Fame in Conversation- Marissa Taffer

Being the office intern usually means not having a whole lot of fun. When working as an intern as the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors bureau, I was often sent to make copies and run errands. One day, I got sent down to old city to pick up some flags. It was not a particularly exciting assignment, but I was extremely happy to be away from my desk for a little bit.
I was walking down the street minding my own business, when I saw a woman walking down the street with a bicycle cop slowly cruising next to her. I thought it was kind of odd, but who am I to judge? As the pair got closer, I realized that the woman was Whoopi Goldberg. I knew she was in town staying at the Rittenhouse, but I never expected to see her walking down the street.
There was a woman standing outside of one of the boutiques, and she turned to me as Ms. Goldberg passed and said, “oh my god, that was Whoopi Goldberg!” To be completely honest, I didn’t really care too much. I saw her on TV all the time, so seeing her in person was cool, but not really that exciting. Its not like I got to talk to her or hang out with her or anything.
When I got back to the office with my flags, my boss asked me if I had found the place ok and everything. I said yes. I also told her I had seen Whoopi Goldberg walking down the street. She got all excited and said maybe next time she would run her own errands! I just laughed because we both knew that the chances of her seeing a celebrity while running errands was highly unlikely and she was probably going to send me to run her errands still. (But don’t get me wrong, I really liked my boss and had a great experience at my internship.)
Within an hour a lot of people from our department were stopping by my office to ask me all sorts of questions. What was she like? Did she talk to anyone? Did she do anything weird? What was she wearing? It was like I was suddenly the expert on all things Whoopi and I hadn’t even spoken to the woman!
One of my family’s favorite vacation stories is from when we were in Italy visiting Vatican City. We were walking around when a very stereotypical Italian looking gentleman sitting at a café sipping espresso called out to my little brother to inquire about where he got his Sopranos hat. My brother replied that he had won the hat from a radio station in Philadelphia. We didn’t really think too much of it, but it was a bit odd. After walking another block or so, my dad suddenly stopped and said, “I think that guy is from the Sopranos.”
We walked back towards the café, and he was still sitting there, so my brother decided to ask him. It turns out we were right, it was Federico Castelluccio, who is also known as Furio Giunta on the show. He said he was in Italy dubbing his own voice for the Italian release of the show. He was really nice and took a picture with my brother and I.
When we got home, whenever anyone asked about the best part of our trip all four of us talked about meeting Furio in Vatican City and how funny it was. People loved the story and always asked about the picture when visiting our home.
When my aunts and uncles came over when we got home we were telling them about our trip, after hearing about our “brush with fame” that was all they wanted to talk about. These are intelligent college educated people and they suddenly didn’t care to hear about or see pictures of the ruins, cathedrals, or cultural things we saw or places we went. Everyone only wanted to hear about out meeting with the Soprano.
When my dad went back to work, he put a copy of the photograph in his office. He is the vice president of a biotech company and has a Ph.D. Most of the people who work for him are also highly educated and many hold masters degrees and doctorates.
Again I was surprised that all they cared about was that we met the celebrity, and not the other things we saw and did on our trip. My dad said of all the photos in his office (and there are a lot of pictures in his office) that is the one that people comment on the most.
In conclusion, after reflecting on my brushes with fame and the conversations that followed, it has become obvious to me that the people in my life are curious about famous people. They want to know what they are really like and what it was like to interact with them. I was always indifferent to these encounters and was surprised by the importance that was bestowed on them by the other people in my life. I didn’t notice anyone telling stories about famous people they met or trying to “one up” me, but they were definitely curious and interested in my experiences, more than I would have anticipated.