Last Sunday I went to a restaurant in Sitges, a town near Barcelona, with some friends. José Maria Baquero, the famous Spanish soccer star, was sitting at the next table with a quite unattractive woman.
OK, three slightly more international sightings. About three years ago I was sitting on a bench inside Barcelona Cathedral one afternoon when Eric Clapton walked by with a woman and an extremely beefy guy. He played a show that night in the basketball arena and was apparently doing a little sightseeing.
I was back in the States during summer '95 in KC. I went to Johnny’s Tavern in Overland Park with a friend to play NTN, the interactive trivia game they have in bars, and Brian McRae, the baseball player, was sitting a couple of barstools down playing too. We beat him badly. Woo-hoo!
As a high school kid, back about '83, I had a job as a market researcher at Metcalf South mall in suburban KC. I stopped a guy who looked to be about 40 and he agreed to let me interview him–it was some stupid crap about salad dressing packaging. He turned out to be Tom Watson, the golfer, who at that time was at the height of his fame, and I had had no idea who he was, as I didn’t follow golf. I didn’t even know Tom Watson was from KC. A perfect gentleman, by the way. You couldn’t hope to meet a nicer guy.
Let’s see…I was about 12 years old, and went out to California to stay with my brother for a couple weeks. We got tickets to go see the Mike Douglas show (you DO remember him, right?). Suzanne Somers was on that day and in the commercial breaks my brother kept yelling like an idiot at her and get her attention. She looked at him and he pointed at me and said something goofy like “HE LOVES YOU!!!”. She smiled at me and said “oh, he’s so cute”. Dear God, I could have died of embarassment that day.
My wife is a nurse and took care of Ted Williams in the early 90’s. One day she was sitting at the nurse’s station, answered the phone and it was Mickey Mantle calling for him. She’s so blase about it - another non-sports fan gets blessed with a famous sportsman encounter. She said he was a nice guy, though.
Just two or three weeks ago, my husband and I were in Napa at the Opus One winery.
“Oh my GAWD, it’s Farrah Fawcett!”
She’s still lovely and my hubby says she still has a tight ass, to boot.
A woman needs four animals in her life: A mink in the closet, a Jaguar in the garage, a tiger in the bedroom, and an ass to pay for it all.
—Zsa Zsa Gabor
I know a most remarkable young woman who should and probably will become a famous literary figure. We’ll see in a hundred years or so.
Her name should be up there with Poe and Eliot and Yeats. I’m not going to tell you what her name is though, that would be cheating (and she probably wouldn’t want me to either).
Met Fred Durst from Limp Bizkit at a strip club in Philly and got his autograph for my best friend who was getting married.
Working in customer service at a bank during college talked to Gunner Nelson. He bought some boots for his girlfriend, but they were too small. He tried to return them, but because his sales slip said “All sales final” we couldn’t help. He was cool.
Sitting in a pretty empty bar at Providence airport the last group of people finished their beer and left the bar. The bar tender asked me if I ever heard of a band called America. She hadn’t, so I “sang” a little of horse with no name. She still had no idea. First time in my life I ever felt old.
You should tell the truth, expose the lies and live in the moment."-Bill Hicks
“You should tell the lies, live the truth and expose yourself.” - Bill Clinton
snort I briefly dated (get ready…) Rex Smith! Yuck! Oh, he was definitely a handsome, well-built kinda guy (not remotely talented as an actor, but I digress), but so impressed with himself. After two or three dates, his attempts to win me over turned into attempts to get me to fawn over him. I lost interest quickly - particularly since he confessed he was married.
Angry that I had spend nearly 2 weeks visiting my sister in LA, without seeing ONE celebrity in thier natural environment, I was walking down Le Brea with my sister’s best friend, when we spot Jason Alexander carrying groceries with his son on the opposite side of the street. George carrying groceries. I was pleased.
Shouldn’t this thread be called “brush with celebrity”?
I once spent the afternoon skiing with Amy Carter when we were both kids. For non-skiers, if you’re skiing alone, you’re supposed to yell “single!” at the bottom of the ski lift so they can pair you up with another loner of approximately the same weight. I wound up with Amy. She was hungry to spend some time with someone her own age, I think, and we skied together for a while before the Secret Service chased me off. (they were all wearing red, white and blue ski caps!) :rolleyes:
Also, I once had a hint published in the “Hints from Heloise” column. I’d found a tupperware container of…shudder something unidentifiable in my fridge that had clearly been in there at least six months. You couldn’t tell what it had once been. I didn’t want to throw away the tupperware, but no way was I going to risk asphyxiation by opening it and releasing the noxious fumes. then it occurred to me to pop it in the freezer. Next day, I just popped the frozen mess out and threw it away, taking the bag to the dumpster before it could thaw and come after me. Heloise said she thought it was a clever solution.
