How many degrees of separation do you have with a famous person?

[Hawkeye-X]

I have two famous people I connect with, one dead, one alive.

Bugsy Siegel:

Bugsy Siegel->Benjamin Kaplan->Benjamin Kaplan's daughter->me.

Chauncey Billups (MVP of the '06 Finals)

Chauncey Billups->me. (We both went to the same high school, and he was one year behind me)

[rcrush]

1. I know a guy who is second cousins with Jessica Simpson

And I used to give Bruce Bowen free movie tickets a couple years ago.

[old mark]

60. I am a second cousin of Homer Simpson. nt

[TZ]

2. My Aunt worked in Jimmy Carter's White house

And one of my cousins was married to a former Miss America, Marilyn Van Dan Bergh..

[liberaltrucker]

3. Mikhail Gorbechev-3 degrees

Gorby>Bush 41>Sen Shelby>me

[MilesColtrane]

4. I've backed lots of showbiz types, so there are many connections to the film/music world.

I've also met some political, business, and sports figures, but less of them.

[Arugula Latte]

5. My very first friend in the world is now friends w/ Julia Roberts.

So, two.

[femmocrat]

6. I work with a woman whose son formerly played with Van Halen.

Is that 2 or 3?

My brother was engaged to a woman whose son was also a semi-famous rock guitarist.

[MrScorpio]

7. For me so far, within six of everybody

That's just how I roll

[theNotoriousP.I.G.]

8. None whatsoever

but I've got an aunt who has been married 8 times so can I claim a loose kinship with Liz Taylor????

I also pranked called the television set of Mash when I was a kid and talked to the priest guy, does that count?

I also met David Ogden Stiers and Sam Elliot. I've got jack shit for being directly related though.

[whistler162]

9. Lets see...

Bill Clinton -- The CEO of the company I work for, I do Technical support for him -- me(same with Hillary Clinton/Howard Dean)

[trueblue2007]

65. I think it was in 1996 when Oregon got floods... I SHOOK BILL CLINTON'S HAND

AND I TALKED WITH HIM. HE THANKED ME FOR MY SUPPORT.

[azmouse]

10. One degree from Kevin Bacon

I've met Capt James Lovell (famous in his own right) who has met Kevin Bacon.

[LibDemAlways]

28. self-delete

[martymar64]

33. I have one degree from kEvin Bacon as well

I had a screenwriting class at Santa Monica College with Emily Longstreth, who played Kevin's girlfriend in The Big Picture.
She dropped off the map several years ago, I hope she's OK.

[dgibby]

44. Lovell's cousin was one of my best friends. n/t

[CaliforniaPeggy]

11. I met Jerry Brown...so there's that...

I had a phone conversation with Jonothan Kellerman once...He writes murder mysteries that are mostly set in LA...

I met Dennis Kucinich once.

And I'm friends with WCGreen who once met Al Gore...

I used to know Adrienne Barbeau; she was two years behind me in high school...

And a good friend of mine is the daughter of Lou Costello.

And I'm friends with John Morgan Wilson who writes murder mysteries here in LA too.

[AwakeAtLast]

12. One of my dad's cousins was Secret Service to LBJ

He rode in the car with him. He's got some interesting stories to say the least.

My mom's dad knew Burl Ives - they grew up in the same area of So. IL.

One of my dad's aunts by marriage is a Costner.

[AlienGirl]

13. Um...

Two from Obama.

One from a bunch of Hollywood people whose names and faces I tend to forget. Also sports people.

Two from a dead European dictator whose mention kills threads.

One from my favorite historian/rockstar.

