Celebrity Sightings

If you have read this blog at all you might have guessed (I know I have not said it directly until now) but I love my life. Everything about it is perfect ... wife, kids, career, house, friends, etc. Don't envy anyone and am pretty happy.

One element of this is ... I think I lead a pretty interesting life (NOTE TO CRITICS - THIS iS THE WHOLE POINT OF THE POST). Even though I live in a nice country setting in what many would consider the sticks - I get out in the world and see things and people.

It helps that I travel alot and am privledged enough to usually get upgraded to first class. So this week I sat next to Warren Littlefield (if ya gonna name drop you need to add the bolds) -- I am sure you are all saying "who the heck is Warren Littlefield" (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0514716/) . Well he is the former President of Programming at NBC Sports -- the freakin' architect of "Must See TV". He left NBC in 1999. He was reading a script on the plane with character names Dixie and Harry (had to sneak a peak). I did not talk to him because 1) it is not cool to bother the other passengers (did you hear the commercial about the pirates) and 2) I did not have a TV idea to pitch.

Among the people that I have "run" into in my travels (and I won't even roll out the Superbowl lists - until some other time) :

• Another time I was sitting next to Willie McGinest of the Patriots. He has the longest legs around.
• Once out of Las Vegas I sat with half of KC and the Sunshine Band (including KC, the other half was in coach). They were really tired and spent the entire flight needling each other. I sat next to Rusty Hamilton the keyboardist.
• Whenever I walk off the plane I always look at the people holding the name cards -- every once in a while you see a familiar name. Well about 6 months ago I was getting off the plane in San Francisco and I saw a sign that said "W. Grousbeck". I said to the guy --- "no shit, your waiting for Wyc?" He downplayed it, so about 10 steps past him I turned around and it was Wyc Grousbeck owner of the Celtics. Turns out he was sitting across the aisle for the entire 6 hours flight from Boston. What is funny is when I was reading the papers I noticed the Celts were playing Golden State - I considered going for about 4 seconds.
• In 2003 I get stranded at in Denver when God decided to drop all of the snow we got here in Boston that winter in one day. They were calling this the Yao Ming storm since in some places they got as much as 7'5" of now. I had to spend 3 days there -- luckily I was in a "Heavenly Bed" (their trademark - not mine) at the Westin and not one of the 3500 people stuck at the airport terminal. They even had to move them all through security when the "tarp" roof of the airport ripped. So when it was finally safe to come out of my hotel - I headed to the airport. I arrived four hours before the flight - knowing that there would be chaos at the airport. This included a1 hour transaction at the ticket counter - the cheer this guy got when he finally received his boarding pass would the cheers that Brady gets these days. As in many of these "crisis" type situations - people that normally would not talk to each other become foxhole friends. So there is about 6 guys clustered together --- joking around about how absurd the whole situation is. Well the guy with the British accent points out the classic LA girl -- blond, enhanced, etc. Well I say that he has been in LA too long and we chat for a few minutes about LA girls, etc. Come to find out he is Sacha Grevasi (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0315065/) a screenwriter … he was hesitant to admit any of his movie's, "I've worked on some bad movies". Finally after some coaxing, he told us, the Big Tease, some uncredited stuff, an upcoming Hanks film The Terminal and (drum roll ……..) Simone. Well … when he said Simone … I said something like "I saw that on a plane and that was really a painful two hours", his response was something like "I spent 10 weeks on the set - now that was painful". Good guy - even went to get food for all of us.
• One other time I was going to Denver with Rick Clarkson and I was reading (what I found out later) was a draft of "Who's Your Caddy" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0767917405/qid=1125080944/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-4694208-8840817?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) by Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated.
• Not sure I should even admit this one ... but I was waiting for a connection one time and notice some "dude" with trying to be invisible over by the pole. As it turned out it was CT / Chris (from Boston) from Real World Paris. He was alittle crazy on the show and this was right in the middle of the first run for the show (http://www.mtv.com/onair/dyn/realworld-season13/personality.jhtml?personalityId=1078).
• Finally the Mother of All Sightings ... back in the summer of 2003 I am in the line at LAX to get on a flight to San Francisco (you often see celebs at LAX) and I notice this blonde girl walking my way. As I am looking I am thinking - wow LA is just filled with these Britney Spears Bimbo wannabees - as I am thinking this ... I realize this is not a wannabee this is Britney Spears. She is with what I think is a sister and one boby guard. They are escorted right to the front of the first class line and they cut directly in front of me (I know -- why would I let her do that). I was shocked that 1) her entourage was only two people and 2) she was flying commercial. Remember this is in the peak of her popularity before all the craziness took over. BTW ... I was willing to bet anything that security was going to yell "secondary screening". Sure enough -- they pulled her aside and did all the extras (going to SB39 I was talking to a TSA guard at Logan and he says they pull celebs over all the time - he had recently stopped Brady and all he could say was "don't blow my cover" as I guess he had on some disquise.)