In the early 80’s, my parents rented a house to NHL player Craig Laughlin.
When I was in college, I worked for a guy who had been a session guitarist for Apple Records, among other studios. He also did special effects for several big-budget movies.
Well the first has to be Bon Jovi who co-owns The Philadelpia Soul, but I have no idea who the other is. If I walk this way will you give me a hint?
Back when Elements The lounge co-owned by Matt Bongivoi ( John Bon Jovi’s Brother) had karaoke I’ve sung there and spoken to Matt a few times, ( just like most of his customers)
I was an extra in Anger Managerment so I met Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson.
I was also an extra for the Macy’s 4th Of July min-concert with Sheryl Crow, and was 3rd row at the tapings.
As a seat filler I’ve sat next to George Ross’s wife, stepped on the feet of James Gandolfini and countless other celebrities I didn’t reconize as I’ve tried to get to my seats
Well, let’s see:
[ul]
[li]My great-uncle Bob married Jimmy Stewart’s sister;[/li]
[li]A close childhood friend played saxophone for Donna Summer *and *Engelbert Humperdinck (not at the same time, though); [/li]
[li]An ex-girlfriend is the second cousin of the late Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber; and[/li]
[li]A former cow-orker used to party with the guys in Nirvana.[/li]
[/ul]
The only famous people I know directly are murderers.
I’ve known a few authors via online conversations: Michael Flynn, Nancy Kress, Kim Newman, S.M. Stirling, and Harry Turtledove.
And I’ve met Eve Golden.
I don’t even have to go to six degrees. I was an acolyte at Saint John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. when Ford was president. I got to chat with him a couple of times.
I am 3 degrees from GWB by two different routes
- I know the previous deputy minister of finance (in Sweden)
- He obviously knows the former prime minister
- Who has met George W Bush on several occasions
or
- Friends in Florida
- Who I believe are acquainted with that republican attorney general or whatever in Florida. Katherine Harris is that it?
- Probably knows the President.
“Celebrities?” My father & 2 uncles served under Curtis E LeMay in WWII & later, in SAC. Yes, they met him. I once spent time with an Irish merchant seaman who met The Rev Ian Paisley in jail. A friend of my youth went out west & joined up with the Jim Jones group; he died in Guyana.
“Coach Robison” in Jr High taught me Geography & my brother played basketball for him. His sons are singer-songwriters & one married a Dixie Chick.
Two cousins went to High School with Lou Diamond Philips.
I knew Lyle Lovett & Shelley Duval (here in Houston) before their discovery by Robert Altman (& the rest of the world).
Various acquaintances spent time with Bush Jr. A friend’s parents ran a Houston club where he drank Budweiser.
Many musical acquaintances from my misspent youth–Some who lived in Houston, others who toured through. One interesting evening with Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, alone, provides a bunch of links.
Oh, I’ve got another one. Teller of Penn and Teller used to teach Latin at my high school. He left for showbiz before I got their but my other teachers new him (and said he was weird). This is why I blame Penn for my lack of proper classical education.
Howard Dean once sang happy birthday to my wife (back when he was governor of Vermont), so that makes me good friends with the entire Democratic Party, right? Right?
Oh, and he was on a JetBlue flight with me once too (right after he left the presidential race) and I said hello and told him I would have voted for him. He said thanks.
Me and Howard, we’re pretty tight.
Looks like you got one but not the other. If you can’t get the owner, you’re obviously not Krafty enough.
Big deal. Teller actually talked to me! I’ll never forget it. He said “That’ll be fifteen dollars.”
And he spoke to my then girlfriend. He wished her a happy birthday. In fact, they shared a birthday, 20 years apart. I think that Teller turns 59 tomorrow.
A year or so ago, I was watching reruns of Enterprise, which I hadn’t been able to watch first-run. One episode, I immediately recognized a friend of mine- she was one of the major guest characters. We’d been in a play together a few years previous, but I’d lost touch with her.
So I’m one degree from Scott Bakula.
My husband’s cousin married some guy who is friends with Sylvester Stallone. We have a picture of Sly and their kid together, and I’m not allowed to throw it out.
My mom went to high school with Bobby Knight.
My college advisor’s parents were friends with Wayne Gretzky’s folks.
My brother-in-law’s sister-in-law, whom I have a nodding acquaintance with, was a set designer in Chicago and worked on Early Edition, so I am two degrees from Kyle Chandler.
I met a guy who helped remodel Reggie Miller’s house.
In college, I worked for the athletic department and met Antonio Daniels who now plays in the NBA, so that’s a lot of athletes in two degrees.
Oh, and a cousin was one of LeBron James’ teachers. (In fact, she missed our wedding to see him play one of his last high school games.)
I seem to be skewed towards sport figures, which is a little odd for someone who forgot that it was Superbowl Sunday. And didn’t care either way.
(1) I have a sister.
(2) Her wedding was officiated by a musician who tours and does studio work with Paul Simon.
