rubbing elbows with...

[houseelf]

Who have you met that is famous?

I have met Colin Powell (pre-Desert Storm fame) and Alice Cooper in the Frankfurt Airport. He had really bad skin.

Also, although it may not be P.C. to admit this, I am somehow a descendant of Robert E. Lee and his wife.

Anyone have any real experiences with someone famous?

Kelly

[Sheherezade]

The guy who played Father Mocahey (?) on MASH came to my house a few times when I was a kid. He worked on some charity with my mom. He had dinner with us, got drunk and played our piano. When living in NYC, I passed Mick Jagger and his daughter in Riverside Park, sat across from Yoko Ono on the subway and fixed my makeup next to the old supermodel Paulina at the China Club. I always wish I'd meet the rich and famous, but seriously I'd be too shy to say anything to a celebrity if I got the chance. They must find fans soooo annoying. I wouldn't want people staring at ME--yet I stare......

Angie

[Sheherezade]

Ohmygosh.....I forgot the only celeb connection I've had that was "real". I had Antonio Bandares and Melanie Griffith's daughter in the local playgroup I ran in Baltimore for a few months. Melanie was making a Jon Waters film. There is nothing like pushing swings with Antonio. I mostly saw the nanny, but Stella was a sweet kid. I guess if you start thinking about the famous as real people you do forget they are celebrities!!

Angie

[DCJenn]

Well, I live 4 houses away from the Speaker of the House (but given my politics I'm sure we won't be BBQing together). My dog pooed on the lawn of the Commanding General of the Military District of Washington, but thankfully for my husband's career, no one saw it and I cleaned it up right away. (He's the dude on TV a lot with the Reagan funeral) I shop at the same grocery store as the DC Chief of Police. My cousin worked for Tami Baldwin the Rep from Wisconsin and she needed my cousin to work on her campaign so I have a written excuse on House paper for Elizabeth missing my wedding.

Obviously, I am a victim of my environment. Famous people that you all might know- haven't seen or met one to my knowledge.

Jenn

Oh wait- I did see Joan Jett, the B-52's and the Violent Femmes up close and personal but didn't interupt them. I got to be backstage at a concert with a friend of mine who decorated the catering suite.

[Auspicious]

Real experiences? Not really, since as Angie pointed out it's good karma to leave them alone if you don't know them personally, and I don't. I did get to meet Helen Thomas and Bob Greene in college since I was on the university paper and we usually got to meet with any journalism-related speakers they brought to campus.

"Sightings" since I've lived in New York would include--let me think--Jerry Seinfeld, George Stephanopolus, Martha Plimpton, Nathan Lane, Donald Sutherland, the chick who plays Carrie on ER, Minnie Driver . . . I think that's it.

My most "treasured" sighting would be that about a month ago I was leaving work at about 7 pm and in our giant lobby downstairs there were two people standing by the outside door chatting and seemingly waiting for a cab or something. As I walked past them I realized that the man was none other than Chang-Rae Lee, who is one of my absolute favorite authors and who I recognized from the jacket photos on his books. I had to suppress the sudden urge to blurt out "Heywaitaminuteyou'reBRILLIANT!"

I'm told it's not unusual to see celebrities in the building since they all pretty much seem to publish their autobiographies sooner or later but Chang-Rae Lee is the closest thing to famous I've seen here so far. One of my more, um, odd coworkers was telling me about the time Don Knotts came in to confer with his editor about his book and she stalked him around the building (nonchalantly) and waited outside the bathroom door for him to come out. 8O

When I lived in/around Wichita, KS I have run into Barry Sanders a few times, He is a very nice guy, pretty shy, but very nice.
In Tulsa, I ran into Garth Brooks once, just out and about, didn't even realize who it was until a few minutes of talking and just second glancing....with that thought-'I have seen this guy before...let me think...'
I met Carl Lewis once at a Track & Field outing, also have met numerous professional athletes on the personable level....not at charity events or things, but at gyms, grocery stores and church.

[migirl]

Well, I haven't had too many opportunities to see/meet anyone famous, but my husband has had his fair share of sightings...

- When we were living in Washington, DC he saw Tom Cruise in Georgetown filming "Minority Report"

- He sat at a table in a restaurant right next to Anthony Kiedis (lead singer of Red Hot Chili Peppers), and has a picture of him in the background

- He saw Barry Sanders at a bar (although there is still some dispute to this day as to whether it was actually Barry Sanders, mainly because he was so short)

- We saw the Smashing Pumpkins up close as we were waiting to see them in concert, we were standing in line as they got out of their van and went in a side door

- When we lived in DC, we lived down the street from Madeleine Albright's house and I would walk past it twice a day on my way to/from school

- Someone on my husband's side of the family (cousin? uncle?) was married to Mimi Rogers (Tom Cruise's ex-wife)

- When my husband was doing his sub-I in med school he saw Vern Yip (of "Trading Spaces" fame) visiting someone in the hospital. My husband is a huge TS fan so of course he went up to him and started talking to him (said he was super nice) and got his autograph on the only paper he had on him at the time, a hospital order sheet.

