The Best Autograph Signers of 2012

Who are the nicest celebrities in Hollywood? These are my personal rankings of the best autographs signers in Hollywood for 2012.   I based my rankings on my personal experiences with these celebrities, how often I saw them in 2012, how many autographs they signed each time, and how friendly they were when interacting with the fans.

Honorable Mention:
HM) Joel Kinnamon.  Can sign an autograph per second.
HM) Charlie Hunnam.  Really chill guy & good signer.
HM) Alison Brie. A sweet girl who you just want to introduce to your grandma.
HM) Kit Harington.  If I saw him more in 2012 he might have made top 10.
HM) Matt Bomer.  A guarantee to sign at each event he attends.
HM) Jeremy Renner.  Best Avengers signer of the year.

THE TOP 10:

10) Norman Reedus.  Norman is one of my personal favorites.  He is great about signing and he can knock out about 40 autographs in sixty seconds.  At The Walking Dead premiere he signed for the whole line, then got done with press, and just came back over to the fans to see if he missed anyone the first time.

 9) Pauley Perrette.  This NCIS star is one of the best signing actresses in Hollywood.  She goes to a lot of events in LA, and each time she is great about making sure she takes a couple minutes out of her time to sign some autographs.  And Pauley is also really good about taking photos with fans.

8) Giancarlo Esposito.  I joke that while Giancarlo played a ruthless-murdering-drug-kingpin in the hit show Breaking Bad, he is all teddy bear in real life.  He's a great signer and wins extra points for his memory.  On his way into an event my buddy asked if he could sign afterwards because I was on my way and I am a big Breaking Bad fan.  Giancarlo came out after the event, stopped and looked at my buddy and said, "where's your friend the Breaking Bad fan at?" and then made sure he signed for me first before anyone else.

7) Olivia Munn.  Olivia made a steady stream of appearances around the time The Newsroom was premiering.  And each and every appearance she made she signed up a storm.  She also wins extra points for her personal messages she sometimes writes to fans along with her autograph.  I've seen her write some rather long and jokingly sexual messages to male fans on their photos.

6) Jeffrey Dean Morgan.  JDM seems to truly enjoy interacting with fans.  If he sees you, and you hold out a photo of him, he will walk right over to you to sign it, without you even having to call his name.  He has a longer more intricate signature than any of the people higher on this list so it takes him a bit longer to sign an autograph, but it is a safe bet than you can get four autographs out of him every time you see him.

5) Milla Jovovich. I did not think it was possible, but Milla outsigned the photos at the Resident Evil Retribution premiere.  Every autograph collector there got all their photos signed and then just stood around with our hands in our pockets while Milla signed receipts, business cards, scraps of paper, and other junk for random people who just walked by and saw a crowd.  She even gave her very expensive looking purse to a little girl who was at the premiere.

4) Jon Bernthal. I didn't get to see Jon as much as I would have liked in 2012, but there is possibly no cooler human being on the planet than Jon Bernthal.   He gets his high ranking because he will stand around and sign a stack of photos for you, then once he is done signing he will just shoot the shit and chill with you for a while.

3) Berenice Marlohe.  The new Bond Girl is an incredibly good signer.  She made a handful of appearances in LA to promote Skyfall and she just kept signing autographs, and signing autographs, and signing more autographs.  No matter how many photos were thrown in front of her she just laughed and signed them all.  She wins my award for best female signer of 2012.

2) Matt Damon.  Matt is not someone you see often in Los Angeles, but he made his way onto my list by spending about 10 days in LA in December and just racking on multiple occasions.  There is no signing machine quite like Matt Damon.  He can knock out 40 autographs in a matter of a minute.  He takes photos with fans. He will personalize autographs if you ask.  And he's usually got a smile on his face the whole time.  He is one of the nicest celebs you will ever meet.

