Let’s Name Drop! Celebrity Spotting: Round I

Let’s veer sharply from the ‘birthday’ theme and talk celebrities.  Specifically, let’s discuss ”Free Range Celebrity Spotting”–seeing or speaking with celebrities outside of their natural habitat. 

Seeing movie stars at an awards show or singers at a concert doesn’t count–I’m talking spotting Donny Osmond wearing a deer-stalker hat at the Whole Foods Market. 

To be honest, I’m not much of a celebrity watcher–I don’t have television over here at my little Amish beach house and don’t keep up with People and OK! magazines.  Nonetheless, celebrity spotting can be fun!

In my almost-34 years, I’ve done pretty poorly with my ‘Free Range Celebrity Spotting.’  I’ve seen Derek Jeter and the Yankees up close at spring training in Florida, but that doesn’t count–they were playing baseball.  Let’s talk about which celebrities we’ve seen ”in the wild”. 

Here’s my weak showing in no particular order:

• Barry Williams (Greg Brady from the Brady Bunch) at a hotel in Wisconsin on last year’s road trip–he hid out from rabid fans in the elevator lobby with us. 
• The host from the old kid’s game show Double Dare–his name was Marc something or other.  He was poking around a record store in The Village when I espied him with my little eye.
• Nile Rogers from the band Chic was getting his car from the same parking garage as me in the city one day.  I went up to him and said, “Um hi.  Are you Nile Rogers?”  and he looked down at me, smiled and said, “Yep.”  And then I had no clue what to say, so I scampered back to my place in line.  I’m a dork. I know.
• While traveling with my family in Italy, the woman who played the mom on the tv show Mr. Belvedere was in our tour group. 

Pathetic list–especially for someone who visits New York City frequently!  But it’s not like celebrities congregate on the streets in Manhattan.  It’s kind of like waiting for deer to show up in my parents’ back yard–you know they live out in the woods, but they don’t always come out when I’m visiting.  My parents see them waaaay more than I do–just like New York residents must spot celebrities waaay more than I do.

What about you?  Have you spotted any celebrities ‘in the wild’?? If so, where?  Did you speak to them?  Snap a picture?