<p>I think Justin Bieber passed me in his sportscar on the highway a few days ago, but I can’t be for sure because he was driving pretty fast with a big police escort driving behind him. I noticed a bumper sticker on the car as it sped past me saying: “I don’t brake for paparazzi!”</p>
<p>A convoy of limousines with blacked out windows and headed by a bevy of police motorcycles sped past me in New York City recently. I don’t know who was in the limos but I’m guessing it was President O’bama and Nicole Kidman</p>
<p>I sat next to Neil Simon on a plane once. He was writing and kept his paper covered as if I might try to sneak a peek.</p>
<p>Harry Chapin 1974ish. Got a kiss and a personalized copy of his book of poems.</p>
<p>When I was in high school working at a tennis store in Baltimore, Lorne Greene (from Bonanza fame) stopped in at night, wearing sunglasses. It certainly made him more noticeable!</p>
<p>The following year I was a camp counselor at a Jewish day camp and Joan Rivers was starring in a show in town for a 2-week period. She enrolled Melissa in our camp while she was in town and she was assigned to my bunk. She was very well behaved and everyone was envious that her lunches were packed by the hotel she was staying in.</p>
<p>When my son went to a camp outside of Austin one of his bunkmates was Willie Nelson’s son, and Willie was there to help him move in. Willie looked the way he always does and his son was very clean cut and dressed almost preppy. It was pretty funny, but he was friendly and low key.</p>
<p>Over the years I’ve seen a number of (pseudo) celebrities, most recently Tracy Morgan hanging out next to us by baggage claim at Houston Intercontinental when we waiting there for our son to arrive.</p>
<p>Ooh, and I just remembered. A number of years ago Mary Steenburgen was filming a movie in Houston and rented the house a street behind us for the duration. At that time she was dating Ted Danson and one day when I was outside my house, who should walk down the sidewalk but the 2 of them! That was surreal.</p>
<p>;) I trapped Gene Hackman in his trailer. It was parked at the end of our street- the one we live on now. (He, Ann-Margret& Ellyn Burstyn were making a movie on the next block, I was to find out. )I was just taking D & a friend for a walk. I was staring at the trailer after seeing Gene Hackman typed on a little strip of paper, imagining what it would be like to be cooped up in there on a sunny day.</p>
<p>The girls noticed a crowd of people on the next corner so we continued down that way. As soon as we had taken about ten steps away from the trailer, the door opened, Hackman came out & hurried past us to the set. We watched for about five minutes. My attention span wasn’t much longer than a 4 yr olds.</p>
<p>Where we used to live, I used to see Bill Gates driving around in his Honda minivan, with his cup of 7/11coffee.</p>
<p>My 83 yr. old mother met Victor Cruz yesterday. He was the celebrity guest at the phone bank for Obama she was working at. She said he was very personable and very handsome.</p>
<p>I met Ken Norton when I was in college. He was a world champion box who fought (and was robbed against) Ali. He was working out in my gym, apparently doing rehab to recover from an auto accident. </p>
<p>Tennis player James Blake practiced on the MIT courts once. It was pretty noticeable since there were a lot of news cameras around. I was kind of surprised considering at the time he really hadn’t done anything on tour as he was still just a college player.</p>
<p>^I didn’t meet him, but one time Carl Lewis and lots of cameras were on the Caltech track. I never did find out why they were there, but it prevented me from running there as I had planned. :)</p>
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<p>I <em>sort of</em> met Kenneth Cooper when I had to inform him that he and his party were sitting in our seats at a show in Dallas. He was quite apologetic.</p>
<p>A pretty famous retired athlete and sports commentator has just purchased the house across the street from ours, so perhaps I will meet him soon.</p>
<p>I sat across the bar from OJ Simpson at an airport in Houston. He was holding court in that place like you wouldn’t believe. Posing for photos with “fans,” loving all the adoration. I had no desire to meet him, so I just kind of watched it all while I drank a glass of liquid courage before my flight.</p>
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<p>Mike Modano lives in my neighborhood. One time he was walking his three dogs (actually they were walking him), and he asked if they could say hi to my dog. I was going to say “Uh, no, she’s not nice to other dogs” when they rushed up to us and got all their leashes tangled up with us and my dog went all Cujo on his dogs. It was embarrassing, but I was a little star struck when I realized who he was. </p>
<p>He looked much younger than his actual age, and was quite the handsome one…;)</p>
