Name-dropping

Used to work in a fancy hotel overseas a long time ago and I've seen some celebs. One of them was Charlton Heston and his wife. No, he didn't have any semi-automatic assault riffles on him. I wasn't impressed; he looked rather shrivelled up, like some old prune and since I'm not a fan, I just pretended I didn't know who he was. Handed him his bill :D.

Another specimen I met was Benny Hinn the religious TV scam artist, pardon, televangelist. He did the whole I'll-put-my-hand-on-you-and-pretend-I'm-being-guided-by-Jesus- and-I'll-heal-you thing to one of the managers in the hotel. This "miracle" basically consisted of Hinn pushing the guy's forehead with his palm while two burly bodyguards caught him as he lost his balance and fell backwards. Since the poor guy was Jewish, I guess the trick didn't quite work on him :laugh. It was one of the most freakishly pathetic things I've ever seen :laugh, especially since Hinn kept quietly chanting and rolling his eyeballs in their sockets for maximum effect, supossedly posessed by Jesus :rofl. We laughed like maniacs about this incident for months afterwards. No wonder he's a multi-millionaire :laugh.

I shook hands with Lee Greenwood once when he was performing in Cleveland, Ohio at his concert. Several of us walked down the walkway aisles, and he shook hands as the stage he was on revolved.

I met Gordon Lightfoot; Robin Macy, one of the original Dixie Chicks, worked for me one summer a few years back. She and my ex became friendly when my ex solved a couple of surveying-related probems on Robin's arboretum, and asked to work for us during her summer break from teaching HS math.

only boy band fans might know who brian littrell is, but he is one of the backstreet boys (my daughter's been a huge fan since she was 13 ... she's 21 now LOL) and he's touring promoting a solo cd right now. it's a christian music cd, but but went to his concert anyway. it was sunday, father's day, in grand rapids, mi.


so during the concert, she calls me so i can listen to him sing a little bit ... which was pretty cool of her. :)

next thing i know, i hear a guy saying directly into the phone "hello? hello? who's this?" and i yell "hello?" and "this is carol" (repeated a few times because he coudln't hear me). then i hear him say "who am i talking to?" and i hear a bunch of people yell in unison "carol!".

that's when it clicks ... my daughter gave the phone to brian and he's talking to ME!!!

next thing i know, he says directly into the phone "hi carol, this is brian and i'm talking to you live on stage right now!" so i go "oh my god!" and i hear the audience scream!

a few moments later, my daughter gets back on the phone and i ask "was he really talking to ME???" she said YES, she was standing right in front of him and she handed him the phone. she said she had me on speaker because it's the only way she could hear me, and when he held it up to the mic, the whole place could hear me too!

so yeah, that's my little brush with fame. all because i've got a pretty cool daughter. :)

My friend was in Hawaii the week before last and saw Heather Locklear and Meg Ryan. My friend and her b/f had drinks at a bar and were at a table pretty close to Heather and another woman. My friend pulls out her camera to take a picture of the scenery out the window of the bar and Heather and the woman kind of looked worried that my friend was going to take their picture. Also, Meg was working out on a treadmill at the hotel gym.

- I touched boxing gloves with Sugar Ray Leonard.
- I had my photo taken with Wayne Gretzky and Vladamir Tretchak (Russia), and it's autographed to me.
- I went down a bobsled driven by Pierre Leuders on the Olympic Track.
- I shook Prince Charles hand and handed a stuffed owl to Princess Diana.
- I met a bunch princes and princesses, Olympic athletes, and important Government ministers. (They're just people too.)
- I met and organized the flame lighting ceremony with with Man in Motion Rick Hanson (and met his lovely wife).
- I have a personal signed thank you letter from ex PM Mulroney.
- watched a movie being made next door and met Doogie Houser.
- Brad Pitt filmed part of a movie here (Jesse James) but I didnt' bother to catch him. Too crazy.

Not a lot of movie celebrities up here. Too cold :lol

I met Sean Astin (Samwise Gamgee from 'Lord of the Rings') in 2004 when he came to the Mall of America to sign copies of his new book. I've also had Joe Mauer from the Minnesota Twins (and a couple of other Twins players) come in twice and order drinks at the country club I work at during the summer.