There are certain people I always expected would become famous. I went to school with Deion Sanders (he was a senior when I was a freshman so I only saw him in the halls), and it was obvious he would go on to stardom. Emmitt Smith was in one of my classes in college, and it was obvious at that time he'd be famous. But there are others who I never knew would make it, and I knew them quite well. The first is an anchorwoman on CNN. I remember looking up at the television one day last year, when I was on my treadmill at the gym and seeing Heidi staring back at me. I couldn't believe it....my thoughts were..."Is that? Is that? It is!" She's changed a bit, and looks better now than when she was in her early 20s. The last time I saw her was in 1993, when she was working at a little local television station and was married to a pilot acquaintance we haven't kept in touch with since.

This morning, I open my homepage and see Kim Lyons. That stung a bit, because she has just finished a book and I've always dreamt of writing an publishing a book. Furthermore, it's probably destined to be a best-seller. She was a pilot's wife, too, and we were stationed together in Italy. That doesn't seem so long ago. She stayed in California while he went on a remote to Korea. Her career took off and she decided to stay in California and divorce him....then she got a big break and was chosen for the show 'America's biggest loser' and the rest is history. Hm. I suppose instead of being envious I should feel the flame of fire on my backside telling me to write that book/do something.

Does anyone else have any friend/aquaintance/former friend who 'made it'? Did you feel envious or inspired?

Uh... you have kinda hot friends do you think you could have a mixer or something soon?

Your friends and acquaintances need not be famous for you to feel shame and self loathing - they can merely be successful or appear happy. I hate that. Whenever it happens I simply imagine them alone and broken contemplating suicide - then, in my mind, I urge them on. Once they're dead I'll move up in the standings.

Well...I don't really wish anyone ill.

I met alot of comics before they were "headliners" much less "famous" when I was doing the stand up thang. I have quite a few pics, some of them I have scanned onto disc and whatnot and post them here and there on occasion.

Those that I knew as comics, that were booked all year, but not anywhere near "famous" at the time-

The person I really got to know, since I opened for him for 6 weeks was Brad Garret from "Everybody loves Raymond"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Garrett

Lewis Black and Kathleen Madigan were "co-headliners" that I opened for on a very regular basis, at least four times a year for about 5 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Black

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Madigan

(When I knew them, Kathleen Madigan and Lewis Black were "significant others")

Poeple I think should be much more famous is this guy, someone I still keep in regular contact, with- he is super funny, and is one of the best comedy writers, and extremely prolific- Jack Mayberry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Mayberry

Rob Schnieder was a headliner when I knew him, but was not on the national radar, and I hung out and had fun with him quite a bit- tiny dude though!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Schnieder

Ladies and gentleman that I met that were already famous that absolutely were the opposite of thier main-stream media reputations- Rodney Dangerfield- the guy get's enormous respect - he used to critique all new comics at "Catch a Rising star" in Vegas, and he was nice, spot on, and totally interesting in helping new comics to "make it big"- and every comic respects him

Bobcat Goldthwait- nicer guy I have never met. Is NOT pre-epileptic like everyone things. Very nice- and doesn't appear to like the "entourage" that goes with opening in big venues- he left his penthouse dressing room with the deli trays and silicone trays to come down and hang out with my family , take pics- and since I was 'just the opener"- I had the basement "waiting area" (dressing room is NOT accurate) and NO snacks. He just wanted to "hang out with normal people for a minute, and get some material going on the local scene)- he also was a very kind reviewer of my act, and offered me some great tips, helping me re-work several "bits"

Rosie O'Donnel- I got to know her over about 2 years, as our paths bumped into each other from Alaska to Raliegh NC where I opened for kevin James (also, LONG before "King of Queens") - she was gracious, engaging, and downright sweet to everyone around her- even when some people were total jerks to her. I wonder if she just got tired of putting up with some of the crap she has had to put up with, just for being gay. She was castigated outside the bar in Raliegh while I was there for being "lesbo"- and reacted very calmly and much nicer than I wanted to be- a couple of us offered to kick the guys butt. She said "Redneck jerks aren't worth that kind of effort fellas, but I appreciate it", and we went and all had dinner (there were about 10 comics there for a number of clubs around that area.)

