Despite screaming headlines, celebrities just people
WILLIS WEBB

Much of the major media seems to think the public clamors for celebrity news and gives it to them. Apparently the public expects and accepts it. Perhaps they should eliminate the screaming headline celebrity stuff and report only truly newsworthy things.

However, at the risk of the pot calling the kettle black, I recall a few brushes with celebrities that did a couple of things - showed them to be pretty funny and/or human and capable of helping other people. A fair segment of the media gets thrown with celebrities, thus we're exposed to some pretty interesting statements and actions.

My first two encounters with celebrities were embarrassing for me.

In the late 1940s (no I wasn't in the media then, just a small kid), my family thankfully moved to "town" where there was a "picture show," movie theater to generations since. There were lots of westerns ("cowboy shows"), the favorite fare of my generation. It was the heyday of such stars as Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Hopalong (that's right) Cassidy and Lash Larue. Most had a goofy sidekick for comic relief. Autry's was a guy whose stage handle was Smiley Burnette and he was often known as "Frog," because his eyes kind of bulged out like a bullfrog. Yeah, I know, it wouldn't be considered politically correct today.

Burnette came to town and after the movie you could go behind the theater and have your picture snapped with Smiley. I'd sat through a long movie and was so scared when I got around back, before I stepped up for the picture I had an accident and had to leave.

The second encounter with a star came in the late 1950s when I was a University of Houston student. Our journalism department took advantage of movie stars coming to town to promote films and invited them to the campus to be interviewed by high school journalism students. The winners of the best feature story about a star got prizes and could win a UH scholarship.

A young James Garner was our guest at the campus interview fest. I was stationed at the building door to escort Garner to the classroom. I was being Joe Cool College and smoking a cigarette. Garner came in and I led him back to the classroom. As I held the door for him, he entered, and pointed to a chalkboard sign: "No Smoking," as he wagged his finger and said, "Tch! Tch!" I blushed and left.

In the 1970s, there was a charity golf tournament at The Woodlands, hosted by legendary University of Texas Coach Darrell Royal. Since Coach liked country and western music, a lot of the golfers were C&W stars and for two nights they all performed for free. A rising star that year was a guy named Willie Nelson, a close friend of Royal. Nelson was scheduled for Saturday night. On Friday night, I'm there digging the C&W show. I took a restroom break and as I stood there as men do, who walks up beside me but Willie and some other guy. Willie turned to the other guy and said, "They've only got me down for Saturday night! Don't they like my music?"

I quietly walked out, found an official and related the story. He said, "We thought he'd become such a big star, he'd only want to play one night! I'll see if I can fix it."

Sure enough, in an hour, Willie walks on with his holey Gibson guitar (he strums so hard, it has a hole in it) and he "picks" and sings non-stop for three hours. Did the same Saturday night, too. By the way, Garner was at the tournament because he's a C&W fan. I forgave him the earlier embarrassment.

In 2000, the movie "Jasper, Texas" was released on HBO. It starred Jon Voight as Sheriff Billy Rowles and was, of course, about the race-hate killing of James Byrd Jr. Billy is a folksy guy and was a big hit with the national media in all the Byrd murder aftermath.

Voight had Rowles "nailed," accent and all. He spent some time with Billy to get his character, speech and mannerisms down. Voight would even call Billy at odd times to ask him how he would say something. When Voight first appeared on screen in the movie, he answered the phone just as the sheriff did: "This is Billy."

When Billy decided to retire, there was a big party for him. The sponsors sneaked Voight into town and surprised Billy. In the sheriff's response to the evening and particularly Voight, Billy said, "He called me at the deer camp one evening just as I was getting acquainted with Jack Daniels."

Voight told me he came to the party because Billy was his hero. I liked Jon Voight.

One other comment on celebs: Let Brittney Spears alone and let her get well.Willis Webb is a retired community editor-publisher of more than 50 years. He can be reached by e-mail at wwebb@wildblue.net.