In a similar vein, I shook hands with Penn and Teller after their show last Wednesday night.
They’re promoted by the President of the Kodokan Judo Institute, currently the founder’s grandson.
I’m in LA, so I’ve seen a few. The only one that left me in awe was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I’d done a book report on a biography of his when I was in elementary school. It was very cool to see him in real life.
Also, I was a fan of his appearance in Airplane! 
Oh gosh, tons.
Friends with: Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I knew him mostly through my former job so we’re not in touch, but he’s a great guy; truly lovely person.
Related to, sort of: My long-term SO is cousins with UFC fighter Matt Serra. I have no interest in UFC so before I met SO I had never heard of the guy but apparently he’s kind of a big deal. I went to his wedding. He’s spectaularly nice. Remembered my name having only met me briefly, once, six months prior.
Had lengthy, drunken and/or meaningful encounters with and might remember me with some prodding: Jello Biafra, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Dominic Monaghan, Chris Mulkey (character actor; if you don’t know the name you’ll recognize him), Brady Corbet (24, Funny Games)
Exchanged brief pleasantries with: Hanson (3 times), Angelina Jolie, David Bowie, Billy Boyd, Evangeline Lilly, Natalie Maines, Peter Dinklage, Scarlett Johannson, Spike Lee, Shakira, Tim Robbins, Martin Sheen, David Copperfield, June Lockhart, Jake Lloyd … I know there are more but I’m blanking. All of them were perfectly pleasant. Scarlett has (had?) a lot of piercings.
Sold tickets to: Matthew Broderick, Sarah Jessica-Parker and Amy Sedaris (all together), Jimmy Smits, Kim Catrall, Joel Grey … there are more that I’m forgetting.
Spotted in the wild: Courtney Love, Chris Cornell, Krist Novoselic, Dave Grohl, David Wain, Michael Ian-Black, Jerry O’Connell, Uma Thurman, Stanley Tucci, Hayden Christensen are the ones that spring to mind. But living here you bump into a lot of people on the street.
Christopher Lloyd - attended a small graduation potluck for graduating teachers (of which my Mom was one, and apparently Lloyd’s wife’s sister was as well). I got his autograph.
(merely spotted) George Foreman - walked passed him in the baggage claim area of the Las Vegas airport. He was complying with fans’ wishes to get a picture taken with him.
(merely spotted) Amy Ray and Emily Saliers - I saw them regularly out and about during the 9 years I lived in Atlanta.
(merely spotted) Briana Scurry - Would appear on occasion at one of the lesbian bars I used to hang out in in Atlanta.
Brandy Chastain - Saw her at the San Jose airport and got her autograph on the cover of Newsweek (without her shirt) that I just happened to have with me. Years later (only a few months ago) she was in the Silicon Valley cafeteria of my workplace having lunch with an acquaintance of mine from work. The apparently went to school together back in the day.
Peter Coyote - often attends various potlucks and fund raisers for a rural environmental non-profit that my Mom helped get started and has worked for for almost 30 years. Back in the day, he was a member of the Diggers with various other founding members of the non-profit, and they all remain friends.
Emmanuel Lewis - passed him in the Atlanta airport and later saw him often as he was fond of the Texas Hold 'em nights they had at the bar/grill on the 1st floor of my office building.
(merely spotted) James Brown - also spotted in Atlanta, getting out of his limo and heading into his dentist’s office which was 2 buildings down from my office building. A friend I was walking with yelled out “We feel good. You knew that we would!”.
Susan Powter - I attended 3 various years of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival which she also attended. It wasn’t until the 2nd year that I realized who she was (at first I didn’t recognize her with the dreadlocks). I believe we stood in line together for hummus one night.
Catie Curtis and Suzanne Westenhoefer - Off-stage at one of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festivals I attended, I was introduced to Suzanne by a friend who used to house-sit for her. Suzanne in turn introduced my friend and I to Catie Curtis.
Robert Foxworth - used to be married to my drama teacher. My older brother and I were friends and classmates with their two kids. He attended the high school graduation ceremony for his son and my brother in 1984.
:smack: Paul Newman.
Missing from my “exchanged brief pleasantries with” category, and missing him generally. :(:(:(
As I just mentioned in the Watcha Reading thread for this month, I may have spoken with the author John Burdett yesterday afternoon. I was sitting on the Skytrain – that’s our elevated mass-transit system – reading his latest book, Bangkok Haunts. A fellow farang (Westerner) says he was wondering how did I like that book. I said it was great, and he asked me if I’d read the previous ones in the series, and I said something like yes, they’re all great. (And they are.) Then the Skytrain pulls into Siam Station, and we get off and go our separate ways. But something about him seemed familiar. Then it hit me that he might have been this guy. Looked a lot like him.
Met in person:
David Sedaris
M.I.A. (Maya Arulpragasam)
Jamie Lidell
Bob Nanna (and several other indie rock musicians in 2003-2005, but I don’t remember all of them, and didn’t even know who some of them were)
Chatted with online:
I used to (around 2000-2003) be active on a Talking Heads fansite where bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz also hung out. I chatted one-on-one with Tina a couple of times back when there used to be a chat room. I don’t ever remember chatting with Chris Frantz but he did respond to a post I made on the message board (I dissed Tom Jones’s version of “Burning Down the House”).
Seen in the wild:
Michael Caine (who sat a few seats away from me in the audience at the Billy Elliott musical in London!)
Željko Ivanek
Tommy Tune
a few other people whom I can’t remember right now
Well…I used to work for a company that services many high-end funeral homes in the Hollywood/West L.A. area, so I don’t know if these ones count, since they had, uh, you know, “moved on”:
Doug McClure (Died at home, and Dick Van Patten answered the door, and the whole Van Patten clan was in the house.)
