To me, they are just people doing a job and while they are well-know, public figures that many might admire or dislike, they are humans who act like humans. And because of this, I treat them as such, with the same respect the waitress at the café gets.
My husband gets a bit star struck at times. Like 'did you know he's such and such and earns x per year and blah blah' and then he looks at me and remembers I don't give a fuck. I honestly don't. Who cares? Until I meet the person and see what they're actually like I'm not rating them haha.
I wonder if it's an old school Australian thing. We usually are about the level playing field. I think that's changed recently,perhaps due to the image heavy digital world and influence of US, but traditionally it's been more about your actions and being a good bloke above all else.
And we are very good at chatting away to random people in shops. I remember doing this in the UK when I lived there for six years and they'd be taken back. You kinda learnt NOT to for a while, til my Aussie nature asserted itself and I still would extract stories from strangers.
Yeah, I reckon that's your SA breaking through.