I am pretty sure that Kate Winslet is not having to dig through sofas and purses for loose change so she can order something off the dollar menu at McDonald's. But, yesterday, Kate Winslet along with her two kids were at a Chase Bank in New York City trying to turn two buckets of change into bills.
According to the NY Daily News, the teller refused to do so because Kate didn't have an account and I guess has never seen the machines in every store which take all your change and give you bills. To her credit, Kate did not pull out the do you know who I am card. Instead a man behind her offered to exchange the change for bills so Kate would not have to carry the buckets back home.
When Kate thanked the man she took off her sunglasses and the man recognized her and asked if she was Kate Winslet. She said yes. How sweet.
Here is the thing. I think the guy knew she was Kate Winslet. Are you going to just pass over bills in exchange for buckets of change to a stranger without knowing how much is actually in the buckets? Really? He knew. It is still nice of him, but he had to know.
He may not have known who she was. I used to manage a bank and we had several customers who came in several times a week to buy coin from us and look through them to see if they could find any valuable ones. Then then would return them and start over with a new bunch.
ReplyDeleteBeing gorgeous has its advantages.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE her!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd TD Bank in the NE lets you change coins for free. Good fun.
My credit union allows anyone to cash in change. Non-members have to pay about 7% to do it. Odd that a bank would non use an easy source of profit like that.
ReplyDeleteEven though I know who she is I probably wouldn't be able to recognize her face to face very easily.
She's probably teaching her kids the value of saving their change, and how much they can collect. Would be nice of her to do, at least....
ReplyDeleteAnother shining example of the American corporate banking system.
ReplyDeleteIt kinda sounds like she was trying to teach her kids a little about money and Chase shot her down.
Yeah, I think the guy recognized her but he wasn't really overt about it.
I think it's criminal for banks to charge to cash in your change. It's just money exchange. The post office doesn't give me a $.44 stamp for fifty cents.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it was probably her kids' money, and she was there to get it cashed into bills for them. She sounds like a great mom and a really nice person. I have always liked her work.
ReplyDeleteAgree with the above posters who said she was probably trying to teach her kids the value of money. Too bad the bank didn't see it that way because now they may have 3 fewer customers.
ReplyDeleteAs for the guy, he probably didn't know who she was and probably just wanted to help out a mom with 2 kids. There are people in the world who do random acts of kindness for strangers.
of course he knew...he sold the story...how else would it have gotten out?
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid I loved change and the idea of converting it into cash. Used to save every coin I could find and ask my parents to take me to the bank to exchange it for "real money." Sounds like she was just being a good mom.
ReplyDeletebanks have machines that do this too, just like grocery stores do. but they won't let you (a 'regular person') use them. they're for commercial accounts, i guess. i have a friend who moved all his money---along with his mother's and she was loaded---over a dispute just like this. and he DID have an account at the bank. they told him to had to have it all in rolls or they wouldn't take it.
ReplyDelete@Nancer, and then they're really dumb about giving you the rolls for you do do it yourself in the first place.
ReplyDeleteMy credit union will do it for me as well.
And I probably would take it to the bank first too, even with the grocery stores having those machines. Because where do you take money? TO THE BANK. Funny how banks don't work for us anymore.
ReplyDeleteYears ago my Mom and I sat in the grass outside the bank rolling the coins from my bank since we didn't know we had to do that (my Mom is from the UK and they always did it for anyone, for free, in fact I think they had to, legally, as coins are lawful tender. Keep in mind this included half pennies!) We took them in, rolled. I got my 10.00. Then my Mom closed the account! The manager came out, "Ma'am, why are you closing your account? he asked.
ReplyDelete"Because your bank is staffed by wankers." My Mom said politely.
I love my Mom.
Kate sounds like a good mom, and he might not have known who she was, but her being incredibly good looking might have helped... I have a "hot mom" too, I know the signs!
I took it to mean that the guy has an account and so he took the buckets up and had the bank exchange the money and then gave her the bills and not that he just handed over paper money for what was in the bucket but it was still a nice thing to do.
ReplyDeleteI think Mr. T's right: the good samaritan saw a hot lady, a super-MILF, if I may be so bold, who does not wear a wedding ring anymore (I think), and he thought, "Why not try and talk her up?" Then, BOOM, it's a movie star.
ReplyDeleteI just hope this whole story, good samaritan included, isn't some Winslet publicity stunt.
Are you allowed to wear sunglasses in UK banks? I know in Canada they ask you to remove hats and sunglasses when you walk through the doors.
ReplyDeleteLeah the article says she was at a New York bank but I don't know if the U.S. allows people to wear sunglasses in the bank.
ReplyDeleteOT -- But another Kate story. She may be consistently low key in her personal life. A lawyer i worked with in Dallas came in one morning gushing and glowing about the wonderful gorgeous woman he met the night before. Just couldn't stop talking about her and how terrific she was. When describing her, he said she looked just like that girl in Titanic except she had an English accent so he didn't try to follow up with her since she seemed to be just passing through. Then somebody broke it to him that Kate just used an American accent in the film. He was pretty sick that he didn't pick up on who she was. [And we did confirm that she was in Dallas that week.] The firm also has offices in London, NY and LA, et al. so if they had "clicked" something might have developed.
ReplyDelete