Do you know anyone famous?

a friend of mine knows the teacher from ferris beuler. my dad went to high school with a guy who does the #1 radio show in town and still keeps in touch. my dad was good friends with maurice richard, the best hockey player ever. my dad also has many patients who are loaded who know celebrities and meets them that way, and sometimes i get to meet them too. i get tickets to so many events because of that too :)

AC: My apologies…but in April

Do you mean Nixon speech writer, Ben Stein?

Yup. A few actually; one huge star too. He’s a friend of a friend, and we see each other and hang a few times a year.

You want a name? His first name is the same as the most famous Renaissance artist.

I thought I saw him drown in the Atlantic.
gail- Oh well. Not my first and I’m certain it won’t be the last. By to be fair, my question is different. I’m talking about actually knowing somebody famous.

I mentioned it only to not have to repeat my fascinating story I told then.

I meant but to be fair. Not by.

Ricardo Antonio Chavira, Carlos from desprate housewives. His dad is a Friend of my dads and we meet once at a party thing he was really nice.

Astro, WHO did you have dinner with?

My parents worked in the theatre when I was growing up, so I met many famous people…Bing Crosby, Sonny & Cher, among others. The only one I’d say I knew was Robert Goulet (RIP). When I was about 4 years old, he and Bing Crosby were singing at Shady Grove Music Fair, and I was sitting in the front row, sucking my thumb. He stopped mid-song, stuck his thumb in his mouth and said (around the thumb) “How would you like it if I tried to sing like this?” I was mortified! As an adult, I didn’t really know him, but he kept in touch with my uncle, and always remembered my mom. I saw him for the last time when he played King Arthur in Camelot…a musical in which he originally played Lancelot at a much younger age.

I forgot, my mom went to high school with Goldie Hawn.

Chuck: I second stratman’s request…WHO?

My dinner companion

And how did this come about?

He’s a good friend of a cousin. He was with her when she came to town to see us. Interesting guy. Thought it best not to bring up his past. He’s always on the move.

A very good friend of mine is great friends with Jay Leno.

I answered the phone once and he said “may I speak with jim?” and I said “may I tell him who is calling?” and he said “jay leno” and I said “ok mr. leno”.

true story.

when I was little I used to live by Bart Star and get little chocolate footballs every halloween.

And I know Gailcalled.

@Bri L: I’m most impressed with your first hand knowledge of Gailcalled ;)

I think I saw the episode of City Confidential about Chuck’s dinner companion!

Anyway, to answer the question, the famous people I’ve met have all been authors.

I didn’t get to talk to China Miéville long enough to form an opinion beyond, “Hey, he’s pretty cute in person…”

I hate to speak ill of the dead, but Robert Jordan struck me as self-absorbed and snobby.

If you read Neil Gaiman‘s blog (which can be found here in case you don’t read it yet and would like to), you’ll be happy to know that he represents himself very well and is exactly the same in person. I spent about fifteen or twenty minutes talking to him at the 2004 WorldCon and it took all my strength to keep from turning into a squeeing mass of pathetic fanbrat. He was so humble and soft-spoken and funny. He really seems like such a fantastically nice guy.

The year before that, also at the WorldCon, Terry Pratchett gave me a very yummy peanut butter cookie. I didn’t get to talk to him for very long—it was after a book signing and I was helping clean up the area for the next panel—but anybody who gives me cookies and thanks me for helping out is a-okay in my book. I hadn’t read anything of his before that, except for his collaboration with Neil, but he was so nice to me that I went out and bought seven Discworld books which I ended up loving.

George R.R. Martin is one of the best people I’ve ever met. His partner, Paris McBride, is also a completely awesome example of humanity. I’m so glad that he became a writer and that someone steered me toward his books, or I never would have gotten the chance to meet him. If he never wrote another word I’d be pretty upset because his stuff rocks but I wouldn’t complain and I wouldn’t stop singing his praises. He’s so friendly and funny and snuggly. And he has good taste in booze. (He got me hooked on Bailey’s.)

I met both Gardner Dozois (former editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine) and Howard Waldrop through George. Neither meeting was long enough to get a really solid opinion. They both seemed nice and Gardner in particular made me laugh a bit.

Also, I’ve never met them in person, but I’ve corresponded one-on-one with both Anne Rice and Poppy Z. Brite. Both of them are jerks. But Poppy is a jerk in an oddly endearing way. Anne Rice is just… a jerk.

@MacBean-Besides a few television shows about my dinner pal there’s a pretty good made-for-tv movie about him as well.

My ex-husband grew up and was good friends with this man. He visited our home several times when we were newly married, but they lost touch before he went on his murderous rampage. When we heard about it, we were stunned.

@Mac: I’ve seen Anne Rice on tv, and from the way she dresses and talks, I always had a sneaking suspicion she’d be a jerk. She just seemed to take herself wayyy too seriously…thanks for the confirmation!

Depends on scale of fame. If we’re talking international stardom, I’ve met some, but wouldn’t say I know them or count them as friends. If we’re talking more local fame, then yea, loads! I know people in government, various positions of power, singers, musicians, actors, writers, painters…....

I’m friends with someone who was famous as far as soaps concern… and because of him I’ve hung out with Anna Paquin (she’s a jerk) and Liev Schrieber’s brother Pablo… but other than that I’m only one degree away from lots of huge celebrities that I’ll probably never get to meet.

