My Almost Run In With Leonardo DiCaprio

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog about the movie Almost Famous (http://charleewith2es.blogspot.com/2009/11/its-saturday-night-and-im-almost-famous.html) and in the blog I briefly told you about my almost run in with Leonardo DiCaprio but instead of elaborating on the story I told you it was for another time…well today is that other time.

Here it goes. I was on a 10 day high school trip traveling through Europe. It was the cliffs notes version of a European sightseeing trip. We would wake up at 5:30 am, walk until our feet were covered in blisters, saw every major sight you can imagine, went to bed at midnight and did it all over again the next day. We had a blast to say the least. The second night that we were in Paris, another girl on the trip came into mine and my best friends’ hotel room to tell us that Leonardo DiCaprio was at the Ritz doing some promotional stuff for The Man in the Iron Mask. This was the film that came out after Titanic, so as you can imagine Leonardo was the “it” boy of the moment. He was today’s version of Robert Pattinson. It’s funny now because when I look back at pictures of him during that time he seemed so scrawny and young looking, just coming out of that awkward teenage stage. Not quite filled out yet but not a baby face either.

At the time I really didn’t think I cared much about celebrities. Well I was wrong, horribly, horribly wrong. The second I heard the words come out of her mouth I did the shaky hands to face thing repeating the words, “oh my god, oh my god, oh my god”. We put our coats on, and because we were on a high school trip we needed to be supervised and that meant everyone had to come…even the boys…and headed to the Ritz. When we got there it was evident that the rumor mill runs fast because there were tons of girls and paparazzi in front of the hotel. I couldn’t believe it. I had never seen a famous person before. We were standing next to a group of girls from Italy. They kept yelling out “Jack, it’s me Rose” (From the Titanic Movie) and “We love you Leo”. I got pretty annoyed at them pretty fast and it only heightened when we saw the limo pull around that was supposed to pick up Leonardo. The Italian girls started to get frantic..pushing and shoving..screaming louder and louder…”Jack, it’s me Rose”. I then reacted in a way that even I myself couldn’t believe. I spread my arms out in each direction and screamed at the other girls, “If anyone here is Rose, it’s me” and that was the point that my teacher/chaperone thought that we had engaged in enough celebrity gawking for one day and told us to start walking to the train station.

I didn’t get to have my moment with Leo. I was crushed. But I was young, and when you’re young you move onto other things very quickly.

This morning my co-worker sent me a link to the teaser trailer for Inception. That’s the movie that Leonardo DiCaprio is filming now with Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Then he sent me a link to a local newspaper article. In the article, it said that Leonardo DiCaprio would be in my area for ski lessons and to film part of the movie. I don’t know exactly what happened, but my high school freak out came back. Here was my reaction: “What? When? Where? Are you serious? Oh My God". Then I had a little laugh with myself. I didn’t think I cared about Leonardo DiCaprio. Had I gotten the chance to actually see Leonardo in Paris I don’t think I would have cared very much that he would be close by filming a movie.

I’ve come to the realization that I just need closure from my long lost Leonardo DiCaprio crush. I’ll be on the lookout for him now, hoping for a second chance to see him. I doubt that I’ll ever manage a run in with him since the trendiest place I spend my time these days is at the discount rack in Crate & Barrel and I doubt he’d be roaming the local mall.

It’s possible that I might always have a soft spot for him since he was my first real celebrity crush. Actually, when I was really young I had a poster of Patrick Swayze on my wall from Dirty Dancing but I don’t think that counts. Now that I think about it, it was kind of creepy that I had that poster. He was like 30 years older than me. Sick…what was I thinking?

Until next time Leo.

Check out the teaser trailer for Inception. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HilwtqaN4Gs