On my recent trip to St. Louis, I had not one but two celebrity sightings after fairly long dry spell. Maybe I need to fly out of LAX more often?
Saw actor Roger Bart, American Airlines terminal. Most recent gig: playing George, the Bree-obsessed nut job pharmacist on Desperate Housewives. He sat on the floor talking on his cell phone until his flight was mostly boarded.
In the St Louis airport, I spotted a soap opera actor whose name I didn't recall but I had just seen him Friday on The Bold and the Beautiful while I was waiting for Mike to be done with class. He bought a couple of Caesar salads for his traveling companions and ended up sitting a couple of rows ahead of me. Hugely good-looking in person.
I meant to look him up on IMDB, but I got talking to my seat mate who said the mystery actor's name was Jack Wagner. Bill, my seat mate, said Jack was in town to do a concert and he does all the sound mixing for Jack's band.
It was pretty easy to get Bill talking. He'd done sound work for a number of game shows, talk shows and cable shows for the past 30 years (after being a sound guy for bands that kept breaking up). Works on favorites such as Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! And cycles through other shows like the Grammys, celebrity poker matches and season finales for Survivor. Currently enjoying his work on Bill Maher's show on HBO.
We spent the 3 hour flight dissecting the industry--who's a pill to work with, who's a pleasure. Dennis Miller is an ass--I know, shocking! So was Rosie O'Donnell. David Letterman has the band play loudly so no one can talk to each other during breaks. Oliver Stone played a round of celebrity Jeopardy! high and won (yeah, like Wolf Blizter was stiff competition).
How Ken Jennings changed Jeopardy!--in part by being so good with the buzzer that they had to do rehearsals so other contestants could practice buzzing in--and now pre-taping rehearsals are the norm. That The Price is Right has the loudest studio audience of them all and the hard-core fans line up at 4 am to get into a taping. (Bill also said TPIR contestants are randomly picked, so all the whooping, hollering and matching yellow shirts for your group of 37 don't give you an edge. Good to know).
Anyway, it made for a fun flight. And I started ruminating about my brushes with fame over the years. I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours...
- Jack Wagner & Roger Bart, airport sightings
- Willie Garson, LA Farmer's Market (I spotted him; my friend Mel supplied that he was on Sex and the City)
- Vince Vaughn, flying Southwest to Phoenix
- Crispin Glover & Courtney Peldon at The Container Store in Pasadena (click link to gofugyourself )
- House sat for French Stewart's roommate & walked his dog, Elvis
- Attended high school with Vidal Peterson/Palacios who played the Elder on Mork & Mindy and Stewie in The Thorn Birds (the one who was gored to death)
- Gedde Watanabe, from ER and Sixteen Candles, at a cafe table in front of a Pasadena bookstore
- Carel Struycken who played the Giant on Twin Peaks, Von's Parking lot, Pasadena
- Ben Stein and Jimmy Kimmel when I was a contestant on Win Ben Stein's Money
2 comments:
- David Straithairn almost hit me with his bicycle in Chelsea (NYC)
- Saw Molly Shannon walking through Chelsea - Heather also raised her arms and said "Superstar!" to her, and she took it well and smiled back
- Michael Cerveris (well, he's a star to ME!), who played Tommy on Broadway for 2 years - saw him at the stage door mostly
- Arye Gross, in a restaurant in Los Feliz
- Morgan Freeman - did some work with my former employer
- Sinbad, ditto
- Kevin Nealon, at a corporate event I was at
- Ethan Hawke, looking highly unwashed, walking on our street in Chelsea
- Julia Roberts, briefly, standing on a stoop of a building on a Chelsea street with a dog and a man (and I believe it was our street, one block over from our section)
- Very possibly others that I can't remember now...
I forgot one: Jaclyn Smith at the airport. Another passenger pointed her out, otherwise I wouldn't have noticed.
Seems like both our lists are heavy on the male celebrities. Why is that? Do they get out more? Or do we just not hang out where famous women or interchangeably blonde starlets do?
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