I got to briefly meet Awnald the Governator, and Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, who came out to see a bunch of comics at the Improv, and they approached me to ask a bunch of questions about visiting Alaska. But they were already quite famous at that point

Oh, funniest thing- before Ellen Degeneres was REALLY famous, she had won her showtime award, and was headlining- and her homosexuality was an "open secret" still (think Rob Halford from Judas Priest) - I had a comic friend/aquaintence hit on her for, like a month. We let him figure it out for himself- it was very funny.

Anyway- it was a fun run there for a while, and, though I never became 'famous"- I got to travel, have non-commital sex with very hot women, made a little bit of money, and party through my 20s, and meet alot of poeple that later became, in some cases, very, very famous.

My one observation- my experiances with famous people have never matched what the national reputations in media have put forth.

My little brushes with fame came from running the music scene at a little bar/restaurant/lodge above Boulder, CO near Nederland in the 1980s. There was a pro recording studio up there called Caribou Ranch, which was a bad name. No caribou in Colorado. The big deer-like critters are Wapiti and called Elk locally. So I got to meet Dan Fogelberg and David Crosby, both seriously into acoustic music, and liked that we were giving local talent, and even not so much talent, a whirl at 4-hour gigs for $50. It's not whole lot of money when you think about it, but it got the ball rolling around that area.

Other than that, shared an elevator with Jerry Lee Lewis (Great Balls O Fire) while I lived at the Claridge House in downtown Memphis. He's a nice guy and was still a killer with the women back then. Well, older women. I caught his act somewhere around town.

Looking back on all this, I should have gone to Nashville and done bluegrass. But no, there was this blues bug up my, er, spine. And besides Memphis was where the day job was. Eh, can't have everything in life.

Seems to me that fame is way overrated. I like being invisible, unimportant me. I heard Bob Dylan complain that he still gets people coming onto his land, climbing up on the roof, thinking he's some sort of god icon. The thought of that gives me the rattlesnake shakes. My brother caught Dylan in concert up in Minnesota, good old Bobby Zimmerman's home turf. The guy is still a good musician, and according to my brother, has learned how to sing. I grew up 50 miles from Hibbing, so call that a long distance brush with fame. I like Garrison Keillor quite a bit and have followed his radio show since 1976, when I saw him live. That's a bit closer, don't you think? I like the show better than his books.

Speaking of which, the only way a book gets done is to write it. Steinbeck wrote in Travels with Charlie that he dreaded starting a book and always felt that he couldn't do it part way through, and often. It's a lot of lonely hard work. What's the reward? I guess the book signings that Lewis Black talks about:

For any of you thinking of doing this, ah ah ah, don't.

The vid cuts off the really embarrassing part of book signings, the Q/A period. I went to a Joyce Carol Oats signing in Denver, and it's amazing the moronic things that come up. All these people felt they knew JCO just from reading her books. One raised herself to JCO's level by claiming to be a published writer. Oh, and what are some of the things that got published? Oh, an employee manual . . .



. . . and a press release, and I do a lot of executive memos!



Crikes. There were some intelligent ones too. At the signing I just said, "Thank you," and she gave me one of those little smiles of hers. That was cool, a little literary blessing. Yeah kiddo, she was probably thinking, don't give it up.

So that's one way to fame, don't give it up. But is fame all that important? I'd rather write something that's good. It'd be nice to make some money off it too, but that's coming through with the wordsmithing gigs. The goal is to make as much through that as I did as a techie, which really wasn't that much. But I'm still devoting at least an hour a day to writing my own stuff, also music, and more if I can fit it in. And BTW, the next novel idea has finally precipitated out of the clouds.

And so, off to it . . . poor Lewis Black, what'd he do to deserve that?

Oh yeah, fame.

Some of mine will depend on your definition of famous.

I went to high school with Terry Fair (NFL - he was actually more well-known for his basketball talent than football from my memory). He graduated the year before me. I didn't know him well, but I was friends with a few of his friends.

Of course, having been at U of A during the peak of U of A's basketball success (95-99), there were quite a few future NBA stars who I knew. Mike Bibby dated a friend of mine (his ego was ENORMOUS). Michael Dickerson and Jason Terry (also NBA) were both nice guys. Richard Jefferson and Luke Walton (bill Walton's son) were neighbors of mine for a year. They were both annoying and once prank called my room. My best memory of them was the piles and piles of Nike shoe boxes they'd have piled outside their dorm room...methinks they were trying to attract attention. Hubby played basketball in the campus rec center (pick-up games) with a few of the players from the class of '95 (Damon Stoudamire, among other less notables). Frank Middleton (NFL) was a hilarious guy...he used to play cards and dominoes in the student union with hubby and our friends. Dennis Northcutt (NFL) dated one of my good friends as well. We had a class or two together - he was cocky but friendly. Chris McAllister (NFL) was in a couple of my classes and was very quiet.