Tucker

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. A few

My grandfather taught the Andrews Sisters in high school

Kevin Sorbo's father was my eighth grade science teacher

I once sat at the same dining hall table with Meryl Streep in the Yale Commons cafeteria (we weren't together--she had graduated from the Drama School the previous year and had come back to visit some friends)

I know both sisters of orchestra conductor Hugh Wolff

I met Dick Cavett backstage when he came to see a play that a friend of mine was in

I met Dennis Kucinich when volunteering for his campaign

My parents knew the parents of Camilla Hall, one of the women who died in the Symbionese Liberation Army shootout

[abq e streeter]

15. way too many to list, but an old roommate authored the words "tough actin tinactin"

other "actual " famous ones include former Clinton chief of staff ( and Obama transition team chief etc) John Podesta , who was a buddy of mine as an undergrad , and Rolling Stones sax player Bobby Keys , who is what I guess you'd call a casual friend. And people that I know for a fact have seen me perform range from Rick Springfield and the Dixie Chicks ( hung out with the Chicks that day too, and have hung out, many years ago, but just for maybe 20 minutes,with Bonnie Raitt) to Al Gore and Bill Richardson... Also graduated high school with both a Playmate of the Year ( Claudia Jennings, 1970 or 71, and never met her once in 4 years there) and 1973 Miss USA Amanda Jones ( who was a casual friend)...have also dated the ex-wife of a retired NBA star, as well as the future (and now ex) wife of a fairly well-known singer-songwriter.....As I said above, there are way too many to list; I have a funny ability to stumble into knowing, or having connections with,at least semi-famous people and can get a little unintentionally obnoxious with what probably seems like name-dropping, but do it only because I think it's funny how I keep having these connections happen as opposed to the intention of trying to impress people with who I've known.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

16. to name a few.....and it all has to do with geographics

mostly neighbors

William Colby
Phil and Daniel Berrigan
Howard Zinn
Christian Slater
Stanley Aronowitz
on edit:
Ramsey Clark
Ray McGovern

1 degree
Robert Redford
Al Paccino
Samuel L. Jackson
Matthew McConaughey
Sandra Bullock
Kevin Spacey
Dean Koontz
John Grisham
Jim Carrey
Katee Winslet
Elijah Wood

[kwassa]

17. Talking Heads, Gus Van Sant, Mary Boone

Heads, the rock group, Van Sant, the film director, Boone, the famous New York art dealer.

Went to art school with all of them.

and I've seen lots of celebs in person in LA, and talked to a few of them, though generally I like to leave them alone.

[omega minimo]

34. More coolness from kwassa

the era and the "leave the alone" bit....... :pals:

[Ikonoklast]

18. My uncle worked for Pope John Paul II, directly.

List can get pretty big after that.

[Catshrink]

19. My sister went to HS with Gary Locke and Frank Raines

But me? I went to HS with Mark Morris but I only knew him in passing.

[latebloomer]

20. Met Ted Kennedy and Walter Mondale

Hung out with Phoebe Snow

Met Peter Wolf of the J. Geils Band, and didn't know who he was

Friend of a friend of Dylan

Know numerous people who have hung out with Springsteen

My old boyfriend married Billie Montgomery, who later married Joe Perry of Aerosmith

[kentauros]

21. One degree on a few dead ones and some lives ones.

Live ones:
Richard Garriot, though I wouldn't call him more than an acquaintance from high school.
Apollo Astronaut Rusty Schweickart (in Boy Scouts with sons and friends in school)
Skylab 3 Astronaut Dr. Owen Kay Garriott (through his son, obviously)

Never met the Aldrins, though they lived behind us, nor the Beans and they lived around the block from us.

The dead ones would be:
Paul Newman (knew his daughter Melissa in 1st grade and met him at home in Westport.)
Apollo Astronaut James Irwin (in Boy Scouts with his sons and talked to him personally sometimes)


Yes, I grew up in a little neighborhood directly across from NASA-JSC during the Apollo, Skylab and Shuttle years :D

[smokey nj]

22. I graduated from the same high school as Barney Frank, but he was 30 years ahead of me.

[Capn Sunshine]

23. My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend

heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with a girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night.
So there's that.

[Capn Sunshine]

45. BTW Hawk knows I am in the hood where entertainers live

I have many former and present clients that are "famous".

[EndersDame]

24. A couple of my friends from highschool transferred from Austin High with the Bush twins

[Brother Buzz]

25. Pat Paulsen and I attended the same high school and we both pole vaulters

He was drafted into the Marines, I was drafted into the Army.

