Tom Hanks, what a guy

Loves Elgum
Loves Elgum

So douchebags always start sentences with the word “so.” A few years ago I was home alone watching the Oscars. Jon Stewart was hosting, and at that time Jon was not such a big shot. Tom Hanks, one of the true nice guys of Hollywood is set to come on stage. Jon Stewart begins the segment with Tom’s introduction, they play some music, massive curtains give way and Hanks starts to walk out in front of everyone in Hollywood and the television audience. I think I see Tom yelling something angrily for a half second but the camera cuts away from him. Did I imagine it? I rewind it over and over (yay cable tv DVR $4.99) and I was right. He was pissed as hell.

Hear me roar
Hear me roar

The next day I come to work and of course people are discussing the Oscars. That reminds me of what I saw and I am amazed that no one else noticed it. I check the internet to find out what happened and it is no where on the internet. Was it a dream? I scour the internet and finally find it mentioned on some forsaken forum.  Apparently he was upset that they played him out to music (Forrest Gump I think) that he did not want. What an asshole. I thought he was such a great guy, he seemed so nice on Ellen or some such show.

Slave Owner
Slave Owner

Low and behold a year or two later they are shooting a movie (a very common occurrence on the streets of NYC) of Mr. Hanks’ on some Avenue in Manhattan. Some cretin with a clipboard and a lot of keys is waving everyone across the street. (Usually they are set up for hours with celebs in trailers and only shoot for like 15 minutes) So, Tom is there and I start screaming, “Tom, Tom, Tom!” at the top of my lungs. He ignores me so I scream louder and he looks at me all agitated. So I scream, “Tom wave! Tom Wave!” and he finally rushes an insincere wave. What a fuckhead. He waved like I was annoying him, meanwhile I was nice and crossed the street instead of walking right past the clipboard wielding  freak on a headset, even though I know the permit doesn’t preclude me from walking right through their precious setup. Bottom line, celebrities are like U.S. Presidents, they are all assholes or they wouldn’t be President.

24 thoughts on “Tom Hanks, what a guy”

  1. I was at a Kings game in LA, Tom was sitting in front of me, of course I didn’t realize it, how could I, I have never really studied the back of Tom’s head. About half way through the first half of the game one of the guys sitting on my row noticed it was Tom Hanks and sent his game ticket along with a pen down our row until reached me. I took the ticket and pen and just looked at the guy and motioned “What?” He said give it to the guy in front of you, so I tapped Tom on the shoulder, he turned around and I went shit, sorry. I told Tom that the guy at the end of my row wants you to sign his ticket, Tom screamed at me and said “I’m trying to watch the game!” I sent the ticket back and told the guy and said it pretty loud so that Tom could hear me, hoping Tom realized I had his back and I didn’t realize it was him. “Dude, he doesn’t want to sign your ticket, sorry man” Then another girl came over during half time and tried to get an autograph as well, but he was super rude to her and she looked like she was about to cry, she couldn’t been 12 years old. I know it crushed her. So in my book, he’s a dick.

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    1. ……you are aware that hockey games don’t have a 1st half or a half time. They have periods and intermissions. Were you really at an LA Kings games or did you just make that story up?

      Oh, and if you correct yourself and say you were at a Kings basketball game, they’re in Sacramento.

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      1. Well, I’m not sure you wanna go there – you realize there are really nice celebrities out there… I could easily point out a few…

        But to your point – I have an anecdote about the first time I realized Leo is an asshole:
        It was a few years ago, while Leo was live-streaming from CES (probably the last time he tried proper journalistic work).
        He was cruising the show floor, looking for booths to troll, and I noticed he kept switching between his “on-camera” fake smile and snobbish “don’t you realize who I AM?” asshol-ish behaviour.
        I couldn’t believe how quickly he could switch between the two. And people kept coming and introducing themselves, and according to their status, he would either throw them off camera in a second, or stay with them to stroke their ego a little more.
        He’s such an asshole.

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        1. Although I find many of his guests on Triangulation fascinating, I just cannot bear LL’s sycophantic slithering, it is embarrassing and quite nauseating, which is a shame as the show is quite a ‘who’s who’ of tech and other things.

          The guests I presume want the publicity and ignore the hosts fawning.

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      2. There are very few ‘nice guy’ celebrities. I’ve met a couple that are really nice that you wouldn’t think were nice in person because their on-screen characters are kind of less than glowing.

        One of them told me that sometimes people get too big for their own good and forget that they are just ‘people’ and expect special treatment when they really shouldn’t. In fact in this particular ‘celebrities’ opinion, you have to be real asshole to forget that the people that buy those cinema tickets or watch your show on TV are the ones that “Pay for your lifestyle” and that they need to be treated with the same respect that you would give anyone including director’s or producers of something you are participating in.