1) Johnny Depp.  I saw him three times in 2012 and all three times he signed up a storm.  Johnny wins my top ranking for 2012 because of his effort at the Dark Shadows premiere.  He did press first, then came back out to the crowd and signed for 45 strait minutes.  Johnny also gets the top spot in part because SOOOO many people come out for his autograph (so he has many more fans to appease than other celebs). It's clear Johnny is incredibly nice and the only bad experience you may have with him is in dealing with his British personal security guard who can be rude.




That's my top 10 best autograph signers of 2012.  Celebs out there, I want to see a solid effort in 2013 to try to unseat the reigning 10.

The Worst Autograph Signers of 2012

This is my personal list of the worst autograph signers in Hollywood for 2012.  In order to have made the list, I had to have seen the celebrity in the year 2012.  Each person on this list has earned their title as one of the worst signers.  The list is in descending order with 1 being the worst of the worst.

10) Joseph Gordon Levitt.  Celebrities who are inconsistent with their signing habits piss me off.  JGL is constitent:  he does not sign autographs in LA.  Ever.  He's pretty polite about it when he says NO so he's still cool in my book.

9) Morgan Freeman.  You're just not going to get Morgan Freeman's autograph.  Period.  I've accepted it, and you should too.

8) Kristen Stewart.  She's just not a nice person.  She's an awful signer and seems to not care even the least how she treats "normal" people.

7) Ashton Kutcher.  Similar to KStew, Ashton just doesn't give two shits about doing anything for fans at premieres or press events.  I've actually seen him sign a few autographs and every time he does it he looks at the person asking with this pained look like there is nothing in the world he hates more.  Plus anyone who cheats on his wife on their anniversary is not a nice person.

6) Hugh Laurie.  I don't think Hugh signed one autograph in LA in 2012.  I saw him a few times and he almost ran from anyone asking for an autograph, and I heard of no other grapher in LA getting his autograph this year.

5) Adam Baldwin.  Adam makes his way onto the list due largely to the way he treated fans at Comic Con.  I asked him for an autograph and he looked at me with a "how dare you" expression on his face, and said "no I don't sign autographs here".  The next day I saw a girl who wanted a picture with him approach him and he gave her the same expression and said, "No I don't take pictures here".  Not cool dude. Not cool.

4) Sofia Bush.  Sofia makes it on the list because I have seen her soooo many times in 2012.  She goes to a lot of events in LA and at each and every event she never signed any autographs.  Similar to Hugh Laurie I don't think she signed one autograph in LA in 2012.

3) Liam Neeson.  To quote him, "I'm sorry I don't sign autographs anymore".  That's what he said at the Battleship premiere and The Grey premiere.  And that's fine with me.  If someone doesn't want to sign autographs ever and is polite about it, they are cool in my book.  But then Liam decided to sign up a storm in London for Taken 2, and then signed again in Los Angeles at a Taken 2 Q&A.  So apparently he DOES sign autographs anymore.

2) Gene Simmons.  My biggest problem with Gene Simmons is he puts on a front and acts like he wants to sign.  He shows up to a lot of premieres and acts like he wants to come sign, but his people won't let him.  In reality that is anything but the case.  I saw one on one this year and asked him to sign one autograph and he would not do it for me.  Gene has no intentions of signing for fans and to pretend otherwise is just misleading.

1) Megan Fox.  Congrats to Megan Fox as she wins the title of the worst autograph signer in Hollywood.  She made it on the list by never signing in LA in 2012, and also for her constant lying.  Her routine is to say, "I'll sign after" then sneak out a different door on the way out so you don't see her.  She has blown me off low key, she has blown me off at Q&As, she has blown me off at talk shows, she has blown me off at premieres.  A lot of fans came out for the This is 40 premiere on Hollywood Blvd specifically to see Megan and she blew them all off.  Megan Fox you have earned your title as Worst Autograph Signer of 2012.

Katherine Heigl Signs Autographs

I haven't seen Katherine Heigl since the New Years Eve premiere last year and I did not get her autograph that day because she didn't sign in my area.  So I was glad she was out this week doing some press events, and I went to get her autograph.  Katherine must have been in the Holliday spirit as she stopped and signed for all the fans.  I got my five 11x14s signed and went home happy. 

