Brushes with Fame

I did this over on Facebook and it was fun, so I thought it would be fun to try here too.

Here are my brushes with fame. Put your brushes with fame in the comboxes.

I once shook hands with Jimmy Carter at a high school mock political convention in 1976.

I stood in line next to Tom Skerritt at Sherry Weddell’s graduation.

I once walked down the Ave in the U district while they were filming An Innocent Love and saw Melissa Sue Anderson sitting in a convertible between takes.

I once drove down the freeway near Boeing Field and looked over to the car next to me to see JP Patches in the passenger seat. That is extremely cool if you are from Seattle and Of a Certain Age.

I once saw Michael Medved in a movie theatre lobby.

Senator Slade Gorton once visited my high school class. And Governor Booth Gardner once came into the office of my boss at the UW Office of Minority Affairs. He was surprisingly short. And I once answered the phone at the Office of Health Administration and transferred the guy on the other end to my boss there, only to discover later I had been saying, “One moment please” to Senator Ted Kennedy.

I once saw Anne Rice signing books at Third Place Books, way across the room.

I once spent four hours sitting in a lecture hall on the UW campus as an extra in a scene from The Changeling watching George C. Scott pretend to play the piano and teach us. The scene is like 20 seconds in the film. I’m way off to the left off screen, but you can pick out my laugh.

I once got to hang out with Sam Phillips, who opened for Bruce Cockburn. He was in the same room after the show (at the Paramount) and I thought about shaking his hand, but he looked extremely shy and intimidated by fans already clustering around him, so I had pity and just talked to Sam.

I once walked in a door that Alan Tudyk was walking out at SeaTac Airport.

And, of course, I got to do this to Peter Kreeft once:

How’s about you?