Hollywood star goes (almost) undetected in Parkhill

“The Notebook” actress Rachel McAdams dines at Kelli’s Family Restaurant

By Casey Lessard

It’s not every day that a Hollywood celebrity visits Parkhill, so you can’t blame Martha Papadopolous of Kelli’s Family Restaurant for not recognizing Rachel McAdams when she sat down at one of her tables for lunch April 27.
“She came in here with her parents and ate,” Papadopolous says. “We didn’t know who they were. Two boys down there (in the corner) were jumping in their seats because they recognized her.”
Brittany Lewis was serving McAdams, star of “The Notebook,” “Mean Girls,” and “Wedding Crashers,” but wasn’t sure it was her.
“The two guys just asked if I knew if it was her or not,” Lewis recalls. “I said, ‘I doubt it.’ They said, ‘Can you go ask her?’ I said no. I went to the table and thought, wow, that does look a lot like her. I came back and told Martha.”
“I could see her from here,” Papadopolous says, sitting at the far end of the restaurant. “She said, ‘Doesn’t she look like her?’ I said, ‘I don’t know!’
“She did!” Lewis exclaims. “She looked so much like her. The guys said, ‘We’re sure it’s her!’”
The two boys were waiting outside on a bench across the street, and politely approached McAdams when she left the restaurant.
“They shook her hand and I realized…” Papadopolous says. “I have three of her movies, so I went out and told her, “I know who you are.” (Laughs). I hugged her and said, “Can I take your picture?”
That’s when they hit a slight snag. Armed with a cell phone camera, Papadopolous didn’t know how to use it to take a picture. She turned to Lewis.
“I said to her,” Papadopolous recalls, “’I don’t know how to use this stupid thing.’ She said, ‘I have one of those and I don’t know how to work it either.’”
The two got it working and snapped a few photos.
“She looks just like her mother and her mother is very pretty,” Papadopolous says. “Looked like a nice family.
“I said, ‘What are you doing in Parkhill?’ She said they were looking for antiques. So I took her picture and said to her, ‘Good luck. Nice to see Canadians get ahead.’ Just a lovely girl.
Martha has also met Ricky Nelson, the Platters, Peter Marshall, Elvis Presley’s stepmother (“I wanted to meet Elvis Presley, but he died before I could have done that.”). Still, a movie star at her restaurant was a big surprise.
“Never in a million years would I think anyone famous would come here.
“She’s a big movie star. I said to her, ‘I know you just finished a movie with George Clooney,’ because I saw her a couple of nights before on Entertainment Tonight.”
As for the star in person, Papadopolous gives two thumbs up.
“She’s a very pretty girl with no makeup on or nothing. She’s not noisy or flashy. I said to her, ‘You’re a lovely girl. Don’t ever change.’ And her mother said to me, ‘Rachel will never change.’”
Rachel McAdams’ most recent film “Married Life” is playing at the Hyland Cinema in London. “The Lucky Ones” is set for release in October. McAdams’ latest project is the http://www.greenissexy.org website.