Brush with greatness
 

The Obama in Baltimore thread made me think - have you met/been close to anyone famous?

My elementary school was dedicated by Betty Ford. I was chosen to speak - "I am somebody!" - and give her an eagle necklace. She was very nice, very drugged, and my brother who was in kindergarten got to play George Washington in the "play" we presented. My mother eluded the Secret Service (!!) and was able to see us.

I was also on "Jeopardy!" and "Win Ben Stein's Money". Alex is a jerk, and I LOVE Ben Stein.

What's your story?

I sang for Prince Charles when he visited San Antonio years ago, with my elementary school choir!

ETA--forgot one--I sat behind Nolan Ryan this last October when my dad and I went to go see the Red Sox at Rangers in Ft. Worth. My brother has box seats from his law firm. It was a lot of fun. Nolan talked to my 6 year old nephew about what plays to watch during the game.

Here is my list:

Charles Dutton at the Inner Harbor 1994
Whoopi Goldberg - 1987
Sammy Davis Jr (bumped into him literally while he was getting into his limo) 1985
Alonzo Mourning at BWI - 2002
Jonathon Ogden - Univ of MD Hosp 2003
Jim Palmer and Eddie Murray - 1983 (after the World Series)

and I forgot to add....I worked for Benjamin Carson back in 1995

I shook Matt Lauer's hand. My brother refused to let Bachelor Bob Guiney into his party at our house when they were in high school. And I knew Chad from the first Shot At Love with Tila Tequila. He worked with and wanted my best friend. She thought he was gross. I thought he was hot. BUT... a huge tool. Met Danny from Real World Key West when he spoke at our school. HUGE douche bag.

My grandfather was "semi famous" during his time.

He shook the hand of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and met Eleanor Roosevelt
He worked for Mary McLeod Bethune
He has a picture of President Gerald Ford and him together.
I was told Aretha Franklin sang what is now BCU...

Yes, he spoke to MLK and that whole crew...

As for me... Let's up that ante a little, who have you seriously kissed that's famous...

At the time, he was on his way "down", lol... Stanley Richard, FS, broke a UT Austin record, was called the Sheriff...

:rolleyes: Yeah, I use to roll like that...

Kissed? Andy Fickman, director of the new "Escape to Witch Mountain", "She's the Man", among others. :cool: (He's a Sig Ep from TX Tech, btw)

I met Ben Rothlisberger while I worked at Target in pgh and he needed maple syrup. He's a fratty tool.

Lebron James more times than I can count (he comes to my school's basketball games, and I've volunteered for a few charity events and fundraisers he has held on campus).
Ron Howard and Tom Hanks were sitting in the suite above me at an Indians game.
I met John Edwards when he held a rally at my high school back during the 2004 election.

Not a whole lot of star sightings in Cleveland.

If you found a guy playing with toys all over the back of the store then he runs up to you saying "maple syrup?" over and over you would think he was a fratty tool, too. To his credit, though, I guess, I thought a lot of the people that shopped there were tools. Why people can never say the full "excuse me where is the (item)?" I will never understand.

That Target had more Steelers come in - no one ever really bothered them though.

They used to hold a celebrity charity golf tournament at a golf course that my neighborhood was on and we would go over and meet celebrities and get autographs and what not. Here's a few that I remember meeting at the tournament over the years:

-2 of the members of Hootie and the Blowfish
-Todd Eldredge (U.S. Olympic Figure Skater)
-Shannon Miller (Olympic Gold Medalist- Gymnastics)
-Dennis Haskins ("Mr. Belding" from "Saved by the Bell")
-Charles Barkley
-members of the Carolina Hurricanes NHL team (since we're minutes outside of Raleigh lol)
-Sidney Lowe (current Men's basketball coach- NC State)

Just off the top of my head:

- I've met Richard Stallman, who launched the GNU Project and Free Software Foundation.
- I've met Dr. Ruth.
- I got comp tickets and backstage passes to a Cher concert through DH's cousin, who was her band's drummer. I didn't meet Cher herself, but I met most of the band.
- Then-President Bill Clinton spoke at commencement when I received my bachelor's degree.
- Through a tour arranged by my high school's English department, I've met a number of Royal Shakespeare Company members and gotten a private tour of the theatres.
- I have sung in a choir at Lincoln Center.

Also, when W was campaigning in 2000, he visited the company my husband worked for at the time. DH shook his hand and got an autograph.

