OK, so here's a good one:
Tell me about you're biggest brush with fame! Was it meeting someone backstage after a broadway show? Running into Newman and Woodward at a performance? Working with someone on a show? Being a Motley Crue groupie? WHAT???
I'm betting Chuck and Rick both have some good stories to regale us with in this area...
Hit me with your best shot...
...and no, mine wasn't sleeping with Pat Benetar when I was a teenager...I wish!
290 points for the reference...it's pretty easy...
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Prince! Baby, I'm a Star! You might not know it now....from Purple Rain. HA! (Hope I have the title exactly right.)
My mom used to double date with Frank Sinatra.
I saw Patty Griffin on the subway in NYC two weeks ago.
Oingo Boingo????THey had groupies?
Baby, I'm a staaaaar!
Let's see, I saw Sinbad in the Denver Airport..does that count?
I shook Mel Torme's very dry and bright red little hand....
I was told I had a beautiful aura by Tori Amos..
I got all stumbly mouthed after I called G-Love (of G-Love and Special Sauce) by his first name Garrett and he said "Yes?" and I was like...blahblahblahblah.
And I got hit on by Dan Cortez of old MTV fame in an airport.
I am such a dork!!
Scritti Politti?
Kaja Goo Goo?
Does being in that porn flick count?
Never mind.
Here are my little brushes with semi-fame......
On an airplane, our college choir was traveling back from New York when we realized that Alex Trebek was in first class. A few friends and I walked up there and they asked if they could get his picture. He said yes and then pointed to me and said, "How about you take a few with her sitting with me?" Yes, I had to sit on Alex Trebek's lap while my friends shot pictures. I didn't even want one. Let's take PERVS for 1,000.
Secondly, I was chosen to be an extra in Elizabethtown. It was pretty cool. Had to sit around 15 hours before I did anything but when I got down to the set, it was neat. Went up to Orlando and talked to him about his dog (that he had on the set with him) about 3 minutes. Cute guy. Shorter than I thought. Also, Cameron Crowe also kissed my hand as we left when I told him thank you for the opportunity - since he does HAND PICK his extras. :)
Also, I think I'm linked to Kevin Bacon by a few steps. But, aren't we all?
Money,
YOU WIN!
FOGHAT??? AND Oingo Boingo???AGain???
And I, too, got to hobnob with a much shorter than anticipated Lou Diamond Phillips during that bisit. And DAMN- I forgot ALL ABOUT the BANJO MELTDOWN!!!! Rock and Roll!!!!
Addison and I watch Jeopardy together fairly regularly. Not once has my intended mentioned that Alex Trebek nuzzled her on a plane.
"The day is mine, Trebek!"
I have funny mixed feelings about "brushes with fame". They always seem quite anti-climactic to me. When I was about 12 or so, I saw Jerry Reed in a little local concert. After the show he was doing autographs. I got him to sign something but had no idea what to say. The fat lady in front of me was frothing at the mouth and saying, "Oh, Jerry, you're so great!" So, I just said (rather calmly), "Thanks, Jerry. You're great." It felt really... contrived.
I snuck backstage at the Palace in Louisville and met Ani DiFranco. I was more amazed at how easy it was for me to bullshit my way into the VIP area than anything.
And, I sat in a blues concert tent in Memphis with Susan Tedeschi. I had seen her play the night before and gotten an autograph (and given her a demo tape- the same demo I gave to Steve Cropper, Jimmie Vaughan and Alvin Youngblood Hart). She came walking in just before Jimmy D. Lane started playing and I had a seat staked out on the front row for my (ex-)wife (who never showed). So, I yelled out to her, she waved like she knew me, we sat there and looked at Polaroids from her recent tour in Europe and talked about Lane's gear.
The next year she was engaged to Derek Trucks and played on the big stage opening for the Allman's. I couldn't get anywhere near her.
