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| Photo courtesy Caryn Esplin |
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| Caryn Esplin, a communications professor, spotted Michael Jackson after a Celine Dion concert and managed to snap a photo of him. |
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Encounters with the famous may be rare, but there are a few people on the BYU-Idaho campus who have had some unusual experiences.
Communications professor Caryn Esplin was shopping after a Celine Dion concert when she noticed a commotion. Curious to see what the fuss was all about, she spotted Michael Jackson.
“I was curious to see what he looked like in person,” Esplin said.
Esplin worked her way through the crowd until she was just a few feet away, but it was hard to take a picture. She only had one chance to take a picture so she did the best she could to get her camera above the crowd and capture a picture of Jackson.
“I felt sorry for him,” Esplin said. “He’s a very confused person. He still seeks for that approval and attention [that he had as a kid]. I feel sad he needs that. He’s so talented.”
Esplin isn’t the only one who had a brush with fame.
Trying to avoid any attention, Shawn Mcnaughton, a freshman from Puyallup, Wash., snuck backstage to meet Blink 182.
His cousin noticed that it would be easy to walk around a fence and go backstage.
But Mcnaughton isn’t a stranger to meeting the famous. He also met football player Steve Young as a kid when Young was speaking at a priesthood conference in California. “I shook his hand,” Mcnaughton said.
Mcnaughton has even been mistaken for a famous person himself.
He was dining at Planet Hollywood in downtown Seattle with his friend and dad. Their bleached hair, tans and surfer shorts contrasted with the three-piece business suit Mcnaughton’s dad wore, and they were attracting some attention. Some girls even came up and asked to get a picture with them.
Mcnaughton explained that they were mistaken for someone famous and were taken to the back room where the Hanson brothers were dining.
Amber Anglesey, a sophomore from American Falls, Idaho, hasn’t been mistaken for someone famous, but she has met Michael McLean.
In the Idaho State University Institute choir she had the opportunity to sing in Forgotten Carols.
It was then she met with and got the autograph of McLean and his cast.
“It’s family tradition to read the story or watch the play. I was excited to be a part of it,” Anglesey said.
Anglesey’s favorite part was when McLean turned and directed the choir in the song “Hallelujah.” “You could tell that he loves what he does and loves the Lord and can combine them together.”
Most people do not encounter the famous everyday, but there are some tricks. Either be at the right place at the right time, sneak or wait to meet someone or get involved — choir just may be the ticket.