        In fact this celebrity (name and sex, sexual orientation etc will not be disclosed and don’t ask) has always said to me that we would be really surprised at which celebrities are real assholes and which are not because it is not always the ones that we would think!

        Leo Laporte is one of those that has an unbelievably inflated opinion of himself! He doesn’t realize that people are seeing through his charade and without viewers watching his shows his income will decline. It is thanks to the viewers that he gets income and he forgets it when it has people kick people from chat or block them on social media accusing them of being Trolls because they criticize him.

        One day Leo Laporte will cease being Leo Laporte and will be the Late Leo Laporte and will be quickly forgotten and merely an entry on Wikipedia or maybe not even that. People will probably see a small entry about him on a social media blog like CNET and then will say;

        “Laporte dead?, Oh well No Loss”!

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  2. What a wonderful anecdote Richard Yes.

    Your recollection of the incident just shows that people with power or influence should be considerate and respectful of their fans irrespective of their conceived self importance.

    Upsetting your loyal supporters or staff once is a mistake, but twice or more is an inexcusable habit.

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  3. I’m here, because I don’t like Leo either and I DESPISE Lisa. I think your story was interesting, well observed, and well written. I agree with your dislike of people who begin an explanation or story with “So.” That seems to be something that caught on about 5-10 years ago with Silicon Valley types and then spread out to the larger world of business in general.

    But having said that (as they say), I don’t agree with your conclusions about Tom Hanks. He may be an asshole, but your story and the commenter’s story about the basketball game do not tell me that Hanks is necessarily a creep.

    Asking celebs for autographs when they are at a game or restaurant is a nervy invasion of their privacy, imo. The only time it’s okay is when they are making a public appearance at a premiere or something like that. I just watched a YT vid of Katie Holmes getting out of her SUV outside Letterman’s studio. There were crowds behind police barriers, and she walked over to sign a few autographs. But if someone is not in their celeb role and just living their life in private, I don’t think they have any responsibility to interrupt their meal or whatever just because a random fan wants something from them.

    As for the movie location, Hanks was WORKING. Your continued yelling at him when he had to focus on what he was doing, remembering lines etc., was rude and intrusive. It may have been okay to call out to him once (borderline) but continuing to do so was harassment, imo.

    Having said that, I like what you’re doing here and in #Drama. Keep it up.

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    1. I should have said an exception to celebs having every right to not sign autographs is when the autograph seeker is a young child as was the case in the above comment. In that case, bringing a little girl to tears is inexcusable.

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  4. “So, Tom is there and I start screaming, “Tom, Tom, Tom!” at the top of my lungs. He ignores me so I scream louder and he looks at me all agitated. So I scream, “Tom wave! Tom Wave!” and he finally rushes an insincere wave. What a fuckhead.”

    LOL, how old are you? Sounded like you were on speed or something 🙂

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  5. So you were screaming at the top of your lungs at him and he gave you an insincere wave? You sir are an idiot. Acting like a moron and screaming from across the street, and you expect, no you demand that he wave back at you. If he doesn’t he is some sort of terrible person. Amazing how many idiots are on this planet who think the world should stop for them and that celebrities should wave back at them. Grow up and quit acting like a 12 year old girl.

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  6. I understand what the author is trying to do here , showing that celebrities are double-faced and aspects of their personalities don’t always line-up with their public persona…but man, you couldn’t find a worse example to paint yourself as a petulant, immature jerk than the wave incident described here.
    You do have the right to spend your hard earned cash to watch -or not- movies starring Tom Hanks but what you are NEVER ever entitled to do is get to demand an autograph, or seek the attention of any person celebrity or not who was obviously in the middle of conducting their business.
    I second the other commenters. I like your well documented criticism of Leo -who by the way is no Tom Hanks-, and I’m one of those who can’t stand the sight of that Phoenix university, cough, cough, “educated” CEO. But please, stick to the subject.

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  7. I’m beginning to think Leo was right about you people being mentally ill. Tom Hanks should be able to enjoy a game and certainly to work without some entitled jackass bothering him. A grown man yelling across the street “Tom! Tom! Tom!”…

    Truly sad and pathetic.

    Rubbish like this post and the TERRIBLE attempts to inject humor in the video compilations (which only detracts from the message) are lame. Stop with the laugh track and Windows Movie Maker text commentary superimposed on an already damning, valid, piece of evidence. It’s corny, cringe-worthy, and stupid. Is the Giz Wiz behind this stuff?

    Speaking of the Jizz Wiz, I’m betting on his cancellation by the end of the year… perhaps publicly on Christmas Eve via Twitter if the ever-professional CE-Ho has her way.

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    1. What’s even better is how most people missed the main point of this. ‘Tom Hanks’ is a placeholder, and the scenarios are just examples. (To those who derided RY, re-read what he wrote with your favourite show host and reconsider. PARABLE YO!)

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