I have a friend who is a company member at Alvin Ailey (which is pretty most THE most prestigious modern dance company in the world). He was my sister's dance partner for a couple of years and was her best friend and a friend of mine as well.

A few friends went on to become actors/actresses in some smaller scale shows (MTV, for example).

I'm sure I'm missing some others. I know there are a few other folks from my childhood days who went on to become famous for something other than sports. Linda Ronstadt's neices are good friends of mine from high school and a performing group we all were involved with...neither of them are famous, but I think the younger of the two will be one day. She definitely inherited her aunt's singing voice.

Hubby knows a few as well. Emmitt Smith used to play basketball in a park in Tempe and he's played with him a few times. He said he was very nice, but sucked at basketball I'm not sure how many people he knew as a kid who went on to be famous...most of his he met/knew later in life.

Well, as far as fame goes- if you are famous- the best place to be famous is Alaska. We, as a group, culture, whatever you want to call it- seem terribly unimpressed by the famous, as a "culture" if you will. Lot's of big stars visiting here comment on that- David Letterman said "You know, Alaska is the only place in America where I can go to Safeway or Carrs (local grocer) and someone will just say, if they recognize me "hey, wazzup dave" and keep walking. Ted Nuget and a few others have said the same thing. Norman Swartzkoff (sp) was here to fish while on leave, shortly after HE became a household name, shortly after the gulf thingy. he went "combat fishing" - and jokingly complained that he got "no star treatment at all"

Bob Ehrlich - governor of Maryland before getting bounced last election - was in my 8th and 9th grade class at Arbutus Jr. High (now a middle school) just outside Baltimore, Maryland.

My last job, Jeff Young's office was 3 or 4 doors down from mine. Him and his brother James inherited a small security company from their parents here in Dayton and I worked for them around 4 years. Jeff Young was the guitarist for Megadeth during the So Far, So Good, So What? album. His replacement was Marty Friedman - the guy that put Megadeth on the map for good in my opinion. I never had to deal much with Jeff because his brother is really the hands-on guy. I never had the nerve to talk music with Jeff because I don't think I'm talented enough to tune his guitar. Obviously, he was already famous, but it was really weird having him sitting in my office talking shop when I thought he should have been out on the road shredding like nobody's business like he did on the Monsters of Rock tour.

Wow- I really thought you would have had quite a few big name rocker stories to tell there DR. I was kinda looking forward to it when I saw the topic - but, you never know who you are going to run into, or not, working in a rock-n-roll band. BTW- I got into comedy to pick up chicks- it's true - and I just don't sing that well since my voice changed at about 12 or 13, so I knew I wouldn't be on stage with a band- so comedy was the way for me to pick up hot chix in the 80s - but later, it turned into something I wanted to do anyway.

Oh- BTW- I did open for Tommy Chong once, and he is EXACTLY like his movies portray him. And I mean EXACTLY.

CR brings up Alaska as a place where people just aren't phased by fame... I am sure it's true but to some extent age can play a role in that too:

My (then) 3 year old son: Hey! You're the girl from Freaky Friday!
Lindsay Lohan: I am!
My son: Wow!
Lindsay Lohan: (to me)He's sooo cute! (to him)Do you want my autograph?
My son: What would I do with that?
Lindsay Lohan: Wow. I was feeling famous there for a minute.

***

Let me add this was when she was sane®. She was also really nice and actually genuinely sweet - so much so when I hear about her I wonder what happened and how much is just outright lies - I mean, she was really normal.

I've also met a lot of "famous" rock people (Vernon Reid, Richie Sambora, Anthrax, Alan Jourgenson (the guy from Ministry), Faith No More (we opened for them,) Weezer (they opened for us,) Steve Vai (the guitarist and Devil's player in Crossroads (starring Ralph Machhio). I have also met Salma Hayek and Winona Ryder (neither of whom photograph particularly well, which is to say you have no idea how beautiful those two are (or how really normal they are about it)).

Some people were totally people (Vernon Reid) and other were like cartoon characters from Hell on crack with attitudes (Alan Jourgenson).

I guess in the end you are who you are. Some people get famous and other people just are famous. I wonder how the people who just are famous who don't ever quite achieve lasting fame feel some times. Think Flock Of Seagulls, or Ed Mio, or Elaine Hendrix...