Pat Brown, former Governor of California (again at home. Met son Jerry, also a former Governor)
Steve Allen (didn’t recognize him. The dispatcher gave me his middle name instead of his first, and he didn’t look like himself without his glasses. Also met and failed to recognize Jayne Meadows, his wife.)
Bonnie Lee Bakley, who wasn’t shot by Robert Blake.
Phil Hartman. He was fixed up when I saw him though.
Those two bank robbers from the North Hollywood Shootout. They looked like swiss cheese.
Jimmy Stewart. Never would have recognized him if I wasn’t told.
The Real Don Steele (Death Race 2000, Rock 'n Roll High School, legendary DJ)
Live specimens spotted in the wild:
Ed Asner at 7-11.
Gene Simmons at a book signing.
Paul Stanley crossing the street in front of me at a red light.
Shannen Dougherty at 7-11.
Jay Leno driving down the street in a vintage fire truck.
Joe Mantegna at a Chicago-style hot dog joint in Burbank CA.
Close, but no cigar:
I almost went to high school with Tony Hawk, but he moved out of the area just before I moved in. I knew a lot of people that had middle school yearbooks with his picture.
My older sister has a high school yearbook with Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine in it. She was in ninth grade when he was a senior, and even met him a few times, but I never did. I think some guy from Tool went to that HS at the same time.
But all that’s nothin’. A co-worker of mine went to high school with the freaking Van Halen brothers! All the dead movie stars in the world can’t top that.
Damn** tdn**, even meeting her daughter, I’m jealous of! Bley is one of my favorite bandleaders of all time!!
For about three years I’ve worked with/for retired opera star and music professor Giorgio Tozzi and his wife Monte. I don’t know how to do a link here, but he’s Google-able.
He and his wife are quite possibly the most adorable people I’ve ever met. Knowing them is a gift.
And my son has met the guys in Deathcab for Cutie, BB King, Robert Randolph, and G Love. (Todd33rpm took him along.)
Above the reply screen are two rows of icons. Find the bluish one in the middle of the bottom row (the text Insert Link will appear when you mouse over the icon).
Click the icon. A window will appear. Delete the http: in the box, then insert the desired URL and click OK.
In your reply box will appear a [, followed by some [Giorgio Tozzi](] text, the URL you’ve just inserted, and then a /URL fragment. Delete the URL between the bracketed sections, replace it with your own words, and introduce the board to [URL="Giorgio Tozzi - Wikipedia).
My brother married into this guy’s family, and I did meet him at the wedding.
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/john_robinson/index.html
I met Ann Rule, Lou Jane Temple, and oh, shoot, I can’t think of her name (writes a lot of medieval romance novels) at a local writer’s conference. Ann Rule is a hoot. My brother was in her book Bitter Harvest (in addition to marrying into quite a family, he’s a cop).
Those are about my only brushes with fame. When I worked at a local tourist trap in the 80’s, there were rumors that the lead singer from Simply Red had come through on my day off.
Can’t believe I forgot this - I met Mojo Nixon about 10 years ago. We named the late, great, Mojo-dog after him.
I had dinner with long-time Elton John guitarist Davey Johnstone last night. Well, we were two tables away from him at Rao’s Las Vegas. But we had just watched the show, and there he was sucking down spaghetti with what looked like his parents. Nice guy, from what I could tell. I mentioned how much I had enjoyed the show as we left, and he said Thank you and smiled.
I can add John Waters to my list.
Also, Tony LaRussa, in case I forgot.
Not two hours ago, who should come into my store and ask directions but John Madden? I didn’t say “Hey, you’re John Madden!” or anything, and I couldn’t help him with his directions.
Joe
I met a lot of famouse people when I was younger, but the best story is when Phyliss Diller’s limo got stuck in a snowbank and she came home with me to use the phone. She hung around in our living room till a new car came out to get her. She seemed pretty cool. Gave my parents some show tickets. Funny thing was she was wearing a “skin diver” hat, full-length fur coat and Converse high-tops.
The new President on 24 when the series starts is a friend of my family. She’s better known on Broadway. Her name is Cherry Jones.
At a party out in the country in Denmark, I once danced with a tall blond guy named Peter Martins. That was 36 years ago. He’s now the head of the New York City Ballet Company. I’m surprised that I didn’t cripple him for life.
While driving up West End in Nashville, I saw Danny Thomas step into the street and start to get into his car. He saw the surprised look on my face and broke out into this funny routine where he over-reacted to my driving and looked horrified that I might hit him. Then he did a spread eagle across the door of his car. It was all over in three seconds, and I drove away feeling like I had just had a seizure or something.
I’ve met many famous people through the years. One of the sweetest was Rose Kennedy. She was very patient and composed. I also met Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Sargent Shriver that day. I saw Teddy and Bobby at other times and had a chance to speak with Bobby and shake hands with him. He was very small and just exuded energy.
One of Glenn Close’s husbands was a student of mine when I first started teaching. Deford Bailey, III (Marshall Tucker Band) was also my student. I was friendly with Deford Bailey, Jr. who sometimes played with Jimi Hendrix.
Johnny Cash lived in my apartment building in 1966. Those were hard times for him.
I once made Sam Donaldson hop back onto the sidewalk as I drove too close to him.
I mentioned it here last year: I bumped into the bloke who does the voice of Homer Simpson - Dan Castellaneta - in a theatre in London where he was appearing in a play called “The Bicycle Men”; I was on my way back from the bog when I encountered him and we exchanged pleasantries.