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Arjewtino
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He was shorter than I had expected. Still imposing, stocky and wide, the perfect build for a running back who amassed 11,236 yards in his NFL career.
His right hand, the one that didn’t fit into the infamous leather glove, was huge. Larger than any hand should be. I had introduced myself as the news editor for my school paper. He took my hand and shook it, looked me straight in the eye, and said “Nice to meet you.”
All I could think about was, “This is the hand that butchered two people.”
It was a quiet evening in my apartment. I was a 21-year-old senior, the news editor of my school newspaper, sitting on the couch watching “Beverly Hills, 90210″.
A loud knock on my apartment door disrupted my watching of Brandon, Dylan, and Brenda. I opened it to find my then-girlfriend British Liz who was supposed to be in a 4-hour evening class panting, trying to catch her breath.
“What are you doing here? What’s wrong?” I asked her.
“Oh Jay…Simp…son…is…on campus…you have…to go…interview him.”
“Who?”
“OJ fucking Simpson!!!”
“But 90210 is on,” I said.
Unable to convince her that Kelly, Steve, and Donna Martin Graduates! were more important, I grabbed my notebook and headed to campus. I got the back story on the way.
It seemed that one of our school’s criminology professors had served as one of OJ’s lesser-known defense lawyers in the sensational “Trial of the Century”. He had furtively invited OJ to speak at his class and had notified no one – not the press, not university officials – of his arrival.
British Liz, during a break from her class next door, had seen the commotion and peered into the classroom, only to find The Juice himself standing in front of what looked like 100 students. She had skipped the rest of her class and run to my apartment to tell me (this was before the ubiquitous age of cell phones).
I arrived and walked right into the classroom, confident that no one would stop me. They didn’t. I stood about 15 feet away from OJ for nearly two hours, listening to him lecture to these sycophantic students who had obviously been convinced he was innocent.
When he was done, and amid the roar of applause, I immediately walked up to him and introduced myself before the professor or anyone else could stop me.
He stuck out his meaty paw and we shook hands for 3 seconds. I told him I was a reporter for my school paper. He didn’t pull out a knife so I interviewed him. Students clamored around him, asking for an autograph. He signed blue books, old football cards, and notebooks. Someone even brought in a football for him to sign.
We talked for five minutes. I honestly don’t remember anything he said. I wish I did. I walked back home and typed up my story.
The next day, in our newsroom, reporters and editors asked me what it was like to meet OJ.
Someone inquired, “Did you ask him if he did it?”
“Yeah”, I answered sarcastically, “OJ Simpson confessed his guilt to some Orange County university paper reporter.”
I wish I still had that article.
Comments
I talked to him on the phone once (before he cut his wife’s head off). I tried to sell him stock in an IPO for the crappy company that produced “1st and 10.” (he was on the “employee” list and was entitled to participate in the IPO). I heard that the company (Kushner Locke) went bankrupt. I hope he lost money on it.
My coolest celebrity story is when i peed next to Jack Nicholson (in a bathroom, I’m not a perv…as far as you know).
That’s pretty cool. My biggest celebrity sighting was last year when I saw Muhammed Ali in the airport being driven on one of those carts to some private airport club. I was stunned.
Did you seriously just start a story about meeting a celebrity with the thought that he was shorter than he seems on the teevee?
Awesome. 
someday… id like to shake the hand ..that shook the hand.. “that butchered two people”…
xoxo
Someday you will. And you’ll remember it always.
Is it really pathetic or a good thing that I’ve never met a celebrity?
Neither. I’ve met tons of celebrities but none of them changed my life in any way.
That includes Ed O’Neil, the guy who played Al Bundy in Married With Children.
For some reason, try as I might, I still can’t seem to garner a ton of hate for OJ - it must be watching his effervescent personality on The Naked Gun or watching him masterfully juke and jive defensive backs on old highlight reels.
I’d have to care more in order to hate.
I ran into Alfonso Ribeiro (Carlton on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air) at the Miami Airport. He was on his way to Trinidad for vacation with his wife and child. I didn’t ask him to do ‘The Dance’. I did get my picture with him.
I served him when I was a waiter, on the same day that I served Wayne Brady.
I’m surprised I’m the first to make one of these jokes, and I apologize ahead of time for this…so what you’re saying is that it wasn’t a killer interview?
Ba-dum dum.
I didn’t find your Juice article. But I did find a abstract for this one:
BOY, 10, SHOULD RECOVER; WORM INFECTION
http://www.medbiosphere.com/m/BOY%2C-10%2C-SHOULD-RECOVER%3B-WORM-INFECTION/1G1-83875722.html
That is a GREAT story!