I knew the late NFL football player, Joe Don Looney, as far back as pony league baseball – age 13 & 14. He tried to start a fight with me, which I declined. Until he went to India and calmed himself down, fighting seemed to be a habit with him.

I don’t know whether describe Looney as famous or infamous or both. Here’s a link. You decide.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m120...219/ai_17495109

Edited to add:

Texas writer Larry McMurtry was my freshman English professor at TCU during the 1961-62 academic year. He probably influenced my thinking more than any other professor I ever studied under. He was in the process of becoming famous when I first knew him. His first novel, Horseman, Pass By was filmed in Amarillo as HUD starring Paul Newman. He missed twelve classes during the spring semester to be on location in Amarillo.

He became even more famous with the Pulitzer Prize for Lonesome Dove and the TV min-series starring Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall.

Was thinking of putting this on the political humor thread, but it fits better here. Screw fame, I live with a teacher:

Make a difference

She makes a difference, and a positive one, in people's lives. Raise that single-digit salute high. Screw fame.

My hope is to leave something behind that is worthwhile. The rest is doggy-do, and that name so famous today will be maggot meat tomorrow, mostly, and if history remembers the name, it's an accident of circumstance.

I've just been reading about how the Jewish faith almost went off the face of the Earth in 722 B.C. That would have meant that Christianity would have never been born. But for skilled wordsmiths, four of them, the whole thing would have fallen apart.

Heh. Freaking writers.

BTW, the Karate Kid in Crossroads did not know how to play guitar when he took that role. He did a bang-up job of faking slide work, plus the camera angles were just right to hide the fact that IT WAS FAKE.

That's what fame strikes me as these days. It's fake, an illusion within a fantasy. Wrapped in an enigma

I think this is why celebrities have a need for causes, also filthy rich pricks like Bill Gates. They know its fake, they don't deserve the money, and it all ends up in the same place for everyone.

So, what difference have YOU made, HUH? Yep, one wishes it were so.

Y'all have had lots of interesting brushes with fame...

I actually had some interaction with some athletes. I played HS football with Arnaz Battle. He's a couple years younger than I am, but was receiver and qb at the time. I'll leave my personal feelings for the dude alone. Not exactly what I'd like to see coming out of our home town.

I also played Pop Warner ball and summer league football against Josh Booty, who was a flop in MLB and the NFL. He's a couple of years older than I am, but was in HS at the same time and also played at LSU during my junior and senior years... so I saw him at parties and the gym once or twice. From what I hear, he'd spent some time back in Shreveport after getting the boot from the Raiders. I'm not sure though.

I also knew/know Kenny Wayne Shepard. He was the biggest loser in school... until Deja Voodoo came out.

But now in Shreveport, if you spend time in the right places you can hob-nob with stars if you really want to. I personally could care less for the most part, but have accidentally run into a few people (ie Kevin Costner) while home for holidays/b days, etc at a little place called Cush's grocery. They have awesome Muffalettas.

This doesn't have anything to do with fame, but it isn't political and it isn't worth its own thread, so I'm dumping it here.

By the same comedian linked to in my last post:

The Importance of Proofreading Your School Papers

That's for anyone who has ever had to proof school papers in high school and college for that matter. I'll never forget that God is omnipotent, omnipresent and omnivorous. Blessed are the meat and potatoes for they shall find . . . well, something.

I do know the best, sweetest, smartest woman in the world...my mother. But she's not famous.

I do know the most handsome man in the world...my husband. But he's not famous.

I don't know anyone who's become famous...oh my Lord, whatever will I do?!?!?

Sorry, I hate celebs. Except Mike Rowe. He is FINE.

Does anyone else have any friend/aquaintance/former friend who 'made it'?

Yep.


Did you feel envious or inspired?

Nope to the first, yep to the second.


I remember seeing one old friend start doing Nintendo commercials, then car commercials, then small indie films, then played a regular on a TV show, and now he works pretty regularly in major film comedies. Each time I've always said, "Kaching!" There are so few people who "make it" in this business, I'm happy to see my friends get there. I'll be there in my own way soon.

On the other hand, I've seen the price of "making it." I went to lunch with someone the other day and people just wouldn't leave the guy alone.

I can only think of two stars I met before they became famous. One was Grace Slick and the other was Dave Crosby who was attending the same Junior College I was. I only conversed with each once and they were both very odd conversations.