<p>My friend dated One Direction’s Zayn Malik’s 2nd cousin. My parents grew up in the same neighborhood as Obama. I’ve met the doctor who separated conjoined twins at VCU. My mom saw an Indonesian princess at barnes and nobles once lol. Haha yeah that’s pretty much it</p>
<p>Without getting into the more interesting celebrity encounters I’ve had, two of the oddest sports ones were:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The Red Sox had a pitcher from Asia - not Matsuzaka, but Kim - who they literally ordered not to throw so much. I ran into him at the track, maybe a mile from Fenway. He threw for over an hour to his translator - who had trouble catching the breaking balls. I considered emailing Theo. This track is out of the way, though it’s become more noticeable now that it’s been rebuilt. </p></li>
<li><p>Same track. I was working out a few days before the Marathon and there were these Asian runners with a whole cluster of coaches. These guys ran themselves into the ground. It was absurd how hard they worked. At one point, they ran a lap 1 foot touching the foot behind. Try doing that for 100 feet, let alone 400 meters. Couldn’t figure out the purpose. One of them won on Monday.</p></li>
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<p>My husband sat next to Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson in a bar/restaurant on Nantucket two years ago. My husband chatted with Reynolds about the game (Red Sox). H. didn’t recognize Reynolds or Johansson, who were sitting at the bar next to him for almost an hour. After they left, the bartender told H who they were!</p>
<p>I was returning to my hotel in NYC (on the north end of Times Square) late one night coming back from a black-tie dinner. A young french girl was in the elevator with her mother and they were talking back and forth in french, which I don’t speak or understand, and the young girl was pointing at me. Finally she asked me, in heavily accented english, if I was James Bond.</p>
<p>I looked at her and replied, “Yes, yes I am.” The elevator stopped and I got off. When I got back to my room and told the story to my W and D, they were less than impressed.</p>
<p>DH went to high school with Daryl Hannah and walked into their graduation ceremonies with her (random assignment). He tells me that she was tall and skinny and not very popular in HS :)</p>
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<p>I guess I’m in the “wrong” half as I’ve never met either one of them, though it would have been cool. The more I think about this thread, I realize I have met several sports figures here through the years, however. </p>
<p>One year I took D1 to Paris. We watched the film French Kiss with Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline about 20 times before we left. When we arrived, we checked into our hotel, put our stuff in our room, and left to go explore. When the elevator doors opened, who but Kevin Kline was standing there waiting for the elevator! My brother informed me he was in town to film The Pink Panther. My brother works in the film industry and has met tons of celebrities in the course of his job. I’ve met very few actors, only sports figures.</p>
<p>i forgot about Mike Modano and the Stanley Cup! When my kids were little I interviewed nannies and one of the young women was Modano’s girlfriend who had moved to Dallas from Canada to be with him. I didn’t hire her. Later they got engaged and then he dumped her. </p>
<p>Yeah- there were a lot of former Dallas Cowboys living around our area and who had kids at the schools my kids attended. </p>
<p>I sat with Joe Walsh (the singing Eagles as opposed to the Phila Eagles) in the bar car on an overnight train trip back in the 70s. It was before he started his solo career. He was traveling with a girlfriend and was very modest. He said, “I’m a musician with a group called the Eagles.”</p>
<p>Living in the Nashville area we frequently run into country music stars. My husband is retired and seems to have more star spottings than I do. He used to see Leann Rimes at our gym and had coffee with Brad Paisley’s (country singer) parents at Starbucks after a bike ride. One we don’t enjoy seeing is Ashley Judd at the Vanderbilt basketball games since she is a Kentucky fan and is really obnoxious.</p>
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<p>My “half of Dallas” must have been a figure of speech. On the other hand, my younger sister who had not visited Dallas in the past two years had a picture taken with Troy at Al Biernat last month. Fwiw, Moose when he was still blocking for the great Cowboys used to spend much time with his future bride at the Border’s on Preston and Royal. He was also very nice with the kids hanging around his table at the little coffee shop. Troy would come in but only signed autographs of his book that was on the shelves.</p>
<p>JFK Jr. at a work-related situation regarding a charity. Handsome and polite beyond belief.</p>