Oh, one more. I interviewed Buzz Cason (who? writer of "Everlasting Love") a couple of weeks ago. And, shot the bull with Gatewood Galbraith. Hey, I take 'em as they come.
My brother was in Julie Bavasso's acting class in NYC with Oliver Platt for a long time. He always spoke well of him. NAd i got to be around him a little on the set of A TIME TO KILL- one of the only actors who looks tall onscreen that actually IS tall!
I once nearly tripped and fell on Jody Foster during the shooting of Little Man Tate.
Met Richard Biggs and Tom Savini at a convention once.
Hung out and talked espionage with David Morrell and got to meet and shake Stephen King's hand.
Mark Leonard did a show once at my school. I think i was the only person in that theater department who had actually seen him play Sarek on TV.
I was once married for an entire 48 hour period to Shannon Doherty.
Okay, i may have actually hallucinated that. But just in case i didn't...
Shannon. All is forgiven. Big poppa still loves you!
I forgot that when I was working for WLEX, I interviewd Jerry Jeff Walker, Riders in the Sky, Shawn Colvin, Joan Baez, Mark O'Connor, Hot Tuna, John Hartford, Alison Kraus, and a bunch of other musicians who played early Troubadour Concerts. I also met Katherine Hepburn when she just walked up to the Dallas Theatre Center and asked for a tour. Saw Greer Garson and Burgess Meredith there, too, and worked with Preston Jones, Mark Medoff, and other playwrights. Wow, I'm old.
I went to see Don Knotts and Tim Conway at the Biloxi Grande and they took one of my questions that turned into a mini-conversation about teacher's being inspirations.
I was on CNN's Talk Back Live with Arthel Neville as the host. Charlie Daniels was on via satellite. We talked about California's Ninth District banning the Pledge of Allegience in public schools.
I guess there was no job for YOU in his cabinet then, eh?
Let's see, brushes with fame...I can think of any number of people in my family who have had such experiences...My aunt went to high school with Billy Ray Cyrus and I believe was the last woman to date Keith Whitley before he met and married Lorrie Morgan. She also has an on-again/off-again relationship with the road manager for the Zombies and has gone to see him in a number of their tour stops recently.
My grandmother was a childhood friend of Naomi Judd's mother. My cousin Matt once disappeared in a hotel in Atlanta during an Elk's convention when he was about ten or so. The New York Mets were in town and happened to be staying in the same hotel. When My Aunt and Uncle finally found him, he was in the hotel bar shooting pool with Keith Hernandez, Darryl Strawberry and Doc Gooden.
As for myself? I once saw Mike Tyson in the Florence Mall...
I'll say that again. I once saw Mike Tyson in the Florence (KY) Mall. He's short, but almost as wide as he is tall. But he wasn't nearly as big as the six dudes walking with him.
When I was in Vegas last summer, I saw a number of professional poker players in The Bellagio. One of them, a guy named Eskimo Clark, nearly ran into me on the floor. He was plowed and staggering all over the place.
I always knew there was something rotten about Trebek...;-)
My one frustrating brush with fame for now. I had just about finished a rather lengthy post (what other kind would it be?) when the computer I'm using froze. I'm in LA and using the computer of the friend I'm staying with. He's Larry Drake, two-time Emmy-Award-Winning actor for his character Benny, the mentally-challenged office boy on LA LAW (also known for Durant in THE DARK MAN movies and for DR. GIGGLES). So I'll just have to keep the Harlan Ellison; Olivier; and Jeremy Brett stories (among others) for when I get back. Ta! Keep the topic open!
Tell Larry HEY for me...I LOVED him in DARKMAN!
