We were competing over what famous people we'd met & about 10 minutes into the conversation he suddenly realised he'd not mentioned Stephen Hawking :)

I tripped over Chrissie Hynde's foot at a demo once -- about as close to fame as I'll ever get

Oh and welcome Rhys (and Dell if i haven't got round to saying that yet -- me memory's not wot it woz)



Jesus saves; Buddha does incremental backup.

I was once trodden on by David Blunkett's guide dog at a party! (And great heavy clodhopping feet he had too...)



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

Thanks for the welcome everybody :-)

Yup, i had a 40 minute personal interview with Professor Hawking, and it is in fact true that i did manage to forget about it totally when trying to think of famous people i'd met.

Sarah - The guidedog or David Blunkett? :-)

Y'know, i just realised that the Sun SPARC sitting on my desk in uni is called Jasper. Hehe.

Sarah, my friend lives on the same street as David Blunkett, him & a couple of other lads decided to wind up his security by riding round on one of those mini bikes with a BB gun saying stuff about assassinations..

Ok, so it's not so funny, but it amused me! (It's very typical of my friends)

Well, I _have_ had a conversation with David Blunkett, but the dog was more interesting. And it was the dog I meant who had large clodhopping feet, but I wouldn't want to be trodden on by Mr Blunkett either.

Richard Caborn (bouncy chap with a beard who is now Minister for Sport or something) used to be my MP. Now he's a real character!



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

I said hello to Sophie Aldred (Ace, from Dr Who) outside a theatre. I was actually waiting for Denis Lawson but he didn't come out.

I met Quentin Tarantino back in about 1993, when 'Reservoir Dogs' had only been out a couple of months. I asked him to sign my film festival programme; he spelt my name as 'Jyleene' and added 'Mr Brown' after his own name, so I'd be sure to remember which one he was. Bless.

I met Wasim Akram several years ago. He came into the Optometrist where I worked because his glasses had been broken whilst on tour of Australia. It was a bit of an anti-climax coz at that point he'd just started playing international cricket and couldn't speak much English. the team manager had to come in and translate for him. I've also met Adrian Plass (English Christian author).

I used to go to SF cons, so I've me a bunch of folks, including Isacc Asimov (briefly - I hadn't any books with me so he signed my con badge).

At my first con, a couple friends and I ran into Robert Asprin as we were supposed to be leaving to get Pam home in time for her curfew. Since Pam was dressed as Tananda from the Myth Inc. series at the time, we stopped and chatted with him for about half an hour. We told Pam's mother that we were late because the car didn't start when it was time to leave. This was technically correct. We simply failed to mention that then only method by which we attempted to start the car at that point in time was telekinesis.

I've met a bunch of folks from Dr. Who, including four of the Doctors (Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy) and several companions. In the late 80s I saw an amusing panel with actors from Robin of Sherwood. Michael Praed apparently got over his fear of flying by learning to be a piliot, but can only do it if he's flying the plane. He'd apparently flown himself to Chicago from the UK, arriving at some godawful hour of the morning, and the panel was at 9am. I have an amusing series of photos of him gradually looking more and more human as the pile of empty coffee cups in front of him grows. The conversation was largely held up by Mark Ryan (Nasir), which was entertaining since he almost never spoke on the show.

For photographic proof that I used to be an avid scarf-knitting Dr. Who fan, look here:

[www.geocities.com]

BTW, speaking of famous people, the woman in the group shots dressed as Colin Baker (the patchwork one) is now a published (and very good, in my not entirely biased opinion) sf author with 7 books to her name. Her name is Sarah Zettel, and I highly recommend her books if they're available over there. (Okay, I haven't read her more recent fantasy stuff yet, but I'm sure it's good too). When I first knew her she was working as a technical writer and writing fan fiction and short stories. I still remember watching her jump up and down when she had her first short story accepted by Analog.
I particularly recommend "Fool's War" and "Playing God".

Oh, and I have met one other famous person you may have heard of. Some chap from Wales by the name of Fforde.



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"I've often said that the difference between British and American SF TV series is that the British ones have three-dimensional characters and cardboard spaceships, while the Americans do it the other way around."
--Ross Smith

well, if we're speaking of famous people we met I would be all day here writing (i'm not bragging btw) but a friend used to work in the Estoril F1 track and took me there regularly, so I've met all the major Formula 1 drivers since 1987, including Senna, Prost, Coulthard, schumacher, Hakkinen, and so on and so on...

Doing the signings for work means I've met Geoff Hurst, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Ellen MacArthur, Michael Palin, Trinny and Tranny (oops Susannah), Joanne Harris, Wilbur Smith, James Patterson, Monica Ali, etc, etc...

And by hanging around after gigs or by plain luck I've met Mansun, King Adora, Tindersticks, Morphine, Nada Surf, Conteau Twins, The gift, Divine Comedy, and many more...

No one likes a show-off, Carla

i'm not a show off, of those the only that meant a lot was Senna...
I've just been lucky I guess - this is nothing compared to my colleagues who have been working here in events and stuff for longer...