I met a few folks after they became famous and managed to add a couple of more odd conversations to the list. One was with Gregory Peck and one with Joan Baez.

For some reason I had odd conversations with these kind of people. Perhaps if I had known them socially they would have just come off as folks.

Oh yeah, I met Richard Farina before he died young in a motorcycle accident and went on to minor fame with recordings with Joan Baez's sister Mimi. Brilliant Edwardian looking guy. A real talent. That was a sad loss.

Just thought about something else regarding fame.

Authors are never recognized in public. That's because they are known through writing, not through television, movies or other video media.

It's because they aren't beautiful people.

Maybe it's because their photos on the dust jackets of books are them at their best, and most of the time they're slobs like the rest of us. Or maybe, as in the case of Christopher Moore, the photo is from when he was 17. Now he's in his 50s. It's a little joke.

Before Steinbeck went on his road trip with his dog Charlie, he worried about being recognized. Three months on the road and something like 6,000 miles later, not one person recognized him, except old friends and family. He was just a guy in a camper truck with a dog. Had NY tags, that was sometimes remarkable, such as, "New York? I was there once. Hated it."

So, if people stop watching movies and television, where is fame?

Well, I've met quite a few big name stars when opening for them through the years, but I hardly "know" them and certainly didn't know them before they got famous.

I made a decision one time (not sure if it ended up being good or bad) that may have affected this though. Many years ago, a band I was in needed a keyboard player, so we ran an ad. Brought the guy into my home studio, tried him out, and he was pretty damn awesome. Great singer, great guitar player, and great keyboard player. Unfortunately, we already had 2 guitar players and we couldn't get him to play too much keyboard. Unless your band is Lynyrd Skynyrd, 3 guitars is too much and we had to let him go.

Well, the guy calls me a couple months later and says he's in a new band and wants me to play lead guitar and sing harmony vocals for them. Claims they have a ton of original material and he knows I knew every cover tune they were doing until they could start recording. Well, the guys I was already jamming with are lifelong friends (they still are and we still get together and jam when we can) and I couldn't quit on them, so I declined. He told me if I changed my mind, just bring all my crap to some club in Middletown, Ohio that Saturday - no auditions or practice - just show up.

Well, I never showed up and Yankee Grey went on with out me. Oh well - they have no label and I still have my friends.

I don't know anyone famous. My mom and her friend went to school with and were friends with Alan Arkin, and that's about as close as fame has come to my family. I'm not impressed with the "celebrities" of the day.


Whoo hoo!!! Now THAT is a celebrity I'd like to...meet. I, too, am a Mike Rowe fan.

From working in theatre and television for about fifteen years in Ireland, I've met quite a few famous people - but most of them were already famous. Those that I knew before they got (relatively) famous would include:

Suanne Spoke - One of my best friends at college, Suanne has become an actress and acting coach of some note in LA, mostly on stage, though she's had a few film and a lot of TV credits as well.

Jonathan Frakes - Another college acquaintance, I knew his roommate quite well and we socialized occasionally. He went on to play Riker in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and has directed a couple of films and a number of TV shows.

Geraldine Fitzgerald - My partner was in her Everyman Theatre Company in New York in the seventies and she eventually became the patron of our theatre company, Horizon, in Ireland. She appeared in numerous films including Wuthering Heights, Dark Victory, Watch on the Rhine, The Pawnbroker, and Rachel, Rachel. I include her because I met her well after her film career had faded a bit, but before she became known again through films like Arthur and appearances on shows like "The Golden Girls".

Roddy Doyle - I knew Roddy vaguely through the theatre scene in Dublin. He was a bit of wanker and I never much cared for him. He wrote The Commitments, on which Alan Parker's film was based and won the Booker Prize for Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha.

Jim Sheridan, Peter Sheridan - My partner and I knew the Sheridan brothers quite well, mostly through the theatre community; they were among the first people we met in Ireland. Jim has directed such films as My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father, The Boxer, and In America. Peter is mostly known as a playwright, but he also adapted and directed the film version of Borstal Boy.

Neil Jordan - Used to date one of my housemates, so I knew him reasonably well. He's written a few decent novels and directed such films as The Company of Wolves, The Crying Game, Interview with the Vampire, Michael Collins, The Butcher Boy, The Good Thief, and The Brave One.

Colm Toibin - Journalist and film critic who reviewed quite a few plays that I directed or appeared in. He's written several novels - two of which (The Blackwater Lightship and The Master) have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize - as well as collections of stories and non-fiction.