[SeattleGirl]

26. I've met Jane Curtain, Susan Saint James, Jessica Lange,

Bill Cosby, Ginger Rogers, Gerald Ford, Randi Rhodes, Stephanie Miller, Rachel Maddow, Ron Reagan, and Thom Hartmann.

[applegrove]

27. My dad goes out to lunch with a 90 year old who flew in the Battle of Britain. He got a phone call

a while ago from a local old plane collector who had just bought a Spitfire and wanted some tips on how to fly it (he also offered to let my dad's friend fly the thing (70 years after his last flight) but his wife killed that idea). Anyhoo..this plane collector flew the spitfire while wearing an Amelia Eirhart wig for the movie comeing out this year.

[LibDemAlways]

29. My sister-in-law's cousin's son is married to Michael Moore's

stepdaughter. I realize that's a lot of separation, but I suppose I can consider Michael Moore a member of my (very) extended family.

My other connections are all to R's.

Back in the 80's I taught John Wayne's grandson. His mother Toni was Wayne's daughter. She was a very nice woman who didn't hold it against me that her kid was a slouch who was failing everything.

I went to high school with George "Macaca" Allen. He was a racist asshole back then too. Wore a Confederate flag pin in his graduation photo (this in Southern California), and was suspended for racist graffiti on the school walls.

I'm friends with a woman who used to live next door to Kirk Cameron and I met him a couple of times. I know he catches hell here on DU, but he seemed like a nice enough guy.

[begin_within]

30. My Dad met Eleanor Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart at one time

I've told this story several times on this forum. My grandparents, lived in Chevy Chase, Maryland and they were active members of the National Geographic Society. They went to all the monthly luncheons at the NGS headquarters in Washington DC. One time, my grandfather was sick, so my grandmother took my dad to the luncheon. He was about 13 or 14 at the time (this was the early 1930s, but I'm not sure exactly what year). The guest speaker at that luncheon was Amelia Earhart. Also, Eleanor Roosevelt was in attendance. When it was all over, my dad and his mother were walking through the hallways at NGS headquarters, and came upon Eleanor Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart in a hallway, having a conversation. My grandmother introduced my dad to them and the 4 of them had a polite conversation for about 5 minutes. When he told me about this, he couldn't remember exactly what they had talked about, but it was a memory he cherished for the rest of his life.

[MrsBrady]

91. ok, now that's cool n/t

[UrbScotty]

31. Rep. Gary Peters -> Me

He was one of my professors.

here are also many "Famous Pol -> Someone Else -> Me" combos.

[dysfunctional press]

32. quentin tarrantino used to crash on my wife's cousin's housemate's couch...

her cousin and a friend of his bought a 2-flat together- he had the upper, the friend(who owned a video store) had the lower, and he let one of the guys from the video store crash on the couch. quentin tarrantino.

also- sam houston is my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather.

[Yavin4]

35. Former Colleague of Mine was Terri Augello

Terri Augello is the Mother of Alicia Keyes.

I knew and worked with Terri right before Alicia became huge. Terri once told us that Alicia turned down a role in the L.A. production of RENT, and I thought that they made a huge mistake.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

36. Both my grandparents met Mahatma Gandhi individually of each other

1 degree (people I've actually met)
Roald Dahl -chilren's author
John Dean -Senior member of the Nixon Administration and political commentator


2 degrees
Mahatma Gandhi
Nehru (the first Prime Minister of India)
Barack Obama
Joe Biden
Hillary Clinton
Al Gore
Bill Clinton
George HW Bush
George W Bush
Dick Cheney
Richard Nixon
Henry Kissinger
Gerald Ford
John Major (British Prime Minister)
Nelson Mandela
Gordon Brown
Tony Blair
Angela Merkel
Silvio Berlusconi
Helmut Kohl
Jacques Chirac
Francois Mitterand
Nicolas Sarkozy
President Suharto of Indonesia

3 degrees
Dwight Eisenhower
John F Kennedy
Lyndon Johnson
Franklin Roosevelt
Winston Churchill
Harry Truman
Ferdinand Marcos

[TommyO]

37. I was friends with somebody who was a friend of one of Kate Bush's friends

me - friend - friend - Kate Bush

[MorningGlow]

38. Not a whole lot

I used to buy records (yes, vinyl--shows you how long ago that was) from members of local band the Chesterfield Kings, who are kinda famous--huge in NYC and I think they were in the Sopranos. (I think that was the show...never seen it so I'm taking an educated guess here.)

