For all the celebrities who roll with huge entourages, like Mariah Carey and Diddy, and all the reality stars who have bodyguards for no discernible reason, like Kate Gosselin and Heidi Montag, there are still living legends that do their own shopping and handle fans without a go-between. Paul McCartney has a new interview in the London Times in which he details his strategy for dealing with fame. He says it’s all about trying to feel normal and being gracious but firm about his limits. I like how McCartney explains his daily life, and from what I’ve seen of him recently he seems to have a real sense of how famous he is without the ego and sense of entitlement that too often go along with that. There’s something dignified and no-nonsense about him.

Speaking on the Today programme on Radio 4, Sir Paul, 67, said that he found fame pretty annoying and turned down approaches for his aautograph while in restaurants or out shopping, offering instead to shake hands.

He said: “The weight of fame can get pretty annoying. But you know what I do now? I have rules, I’ve finally grown up and I finally realise I’ve got rights. So people will come up to me in a restaurant and say, ‘Can I have your autograph’ and I say, ‘I’m really sorry but I don’t do that when I’m eating. I hope you understand. I’ll shake your hand and I’ll talk to you.’

“Because I’m quite happy to talk to people on a one-to-one human basis, but the minute they turn me into this celebrity I’m pretending not to be for that minute, I sort of say, ‘No I’m not going to do that’. Most, in fact 99.9 per cent of people, are very understanding because they understand privacy.”

Sir Paul said that he also shrugged off the attention of fans while shopping. Recounting a visit to B&Q, the DIY chain, he said: “Shopping is another. I say, ‘I’m really sorry, I’m shopping and you know what guys are like at shopping, not very good. I’m looking for some nails and they’ve got to be 3in long for the job that I’m doing, and there’s no way I’m going to find them when I’m chatting to you and having my photo taken’.”

He said that he went to the shops by himself, because “people don’t expect me to do that”. He said: “I’ve always been very keen on doing that. Fame, is it a weight? I think it can be if you get the limos and the security and ten people go with you everywhere, but I don’t do that.

“I will just go shopping or go to the movies on my own, and I like that. It’s very much a balancing part of my life because the next day I might be playing to 50,000 people in Mexico.”

The musician, who appeared on the programme to promote an essay he has written about Meat- Free Mondays, a campaign to urge people to go vegetarian one day a week, cautioned against seeking fame. In a veiled attack on those who appear on reality television shows such as The X Factor, he said: “When we started out in the old days, you were looking to be famous via being very talented and working hard and coming up through the ranks.

“Now people are looking at what’s sold to them. It’s this sort of modern package, which is a little bit scary.”

Asked if fame was a weight, he said: “To some degree, but it’s a weight I’m happy to carry. I spent so much of my life trying to get famous, and it’s a little bit unseemly once you get famous to say, ‘Oh, I don’t want to be here’.”

[From Times Online via Gossip Rocks]

I haven’t been to England in many years, but from what I remember it’s a much more polite society than we’re used to in the US, at least in terms of how people respect boundaries. There are also much less paparazzi excepting for London. McCartney might not be able to go about his daily business like that in LA, but nothing is quite like LA either.

Even when he was dealing with the scandal over that lying harpie he married, Sir Paul handled himself with grace. There are plenty of celebrities who live low-key lives and deal well with the pressures of fame. We just don’t hear about them. As I was researching this story I found this LA Times article from 2007 about how “Celebrity Posse Has Become Passe.” They discuss how Brad Pitt regularly rides his motorcycle alone and how Jennifer Garner, Julia Roberts, and Jennifer Aniston are all seen out with their kids, a couple of friends, or even alone. I would guess that’s the rule, and that celebrities with huge staff are the exception. Even Jennifer Lopez is traveling with less staff and being praised for how down to earth she is lately. For some celebrities, that could be more more to do with the changing times than a change of heart.