I know Clint Barmes of the Colorado Rockies. We’re from the same home town, and I was one of his teachers I high school. My son was so impressed when I first introduced them.

Celebrity friends? No. But I had lunch at a table next to Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson and once Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell tried to buy my husband’s 1951 pick-up truck.

These two are people I used to know. The three of us have at least one thing in common. Care to guess what?

her

and

him

MacBean, I am insanely jealous. Neil Gaimon and Terry Pratchett? Now that’s just not fair!

I know a fair few people who are at the Olympics right now, in the Australian rowing team.
These guys I’ve had great chats to- very inspirational: Drew Ginn, Sam Beltz, Anthony Edwards, Kate Hornsey, Scott Brennan. And I actually know know Tom Gibson because, well, he taught me to row.

@ Sueanne T – I have no idea. what?

Scientology?

@Sueanne, vegetarianism?

When I lived in NYC from 1965 to 1972, I hung out with Brendan Gill, the then-movie reviewer and subsequent drama reviewer for the New Yorker.

He took me to private screening of movies (i.e., THE GRADUATE) before release, openings of plays (Moliére’s The Misanthrope translated by Richard Wilbur) with two-on -the-aisle seats for the critics, lectures (Leon Edel on Henry James), parties (one at George Plimpton’s, one at Norman Mailer’s) and introduced me to many of the city’s literati.

He was an intellectual omnivore and funny and self-deprecating. He also introduced me to some eligible men. Heady stuff until I realized that the rich and famous are still people like us..I got my addictive love of language partly from his reviews and columns. I had been reading them since I was 16, and to finally meet and become friends with this guy was thrilling and reassuring. He taught me that, to my surprise, I could hold my own anywhere. A useful lesson.

@shrubbery—I KNOW. haha I always tell people I’m glad I met the two of them at different Cons. I think my head may have exploded with fannish glee if I’d met both on the same weekend.

I met Sorya Bonali, the french figure skater. She used to skate at the rink where my daughter skated. Sorya had a knee injury and so had come back to our rink while she recuperated. I got to know her over a week or so. Very nice lady, very quiet. The poor woman couldn’t even go to the bathroom without having the kids who practiced there stalking her. I can’t tell you how many times I had to boot them out to give her some peace!!

@Gail – I agree with you about the rich and famous being just like us. My mother, who was a nurse, had this to say about that:

“It doesn’t matter whether people are rich or poor, famous or not. They’re all the same when they’re sitting on a bed pan!!!”

@MacBean – I’m so jealous of you meeting those authors, although I’d be even more jealous if you said you’d met my favourite author, Raymond E. Feist.

@gail – what a marvolous lesson. Thank you for sharing it!

I’ve met a few. I found that they are just like us, though usually with fuller schedules and sometimes an inflated sense of self-importance.
Author Mark Leyner is funny, nice, and normal. George W. Bush has a firm handshake, and a very soft palm. AZ Gov. Janet Napolitano is very personable. Molly Ringwald…was not nice. Ben Stein…is.
There are more, but listing them gets boring, and most of them were met in the course of work, and only a few on my personal recognizance.
I’d rather meet all of YOU celebrities, any day.

I know somebody that once everything is said and done, every knee shall bow willingly or not and declare that he’s the Lord and Savior. Right now mankind got an option to do that from their own choosing free will( heart ) to love him or not.

There’s always one…..(or seven?)

@wild: HA

face-desk.

I knew Clement Greenberg. Have any of you ever heard of him? I thought not.
I didn’t sleep with him, Jules Olitski, or Kenneth Noland, but my friend Jay the art groupie did. I did sleep with Larry Poons once, but I was drunk and sleep-deprived and didn’t enjoy it so it doesn’t count. After that I started avoiding famous people. But wait!! When
I was 15 my grandmother took me to the opera and during the intermission someone
introduced me to Rock Hudson. He had a nice kind smile and very large pores.

@knotmyday-what a list. And I nominate you for coolest ending!

Guys, holy fucking shit! I think Tinyfaery means Leonardo.

For serious?

He’s not by best friend or anything. He grew up with someone I am fairly close with, and we see each other a few times a year, usually during birthday time (his friend and I have birthdays that are very close). I wish I had only positive things to say, but I don’t.

@tinyfaery- wow. I am now three degrees of separation from kate winslet!!!

Hamada hamada

Very cool :)

Tiny wins, at least for “Most Famous”!

Tiny, you mean he didn’t really drown?

@AC No, but he really is retarded.

Another contenter is Michaelangelo, Tiny.

“Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni[1] (March 6, 1475 – February 18, 1564), .... was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer. Despite making few forays beyond the arts, his versatility in the disciplines he took up was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with his rival and fellow Italian Leonardo da Vinci.”

From Wikipedia.com

Wow! If that’s the celebrity then tinyfaery must be old!

This Michaelangelo lives and…well, listen for yourself.

@Gail – Wowsers, that guy is amazing. I’ve never heard of him before, but I think I’m in serious danger of becoming a fan!!!

My “godfather” is a very famous singer, but that’s all I’m saying.

Ooooh, very tantalizing information there breedmitch. I feel the need to get to the bottom of this!!!

@mitch; You know Johnny Fontane?

I put it in quotes because we’re not catholic. Dad just asked him to look after my sister and me if anything were to happen to our parents. And that’s all I’m saying.

My mom is friends with John Kerry’s sister.