Celebs
The “Ghostbusters” and “Groundhog Day” actor surfaced in Boston after eating tacos in New Bedford earlier this month.
At this point, can we just adopt Bill Murray as a local? Because the elusive butterfly that is Bill Murray just landed again.
Yup, just weeks after an unbilled Bill shocked a crowd at a Bill Murray Movie Marathon in New Bedford, he popped up in Boston at Logan’s Legal Sea Foods, snapping a selfie with an employee.
“Look who stopped by,” Legal Sea Foods posted Thursday.
This isn’t Murrray’s only Massachusetts dining experience this month.
After the New Bedford screening Aug. 3, Murray popped into the National Club near the theater. The kitchen had already closed by the time Murray arrived, around 9:30 p.m., according to local radio station Fun 107, but they offered him a full menu. He ordered Barbacoa Tacos, per the outlet, and he gabbed with employees and guests, closing out the night at the joint.
Murray had just surprised a crowd at The Zeiterion’s “Bill Murray Movie Marathon Monday” after a screening of “What About Bob?”
After the credits rolled, the crowd erupted as the real Murray walked on dressed in a colorfully printed shirt, shorts, and sneakers, with one bandaged wrist and a water bottle and gift bag in his other hand.
“My philosophy with Bill Murray is that he’s like a butterfly. You can’t coax him to land on your finger. You can only hope that he does. So we just created a really beautiful flower to attract him,” Penny Pimentel, the theater’s senior director of marketing and communications, told Boston.com after the movie screening.
The Z knew Murray “was coming through town on his way to the Vineyard. We learned about 24 hours in advance that it was likely [he’d stop], but we didn’t know for sure until it happened,” she said.
The flower was planted. Sure enough — random bag still in hand — Murray walked, and talked to the crowd for some 12 minutes, before fluttering away, evidently for some tacos.
As for what was in that bag? “We don’t know!” Pimental told Boston.com. “He walked in with it.”
The butterfly that is Bill Murray flits through this area often.
He’s been known to spontaneously pop up in coffee shops, sit down for some Portuguese food, jump on stages to sing. He’s dined at Clarke Cooke House in Newport, at Café Mimo in New Bedford’s North End … and on and on.
Selfies with Bill Murray are a southern New England summer badge of honor. Sometimes he even holds your phone.
In 2019, Murray — whose son Luke is now the head basketball coach at Boston College — dined on Polish pierogis and vodka at Patti’s Pierogis in Fall River with Rhode Island native and seasonal Martha’s Vineyard resident Peter Farrelly. (Murray had a memorable turn in the Farrelly Brothers’ 1996 movie “Kingpin.”)
Later, the duo popped up at Roy Carpenter’s Beach in South Kingston, R.I., where local band Steve Smith and The Nakeds — a Farrelly and Murray favorite — were playing.
Farrelly suggested that, if he played “Gloria,” Bill would run up to sing, Smith said previously.
“He was like a dog. He heard the music start, and his ears went up,” Smith said with a laugh.
In 2022, the seafood-lover stopped at Turk’s Seafood in Mattapoiset after playing a round of golf at the Kittansett Club in Marion, per Sippican Week. (And yes, snapped a selfie.)
Meanwhile, The Zeiterion’s Bill Murray Marathon continues. They screen “Stripes” Aug. 24, and “Groundhog Day” Aug. 31.
Our question: Will Murray walk back on stage after “Groundhog Day” and repeat his first 12-minute audience talk, complete with gift bag in hand?
With Bill “Butterfly” Murray, one never knows. One hopes.
Lauren Daley is a freelance culture writer. She can be reached at [email protected]. She tweets @laurendaley1, and Instagrams at @laurendaley1.
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