I met Stephen Lewis when my parents hosted a neighbourhood meeting at our house. (he was our MP)
I spent a few hours at a location shoot for Meatballs. There I chatted with Ivan Reitman.
In 1970, I went to Wolf Trap Farm Park with a folkdance troupe from Quebec. We were billeted with a bunch of interesting folk/roots performers. Edith Butler, Taj Mahal, Jim Kweskin are a few folks I remember.
Partied with John Allan Cameron. He sang my then wife and me a song as we had just been married.
Ran into Luba Goy a few times at a health food store in Toronto.
Lived in a house with Samantha Bee. I got friendly with her Mom. (Samantha was about 11 or 12)
Had drinks with a couple of members of Codco at the Ship Inn in St Johns NF.
Ran into Rick Mercer at an outdoor market in Halifax (he’s really short…)
Sold Elwy Yost a jigsaw puzzle.
My Mom and stepfather were friends with Roger Williams (Born Free) and his wife but I never met him.
Ah, #41, Charlie Waters. The man who first tickled my interest in football. My dad was always a Cowboys fan, but, as a preteen/just teen girl, I hated the game, even if I supported the team for my Dad’s sake. So what set me on the road to becoming a rabid fan? Why a REALLY good-looking player with a knockout smile, what else? (And from the pix I’ve seen online, he’s only improved with age!)
My list is pretty short:
The late, great Hank Locklin–we lived in the same town, until his death earlier this month. Met him only one time, in the grocery store, but he stood and chatted with me for quite a while. He was very kind, and quite the gentleman. Autographed my shopping list! George Takei–he spoke at the local community college about his experiences in the Japanese internment camps during the war. He had a book signing afterwards, and I was able to chat with him a while. Brenda Lee–after I attended a concert, she was signing autographs. I spoke briefly with her, telling her that I had recently met Hank Locklin, and that I lived in the same town as he did. She gave me a big grin and told me to greet him for her. I never got to do that, disappointingly!
Jesse Jackson shook my hand when I was little, and on my 21st birthday, David Bowie looked right in my eyes. I could’ve melted. And I used to be friends with Ronnie Brown.
I’ve spoken at least briefly to all of the following - some, I chatted with quite a bit.
Senator Patrick Leahy (lecture at my school)
Judge Richard Posner (lecture at Johns Hopkins SAIS)
Governor Howard Dean (campaign trail, NH)
Then-Governor George W. Bush (Campaign, NH)
Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) (lecture at my school)
Gwen Ifill (lecture, Politics and Prose Bookstore)
John Hodgman (reading, Politics and Prose Bookstore)
Orson Scott Card (book signing)
Amy Goodman (ACLU lunch)
Senator Elizabeth Dole (ran into her in a Nashua, NH restaurant when I was a kid)
Gen. Wesley Clark (NH presidential trail)
Senator John Kerry (NH presidential trail)
Nina Totenberg (reception)
Governor John Lynch, NH (briefed him on some pending legislation once during an internship)
Ann Coulter (College lecture, every bit as unpleasant as you’d expect)
H.E. Imad Moustapha, Syrian Ambassador to the United States. (This is the one of the few on the list who’d probably remember me if we met again - he wouldn’t like me, though. Was in a small roundtable with him in college, back in 2006, and I bugged him rather a lot about Syria involvement in Lebanon, the Hariri assassination, etc.)
I got to wait on Jerome Bettis once when I was working at Kmart. It was the morning of the AFC championship (sadly, we lost that one), and he came in to pick up a few things. I wanted to ask for his autograph, but I figured he was probably preoccupied, and I didn’t want to bug him. So I waited on him, and told him to kick Patriot ass. Nice guy-he just seemed a little quiet that day. (Can’t blame him!)
And back last spring, when we had a robot exhibit at the Science Center, Anthony Daniels (aka, "C-3PO) came to speak. It was really only for the suits-before we opened that day-but my boss knew how much I like Star Wars, so he let me go see the talk. And our director knew too, so I got to meet him and he signed one of my SW books.
Oh, and speaking of the Steelers, back in the day my dad was working at funeral home on the North Side. Art Rooney Sr. would sometimes attend various community funerals, so my dad knew him to say hi to and all that.
