Oh Mandy I Miss You Like Candy...
Every boy has a crush on a celebrity when they are a teenager. My first one when I was 14 was Mandy Moore, who at the time was 16 and had just come out with a hit music single "Candy". My older brother Gabe played guitar on the studio session so my family had a copy of the music video, which I watched probably 2500 times. Other than breaking down all the inaccuracies and/or silly things in the video I had fallen 100% for Mandy. This wasn't some fapping obsession like some would have to one of the Baywatch girls; I had determined that Mandy was obtainable as a girlfriend. I didn't know how I was going to meet her or in what way I was going to convince her to be interested enough in me to be willing to go on a date, much less start dating. However, despite having absolutely no plan, I was 18 months from getting my license and when I did I was going to go to L.A. on the weekends and I was finding my future love!
Of course that didn't happen whatsoever. Despite continuing to crush on her I went on to snap my ankle in a very violent way playing HS football, stunting my soccer career why trying to be some type of 2 sport athlete. I went through a long and painful rehab and recovery to get back to playing health and fitness, dated a few local girls, learned how it felt to get my pecker wet and basically forgot about the pursuit of my crush. I went to L.A. many times during this period between 14-18 including dating a girl who is an actress and was a Miss Teen California runner-up from the San Fernando Valley, but Mandy was back burnered. I went to college in Santa Barbara, took 9 months in Arizona living near my Dad who had a heart issue, then sold my first screenplay and moved to L.A. in early 2010. That's when things changed.
When I worked for New Balance I was having a regular, fairly slow Friday in the late Fall and had taken my hour lunch break at Barney Beanery. I came back in the side entrance to the store (the store occupies a former bank building at 26th and Wilshire in Santa Monica so it has a big front entry and then a side door entry that use to be for bank employees.) and I hear my Manager yell at me to get on the floor immediately and help the woman waiting to be fitted on the far right of the store across from where I entered. I put a thumbs up behind my back as I disappear into the back to clock in and put my drink in the fridge. When I return to the floor I see her standing by herself about 20 yards away. Mandy ****ing Moore. In a grey sweet suit and pink t-shirt, brown hair in a pony tail and light make-up it was like the stars had aligned.
I gather myself and stride over "Hi, I'm Nate!"
"Hey, I'm Mandy."
"Yea, I know" I smile back, "Oh, did you like take your high school girl friend to see "A Walk To Remember, or something?" I tell her about my brother working on her song and we move onto fitting her for shoes. I get her set up with a couple of pairs and some insoles and of course give her my card. She thanks me and goes about her day. 2 days later I get a call from her at the store, her insoles aren't quite right. I explain how she can fix it at home if she doesn't want to bother to come back in but she says she'd rather come down and have me adjust it for her. I would be a fool to not see this as an opportunity to at least ask her to get coffee sometime.
She brings the shoes in question in hand and we sit together while I trim the insoles and we chat a little bit about what she's working on and what not. She tries the shoes on and they are good to go. I tell her that I'm in the industry having recently made my first script sale and I would like to invite her to get coffee and ask her some questions about navigating being in the industry. She agrees to meet me at the starbucks across from my work a few days later.
We meet up and spend 2 hours chatting and telling stories back and forth. At the end of it I give it a go and ask if she would like to have dinner sometime - she's seeing someone and has been for over a year. I understand and thank her for her time and she gives me her manager and agents information so I can send them any roles that she may be right for on projects I work on in the future, we hug and she leaves.
That's about as close as I'll ever get to my first celebrity crush and it was good enough, she's awesome and out of my league, but that was a very fun crossing of the paths. Who knows, maybe I will have a part for her someday, she still has the same manager and same agent
Last edited by Natamus; 11-05-2016 at 07:15 AM.