I let you know all kinds of stuff about me here on my blog. You know that I redid my whole house a few years ago, you know I have chickens, you even know when I have a yeast or bladder infection and what I do about it.
You know I've made my living as a television host and writer. I've let you know all this.
I'm a sharer. That's what I am. Except food. I *hate* to share my food. Do NOT take a fry from my plate or I'll pluck your eyeball out and shove it up your nostril.
However, no matter how much I share, there will always be things you don't know about me.
Take a listen to this little diddy by The Four Horsemen from the early 90's. If you listen veryyyyy closely at the veryyyyy end of the track ... there I be. Clapping and (in an effort to distinguish myself from the other clappers) whistling. Yup. I'm a whistling fool. Go ahead ... give it a listen.
Now, I realize that it's very difficult to prove that the clapping and whistling is me, so you'll just have to believe me. For one thing if I was going to make something like this up, I'd probably pick a more popular song to attach myself to. Like "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road". Although, looking back on it, this was the most popular song The Four Horsemen probably ever recorded. The song was recorded in a studio in Hollywood and I happened to be there at the time. The producer needed a bunch of people clapping at the end of the song, so we all stood around and clapped. (with me improvising a little with my whistle)
At one point, many, many years ago when I used to be ... well ... fun, I spent a bit of time in Hollywood with my friend and her fiancé. He was the lead singer in a band that was popular at the time. The band was called The Cult and the singer was Ian Astbury. You may have heard of them. Or not.
I haven't seen or spoken with Ian in years, but I'm still friends with his fiancé. She's the one who does my hair actually! She did his too back in the day. That's why Ian Astbury always had beautiful, flowing, shiny black hair. Because of Renee.
During that trip to Los Angeles I can't even begin to tell you the amount of people I met and went to dinner with and saw in concert. Lemme tell ya, you see a whole different Hollywood when you're there with a rock star. I have it all written down somewhere because I knew I'd probably forget half of who I saw/met later. And I have. Elton John is one I remember. He was sitting on a bench in gymnasium type seating at a party for a band I can't remember. He looked sad.
It was an experience I'm kind of shocked my mother let me take. I was youngish at the time and I'd really just met Ian and Renee. Mind you, this is the same mother who shoved me off to New York City when I was 16 with a friend. I didn't want to go ... she pushed me. So the two of us, 16 years old and stupid, boarded a plane and headed to the Big Apple. It was THERE that I saw a true icon.
I've met countless celebrities through my job. I was an entertainment reporter for 3 years and interviewed a plethora of bands and actors. None of them thrilled me like this random encounter.
My friend and I were in the store Fiorucci with her cousin, an artist ... and there standing over to the right of the store was Andy Warhol. The cousin screamed, I swore because I wasn't wearing my glasses and couldn't see him well and my friend ... she asked who Andy Warhol was. A year later Andy Warhol was dead.
So as we head into this weekend I thought I'd ask "Have you had a brush with celebrity?" And did they give you a yeast infection?
Have a good weekend everyone! Menu posted tomorrow, see you on Monday.
Karol
I went to high school (Robert E. Lee) with the entire band Lynyrd Skynyrd. No yeast infections here, but there were plenty floating around, I'm sure.
I sat on an airplane in first class behind Bob Hope and his lovely wife Doloris, from San Diego to Atlanta. Very nice people, again no yeast infections.
My best friend and I were at Disney World in its first year (1970 something) and passed Lyle Waggoner and his wife on a path to Tomorrow Land, remember him from the Carol Burnett Show? He was a hottie. He said "Let's turn left here" to his wife. We squealed. I wished I had gotten a yeast infection.
My best friends dad was a dry cleaner and cleaned Elvis' silk pajamas when he came through our home town for a concert. The mother of all yeast infections.
Rondina
So the first thing I noticed is that you were probably something like 58 and looking back on your youth. Then I realized it was me who is 58 and looking back on your youth. I'm just happy that Internet videos have that little button at the bottom that can fast forward.)
Heather
I don't know many of the people mentioned and I've wondered how many so-called celebrities I've seen but not noticed. In my mind I know most of them. :)
When I was a teenager the family that made up the band The Jets ("Crush" was their biggest hit - in the late 80's) went to church near us and we played church sports together. We had youth dances often and one of the brothers asked me to dance once.
I saw Gary Coleman a few times before he died just out and about.
Sat a few seats over from "Oh my goodness that is a HUGE black man!" that happened to be Karl Malone of the Utah Jazz. His wife was tiny and was wearing the biggest diamond I've ever seen in real life.
My dad's sisters all went skiing at Sundance in Utah and the youngest sister went down the advanced hill as a beginner. She wiped out and Robert Redford came to her rescue. All the sisters later had dinner with him. This was like 40 years ago when he was super hot. They said he was really nice.
