Yeah, that’s right, Tip O’Neill… twice!
Yet another benefit to living in the New York City area that I didn’t initially anticipate is celebrity sightings. This occured to me when my family and I were having Thanksgiving dinner in the Essex House near Central Park. Just after we entered the hotel, a man walked by us that my father swears was Tom Coughlin — head coach of the New York Giants.
Granted, not the best celebrity to kick off this piece, but a celebrity none the less.
Anyway, I wasn’t convinced, even though I never saw his face; I just caught the back of his head and thought to myself, “I know backs of people’s heads, and that’s not the back of Tom Coughlin’s head.” And besides, why would Coughlin be staying there? It just didn’t make sense, so I was very skeptical. This issue remains unsolved to this day.
Now, I understand I made the declaration in a previous article that I’m not much for idol worship, mainly because I’ve come to realize that they’re just normal people like you and me, putting their pants on one leg at a time, even though their pants are a lot more expensive than ours. But the celebrity-spotting game is a fun one, if only because you don’t expect them to happen.
I’ve lived in NYC area for about four months now and have only caught one celebrity during that span — Peter Bogdanovich. Five years or so ago I wouldn’t have a clue who he was, but a recent fondness for 1970’s cinema has made me a big fan. Of course, it wasn’t me who noticed him; my brother spotted him as we were walking out of a bar on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
I’ve always had trouble spotting celebs; usually people have to point them out for me. At the Baseball Hall of Fame back in 1989, I nearly ran over former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, or so my brother claims. I had no fucking clue who he was back then. (Strangely enough, I also caught O’Neill on an airplane while headed down to Florida, making him my only celebrity double-up.)
Celebrity sightings have come to be quite common to my brother, who has lived in NYC since 1998, so he’s basically perfected the art. Here’s a list he came up with off the top of his head:
•Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates trying to roller blade with their kids through a peace rally in Central Park
•The bassist from Aerosmith [Tom Hamilton] at Met Museum of Art
•I see Ethan Hawke constantly. In St. Mark’s Books with Uma. (I also saw Jennifer Jason Leigh in St. Mark’s Books). I saw Hawke in “Man of la Mancha.” I just saw him a couple of days ago walking in Chelsea.
•Monica Lewinsky three times: once in line for “The Hours,” once right in front of me in “Y Tu Mama Tambien.” And once on the street.
•Liv Tyler a couple of times in the East Village.
•Actually, saw the guy from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” (Bueller’s geeky friend) in Westchester, in downtown Rye.
•Saw [Roger] Clemens walking through Times Square, that asshole.
•And [NBA player] Kurt Thomas waiting in line for his seats at the “Lion King.”
•I was getting frozen yogurt with Owen Wilson once in the East Village.
•I see Joan Allen all the time — she must live on the Upper West Side.
•And Elias Koteas, too.
•The guitar player from Smashing Pumpkins is always in the East Village.
•Oh, and I have seen Chloe Sevigny, in the village.
•Oh, Scott Ian from Anthrax is ALWAYS in DBA!
His most recent run-in might be his best story yet. One Sunday, he and his wife, Mary, were sitting down to brunch in some restaurant. My brother looked directly to his left to find Kevin Bacon sitting right next to him, then looked across the table to see Kyra Sedgwick. Even more amazing was that my brother was able to hold back on the bacon jokes while eating brunch.
You see, it’s not polite to acknowledge celebrities in their normal life. Scratch that. It’s not cool.
You’d think my brother would have become jaded because he’s seen so many at this point, but he hasn’t. Just recently he was bragging to me about seeing Kirk from the now-ancient sitcom “Dear John.”
You know what, forget that Bacon story. My brother’s best celebrity sighting had to be when he took a piss next to Philip Seymour Hoffman in a theater bathroom after seeing a play.
You see, that’s the key, you have to go places where celebrities have to go. Celebrities have to go to the bathroom too.
They also have to eat, which means going to the supermarket (for some at least). That’s where I’ve seen Red Sox great Carl Yastremski and former Boston Bruins coach Brian Sutter. I understand that Sutter is hardly even a borderline celebrity, but humor me, because borderline celebrities are all I seem to run in to. And they mostly come from the field of sports and that’s probably because I know more people from sports than any other walk of life.
I’ve seen NBA guard Bobby Jackson at Caesars in Las Vegas, NBA coaching great Pat Riley leaving The Sharper Image in Beverly Hills, baseball Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk while waiting in line at Splash Mountain in Disney World and future Baseball Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson at the SkyDome in Toronto. And that’s just a sample. The Henderson sighting was one of the most surreal ever because we were staying in the SkyDome’s hotel, which was bizarre enough, and had attended the Blue Jays-Mariners game earlier that day. Henderson, who was living in the hotel, was at the front desk checking for any messages. My father, not I of course, noticed him and had the guts to go up to him and ask him about his arm, which he had hurt in the game that day. Me? I couldn’t get over how short he was.
I’ve seen two famous people when leaving Red Sox games at Fenway. One was pitching great Pedro Martinez, who was stuck in traiffc in his white Mercedes sans tinted windows (which is pretty bold). Seeing that Pedro was a god during his time in Boston, this was especially cool. I’ve also seen noted sportswriter Mike Lupica yelling at his kid while waiting for him in his SUV. I’m well aware that media members are barely celebs (I’ve also seen Lupica’s colleague Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe), but for someone into sports, these are strangely memorable.