OMG, OMG, OMG. My dream is to be on Jeopardy. *Bows humbly at the feet of the awesome SWTXBelle* You must dish on everything... Everything, I say! :)

--I went to college with Johnnie Lee Higgins and Terrence Howard, both on the Oakland Raiders team

--Lupe Ontiveros (the lady that played Yolanda in Selena) graduated from my HS. She went to a pep rally my sophomore year and after the pep rally I got to walk with her. I was telling her how I was an aspiring actress and she gave me her phone number & email address so that she could help me try to break into the business. Of course being the idiot that I am, thought the paper would be safe in my pants and I totally forgot about it---the paper got washed and totally disintegrated before I could contact her :eek: :(

--Not me, but when my aunt went down to Puerto Vallarta (i believe), she met Anthony Quinn at the beach & got to hang out with him for a while. She said he was really nice.

I forgot, my friends and I were in Catalina years ago, and we met Ed McMahon... He was very drunk and trying to hit on my friend. He told us to sit in his booth while he talk to us, and since I was hella hella drunk, I asked where was my "$10 million dollars"... ;)

Well, going to college in Malibu meant I had many brushes with the famous.

- Waved at Axl Rose while we were sitting next to each other at a traffic light on PCH - he waved back.
- When wildfires came into town in '96 and many of us evacuated from campus, ARNOLD was out directing traffic on PCH, his Hummer parked on the side of the road.
- I once had a conversation with Gabrielle Reece while in line at Blockbuster.
- I stood in line behind Pierce Brosnan at Sav-On - he was buying cat food, on sale.
- I saw Matt Leblanc (Joey from Friends) shopping at Ralphs, and he was putting a ton of those treated fire logs into his cart.
- I walked right past (seriously, inches away from) Kurt Russell, who was in our student center with his teen son and arguing with him over what he wanted out of the vending machine.
- Pam Anderson is a big Pepperdine Waves baseball fan and came to most of the home games.
- Madonna used to sometimes jog around our track - I have a photo of her from far away.
- Some friends and I ate breakfast at one of our favorite cafes, Marmalade, at the table next to Jane Krakowsky and Melina Kanakaredes.
- Tia and Tamara Mowery (Sister Sister) were in a couple of my college classes.
- I went to college with Fabian B. (Filthy Rich Cattle Drive) and a number of girls in my chapter were good friends of his, so he was around a lot.
- I went to high school with a girl from Survivor who was the first one to be kicked off her season.
- I met A-Rod and a number of other Seattle Mariners back when they still played here.
- Since Ken Starr is now the Pepperdine law school dean, I met him at a talk he gave up here in Seattle recently.
- Tom Selleck was my graduation speaker!

Those are the ones I can think of right now, though I think very few of these can be called "great" ;)

Damn..I forgot to add in:

- Sam Cassell and I lived in the same neighborhood and went to Dunbar Sr. High. We both graduated in 88.

- before he went to the School of the Arts, Tupac Shakur attended Dunbar in 86, he and my cousin were in the same homeroom, and no...he wasn't the deep thinking 'intelligent thug' that most people know and love...if you ever saw Juice, you can almost get an idea of how we was minus the toughness....hehe just imagine he ran around with a Gumby high top fade and a rat tail.

- Curly Neal from teh harlem Globetrotters also visted our school and gave a pep rally speech to our basketball team.

- I met Al Gore back in 1992 when he was still a senator as he stopped at Morgan State Univ. I got his pics some of which were published in our yearbook and I still have his autograph

Jeopardy! hijack
 

I was on in 1992 - OUCH. My game sometimes shows on the gameshow network (if you see a blonde in a blue wool dress with Gamma Phi and Sigma Chi pins on - that's me!) - my WBSM episode was apparently on last month. As to dish, Tippie - I took the test in Houston. Out of 300 people, 12 passed the test. The Jeopardy! people then had us play mock games with bells. Out of those 12, 3 eventually were on the show.

