Poppinjay

I read Dlish's 6 degrees thread thinking there was no way I could be 6 degrees from him. Sure enough, I'm 5. While thinking about it, I realized I've met some famous people. Who have you met? Impressions? My list includes a fair number of journalists who I would categorize more as "known" than "famous".

My list:
Lyle Alzado
John Denver
Marie Osmond
George Noory
Laura Ingraham
Bela Fleck
Bruce Hornsby
Jeane Meserve
Nina Totenberg
Garrison Keillor
Renee Montagne
Robert Siegel
Scott Simon
Ray Suarez
Alex Chadwick
Tavis Smiley
Fred Grandy
Barack Obama
Jesse Helms
Elizabeth Dole
Bob Dole
Nancy Kassebaum
Bob and Sheri (perhaps the most minor celebrities ever)
Dean Smith
Rita Cosby (she used to be really hot)
Chee Yun
Joe Kennedy jr.
Sarah Brady
-----Added 31/7/2008 at 09 : 06 : 33-----
And Terri Gross. I forgot about her.

__________________
I think the Apocalypse is happening all around us. We go on eating desserts and watching TV. I know I do. I wish we were more capable of sustained passion and sustained resistance. We should be screaming and what we do is gossip. -Lydia Millet

Reese

I've been to a few conventions so I've met more than I care to remember. Wrestlers, Playboy playmates, Nascar drivers, B-list actors and especially older actors from TV shows I've only heard of...

__________________
“It is better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick” - Dave Barry

Baraka_Guru

I'm not well connected.

But I have met:

• Jann Arden
• Ra Mcguire
• Dahmnait Doyle
• Tommy Chong
• Emeril Lagasse
• Wayson Choy
• Jayna Hefford

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Reese

You ARE well connected!

__________________
“It is better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick” - Dave Barry

Poppinjay

Hockey nerd.

__________________
I think the Apocalypse is happening all around us. We go on eating desserts and watching TV. I know I do. I wish we were more capable of sustained passion and sustained resistance. We should be screaming and what we do is gossip. -Lydia Millet

Baraka_Guru

It was a book convention.

Hey, I used to play road hockey with her. She would always cream us.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Poppinjay

I also met Mr. T. I booked him on a morning show when he had a comic book coming out. I asked him if he wanted anything to drink, he specified "Evian", and handed me his golden goblet. Yes, he actually takes a golden goblet with him everywhere to drink out of.

He was very funny.

__________________
I think the Apocalypse is happening all around us. We go on eating desserts and watching TV. I know I do. I wish we were more capable of sustained passion and sustained resistance. We should be screaming and what we do is gossip. -Lydia Millet

jewels

Name dropping, eh? In chronological order, more or less:

Robert Redford
Art Garfunkel
Paul Lynde
Tony Phillips
Annie Lennox
Joe Robbie
Dan Marino
Janet Reno (does she count?)
Wayne Huizenga
Stevie Nicks
Jerry Garcia
Gloria Estefan
Steve Lovelady

There may have been more, but I was probably too burnt out to remember meeting them.

__________________
We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.
Mark Twain

Fotzlid

I've never met anyone famous.
Not that I know of...

levite

Let's see.... Famous people I've met....

John Hope Franklin
John Lewis
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Kevin Spacey
Isaac Hayes
Peter, Paul, and Mary
Jakob Dylan
Breckin Meyer
Seth Green
Amy Smart
Patrick Stewart
Greg MacGillivray & Jim Freeman
Gwyneth Paltrow
Laraine Newman
Portia di Rossi
The Kardashians
Gene Wilder
Mel Stuart
Debbie Friedman
Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
Shlomo Carlebach
Neshama Carlebach

__________________
Dull sublunary lovers love,
Whose soul is sense, cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
That thing which elemented it.

(From "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" by John Donne)

Poppinjay

Interesting how regional this is. Jewels knows famous Floridians, levite has met show biz types in Hollywood, Baracka knows Canadians. I know NPR and media types, and the occasional B lister.

__________________
I think the Apocalypse is happening all around us. We go on eating desserts and watching TV. I know I do. I wish we were more capable of sustained passion and sustained resistance. We should be screaming and what we do is gossip. -Lydia Millet

CinnamonGirl

hmmm... my list is way smaller.

Kenyon Martin
Anthony Rapp

That's it for the "well-known people." I've also met Carrie Newcomer, Randy Coleman, and Bob Morris, but they're more indie.

Oh, and Raven Riley used to be my neighbor.

__________________
"...for though she was ordinary, she possessed health, wit, courage, charm, and cheerfulness. But because she was not beautiful, no one ever seemed to notice these other qualities, which is so often the way of the world."


"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

shakran

Not in any specific order but:

Wilford Brimley (yes, he does talk like that in real life)

Brett Favre (nice guy, damned hard to pin down)

Randy Moss (...)

Shaq (he's fun. And damned hard to shoot 'cause my tripod doesn't go that high )

Charles Grassley (if you don't know who this guy is, you should. Been in the senate since Moses died. Rather influential, even if he is usually wrong)

Harrison Ford (covering the Experimental Aircraft Association's annual Oshkosh fly-in. He'll talk forever about helicopters)

John Travolta (at the same place. HE will talk forever about his Boeing 707)

Al and Bobby Unser (cool guys, but then I'm a car nut so we got along straight off)

Peter Jennings (before the cancer altered his voice. He was smart as hell, proving that you don't have to have a college degree to know what you're talking about)

Bob Dotson (Dateline reporter- - very, very good storyteller)

Steve Hartman (Used to have a series on CBS's Sunday Morning called Everyone Has A Story. He and his photographer Les Rose would pick someone at random from the phone book in a random town and go do a story on them. Got some amazing work out of it. Hands down one of the best reporters I've ever known, and has a fantastic attitude on life. Life is fun. He's going to find every bit of fun and absorb it.)

