We spent the day with Nicolas Cage!
@HeavenUnaware (1757)
United States
February 4, 2007 3:20pm CST
Well, sorta :)
This isn't my normal type of discussion but I just had to share with someone.
My son wrestles for his high school and yesterday had a tournament at North Torrance High School here in California. We noticed this lady with a big fancy video camera first but didn't put too much thought into her. Then someone whispered that Nicolas Cage was there so I looked over and there he was. It was so random and unexpected, I have to laugh about it. Here's this million dollar movie star standing in the gym of an old high run down high school watching a bunch of teenage boys wrestle. This was around 10am. He spent the whole day at the tournament and left when we did at around 5:30pm.
Ends up that the lady with the fancy video camera is the mother of his first son, Weston, who goes to Beverly Hills High School which is a school that was in the tournament. His son was one of 3 boys wrestling for the Heavy Weight division. He was the last match of the day and he kicked butt! Was an awesome match and it was so funny to watch Nicolas Cage cheering his son on and getting into the match.
No one really bothered him the whole day - just people snapping pictures from a distance and our stat girl was able to get his autograph when no one was paying attention. He had 2 bodyguards with him - and they were fun to watch. You'd think they were protecting the President or something! We did notice that one of them left and came back later with Starbucks for Nicolas and his son's mom - who it appears is an actress named Christina Fulton. I've never heard of her but she looked a little familiar so I looked her up.
My nephew and niece went to the tournament too and they got a picture with Nick before we left. He was really very nice but I have to say, he didn't look good at all. He looked like he just rolled out of bed and hadn't taken a shower in a week. He had on black jeans (he is REALLY skinny), a white t-shirt with a red button up shirt over that, a blue baseball cap and he just didn't look healthy at all. He kept putting on these dark sunglasses INSIDE which looked a bit ridiculous.
Anyhow, it was a pretty interesting day and I was not expecting to see him - that's for sure.
Just thought I would share!
2 people like this
7 responses
@speedy1279 (2665)
• United States
12 Apr 07
That is so cool! I enjoy all the movies he has done. I have met a few stars. Only one was from movie/tv. It was Jennie Garth. Back when I was in Junior high, my parents and I went to a car show and she was there signing autographs. I got one and still have it to this day. The rest are country music singers. They are Neal McCoy, Lonestar, and David Lee Murphy. I have autographs from them all. Then of course I just remembered I went to high school with two people that are making it big. Haven't seen them since high school but they are Jason Arnold (professional minor league baseball player) unsure for what team he is playing and Erik Estrada who was one of the members of the boy band O-Town. I was actually really good friends with Erik. I have my ten year reunion this year and am hoping to see him.
1 person likes this
@HeavenUnaware (1757)
• United States
12 Apr 07
Oh I love Jennie Garth! She looks like she would be really nice.
I love country singers too and my dad has met alot of them because he use to go to the Country Music Awards every year when they had them here in California. He got to eat dinner with the stars and mingle with them - it was this huge fancy thing and I can remember him and my mom getting all dressed up to go. I believe at some point they moved the awards to Tennessee or somewhere and my dad stopped going. I'm not sure where they do them now but he doesn't go anymore. He does have VIP status with his local performing arts center where alot of big named people perform and when they do, he is able to meet them and hang out in a private room with other VIPs and the stars. He really enjoys it. I met LeAnn Rimes (sp?) and Kenny Rogers that way with him. Now if only Alan Jackson would play there!
:]
Thanks for your response! I hope you get to see Erik at your reunion.
@Backpack30 (924)
• United States
12 Apr 07
That's fun to see celebrities in person!
I've only seen a few: Ashley Judd, Luke Perry, Tim Allen and I once saw Prince William-that was cool.
I think the most surprising was Luke Perry because he is so VERY SMALL! He's just a little guy! I really think I could've bench pressed him a few times.
I've heard from people that Nick Cage is an a-hole to work with and has been a jerk to people asking for autographs, so that's cool to hear some GOOD things about him because I love most of his movies :)
1 person likes this
@HeavenUnaware (1757)
• United States
12 Apr 07
Yes, it is fun. I've seen quite a few celebrities so most of the time it's not anything major for me other than to 'people watch' to see how others react to them. I think that's more fun than watching the actual star themselves. In this case, I enjoyed watching the bodyguards and how they would try to block people from taking pictures. It was funny.
Nick Cage didn't look like a very friendly guy that day. I had no intention of approaching him for anything. My nephew is a huge fan of his so he was dying to go up to him but at the same time, you don't want to intrude or be told to back off in front of a bunch of people so he waited until Nick was over by the side, kinda by himself and near an exit. Then he got up like he was leaving and walked up to him for a picture. He said he was nice but he didn't look too happy in the picture. I guess I wouldn't be happy either if I looked like I just woke up and hadn't showered in a month.