Heh- yeah. I grew up seeing him all around the theater where he worked and I trained (South Coast Repertory in SoCal) and he was cute and nice enough. Then I saw Reanimator an I almost had a heart attack!
Mike Bloomberg - Girlfriend worked for Bloomberg and we used to go to their Christmas parties
George W Bush - Commencment speaker at family member’s graduation
Uma Therman and Ethan Hawk - coming out of Chelsea Piers
Jackie Mason - Just eating steak in Ben Benson’s
Jennifer Garner - Filming a scene from 13 Going on 30 in my old neighborhood
The Olsen Twins - 1/2 on my flight back from Nassau, Bahammas (the other half met her at Newark airport). And we are reasonably sure we saw them again at the China Club a few weeks later.
Alexis Bledel - Just walking around New York
Tony Danza - Coming out of whatever Broadway show he was doing. We screamed “who’s the boss!” at him. I’m pretty sure it still haunts him to this day.
Joe Biden - Riding the Acela from DC to NYC (one of my colleague’s “accidently” booked us in First Class)
Robert Deniro - Apparently we have the same eye doctor. Ironically, I almost missed him because my contacts were out when he stopped in.
Once sat in first class next to Wolfgang Puck. He was flying to Los Angeles to Chicago to open a new restraunt at the airport there.
When the flight attendant asked what he wanted for breakfast he turned his nose up at the food selection and just asked for tea. I was starving however, so I made a point of asking for everthing, and loudly said “And make sure you bring plenty of ketchup!”
Kix Brooks from Brooks & Dunn (gave a ride to they YMCA)
Fred Courey and Eric Brittinham from Cinderella (backstage)
Neal McCoy (Backstage)
Jeff Cook from Alabama (drove to the airport)
Goo Goo Dolls (delivered room service)
Charlie Pride (chatted with for a bit at the Holiday Inn)
Hinder and Theory of a Deadman (Meet & Greet at Best Buy)
I shook the hand of the man who met Andy Griffith (ok, that’s a lie but I had to throw it in)
Hmm, like Atomic Mama, I’ve been priviledged in my work to know so many great musicians, blues and all sorts. But, this is my favorite story of seeing Someone Famous:
At the Handy Blues Awards ceremony in Memphis, prolly mid 90’s, I went outside the theatre and heard some great music coming out of the balcony in the building next door. Went up to see who it was, and who it was was the great soul blues man James Carr. The man who gave us “From The Dark End of The Street”, up there, playing to no one. (He had problems with onstage appearance, and had fallen out of the scene.) I just couldn’t believe he was up there playing on a balcony, right next to where all the blues glitterati were having The Event.
“Man, you need to come on next door, why are you out here???” James was kind of nervous. I went back to the powers that be next door and told them, Man, James Carr is right here! Yadda yadda…went back to get him, led him up to backstage, where he was whisked away into deserved appreciation.
A bit later, he was onstage to cheers as surprise member of the finale of the Handy Awards show, up there with all the Blues greats, belting it out and where he deserved to be.
Keep an eye out for famous folk, ya never know when ya can help make something really good happen.
I’m leaving out the celebrities I’ve only seen because I paid to see them except for the first set of people from whom I have autographs.
I’ve met and gotten autographs from John de Lancie, Dale Chihuly, and Neil Gaiman. I lost my de Lancie autograph years ago, sadly.
I’ve seen former WA governor Gary Locke and family (you could count his wife Mona Lee Locke as famous if you watched KING 5 in the right era) walking down one of the main streets of Olympia after church back when they were still the First Family of the state, and current WA governor Christine Gregoire in the grocery store back when she was Attorney General. Washington senator Karen Fraser, who helped honor and recognize Penny Arcade in the state legislature, goes to my parents’ church so I’ve met her there.
Still on politics, I hugged Senator Tester of Montana last October. He’s nice.
Are The Higgins famous yet? I guess they are if you like Canadian country music, which I do- I’ve been an assistant sound tech person on one of their concerts. Super nice people. I also ran lights during a concert thing that The Blakes performed at, and their Wikipedia page is of a decent size, so they get to count too.