Ten or fifteen years ago, I was in Max’s 540 Club on Clement St. in San Francisco with a group of my friends.
We’re sitting at the bar, and my friend Scott was playing pinball in the corner.
In walks Robin Williams. Now, we all know that Mr. Williams spends time in the Richmond District (he got his start at the Holy City Zoo down the block) and even though the guy is a legend, nay, a God, we’re all playing it super-cool and letting the man be.
He picks up a drink from the other end of the bar, walks to the pinball machine, and puts his quarters on the glass. He and Scott spend the next half hour or so playing pinball and talking. Naturally all of us are consumed with envy.
After Mr. Williams leaves, Scott comes back, acting totally nonchalant. We can hardly contain ourselves, spouting questions and exclamations in an unintelligible cacaphony.
Scott is looking totally confused. Apparantly he has no idea whom he’s been talking to for the last half hour! To this day, he doesn’t completely believe us, thinking (not entirely without justification) that we’ve been pulling his leg all these years.
Okay, here’s one for the nerds. My husband used to spend summers as a lab assistant for a professor doing vision research and I worked on the same campus. I used go over to his lab to visit at lunchtime. One day I found that a friend of his boss’s had dropped by to join us all for lunch that day. It was Francis Crick. Interesting guy.
I was backstage at the Microraphix show at Comdex several years ago. Saw Bill Gates, Peter Gabriel and Jack Nicholson walking by and got to meet Jeff “Skunk” Baxter. He seemed a little surprised that I knew him more for his steel guitar work with Steely Dan than his stint with the Doobie Brothers.
At lunch today I saw local semi-celebrity Bill from The Beth and Bill Show in a Circle K. Odd to see some schmoe in a Hawaiian shirt and think “I’ve seen this face a billboard.”
OK, now I’m replying to my own question, but so be it.
You’re right, Chef, I meant ‘greatness’ ironically, and I was hoping to illicit the sort of ‘mundane meets the exotic’ stories we’ve been getting. Thanks, all.
I’ll add another of my own. My brother-in-law was in town visiting about two years ago and we wound up at my favorite soul food dive (The Praline Connection, BTW, highly recommended next time you visit the Crescent City). About mid-way through the meal, I looked up from my plate of red beans and rice to see a sight that still has me in thrall.
As I live and breath, I swear, sitting not two tables away, was the First Man on the Moon tearing away at a plate of fried chicken! No kidding, Neil Armstrong! Primo astronaut, numero uno! Chowing down on checkered table clothes in the same room as me! Fortunately for him, no one else seemed to recognize his face.
I’m a space weanie, make no mistake, but I held back and let the man and his wife eat in peace.
While I have not had any brushes with the elite, many people I am related to have. My father, years ago, knew Richard Feynmann, and was friends with Edward Teller (father of the hydrogen bomb). He also did a business deal with Bill Gates once–he said he was interesting guy, but an asshole.
My mom in her “Boston days” was the secretary at the lab where Watson/Crick discovered DNA. She also lived next door to Julia Child.
I now feel pathetic that I have had no brushes with greatness, but I am still young.
If at first you don’t succeed you’re about average.
Way back when I worked in a movie theater in Santa Fe, I ran into a lot of celebrities. The biggest occurred during the filming of City Slickers, which was partially filmed quite near our garbage dump (honestly). The Castle Rock film crew bought out one side of our theater (a two-screen operation at that time) and came in to watch Goodfellas. I worked the door, keeping out the riffraff, while Billy Crystal and all his buddies trickled in. Honestly, I think I scared him; I’m almost a foot taller than he is. Anyway, he did a little double take and took a step back when he saw me at the door. Said ‘hi’ to one another and ushered him in.
Santa Fe is a happy hunting ground for celebrities. Billy Crystal came to our theater more than once; the second time I saw him, he was buying a Coke at the concession stand, amid a crowd of people; no one seemed to recognize him. I also once saw Val Kilmer and his then-wife Joanne Whaley Kilmer come to a movie. The whole cast of Young Guns used to come in occasionally, too. Met Bill Murray in there somewhere, as well.
Anyway. You want celebrities, check out Santa Fe. The Hollywood glittersnotti seem to think it’s a very trendy city.
I think you mean “elicit”. Illicit stories belong in another thread.
“His eyes are as green as a fresh-pickled toad,
His hair is as dark as a blackboard,
I wish he was mine, he’s really divine,
The hero who conquered the Dark Lord.”
See?