I've been to a few SF cons and met a number of famous or semi-famous authors at some of those, too. Admittedly in many cases I was too dazed at actually meeting them to do more than to say how much I liked their works and to ask for their autographs, but _ Douglas Adams (as a guest speaker at UCL's SF & Fantasy Society, soon after the first series of HHGTTG was broadcast...), Roger McBride Allen, Poul Anderson, Jack Chalker, Arthur C. Clarke, L. Sprague DeCamp, Diane Duane, Robert Forward (whom I actually met before his first novel was published), Harry Harrison, Anne McCaffrey, Elizabeth Moon, Larry Niven, Alexie Panshin (whose humorous trilogy about two characters named Tony Villiers & Torve the Trog i suspect many of you would find enjoyable...), Jerry Pournelle, Karl Edward Wagner, and probably a few others whom I don't recall right now.

Oh, and one of the other contributors to a magazine about roleplaying games (called 'Alarums & Excursions') with which I'm involved _ and somebody else whom I've met at an SF convention _ is a British actor named Michael Cule who played the Vogon guard who threw Arthur & Ford out of the airlock in the televised version of HHGTTG.

Magda: LOL at your story about why the car wouldn't start.

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"This was willed where what is willed... can get rather silly."

What counts as famous? What counts as "meeting" someone?

I know loads of prominent computer scientists quite well, like Don Knuth, Terry Winograd, and of course Adobe's founders John Warnock and Chuck Geshke, well enough that I've been to their houses on social occasions, but they don't tend to be well-known outside of the computer nerd community. And lots of published paper doll artists, like Tom Tierney, but only paper doll collectors pay attention to paper doll artists.

The most famous person I've shaken hands with was Spiro Agnew, but it was just a handshake, so I wouldn't really call it "meeting" him. (In 1972 in the East Rose Garden of the White House when I was receiving my Presidential Scholar award. This is an award that is given each year to one girl and one boy from each state among the graduating high school seniors, and I was New Mexico's female recipient for that year. Nixon was off in Europe somewhere so Agnew took over the presentation duty.)

I also have a picture taken with Joe Montana back in the early 80's when I was with the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization and the 49'ers had a benefit picnic for the local branch. But again, it was one of those anonymous "meet the public" events so I wouldn't really count it.

The most famous person I've spoken to for more than a couple minutes is Charlie Sheen. My daughter Tiffany used to go to the same summer camp that his daughter went to, and they were in the same cabin for two years in a row. She even flew to L.A. for a weekend to go to his daughter's bat mitzvah. But I only met him to chat briefly about our kids at a few parents' day show-and-tells, and I'm sure he has no memory of ever meeting me or any of the other "camper parents". So while it counts for my daughter, I'm not sure it counts for me.

I guess the most famous person that I know well enough that he would reply yes if you asked him "do you know someone named Teri Pettit?" is Doug Hofstadter, but I've already mentioned that acquaintance in other threads.

(Magda, I've read several of Sarah Zettel's books and liked them, but never met her. Her web site seems to be out of date. It was last updated in 2000 and says she is "working on" Kingdom of Cages, which was published in 2001 - and which I read and enjoyed in 2002 when it came out in paperback.)

Remember Tarrant in Blake's 7 - real name Steve Pacey? Tall with dark curly hair?

Well, when I was 15, I was in the choir supplied by my school for a two week run of Joseph and the Amazing thingy at the local theatre and he was playing Joseph. And at the end of run party, he snogged me.

I was able to thank Sir Tim Rice in person last year at a Tony Hawks book launch (comedy chappie, not skateboarder) for writing the show and therefore giving me the opportunity to dine out on this story for a long long time!

Private family joke on the title them e of those monopoly rules - change 'sale of stock' to 'stale sock'.

sngh sngh sngh

One of Sarah Zettel's books was on my amazon wish list for ages, never got round to buying it..

Can't remember which. Recommendations?

Simon, I've met Michael Cule (the Vogon Guard chappie, although I wouldn't have remembered his name) too. I took part in a short RPG he was GM'ing once.
I have also met Bruce Rioch (Scottish footballer, I was with a load of Scots in Majorca otherwise I wouldn't have recognized him) and I've played pool with Tony Knowles (snooker player).
My biggest claim to fame though is that I went to school with Steve Coogan (and played rugby with him).
Oh I almost forgot this one - Teddy Sheringham said 'Alright' to me outside a Little Chef on the A1.

I will grant that of those I mentioned, only Sarah Zettel and possibly Jasper would actually recall having met me specifically, and only Sarah would be likely to invite me to her wedding (she did) or recognize me on the street and say 'Hello'.

The only famous person I can say I've met proper like is Mike Harding, folkie, comedian, and hill-walker. He presents the folk show on radio 2 these days. Nice man.

Oh, and John Prescott (Deputy Prime Minister). He came to visit/officially open our new call centre at work (when Minister of Transport). He bounced about like a balloon with a slow leak, and then answered a call. The poor old lady on the end only wanted the times of the buses to Didsbury, and when he proudly told her who he was, she called him a
^&*(£! liar and hung up on him.

Neither of them would remember me, though.



Post Edited (06-04-03 17:25)

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I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty