Fran Drescher is my cousin.
Well, since we’re drifting away from relations and into famous people we’ve met… I’ve met Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Mike Dukakis, Dick Gephardt, Paul Simon (the U.S. senator), Jesse Jackson and Howard Dean, plus three members of Congress you’ve probably never heard of. Dean, as lieutenant governor of Vermont, spent several nights at my in-laws’ house when he was in town over the years.
My mom met Eleanor Roosevelt when she (my mom) was a kid, and she and my dad often saw Albert Einstein bicycling around Princeton in the Fifties.
A few years earlier, my dad dated Judi Dench when she was a young actress, and they’ve kept in touch off and on since then.
When my stepdad worked for NCR in Dayton, Ohio a couple decades ago, he had a boss who was the brother of Gordon Jump.
Still sticking with the spirit of the OP, my wife teaches with the daughter/granddaughter (respectively) of hall-of-fame bowlers Pete and Dick Weber.
One of my closest friends is Pete Gent’s, author of Dallas North Forty, great nephew, who used to live in an apartment owned by the mother of bass player D’arcy Wretzky formerly of Smashing Pumpkins.
Met briefly is one thing, met and had a relationship with is another.
My father went to Chaminade Julienne High School in Dayton, Ohio. His classmate was Ramón Estévez (Martin Sheen).
A good friend of mine is cousins of some sort with Pamala Anderson, and I went to school with one of Walt Disney’s grand daughters.
That’s all I got.
OK, I’ll cheat, since there is not relation here, but it’s noteworthy.
One of my high school teachers went to college with Joel Hodgson of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Not only that, but they watched and joked about some movies, though nothing on the level of MST3k.
We all thought he was a pretty cool teacher, since MST3K was on the air when he told us this.
When was this? Were you from Torrance, California?
I’m married to the niece of the late Marion Bell, who was one of many people to be Mrs. Alan Jay Lerner (Ms. Bell played Fiona in the original Broadway cast of Brigadoon).
Used to be friends with a bloke who’s Trent Reznor’s cousin. Met Trent right when NiN was getting off the ground and he was very nice, quite intense.
I used to do computer support for one of the ex-wives and sons of Nobel prize-winner Kary Mullis, inventor of Polymerase Chain Reaction. This wouldn’t mean much if the son hadn’t accompanied him to the Nobel ceremony.
My main claim to fame in grade school was my Dad working as Ronald MacDonald. The coolest result of that was going backstage on MacDonalds Night at the Ringling Brother Barnum and Bailey Circus and meeting Gunther Gebel-Williams, the lion tamer.
A friendly acquaintance of mine in high school is Tim Burton’s niece–her last name was even Burton (may still be, for all I know). Now, at the time I was just becoming aware of him…“Huh, the director of Beetlejuice. Cool.” But as the years have passed, I’ve realized how cool that is, as I find his work just teh awesoem. I do remember her being eccentric in her own, unintentional (and thus, sincere) way, and I liked that. Considering her uncle, that seems even more fitting.
I worked with John Rich’s brother, right after he quit Lone Star and they went on to great success (it’s true they had success when he was with them, but the really hit it huge with the album released after he quit.) I teased him sometimes, and said his brother was “the Pete Best of Country music.” Needless to say, I won’t be saying that anymore since he went on to success as one half of Big & Rich.
I worked with the cousin of Robby Krieger, of The Doors.
By crikey I am friends with the cousin of the dearly departed Steve Irwin.
My parents know Nora Robert’s brother in law.
I know Mike Judge’s brother.
Extra info - We work in more or less the same industry, in the same city. I was supposed to go to his house this weekend for a BBQ but I had to cancel.
My family has many, many more tenuous connections to celebrities than I do:
My uncle worked with Kristin Davis’s sister (they’re both pilots). He said that she would occasionally talk about her sister being an actress, but he assumed local stage actress & didn’t make the connection for a while. Of course, in order to spell scheck her name, I looked her up on imdb and it says she’s an only child, so either they’re wrong or I’m misremembering or my uncle was screwing with me - all distictly possible.
When my dad was younger, he dated a girl whose older sister was dating the drummer for Damn Yankees (or Styx? why in god’s name would I have those two confused in my memory?). He’s also played poker with Bruce Willis (for about a second - Bruce wasn’t playing for pennies), been on a plane with Sarah Michelle Gellar, etc.
My grandfather owns/owned the land where John Bobbit’s member ended up, and Lorena used to do my grandma’s nails.
I once checked out John Heffron when I worked at Walgreens - I really wanted to ask for an autograph, but was too embarrassed.
My husband shook hands with Ron Jeremy. I told him he could never touch me with that hand again.
Hell I went to a party in the Hollywood Hills where Ron and other luminaries in that field were. Ron was a nice guy.