Accidental Encounters With The Rich and Famous?

I have met quite a few, the most annoying was Damon Albarn which is probably why I'm obsessed with him, I love to be annoyed. Howard Stern asked me out once, which was odd because I'm not his type (and he's certainly not mine). Regis lives on my street, he jogs by all the time. My cousin dated Madonna's brother, which is as close as I'll get to an actual encounter with that bitch. My cousin also dated the guy from The Pretender, but really, I have no interest in meeting him so it doesn't bother me. I once had a big long chat with James King, who is the model who used to date Kid Rock, on the subway. I've seen people from Big Brother at Barnes & Noble. Timbaland and Mandy from Temptation Island stay in the hotel next to my workplace quite often, we see them a lot. Damon Wayans was staying there the other day and was flirting with us.

I know this is sad, but who? And what were they doing there?

I look down at the credit card receipt, signed "B. Fonda."

A Simple Plan, which turned out to be a fine Coen-esque effort from Sam Raimi, was filming nearby, and tiny Bridget was in it. Now, whenever I see B. getting shagged by Bobby D in Jackie Brown, I think, "I've been within five feet of her." So awesome.

Also, I met Wayne Coyne after a show. Such a nice drug casualty he is.

Erm... seriously. I don't want to meet any more pop stars, they're invariably horribly disappointing in real life. However, the people I'd *REALLY* like to meet are Mick and Phil and Carenza from Time Team. Now them, I would be seriously impressed by. About a year and a half ago, I was wandering up the road, and found a Time Team jeep parked on the corner of the high street. I seriously considered camping out and waiting to see who came back to it, in case they were digging up roman ruins on Finchley Road or something.

It was Cassandra one night, then I saw that Britney girl which really annoyed me. What is she doing here, I thought she lived in like the midwest? Grrr, I read she did some MTV screen test thing so maybe that's why.

I still don't know what Brittany was doing there, it's hard to imagine her actually reading anything. I think I read about her in Allure, she wants to be an actress and lives in LA. Oh yeah, it's so gonna happen for her, Big Brother was so popular and well-loved.

Still less annoying than Jaime, though.

Also, a girl who graduated the year before me and whom I acted in a play with went on to Juilliard, then to play Tammi Littlenut on Comedy Central's "Strangers With Candy." Maria Thayer is her name. Last seen on the now cancelled Al Bundy vehicle "Big Apple" as the nurse.

Hm. That was a lot of nothing, wasn't it? But: y'know Freud's Famous Couch, that the Ratman and Dora etc all lay on. Well it was a BEANBAG with RUGS on. Totally. PLUS: the desk Sigmund actually sat at was completely COVERED in Gonks and Trolldolls and Pokemon. Like a schoolgirl's desk at exam time. OK, they were African Fetishes, same diff, but I mean COVERED. If he was sitting down he couldn't even have SEEN the Ratman. I think he just sat and read the paper, and said, "It was your mother's fault" whenever there was a pause in the sobbing.

There was another evening shortly after college when I found myself at the apartment of Rupert Murdoch's son, James. Or was he at my friend's apartment? The details of that evening are wildly hazy. I remember waking up on someone's floor thinking, "Hmm. Am I still in Massachsetts?"

If so, I met them both on the same day, Earl's Court, London, Friday 7th October 1988.

It's pathetic, I know :).

I always see people at my gym, the Hollywood YMCA. Tobey McGuire, Dermot Mulroney, James LeGros, that sort of actor. I hear Denzil Washington and George Clooney go there, but I've yet to spot them.

When I was a teenager Bono was passing in a limosine slowly on the main street, and he wound down the window and looked at me. I sneered at him and he looked crestfallen.

I saw Jarvis Cocker on bike yesterday. Thom Yorke and the Radioheads on a bus. Debbie Harry when seven waiting to do the Muppet Show in home town (England's Hollywood). Gave cheek to Harrison Ford as a ten year old (told him that Temple of Doom wasn't as good as Raiders - like he gave a fuck). But low rent celebrities. You can't beat Jacqui Brambles for that. And of course the entire cast of Real World London - cos I worked on that abomination of a TV show.

The only thing I'm really impressed by is running into random stars of indie music at the studio. Stereolab, Arab Strap, Luke Haines... it all gets a bit disconserting after a while. At our last rehearsal, we went upstairs to the lounge to pay, and there were these two good- looking women sitting talking on the couch. We carried on skylarking with the C6 lads as we usually do, noticing that the C6 boys were being a bit... subdued and very professional, which is rather unusual of them. Then we realised the two women chatting in French on the couch were actually *Stereolab*. I felt really stupid after that.

This doesn't affect how I view him as an artist- in fact, maybe it makes him a better artist, because he is such an emotionally stunted freak, and emotionally stunted freaks often write more interesting and honest accounts of their own emotionally stunted freakdom.