(3) Paul Simon knows Art Garfunkel.
(4) Art Garfunkel was in Boxing Helena with Kurtwood Smith.
(5) Kurtwood Smith was on a 2005 episode of That 70s Show where Jenna Fischer guest starred.
(6) Hubba hubba.
I took music lessons from a guy whose band played at the White House, so I’m two steps from Bill Clinton who they briefly met. That’s 2 steps.
A relative of mine did some research for a Tom Clancy novel and is in the acknowledgments; that’s 2-4 steps depending on how you look at it. (Like, how many steps is an uncle? 1 or 2?) I don’t know if he interacted with Clancy much, but he was a co-worker with one of the main people.
I have a bunch of close friends who have met and spoken to Neil Gaiman. I’m a fan, but not one to stand in line at conventions and signings.
Ditto for Tori Amos.
I’ve met and spoken to Michael Hutchence. This was when INXS played a gig in my city and they were interviewed by the local paper. The editor, my friend, invited me to the interview and introduced me. Michael said ‘hello’ first and shook my hand. He was very sweet, and polite.
Another interview I was invited to was Nirvana’s, before Nevermind. I was holding a can of Coke in my hand and stood at the side while the photographer was getting his shots. In between shots, Kurt Cobain gestured and smiled to me saying, ‘Some Coke would be nice.’ There wasn’t another available, so I shared my drink with him.
Another editor friend of mine runs a music magazine, so he gets to meet a lot of musicians, currently famous, and upcoming.
I bumped into Chris Martin once, an hour before Coldplay was due to play a show. He looked frazzled. Later I read in an interview his account of freaking out and running into fans outside, who apparently didn’t know who he was.
I’m friends with a guy who is a friend of Prince William. We’re hoping to get invited to the Coronation, or at least the after-party 
A few more:
Met Eddie Izzard - he’s adorable and much slimmer than he photographs. I was to interview him for an article I was writing, but he had to cancel - however, his manager sent me a bunch of his DVDs and I did get to meet him later at a signing. I introduced myself and he recognized the name, and very sweetly apologized for having to cancel the interview.
I took my daughter to see Bowling For Soup in concert, just before they released the album with the song 1985 on it - so not a very crowded concert 
We went to an after show meet-and-greet, and Chris Burney recognized my daughter’s name from a fan letter, connected her name to her screen name on AOL, and remembered that he’d had an instant message chat with her the night before his wedding. After the meet-and-greet, the opening act, a “rapper” called MC Lars, tapped my daughter on the shoulder and started a conversation with her. They talked for several minutes before my daughter caught on that he was flirting with her, at which point she became too flustered to continue the conversation.
That’s a good one! I met Dean when we were staying in the same hotel in Beverly Hills. I was there for a Jeopardy taping, and myself and the other contestants noticed him in the lobby at the same time. He was very kind about being flocked by 17-year-old girls – and that was in late 2003, when the “future president” hopeful vibe was still very much around him.
I was at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s cast party this year, and Patrick Stewart poured me a glass of wine and talked to me about cars for a bit. He has a new red convertible Jag, for the curious. I think he was mostly kidding (and a little tipsy) when he told me he would use his “Professor X mind juju” on anyone who messed with it. Also at the party were Harriet Walter and Tamsin Grieg, who are I think bigger names in the UK than they are in the States (or maybe it’s just a theater thing), but I was still thrilled to be at a party with them! There were lots of other theater names there (I mostly hung out with the histories cast), and I remember being happily surprised when an actor who I’d been gently rejecting all evening turned up on a Doctor Who spinoff a few weeks later. So I’m also three degrees from David Tennant! Hooray!
Back home, I work at a Shakespeare festival with Tony Heald, who these days is probably most recognizable as Scott Guber from Boston Public, and Annette O’Toole’s daughter.
I’ve also met Colin Firth, Tim Curry, Neil Gaiman, David Byrne, Stephen Colbert, and Natalie MacMaster, though not all at the same time. Oh! And Kristen Bell, Jason Dohring, Michael Muhney, and Rob Thomas, all from Veronica Mars.
There’s a rather complicated and amusing link between a fellow I dated in England and JRR Tolkien, but I think I’ll spare the story (see above re: complicated!).
First, I have met a few celebrities myself. I worked for a bit as a waitress in a “trendy” vegetarian restaurant back in the 70s. I served the Captain and Tennille (Darryl Dragon and Toni Tennille) and actually chatted with them both a little (very nice couple, very sweet both of them); I also served Mike Love of the Beach Boys on several occasions (a little off-putting is all I’ll say). Not much, but that’s about the extent of my personal brushes with celebrities. Practically anyone who works in the restaurant business, though, probably has similar brushes–especially if it’s a “trendy” place.
On a different level, my Dad’s (now-ex) lover is Courtney Cox’s cousin. My Dad has met Courtney on a number of occasions, although I never have. But I guess that puts me within a couple of degrees of a number of celebrities. LOL