Also met Douglas Adams after a reading he did many years ago. Darling guy. I just loved him.

And I've interviewed several famous authors, but only by phone. Most of them have been delightful.

[Jetboy]

74. Chesterfield Kings are a great band.

Luv that garage rock/ mid-60s Stones kinda sound.

[Auggie]

39. One degree from Harrison Ford and Groucho Marx

I know Ford's Brother.

My father-in-law once had lunch with Groucho.

[mitchum]

40. My father-in-law baby sat the Beatles in 64...

so, those guys and everyone they ever met
Ali, Dylan, Elvis, Rolling Stones, etc...

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

41. That's quite a match up too!

:)

[RadicalGeek]

42. OK. . .

Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel:
Jim Tressel->Me (Before he was coach at Ohio State, he was at my Alma Mater)

Brian Setzer (Jump, Jive, And Wail)
Setzer->Bernie Dressel(Drummer)->Bernie's Brother Ron->Me (Bowled on Jr. Team)

[DontBlameMe]

43. My uncle's wife was married to Ted Turner

back in the late sixties.

[bikebloke]

46. Hilter

I worked for the daughter of the Israeli judge who presided over the Eichmann trial. And Eichmann worked for that Adolf bloke.

[AlienGirl]

93. I know an amateur historian who visited the bunker's phone guy, who knew that Adolf bloke. nt

[darkstar3]

47. Jay Nixon

He's the only one I can think of for certain.

Jay Nixon was the AG of our state for many years, and my grandmother, as a state court worker, worked with him frequently. According to grandpa, he and Jay kept in touch for years after grandma passed. It's too bad grandpa didn't get to see Jay elected to the governorship.

Grandpa was pretty well connected in the state, but he was always pretty quiet about it. He considered it bad taste to name-drop, and mom's the same way. I'm almost sure one of these days mom is going to let it slip that grandpa knew someone nationally famous. My suspicion is Al Gore or another prominent democrat, but I may never know.

It's still pretty cool that I'm connected to my governor by two degrees. :)

[tigereye]

48. one of my dear friends is the daughter of a Pullitzer Prize winning author

Oh, and I do know some people who played in a band with Michael Chabon in the 80s. So I guess that makes me 1-2 removes from 2 Pulitzer Prize winning writers. Oh and Meridal LeSueur (cool labor writer and poet) once stayed with us in a house I lived in.


That's kind of cool! :think:

[bookworm65t]

49. John Kennedy

In my dad's Air Force days, he met and was friendly with JFK. Dad was part of the crew that specifically handled Air Force One or whatever the plane's name was in the early '60s. Dad said that he was warm to the crew, and that he was the kind of President who would give the Secret Service fits because he would suddenly dart into a crowd to shake hands with well-wishers. He had also met Nixon and LBJ doing this duty, and thought both of them were sons-of-bitches.

If I want to take this further, then I guess I could say that I am some degrees connected to Stalin, Hitler, and Lenin. Is this how this scenario works?




:wow: :woohoo:

[DFW]

88. I never met JFK or Nixon, but LBJ was indeed an SOB

("but he was our SOB")

I did meet Bobby a couple of times, though.

[madamesilverspurs]

50. Janet Napolitano

went to my high school, although several years after I me. If memory serves, her class had to clean up after the immediately previous one which contained David Addington, acch ptui.

[abq e streeter]

75. no kiddin? Sandia?

[susanr516]

51. I'll play

My brother-in-law knew Farrah Fawcett--they graduated from high school together.

[NMDemDist2]

52. my husband's second cousin is Liza Minelli, they share a great grandfather n/t

[Chan790]

53. One.

A few dozen times over. My roommate and fraternity brother are both staff for the in-house series-development office of a major cable network. My roommate was a producer on a film which was nominated for a best picture Oscar last year as well.

