Yesterday I was reading a column about “fame” by Australian actor William McInnes. And he told this great little tale:
*I was on a television series once that was basically all about being famous. Well, not exactly, but that was the end result of being on it. We all got a buzz out of being recognised in the street.
The most important day of the week was the rehearsal day. You’d be given your week’s mail, your fan mail. People would sit around the set and go through this stuff like researchers seeking the truth in ancient manuscripts.
I hardly used to get any; a couple of loopy people from the back of beyond would write and invite me to go shooting - but really that was about it. What I did like to do was to write fan mail to my co-actors. At first it was a mild joke, but so seriously were these forms of correspondence taken that they soon became my main form of entertainment. They became so outrageously fawning and sycophantic that I was sure my co-workers would twig. Indeed, the letters all had the same postcode. But no, they would read these things and believe that some fan had written singing their praises.*
This caused me to recall a couple of old favourites - Dame Judi Dench embroiders tapestries and cushions for the directors of her movies that contain hidden expletives.
Supposedly Norm Macdonald tosses coins while waiting around and has a lifetime count that he has kept since childhood.
Jeff Bridges takes on-set pictures that have been praised for their artistic qualities.
John Larroquette (sp?) collects first edition books
Steve Martin has a formidable modern art collection and is considered an expert in the field
Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita, was an amateur butterfly man (aka lepidopterist) who published in the field and was generally respected by academics. He had a butterfly named after him and was known for signing copies of his books to his close friends and relatives with ornate colored-pencil drawings of butterflies…
Baseball player Chet Lemon once had his hobbies listed as “shell collecting and Greek mythology” in his team’s press guide. A reporter who decided to interview him about these interests, however, soon learned it was a joke. Lemon was familiar with the fact that approximately 90% of players mention some combination of hunting, fishing, and golf, and decided to have some fun with the question.
Brad Pitt has a keen interest in architecture, especially that of Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry. He even did an “informal apprenticeship” at Gehry’s office.
It’s not such a strange hobby, but John Lennon also did art, in addition to writing and playing music. Some idea of the importance and significance of his artwork today can be found here. I’ve been to one or two Lennon exhibitions and seen his stuff–it looks simple at first glance, but there is an elegance and skill and consistency to it, both within the various series and across the body of work as a whole. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find pictures of his work online, but a quick look at a few gallery sites tells me that art collectors and museums are willing to pay dearly for Lennon’s work, even in print form.
Peter Weller… I’m not sure whether he turned a hobby/interest into a career or if acting was his hobby, but has a master’s in Roman and Renaissance art and is a professor of history a university who’s name escapes me at the moment.
His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama does watch repair. I don’t know why, but it always struck me as so very odd. He is a fascinating man, altogether, though.
