Name dropping

What rich and famous people do you know? I will add them on LinkedIn.

Ned Raggett

do they have to be both rich and famous?

not trying to brag but i did used to post on a message board with Karl Malone

I play tennis with someone who'll be picking up John Olerud's wife at the airport next week. You can't get much more connected than that.

I held a door open for Noam Chomsky one time

The Hudson Brothers (see wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hudson_Brothers) attended my high school. One of them married Goldie Hawn and later Cindy Williams! They had a TV show!

Of course, I never met any of them since they all graduated before I attended and I never watched their TV show, nor can I tell you any of the songs they recorded. But my H.S. classmates knew who they were and talked about them sometimes. Does that count?

Yes, I watched their show and know who they are and who their spouses and offspring might be and have heard a funny story one guy told about Ringo claiming Macca stole the headshake from him.

Inexplicably proud to be one of a handful of people on here who watched the Hudson Brothers' TV show.

I exchanged pleasantries with the nephew of Jim Backus at a job I had in the mid-eighties.

I love that one. What was that Letterman segment? "Brushes with Celebrities" or something like that? This has the makings of a "Quasi-Brushes with Quasi-Celebrities" thread.

Trying to remember what actual songs the Hudson Brothers had as a recording act and how high they charted. Seem to recall one called “Rendezvous.”

Not exactly a distinguished discography.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hudson_Brothers_discography

I remember their window of name-dropping fame lasting even less than 15 minutes, but they were apparently releasing singles from 1967 to 1980.

almost had to buy a six-pack of heineken for dave brubeck, but one of my coworkers did it instead

all the famous ppl i know are broke

"I'd like a six-pack, please."

"Here--take five."

lol

Andre Agassi is my 2nd cousin but we've never met so i guess i don't really know him. nevermind.

all the famous ppl i know are broke

― the late great, Saturday, June 10, 2023 9:16 PM (thirty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Being famous and poor is cooler imo. Alas these people do not fit the strict criteria of the thread.

Not exactly a distinguished discography.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hudson_Brothers_discography🕸

I remember their window of name-dropping fame lasting even less than 15 minutes, but they were apparently releasing singles from 1967 to 1980.

I love all of my completely unremarkable 'four degrees of separation from quasi-celebrity' connections:

-One of my work friends was roommates with Tom Clancy, Jr.
-I inherited a cache of comics from Michael 'The Pretender' Weiss
-I was in a relationship with the niece of Freedom Williams

There are others of equal unimportance that occur to me from time to time so I'm sure I'll have some more thrilling fodder for this thread soon enough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm6TkQAh2wc

"I was in a relationship with the niece of Freedom Williams"--love that one!

My grandparents lived down the street from Kate Nelligan’s brother.

I've gone to a movie with someone whose grandparents lived down the street from Kate Nelligan's brother.

One of the characters in For Better or For Worse was based on a teacher at my high school

my second cousin once removed in law is jeremy corbyn's wife.

actually not once removed, - my aunt's ex husband's brother's daughter. 'second cousin in law' is definitely scraping the barrel though, especially as said legal relationship was dead and buried decades ago.

my grandma was second cousins with Walter Mondale

Ilx is teeming with name drops — what inspired this thread?

Name drops keep fallin' on my thread.

But that doesn't mean I'm gonna change my name from Redd

I’ll crosspost with Ned

One of my cousins was friends with Rachel Hunter (actress, model, tv presenter, ex-wife of Rod Stewart).

One of my maternal grandfather's close childhood friends was James Doohan, ie. "Scotty" from "Star Trek"

I met Rachel Weiss’s mum at Tesco

(Autocorrect sux, *weisz’s)

Or at least someone who claimed to be her mum, I believed her tho

My grandparents once took Aldous Huxley on a picnic.

I picked up Cleanth Brooks at the airport and made sure he got to the lecture podium without breaking a hip.

The Well Dropped Name

This is very niche but my mate is friends with Fred Moten and Fred has slept on his couch/in his spare bed a couple of times after conferences.

Ned Raggett

The accuracy.

When I worked in the travel industry, I went on a birding trip with Chr1s Packham. He was a dude, tbf. We 'bonded' not over birds, really, but Cormac McCarthy and Joy Division.

I went to school and grew up with EFL journeyman football player Chris Billy who is a legend in the region for scoring in a playoff final at Wembley and a very nice guy. Also much more horribly and not really a name to drop, one of Ireland's most horrific serial killers of this era, Mark Nash. I once had a ridiculous rolling all over the deck clown fight with him on a bus when he tried to mug me for my sony walkman. This was someone I knew from the age of 7 coming at me with 2 gormless goons backing him up and by some vagaries of chance he didn't win, not because I'm some badass, but because I was actually ready to die for that walkman! But the the thought that scares me more is - he might have just let me off because he either liked me or was just planning to finish me off at a later date.

Chr1s Packhām phoned me when I was working in a bank call-centre, I enjoyed that his house name and street name both featured animals, he was fine, businesslike.

also spoke to:

Trev0r H0rn - was tetchy. and for good reason!

A A G1ll - sorry to say that he was very charming and friendly

David Beckham - it was just another guy called David Beckham.

My wife was on the nursing team of am HIV hospice in the 90s and she once answered the phone to Danny La Rue who rather rudely demanded to be passed on to one of the senior medical staff. She explained that she was unable to do that as they were all in a meeting, to which he barked the question "do you know who i am?!?". My wife said no and hung up.

literally no one. i think i saw dustin hoffmann out of the window of a bus once

this is me with Jon Pertwee at the International Garden Festival in Liverpool in 1984.

https://i.postimg.cc/WpnKvnQS/20230611-213255.jpg

We all knew Momus once.

He'd already left when I got here about a decade ago. unless I just don't know his username.

But I didn't see
That the lap dance was on me

i saw Matthew Barney's butt in person ... he was about 30' above me so it isn't like i had a very impressive view

― sarahell, Sunday, June 11, 2023

I remember that

I'm vaguely related to Elle King through various marriages, she's my uncle's stepson's stepdaughter. Met her once at Thanksgiving when she was a teen.

Back in the 90s, my band spent an evening with Chris Cornell, went to dinner with him and watched Barbarella and drank beers with him. We also hung out with the assorted members of Morphine at various points, and I once met Even Dando when he was tripping on mushrooms.

Some famous-ish people I knew from college include Rashida Jones, filmmaker Andrew Bujalski (also most of the cast members of his earlier films), and Spark founder, Bishop Allen guitarist, and OK Cupid blogger Christian Rudder.

oh, I forgot high school. I was at the same magnet accelerated classes place as one of the pinterest founders and one of the people who was contesting the crispr-cas9 patent

Working at a small Miami Beach bookstore in 2001, I'd several stars: Barry Gibb, a sequoia in the history section reading for several hours; Thomas Harris of The Silence of the Lambs fame in a Panama hat; Brett Ratner after a coke-fueled evening buying thousands of dollars on Taschen coffee table books.

But Iggy Pop was the best. On a Monday evening he and his girlfriend would case the store as if they owned the joint: she dressed like a model, he barefoot and in tatty jeans. Those saucer-sized eyes complement his height. One night he asked for The Corrections, the hip book at the time. We had no copy -- Franzen was hot. The protocol at the time was to call our Coral Gable store to ship a copy over. When the employee at the other end asked for a name, I froze.

"Keep it under Osterberg, J.," I said briskly.

Looking back at Iggy, he winked at me.

He walked out having spent several hundred dollars on fashion magazines, Nietzche, Goethe's Italian Journey, and some Steiner thing.

I think the one that I'm most *proud* of, or whatever, is that my grandmother was friends with Howard Zinn, and I had dinner with him a few times.

classic Iggy

I got wasted with Dimebag Darrell once when he stopped in the pool hall where a friend was working on a weekday afternoon. I quit drinking shortly thereafter and missed out on the nights he came in and then took a crowd back to his house. Pretty sure that was the last celebrity I met.

I peed next to Kurt Russell in a bathroom in a restaurant in Santa Monica in 1989.

I would absolutely not be able to

― jmm

me either

When I was in college, there was a rumor that I slept with Allen Ginsburg.

Actually I did help organize a reading by Mr. G. (in my capacity as vice president of the English Club lol). But I barely spoke to him. I think I asked a dumb question and he turned away toward the cheese and crackers.

It turned out that another young man (with the same first and last name) had driven the poet to and from the airport... and it was THAT gentleman who allegedly/possibly slept with him as well, I dunno and it's none of my business.

All I'm saying is: there were rumors, there were allegations...

I served Dale Winton half a pint of Guinness in the Staines branch of Wetherspoons. Bleak doesn't cover it.

