Oh! What’s he like?
I used to roommate with the niece of Keith Herring.
Keith Haring the artist? Cool.
I’ve met many celebrities, myself . . . but when my parents were in high school, they knew Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of *Superman. *My mother actually dated Siegel a few times.
I actually “knew” Keith Haring, 2 or 3 times. He was lots of fun.
Heh. Cool. Yeah, there were a bunch of us crammed in one apartment in Kutztown - where he’s from. Good people, though I admit I haven’t seen her in several years.
A friend of mine is a cousin of the actor Joe Pesci, he looks and sounds very similar to him.
My ex husband and son are direct descendants of the Irish politician and orator Daniel O’Connell. I named my son Daniel after him.
There’s a rumor on my Mom’s side of the family that we’re related to Eva Braun, but I’ve never been able to confirm it.
Cousins of mine are cousins to a sports journalist who features regularly on tv and has a newspaper column. He’s not internationally famous, he’s probably not even famous interstate, but he has a recognisable name to football fans in Victoria.
That’s pretty lame 
Awesomely so. The more tenuous the connection to the more obscure a celebrity, the cooler.
I used to teach a board game to a minor rock star guy who married a billionaire’s daughter. I sort of know a guy who taught the same board game to a major rock star. I know another guy who taught the same board game to the well-known son of a very major rock star.
I went to high school with Jon Cryer’s half brother’s half-brother.
My father worked with the father of a guy in “Chicago”.
My grandmother’s family knew the Pearses’ she had a signed photograph of Patrick Pearse and his brother.
My other grandmother’s godfather was George Meany.
But that’s about enough bragging on myself.
I was working with her niece or cousin the day she died.
I used to hang out with Michael Gruskoff’s daughter.
I dated Jose Feliciano on and off for a couple years.
Gary Cooper was my very distant cousin.
One of my brother’s friends from high school was Gerhaldo’s nephew. Actually, I have a TON of “six degrees of connections”, to him since he used to live in my town as a summer resident.
My cousin is Paul Bostaph, of the bands Slayer and Testament.
When I was in kindergarten, I had a student teacher whose father was jazz musician Joe Negri. This wouldn’t be notable to most kindergarteners but as Pittsburghers we also knew the alter ego of jazzman Joe Negri was Handyman Negri on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood and that made Miss Negri the World’s Most Awesome Teacher by default/association. She wasn’t around long, just until Christmas break, but I wonder to this day if her students still get wide eyes when they find out who her dad is. (Probably not now, they’d probably only be awed if her dad were Spongebob or something. 
)
My family had a close relationship with Bob Trow, who played Bob Dog and Robert Troll on Mr. Rogers’. He grew up in the same neighborhood as my parents and their families and went to school with all of my maternal great aunts and great uncles. He was an accomplished sketch artist, and during the span of the reception, drew an amazing portrait of my mother in her wedding gown and veil, which still hangs in our home.
On my father’s side I’m cousin to Camille Cosby but I’ve not met her. On my mother’s side, I’m cousin to tennis champion Arantxa Sanchez Vicario but I’ve also not met her.
That’s what I was thinking. Like, pre ww2 ambassadors? I mean, I know I don’t keep track, but still.
My best friend is descended directly from Benjamin Harrison, William Henry Harrison, and ultimately from the latter’s father, Benjamin Harrison V, whom he looks EXACTLY like. Benjamin Harrison V is probably about 23 in that portrait, the same age my friend and I are, and if you were to remove the wig, he would basically be the guy’s double. For a long time, my friend used his ancestor’s portrait as his Facebook picture.
The ironic thing is that, while he always knew that he was a descendant of the two Harrison presidents, he was unaware of who Benjamin Harrison V was and did not know that they looked exactly the same until I showed him that portrait, which quickly became a source of humor and amazement among my friends. Thereafter he began using it as his profile image.
Brainiac4 is a John Q Adams decedent on his mother’s side. So three Dopers are Aldens.
His father is decedent from Pierre L’Enfant.
About ten years ago, I worked for a guy who the first cousin of Carly Simon.
My brother used to work a girl who was Natalie Merchant’s cousin. My brother said the cousin never stopped talking about Natalie, constantly dropping her name into every.single.conversation. It was something of a joke at the hospital he worked at.
My fifth grade teacher used to talk about her football-playing brother, Jake Scott, then attending the University of Georgia. He went on to win the MVP award in the 1972 Super Bowl.
If we’re getting into distant relationships to historic figures, my 6th great-grandfather was an indentured servant on the plantation of Isham Randolph. The Randolphs were a prominent Virginia family, and Isham’s nephews, great-nephews, etc., include a number of significant historic figures like Peyton Randolph, John Randolph of Roanoke, and Robert E. Lee. But more importantly, Isham’s grandson was U.S. President Thomas Jefferson.
Since I now live in Virginia, about an hour from Monticello, I enjoy mentioning to people that I’m descended from one of the indentured servants on Jefferson’s grandfather’s plantation.
My daughters went to High school with Nick Hexum from 311.