I'm up to my asshole in famous casual acquaintances of the "Hey, you'll never guess who I had cereal with this morning; no, they spent the night on my sofa." variety.

[carpetbagger]

54. Harry Chapin cooked a burger for me once.

His kid went to my school. Mr. Chapin was really cool, just like the other dads, except cooler since he didn't have to commute to Manhattan every day.

Runners up:
Carpetbagger sang with a singer who used to be a construction foreman overseeing a guy who used to sell cocaine to Marion Barry (3 degrees).
Carpetbegger had a roommate who had a girlfriend who went biking with a guy who was the masseuse or masseur or whatever to George H W Bush (4 degrees).

[Sisaruus]

55. I know people who know people

me > my sons > related (on my ex-husband#1’s side) to Rockefellers (and son#1 was pre-prep classmates w/ John #5)
me > My good friend > was married to a Hearst and was cousin-in-law to Patty
me > 2 good friends > good friends of Gloria Steinem
me > Went to prep school with Alex Gibney (Director of Taxi to the Dark Side & Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room) > when we were in school, he was the stepson of William Sloane Coffin who would visit campus and have dinner with us.
me > Bob McChesney of Free Press and Media Matters (went to prep school with him) > friend of Bill Moyers (who I have met)and many other left-media types
me > writer Ridley Pearson (same ol' prep school) > Dave Barry
me > RFK, Jr. (same prep school) > and all that links to
me > Various friends > various Kennedy’s
me > Another prep school classmate > nephew of Nicholas Katzenbach > LBJ, etc.
me > Ex-father-in-law > Robert McNamara (I remember answering the phone a few times when he called)
me > Sister of Kate Hepburn
me > Friend > partner of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s granddaughter
me > Friend’s son > works with Rachel Maddow
me > Good friend > colleague/friend of Howard Zinn
me > Ex-sister-in-law > used to play tennis with Robert Redford
me > Many friends > friends of Chris Dodd or Joe Lieberman (I live in CT)
me > My mother > used to be yelled at by Edith Roosevelt (wife of Teddy) for playing too close to the yard of her summer house
me > My father > Truman Capote borrowed his tie for a photo shoot when they were neighbors residing in the same hotel in Italy
me > Ex-husband #2 was friends with a whole bunch of B or C level Hollywood types (like Frankie Avalon, Robert Goulet, Vanna White and other folks who didn’t impress me as much as they impressed ex-h). But I did get drunk with Amanda Blake (Gunsmoke’s Miss Kitty) one night and after explaining to her I could never buy a fur coat for politically-correct reasons offered to let her sleep with said husband one night if I could sleep with her mink. We kept drinking and never followed thru on the trade.
me > In college, I was assigned to be Adrienne Rich’s driver one week while she was a resident poet (I think I got the assignment because I had the nicest car).

Probably many more connections that I'm not thinking of - only because by my age (57), it's hard not to have known people who know people.

[Ptah]

56. I met Edgar Bergen

[whistler162]

64. Now if you had met Mortimer or Charlie THAT would

have been something!;)

[graywarrior]

57. One.

No wait, if I talk with him is that one, or none?

[1gobluedem]

58. One I guess

Me>Mo Rocca. Met at an event, friends since. That's all I've got, though.

[GReedDiamond]

59. Joseph Stalin:

Joseph Stalin-> President Eisenhowser-> President Nixon-> The Bass Player From My Band-> Me

Four degrees to Stalin.

OR

Timothy Leary->Me (one degree, I did an undeground comic book with him), and then, descending from there, The Beatles, The Beats, etc etc.

How's that, paradoxically speaking?

I have a lot more, too.

[old mark]

61. I went to college with Drew Barrymore's mom.

Till she quit to move to CA.

I'm sure she remembers me not at all.


mark

[LostInAnomie]

62. I used to date a girl that was related to Axle Rose

[AllenVanAllen]

63. 2 Degrees

A friend of mine worked on President Clinton's advance team.

[unpossibles]

66. my brother used to work for N*Sync

And there are some other close connections, but I generally don't get the whole celebrity worship thing at all. In fact, sometimes I've later discovered I was somewhere a celebrity was (and once even talking to someone famous) without even recognizing them.

[charlie and algernon]

67. 1 degree to Obama and Kerry (shook their hands)

2 degrees to President Eisenhower (Met his grandson, also lived two doors down from his childhood home in Gettysburg)

[Bertha Venation]

68. two

me - my mother - Beau (Lloyd Vernet) Bridges

My mother went to high school with him.

Does this count?

[Bertha Venation]

69. Oh, yeah, one more --

I worked with the mother of Gilby Clark of Guns N Roses.

[Rambis]

70. My parents taught the Everly Brothers

they still keep in touch which is weird if you are at the house and one of them calls. Steve Bell from the nightly news was also in their classes as well.

[cemaphonic]

71. Bill Clinton is probably my closest

I worked for a direct presidential appointment within the State Dept. for a summer.

One of my dad's friends is friends with Eric Clapton.

and my personal favorite - my sister-in-law is pretty good friends with Joel and Ethan Coen's mother.

[BurtWorm]

72. I can connect with Obama in two steps

My former roommate works at the White House.

[Jetboy]

73. Lee Greenwood offered me tickets to see him in concert.

I politely told him that I wasn't too big of a country music fan.

[KamaAina]

76. I met William Christopher (Father Mulcahy from M*A*S*H) at an autism conference

we were both presenting (he has a child with autism, and of course, so does my Mom :-) )

[county worker]

77. I went to the same school as Martin Sheen. My brother was in the same classes as he was

and I was in his brother Joe's class. We all caddied at the Dayton Country Club. My cousin married Martin's older brother. I talked to him at my cousin's funeral a few years ago. Emilio and Charlie were invited to my cousin's daughter's wedding. I was too and could not go. Emilio and Charlie went. Damn!

[RoyGBiv]

78. Guess it depends on what you mean by famous ...

I have one degree of separation with a lot of famous scholars, mostly historians. I met Shelby Foote once, who is not a historian, but played one on TV. I am friends with someone who knew him well.

If reduced just to having met someone, I am separated by two degrees from people like C. Vann Woodward, Eric Foner, James McPherson, et al.

My favorite is that I am separated by three degrees from a famous person who died in 1904. I know John Rhymes, who is the nephew of James Longstreet. His second wife was Helen Dortch, who died in 1962 and whom Mr. Rhymes escorted to a ball in the ... 1940s I believe. That makes me four degrees separated from people like RE Lee, Teddy Roosevelt, Ulysses Grant, Stonewall Jackson, Custer, etc.

My least favorite is Jeremy shockey. He, ummm, slept on my couch once.

[mnhtnbb]

79. Walter Matthau spoke to me in the bank one day many years ago.

when my young son was acting up and proclaimed him to be "a real Dennis the Menace".

We were having dinner one night in New York several years ago when George Clooney came in and sat at the table next to us.

When the same son who was called a "Dennis the Menace" was a toddler, I met a woman in our local
park with a son the same age. I asked her if she wanted to join a play group...and she said she
was the nanny, but thought the Mom, who was up in the park's center building, might be interested.
We went up to meet her and discovered Mom was none other than Lindsay Wagner--the Bionic Woman!
She did not join the play group.

Lesley Ann Warren used to occasionally show up at the adult ballet class I took in Studio City about
25-30 years ago. Bonnie Bartlett used to come to the ballet class once in a while, too (She played Grace Edwards on Little House on the Prairie at the time).

Bob Kerrey, former Senator and Governor of Nebraska was a guest in my home at a pre-Jefferson Jackson
Day dinner/cocktail party when we lived in Lincoln, NE. Ted Sorensen was at the same party and so was
Ben Nelson (boo).

I sat at the same dinner table with Molly Ivins once when she was in Lincoln for a speaking engagement
and another time I sat next to Barry Lynn (Americans United for Separation of Church and State)for a similar dinner.