I think I've told most of these stories on ilx before but:

-walked by the guy who played tv's Coach in the Atlanta airport
-walked by Thom Yorke in Oxford; he gave me a look that I understood to mean "I know you recognize me, so fuck off"
-did a study abroad program with this guy (and we were in a two-person tutorial together): https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/02/11/a-suspense-novelists-trail-of-deceptions
-gave directions to the Whitney Museum to Daryl Hannah while on my way to the Whitney
-then, weirdly, saw Jude Law & Sienna Miller in the Whitney
-was opening the door to the Music Box in Chicago when a woman wearing bright orange pants did the same thing, touching my hand. She immediately walked away; my friend told me "that was Joan Cusack"
-had jury duty the same day as Oprah Winfrey. I was only near her during the lunch break, where she was surrounded by a phalanx of cops, but it was a surreal experience, mostly due to the intensity of everyone's starstruck-ness around her (e.g., everyone sat facing her in the cafeteria). I honestly pitied her a little

Apart from the fraud guy, I don't think anyone I've known has gone on to become (in)famous. I have known a few quasi-famous artists and academics, but no one I think really counts in the larger world.

When I was a toddler my parents lived near David Hasslehoff's family. He'd already long headed out for his acting career and was working on The Young and the Restless, but his sister babysat me a few times.

ooh I was walking quickly down a sidewalk in Montreal (very hungry) and almost ran over a woman leaving a yoga studio. it took me probably twenty feet to think “wait she looked familiar” to turn back and realize it was Naomi Watts

if I’d accidentally run into her it wouldn’t have turned into a romantic comedy but I can always dream

Neando I was gonna say it sounds like you dodged a bullet with Darrell there, but thought better of it

I think I've mentioned all of these elsewhere on ILX...

My Godfather's cousin is General George S. Patton. For real. What this really meant was that my parents' real estate agent's cousin was the General - but Nelson & Hildy were family friends and remained so for the rest of everyone's lives. Guess who saw the George C. Scott movie in the theaters when he was five?

After my dad graduated from Cornell in 1939, he enrolled for a year in the writing/dramatic arts program at Howard College (now called Samford) in Birmingham, Alabama. His roommate that year was future character actor/Sam Peckinpah regular R.G. Armstrong - thirty years later, they were still in contact but at the letter or phone once-or-twice a year friend level. Bob made 80 movies - all through the 1970s, I'd see him shoot people, get shot, be evil, and my mom would always nudge me with "that was your dad's college friend."

My brother-in-law's father was the writer of "Tijuana Taxi" and played in both of Herb Alpert's bands: The Tijuana Brass and the Baja Marimba Band.

My first physics professor in college was part of the Manhattan Project and won the Nobel Prize for discovering the neutrino.

I went to high school with disgraced Houston Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow. Science fiction writer John Scalzi started at the same school the year after I graduated, but somehow we met and are happily friendly.

When The Muffs starting playing gigs around LA again in 2014, me and Ms. T just started seeing them whenever we could. A lot. Impossible to have a bad time. ("What are we doing tonight that's so much more important than seeing The Muffs?" was a common phrase). At one of those gigs, Kim Shattuck asked us to watch the merch table for them after someone flaked and suddenly we were doing Merch For The Muffs for most of their LA shows for the next year or so. Being around Kim, Ronnie, and Roy was like being in a insanely raunchy and funny cartoon - Ms. T and I going home just laughing our asses off. The world sucks without Kim in it. (BTW, Kim was also incredibly knowledgeable about LA real estate and helped us find the place where we're at now).

-walked by Thom Yorke in Oxford; he gave me a look that I understood to mean "I know you recognize me, so fuck off"

I was walking along a street in Dublin and saw a guy walking towards me who I recognized. He kept looking at me while I went through "did I go to school with him? No, he's too old" and "did I work with him?" and "should I say hello... oh wait that's Daniel Day Lewis!" And obviously whatever face people make when the realization hits them is amusing to him, because the smile got wider and we both nodded as we passed each other and continued on with our respective days.

It was like he was willing me to realize it before he passed by, and he was pleased when I finally did.

I gave Paul and Linda McCartney's kids (just Heather and Mary, I imagine) all my Opal Fruits; Phoenix Cinema, Wallasey, early '72? Bedknobs and Broomsticks was showing. The Macca clan was on our row.
Obv I don't remember this, and it's just become family lore. I also don't really remember Rod Stewart (and other less stellar folks) playing a charity football match at our local ground (like, 30sec walk from our front door) in '75, though there's photographic evidence of that, but no idea what happened to all the autographs I collected.