[SueC]

Gosh, I guess I don't get out often enough, I've never actually met anybody famous. I did see Jim Ryan once at a cross country meet (I think he was the first person to run a mile sub-4. His daughter ran cross country also and he was at her meet). I didn't actually talk to him, though.
Oh yeah, my daughter was kissed by Al and Tipper Gore when they were on the campaign trail.

I guess I don't get out much. That or I don't pay a whole lot of attention when I do.
Let's see....I've met Hillary Clinton and had my picture taken with her (but the damn DNC never sent it to me).....I've driven by Malcolm Forbes ranch in Southern Colorado a bunch of times....does that count? When Lyle Lovett has a summer concert date in Denver, sometimes he visits my dad's business but I haven't met him. Does THAT count?

Namedropping

I got to shake hands with Jimmy Carter while he was President, and met former President Ford in Vail (I was visiting his next-door neighbor). My aunt in California lived down the street from Margaret O'Brien, and we went over there one afternoon when I was a kid and met her and she showed me her scrapbook from when she was acting. I was an extra on the TV movie "The Day After" back in the 80's, and Jason Robards sat with my friends and I and talked with us about acting one day at lunch during filming. He was a lovely person. I also did some extra work on "Perry Mason" when it was filming in Denver and met Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale, and a whole bunch of other actors--lots of people who were more famous in the 70's and 80's.

I met a lot of comedians when I was doing bookings in Denver and as a TV writer in LA. The cast of "Mad TV", Stephen Wright, Sam Kinison, Richard Jeni (who is all business off-stage), Carrot Top, Ellen Degeneres (who is probably one of the nicest people I've ever met) and Roseanne Barr (who is as vulgar and nasty as you've heard). I sat on Donald Sutherland's lap and flirted with him at a party around the time he was doing 'Backdraft' (he's about 11 feet tall and has the bluest eyes I've ever seen--and he likes pretty young girls a LOT), and I met Quentin Tarantino and almost tripped over Michael Keaton on the stairs at another party. And I pitched a script to Harvey Weinstein that never got made into a movie.

My little brother is on Colin Powell's security detail (he told me to watch for him at the funeral on Friday) so he gets to meet all kinds of people--Bill Clinton was the latest one y'all have heard of. I got to meet Secretary Powell at a reception at the State Department over last Thanksgiving. (But I think I was more impressed seeing Thomas Jefferson's desk.)

[Sheherezade]

Donald Sutherland's LAP?? You win, Elizabeth!!!!



Angie

[Amiens]

So here my famous encounters--

1) When I was two (1978), my father was in the military, and had to go to Washington DC for some business. My parents had a friend who was a general at the Pentagon. While my dad tended to his business, my mom and I went to the Pentagon to see their friend. Being the sneaking kid I was, I disappeared out of sight of my mom. The next thing my mom knew a Secret Service agent walked into the office she was in, and asked if she had a young daughter, and asked her to go with him. The agent led my mom down the hallway to another office just a few doors down, to where she saw President Jimmy Carter holding me. He told her "This cutie just toddled in here." My mom tells me that President Carter gave me some candy, and I had it all over me as well him.

2) I used to be in gymnastics, and got to meet Svetlana Bouganskaya, who was a Russian gymnast and Olympian.

3) I attended high school with Keri Russell, the actress who played the main character on the TV series Felicity.

4) Matt's 5th greatgrandfather is Brigham Young via his first wife, 2nd president of the Latter-day Saint Church (Mormon Church).

5) Got to meet Rod Smith's of the Denver Bronco football team (now ex) common law wife and children. Matt was involved with a charity organization headed by the Smiths' in conjunction with the CU-Medical School called Buff Buddies, which helped children with sickle cell anemia. (Side note- I met another wife of a Denver Broncos player- . She was not the nicest of people. Anyway, I worked in the pediatrician's office that she took their children to. One of her children wanted to take a toy home from the waiting room, and of course that is not allowed. She was going to pay for it!)

Crystal

[Michele]

Russ and I saw OJ Simpson at the hotel we stayed at the night after our wedding....it was in Orlando.

[SueC]

I just remembered another one. When I was in college, Marcus Allen played for the KC Chiefs. My sister and I were at a bar and he was there. He saw my sister (who is really pretty) and pointed to her and gestured for her to come over to him. He was picking up on her, even though he is or was at the time a married man. Luckily, she was not interested. Also, she went on a few dates with Christian Okoye (also a football player who was pretty famous in his day). He was a very charming man and has a beautiful accent.

Okay since I am such a groupie, I have met each band member from Matchbox Twenty and just 2 weeks ago I got to meet and talk to Jason Mraz for 5 minutes. In high school I was the Editor of our newspaper and got to interview and have my picture taken with Charles Shaughnessy who at the time played "Shane" on Days of our Lives. Little did I know that he would go on to be the Dad in "The Nanny". That was cool. We saw former Dallas Cowboy coach Dave Campo in a Cancun airport coming home from our vacation. We used to frequent the Galleria mall in Dallas when we lived there and watched Dion Sanders pull up in a white limo with a Cowboys star on the side and get out at the Westin Hotel in a big fur coat and decked out with gold and diamonds.