Dang, this group has had so many brushes with greatness -- and lewdness (Bad Alex!!). I live under a rock, so only a couple of experiences for me come to mind. I met Wally Amos of Famous Amos cookie notoriety at a family literacy conference. He was extremely personable. And probably 10 years ago, I went to see The Band at Bogart's in Cincinnati (Jericho tour). This was the version with Rick Danko, Levon Helm, and Garth Hudson plus 3 other musicians (not the lineup to see, I know, but I was too young to see them in the day). So we're there early to get a good place to stand, and I walk downstairs to the restroom, which is next to the backstage doors. I come out, and this guy walks out from backstage at the same time, and suddenly I realize it's Rick Danko. I got the classic dazed fan expression and shook his hand and uttered some babbling thanks for all the great work. Then he went upstairs and kind of hung out by the top of the stairs, checking out the opening act, and signing autographs and chatting with fans. I think he OD'ed a few years after that.
Ooh, I just remembered one more. I was in Louisville last September for a conference, and Motley Crue was in town. We kept joking that they must have been staying at our hotel, because we kept seeing groupie and roadie types. Their concert was the last night of the conference; alas, none of us went. But that next morning I was in the lobby, looking at the brochure rack, waiting for my colleagues to come down. And suddenly this guy with long blond hair walks *thisclose* by me, hobbling with a cane. And it struck me that this was Vince Neil. And he's short!! Turns out he'd wrecked his knee the night before.
Kinesys, probably not many here would know why meeting Richard Biggs was cool, but I do!
Nat,
Famous Amos was our commencement speaker when I graduated from Southern Miss! (lol)
I got to meet Avery Brooks, and here him sing 2 gospel songs, a capella, at the funeral for a friend in Atlanta. One of those "wish it had been under different circumstances" deals. Still, my friend was sent off with a beautiful accompaniment.
Bob
Hey X!
Things went well at the Florida Rep auditions...They seemed pleasantly surprised with me..."the non-Equity girl at the Equity audition"...talked to me about callbacks...said they'd call soon yadddda yadda..I think it went well..so thank you for the info and your piece!
Sonny Sitgraves, drummer for Muddy Waters, judged a blues competition I played in once and raved about how "authentic" we sounded (the only acoustic blues act on the bill). Gave us "all tens". I think he was drinking heavily.
We need a thread on who we'd like to spend an evening shooting pool and drinking with. A male list and a female list.
I specify "drinking" to discourage tales of Strip Billiards With Dakota.
Oh, for what it's worth, while on the Seabiscuit set I walked past Jeff Bridges (I would certainly have spoken, but he had some chattering socialite with him). That sucker is WAY TALL!
By the way Russell, how much do I owe you for slugging Ernie? And, will you be available in the future if we ever get another elected official named after a Muppet?
So here goes: Some of your lists are way cooler than mine, but c'est la vie...alot of these are music based as well-
- Met Rick Nielsen of CHEAP TRICK at a sound check I snuck into when I was 13. I had just launched into a big TRICK phase, and was over the moon to meet him.
- Met Gene Simmons BEFORE the makeup came off- backstage during the CREATURES tour...me and my buddy Jimmy Gaither snuck backstage before the show,and upon spotting a tall dude w. lots of hair I said "Dude- that's Gene Simmons!" When we called him over, sure enough it was him (that voice is unmistakable.)
-The coolest bunch of musicians I ever met were Jack Blades and Alan Fitzgearld of NIGHT RANGER. They actually talked to us for a long time out by their tour bus in 85. It was really cool, as my buddy Fletch and I were really wanna be rock stars at the time, and Fitz gave us a great lecture on the life of a professional musician...what he said still resonates to me to this day.
- Met TWO former heavyweight champions (2 different occasions) - Evander Holyfield (not as big as I thought) and Larry Holmes (MUCH bigger than I thought- the man's biceps were the size of my head!)
- Coolest ever was probably one alot of you might not get, especially as this guy is more a local hero in Nash-vegas than National (even though the guy has played with everyone from Wilson Pickett to Zack Wylde) At a gig my band did in Nashville back in 90, Warner E. Hodges (former Jason and the Scorchers guitarest) was hanging out behind the ba. We struck up a conversation before the gig and asked if he wanted to come onstage and jam with us- his reply "Nah- I don't do that anymore" We were content though, as we did have numberous beers with him and he regailed us with tales of everyone from Ozzy to BOb Dylan...SO as we are doing the gig, we pause a brief moment before we went into our nightly blues jam, and as I turn around to strap on my guitar, there's Warner, tuning up MY guitar, which he proceeded to play the hell out of( WE also played AC/DC's WHOLE LOTTA ROSIE with him after that.) It was one of the coolest experiences of my life.