They do NOT fly you out (because that would qualify as a prize), so my parents got me tickets with their frequent flier miles. We stayed with a friend for most of the time - stayed at a hotel (not paid for by the show) the night before. Had a great time at Disneyland with then-2 yr. old gypsyboots. THE SHOW - went into make-up, and were prepped. The studio is FREEZING. The pen to write your name with weighs a ton - that's why everyone's name looks so odd. I played against a Californian and a Floridian. I got two daily doubles - missed one, got the other. It films in real time, so when it is time for a commercial, studio goons come and stare at you so you won't cheat. Alex was over in the corner getting primped and practicing being condescending. The difference between playing along at home and being in the studio is that at home if you know the answer you shout it out. In the game, even if you know it, if you don't time your buzzer just right you are TOL. It's very frustrating. Final Jeopardy - I'm leading, but not by enough to win for sure. Category - Business and Industry. Answer - "This Montreal-based company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange as VO". Cue music - the other two players got it - Seagram's (no longer true, though). I did not. I studied in college instead of drinking. Watching at home, the husband of one of my sorority sisters said "She'll get it." Lisa wisely said, "No, she won't." :rolleyes: Someone in the studio said "I was mentally sending you the answer!" I replied "There's my problem - I was asking God!". Sony security hustles you out of the studio - I had to beg to be allowed to make a phone call to get my husband to come pick me up. :( (He stayed in the hotel with gypsboots). Guy who won later was arrested for embezzling, and the Californian who was super nice gave me Universal Studios tickets which I gave to our Californian friend since we had to return home.

I got a home version of the game which no one would play with me, a case of Rice A Roni (all the same flavour!), a stereo system, cold medicine, and Silver Centrum which I refused because I didn't want to pay the taxes on vitamins I couldn't take. I came home and discovered I was pregnant with daughter #2 - yes, her middle name is Alexandra, but it has nothing to do with Alex, I swear!

I don't have many, but let's see....
Summer of 1994, on a school trip to DC, I met Heath Shuler in the airport (had no idea who he was, but all the guys wanted his autograph, so I got it too)
In 1996, I met Luke Perry; he had a house in Dickson and my dad was his vet. (Met him once at Dad's clinic, then went on a farm call to his house and met his wife)
In summer of 1999, I "tagged along" on my sister's high school French Club trip to Europe, and when we were in Paris, I saw Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen walk past, but no one believed me. After our tour of Notre Dame, we ended up out back, where they were actually filming a scene from their film, "Passport to Paris"
Then, 2 years ago, I saw Ty Pennington in the Chicago airport.

Oooo - Disney World - rode the Haunted Mansion elevator with the 3 kids from "8 Simple Rules", and saw Steve Irving's widow Terri and two kids at the Brown Derby Restaurant and walking down Main Street. I was impressed on Main Street - Bindi had OBVIOUSLY dressed herself and was blithely skipping.

I got a kiss from a very drunk Dave Matthews when I was in college. That's about the only one.

My latest brush with greatness: Flava Flav. At the Sydney Airport earlier this month. You should have seen him trying to get through security.

I saw quite a few famous people on my first trip to NYC. We sat next to KORN at Nobu Next Door. Dining across from us were Natalie Portman and Gael Garcia Bernal as well as, Stephen Cojocaru at another table. I'm the only one who recognized any of them. Two nights later, I was standing outside my friends apartment building waiting for everyone else to come out when Julia Stiles walked right past me and made eye contact. I swear, she had a look on her face like, "Please don't recognize me!" I smiled and looked down the street.

A lot of racecar drivers:

All of the Andrettis and Unsers,
Juan Pablo Montoya
Jimmy Vasser
Bobby Rahal
Alex Zinardi
Helio Castro-Neves
Gil de Ferran
Dario Franchitti
Paul Tracy
many others

Talked to Paul Newman several times at the track
Was in the restroom with Mary Kate Olson at Chateau Marmont
Bumped into Lara Flynn Boyle at Fred Segal
Was yelled at by Donald Sutherland for laughing too loud on the beach
Use to date a current US Senator when he was single (I'll keep mum on that one)
Brittney Spears father got us tickets to the OSU/USC Football game (he was BFF with my cousin at the time)
Having lunch when Zadrunis Ilgauskis walked in to pick up a cake (Cavalier's center)
Luke Perry and I were born at the same hospital (does that count?)

I'm sure I have a few more, but those are the only ones that I can remember in recent years.

If it's who I think it is based on your location, you're a lucky lady...

I've known him since we were kids.

He's a dreamboat. Every female reporter I know has a thing for him (myself included).

I never thought of him as a dreamboat, but he is quite charismatic.

Hm let's see ...

Sarah Jessica Parker at the meet and greet for her line at Steve & Barry's in Manhattan Mall.

Bruce Springsteen brought his daughter to one of my performances of The Nutcracker at the Asbury Park Paramount Theatre/Convention Hall. They came back stage so she could meet the dancers.

