I guess I must be missing something. I've never understood "celebrity" adulation. And to queue in the hope of getting a scribbled autograph is demeaning, embarrassing, and utterly pointless.

I think I can understand it. They're projecting a lot onto that person and need a response that validates the emotional investment.
They need to believe in something and the celebrity is a convenient focus. So an actor can't just be appreciated for their work, they are "nice", "down-to-earth", "appreciative of their fans" etc.

I've never, ever been susceptible to this behaviour (ok when i was about 10 I got the autograph of a magician) and it's something that most people grow out of - the age range of these fans must be around teens to late twenties.

While the scribbles may be just that, having the star pay any kind of attention to them is probably very powerful.

For the star, this kind of adulation might be tiresome, but these people watch your films. If no one showed up that would be a bad sign.

BTW every little snippet I've read up to now suggested that Butler was an insecure dick. But his charm offensive for this Die Hard clone has been well received - see his reddit AMA and the gushing posts.

Good of him to take the time, even pressed. Better than just walking through. Though I don't know enough about the context. But he could do with security detail that are bigger dicks.

Did I just watch over 5 minutes of someone's hand-held video of "Gerry" signing autographs outside some building at some place?

By the way, if you ever needed evidence that Butler has reason to doubt his A-list credentials the poster for this film is quite revealing. Morgan Freeman is front and centre!

Moving this video to ant's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.