Heh.
That’s some rep your so high and mighty friends have got themselves.
I’ve never understood why people like to name-drop. Knowing someone famous is supposed to make you a better person than someone who doesn’t know someone famous? I just don’t get it.
The funny thing is - in my experience, people that really are friends with famous people generally avoid telling others about it, because of all the hassle.
You guys are losers.
I had my buddy Sam call my friends to personally tell them to go see SOAP.
Top that!
Confessions of a Name-Dropper
I name drop with my family (step-children, their spouses, their spouses parents, and my grandchildren). Part of it is in just recounting some of the exciting and bizarre and wonderful moments that have happened to me over the years. I’m at retirement age and nothing exciting happens to me anymore.
I don’t know anyone famous now very well at all. But a well-known Broadway actress is a friend of my family of origin. The actress won a Tony as best actress and the play she was in won a Tony for best play. When I was able to offer my step-daughter house seats to a performance, she turned them down. (I would have paid the discounted price and we had planned to go to NYC anyway.) It actually seemed to make her angry.
We never did make it to New York that year. Three months ago, my step-daughter threw me out of her house. One of the reasons she gave is that I’m a narcissist and only want to associate with “superior” people. (Hell, I’ve been agoraphobic for years and have finally made new friends that I play Bunco with once a month. I’m beginning to get out more, but I’ve always done things by myself and enjoyed it.) I think my students in the inner city for twenty years were “superior,” but I don’t think that’s what she had in mind.
But there is a difference in name-dropping, sharing your old memories and being a narcissist. I tend to combine the first two. I don’t claim to know anyone that I don’t know and I don’t call Robert Redford “Bob” or anything silly like that. Some of the times that I have shared my experiences it has been because the other person that I was talking to has slighted me or belittled me and I’ve used it to let that person know that I’ve been a place or two myself. That was insecure of me and defensive and I shouldn’t have done it. My step-daughter overheard. But I didn’t do it in any mean or cutting way. It was just old-fashioned bragging.
I think a lot of name-dropping comes from such insecurity.
Finally, I like to read threads here about Dopers who know people who are famous. It interests me. And I like to hear other people’s stories of meeting celebrities or interesting people. As long as it’s the truth and non-pretentious, I enjoy it.
But I know that most people don’t.
I didn’t deserve the boot out of the family though. The kids don’t need a babysitter anymore and they can drive themselves to school. 
I’ll survive.
That was YOU? Madonna (Maddy, I call her) and I were watching all that from the VIP room and laughing our heads off. Good times, good times…
Yeah, same. I have worked with and met famous people but if it comes up in conversation I take pains to make it clear that this is someone I worked with just the once or met just the once, not my best friend.
Though in that (former) line of work you could bust the namedropper in a heartbeat. Like this:
“Oh yeah? I have to see/speak with X next week, I’ll tell him I know you, that’ll be good!”
“er…could you…not? You know, he’s all private…”
“Yeah. Riiiight.”
Cheers,
G
Damn, I was going to drop Carly’s name. Of course I knew her before she was a CEO, you know, back in the day.
Reminds me of that story: Bill Gates is in a restaurant, and a guy comes up to him and says, “Bill, I’m your biggest fan. Could you do me a huge favour? I’m meeting this girl in here and it would be great if you could just come over and say ‘Hi Tim’, as if you knew me.”
Bill is in a good mood, and agrees. Sure enough, a few minutes later a girl walks in and joins Tim at the bar. Bill waits a few minutes, then walks up to the bar, looks across at Tim as if seeing an old friend and says, “Hi Tim, how’s it going?”.
To which Tim replies, “Fuck off Gates, can’t you see I’m busy!”.
Taa-daaa!
Yeah, I remember her talking about this guy with two xx’s in his name a time or two in the hot tub at Cecil’s place. Coulda been you; coulda been Redd Foxx. It was kinda hard to hear with all the bubbling going on.
What really pisses me off is when people just assume I am dropping names when I am just trying to figure out if we know anyone in common. Its perfectly fine if you are a nobody but don’t assume that I am.
Oh yeah, she lets me call her “Me”.