Alisha
I gave Jim Cuddy's wife a massage at the spa I managed. Also massaged JD Fortune from the 'new' INXS (a few times) and when I was 16 we met the cast from Whose Line Is It Anyways in the VIP lineup at Six Flags. *swoon Wayne Brady* Met K'Naan at a music festival before his music was more mainstream (he's a bit of aa ass) and Ethan Hawke filmed "Snow Falling On Cedars" beside my high school and several of my friends were extras in the movie. This was back when he was dating Uma Thurman. I stood beside him for a few minutes and it was the best moment of my high school career.
Shauna
crap - I meant Richard Simmons not Gene Simmons - just a tad different!
Karen
Oh that's funny!~ k
Shauna
You have so many great comments from people all the time - I wish you had a 'Like' button;)
Shauna
oh oh and when I was a young girl I met, Gene Simmons in Palm Springs! He was exactly as kookie and awesomely nice as he is on t.v. Just a really happy guy.
I'm sure there's more, but those are all the ones I can remember right now.
Shauna
I live in California so I've had a few brushes - Ian was one of them actually. Backstage at a Lenny Kravitz concert in a small theater - Ian, Lenny, Punky Brewster (not her real name I know), Lenny's whole family, one of the guys from Motley Crue.
I've also met Glenn Danzig. And, I met/sat at a table at a bar with Kiefer Sutherland. I was actually working there and he had his people ask me to come sit with him.
Oh, and I met the bassist from PIL when they opened for INXS (sadly didn't meet Johnny), which means I also met Michael Hutchison. I was only 16 at the time and the bassist snuck us into the bar. When the waitress asked for my ID, Michael said, "she's 23 and she's with me". I felt very cool;)
Being in San Diego and working at a bar at the time, I've met a slew of NFL players when the superbowl came to town. We also have ComiCon here, so when I worked at the bar, that is when I would get a chance to meet a lot of celebrities.
BUT...nothing in the realm of Andy Warhol!!!! OMG OMG OMG!
Alyssa
What fun to read through all the stories - I've totally wasted my morning. For my 10th birthday, my parents took me to a Liona Boyd concert, and she shook my hand and signed my c.d. While I was dating my now-husband, I found out that his grandparents hosted Liona in their *home* because there wasn't a hotel in the town they lived in, way up in northern B.C. She had come for a concert they had organized, in an effort to bring a little bit of class to the boonies. His Grandmother is one of the most effortlessly gracious and refined people I have ever known.
I once cleaned the under-construction basement of a big music producer from Vancouver, it was his summer home on one of the gulf islands. I don't even remember his name, but he'd worked with K.D. Lang, Fiest, and I don't know who else. And guess who his carpenter was? The former bass player for Bryan Adams. I don't remember his name either, but he was the most friendly guy, and we had a lot of fun working together, complaining about how many times the music producer and his big-shot lawyer wife could change the way they wanted their kitchen done. It was like a whole other world - famous people, living ordinary lives. I didn't even know who they were until someone else told me.
Amanda
Boo! All I've ever met are political figures, very few of whom I liked. And Santa Claus. Now HE was great!
Aimee
Loved reading all of these!
I've never been cool, at all, but I had one near-encounter. Waiting in line for stage tickets at the half-price kiosk in London, I heard a laugh and thought, "That's Sulu!" I turned around, and yep, George Takei was two people behind me in line. I was thrilled but determined to leave him alone. Now that I know how open he is to talking with fans, I wish I'd said hi.
If I'd stayed in California as a teenager, I'm sure I would've had more encounters...all my friends who ended up at USC and UCLA had classes with people like Jaleel White (aka Steve Urkel) and Sean Astin.
Michelle
In the late 70s, my family and I were on vacation in Southern California for a reunion. We stayed at the same resort as O.J. Simpson before he became a murderer. We swam at the pool with him and his first wife (Margaret, I think) and their 3 kids. It was just about a month before his youngest daughter died - I remember she was a baby at the pool. My sister and I played games in the pool with their older kids. O.J. even threw my sister and I in the pool several times (he was a much better thrower than my dad). We have pictures with them and an autographed beach towel. Looking back, I shoulda had him autograph a glove for me instead of the stupid towel.
kris
woops -- the Mike Wallace incident happened in 1988, not 1998.
kris
Had an encounter with Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes in Tokyo in 1998. I was living there with my husband who worked for Northwest Airlines. My parents were visiting and we were in the lobby of the Imperial Hotel waiting for a tour guide. There was a man reading a newspaper a few feet from us and he looked mightily familiar. I couldn't stop looking at him, trying to place him. Finally, I could stand it no longer and asked him: "Excuse me, are you from Minnesota?" (my home). He paused a moment, looked at me over the top of his glasses, and said,"No. But I bet you are." When I heard his voice I recognized him as Mike Wallace from 60 Minutes. I must have looked pathetically embarrassed because he took pity on me and said kiddingly," I can't wait to tell ----- that a blonde from Minnesota tried to pick me up in Tokyo." My mom thought we were all now great friends and tried to start up a chat with him. He went back to reading his newspaper as my mom kept talking in a loud voice, trying to re-gain his attention. It was mortifying.
