Camille Eide writes romantic, inspirational dramas about love, faith, and family. She lives in Oregon with her husband and is a mom, grammy, bass guitarist, and a fan of muscle cars, tender romance, oldies rock, and Peanut M&Ms. By day she’s a church office manager. She is a fan of oldies rock, Jane Austen, muscle cars, and Peanut M&Ms. Camille blogs about God’s amazing grace at Along the Banks (camilleeide.wordpress.com), and reviews books and inspirational TV/Film at Extreme Keyboarding (camilleeide.blogspot.com).
The Meeting of a Celebrity
by Camille Eide
Have you ever met a celebrity? If you have, how did you respond? With squeals? Fainting? A composed greeting? Was it an expected meeting, or a stroke of luck? I’m not sure which would be easier—knowing I’ll be meeting someone well-known face to face and having time to work up jitters, or a totally off-guard, chance meeting.
Last spring, I had the opportunity visit the film set of Hallmark’s When Calls The Heart TV series. While there, I met Lori Loughlin (“Full House”). As I prepared to meet her, I was terrified that I would ramble nonsense or trip and knock the lovely woman down (she’s insanely tiny). But as it happened, she was very gracious and seemed so genuinely happy to meet me that my nerves disappeared. She even hugged me and insisted on a group photo. I didn’t injure her once, so all in all, a celebrity-meet success.
Years ago, when the movie “Bandits” was being filmed in my very small hometown, I hoped for a chance to meet Bruce Willis, Cate Blanchett, and Billy Bob Thornton, and I almost did, but that’s another story. A friend who worked at a local coffee shop described the scene each morning when Mr. Willis and his assistant would come into the tiny café. Bruce, wearing shades at 5:30am, would stand at the back near the door while his assistant ordered coffees. That struck me as odd. If the highly recognizable film star didn’t want to interact with the public, why did he bother coming inside? Of course, that had me curious about the reason and I wondered if there was some mysterious story there, some deep loneliness masked by fame…
In The Memoir of Johnny Devine, Eliza discovers mere seconds before meeting her prospective new employer that he’s a major film star. She has very little time to prepare herself. And based on the pre-screening by the house maid, Eliza realizes she had better not squeal, go weak in the knee, or faint. The girl before her didn’t last a day, which was not a good sign. Eliza’s nerves go on instant high alert.
When Eliza sees the man she’s come to meet, she recognizes him instantly and it takes everything in her power not to visibly react. Based on his reputation, she’s not surprised her predecessor had a melt-down. Everyone knew of this man’s escapades—the tabloids had made sure of that.
What Eliza doesn’t know is that this man is about to tell her a story that will not only change her view of him, it will also change her life.
Q: What about you — do you have a “celebrity-meet” story to tell?
More about The Memoir of Johnny Devine (Ashberry Lane, 2015):
A young WWII widow hired to write an exclusive memoir lands on McCarthy’s hit list and must clear her name while trying not to fall in love with the born-again, ex-Hollywood heartthrob whose scandalous past keeps him too busy to notice her. Or does it?
In addition to being an Romantic Times 2015 Reviewers’ Choice Award Nominee, The Memoir of Johnny Devine has now been awarded the RT December Seal of Excellence — the RT Editors’ Book Pick of the Month!
Seal of Excellence: “Each month the RT editors select one book that is not only compelling, but pushes the boundaries of genre fiction. This book stands out from all the others reviewed that month, in the magazine issue and on the website.”
RT reviews hundred of books in several romance genres ranging from erotica to paranormal to suspense/mystery to inspirational to New Adult. This award was decided by a board of RT Editors representing all romance genres. If I’m not mistaken, The Memoir of Johnny Devine is the first Inspirational title ever to earn this recognition.
For the next 2 weeks, RT Book Reviews is celebrating the 2015 Seal of Excellence winners with the “12 Days of Bookmas” and will ask those authors about their personal favorite reads of the year. They are also giving away a set of all 12 books. Here is a link to the titles and a giveaway for all 12 books.
Here’s where you can find The Memoir of Johnny Devine:
Amazon (eBook & Print)
Barnes & Noble (eBook & Print)
Kobo
iTunes
Smashwords
Goodreads (be sure to mark “Want To Read”)
And where you can find Camille:
Author Website: www.camilleeide.com
Fiction Blog: www.camilleeide.blogspot.com
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Camille-Eide-Author/134301859999367
Twitter: www.twitter.com/CamilleEide
Email: Camille@camilleeide.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5356695.Camille_Eide
Instagram: http://www.online-instagram.com/user/camille.eide/1429893866
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/camilleeide/
My dad was in radio and tv when I was younger. So I had the chance to meet quite a few so-called celebs. The earliest memory was when I was ten and met Johnny Cash. He shook my hand and I swore I wouldn’t ever wash it again. After a week of a LOT of patience, my mom forced me to wash my hand. Oh, the germs! Not sure I ever forgave her. LOL
I can see not wanting to wash your hand after that…I’m so glad you did, though. 😉
Linda, that’s awesome! Lucky! I’m glad you didn’t faint. 😉
Meeting the When Calls the Heart cast was a dream come true!! I didn’t even trip, which was a fear of mine since we were out on gravel! Haha!
I also ran into The Fonze, and Ralph Mouth. ? Literally. I was walking in a hotel lobby, and basically turned around to look behind me, and ran right into them! I was so embarrassed, but they were so kind, and stood there and talked to me for a bit. They were in town for a classic car show!
Poor Debi, that sounds more like something I would have done. How wonderful that they were so gracious. 🙂
I was fortunate to be on location during some of the filming of Love Comes Softly and Love’s Enduring Promise -so I met most of the cast of each movie. Katherine Heigl is an avid knitter and Dale Midkiff is even taller in person than he seems on screen. January Jones (Loves Enduring Promise) wasn’t very friendly -but McKenzie Astin (Patty Duke’s son) was completely charming. I had a lengthy phone conversation with John Schneider when he was considering a part in Love Comes Softly – very nice man! But my biggest thrill probably came when I attended the Movie Guide Awards in 2003 and most of “Old Hollywood” was there – Mickey Rooney, Jane Russell, Gavin McLeod, Chuck Norris, Beau Bridges – it was almost like watching old films come to life -amazing 🙂
I’ll bet you were in a fog surrounded by all that classic talent, Cindy. What a wonderful treat, and how fun to talk with actors and see the person behind the roles they play.
About 21 years ago my very pregnant sister and I were walking around Trump Plaza in New York City. We had my 3 year old nephew in the stroller. We were in the elevator when it stopped and Kevin Bacon and a business associate got in. They were having a discussion and when he saw my nephew sleeping he said, “Shh, we don’t want to wake the baby.” The entire time my sister kept elbowing me in the stomach. Kevin Bacon held the elevator door open for us and then the door to the street. What a gentlemen and a kind, caring man. I will never forget that.
I love stories like this, Camille. It certainly helps give perspective on the fact that celebrities are real people, not caricatures or embodiments of fictional characters.