A week or two ago, I posted a note from a loyal reader who witnessed Asheville’s own Andie MacDowell getting in a huff during a recent trip. Now comes Tony from NJ, who says Andie may have had a point.
I just wanted to comment on the April 17th article re: Andie MacDowell and her problem on the Continental Flight from Newark NJ on Friday the 17th. I am one of the “older beefy men from New Jersey” and want to shed some further light on the story. The anonymous loyal reader said that we were “egging her on” , when in fact what I was doing was telling Andie (by the way, I knew she was an actress put could not place her name), that we also had a run in with the rude male flight attendant. We were entering the plane and I was commenting to my friend,,who was flying on a small jet for the first time, how he would not be able to stand up without hitting his head, and how tight the seats were when the attendant who was standing next to the doorway said to me, “if you are not happy with our plane I can have you removed”. I turned to him and said are you talking to me? He said again “if you do not think you can fly on this plane I will have you removed” . I laughed and said I was not talking to him, and sat down. Then he came by our seats which were on the emergency exit row and asked us if we could perform the duties required, and when we did not answer him quick enough, he again said if we could not he would remove us. We then see Andie get into it with him as he was delivering drinks and we realized there were others who had issues with this Attendant. When we landed and stood up waiting to get off the plane, Andie was in front of me and I said to her that we had a problem with the attendant also, and she explained what happened to her and how he wanted to remove her from the plane also. She then asked me if I would accompany her to talk to a manager regarding what happened and I said sure. One thing I do want to make clear, when we talked to the manager Andie twice said to him that she did not want to see the attendant lose his job, but that his attitude and rudeness was not the way customers should be treated by the airlines. I was not as kind and would have liked to seen the attendant fired, he had an attitude that said, this is my plane and I am in charge and what I say is law and there is nothing you can do about it. This “man” would not talk to anyone outside the safety zone of his plane in this manner, knowing he would be held accountable for his attitude and rudeness. She may be temperamental, but she was not off-base this time. Tony Hodum , Scotch Plains, NJ
2 Comments
My son had a MAJOR meltdown in CLT once when he was a toddler and, amid many "control your child" glares, Andie MacDowell approached us, rubbed Henry’s back and talked to me about how difficult it can be to travel with kids. She spent the rest of the wait to board sitting with me and chatting. I will never forget how amazing of her it was to show kindness to a harried first time mom and her melting down toddler when everyone else was shooting us daggers and hoping we wouldn’t be sitting next to them on the plane.
My wife and I flew back to A’ville from Houston on Continental a few years ago. Andie was a passenger on our plane. She sat at the terminal with the rest of us – dressed in a hippie dress with an ankle bracelet and sandles – and happily talked to a young fan as we waited on the plane. She sat a few seats away from us on the plane and seemed like just one of the rest of us. She even waited for and carried her own luggage at the baggage claim when we got to the A’ville Airport. I wanted to say hi or something, but just left her to her own peace and privacy.
She was the perfect passenger on that flight – no temper tantrums, no loud yacking on the cell phone, etc., etc.
BTW, the pilot was a real character. I don’t know if it was because Andie was on board, but he kept coming on the intercom with very excitable stories and information and even a joke or two. It was also the first half of the UNC/Illinois mens national championship bball game and he kept us posted on the score. I’ll never forget that flight!