Sunday, October 11, 2009

A Brush With Sort-Of Fame

You know the Brush With Fame Game, right? It's where you and your friends sit around and tell how you met/saw/were in the presence of someone famous at one time or another. Like when I was at Sundance a couple of weeks ago and Robert Redford almost ran over me in his Mercedes Station Wagon. Or when I was in the Kathmandu airport and I stood next to Steven Segal while we filled out our immigration papers. Then you see whose brush with fame was the most impressive (and seeking out a celebrity at a concert or something doesn't count. It has to be random.) And that's who wins.

Well, here's my latest Brush With Fame....ish. My ballroom dance teacher was on So You Think You Can Dance last night and the night before! I know, it's not really a brush with fame. For one thing, he's not actually famous. Yet. He made it through the auditions and on to the Vegas round, and through the first several rounds in Vegas. But they didn't even show his name (although he did get a couple of sound bites). For another thing, he was only my dance teacher once. He got hired on by my other dance teacher, but then he got through the SYTYCD auditions so he stopped working (and I wasn't allowed to know why because the show hadn't aired yet). But still, it's pretty cool when someone you danced with for an hour is on national TV. Maybe he'll make it through to the top 20 and this post will seem a lot more impressive. (Keep your eye out. He's a Polynesian ballroom dancer from SLC named Tony.)

Anyway, anyone else have a brush with fame they'd like to brag about? I'm sure you'll win. Unless Tony WINS So You Think You Can Dance...then I will demand a recount.

18 comments:

Kristina P. said...

My good friend dated Rulon Gardner. He is gross. He actually carried around his amputated frostbitten toes, in a jar, in his truck. No joke.

Sara said...

I had a lot of "brush with fame" when I worked at Sundance. I met a lot of celebrities. One of my favorites was Kevin Bacon. He was so down to earth, just one of the guys. O and Sacoya and I got to meet the two Davids just after American Idol. She almost passed out. She still has her photo with them on her phone

rychelle said...

i recently saw tory spelling at a joan rivers show in vegas.

i'm pretty embarassed to admit any of that.

Ben Davis said...

I got Marcia Cross' cell phone number from her.

It was after Melrose Place, and a few years before Desperate Housewives. She was in SLC while shooting Everwood. She had come by the Mac store where I was working at the time and had accidentally left her computer charger. She called into the store to ask us to hold it for her, and I told her I'd need her name and phone number to put on it while we waited for her to come back into town. She was really hesitant and I couldn't figure out why. (I hadn't recognized her the first time I saw her, never having seen any of her shows.)

She gave me her cell phone and came in to pick up her stuff a week later. I apologized for asking for her number since I figured that's taboo with famous people, and she thought it was funny I didn't know who it was. Go figure.

tiburon said...

I have too many to list...

Sat in the room while Trent Reznor shot heroin between his toes.

Made out with the guitar player of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Had dinner with Primus.

Got pulled up on stage by They Might Be Giants on my 16th birthday and they sang me Happy Birthday. That was after then washed their hands in their dressing room and dried them on my jeans because they didn't have a towel.

Had my cigarette lit by Flava Flav.

I could keep going. But I will stop...

And I can't believe that SYTYCD was on last night and the night before and my DVR didn't record it. I am a little irritated!

Kenny and Kelli Ray said...

I watched Matthew Perry play tennis at Gold's Gym in Orem. I asked Apollo Antwohno's skating partner to swap seats with me on the plane so I could sit by Kenny...Apollo was at the front of the plane. John Heder was at Mimi's Cafe where we were also dining. I saw Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen at Thanksgiving Point when they were at the Cirque Lodge at Sundance. I met Craig T. Nelson on the lot at Universal Studios. Not that he's that famous, but I talked to Tyson from Survivor at California Pizza Kitchen. All of my brushes with fame are B grade at best. I'm sure I have others, but I still have prego brain.

Kenny and Kelli Ray said...

OMG, how could I forget my FAVORITE brush with fame??? I met Lauren Conrad in Las Vegas. ...and also Lisa D'Amato from ANTM.

kado! said...

Prince took my VIP table at Studio 54 in Vegas....

and Perez Hilton was on my flight from JFK to Vegas...

Lyns said...

Uh--the one guy who wrote God's Army--the missionary guy who died--yeah that one--he came into Red Robin in Provo when I was a server there--with his wife and like 6 kids and totally stiffed me (can you tell I'm totally impressed with his celebrity??)

I worked for Amex for years and talked to quite a few celebrities--Kevin Bacon was always really nice when he called.
I met Dick VanDyke on Creek Street in Ketchikan, AK the summer I worked there. I saw Mel Gibson's yacht from a distance too (see I'm soooo sad with my brushes with celebrities--boo hiss!!!)

Financial Aid for College said...

The best I can do is boast a photo of me and Orson Scott Card together at a bookstore signing. (I know, all you guys are illiterate, and don't know who Orson Scott Card is: a world-famous NYTimes best-selling Sci-Fi author, winner of a gazillion awards). He has one arm around me and is holding up my novels (which he has never read), while I have one arm around him and am holding up his novels (all of which I have read). He's a millionaire several times over. I live in a small, dark, bug-infested basement.

But just to get even, I don't know most of the people YOU brushed past, either! Generation Gap!

And TIB, I would like to know what kind of places YOU hang out!

mCat said...

Wow - how fun!
I can't top Tiburon. And actually, my brush with fame was with President Monson several years ago, and too sweet to share.... : )

CaraDee said...

I honestly can't remember any at all.

I just asked Brandon. He ran into the red-head guy from Party of Five at a bookstore in Palm Desert. As a little kid, in Venice Beach, he saw Arnold Schwarzeneger at the gym with his mom and said Hi. Saw the fat cop from CHIPS at the Rose Cafe in Venice. We both saw a bunch of celebs at the Bob Hope Classic in Palm Desert.

I honestly can't think of one person. I think it's cause it wasn't a big deal. But yesterday, as we were walking in Chinatown in S.F., Brandon's Dad (who had meandered off for a minute) walked by Christian Bale. I wanted to haul down the street and get a picture with him sooo bad.

CaraDee said...

While amazing, Tib's are all most likely from being at concerts. Doesn't that fall under the category of searching out in a way??
Tib??

Vanessa said...

Was he dancing w/the really blond Russian woman that made it thru to Vegas? When i saw him, I thought he looked like your teacher.

Mia said...

Yeah, I got nothing. And when Ben said working at Mac I thought he meant the MAC makeup counter... not the computer store. I was a little intrigued, then not. I'll let you gals get famous then you can be my brush with fame!

Chelsea said...

All mine are political (because of my dad) and therefore boring. Unless you're a political junkie, the only slightly interesting one is that I've met Chief Justice Roberts a couple of times.

Omgirl said...

No. That wasn't him dancing with the blond Lithuanian lady. My teacher who made it on SYTYCD isn't my regular teacher. He's a polynesian guy--tall, young, dark curly hair. I only had him as my teacher once and I don't have any pics of him. But if you watch the Vegas episode again, he's waering a white and grey horizontal striped shirt. You see him 2 or 3 times, right up front. Also, in the SLC audition episode, they show him saying something like "ballroom dancing is like being married. without the benefits."

Mrs. O said...

Warren Beatty with his son at the trains in Griffith Park on Free Monday.

Dave Letterman running on Zuma Beach. Spoke with him and he was less stand-offish than I expected. He is one skinny dude.