Fame without fortune

Somehow, my husband and I got onto the topic of brushes with fame. It reminded me of celebrities I've met along the way, most of them before 2000.

• Don King. I have a picture of us together, and he has his arm around my waist. People ask why I'm smiling so enthusiastically. He squeezed me just as the picture was taken, and it took me by surprise.


• Bruce Jenner. Weird. I've never been so up-close to someone who had undergone so much plastic surgery. It was creepy.We were in a limousine for 45 minutes, so I had time to really scope out his face. Eww.


• Emme, the plus-sized model. I was a client of her husband, and we got to be friends. I am so sad that they're getting divorced, but I have a feeling they'll both benefit.


• Evander Holyfield. He has the biggest hands I have ever seen in my life. He shook my hand, and my hand just disappeared. He's severely dyslexic, which would have been helpful for me to know at the time. He's also incredibly kind and very religious. Somewhere in my basement, I have signed gloves and I couldn't care less.


• Sara Hickman, my favorite singer. She gave me the longest hug I've ever had in my life.



• Nicole Wood, Playboy Playmate. We had dinner together. I felt like an Amazon, a homely stepsister, invisible. The men couldn't stop staring at her, but hey, I've never experienced such outstanding service in a restaurant. Actually, I have, and the second time it was on my own merit as someone who had helped the owner in his first days in the U.S. I felt like royalty.


• Pete Rose, disgraced MLB player.


• Al Jarreau, singer. Friendy and gracious.


• Robert Hays, actor (Airplane!), in a bar in the French Quarter, New Orleans.


• Marion Barry, outrageous former mayor of Washington, DC.


• Jerry Falwell, evangelist. Incredibly charming and disarming. It scared me after the fact.


• Jerry Penacoli, TV Entertainment Reporter. Very nice guy. I used to research stories for him.


• Nancy Glass. Bitchy diva, self-absorbed. Used to be on an Entertainment-Tonight-type TV show, and then produced her own shows. Brought her dog to work and insisted everyone feel good about it.


• I have not met but have been in the same room with--twice--Ted Turner and Jane Fonda.
• I went to a private party where the band was the Neville Brothers.


• Greg LeMonde, champion bicyclist. What an incredibly, incredibly nice guy.


• Christ Klug, Olympic medalist, snowboarding. He won the bronze only 19 months after undergoing a liver transplant. For someone who flies over the snow, he is very grounded and down-to-earth.


• Billy Kidd, skier extraordinaire. He couldn't care less if you're a celebrity or regular person. He'll still help you find your way around the mountain, and he'll chat with you just as if he'd known you forever.


• Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison. She's shy and she has the most incredible blue eyes I have ever seen in my life.

This a late addition that occurred to me weeks after I first posted this. I also met Al Lewis, otherwise known as Grandpa Munster. This was strictly by chance. In the spring of 1993, a friend and I spent a day in Greenwich Village poking around at the flea markets. I bought a rustic, willow twig arch entwined with dried flowers. On our way back to the PATH train, our conversation was interrupted by Al Lewis. He owned a restaurant in the Village (Grandpa's), and he was standing outside on this beautiful spring day. He came over to take a look at my willow arch and seemed genuine as he looked it over carefully and commented on how pretty it was. He was funny, smooth, and NewYork brash all at the same time. After our conversation, my friend and I kept smiling all the way to the train station. The following Monday at the office, I was actually able to say, "Yeah, my weekend was good. In fact, I met Grandpa Munster..."

I think I missed a few--writers, I think. I'll bet the only person on this entire list who remembers me is Emme.