Do politicians count?
A Spanish president was married to the niece of a cousin of my grandmother’s.
They don’t?
One of my classmates is a movie director. So far he’s got one full-length feature, as well as several shorts and some publicity work.
I figure I’ve got Hollywood covered. When I was in elementary school, I was pretty good friends with Brooks Crudup, whose brother is the perpetually-almost-famous actor Billy Crudup.
More interesting (and less believable, but nevertheless true) is that before George Bush was governor of Texas, he lived just down the street from us in Dallas. He came to my family’s annual Christmas caroling party once or twice. So this is bound to get me to pretty much every major world leader through 2-3 degrees of separation.
I work with a guy who went to high school with Mike Rowe (of Dirty Jobs and other discovery shows fame).
I can trace through family trees and get to Harry Morgan (Colonel Potter from MASH). I have to jump through a few in-law connections and it’s more than 6 hops to get there.
A guy I went to high school with was Joan Jett’s drummer for a while. He’s in the movie that she did with Michael J. Fox (light of day). He has one line in the entire movie. He also worked with David Lee Roth for a bit.
I used to work with a guy who worked on the side as a movie extra. He knew quite a few celebrities and has been in a few John Waters movies.
I spent a couple of hours about 30 feet away from Bill Clinton. I wasn’t allowed to talk to him.
I just realized that because my uncle’s (1) college roommate (2) played for the St. Paul Saints with guys who would later play for the Twins (3), I’m probably within five degrees of many major leaguers of the 1970s.
And I also realized that, FWIW, I was no more than 30 feet from the aforementioned Gray Davis while he was governor of California; he gave an address to my high school, which had no more than 150 students at the time.
And I’m two degrees from Arnold Schwarzenegger, as a friend of mine once assaulted him about 5 years before he became governor.
I’m sorry, but your friend doesn’t sound too smart. Wasn’t Ahnold still pretty pumped back then? Trying to kick Mr. Universe’s ass seems like a pretty bad idea.
First off, no. He was well into the contentedness of post-iron-pumping life, to the extent that he apparently didn’t look very intimidating (by eyewitness accounts–I didn’t see him in person, but I was fewer than 50 feet away at one point, separated by a wall) and he let his bodyguard posse do the intimidation for him. Everyone who was there and actually caught a glimpse of him described him as “surprisingly short”. I mean, from the principal all the way down to the star-struck freshmen, that was the first thing out of everyone’s mouth. Secondly, the story isn’t exactly what it sounds like.
My high school opened its doors for the first time at the beginning of my freshman year, and it got a lot of attention around California for its novel partly-private funding system and its even more novel project-based academic philosophy, which was intended to emulate the San Diego high-tech workplace of the new millennium. TV and radio personalities from up and down the state were ubiquitous, to the extent that it wasn’t unusual for a freshman like myself to be interviewed by some journalist or hotshot non-fiction writer on a weekly basis on my way to the library. We quickly became accustomed to all of the attention (and all of the cameras!), but every once in a while a celebrity of some acclaim would wander the halls of our school with the principal acting as a de facto tour guide. Rumors flew around constantly speculating which celebrity would land on campus next, and the excitement of actually seeing one through a classroom window would set the student body all atwitter. For the most part, the future MBAs used their teachers’-pet status to get photo ops with the celebrities and everybody else just laid low amidst the giggling and shrieking.
My friend was pretty ambivalent to celebrity–his own and that of others–but he had a nose for cheap thrills and a ninja’s penchant for stealth. Once he’d verified that Mr. Schwarzenegger was indeed wandering through our halls, he went on the sneak attack; when he’d finally worked his way within a reasonable distance without arousing suspicion, he threw a stick at the future Governator while shrieking our in-group’s absurd inside-joke-of-the-week. Nothing much came of it; everybody got mildly irritated, but the principal knew that any academic or physical consequences would only make the kid feel more accomplished, so he told him to stay on the opposite end of the school from Ahnold from that point on and that was that. I must admit that I was in stitches over the whole thing–especially since Schwarzenegger was just a rich Hollywood retiree***** at that point and IIRC he hadn’t expressed any political aspirations.
I just remembered, BTW, that my parents claim the doctor who delivered me also delivered Ethel Kennedy’s kids. Since I was born about 7.5 miles from DC and my parents were (a) of reasonably enviable means and (b) federal government employees with high security clearances, I never had any reason to disbelieve them; but I’ve never actively examined the evidence, either.
***** OK, he still did the last Terminator movie a couple of years later, but his career wasn’t particularly relevant anymore. At least not in the way it was in the early 90s.
I went to the same high school as Sarah Silverman (she graduated the year before I started).
I taught Jon Cryer’s half-brother for two years (private voice).
I don’t know if she would be considered a “celebrity”, but I went to high school (and played baseball) with Christa McAuliffe’s son.
My voice teacher was fairly successful in his day and sang with many famous opera singers, most notable Beverly Sills.
Speaking of opera singers, Christine Brewer’s teacher is a colleague of mine, whose studio is just down the hall from mine; I used to sit outside and listen to her coaching Isolde for her debut in Tristan und Isolde.
I tend to actively avoid celebrity, so I don’t know anyone personally, but…
One of my friends is related to the noted Palestinian artist Jamal Badran (1909-1999). Considering the difference in ages, it’s at least a two-generation gap, though, and I’m not sure of the exact relation, or whether they knew each other.
My mother was active in the NDP and worked with Ed Broadbent back in the seventies. So that link gets me to any number of Canadian politicians, including Pierre Trudeau; from there we get to all sorts of world leaders, including Richard Nixon, Fidel Castro, and the Queen.
My grandfather was active in the NDP and its predecessor back in the fifties and probably met Tommy Douglas.
I met Starhawk briefly at an ecological convention in San Francisco in 1998. A mutual friend introduced us.
I was active in the Toronto filmmaker community organisation “LIFT” for about a year (I may still go back), and I suspect there was a good deal of linkage available there, but I don’t have any specific examples.
Years ago, I once attended circle with Tamara James, head of the Wiccan Church of Canada.
I have met Judy Rebick’s brother.
One of my great-grandfathers was Richard Humphrey, noted cricketer in the 1880s. This has not helped me to understand cricket.
I once spent a Saturday afternoon hanging at Nash the Slash’s apartment with a mutual acquaintance. His stage constume was a bandaged head; underneath that, he was so nondescript that to this day I have no good idea what he looks like. I’m fairly certain he is white, though. 
My fiance’s cousin is a photograhper for Playboy. He know’s Hef and has been to parties at the mansion. That means I’m four degrees from every celebrity that has been to the Playboy mansion.
ETA - This does not mean that I will ever get a chance to go to the mansion myself. I’ve asked. 
The cast (and friends) of SCTV used to hang out at my parent’s house when I was a young’un. My dad went to high school and university with some of them, and just hung out with others. Dave Thomas was best man at my mom & dad’s wedding, and was the last one I’ve seen personally, when I was at his parent’s place for a BBQ some years ago, prior to his dad passing away.