Celeb Spotting in NYC
 

Hi everyone - just wondering where the best spots are to catch a glimpse of a celeb or two in NYC? Thanks guys.

In general, if you try to spot a "celebrity," you'll fail.

On weekends in the summer, you'll fail (they leave town & avoid weekend crowds).

Your best bet is the West Village on a weekday, or Bar Pitti/Da Silvano at dinner time on a weekday.

But, please, don't bother any celebs if you see them. One of the big benefits to living in Manhattan is the relative anonymity.

One more spot frequented by "celebrities" on summer weekdays:

Nello's on Madison Avenue. Lunch & dinner.

You never know where or when a celebrity may pop up, even in the summer.

One summer afternoon I spotted Dustin Hoffman briskly walking uptown in the Lincoln Center area, and one muggy August evening I made eye contact with Woody Allen at Third Avenue and East 57th Street.

However, I lived in NYC for over 30 years (11,000 days) and made only about 50 such serendipitous celebrity sightings. Most of the celebrities I saw were in performances of one kind or another.

One thing a Ny'er does is not bother celebs and most of them come ehre so they can be left alone.

Just keep your eyes open in neighborhoods like Soho, the village, Chelsea, upper west side, Park Slope Brooklyn. Plenty of celebs live in these places, and if you see them it will be grocery shopping, picking up drycleaning, etc
BTW, we're not talking about Brad & Angelina types. Lots of TV and theater actors, musicians etc.
And yes--act like a New Yorker--notice them, wait till they pass, then confirm with other passersby--"yes, that was really him/her/them!"

Agreed that you're most likely to see celebs where they live - unless you know a specific person is filming in the city - then you can track the production.

And others are correct about leaving them alone. If you catch a celeb in a public moment (at the stage door or on the red carpet) you can ask for an autograph. But otherwise - it's not kosher to bother them. (When I lived on the east side Woody Allen shopped in my supermarket - and I saw him at least 2 dozen times - and no one ever bothered him.)

If you talking about celebutards - rather than NY based celebs - then you need to hang out at the trendiest hotels (really boring sitting in the lobby til all hours) or at a club (practically impossible to get in - unless you're on "the list").

The Waverly Inn on Bank Street. Go have a drink at the bar. There are celebs almost every night.

I have seen Dustin Hoffman, Sarah Gilbert, Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, and Harrison Ford walking around by Gramercy Park. Harvery Keitel, Rachel Weiss and Robert DiNiro shopping in Soho, Hayley Mills on 1st Avenue and tons more.

But the best place to find them is in the audience of an off-Broadway show. I have seen Jerry & Jessica Seinfeld, Sarah Jessica Parker, Nicole Kidman, Toby McGuire, Anne Bancroft and Mel Brooks, Victor Garber, Cynthia Nixon, Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward, Bernadette Peters, Oprah Winfrey, Queen Lattifa, and too many more to name.
The hard part is actually recognizing them on the street.

If you want to see where celebrities have been recently spotted it's fun to check out the NY Post Celebrity Sightings Star Map click on the link here: http://www.nypost.com/gossip/gossip.htm and scroll down a little on look on the left side of the page for the link to the map.

Gawker Stalker also notes where celebrities have allegedly been seen in NYC.

www.gawker.com

If you HAVE to approach them, you might want to try waiting outside the studios where Letterman or Regis & Kelly are filmed -- when the celebs exit, they usually expect to have a few fans hanging around hoping for autographs.

One known reliable place is lunch at
Michael's, 24 W 55 St. Reservation a
must, you will not be seated in front
room but you will def. see Hollywood
& media folk...walk slowly to the
back room!

It's easy to see celebrities in NYC. Just look in the TV Guide. In the mornings go stand outside of the news shows in Rockefeller Plaza and Times Square. If Letterman is filming go stand outside by the stage door to Ed Sullivan theater a little after 5pm. If there's people standing around they will tell you who is getting ready to come out.

Using these methods we've seen: James Brown, Diane Sawyer, J-Lo and that dancer she was married to, Tom Cruise, Al Roker, Katie Couric and other news people. One time we were there and that guy was standing on top of the pole. We saw him dive off into a pile of boxes.

I am terrible at remembering faces so based on what you have all said above about bothering 'personalities' can you still ask them for directions if I met one on the street & would they be upset if you failed to recognise them. If I did recognise them should I then acknowledge who they are?

My brother explained the NYC celebrity-meeting rule: If you make eye contact with a famous person, raise your eyebrow or look a question ``are you who I think you are?''. The celeb responds by nodding slightly and casting down eyes to signify ``yes.'' Then you both go on your way.

Good advice. It happened to me twenty-five years ago on 57th Street, just west of Fifth Avenue. In a beautiful red coat and nodding was Kitty Carlile, OBM.

johngerard, here's a true story: When my (now ex) boyfriend first moved to NYC in the early 80's, he was a little lost getting to an interview in the Village. He saw two older men standing by a phone booth, so he asked them which way to Lafayette Street. Both men looked at him incredulously, as if they weren't sure he was for real; realizing he really was asking for directions, they pointed him in the right direction and he was on his way. Half a block later, he stopped in his tracks - he realized he'd asked Woody Allen for directions!!