Saw Bonnie Raitt at a roller skate store in Mpls in the late '70's - she was shorter than I thought had way more freckles than I thought, too. Very natural looking.
arlene
When I was a young mom, about 1984, and lived in northern Alberta, I was talking with the local pharmacist about the upcoming North Country Fair (hippy fest held on summer solstice; my birthday). I said I never missed it, and he said his daughter was in a band and would be playing, so he was going for the first time. Well at the festival, we ran into Fred, and he said "Come meet my daughter. She sings just like Patsy Cline, and she's up next!" He took us over and introduced us to the oddest looking young woman I had ever (in my narrow life to that time) laid eyes on. She had cropped, spiky hair, and wore cowboy boots and an old wedding dress. Her band was called "The Reclines". That was when she was just starting out...later it was much more exciting. Her name was K.D. Lang, but her dad introduced her as Kathy! My then husband took a picture of our son and I with her, which he kept when we separated. But it's still as clear as a photo in my memory. It was obvious she was not ordinary, though she grew up in small town, southern Alberta.
Karen
Arlene - k.d. lang has one of my favourite voices ever. I remember k.d. lang and the Reclines! Hanky Panky is a great song. ~ karen
Karen
Okay, so I just googled you and found out YOU are a host on HGTV...I did not know this about you! That means that YOU are my brush with a celeb. I found your chicken coop online, showed my entire family your coop and was jealous that it wasn't mine. I became an instant follower. So there you have it, my brush with a celebrity. Luckily you can't get yeast infections on-line....maybe a virus or two. Cheers
Caroline
When I used to be fun I lived in LA too and worked for a catering company that placed staff for movie premieres. Most memorable moments: slinging tequila shots for Kevin Costner on the set of Wyatt Earp, discussing the merits of good southern fried chicken with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock and learning my handsome date one night was one of the hot bank robbers from Point Break. Least favorable moment: scooping ice cream dressed as an oompa loompa.
Karen
LOL! Omg, that made me laugh. ~ karen
MelissaY
When I was about 13 I was on family vacation in LA, we ended up going to the taping of a new sitcom staring ROBERT FREAKING MITCHOM!!! along with JULIETTE LEWIS and Ben Savage(Fred Savages little brother). This was a couple years befor Cape Fear came out but I had seen the original and even though I was pretty young, I was in awe when we got to actually meet Robert Mitchum. I sorta knew who Juliette Lewis was but as her career took off everytime I saw one of her movies I would say "I MET HER!"
Then, about 10 years ago we were at an Earth Day Music Festival in Golden Gate Park. My 3 year old son was obsessed with the band Cake (like he knew every word to every one of their songs). My sister and I are standing just outside the very mellow VIP area which is just marked off with a little picket fence. Not 10 feet away from us is Perry Ferrell with his gorgeous wife and baby. All of a sudden my sister takes off saying "stay right here, I'll be right back!" Three minutes later she come jogging back with my son and promptly sets him down inside the VIP are and starts pointing him toward John McCrea saying "Look Baby, it's the Cake Guy, go say Hi". Perry Ferrell looks over at us, smiles, shakes his head and waves his finger at us like - no no no... Even though my son doesn't actually remember it happening he still talks about the time he 'almost' met John McCrea.
Susan
I used to live down the road from Aspen, CO. in Basalt, spent lots of time in Aspen. Used to go with my sister to a restaurant called Pinnocchio's, wait for a table by the window,and "shop for furs" as they walked by, deciding which ones we would or wouldn't want. One day I see this woman get out of her car,her fox coat matched her hair which matched her boots, and oversized Jackie O sunglasses. I say to my siser..What? Who does this woman think she is, SueEllen Ewing....And it was....Linda Grey. That was fun. Pinnocchio's is now closed. :(
Beth
What a fun discussion Karen!! This really brought back some memories for me. I used to work for an airline when I was in my 20s, so I actually saw a lot of celebs. One of my favorite memories was when John Stamos flew out. He didn't check in at the gate I was working at, but when he walked past me he tipped the brow of his hat and smiled at me. Thank goodness, he didn't say anything to me, I might have fainted - LOL. He's a cutie.
Loved the story about Henry Winkler - what a doll & the Orville Redenbacher sticker story made me laugh out loud - for real!