their proof that it was consensual as opposed to rape). When she later got pregnant, her threw her some money to get an abortion (he's supposedly a devout Catholic) and apparently coerced another assistant coach (rumored to be gay) into marrying her to shut her up. It didn't work.
EDIT: Then again I guess that's not really a personal story.
I also knew a guy who tended bar at some Irish pub in Lexington, where Billy Gillespie would go regularly and get trashed. He would then make sure everybody knew he was about to do a DUI so the bar would be legally obligated to call and pay for a cab for him, lest they all get fined/sued. This is the head coach of the UK basketball team, with a multimillion-dollar salary. If he didn't want to drive, he could have easily afforded a cab or even a fucking chaffeur. He also fucked his player's girlfriends and fiances (another inside source confirmed this to me) and treated his players like shit. He even apparently snubbed Jodie Meeks and refused to speak to him after Meeks broke UK's all-time scoring record. Good fucking riddance.
I also knew this girl who was really into equestrian events and worked in the summers at some really posh stable up around Louisville or wherever where William Shatner kept his horses. I don't know what he did, but she claimed he was a complete asshole and said something to the effect of she wished somebody would burn down his barn, but it wasn't the horses' fault they were owned by William Shatner. Of course, Shatner's assholitude is apparently a pretty widely-known phenomenon, but I was surprised to actually meet someone who'd suffered the brunt of it.
Their first big tour was with Creed and Sevendust, and their first album hadn't really done anything yet. No one was into their music, and their performance was awkward, and they caught quite a lot of heckling. We left after Sevendust's set, and were on our way out when a friend decided he wanted a t-shirt, so we waited while he got money out of an ATM. As we were waiting, the lead singer and the guitarist who looks like Patrick Warburton walked by, and I smiled and said "Nice set guys." The guitarist smiled back, but the lead singer said "Whatever, man, fuck off" and kept walking. I charged after the guy, intent on at least sucker punching him once, but the guitarist stepped in front of me and said "He can be an asshole sometimes."
So, the guitarist seemed like a nice guy, but the singer from Three Doors Down told me to fuck off for no reason.
The same night Ted Nugent slept with a friend's girlfriend, but he was actually a really cool guy.
Nah I'm just usually listening to instead of repeating the story and thus omitted an important detail, pen and paper were still secure in baggy jean pockets out of sight. Dudes just a dick.
I went on a blind double date one time with a couple of friends . The lady who was supposed to be my 'date' was fairly attractive, in her late thirties so a bit older than me, but we got along pretty good. After eating we went to a karaoke bar, when poison came on. We started to talk about the band, and she says "Once I was at a concert with some friends we got invited backstage and partied with the band all night, I ended up sleeping with Bret Micheals."
I'm glad she told me before I tried to make a move...
I wish I could say that.
"You do realize I'm not liable for anything I do unless I'm locked in a padded cell. Right?"
I'm not going to say hes not a dick, but dealing with the kind of fame that he (and other absurdly recognizably famous people have) is all kinds of intense. Seriously, people either deal with or or they are total dicks. That and its probably easy to assume that anyone approaching you is going to either want your autograph or talk to you about something.
Henry Winkler is supposedly a great guy and always gives people the time of day.
I usually cut them some slack because people harassing you for autographs probably gets fucking annoying really damn fast.
Dude doesn't exactly blend into the crowd. He is a weird looking recognizable actor from one of the most people series ever.
If he hadn't been such a public douchebag other times I'd be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, though.
EDIT: Actually, rereading the post there was really no excuse either way.
He is still a douche, but I'm more inclined to not get butt hurt over it and be even more impressed when a celebrity will give me the time of day.
Not me, but someone I work with was working in a Blockbuster video back in the late 90's and, lo and behold, Ken Griffey Jr. enters the store. He got his movie, went to the check-stand and apparently, he and my co-worker had an hour-long conversation. Apparently he had some great stories, like Jay Buhner showing up at Junior's hotel door in his underwear at midnight, wanting to see if he wanted to go downstairs and get some pizza.
And if I recall correctly, the movie Junior was renting was "The Longest Day." Don't quote me on that, though.
There are several "battle of the bands" tours that are have a "band guarantee" setup that amounts to little more than pay for play. The band has to pay a guarantee of a few hundred dollars and typically they get tickets and promotional materials for their time, which they then sell to make back the guarantee. The only problem with this pay structure is that the at the numerical ratio the tickets are actually published at, it's almost impossible for the bands to actually make money back even in a decent sized local music scene (much less the dinky one where I actually live).
Opening slots for touring national acts are kind of the same way.
Personal Stories: I saw steven segal freak out on a buddy's little brother and take away his water pistol (the green day glo ray-gun kind) for sort of generally maybe waving it in the direction of his steveness, in the context of play, far outside of the range of a water gun. We were high school aged and the little brother was I want to say about 10?
Complete with an on-deadly-ground style lecture about violent toys.