Same BF, different story: In the mid-90's on his way to lunch one day at his job in SoHo, a woman asked him for the time. In the moment it took him to look at his watch and reply, he realized it was Judy Davis. He did as capxxx indicated - gave her a knowing grin but nothing more - and she thanked him and was on her way. So I guess the question-asking can go both ways! ;)

(I myself am particularly terrible at recognizing celebrities, so I know what you mean! I'm really proud of myself when I do figure it out.)

You can always hang at the Broadway stage doors after a show to see the celebs that exit. As unlikely as it may seem with all the press, we have seen quite a few celebs at Joe Allen's. Last spring it was Ed Norton, Martha Plimpton, and Cyndi Lauper all on the same night.

I spent an hour at a bar with my husband and another couple, watching tv and eating burgers and soup. We were all waiting for the movie to start next door. We shared fries. Laughed and chatted about relationships, kids, dogs, etc. Then my husband said to the woman, 'you know, you look like Marilou Henner.' And she said, 'I am Marilou Henner.' Then we all picked ourselves up off the floor and went to the movie.

My oldest friend's wife was in India with her friends. And one of her friends knew a wealthy woman who had a very lavish dinner for them. A white Rolls pulls up and my friend's wife was the closest to the door and greeted the new guest. "Hello I'm Connie and you are?"
"You can call me Michael."

It was Mick Jagger.

I've been meaning to go...acording to NYC Fodors, Woody Allen plays in a Jazz Club on Mondays. What a hoot!
I think it would be great to meet someone wonderful and have it turn out that they'd been a famous person at one time. That way, you'd know you liked them for them, not for what the world thinks of them....

I enjoyed reading the rest of these posts.

Is it true that the small and old restaurant called Rao's in Spanish Harlem is where you can spot movie stars and La Cosa Nostra (Mafia) godfathers and wise guys? I was told by a pretentious and shallow New Yorker who I absolutely can't stand, that if you can get a table there , you are a made man. I do not believe this. Please enlighten me.
Thanks. {:-)

They wouldnt let Bill Clinton in....

Rao's. You cannot get in. Period. You either have to be a long time (20 year) customer or go with a long time (20 year) customer who has a standing table.

What they do is - In January they open their books and call all of their 20 year standing customers and offer them a table, 6 times per year. Once every two months. They get their dates, and that is it. The table is theirs for the night - no matter what time they arrive before 9:30 - 10:00 ish.

They have 10 or 12 tables, I forget. There is no eating at the bar.

However, if you really want to, you can go and hang out at the bar for a drink. Do this often enough and perhaps, just perhaps, if a regular customer comes in early for dinner and clears out by 9 pm, they MAY let you sit down. They do not have a 2nd seating so it is completely at the discretion of the mgr.

The food is good, not great, but the meatballs and seafood salad are fantastic.

I have two sets of friends who are 'members' and I go with them once in a while. They are not mafia by any means--one guy is a math professor.

Go to broadway after an afternoon show on Sat or Sun there are usually leads leaving with huge wave to crowd. I saw Julia Roberts when coming out of a show that David Schwimer starred in.

They shot down my whole block last night to film a scene for a new pilot. It's starring Peter Falcinelli - he was standing right outside my building smoking. It was kind of annoying tons of flood lights and people being noisy.

My mom and her friends (80 year olds) were in Soho and one of them couldn't figure out where the subway was (don't ask me why - they're all from NYC and they've done this a thousand times). So one of the ladies approached a couple walking by to see if they knew. The couple stopped, the man helped her out, and they turned out to be Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft! He said some funny thing after pointing her in the right direction (sorry I don't remember what) and then they walked their way the ladies walked theirs.

Bugswife is right, basically someone has to die for a table to open up at Rao's. If you are fortunate enough to know one of the owners of a table, as Bugswife does, then you can go as one of their guests.

We have been to NYC a few times and been fortunate to see a "celebrity" each time we were there. We saw Mary Tyler Moore in Central Park and saw Stanley Tucci at the MET. I agree with others - It's hard to recognize a celebrity off camera....Good luck!

Your comments sparked my interest in Rao's and I went to their website. Only one seating a night at their 10 tables! On the site I read that they are opening a Rao's in Las Vegas.

The Rao's in vegas is open already. The owner's son is running it, which may mean the demise of Baldoria which he already runs in NYC theater district.
You may get close to the same food in Vegas, but it is the ambiance that you are really going for, not the food, which I fear must be compromised in Sin City.

No doubt, bugswife, I agree with you there! Have you or anybody else ever attended Marjorie's Parlor for jazz on Sundays? She has hosted celebrity musicians in her living room for years. I will definitely try to make it there the next visit to New York.