My cousin Cindy is better known as Cinder Block, lead singer of Tilt and Retching Red. You might also know her from cofounding the company that makes half the band shirts in Hot Topic.
(Also on that side of the family is a cousin I won’t label as famous, but who, along with the rest of her 9 person “town” with which she shares a name, appeared in national print ads for an SUV that seats 9. That was in the late '90s.)
My sister is friends with Cherry Jones who plays the President on 24. I’ve met her and she knows my first name, but I’m sure that she wouldn’t recognize me in a crowd.
I’ve met and talked with Rose Kennedy and Eunice Kennedy Shriver and her husband. (Arnold’s in-laws). I spoke briefly with Bobby Kennedy about three weeks before he was killed. I’ve talked with John Glenn. Seen Teddy Kennedy. I’ve met John Seigenthaler, Sr. several times. He was with the Kennedy Administration and is the founder of the First Amendment Center. President Johnson, President Truman at a distance. Talked with Steve McNair who is adorable. Willie Leopole (a palace chef for the Habsbergs) – I had lunch with him at his restaurant long ago. Minnie Pearl (Mrs. Sarah Cannon). The irony is that I met her in the Sarah Cannon Cancer Center. I was behind her in line when we were both signing in. Garrison Keillor (At a booksigning I had a chance to speak a little bit of Danish with him. Gloria Steinem. Larry Gatlin, Patrick Williams, lyricists Marilyn and Allen Bergman (really friendly and down-to-earth).
Elvis Presley blew me a kiss from a few feet away. We were at an airport. He was in a private section outside and I was on the roof of a building where you could watch planes taking off. Where I was overlooked where he was and I could just watch him right beneath me for a good while. I was probably in my early twenties.
elelle you might be interested to know that I was at the last show the great Johnny Copeland performed before his death. His daughter Shemekia opened for him and took over when he got to weak to continue. There were no dry eyes that night.
So that is my first two:
Johnny Copeland: Blues Great- after his last show
Shemekia Copeland: Singer- same show
Stevie Ray Vaughn: Before a show, got his autograph
Penn and Teller: after a show, they stay to meet everyone after each show
Joe Piscopo: at a National Guard send off, we talked about the posibility of being related
Bart Oates: NY Giant, at the same send off
Joe Kleco: NY Jet, at the same send off
Gov Jon Corzine: NJ Governor, a couple of times at National Guard functions
Gov Jim McGreevy: Gay American, at my first deployment send off
GEN Anthony Zinni: Marine 4 star, former CENTCOM Commander, author
GEN Ray Odierno: current commander in Iraq- in Iraq
GEN David Petreus: current CENTCOM Commander- in Iraq
GEN Crosbie Saint: Former EUCOM Commander, seen him on TV as a military expert- while I was stationed in Germany years ago
GEN David Maddox: Former EUCOM Commander- Was my Division Commander
GEN Barry Mccaffrey: Former 4-star, Drug Czar under Clinton
Ryan Crocker: Ambassador to Iraq
John Negroponte: 1st Director of National Intelligence as well as many other posts
Chris Cimino: NYC weatherman. He was at a call I went on involving a family member. He is a tiny, tiny man.
Yogi Berra: at a NJ Devils game
Jeff Torborg: former baseball player, manager and broadcaster- at a Little Legue Dinner
Thats all I can think of right now. Not counting the many concerts and sporting events I’ve been to. Just people I have met.
George W and George HW both drove by in motorcades many years apart.
Cool! I am about to spend a few days with a former commander in Iraq, General James Dubik. He was also the commanding general at Ft. Lewis, WA, home of the 2/75 Ranger Regiment.
Never anyone I recognize, but several times people that are famous to nearly half the rest of the people on the plane, which is a surreal experience. Once, a whole local college basketball team was travelling to a big game and everyone on the plane was walking back and hanging out for a few with them although I didn’t know who the heck they were.
But what was weirder is when a professional wrestler was waiting for an airplane flight with me. He was decked out in WWE apparel, so he wanted to be noticed (and thus was also probably being paid for this,) but wasn’t acting out but rather just sitting there waiting for ppl to come up to him and say “hey, aren’t you Insertnamehere?” Just hanging out in the airport decked out in WWE gear, and I had no idea who the heck he was.
