Hey, I Just Bumped Into...

[PigSooie]

oh man, almost forgot, Dennis Hoff (ower of the Bunny Ranch), Heidi Fleiss and Ron Jeremy sitting at the table next to me at the Lux Cafe in Vegas. i had never been more star struck.

 

That's priceless.

[Sir Stewart]

There's video of us in the car with Ricky and Mark. I was eighteen and obsessed. If you ever saw that, you would know the true definition of lame.

[EL the Famous]

 

That's priceless.

 

fuck, throw in almost getting run over by gene simmons on his way into the Venetian SAME NIGHT as I was on my way out. he had a bunch of cameras on him for what i'm assuming was that reality show. i would have stopped and said hello otherwise. c'mon, gene fucking simmons!

 

i'm usually there for CES, but those porn awards the same week bring out some interesting folks.

[Sir Stewart]

I sat at a poolside table next to Johnny Knoxville and the bald gay guy from Sex & the City at the Standard in Hollywood.

[Mr. Kinsley]

It was - several years ago.

 

What's the statute of limitations on starting a new thread?

 

My other top sightings:

 

Sat at a table next to Tom Hanks and family while they were having dinner with the Spielbergs. We went to that restaurant because we had a coupon, so you know it wasn't too shi-shi. (How do you spell shi-shi?)

 

Almost bowled over Elvis Costello outside of an Eddie Izzard show. We were both coming around a corner at a pretty good clip and I barely got out of the way. (He's not a big guy and I'm 6'2". I'd hate to have been the reason for Elvis' funny-looking nose.) When we got inside he was sitting across the aisle and one row up. A moment later in walks Brad Pitt and Jennifer Annistion (yeah, a few years ago) and they sit directly behind him. They all introduce themselves to each other and exchange pleasantries, and after Elvis turns around and they're seated I could see them mouth to each other, "Oh my God! Elvis Costello!"*

 

I thought it was really cool that famous people get star struck too.

 

 

 

 

*Yes, I know. If they were mouthing it they couldn't be yelling and exclamation points aren't necessary. But if he hadn't been there, they would have totally been yelling.

[Lammycat]

In the late 80s/early 90s my squeeze at the time and I decided to rent a room a nice hotel in Roanoke (we lived in Salem 5 min. away) just for the hell of it. About an hour after checking in we couldn't help but noticed a shit-load of young girls squealing and shrieking below our window. turns out the New Kids on the Block were staying there and we could see them out the window almost the same floor as us dropping shit out the window to the throng below.

 

We had a nice dinner and then went back to the room and got cocked. Around one in the morning we decided to search for food. When the elevator got to the bottom floor and we exited we walked directly into a cordoned off path that the NKOTB were walking down to get onto their bus out of the joint.

 

It was a very long hallway and I was blasted so I started rapping with them, putting my arm around them , telling them they were awesome and bigger than Jesus, and all that jive. I had very long hair at the time and was totally boozed up but no one stopped me. In fact, I almost walked right onto the bus with them and left the chick there just for the hell of it.

 

Weak story but a hazy memory.

 

Those guys were awesome.

 

 

That reminds me - I banged Brad Pitt once.

pshaw, you and what army?

[embiggen]

my husband was George Thorogood's assistant on one of his tours a few Summers ago. I was backstage at one of the shows and George comes walking in wearing some shorts that looked like the kind my husband wears (George always wore long pants). my husband probably gave them to him. I said to George, "I recognize those shorts!" he said, "I'll steal the pants off any man!"

[jimmyjimmy]

But she was beautiful. I mean, virtually perfect. With no make-up, at the gym on a Sunday am. Like an angel from above.

I would expect no less.

You . Lucky. Bastard.

*swoon*

 

Jesse Jackson was on our plane from San Fran to Chicago on our trip back east earlier this summer. He was wearing jammies.

The man appreciates comfortable attire.

[Sir Stewart]

I made eye contact with Fiona Apple at a Beck show in LA as we passed each other on the stairs. Yes, eye contact, with these.

[Beltmann]

Last fall I was at the Milwaukee International Film Festival, and between screenings I was hanging out in the lobby of the Oriental Theater with another festival hopper. Suddenly she said, "Hey, it's the Maestro!"

 

Sure enough, Mark Metcalf, who played the Maestro on Seinfeld, was ambling through the lobby. I turned to my acquaintance and said, "And he's with Harold Ramis."

 

Ramis was in town to introduce a screening of Groundhog Day, part of the festival's tribute to his career. As he neared, I said hello, and as luck would have it, his festival guide asked him to wait right there while the upstairs conference readied for him. This meant that my acquaintance and I had ten minutes alone with Ramis in the lobby of the Oriental.

 

We talked briefly about books and what it takes to be a filmmaker, and he seemed genuinely friendly and responsive to what I had to say. He was particularly interested in which books I teach in American Literature, perhaps because his own son was 16 and was reading similar titles.

 

Eventually he was asked to head upstairs, and as we shook hands I said, like a lame-o, "Thanks for Ghostbusters!"

 

* * *

 

Back in college I spent a semester interning for the ABC-affiliate in Green Bay, in the marketing department. The Mike Holmgren Show was filmed at the station, and we were constantly creating PSAs and other stuff involving the Packers. I was able to meet countless players and personnel. A few highlights: Trading shaving tips with William Henderson, getting invited to hang out at Sean Jones' house, shooting a commercial starring a dozen Packer Wives.

 

At the time, former Packers linebacker Brian Noble was in the station's sports department. I remember many conversations with him, including one where he reminisced about how awful Packers quarterback Randy Wright was, especially during the '86 season. Noble confessed he had been watching old game tapes--the station had everything archived in this messy dungeon--and he said, "Man, we knew Wright sucked, but I didn't know he sucked that bad!"