Fintan O'Toole - Another journalist and film critic who similarly reviewed quite a lot of my work. he's written quite a few books, mostly non-fiction, including White Savage: William Johnson and the Invention of America, which is terrific.

Anne Enright - I knew Anne vaguely through a "rival" theatre company, Rough Magic, with whom she acted and did a bit of playwriting. She's since published a couple of novels, one of which, The Gathering, won the Booker Prize last year.

Kate O'Toole - The daughter of Peter O'Toole, Kate was one of my partner's regular drinking buddies. Known mostly for her stage work, she's appeared in a few films like The Dead and Dancing at Lughnasa.

Michael Flatley - I worked as a design associate on the original production of "Riverdance" and got to know the world's biggest jerk better than anyone would ever care to - which was not all that well (though well enough to detest him as much as every other person who's spent more then thirty seconds in his presence).

Daniel Day Lewis - I only met him twice and, having already appeared in My Beautiful Laundrette, A Room with a View, and The Unbearable Lightness of Being, I guess he was already well on the way to becoming famous. I only mention him because, when he was in Dublin to begin shooting My Left Foot, he saw a few plays on the main stages - The Abbey and The Gate, for example - before coming (with Jim Sheridan) to see a show I'd directed at a small independent theatre. Afterwards, he said, "I'm glad to see that someone in Ireland is doing good theatre."

Liam Neeson, Sinéad O'Connor, Gabriel Byrne, Brenda Fricker, Brendan Gleeson, Ronan Keating, Brian O'Byrne, and just about any other Irish actor or musician that was working as of ten years ago - People you'd meet in pubs or at openings as part of the general arts milieu in Dublin. Bono, Van Morrison, Milo O'Shea, and Gabriel Byrne were already pretty famous by the time I met them.

A few of my acquaintances have had some limited success in the UK, but I doubt many of you would have heard of them on your side of the pond; the most famous one is now a presenter/reporter on ITV's regional news in the west of England.

However, I was at school with Grant Nicholas, who was a guitarist and singer in bands at school (to my knowledge) from at least the age of 11.

It took him until his 30s to break into the charts with his band Feeder, but they've been doing very well in a rock-ish pop sort of a way, despite the suicide of Grant's long-time friend and the band's drummer.

=====

Also, I once met Sally Phillips at a party. She was the girlfriend of the flat-mate (and sometime friend of mine, at least we got on well when we would meet up) named Spencer (who was and is a moderately successful television writer) of another guy I was at school with (who I was good friends with at the time, but have lost touch with a little since he had kids).

She's now a reasonably successful comic actress, probably most famous in the USA (if at all) for playing the part of Bridget Jones' friend "Shazza" (the one who curses and swears an inordinate amount).

When I met her, in 1993 or 94, she hadn't yet had much acting work, and was one of the shyest women I have ever met. She practically hid behind Spencer when anyone else tried to talk to her. They have long since split up (at least her IMDB entry says she's been married to a guy called Andrew since 2003).

=====

I once sat next to Jim Broadbent, who has just won a Golden Globe for acting in the tv play Longford. But he was already famous and, being British, I didn't say anything to him. In part out of shyness, in part out of respect, but mainly because I didn't want to be seen to defer to anyone in a neutral public place (I think the reason Brits don't talk to each other on public transport is that opening a conversation there is somehow seen as a submissive thing to do. No idea why; it's probably somehow class-related.)

I sat next to Harold Pinter once. It was at a preview of The Room/Celebration at the Almeida back in 2000. I didn't know what he looked like before I went to the theatre, but his photo was the cover of the program. Next thing I know, this guy with a notepad sits next to me and everyone around me starts leaning forward to see him. I look at the program, look at him... and, there ya go. I had no idea what to say, but managed to say something incredibly stupid. After the first play was over, I said, "Mr. Pinter, this is the first time I've seen any of your work, and that was fantastic... that was your first play?" He replied, "Yes." To which I came back with, "Not bad for a first time." Genius!! Pure Genius!!

Needless to say, he didn't sit next to me for the next play.

I got to meet Victor Garber - Jack Bristow of "Alias", at a bar in Stratford, ON... we had a mutual acquaintance. He is sooooo not like his character... soooooooooo not like his character. A very sweet man.

one of my aunts taught shaun alexander when he lived in kentucky. so thats pretty cool.