I’ve had my brushes with the famous but on a really MINI scale

We were watching a silly comedy movie when one of the characters starting talking about all the famous people he had met in his life. Presidents, Popes, Hall of Famers, Astronauts….. you name it, everyone.

“Dad as you are about 50 times older than he is you must have 50 times as many famous encounters than he has…”

Sometimes even Hawklad can’t keep the smirk from his face before he has landed the verbal punch….

  • Ok here goes. My attempt to be 50x more exciting than that comedy character.
    • I once was smiled at by a beautiful international tennis star, kind of. We were walking in a small town in Switzerland when Anna Ivanovic walked past me and smiled at me…. Well actually she smiled and waved at the blue eyed toddler who was holding my hand. But that counts.
    • Years back I was out for a run when a bus pulled up and this rather familiar looking lady stepped out and asked if I knew the way to the local concert venue. I gave her the directions and it wasn’t until later that I passed the venue and saw the poster. Thankfully I had correctly directed Alison Moyet to the venue.
    • The former 6ft4 England Rugby captain once stood on my toe while I was waiting for strawberries at Wimbledon. I think the price of the 5 strawberries was far more painful than the trodden toe.
    • I was training at a gym in York when the world snooker champion came onto the mat next to me to do sit-ups. Bizarrely Ronnie O’Sullivan had a broken leg…..He was playing in a major tournament in the city.
    • At school we played cricket against a boy who would go on to be a fast bowler for England. Paul Jarvis. We lasted 4 overs as a team and got bowled out for 11. I bravely scored 8 of them. Two boundaries. Actually both were attempts to keep the 90mph ball from hitting me in the head. Paul Jarvis got 8 wickets. One lad refused to go out to bat. My claim to fame is that he never got me. I was bowled out by a spotty face kid who was barely strong enough to hold the cricket ball. He slowly bounced the ball down the pitch, I took the biggest swish with bat, missed and on the fourth bounce the ball trickled sadly into my wickets.
    • I once got the former European footballer of the year, Kevin Keegan to sign my arm. I didn’t have any paper…
    • Peter Ustinov walked past me once.
    • Some of the cast of the hit TV show Auf Wiedersehen, Pet stood next to me at a bar before a Newcastle United game.
    • I once patted the backside of the famous racehorse Red Rum.
    • When I was at college I picked up the courage to ask this girl to dance with me at a nightclub in Middlesbrough. She unsurprisingly said NO. But one minute later she said yes to an international footballer. Bernie Slaven.
    • Michael Caine might have or might not have sat at my work desk when a spy movie did some filming one weekend at the computer firm I was working for.
    • In my very early 20s I had been visiting friends in London. It was early Monday morning and I was making my way back home. I was stood on the tube platform looking an absolute state. Long, uncombed hair, unshaven, metal T-shirt, holes in my tight jeans. Next to me was this immaculately dressed old man in a pin striped suit and bowler hat. He kept giving me one of those LOOKS. The great unwashed look. That chap was Enoch Powell. A famous politician. Former Member of the Government. The person who made one of the most infamous and racially charged speeches in British political history. Clearly he wasn’t impressed with me. Which is ok as I was giving him a real Paddington Bear stare back…..

    That’s it. That’s my encounters with the Presidents and Popes of the world. Took me about 2500 years to do achieve all this. But it’s my own brush with fame….

    58 thoughts on “Brush with fame”

    7. I worked at the DMV office in Glendale, Cali where Mel Gibson got his first US driver’s license. He was at the camera for his license photo when I returned from lunch, and I had to do some fancy footwork to keep from knocking him down AND spilling my coffee! I apologized and continued on my way. I did NOT recognize him. Much shorter than I thought.

      My coworkers razed me the rest of the day.

      I told my hubs about it when I got home. He laughed…and couldn’t resist getting in on the joke. The next afternoon, I was told Mel Gibson wanted to see me. I go to the counter… and it’s my husband with a paper bag over his head, and a photo of Mel is glued on the front! He said if I couldn’t recognize the real deal, a fake was just as good. Then he gave me his autograph! 😀 😀

      Told you my life was wacky!

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    8. People I have been close by to over the years is a much shorter list: Wayne Dobson, Cannon and Ball, and Chris Packham.
      And if acceptable to the list, Steve Steinman.

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    13. You certainly beat me. I’ve only managed two famous encounters:
      – I once sat next to Peter Jackson in a cinema.
      – And I went to university with the sister on one of The Pogues.

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    14. That’s really cool how close you were to so many celebrities. You could have even met Tina Turner in Switzerland. However, I never did. But so cool, Alison Moyet needed your help!

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    15. My wife worked for waht used to beb called ‘The Spastics Society’. She earned the chance to attend a function organised by ‘The Stars Organisation for Spastics’ whjich was a bunch of celebs who fund-raised for people with cerebral palsey. She took me alomng and we met a bunch of DJs and actors who were stars of the ’80s. In the same decade I got involved inn politics and met a few well known ones. Lateely I’ve been to literary functions and rubbed shoulders with the likes of Emma Donhue and Colm Toibin. As you have demonstrarted, they are just like the rest of us.

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    16. Richard E Grant (coming out of shop), John Lowe and Mike Gregory (local darts charity knock outs), Matthew Kelly (Santa’s arrival parade in Poole) and Lionel Jefferies (Poole fete). Seeing a few in concert doesn’t count.

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    21. What an excellent post. Wonderful sense of humor. I believe this just goes to show how often we mere mortals can end up in close proximity to the “superstars,” who are also mere mortals just trying to do whatever needs to get done on any given day. In fact, I have my own list. Perhaps one encounter sticks with me. I was at a club and was just waiting around for the big act of the night. This was around 2005. Seattle. Regina Spektor was to perform and she was a big favorite, well on her way to stardom, if she wasn’t already at the time. Well, right on the main floor, out of the blue, she was standing directly in front of me. She is short and petite. I am big and tall. She gave me the most beautiful smile. I could have said anything to her. But I froze. I could only smile back. The moment quickly passed. Regina went on with whatever she needed to do next. I just stood there!

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