This one is going to sound like glurge, but it actually happened and in fact happened IN FRONT OF ME. I was at a weigh-in for a UFC and saw a women getting some autographs from Matt Hughes (who was not fighting in the event, he was just there with some team members). She did ask him for several autographs, but she was the escort for some actual wheelchair bound sick kids that couldn't make it all the way up to where they were. She walked up some steps to him and they were right there handy and visible. She apologized for asking for so many, but she said it was for these kids and they really like you and you inspire them to work hard in physical therapy etc and he signed the stuff, but as she was saying that, he said, "Yeah, I bet you're gonna tell everybody that and half this stuff will end up on ebay"
It was not my impression that he was joking. Maybe I mis-read his low-key midwestern humor, but I don't think so.
She told the kids that he said they inspired him.
Also, a former kickboxing instructor of mine had to step between Tank Abbot and Dan Severn once in his gym to keep them from coming to blows before UFC 6
I could tell a good one about Neil Patrick Harris but I think it could actually be considered libel
(that's why he paid for our meals)
On positive stories: I have met Chuck Norris and he's a complete gentleman.
I've worked security for a lot of semi-famous music acts and by and large most of them have a good handle on just keeping a kind of polite distance - to be in the public eye and still get stuff done, you have to have a little bit of a willingness to cut people off, only shake and sign so many hands and autographs, etc, but most people figure out how to do a balance.
I host a podcast about movies.
I mean, yeah they must get asked for autographs pretty much every day, so you can understand that they'd be looking for some alone time
but on the other hand, the person asking for the autograph; this is probably quite literally the only time they'll ever meet this person and they just want half a minute of their time
if local news counts, I could tell a few
such as the standard clause in air talent contracts requiring a personal appearance being interpreted by a news director to mean he could tell female staff to lose weight. This is not a rare practice.
I host a podcast about movies.
I mean, yeah, it would suck, but I can think of things than suck a lot worse.
DO IT
Make up a pseudonym or something if you have to
EDIT: Just remembered this one - a positive story instead of a negative one but I thought it was kind of interesting.
One of my old friends from high school had a father who drove buses for country music singers. He worked for (I think) Lorrie Morgan and later for Sammy Kershaw. Kershaw was apparently pretty friendly to him at first (bought him some pretty decent Christmas presents for a few years) but I think later became kind of a cheapskate.
Anyway, because of his dad driving the bus he got to meet some other celebrities - one of them being Danny DeVito, who Sammy Kershaw was playing golf with one day. To his surprise, DeVito was extremely friendly and cool as hell. Don't know if he was sober or not at the time.
Jerry Reed also used to vacation at a lake a little ways away from where I went to school; he had a cabin over there or something. He always went into one of the local dock restuarants/bars where lots of high school and college girls worked (the people we heard this from) and basically stayed absolutely shitfaced drunk 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Don't really know if he was friendly, assholish or what - just fucking plastered all the time.
I actually don't know what Larry was up to at the time, in fact I think it was a period after Seinfeld but before Curb, as my mom told me the story awhile back. I could be wrong though, I think he just added that segment to curb well after the fact as he incorporates the crazy shenanigans of his life into his stories.
Also, a long time ago my mom dated Gene Roddenberry's nephew. She never got to meet Gene however, as he kept skipping whatever gatherings that family was doing. Not really an asshole thing, just interesting.
I was involved in an improv marathon in NYC a few years ago connected to the UCB Theatre/Upright Citizens Brigade. Horatio Sanz was the "guest famous person" and spent a lot of time backstage hanging out. Dude was a fat sloppy asshole drunk. My friend Eric wound up getting into a debate with him about how Horatio Sanz is indeed not funny. It ended with him convincing Horatio Sanz that yes, he was correct.
Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh (Amy Poehler was not there) were all ridiculously nice. Matt even passed around the theatre bong for those who were interested. Being a performer and being able to go backstage was fucking awesome, despite having to interact with Horatio Sanz.
Oh, I also met Jaime and Adam from Mythbusters when they came to speak at my school. Adam seemed very excited when someone asked him to sign his slide ruler.
And Bob Saget is an asshole for the hell of it. He tells everyone in his shows that Dave Coulier shaves his balls (I have heard elsewhere that Dave hates being asked about this, and it happens constantly).
Henry Winkler is, in fact, a complete gentleman. I met him on the Universal backlot when I was filming a pilot for a television show that never got picked up, and he was really cool. I think I was being accompanied by my father, and Henry wrote out an autograph for my dad that was like half signature half letter about being a cool looking guy.
I met Keenan and Kel back when All That was a really big deal, and they were really cool guys. It was a pretty brief run-in (just lunch), since they were filming All That or their own show, and I was filming something else, but we ate a few slices of pizzas together and talked about music and tv.
I once auditioned for a music video and the artist, whose name escapes me at the moment, was a total asshole. She didn't wait until people auditioning were out of the room to start badmouthing them to the director. Needless to say, I didn't put much in to my audition and didn't get the job.