Why is there no ILX celebrity sighting thread?

Oliver Platt attending a Broadway matinee of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? I only see schlubby character actors in audiences. Somehow resisted the temptation to bark some lines from Bulworth at him.

Lisa Loeb (not performing, just checking out effect pedals) at the Van Nuys Guitar Pedal Expo.

Was just at James Franco's "Birdshit" show at PS1.

thought i saw brendan fraser walking in burbank and carrying a 40 and a bag of chipotle, but i'm not sure -- l.a. is full of people who look like other people.

talked to Stephen Moyer yesterday at work for twenty minutes. Didn't know who he was but figured he was probably an actor, and was clued in later that it was "Vampire Bill" from True Blood that had stopped by,

Almost 100% sure I saw James O'Keefe standing on the corner of 16th and K.

Saw Tricky on the way home from work today, hunched over his phone outside a cafe on Pentonville Rd.

Bill Bailey drinking a pint outside a pub in Kendal.

#fml

I see the guy who played Ashley Peacock in Coronation Street in my local supermarket sometimes. I also sat next to him on a train journey once.

Whenever I see him there are always people nudging each other and whispering as he walks past. I remember one time where this guy shouted 'Ash-LEH, I say Ash-LEH' at him after he had disappeared round a corner. I think that must be the worst level of fame in some ways- famous enough that everyone recognises you and you have dicks shouting catchphrases at you, but not famous enough that you can live in a bubble and don't have to schlep around ASDA on a Saturday afternoon buying groceries.

Last month I stood next to Steve Coogan at a bar in Edinburgh. We were pretending not to know who he was, then someone else spotted him and he was suddenly surrounded by fangirls and fanboys all wanting photos and autographs. We left, and then found ourselves standing next to Angus Deayton, who attracted no attention whatsoever.

I forgot to mention last year that we saw Paris Hilton in the MGM Grand in Vegas, sat next to Minnie Driver on a flight from Vegas to LA, and saw Rob Kardashian on Rodeo Drive. I feel we did LA properly with an actual live Kardashian sighting (though we had no idea who he was, were alerted by a gaggle of screaming Australian teenagers).

Not a 'sighting', and barely a celebrity, but M1ch@el Byw@ter phoned me to complain about his phone bill recently.

He phoned the call centre where I work, I guess it would more accurate to say.

a friend of mine has a hilarious photo of himself with zinedine zidane when bumped into him in a corridor at a youth football tournament over the summer, he told zidane that he looked in good shape and should still be playing

living in an area of london with a fair few crap british media type people of moderate reknown i am used to 'celebrities' but i have no idea how i would react to being in the presence of someone like zidane

Other sort of famous people I have spoken to at work: a former minister in the Blair government and a Big Brother 8 contestant.xp

That's two separate people, btw

then again i met kevin shields at a tiny media 'rock' show a few years ago and avoided uttering any fanboy platitudes despite mbv being my ~favourite band~ at the time
i suppose u could say he was the zidane of shoegazing, compared to mark gardener's tim sherwood

What's Kevin Shields like irl

completely unprepossessing and drably dressed as u would expect, i don't think he was 'with' anyone although he spoke to a few people inc the person i was with who had some tangential connection to creation back in the day and exchanged a few polite words, bashful and slightly avoidant demeanour but i think he broke a hint of a smile at something

no chinchillas on his person

Kevin Shields is an unassuming, nice guy who I've met a few times because another member of MBV used to be my neighbour and flatmate of a good friend, so he'd come to good friend's birthday drinks etc. He once went off on one to me about some conspiracy to put silica in weed, thus slowly killing all of London's pot smokers, which is the kind of thing the uh oversmoked tend to come up with, while chatting.

how 'far out' do u think he got in the 1990s? i imagine it was just that sort of skunk paranoia but trusty rock history maven alan mcgee likes to pretend that he was in sly stone / brian wilson type territory

Not as far-out as one would think, given the hype. But McGee is now the bonkers one, so...

Ray Dalton on Grafton St.

Jim Sheridan rang me at work to give out about the property tax, and rightly so

Xpost Kevin, many smoking pieces are made of glass. Silica has a high melting temperature. Smoke without worries.

how many cats does KS own

a friend of mine has a hilarious photo of himself with zinedine zidane when bumped into him in a corridor at a youth football tournament over the summer,

headfirst i s'pose

Mentioned on the Real England thread, but I was on a train with Nigel Farage the other day. He was reading a Thatcher biography.

I saw Jimmy Tarbuck on a train travelling between Liverpool and Manchester once. He was standing up telling jokes and answering questions from other passengers. I thought he had a film crew or something with him at first, but he seemed to be on his own.

Jimmy Tarbuck's wikipedia entry seems bizarrely short:

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

Gyles Brandreth is currently filming something in the building I work in and I'm finding it inexplicably hilarious

xpost still crams in his "schoolmate of John Lennon" thing.

i was in nantucket a couple weeks ago with my wife's folks, and i was reminded of a trip there a few years ago (2007, maybe?) when my wife and i had breakfast next to christopher hitchens. he looked sooooooo hungover and probably said two words while his breakfast partner did all the talking. i wasn't totally certain it was him but felt somewhat confident it was. later that day we were watching tv and hitchens was doing an interview in nantucket, so it was confirmed.

m emmet walsh in a Cosby sweater

two from Boston the other week:

getting a pile of comics & zines rung up late on a Thursday in Million Year Picnic, I become aware that the dude punching my purchases into a calculator is Jun0t D1az. I wrestle with the dilemma of whether it would be gauche to say "btw, I like your New Yorker stories." I figure if he's just filling in for someone, it would be fun for him, but if he helps out every Thursday night, then he's not in that mode. (I say nothing.)

Two days later, while DJP has gone for a pre-PSB pee, two gentlemen step into the vacant space between myself and the good Mrs P. "Sorry, but someone's standing there, he's just gone to the loo," I murmur, and they politely move to the left.

A little later, it occurs to me that the older of the two possibly looks familiar. Dan shrugs when I ask, so I just go and interrupt again, and it turns out that he is indeed Chr1s Ew3n of Futur3 Bibl3 H3roes. We chat briefly about how their 'reunion' tour kept missing me in the States three months earlier, that he loves Sydney and wants to come down, etc.

Whoa.

You got to meet DJP?

Saw Matthieu Amalric (sp?) twice on Place de la Republique (Paris) this month.

Whoa.

You got to meet DJP?

Was behind Reginald Ballard, "Bruh Man" on the TV show Martin today at the supermarket. Didn't realize it was him until the bagger said so after he left. I used to watch the show and loved his appearances.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0050659/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_i9

Josie Long @ performance of Shostakovich's 13th Symphony on the Southbank... though I don't know if she's famous anymore (anymore LOL) or if she's even still working

Ken Loach. On Euston Road, running for a bus. No limos for Brother Ken.

My wife saw Tony Iommi at an airport in Mexico recently. She freaked out and he grinned and waved at her before making good his escape on a golf cart.

Jonathan Franzen at the premiere of the Mekons documentary (it was easy to recognize him, cuz he's in it).

I'd have never recognize Ken Loach

Hey Morbius, are you AP Mike from The Best Show on WFMU? (He tweeted last night about seeing Franzen at the doc last nite)

no

Jonah Lehrer (is his celebrity status still valid?) at the Magritte exhibition at MOMA.

Fred Armisen & J. Mascis at second MBV gig in NYC.

Lisa Loeb (not performing, just checking out effect pedals) at the Van Nuys Guitar Pedal Expo.

awww

Michael Shannon shopping at indie Brooklyn bookstore, in cool all-red New Balances

synchronicity, I am watching that shitshow Zack Snyder Superman movie

I don't know if she's really a celebrity but Julianna Hatfield walked with her dog across the front of my car this morning when I was stopped at a cross-walk.