You poor dear! That was what put me off the Real World, it was just so terrible. Anyone who had to be around them for more than 10 minutes has my deepest sympathies.

My cousin went out with the girl in the Flake advert with the gypsy caravan. And my other cousin allegedly had a date with Scott Baio (my uncle and aunt had a house in America, see) but this may be False Sleb Memory Syndrome.

Oh, and Clare Short stole my taxi.

As a rule of thumb, I almost never fancy singers- I almost invariably fancy bassists or guitarists. Unless the singer is a total weirdofreak like Bobby G or Thom Y. But those sole exceptions prove the rule!

Probably not, Scott Baio is known for dating 45% of North America. Charles in Charge would put me off though.

Now I've scraped that barrel.

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I am, an all seriousness, very jealous. I've supported Inner City Unit, and the late Robert Calvert. I figured this was too obscure for "rich & famous", tho'

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My ex-coworker Eric said he was friends with Leonard Cohen (his - Eric's - dad studied with him at McGill and apparently he's a pretty big presence in Cohen's bio) and knew Melissa Auf Der Maur of Hole, 'cause they had the same guitar teacher.

Charles Barkley almost ran me over with a car once. He cursed at me and then I cursed at him and then I realised he was Charles Barkley and was like, "Oh, you're Charles Barkley?" and he's all "Hell yeah" and then I just kept walking.

We also represented Jackie "the Jokeman" Martling, and my encounter with him was accidental -- I was coming back from lunch, glanced into the conference room and Jackie the Jokeman was sitting there.

Uuuuhhh... my most bizarre celebrity encounter was running into Dougie out of Travis at a Life Without Buildings show in Camden. When I ran over like a little fangirl to say hi, he actually *knew* who my band was and started raving about how much he enjoyed our song "Hello, Dougie" (the infamous girlpunk cover of "Why Does It Always Rain On Me") *THAT* was a mindfuck I could not get my head around.

OK, now *that* was serious namedropping. 40 lashes with a wet Thom Yorke.

From the bus today, I saw Mark Perry. He was walking towards the Elephant looking most peeved. He (I am guessing) is neither rich nor famous but he is MARK PERRY! It was all I could do to stop myself shouting "Life's about as wonderful as a record mart!" or "It's a sker-eww up!" at him. But I managed.

It was the most exciting thing to happen to my old primary school since the war. Even more so than when Maxi Priest turned up in 1992.

What's funny about him is he appeared on Saturday Night Live and there was this sketch where he had written a tell-all book criticizing a bunch of political people and the names were all changed to protect anonymity. For instance, Bob Dole became "Dob Bole" and Steve Forbes became Teve Torbes. It was so funny! He kept making Teve Torbes out to be this verile cool guy when in real life Steve Forbes really looks and talks like a dweeby geek.

So when I saw him the first thing I thought was "Teve Torbes!" I didn't say anything, but he looked at me like he was excited that I was recognizing him, maybe.

After a few minutes of contemplation, Mark and Elinor thought better of it, and headed off. He did pause to admire a Mk 1 Honda Civic that was parked opposite though...

My mom, ticket agent at LaGuardia airport, had High-Pitched Eric as her baggage handler for a year or so. She has met way more exciting people than myself; she once had Mugsy Bogues call my brother and wake him up for school, asked Eric Clapton if she could play with his gameboy (declined).

Busta Rhymes almost hit me with his gigantic car outside of my house. I couldn't figure out why he looked familiar and concluded I must have gone to high school with him (incorrect).

When I lived in Salford, I saw him coming out of a bookies on the Lower Broughton Road a few times, always looking fairly glum, though I guess that's no firm indication of whether he'd lost a bet or not.

Incidentally, the train that I met him on ended up being a non-stop train to the wrong destination, so I had to ride the trains for an extra three hours.

Early summer last year, We all went up to Belsay Hall. As we have English Heritage memberships, we've done a fair amount of going round old houses/mansions, big paintings on the walls, racks of books in bookcases, furniture behind thick decorous ropes, you get the picture.

This was different, as instead they had invited all the top fashion designers to install an art piece in one room each. Zandra Rhodes, Alexander McQueen, Stella Mac, Viv West, nearly everyone you could think of created 'art spaces'. On entering one of the halls, Amber and Alice had spotted a sheepdog, not much older than a pup, tied to a rail. They made a fuss of each other, the dog called "Red" eager to please, doing the 'sit' 15 times a minute.

Anyway, at one of the smaller halls was one of the bigger rooms, with an exhibit of a horse, made by hanging curtains of scharovski crystals (with sponsorship signs dotted around), and quite spectacular with the one shaft of light from an uptop open window. Dawn nudges me and says "Isn't that Stella McCartney over there?" and it was. Now, we'd bought the souvenir postcard pack, and Dawn wondered about getting the horse card signed. I suggested that actually, as it's obviously a low key visit, and most people had either not noticed or were too shy, probably best not to. (I'd seen how the three from New Order that arent Barney went from being casually noticed at a J&MC gig to getting swamped after one person was braveenough to ask).