- Had a great moment Backstage at the SUMMER LIGHTS fest in Nashville in 88- Was watching a great tpiple bill of T-Bone Burnett, Peter Case and Roseanne Cash. A buddy of mine got me backstage to meet Peter Case (as he knew what a big PLIMSOULS fan I had been) and while I was waiting for him, the lovely Ms. Cash came and sat down beside me and smiled the sweetest smile you;d ever wanna see. I didn't care too much for talking to Case after this,..
About a year later at a mall in Nashville , I literally ran into her, causing her to drop her packages. AS I bent down to help pick them up, our eyes locked and I SWEAR BEFORE GOD...we had a "moment"- it was all Hollywood like...we jsut stared into each others eyes...then her hubby Rodney Crowell hollered "Let's go Rosie" , she said something about being sorry for being clutzy and that was that. (Well, that's the way I remember it anyhoo...) Thus began my infatuation with Ms Cash...which my wife still gives me grief over to this day!
Oh, I almost forgot!
I saw Pavarotti in Freedom Hall about four years ago. My seats weren't too great, but the security was nonexistant so I snuck down to one of the empty seats off to the side of the stage and watched the second half about fifty feet away from the man. Believe it or not, he's bigger in real life. From side to side and front to back that is. He's kinda short.
As soon as he had taken his last bow, I dashed to the rear of the arena to see if I could catch him coming out. You wouldn't think a 65 year old, 350 lb. man with an artificial hip could move too fast, but all I managed was a brief glimpse of the maestro waddling to a van with about four other people, climbing in and riding off. Needless to say, the van had a pronounced lean to starboard...;-)
John Denver was TALL?
Had a beer with David Cross at the Southgate House.
Met the Red Hot Chili Peppers on the Mother's Milk tour in 1989.
Met Johnny (Rotten) Lydon of PiL while touring for the album 9 in Cincinnati. (The day after the RHCP concert, in fact.)
Asked a few politically charged questions of Jello Biafra at Memorial Hall at UK when he was on a spoken word tour.
Comic luminaries like Jeph Loeb, Brian Michael Bendis, Greg Rucka, David Mack, Steve Leiber, Ed McGuinness, and I won't bore you with other names the non geek wouldn't recognize. Met Erin Grey at the same comic convention in 2001. And she was STILL smokin'!! David Prowse, too.
Former NAACP President Kwazi Mfume and I had a nice chat at Joseph Beth in the Natti.
Skated with Rikki Rocket of Poison at Triangle Park when they played at Rupp Arena in 1988.
Hung out and smoked cigarettes with artist Ralph Steadman and his wife on Halloween, 1998.
Worked on a holocaust show with Eva Schloss, step-daughter of Otto Frank. Took her to Keeneland and watched her win 18 dollars!
Met Leonard Nimoy at "an evening of conversation with...." in Clemson, S.C. (my hometown) at Littlejohn Colleseum.
Ran across Milo O'Shea on a Dublin street. He'd just finished that made for TV movie with Alec Baldwin back in 1999. One of the nicest men in the entire world. Very approachable.
And I met this dude Chuck
Pogue once or twice.
Mmmmmm... a still smokin hot Erin Gray!!!!
Who the hell is Chuck Pogue?
;)
I've met Erin Grey at several memorabilia shows and can also attest she is still smokin'!
Don't know who this Chuck Pogue clown is, though. Thought it was brushes with fame; not brushes with lame. Just got off the phone with Harlan Ellison. We're hoping our various schedules allow for lunch tomorrow. Back in a couple of days and I'll give you a few more brushes. Drake's computer still sucks!
Leonard Nimoy! I forgot Leonard Nimoy! I bought anit-diarrhea meds for him when he did his one man show about Theo Van Gogh at The Oklahoma Theatre Center. And Nat, I also worked with Wally Amos when he taped some shows at KET. Great guy! Leonard, not so great. Or maybe he was just cranky 'cause he was crampy.
Pogue's brushes with fame...
Some notable folks I've trod the boards with:
Charlton Heston, Jeremy Brett; Martha Raye; Don DeFore; Bob Denver; Nancy Culp; Shelley Berman; Yvonne DeCarlo; Cyd Charisse; James Drury; Rose Marie...
Notable memories of these:
Seeing Heston's Oscar and the "rod of God" with which he parted the Red Sea.
Holding Maggie Raye's Oscar. Inadvertantly seeing her naked one night...a shuddering sight!
Meeting Jeremy Brett in our local grocery (we were neighbours )and being invited up to the his house at 10:30 in the morning for mimosas.
When Granada TV (who was producing Jeremy's Sherlock series) and the producer of my Sherlock films were suing each other over the rights questions, Jeremy and I were going out to dinner together in London.
Staying up late with Shelley Berman after a show could be a gut-busting laugh fest. One of the funniest men I've ever met.
One night during rehearsals, Bob Denver, drunk, fired the entire cast except for me. The next day, of course, everyone was still in the cast. Bob also gave me a copy of THE PRINCESS BRIDE to read, for which I'll always be grateful.
Notables I have been on a movie set with: Tony Perkins, Dennis Quaid, Pete Postlethwaite, Jason Isaacs, Ian Richardson, Trevor Howard, Denholm Elliott, Brian Blessed, Connie Booth (Fawlty Towers, ex-Mrs. John Cleese), Nicholas Clay; Cheri Lunghi...
Some memories of above folk:
Just being at the Bates Motel and the Psycho House with Tony Perkins...I mean how weird is that? Everytime a tour tram went by, he would say: "Wave! Butts in the seats!"
Being up at Tony's house for a notes session and having his sister-in-law, Marissa Berenson, in the kitchen eating her museli or whatever.
Listening to Ian Richardson and Brian Blessed tell stories about working with Peter O'Toole on the set of Man of La Mancha. Blessed had also just finished the run of O'Toole's infamous MacBeth.
We had actually cast Geta Sacchi as the female lead in Hound of the Baskervilles, but had to change plans when we couldn't get insurance on her (something to do with some trouble on HEAT & DUST...or so I heard, can't confirmed. Our loss). We also turned down Alfred Molina for a small part. and had to fire Trevor Howard because the poor old guy couldn't learn his lines.
Getting pissed with Pete Postlethwaite many a night in Bratislava. Man, can that sucker pack it away.
Commisserating with Jason Isaacs about the horror of a director we had on DRAGONHEART.
Brushes with famous neighbours:
Used to see Diane Keaton frequently walking her dog.
Tim Curry lived three doors up from us for awhile and we got to a nodding and chatting relationship over dog-walking and seeing each other at the grocery or local bistro. He moved away, but remained in the same neighbourhood and I continued to see him on walks, grocery, and bistro. He moved back into our specific neighbourhood a year before we left, but has been out on tour with SPAMALOT for most of it.
Christina Ricci was also a neighbour for awhile. But one saw very little of her. The closest encounter Julieanne and I ever had with her was in London when she was shooting SLEEPY HOLLOW. We were seated next to her and her boyfriend at the time in a cramped little Italian restaurant, on Monmouth St., down from her hotel, up from our flat. Didn't ever say a word to her.
Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow were often spotted in the grocery late at night, when he had a house in the neighbourhood.
Richard "John-Boy" Thomas was also a neighbour before he took off for New York.
Also Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson; Paul Winfield; Johnathan Silverman; Kathleen Kinny (?...who played Mimi on The Drew Carey Show), others...