Staying with sports, Jim Rice, another Red Sox great, used to come to my Little League games when we were playing against his son Chauncey (who, besides crushing homer after homer off me, was really cool to me). Sure, Jim was watching from a hill about 100 yards away, but you could still sort of see him brushing away autograph seekers.
Want another sports sighting? How about diminutive QB Doug Flutie, who we saw checking out his brother’s softball game? (Yeah, we went to the game just to see Doug, so it might not even count.)
Attending Syracuse University allowed me to share a campus with some well-known athletes, most notably Donovan McNabb, T.O.’s best buddy on the Philadelphia Eagles, who had a class near me.
But again, my running theme seems to be borderline celebs. When I was in the Village with my friends Jeff and Quints a few years back, in the same day we caught Joel Madden of Good Charlotte and the hooker from “Eyes Wide Shut” (also known as Vinessa Shaw). It took me a while to realize that the hooker from “Eyes Wide Shut” was actually the hooker from “Eyes Wide Shut,” but I knew right away she was famous. Jeff and Quints had no idea who either of these people were, which is probably healthy.
As for other borderline celebs spotted in NYC: John Fugelsang (The guy who used to host “AFHV” with Daisy Fuentes), Tom Wopat of “Dukes of Hazzard” fame, Kaia from “The Real World: Hawaii,” and Seth Green. I guess Green is a pretty decent sighting, but it was also a weird one because he gave me this look like, “You know I’m famous, right?”
But without a doubt my coolest celebrity sighting had to be the first that I can remember.
Back in 1988, I was in Epcot Center getting all psyched up for IllumiNations, which was sort of new at the time so it had that novelty going for it. So my friends and I turn around and who’s right behind us but Paul from “The Wonder Years.” If you remember, the show was absolutely huge at the time (we are talking prepubescent Fred Savage), and Paul, or whatever his real name is, obviously knew this too because he was wearing a “Wonder Years” sweater, just to make sure everybody knew what was up.
At 10 years old, unexpectedly seeing somebody famous was life-transforming. And I guess it still is.
December 3rd, 2005 at 1:10 pm
I have nothing to say. Mark clearly is cooler than me. I don’t even know where I would see celebrities if I wanted…wish I lived in LA…;)
December 3rd, 2005 at 1:48 pm
I’ve had a few celebrity encounters in my day, but none were of the completely random variety. I met Jon Stewart after he performed at Penn State in 2001. Actually, half of our humor magazine staff got to meet him. We ran into the woman who was organizing the event or something and she arranged it.
A much fatter version of me met Dave Chappelle after he performed in the very same place at Penn State.
I met briefly Bob Odenkirk after Mr. Show performed at The Electric Factory. He was bum rushed by fanboys about three seconds later, so that ended quickly. He was out picking up props after the show.
I guess the last one was that I caught David Cross out of the corner of my eye on his bike while I was on a bus in New York. A couple of my friends got a better view, and they swear it was him. I can only verify that it was a bald guy on a bike.
December 3rd, 2005 at 4:39 pm
Mark, Chauncey Rice has 4 kids with four different women…now that’s claim to fame.
I rang up Adam Oates’ razor blades, rogaine and twizzlers at a CVS I worked at a while back.
Yaz is always in north andover Biz, he threw a nutty about the price of cat food at Star Market.
Jeff and I saw a couple of scrub boxers from “The Contender” while in Vegas.
other than that, not much.
December 3rd, 2005 at 4:42 pm
By the way, that first sighting in your article, i only know him from The Sopranos.
and also, that home run Chauncey hit…it hasn’t landed yet, just kidding.
December 4th, 2005 at 10:47 am
I went up to Jim Rice on said hill in 1987 and he signed a 1987 Topps for me, so I have nothing bad to say. I also saw Drew Carey, Ryan Leaf (like 1/1000th of a celeb), and Antawn Jamison walking around at Mandalay Bay in Vegas before a fight.
As I live in NH, that effectively ends my celebrity sightings. I was on former Dolphin Rob Konrad’s pee-wee baseball team though, although that was before he was a monster. I think Vegas, Manhattan and LA are the choice locations if that’s your cup of tea.
December 4th, 2005 at 1:26 pm
I have seen…
- Kevin Kline, Matt Dillion, Wilford Brimely and Bob Newhart in my high school while filming In and Out.
- Mira Sorvino saw me fall on my face on 5th Ave in NYC…she did not stop…
- Harry Connick Jr ran past my friend and I in NYC…i think he stole someone’s purse.
- Florence Henderson smiled at me in Rockefeller Center. I heart Mrs. Brady…
- I did a press junket for Honey with Jesica Alba and Joy Bryant. During which Jessica Alba fell on a piece of the set right in front of me. I could have caught her… but I didnt.
- I saw Michele Rodriguez, Presumably drunk, at one of the NY airports…cant remember which one.
- I worked with Frankie Faison on the movie CRUTCHFrankie Faison.
- I worked with the kid from “Weekend at Bernies”…The one who gives them the finger…
There’s probably more but most of them aren’t worth mentioning… oh wait, there is probably one more…
December 4th, 2005 at 8:51 pm
i had to call harry connick jr in a fundraising drive for his college that i worked on when i worked as a telemarketer.