I will say though, that he was a great dad to his son and watching him cheer him on during his match was nice to see. He's a parent just like the next person when it comes to this kind of stuff. His son only wrestled once that whole day and it wasn't until the end because he was in the Heavy Weight class - so Nick Cage spent the whole day sitting around just waiting for that one match at the end of the day. Luckily his son won :)
I bet Luke Perry is small, he looks like he would be. I once went to a movie premier (for Interview with a Vampire) and Antonio Banderas was there on the red carpet - at the time, no one really even knew who he was but I did and when he walked by I was so shocked that he was this little tiny thing. No one else even paid him any attention.. they were too busy screaming over Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt and Christian Slater. I felt bad for Antonio because he just quietly walked pass without even one person screaming his name. Because he was so tiny, I'm sure it didn't help either - no one even saw him!
Thanks for your response!
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
13 Feb 07
that was an interesting read. i have loved nicolas cage in all movies i have watched and have found him to be very nextdoor with an unaffected acting style. your description of him actually reassured that and i find him no big than a normal parent who has to struggle to get a leave from busy schedule to attend his son's extracurriculum and live up to him.
i live in india and i have seen quite a few A rated movie stars and found them to be very much like us (some certainly have an air and glamour undefined but then that is few in number).
thank you for sharing a nice bit of NATURAL experience and hope your son fared well as always.
1 person likes this
@HeavenUnaware (1757)
• United States
12 Apr 07
Thank you for your wonderful response!
Yes, my son did well at that wrestling tournament. He took 2nd place for his weight class, so no complaints for us. It was an interesting day, to say the least!
@mckenziemom (523)
• United States
5 Feb 07
That is pretty cool seeing a movi star in person. My sister
attends graduate school in New York and lives in upper Manhatten. She hopes to won day write an award winning broadway play. She calls quite often to tell me about her star sightings. One thing she mentions a lot is how thin many of them are..especially the women. Some of the stars she has seen are Sarah Jessica Parker,Kiefer Sutherland and Mark Ruffalo.
1 person likes this
@HeavenUnaware (1757)
• United States
5 Feb 07
I hope your sister is successful in her career!
Living in Southern California my whole life, I've seen my share of celebrities over the course of my life. It's always neat to see them in person but even more when it's unexpected.
My son has done some film work when he was younger and we've seen alot of celebrities on the sets. I think the most memorable one was when he played America Ferrera's brother on a TV show called American Family a few years ago. She wasn't that famous then and she was super sweet and cool with him. Now she's the main star in Ugly Betty and it's neat to see her and think back to when we met her.
@HeavenUnaware (1757)
• United States
5 Feb 07
Yeah.. I like him too. I really loved the movies Family Man, Gone in 60 Seconds and Con Air. :)
@awonderfullife (2893)
• United States
9 Feb 07
That is so cool! Do you live in an area in California wher you see celebrities once in a while? I probably would have been staring at him the whole time and would have missed half of the tournament!
1 person likes this
@HeavenUnaware (1757)
• United States
13 Feb 07
Hi :)
I live in Southern California about 1 1/2 hours east of Hollywood. So I do not normally see celebrities in my neck of the woods. My son was working in the entertainment industry when he was younger and through that we saw and met alot of celebrities. If we go to an event or to do something in the LA or Hollywood area, we sometimes might see someone depending on what we are doing. I have relatives that work in the industry now as well. We had traveled down to LA county for the wrestling tournament and Nicolas Cage just happened to be there but it was very random and unexpected. Most of the people at the tournament sat and stared at him the whole time too! :)
@cjthedog64 (1552)
• United States
4 Feb 07
That's kind of neat. I went to my SS's match last week (first one I've been to) and there was hardly anyone there. Lots of teen girls with babies running around, but that's about it. Glad to hear you get some excitement.
1 person likes this
@HeavenUnaware (1757)
• United States
5 Feb 07
Luckily we do not have any teens running around with babies at my son's matches. There is only one girl who has a baby, with a boy on the Varsity wrestling team and he is a Senior this year.. I'm not sure about her but I think she may be a year older and already out of school. They have been a long time couple and their baby is a year old already. When he turned 18 a few months ago, they got married. He will graduate this spring. Despite having a child, I think they seem to have their heads on straight now and the father will go on to college most likely on a wrestling scholarship. They have alot of love, support and help from their families though so I'm sure that helps.
How did you like the match? I love the duals but the tournaments aren't that fun for me. The one on Saturday was extra long and boring - if it hadn't been for Nicolas Cage being there as a distraction, it would have been worse. *lol*
We sat in that gym on hard benches for 8 1/2 hours. My butt was numb. It's not so bad but my son had a "by" for the first round, then another "by" the second round because the kid left that was suppose to wrestle him. Then he didn't wrestle the next round because it was consulation only and according to their stats, he had won his first 2 rounds because of the "by's". Then he finally wrestled around 2pm and a few more times. He ended up taking 3rd place in his division. Not a bad way to end the season.