Brushes at the Local Bistro...
Our neighbourhood hangout would see the likes of Judith Ivey; Annette Bening; Sandra Bullock; Ned Beatty; Tim Curry; Ian McKellan (though, at that time, only Julieanne and I recognized him); Larry Drake; Robert Downey (when he was staying at a nearby halfway house during his drug-sentencing days).
Probably the most interesting encounter I had here was meeting was meeting Daniel Davis (who played the butler on THE NANNY). Years ago, I and Roger Leasor had seen him play Hamlet at the Cincy Playhouse. He was dining with someone Larry Drake knew. Larry introduced me to the guy and we were, in turn, introduced to Davis...and I got to tell him he was the best Hamlet I ever saw on stage, which he was. We also joked about some of word Baker's unusual casting choices...particularly where Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were concerned.
At Hollywood affairs...screenings, parties, premieres, I've gotten to rub shoulders with more celebs that I can remember -- notables are Steven Spielberg and Amy Irving...sharing a picnic table with them, but no words; meeting Vincent Price (Julieanne had her picture taken with him); Eartha Kitt. Jack Valenti and I got into a verbal sparring match with each other at a film conference in Beaune, France. The French who see Valenti as the great cultural imperalist lavished praise on me the rest of the week. You would have thought I was Jerry Lewis. Director Claude Le Louch called me a hero. Later, at a French film festival, Valenti, having no hard feelings, introduced me to Jaqueline Bissett. At Cannes, I sat behind Robert Altman while he held court.
Brushes, Part Two, coming up...Friends and just the casual sightings of momentous occasion.
Brushes with fame, my pal Harlan Ellison...
Big thrill: Sitting in Harlan's house having him read you a story that no other ears have heard.
At his sixty-fifth birthday party, I was standing talking to novelist Robert Crais; we both look over and chatting at the dining-room table next to us is Dr. Spock and Chekov. Surreal. Nimoy once wanted me to write one of the Star Trek installments he was directing. Never been a Trekkie; know nothing of the series; turned it down. His son Adam was one of my lawyers for awhile.
At the same party, Ellison gave me, Crais, and comic legend Stan Lee a special guided tour of the hidden recesses of his house.
Also met Neil Gaiman at Ellisons.
Another favourite Ellison brush: Him jitterbugging in my kitchen with fifties/sixties pin-up legend June Wilkinson (dubbed "The Bosom" by Playboy Magazine for obvious reasons), another pal, in my kitchen during a Christmas party.
More brushes with fame...signing books and script at an Edgar Rice Burroughs convention sandwiched between pal and ex-Tarzan Denny Miller and ex-Tarzan Gordon Scott, a rather surly fellow...or at least was on that particular day.
British brushes...
Spying Derek Jacobi on a street corner outside my flat.
Seeing Michael Gambon on his way home (or someplace) after his show.
Waiting in the National Theatre Bar/Lobby next to Alan Rickman for a matinee of History Boys.
Spotting (and actually recognizing) writer/comic Ben Elton in Shaftsbury Ave. Elton wrote, among other things, Blackadder.
Bob Geldorf being at the table next to us at the Soho House.
Two final big brushes with fame:
First year I'm in California, I go stand in the bleachers at the Academy Awards. The year Olivier is getting his special award. He comes down the red carpet. None of the reporters recognize him. I shout, "God Bless, Sir Laurence!" He turns and blows me a kiss. All the reporters' heads turn, trying to find him!
Walking in a mall in Century City. See a woman at a phone booth. Do a double-take. It's Sophia Loren. No, it can't be...she seems to young. No, it's definitely Sophia Loren! I dog her around the mall for fifteen-twenty minutes until I figure I'll get arrested for stalking. As stunning in real life as she is on the screen. Hubba-hubba!
Great post, Heather. Glad to have you back aboard. So what are you doing now post-Katrina? Are you still down in the area or have you moved on?
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