Anyhow, a little later, we were entering one room as Stella was leaving another, so Dawn 'whispered' "I love your horse by the way". "Oh, thanks!" smiled Stel, and hugged her quickly. Afterwards, Dawn asked me "Was that OK?" "Yeah, of course!"

Anyhow, further/later, I'd gone to the main gate to get a poster of the exhibition, but they'd run out. On walking down the hill, Alice says "Oh look, there's Red again", chasing a ball. Thats when I saw that Dawn, Stella and Amber were full in conversation while playing with the dog. We stayed chatting for about 10 mins/1/4 hour about all sorts. What struck me was how Stella and Dawn were quite similar in a lot of ways, both being the same age. She was very complimentary about Amber's hair, remarking that her sister was dark haired although she was red herself, a bit like Amber and Alice.

I heared her say something about how difficult it was getting a good photo of the horse, so I said, "Oh , I took one, let me check" getting my camera out. (I never really thought about it..) but on checking, I said "Ah, no it's not that good" and put the camera away. I think she wondered if I was trying to get a 'quick photo' but actually, the thought hadn't even crossed my mind, and in any case I wouldn't have anyway.

Amber was quite keen to throw the ball for the dog, so Stella showed her how to bat the ball a distance using the tennis racket she had. But, Amber is a girlie and cannot hit a ball ten paces, so Stella tried to show her how by standing in front and throwing the ball to her. There was a moment I thought Amber was going to hit her a glancing blow, but no. Although, it wasn't until much later that it occured to me that a black eye would probably have made the front pages (She'd only that day announced she was expecting).

Anyway, we said cheerio, and she went back to her Family picnic, and we went home.

I did wonder if she'd pick Amber as a name for her kid, and actually not wanting that! (It was a boy in the end).

So, more recently, she was in Heat mag with Gwinneth, and I pointed the pic to Amber saying "You remember Red the Dog, and the lady?" "Oh, she famous then?" so I told her about the fashion designing, and how she'd complimenter her hair, to which she felt quite proud of herself. Oh, and eventually, pointed out Paul in the film "Help" and said that was her dad.

The end.

that does not count

if james e l who started this thread accidentally encounters e l james who wrote 50 shades of grey i hope he will report it here.

If Michael JAckson's ghost even encounters the throbbing phallus of eternity I hope he learns his messon

This doesn't really count, i suppose, but I met a girl tonight who is totally Claire Danes' doppelganger. She's from LA too.

I once met Claire Danes' doppelganger's doppelganger.

(at a bowling alley in Detroit, no less)

i thought gabbneb's post was going to be more claims about his heigl-lohan girl.

Gosh I have met many famous people, I forget ...
The most recent.. My sister works backstage in a theatre, I went to the stage door to give her a lift home, I walk in and there is Gillian Taylforth. She smiles a hello, and I say, "Is amanda around?" (she points left and I go).

― mark g (mark g), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 13:36 (8 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Funnily enough, I got told about a year later, that after I left, G asks my sister "And who was that nice young man then?"

Wait, what was Claire Danes doing in a bowling alley in Detroit?

what do people do in bowling alleys?

They Bowl, Jasper my good friend...

otm

Wait, what was Claire Danes doing in a bowling alley in Detroit?

At the time (like 1997 i think), she was involved w/ indie-folk 90s dude Ben Lee, who had a gig that night at a club in the same building. I was w/ a friend killing time b/w bands at another gig in an adjunct club, and the four of us ended up in the same seating area, conjoined b/w two bowling lanes. She was nice, but didn't say a whole lot. Ben Lee was actually pretty supercool & funny, which I guess you'd have to be to look like he does and date Claire Danes for any length of time. All of us were indeed bowling, albeit poorly.

Wait, how do you have enough time between bands at a show for a whole game of bowling?

well, it's all in the same building - and you know, that was 1997. Folks had different priorities back then. If standing in a congested line to swap yr shoes back meant that you missed the first five minutes of the Ganger gig, well, we were prepared to live with the consequences of the choice that we made to bowl. And if in choosing to bowl, you end up bowling with Claire Danes, you might not even regret missing the first ten minutes of the Ganger show. That's only like half a song for them anyway.

Hahahaha, I would say fair enough, except I never got to see Ganger, so boo you. Bad priorities.

I met up with a high school/university friend last night who I've just gotten back in touch with after a couple of decades. He reminded me of something that I have no recollection of whatsoever (but he's very clear on this, and I have no reason whatsoever to question the accuracy): that as we left a screening of Apocalypse Now at Toronto's regal (and long-gone) University Theatre in '79 or '80, we passed Wilt Chamberlain leaving an adjacent bar or hotel.