I met Bernard Hopkins (no where NEAR as cool as meeting Ali) in Vegas. I had just finished explaining to my friend (who out of nowhere asked me how good Hopkins was) in a drunken stupor how he was overrated and that I, being a much bigger guy and former boxer, would totally kick his ass. He was standing literally right beside me.
I find that my shoe has a heady, almost cognac-esque flavor to it.
Out of Curiosity - which Southern California university did you attend? I’m guessing it was not OJ’s alma mater USC, as you mentioned an Orange County location. I have two friends who have spoted him at USC various times over the past 10 years.
UC Irvine.
my favorite celebrity brush happened while i was lounging seaside in south beach miami. madonna strutted by topless with two very likely gay buff male bodyguards on each arm. she was resplendent in her bug-eyed sunglasses and spectacular real tits.
nice small pointy nips, too.
this was back when she wasn’t, like, you know, old.
I saw Common last week at the W in Chicago. He’s short-ish. But still hot.
Much like Arjewtino!
I’m sorry. I have no self control when it comes to taking the piss when I comment. Blog tourettes or something like that.
My most interesting celeb encounter was a late night drinking session at Chief Ike’s with Charlie Korsmo (the child actor from Dick Tracy, What about Bob, and Hook. He also played the dorky guy in Can’t Hardly Wait). He was a really nice guy. I would have been annoyed at the number of times drunk people would walk up for pics and ask him stupid questions like how much he got paid for his last movie.
My girlfriend had a disturbing celeb encounter with Gavin Degraw at a bar in Boston. If anyone ever meets him, do not mention that you like some hip-hop songs unless you are prepared to hear that dude go on a racist rant about how “they all want to kill you”. But by all means tell him his only hit song is a complete Black Crowes ripoff.
I always meet half-assed celebrities. I met Biz Markie on Monday in Silver Spring, and ended up filming a commercial for The CW network with him since I was the only person around who would sing “Just A Friend” on-camera in public.
@ Inowpronounceyou, that’s a funny story! I sang a song that Ginuwine did to a girl in Love nightclub, being silly, and had no idea that Ginuwine was actually standing right near me. He just looked at me and shook his head in disgust. Damn shame when a guy who writes songs like “Is there anymore room for me in those jeans” is disgusted with you!
Unrelated story: We have these Danish exchange students who upon our first meeting kept chanting drunkenly, “Donna Martin Graduates! Let Donna Martin Graduate!”. They also call me “The Block”, as in “Jenny from the…”.
You can keep your cool with OJ, but Ted Danson makes you lose it…Hmmm…
I wasn’t worried about stabbing me.
you should contact the new u and see if they can dig out the piece from their archives. it’d be interesting to see it really, how’d the whole thing feel back when he was actually conroversial and not just sad.
you’ve set me off on such a memory trip with this - remember when we wrote an editorial that accused the book store of extortion and they came in and told us our paper was garbage?! oh those campus paper hijinx
you soooo thought you were brandon…
I’m surprised your mother didn’t hire him to hack off your tattoo arm so you could be buried in a Jewish cemetary…
seriously…. are you that old that your uni’s paper doesn’t have articles archived online?
Yup. Sad, ain’t it?
[…] “Did you ask him if he did it?” [Arjewtino] […]
About the article: I’m sure your school has archives, you could maybe get a hold of it that way. Seeing as you were on staff and all.
About celebs: Living in NY I see celebrities sometimes, but they’re hardly “A listers”. I’ve run into Wayne Brady (Whose line is it anyway?), and on the subway I once saw Matthew Settle (he played, amongst other things, a wife-beating man on ER for a while). My all-time favorite sightings, though, are Nathan Lane, whom I saw shopping around Union Square, and Annabella Sciorra, who is really, really tiny.
Believe me, they don’t have archives, not online anyway. But I should call them up and ask them to fax me a copy of the article.
I wants waited on the guy who played Banya on Sienfeld. He didn’t order Ovaltine to drink and I was crushed.
I’ve run into a few celebs out here in LA but usually I am so into my own thing I don’t realize it. The last celeb sighting I had was Djimon Hounsou and Kimora Lee Simmons at Cheesecake Factory at the Grove. I have a feeling they might end up married before long…
Meeting OJ after he axed a few people really tops mine, but I’ll write it anyway.
Sam Watterston owns a house in the town I used to live. We were both outside buying some ice cream by the ocean, and he had a little dog with him. I said to my daughter, “Aww, look at the cute little dog.” Sam looked up and smiled, then looked at my daughter, and barked at her.
This still puzzles me, and I try to make sense of it. Was he trying to be cute and bark like a dog? Was he being mean? Does he have a few screws loose? I’ll really never know.
[…] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThe next day, in our newsroom, reporters and editors asked me what it was like to meet OJ. Someone inquired, “Did you ask him if he did it?” “Yeah”, I answered sarcastically, “OJ Simpson confessed his guilt to some Orange County … […]