The first year Hairspray was open, I saw it for my 16th birthday, and apparently it was a big charity night. After the show, they kept us all around for bidding to go backstage. Names like Oprah, Tom Cruise, and Rudy Giuliani were called out during bidding. We ran into Adam Sandler outside the theatre.

Summer 08, my then-boyfriend and I went to SoHo for a day. Walking there, we passed a movie shoot, but thought nothing of it. On our way back, a very tall, brunette and disheveled-looking woman and I accidentally hit each other as we walked past the shoot. For a half second, I thought it could have been Uma Thurman, but I thought she looked more like part of the crew than someone on screen. Lo and behold, a few days later, I was perusing trash magazines and there was a photograph of Uma Thurman, looking like she did, on the set of Motherhood.

I also briefly worked on a Jersey Shore beach this summer. Susan Sarandon and Pierce Brosnan were shooting a movie in a rented house at my walkway. Pierce must be extremely photogenic - he looks about 10 years older in person. He was nice, we took a picture, but was rather irritable at my friend for being star-struck yelling "OMG I JUST MET JAMES BOND!" I was embarrassed for myself and for her.

Um.... I went to high school with one of those annoying Cuban girls on My Super Sweet Sixteen.

I forgot that Jason from the first Apprentice the brother in law of one of my best friends. He's a really nice, down to earth guy.

And I met Justine Simmons, wife of Rev Run, and Diggy at Newark Airport. They were in front of me in line getting a pretzel. I talked to her and she gave me a huge hug. Diggy was very very polite. They were flying to Detroit cuz Rev was doing his concert with Kid Rock (omg if it had been Kid that I ran into I would've freaked out!). They ended up sitting in the row in front of us on the plane in first class. Russy, the babysitter and the new baby were with them. I couldn't believe how well-behaved the kids were!

In the south, you call close friends of the family "Uncle" and "Aunt." My "uncle" is "Uncle Fess," Fess Parker. He played Davy Crockett on The Wonderful World of Disney way back when. He now has a winery in California.

Did you see him when he was in town for Extreme Makeover? He was so high from smoking big, fatty joints at the Deli that the staff was laughing at him. He was a complete ass to them.

I want to know if Sheetcake has had a brush with greatness. My thought is that Sheetcake IS greatness.

ETA: And for that matter, Chuck Norris too

When I was a sports journalist I interviewed a few famous athletes (most famous were probably Derek Jeter and Rob Dibble) and sports personalities (mostly from ESPN) - some were really great interviews (Chris Berman and Dan Patrick were incredibly nice, as was Rich Eisen), some were pretty rude (won't mention names).

I've also dealt with some famous people (athletes, actors/actresses and politicians) in other professional settings, but I can't give names because of confidentiality issues.

Finally, one of my high school friends (we're not in touch anymore) has been featured in a few commercials (for Axe Body Spray, and the T-Mobile commercial with Brett Favre). She's also been in a couple of movies and television shows.

Back in the 1980s, I used t babysit for some Dallas Cowboys: Tom Rafferty, Charlie Waters, Robert Newhouse and Drew Pearson. I also babysat Defensive Coordinator Ernie Stautner's grandkids.

They also bought Girl Scout cookies from me every year.

My husband was assigned to the White House in the Clinton era, so I met Bill,Al, etc many times, also Socks and Buddy (what a great dog). During that time I met Sonny Bono at Chevys at the Pentagon Center who was dead within a couple of weeks. Very gracious man, he seemed pleased that someone recognized him. I also met Jesse Jackson de planeing from Air Force One at Andrews. Also, very charming and quite good looking. I met Chuck Norris where I currently live at book signing a few years ago....so nice, soft spoken, and eager to meet and accomodate everyone who wanted to see/meet him. I ran into Naomi Judd a few months ago in a bakery here. She lives nearby. Very pretty and nice and has 2 cute dogs

I dont know why that surprises me, but i'm still :( about it. lol

The most famous person I know is famous for a trial that was in the 60s (I think). Alan Bakke v. University of California. It was about reverse discrimination.
I met James Otto at a concert.
My bf hung out with Kid Rock at a winery he used to work at.

I worked at a Footlocker store in college, and one day Vincent Furnier (aka Alice Cooper!!!!) walked in looking for golf shoes. Made my week! Also met plenty of coaches and basketball players though that job.

I've also met Carl Edwards, Mark Martin and a couple other drivers through my husband's company.