Quentin Tarantino signs autographs for Django Unchained

Quentin Tarantino has been in town promoting Django Unchained this week and I went out to get some autographs from him.   I caught him in a pretty low key situation (about 10 graphers) and I got three 11x14s signed.  One from Reservoir Dogs, one individual shot from Django, and one Django poster shot. 

F*@#ing Matt Damon Autographs

Celebs don't come much cooler or friendlier than Matt Damon.  I really liked Good Will Hunting, The Bourne Trilogy, and The Departed is one of my favorite movies of all time and I'll always be a fan of Matt just because of how nice of a guy he is.  It's even cooler that he seems to have a good sense of humor.  He has brought us such memorable movie cameos such as "Scotty Doesn't Know" in Eurotrip:

And let's not forget about youtube sensation "I'm F*@#ing Matt Damon" from the Jimmy Kimmel Show:

And to top off all that, he is a great autograph signer.  I went for him again this week and got eleven more photos signed.  He was, as always, one of the nicest celebs you will ever come across. 

I got Matt on three 12x18s, four 11x14s, and four 8x10s. 

Hugh Jackman Walk of Fame with Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, and Jay Leno

Hugh Jackman was honored with a star on the Walk of Fame this week and the night before I said, "I'm not going".  The Weather Channel said there was a 80% chance of rain at the time of the ceremony.   But of course the weather man was wrong, and I got a call from my buddy about an hour before the ceremony saying, "wake up and get down here the sun is shining bright".   I did just that and five minutes after I arrived so did the celebs.  

Anne Hathaway showed up and was really good about signing.  She's usually one each if it is low key so I only had three photos along.  I held out my sexy 12x18 and she said, "I'm sorry I don't sign that one".  So I grabbed the 11x14s in my bag and asked "Is this one OK?" and she signed it for me.  Then I held out the other 11x14 and she signed that too.   

 Anne consistently told anyone with this photo below that she would NOT sign it: 

 Jay Leno was a speaker at the ceremony and I had two 11x14s along and he signed them both for me.  He even drew his chin on one of them. 

 Amanda Seyfried is a pretty good signer and was there to support Hugh her Les Miserables co-star.  I only had two 11x14s along because I wasn't sure if she was coming.  I got them easily signed and probably could have gotten more if I had them. 

 And lastly Hugh Jackman signed.  He's a pretty good signer and good with the fans.  I had two 12x18s on boards and got them signed, but since I came to the ceremony so last minute I did not have time to pull my 11x14 photos in time while he was signing.  I'm happy with my two 12x18s though, both Wolverine shots. 

A very quick and efficient day, I was only in the parking structure for one hour and forty two minutes. 

Hugh Jackman aka Wolverine signs autographs

Hugh Jackman is a pretty good signer, when it is low key and he can see who he is signing for he likes to try to do one autograph each.  So when I went for him this week and he rolled down his window while he was doing press for Les Miserables I was happy to get one.  I had my Wolverine 11x14 photo along and got it signed. 

Matt Damon: autographs and photos

Matt Damon is very rarely in LA so when he's here you have to go for his autograph.   Well he's been in town this week and I tried a few different events in an attempt to get his autograph all without any success.  Then finally I got lucky and caught him when he signed up a storm.  I managed to get thirteen 11x14s signed.  A great day by any standards. 

Emilia Clarke from Game of Thrones Autographs

Game of Thrones is one of the shows I watch pretty religiously when it is on the air.   So I was very excited that Emilia Clarke was going to be in LA this week since you generally don't see the Game of Thrones cast much in Los Angeles.  Emilia is always really nice and she was again tonight.  She was laughing and smiling while interacting with all the fans. I had five 11x14s along and got them all signed easily. 

Rock and roll legend Slash signs autographs

I will always go for autographs from iconic legends of their crafts, and that is exactly what Slash is.  I was able to get two autographs from one of the most famous guitarists of all time and that is pretty cool in my book.  He signed both my 11x14 photos and I went home happy.