Saying hi to famous people

The guy who played Enos on Dukes of Hazzard was in town the other day for an appearance.

 

I've taken pictures with Chris Bosh, Scotty Nguyen (professional poker player and former WSOP champion), and Rob Thomas of matchbox twenty. They were all pretty cool about it, but Chris Bosh probably would've rather not taken a pic with me.

I met Chris Bosh while standing in line at the cage in Wynn Las Vegas a few years back. It was during the summer while Team USA was having training camp in Las Vegas. I acted like such a dork when I noticed Bosh. I went up to him and was like "Hey, what's your name?" "Chris." "Chris Bosh?" "Yeah." "Can I get a picture with you?" I hand the camera to a short middle age Arab guy, he takes a pic, I tell Bosh that I really enjoy watching him play and hope he does well next season. Chris says "thanks," and I go on my way. A few seconds later, a group of hot women come up to Bosh and start flirting with him. Apparently they had just talked to Shane Battier, who they quoted as saying something along the lines of "Can a brotha get a little love?" The Arab guy was clearly agitated because he has no idea who this famous person is.

I met Scotty Nguyen while playing poker in a Cherokee Casino in Oklahoma. At the time, Scotty was a paid spokesperson for the Cherokee Casino poker rooms, so I had no qualms about bugging him for a picture. He was super nice and I thanked him for bringing attention to poker in Oklahoma or something goofy like that. He dropped "thank you, baby" a few times on me and was great. Too bad he appears to be a total asshole when he gets drunk and plays poker on TV.

I met Rob Thomas after I went to a matchbox twenty concert with an ex. He was very gracious and I told him that I have always loved a cover version of Wyclef Jean's "Gone Til November" that they sometimes work into the middle of "Long Day" at the close of their shows. He told me the story about hanging out with Wyclef and asking Wyclef what he'd have to do to get him to come to his show. Wyclef told him he'd show up if they played one of his songs. Rob was a nice guy and had a smoking hot wife that walked by when he was talking to us. I also met a couple of other guys in the group, but they're not famous enough to mention.

 

Thanks to my jobs I bet I've met most of the famous entertainment people of the past 15 years or so...but off the job I've met a few -- the best was Kenneth Branagh. We were at the Four Seasons in Toronto one nice weekday afternoon around 2 and he and I happened to walk into the empty bar together. I instantly stuck out my hand instinctively to say, "I just have to tell you how much I enjoyed Henry the Fifth. Your band-of-brothers speech is my favorite scene of all time." I think he sensed my sincerity, and he said, "well, I have to buy you a drink."

We spent about 2 hours in there getting drunk together in the afternoon. This was before email and FB and the like or I bet I would have gotten his contact info. He was a really cool cat, and we had a lot of interesting stories to swap about people we both knew of sorts.

 

I followed Billy Ray Cyrus into a truck stop in Paducah Ky., and asked him for an autograph while he was taking a dump.

 

I once saw Liza in an airport.

 

I once met a well known sports writer at Stan's.

 

Love that movie, that scene, and his work. Thanks for the story.

 

Weird, since he died 30 years ago.

 

Laughed the first time you told it JR and it's still funny.

I bet the Colonel would not recognize the new KFC.

 

Ditto. Man, am I jealous. Whenever I watch that scene, I still get goosebumps. And, even though the production also featured Keanu Reeves, I really enjoy Kenneth and Emma in "Much Ado."

 

Saw Joe Walsh in the San Diego Trader Joe's. He was obviously shopping and had a very strong vibe of, " Don't fucking bother me, I'm trying to price arugala."

Met ReRun from What's Happening. He was apparently touring the South talking to mayors of small cities. The small city I covered was one of them.

Was running a marathon and was passed by the star of JAG. Tailed for about three miles after that, but he kicked it into high gear over the last four miles.

Hung out with Kathleen Turner for about two hours during an Obama rally I was covering. She was pretty lit by that point and funny as hell.

Met the guys from Everclear after one of their early East Coast shows in the 1990s. They were actually trying to pick up my girlfriend, and gave her a pager number to reach them.

A friend of mine dated a girl whose brother owned a music club. We used to get to meet the bands once in a while. I vaguely remember watching one of the guys from Fastball trying to deflower a girl in tight leather pants, but was having trouble getting the pants off because they stuck to her skin.

Met Yasmine Bleethe and Richard Greico in Upstate New York. They were dating at the time, and he was from there. He often took her back there.

 

Mizzou's story about liking one of Pollack's lesser known films reminded me of the time I saw Terry O'Neil at a charity tennis tournament. He ran CBS Sports in the '80s and wrote this real interesting book called "The Game Behind The Game." I shook his hand and said I really enjoyed the book. He looked at me like I had 17 heads, as if he was shocked into silence that this kid (I was 18 or 19) had read his tell-all. Quite amusing.