by Katy Franklin.
You know how, in all those magazines on the stands today, there’s a whole bunch of celebrity worship and gossip, and they kind of make you feel like: a) you could never be a celebrity, and/or b) as a normal human being, you could never be cool enough to come close to dating one. That’s the vibe I get from those publications. But then, if you’ve ever paid enough attention (which, I unashamedly, admittedly have,) every once in awhile, you’ll find that someone really famous is dating someone really “normal.” Nicolas Cage dated and married his sushi waitress. Matt Damon married the girl who was his bartender at a club. Sure, it happens. But not very often. I was definitely skeptical about the reality of these situations until my sister, (we’re going to call her Annabelle) recently dated someone pretty famous (we’re going to call him Brad.)
Now please understand that I do not consider my sister “normal” by any means. She is 24 years old and drop-dead gorgeous. In physical appearance, she rivals any celebrity out there. She’s also extremely intelligent, easy to talk to, bubbly and fascinating, so it’s really no wonder somebody so well-known would have been interested in her. She works as an executive assistant to a very powerful entertainment agent in New York City so she meets a lot of famous people through her job.
So my sister, Annabelle, went to a premiere party for a movie that came out around the beginning of summer. Brad was one of the stars of the movie. You would also recognize him as the star of a popular TV show, and he has some directing, writing and producing credits as well. He’s young-ish, in his early thirties, and even though he lives in LA, he had moved to New York for the summer. So he saw Annabelle at the party and zeroed in on her. He introduced himself, and followed her around like a lost puppy all night. He asked for her number and got it, and used an excuse that he needed to be “shown around the city” by her, even though he had grown up in New Jersey. Annabelle left the party, and being a smart girl, was not quite sure she believed one word that came out of this movie stars’ mouth. And then she received 10 texts from him on her 10 minute walk home. Okay so he was definitely….interested. The texts continued the next day, (which just goes to show you that even famous guys can have really low standards when it comes to communication,) but, because Annabelle and Brad were in the same area of Manhattan, they decided to meet at a bar downtown.
When Annabelle arrived, Brad was already there with his brother and his girlfriend who was also famous, and my sister ended up having a really good time with all of them. Then Kirsten Dunst showed up alone at the same bar, and all of them knew her too. (Which just goes to show you that all famous people probably really do know each other.) Although, after chatting with Kirsten for awhile, they proceeded to gossip and talk badly about her. Annabelle stayed for a few hours, but then had to leave to meet up with some of her non-famous friends for dinner. She invited Brad’s brother’s girlfriend for a girls night out, and she actually wanted to come, but she had plans of her own. (This just goes to show you that sometimes, famous people like to meet and hang out with “normal” people. Sometimes, I guess. Maybe, like, on Sundays.) But, before she left, Annabelle made plans with Brad for the following day.
The next night, my sister met Brad at his (very swanky) hotel room and they hung out. They watched some TV and then Annabelle helped Brad pick out his outfits for his appearances on Regis and Kelly and TRL. He was going to be plugging his new movie and, as my sister found out, he was extremely worried about his choice of clothing and his physical appearance. He wanted Annabelle to help him look younger than his 30-something years, especially because he was going to be on TRL. Luckily Annabelle had a good fashion sense and picked out the clothes he ended up wearing. Then she got kissed. (I guess that just goes to show you that you never know when a good sense of fashion might come in handy and get you kissed by a movie star.) My sister did not stay with Brad that night. She wanted to take things slowly. She also told me that every time they hung out, she always just went ahead and figured it would be the last time. They had lots of fun together, but to say Annabelle wasn’t still skeptical of the situation would be an exaggeration.
The next couple of times that they hung out, Annabelle found out some interesting things about Brad and about dating a famous person. As mentioned, Brad was very concerned with appearances. He was getting ready to present at the Tony awards on one occasion, and all he could seem to talk about was what specific and prestigious designer he was going to be wearing. My sister tired of that “conversation” pretty quickly. He was also a blogger himself and spent a lot of time online and on his myspace page. That was where he kept in touch with all of his fans. He spent a good part of a date showing Annabelle around his myspace page. (Which just goes to show you that famous people really are out there on myspace after all, and your favorite actor’s page might actually be his.) Needless to say, this date with Brad was not exactly Annabelle’s favorite. Brad would be so excited to check his website to connect with his fans, and would spend lots of time in front of the computer when they were supposed to be out.
When Annabelle was able to yank Brad away from his computer, and they actually ventured outside, Brad would sometimes be recognized. When they went to restaurants, my sister would catch people with their camera phones out, pretending to take pictures of the scenery or their friends, but it was obvious to Annabelle that they were taking pictures of Brad. And pretty soon, my sister made a little bit of press as well. The gossip magazines were making a big deal of Brad being in NYC for the summer, so once in awhile they would report on him. One time, US Weekly reported seeing him with an “unidentified blonde.” That would have been my sister.
Eventually, Annabelle and Brad just fizzled out. They continued to exchange texts, but they were both busy and the summer was ending. Brad moved back to LA to continue filming his TV show, and my sister went back to dating non-famous men. Obviously, they dated very casually, and Annabelle found out later that Brad went on to date a string of famous people. Brad was sort of a playboy in New York that summer, and it was all documented in the gossip magazines. My sister knew this, though, and to Brad’s credit, he never really led her to believe otherwise.
I talked to Annabelle a lot about her experiences while she was dating Brad. Like any good sister, I was more concerned with how she was being treated by this person she was dating; I couldn’t have cared less if he was famous or not. But she told me it was fun. It was kind of thrilling dating someone so well-known. She always described him as fun to be with, intelligent, funny and interesting….if maybe a little pathetic at the dating game in general. Which, unfortunately, sounds pretty normal to me.
A final surprise came for Annabelle at the end of the summer. She and Brad had already pretty much lost touch, but he was hosting Saturday Night Live one night, so my sister tuned in. On that episode there was a skit that my sister knew was about her. The writers had, of course, taken creative liberties with it, but they had taken the meeting of Brad and my sister and turned it into a live skit on national television. At first, Annabelle was a little put off by this, but the more she thought about it, the more she was able to laugh about it and take it as flattery. One could argue that Brad did that purely to make himself look better, but isn’t that what being an actor and being famous is all about? To constantly have to sell yourself to everyone? To make sure you always look good in the eye of the general public? If you ask me, that meant that Brad cared enough about Annabelle and their time together to put their first meeting on national television, even if the perspective was a little skewed for comedic purposes. Which just goes to show you that Brad “famous movie star man” really enjoyed his time dating Annabelle “not so famous but all around cool girl.” Which just goes to show you that maybe celebrities are kind of…normal, after all.
About the author: Katy is an aspiring writer who just moved to LA from New York City. She used to work in the entertainment industry, but is now trying to figure out her life and what her next step may be! She loves movies, reading, writing and taco bell, and is enjoying getting to know LA.