[quarter23cd]

Umm. Well, most of my sports-celebrity run-ins aren't terribly impressive b/c they happened in college where its not too surprising to run into them: Eddie George, Joey Galloway, Orlando Pace, Terry Glenn, etc. Most of those I think were in classrooms (which, in itself, might be surprising to some)...nothing more exciting to tell than Galloway asking to borrow my roommate's notes in Psych class.

 

Um, I think I stood in line at Starbucks once behind the dreadlocked violin-dude from the Dave Mathhews Band.

 

Saw Jimmy Buffett at a restaurant in Annapolis, MD.

 

There might be more, but I can't think of them right now.

[Sir Stewart]

Eventually he was asked to head upstairs, and as we shook hands I said, like a lame-o, "Thanks for Ghostbusters!"

Ahh, but that's the stuff that really matters! You had to say that!

I said "Thanks for Paul's Boutique" to Mike D once, because I had to, even though it felt very lame.

[caliber66]

The man appreciates comfortable attire.

#1 It was a redeye and he was in First Class, so he had some room to spread out and get some zz's.

#2 There were not Yodas n shit on em.

[lamradio]

A few years ago when I was playing with a band in LA, I worked in the shoe department at Macy's in Sherman Oaks.. Jennifer Love Hewitt walked in and I helped her pick out some shoes.

 

Also had a beer with Ed Oneal and stood in the grocery line with Andy Dick.. Also hungout at Mark Hamills house.. His son was best friends with our drummer. It's just part of living in LA. You see famous people all the time.

[Sir Stewart]

#1 It was a redeye and he was in First Class, so he had some room to spread out and get some zz's.#2 There were not Yodas n shit on em.

Paisley?

[mchchef1]

I once butchered a pig with a bread knife

[Buford T. Justice]

I almost bumped into Oprah as she was exiting the residences at Watertower Place. She glared at me.

 

I used to play golf with the lead singer of 311 when I was a kid.

 

I took a pee in a bar next to Joey Browner, former Safety from the Minnesota Vikings - the day he got cut from the Vikings - he was drinking his sorrows away. Asked for an autograph and was denied.

 

Saw John Travolta eating at the table next to me in a hotel in Hawaii a year ago. He had a fair amount of security and I didn't want to incur the wrath of L. Ron Hubbard, so I didn't bother approaching him.

 

Had dinner at the table next to former Cubs catcher Michael Barrett last May - they were playing the Sox the next day (Sunday) and everbody at his table was getting very drunk. And loud. And annoying.

 

I met Al McGuire, former basketball coach of Marquette and CBS college basketball analyst - when I was a kid, my dad sat next to him on a flight and offered to drive him to his hotel to save on cab fare. He was a really nice guy.

 

Had beers with former Bull Eric Piatkowski when he played at Nebraska. Had several beers with former Cub Mark Grace - he used to hand out at Murphy's after Cub games - and usually left with the two best looking women in the bar.

 

Have met several reality show stars - two of whom live in my building and one of whom was a roommate in college. But I don't think those really count.

 

Wow. My claims to fame are pretty damn thin . . .

[caliber66]

Paisley?

I believe they were solid-color silk.

[ikol]

When I was probably about 5 and lived in Florida, I shook hands with Joe Piscapo in church.

 

When I was in Italy 3 years ago, I saw Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla in Pompeii. I noticed some guy wearing an "Oprah for President" t-shirt, thought "what an idiot" and didn't even notice who it was. Then someone else in the group pointed them out, and it turns out it was Kimmel wearing the shirt.

[SarahC]

I was working that the aquarium one Sunday and Bobby Bare Jr. had played a show here that friday and he and his family came thru. I made them all laugh with the pooping parrot fish prop.

 

talked to Tori Amos on the phone once because she was talking to Rhett when he called me.

 

Passed Nels Cline on the street in Asheville and I didn't know it was him til after the show that night.

 

Apparently George Clooney and Rene Zellwigger came thru the aquarium back in the spring...

[Atticus]

Only ones I can think of are

 

when Kate Moss was being photographed by the Spanish steps while I was there waiting on some friends

 

the time I got to sing "London Homesick Blues" with Gary P. Nunn

 

the time I talked on the phone with GW Bailey (old childhood friend of my dad's)

 

the time I got Roger Clemens' autograph for my wife while partying at the Houston bar b q cookoff

 

oh, and the time Mike Modano and I were both waiting for take out at P.F. Chang's

 

now that I think of it, I'm not sure why I posted at all

[benjamin]

Not many here....

1) Jim Breuer. I was comedy chair of program board in college. Picked him up from the airport and drove him back.

2) Chris Webber. His brothers played at Central Michigan University when I was there. I got the opportunity to talk to C-web

3) I was at a hole-in-the-wall bar in Newport a couple months ago and Mark McGrath was apparently standing behind me for an hour and I had no clue. More importantly, I did not care. I thought about what I would say to him if conversation arose. The only positive thing I could think of was, "damn, you were awesome at music jeopardy."

4) Andy McDonald of the Anaheim Ducks. Met him in my office.

[Sir Stewart]

a hole...Mark McGrath

[benjamin]

when Kate Moss was being photographed by the Spanish steps while I was there waiting on some friends

 

My sister plays in a couple different bands in Detroit. Mostly underground shit. Kate Moss unexpectedly did a photo shoot in the middle of one my sis' shows in a basement.

[Whitty]

Easily my most bizarre encounter happened in Baltimore a few years ago when Matthew Lesko let me merge in front of him as we were leaving an Orioles game. He was driving a question-mark festooned Volvo. I shit thee not.

 

 

 

 

Edit to add: I was on Jeopardy in 2002, so I met Trebek of course. Remarkably tan and a genuinely bright guy from what I could tell.