Saturday, March 08, 2008

Brushes with greatness

Who's the most famous person you've ever been in close quarters with? Other writers don't count.

The most famous non-writer-type person I've ever encountered is Bill Kazmaier, who was the World's Strongest Man from 1980 to 1982. I was reminded of this last night while watching large men carry Volkswagons on their shoulders. (My husband and my son usually control the TV.)

Mr. Kazmaier was the commentator for this contest. But he used to own a gym in Auburn, where I went to college. One day in the grocery store I found myself behind him in the checkout line. He was buying a bottle of Evian and four family-size bags of Doritos.

P. J. does not get to play this round. No one can top Robin Williams.

17 comments:

Gela said...

Rita Wilson: I have seen her walking around campus bc her son goes to my school. The same with Catherine Hicks of 7th Heaven, her daughter goes to school with me as well.

I saw Josh Peck of Nickelodeon's Drake and Josh at Coffe Bean.

I also saw David Sutcliffe who played Christopher on Gilmore Girls.


I think there are more, but those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head.

Jennifer Echols said...

Any one of those beats The Kaz.

I wonder what The Kaz would say about that.

Gela said...

David Sutcliffe was a huge deal with me because I am one of the hugest fans of Gilmore Girls ever. And I was out with my friends and it was right after we had taken the PSAT, so it was like a nice little reward after completing the test.

I've actually seen him there more than once. I saw him when I was with my dad there as well.

And I don't know if this counts, but I was turning left at an intersection, and I saw Brad Pitt whizzing by in an awesome car.

The joys of living in L.A.

P.J. Ruditis said...

Oh, I can TOTALLY beat Robin Williams.

Jennifer Echols said...

Gela! was right after we had taken the PSAT

I can picture this! Wow.

And I don't know if this counts

Brad Pitt always counts.

Okay, P.J., bring it on. Can you beat Brad Pitt?

P.J. Ruditis said...

I'd say gela and I are in a statistical tie. I saw Angelina Jolie walking down the street a few months back.

Kelly McClymer said...

I feel unfairly handicapped in this challenge, because I can walk right by my husband if I'm not looking for him. However, my claim to fame is that I actually worked in an office with Kathleen Turner's younger sister (who was a grad student at the time...this was a looooooong time ago). The whole office was buzzing about it the night after Kathleen won the Oscar for Body Heat. As I recall, her sister was a total sweetie, but not even close to looking like her sister was going to be the sex symbol for the year.

Kelly

Kelly McClymer said...

Oh, wait, I forgot. When I was in LA in the fall, I participated in the WGA strikers' march on Hollywood Blvd. I looked really hard for famous people, just out of curiosity. I saw Patton Oswalt, the guy who plays Felicity Huffman's husband on "Desperate Housewives" (so glad he wasn't killed in the tornado), and Sharon Lawrence, an actress I love to catch in whatever she's doing at the moment because she's so funny. I'm sure there were many more 'greats' that I didn't notice. I've also met the governor of our state (his wife hosted a writer's event I spoke at, and his family owns a restaurant that he sometimes comes to visit and speak with 'the masses' who are enjoying the stuffed shells and yummy sauce.

Kelly

Gela said...

Haha yeah it was after the PSAT. All of my friends and I were basically in sweats and pjs because we got the rest of the day off after the test. And I didn't even notice him until one of my friends pointed him out.

And I basically started flipping out, and he must have saw me because he smiled at me and gave me a little wave. Awesome day, despite the PSAT.

And when we got back to campus, one of my friends who got out of her PSAT late was upset that she couldn't go to Baja with us. And more upset that we saw him because she was also a huge Gilmore Girls fan. And she drove there to see if he was still there, but he wasn't.

[And Dino de Laurentiis's daughter goes to school with me. Her name is Dina.]

Wendy Toliver said...

Fun post! Let's see ... Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale. What a lovely couple! And I said ... "HI!" LOL.

Also, I got to be on "Touched by an Angel" so Valerie Bertinelli, Roma Downey, John Dye and Della Reese were all there. They were so cool! I also got to hang out with an up-and-coming actress from Chicago, Jennifer Morrison, who's now starring as Allison in the popular "House." Yay Jennifer!

Jennifer Echols said...

Uhhhhhhhh Wendy. Why did you get to be on "Touched by an Angel" and why have you not blogged about this?????

Wendy Toliver said...

Maybe I will sometime! I've had several fun acting experiences in my not-too-distant past. LOL

Micol Ostow said...

I saw Drew Barrymore on my corner one morning and nearly accosted her. Then I decided ogling was intrusive enough.

But it's sort of cheating 'cause I live in the West Village. I've seen Kerri Russell, Mike Myers, Kate Hudson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Mary Louise Parker and more--and that's just on Hudson Street.

Jennifer Echols said...

Micol: Hmm. If people get famous around here, they move there. So I guess other than Mr. Kaz, I'm out of luck.

Nicole Burnham said...

See, these probably don't count 'cause I'm an Army brat. But when I was in junior high, Colin Powell's daughter and I were good friends. We played on the same softball team in Kansas, so I was at her house a few times. He was "just" a general then. (And a nice guy with a nice family!)

I also got to watch Shaquille O'Neal play high school basketball in Germany. We had a guy on our team who was 6' 10", and he was the tall guy on the Frankfurt team--our school's big rival.

These are the little perks of military life, I suppose!

Anonymous said...

I've met Bill Clinton when i went to this speech thing for my school. I have pictures :)

Jennifer Echols said...

Oooh, Emma, cool! I saw him at a speech once too. Or, I *should* have been able to see him, but there were too many people in front of me and I was too short.