I went to school with some minor TV/music ppl, and I used to see (and occasional have fleeting interactions with) celebs when I worked in Soho, but those two phantom '70s non-memories are the ones that always come to mind.

It was like he was willing me to realize it before he passed by, and he was pleased when I finally did.

― trishyb, Wednesday, 14 June 2023 11:34 (fifty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

very DDL ebergy i feel

good ebenig

I spent part of an afternoon house party day-drinking with James Murdoch once

Previous ILX name droppers:

Accidental Encounters With The Rich and Famous?
Why is there no ILX celebrity sighting thread?

brushes with greatness (again)

Some famous-ish people I knew from college include Rashida Jones, filmmaker Andrew Bujalski (also most of the cast members of his earlier films), and Spark founder, Bishop Allen guitarist, and OK Cupid blogger Christian Rudder.

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Monday, June 12, 2023 5:53 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I have often wondered as a sometime Bishop Allen fan... what does Christian Rudder do now? No longer involved with OK Cupid, I think, no Bishop Allen music in a while, no more books... does he just hang out being rich?

I saw Cat Power with Brent Musburger's sister-in-law.

(I've actually interacted a bit with Brent Musburger's brother's family but that example just struck me as particularly funny for some reason.)

xxp

I have no idea, but hanging out being rich is certainly what I would do.

It turned out that another young man (with the same first and last name) had driven the poet to and from the airport...

Must have been Ye Sad Puffin?

On the "kids of famous people" tip, I went to school with Juan Thompson. Very smart guy. I got the impression that he didn't have much of a relationship with his dad.

(By "school," I mean college. Juan also dated the ex-girlfriend of a friend of mine. They had kind of a masochistic triangle, as the exes were still "friends.")

I was in high school religion classes with the Catholic priest who got caught in the act of filming himself getting pegged by two satanist dominatrices on the altar of his church a couple years ago. Well done, Travis.

Random encounter reminded me that large professor was a regular at the record shop I used to work at

But how could I forget my fave??? Shortly after his release, sending some records to John hinckley.

Random encounter reminded me that large professor was a regular at the record shop I used to work at

But how could I forget my fave??? Shortly after his release, sending some records to John hinckley.

How to win friends and influence people

I sat next to the guitarist from the Honeycombs' son for the first 2 years of middle/high school.

I was on a bowling team one night : Treach from Naughty by Nature and a couple of friends vs the girlfriends.

I brought a very lost George Clinton up to my work one afternoon so he could use the phone and find his hotel.

Got a couple if sharing lanes for bowling counts:
Donald Faison and his family were a delight to share a lane with, they were very friendly and we were both throwing high-fives back and forth whenever anyone got a strike.
On the other hand, shared a lane with Wanda Sykes and a bunch of people I did not recognize. Although the rest of her group seemed personable enough, Wanda gave off radioactive "I see that you recognize me and there is no way in hell I want to talk to you" energy, which I respected tbf as I wouldn't want to talk to a 20-year-old me about Pootie Tang either.

i was just saying to my good friends julie goodyear and yung gravy the other night that namedropping is a bit déclassé

Jonathan Richman totally just asked me for a ride home

I sat next to former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed one night at a Hawks game (he was still in office at the time). We high fived.

I ran into Scott Ian from Anthrax in the pit at a Fear/Elvis Hitler/the Dwarves show.

Anthony Bowie of the Orlando Magic came into the Steak n Shake I was working at in high school.

He made fun of me because my shoes weren't non-skid and I kept slipping.

I went to art school with Keith Haring.

The band I was in opened for Squeeze, Duran Duran, and Gary Numan.

I guess my boyfriend at the time and I shared a cab ride with Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon in 1980ish, to some loft party in Soho, but I didn't know until years later that was who they were.

wow, the Haring namedrop will take some beating!

My mum told me my grandma once unceremoniously kicked a drunken Charles Haughey out of their house when he got too tediously drunk and loud. I'm not sure if I completely believe the story, but it's probably not that incredible because my grandfather was a fellow alumni of his at Trinity, he just sort of landed a bit lower than him!

the bowling lane naughty by nature vs the girlfriends scene is giving me life for some reason

XXP - Wow doo dah!! That's some namedrop indeed, were you part of his wider circle of downtown friends perchance? That was a fascinating period.

Nah, this was in Pittsburgh. He started later than me, we weren't in any classes together.

My boyfriend was high school friends with a guy who was in the Coachmen; we had gone up to New York to visit him, he took us to rehearsal.