Oh, I forgot the best one. I live right next door to the Mission Ranch in Carmel owned by Clint Eastwood. He doesn’t come by very often, though. He brought a bunch of people here to the restaurant when the movie Invictus was coming out. The African singers they used in the movies came.
I know Randall ‘Tex’ Cobb so that means I’m a couple degrees away from a huge number of actors and musicians. Also my aunt was Andi MacDowell’s nanny for about 15 years and traveled with the family, she met a lot of people in the industry. And like ChefGuy I am pretty much a Pilgrim, distantly related to several early American historical figures and at least one signer of the Declaration of Independence. That’s all I can think of right now…
Oh yeah, my wife has a letter addressed to her that is signed by Jim Jones. Yeah, that Jim Jones.
I’m 1 for some minor celebrities/famous people. From that, I know that I’m 2 away from Rush Limbaugh, Bill Gates, and John Travolta, which makes me 3 away from well…everyone?
My mother once dated Haile Selassies’ son.
I’m George W. Bush’s 14th cousin!
(It’s all I got. Sorry.)
I’ve met Princess Anne (and also know slightly an Earl who was once the Queen’s page) so that’s two routes to 3 degrees of separation from Winston Churchill, Emperor Hirohito, every US president since Truman save LBJ, and many more. Quite a lot of the UK population will have met a member of the Royal Family though, and meeting the Queen or Prince Philip will take the degree of separation down to 2.
That’s a great one!
I’ve met:
Pierre Trudeau
Jonathan Winters
Ed Asner
Ray Bradbury
Ken Follett
P.D. James
I don’t know if that counts. I don’t/didn’t have a really close connection with any of them.
My mother used to work for the health insurance plan of the Screen Actors Guild, so she had to talk to celebrities about their medical issues all the time. However, she was under a strict confidentiality order (as was everyone who worked with her), so we never heard anything.
I dated Jose Feliciano. I was once friends with Michael Gruskoff’s* daughter.
*Produced Young Frankenstein
Well, I know some well-established SF writers personally, so it’s 1.
The biggest names I can easily connect to are Albert Einstein (a friend of my grandfather) and Benjamin Britten (who was madly in love with my father).
My parents’ friend’s parent (or something like that) had Elvis Presley as his shabbos goy.
I once touched Ricky Steamboat’s bicep, taunted Kevin Nash, and heckled Steve Austin and Brian Pillman all at the same event.
How I am still alive, I do not know.
I am not very notable myself but I know a whole bunch of people who know a whole bunch of people in lots of different areas. One of my best child-hood friends went on to invent lots of Hollywood special effects including those that made Avatar work. He is James Cameron’s right-hand man as shown on interviews. That opens up a lot by itself but all I really want is a date with Kate Winslet from Titanic fame and that hasn’t worked so far. I was friend’s with Dennis and Randy Quaid’s little sister in college. She was also the former SIL of Meg Ryan. I never used that for anything except to get some inside Hollywood accounts.
Both of my grandfather’s were big into Southern politics. They know or knew most everyone and President Reagan sent a card when my grandfather died. He was also best friend’s with the Long family of Louisiana as in Huey and Earl Long and we still have furniture and photos around that they gave us. My family wanted an entertainment act for the grand opening of their hardware store so they called the Louisiana Hayride, a launching ground for young music talent. The sent a good one. The check was made out to a young Elvis Presley. My mother is a professional speaker and writer. She knows just about everyone it seems. If she doesn’t know someone on a first name basis, she can pick up the phone and find someone that does.
I met Bill Clinton. I know a bunch of really rich people in big business on my own and from my ex wife’s side of the family. My wedding had three people that have been featured in Fortune magazine but they are just regular, down to earth people to me. I just have a nice IT job but some people I have worked under have gotten confused when executive orders came down based on something I told the CEO at a party.
Mom is Erle Stanley Gardner’s goddaughter (and Grandpa’s first wife was Erle second wife).
One of my nieces’ is intimately involved with (i.e. preggers by) someone who I probably ought not mention at the moment - he’s a B-list celeb but his name would be very recognizable to most TV-watching Dopers.
Fun thread, this! Most of mine are celeb encounters -
My friend and I stalked Robert Redford through the airport once. He was really short … but oh so fine.
I worked for a veterinarian in Las Vegas for about a year. Heidi Fleiss was a client. She had lots of birds. I answered the phone once when she called. It was early morning. She spoke in this really strange monotone voice, saying that one of her parrots was sick and asked could she bring him in. I told her to bring him as soon as possible. We waited. She never showed. She finally called later in the afternoon to say he died. She was very upset, saying that whoever answered the phone earlier told her she couldn’t bring the bird in and that’s why he died. WTH? Liar and drug addict! I got a big lecture from the boss on how to treat clients like her on the phone. I was left wondering why they were giving someone like her special treatment…
Ok, I regret the drug addict part of my comment. Wish the edit option wasn’t set up the way it is.
She is going to sue your ass for libel. Hedi Fleiss was a prostitute, pimp, shady business woman who was casual about facts but she is no drug addict. She says she can quit anytime she wants to.
She is a confirmed drug addict too BTW.
Oh I’ve got another one–my mom had an English class with Kareem Abdul Jabbar in college. Only that wasn’t his name yet.