A chance meeting with actor Paul Giamatti in Bangalow, Australia, leads to reflections on the magic of celebrity encounters and the disconnect between fame and recognition.
Who is the most famous celebrity you have ever encountered in the wild? I’ll tell you mine. About 10 years ago, I was walking up the main street of Bangalow in northern NSW. A man and woman were walking towards me. They looked like a regular middle-aged couple, although the man was talking in an American accent.
The trouble with encountering a star like Giamatti, however, is that when you say to people, “Guess who I just saw down the street? Paul Giamatti!” they’re quite likely to burst your bubble by replying, “Who’s Paul Giamatti?” Everybody knows the man’s face, but not everybody knows his name. Once, in Byron Bay Woolworths, I saw Delvene Delaney buying some cold meat. In Bangalow, I saw a super-tanned James Reyne eating a sandwich on a bench. I once narrowly missed seeing Elle Macpherson in the IGA. A friend told me he’d just seen her in there. By the time I got there she was gone.I once had to use the town’s only ATM to conduct an unreasonably lengthy transaction. I hoped that nobody was waiting behind me. When I was finally done, I found that somebody was.
The best Canberran celebrity encounter I know of happened to my brother, not me. We were driving through the nondescript suburb of Campbell when my brother found himself in urgent need of a toilet.Credit:
Celebrity Encounter Recognition Paul Giamatti Australia
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