Finally, my claim to fame as a tennis player when I was in college at UCLA was having the chance
to rally with Jimmy Connors.

As for being related to anyone famous, General Sir Redvers Buller
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redvers_Buller
is a distant cousin. I had a commemorative plate of him that I found in an antique shop
in Rye, England and was displayed in our home that burned down. I also lost the genealogy
prepared by a Canadian cousin of my father's which detailed the connection when our house burned.
:cry:

[frogmarch]

80. One of my brothers-in-law was

recently invited by Chris Matthews to speak at a dinner party at his home.

That's it for me. :shrug:

[Rabrrrrrr]

81. I have quite a few one-steps to quite a few famous people

[triguy46]

82. 3 degrees from Barack Obama, or is this 4?

My boss, her boss, the governor, President Obama.

[frogmarch]

83. One of my cousins studied under Gandhi. I'd

forgotten that when I wrote my other post in this thread.

Oh, here's another one: My step mother was somehow related to Edgar Rice Burroughs.

[LynneSin]

84. I'm related to the Bushes - something like 4th-5th cousin

:scared:

Also Billy Idol gave me a hug once
I held Robert Plant's hand while he sang to me at a concert back in '88
And I once wore Rob Dibble's World Series ring and had drinks bought for me by Jose Rijo
Oh and on Thursday nights at the Bent Elbo on Lansdale PA, I use to drink with Rich Gannon. Of course back then he was a backup backup QB. Who thought he would get really good as he aged.

[Kitty Herder]

85. I AM famous. You just don't know it.

OK. Not really.

[DFW]

89. Hey, we know it now!

Don't sell yourself short!

[MikeH]

86. Unfortunately I am one degree of separation from GWB

I knew Robert Zoellick. I did much of my growing up in Naperville, Illinois, and lived there most of the 1960's. Robert Zoellick lived just half a block from where I lived. I knew Robert Zoellick, his older brother, and his mother. I was 3 years ahead of Robert in school, and his older brother was one year ahead of me.

Naperville, in Dupage County, has always been very Republican and conservative. I remember a lot of people were for Barry Goldwater in 1964. Though back in the 1960's there were a lot of good and decent people in the Republican party, unlike today.

Here is a DU thread from a couple of years ago showing Zoellick and GWB.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1003221

I have a brother who lives in Washington, DC, and who has worked in some government agencies. He often sees famous people, though I don't know if he personally knows well any famous person.

I also have a good friend, a former co-worker from one of my early jobs, who lives in the Washington DC general area and has been writing for some magazines dealing with Defense issues. I think he meets or has met some famous or well known people from time to time, though I can't think of who offhand.

I remember one time, in 1983, my parents met the astronaut John Glenn, who was then a Senator from Ohio. I don't recall the occasion for their meeting him. My dad at the time was President and CEO of a regional electric utility company. So my parents met somebody who was out of this world.

[DFW]

87. Umm, well.....

I am friends with (Dr.) Ruth Westheimer, Helen Thomas, Stan Lee, Theodore Bikel and Howard Dean.

And every now and then I get to hang with other types that some consider famous...

[Mari333]

90. name dropping eh? David Mamet used to do acting lessons in my apt

I ate lunch with Bill Murray once
My gfriend was fucking David Rasche
and I had an affair with someone I wont name
and my best friend is the mother of one of the original Smashing Pumpkins.
my other friend is James Thurber's daughter.

[DFW]

92. Oh, yeah, and Salvador Dalí

When I was in school in Barcelona in the sixties, I was asked to play the background music for some event where Dalí was
introducing some fancy book about his work. I said sure, except that I didn't have any instrument with me. They sent some
guy along and rented out some strings and keyboards , and there I was. Dalí came in dressed in white, carrying an ocelot,
gave me a nod and went on with his happening.

When it was over, some guy came along and asked me how much I got for my trouble. Idiot that I was, I said that it was an
honor, and I didn't expect to get paid for it. He peeled off 1000 pesetas (about $15 at the time), and said, here, take
this at least. I could have had one of those elaborate books, and it never occurred to me. Stupid, stupid, stupid!