Yo Yo Ma. Twice. (He remembered who I was the second time, a year later. That impressed me. )

Doc Severenson. (Just. Plain. Cool.)

Garrison Keillor (rather...full of himself. And snobbish. Funny guy though.)

Buzz Aldrin (seems like he could be a cool guy, but someone had just talked about the moon landing being a hoax so he was kinda pissy at the time)

Chuck Yeager (Again at the Oshkosh fly-in. He was giving teenagers introductory flight lessons. Now that's a story to tell the grandkids. A shame I was only covering it - would'a been something else to get instruction time from him.)

Mike Huckabee (this guy. is. Nuts. And not in a good way.)

George W. Bush. (nuff said)

There are probably more but they all start to blend together, really.

Derwood

Met? Not tons.

But I worked in a TV studio for 2 years and saw dozens of celebrities/musicians pretty close up.

Incomplete list:

Julia Roberts
Salma Hayek
Tom Cruise
Billy Crystal
Cast of Seinfeld
Maggie Gyllenhal
Kirsten Dunst
Julia Stiles
Rob Lowe
Stevie Wonder
Sting
Harry Connick, Jr.
Beyonce
Barbara Streisand
Cameron Diaz (actually chatted with her)
Drew Barrymore
Lucy Liu
Ben Kingsley
Jim Carrey
Meryl Streep
Mike Myers
Dakota Fanning


Gosh, there are so many more. I'm just blanking

The_Jazz

Politicians
John Duncan, Jr. - TN Congressman
Lamar Alexander - TN Senator, former governor and my uncle's roommate at Vandy
Wesley Clark - served with my dad
Barack Obama - first time at a "Barack-B-Q" just after he announced for Senate
Richard Daley

Athletes
Mark Grace - hit on a friend of mine in a bar after a game
Carl Lewis
Michael Johnson
Quincy Johnson
Ben Johnson
Frank Shorter
Alan Webb - I thought he was a jackass before I met him and now I'm sure
A bunch of other track athletes no one here has heard of
Willie Gault - my favorite football player ever
Fuad Revez
Peyton Manning - seriously funny guy
Chad Pennington - go Spartans!
Chipper Jones - nice guy, very gracious

Actors/Musicians/Celebs
Emily Bergl - went to my college and was friends with some of my friends. Was in "Carrie II"
Jeffrey Bayer - local PBS documentarian
Johnny Knoxville
Bob Mould
John Flynn - celeb palentologist? He was in the Tribune above the fold 3 times...
Billy Corrigan

__________________
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo

Daniel_

I was trodden on once by Stirling Moss.

__________________

╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
And everthing is Green and Submarine
╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝

Fremen

I met a local news anchorwoman in a Dunkin' Donuts shop when I was a kid.
Other than her, and some Country Western stars at the rodeo over the years, I've not met anybody famous.

__________________
Google

filtherton

I met Buck 65 once.

And the bassist from The Weakerthans, like, totally brushed up against me inadvertently on his way outside to smoke.

I know Jesus, too. Unlike Farve, he isn't difficult to pin down at all...

Daniel_

Nick Ross (UK TV presenter) once held a door open for me at a hotel.

I met Rick Wakeman in a carpark outside a venue he was playting at, and he seemed like a really nice guy.

__________________

╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
And everthing is Green and Submarine
╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝

thespian86

hahaha I should be more impressed with the second. But Brett? *bows down* Do you accept offerings?

Well I didn't bother with the Six Degree's Thread because I've met Conan O'Brien and that could be endless.

But Celebs (mostly bands)

Jenny Lewis
Vampire Weekend
Chris Martin and Will Champion
Jimmy Rankin (Atlantic Canada!)
Joel Plasket
Sam Roberts
The Tragically Hip
etc, etc

Conan
Albert Schultz (works in the same building I learn in)
Demetri Martin
Olde English Comedy
Dave Atell
Tom Green (tool)
and more; just who comes to mind.

Not that impressive. It's no Brett Favre. Bastard.

__________________
EX: Whats new?
ME: I officially love coffee more then you now.
EX: uh...
ME: So, not much.

Poppinjay

That was my impression exactly. He is also an extreme introvert, as is Terry Gross. She was probably my most difficult interview ever, not because she's evil or anything, but because she's afraid of not being in control of the process.

It's become the cool thing for WaPo music reviewers to slam him, but seriously, this guy rocks.

__________________
I think the Apocalypse is happening all around us. We go on eating desserts and watching TV. I know I do. I wish we were more capable of sustained passion and sustained resistance. We should be screaming and what we do is gossip. -Lydia Millet

Derwood

My previous list didn't include any of the bands I've chatted up when I was the Lighting Director at a concert venue last year. Those would include:

Band of Horses
They Might Be Giants
Derek Trucks Band
Don McLean
Johnny Winter
Sean Lennon
Leon Redbone
Mavis Staples
Bettye LaVette
Ruthie Foster
Dr. John