Stop me if I’ve told you this one.
But my wife, Candi, and I were once in Santa Barbara, perusing books at the Barnes & Noble there, when we had an interesting celebrity encounter.
I was looking at some Jonathan Kellerman novel while Candi was thumbing through a copy of “Shopgirl” by Steve Martin. Then we both heard a voice behind us say, “I hear that’s a really good book.”
We turned around, and there was Steve Martin.
My wife, who remembered every line from “The Three Amigos,” was stunned.
I believe she said: “OH. MY. GOD!”
“You don’t have to buy it, though,” Steve said.
I call him Steve.
Anyway, in a near panic, Candi ran out of the store. (She’s a HUGE Steve Martin fan, by the way.) Then I was like, “Maybe you should have him sign a book.”
That’s why he was there, after all. Martin, who has a home in Santa Barbara, had dropped in without notice to sign a few copies of his new book.
So I managed to convince her to go back, and Steve did sign the book. I was hoping for something funny — you know, since we had established a memorable connection. At least something like “Best Fishes” from the poster above. But all he wrote was: “To Candi. Steve Martin.”
Kind’ve dull. But, hey — what a great celebrity encounter.
Having grown up in the Midwest, I didn’t have that many celeb sightings. I saw former Chicago Bears running back Neil Anderson outside a bar in Chicago once. I also saw former Indiana University basketball coach Bob Knight in a tiny Mexican restaurant in Spencer, Indiana (He nodded at me), and North Carolina head coach coach Roy Williams at the airport in Santa Barbara. (He didn’t notice me.) And I once saw a guy who looked a lot like Neil Young stepping into a ratty old pickup truck in Monterey. But that’s about it for the random celebrity encounters.
Every now and then we’ll hear stories of celebrities hanging out in San Luis Obispo County: Minnie Driver, Mel Gibson, Dolly Pardon, etc. But I haven’t seen any celebs walking the streets.
I’m interested in hearing other people talk about their celebrity sightings, though. So share your stories in the comment section. Until then, best fishes.
Posted on November 7th, 2008 by Pat
Filed under: The World According to Pat
These are good ones, but I feel like I’m hijacking your blog by wrting so much.
1. I took my wife to her first Cubs game. Afterwards, we headed to Harry Caray’s for dinner. As we ordered, I saw two floating blue orbs bobbing around in the back of the restaurant. After dessert, we made our way closer to the enormous floating spheres, which turned out to be Harry’s glasses. We told him we were from Purdue, and he immediately made a beeline toward my wife and planted one on her—nice and wet. He then bellowed, “The Ramblin’ Wrecks from Georgia Tech!” before stumbling out the door. We were dumbfounded - uh, what does that have to do with Purdue? Good ol’ Harry.
2. My wife and I were in Paris. We slept all day like any good trans-Atlantic traveler does. We finally got out in the evening around 10 pm and stumbled to a bistro on the corner for beer, French onion soup, and other munchies. I was really out of it but I did see a rather hip cat stolling down the street with a couple of other people surrounding him. I IDed him and kept saying over and over “Mick Jagger is about to pass your shoulder” until my wife finally make out what I was saying. She just barely spun in time right as he was upon her. I didn’t want to bother the guy. Nobody else seemed to recognize him or care so I’m glad I didn’t yell out anything stupid. It was just really cool to see him out and about just like any other street walker.
One day at work my co-worker and I were trying to impress the cute intern with all our celebrity stories. Half a dozen B-celebrities later, the gracious-yet-unimpressed intern smiled. She said she lived in Santa Ynez and in high school worked at an ice cream shop in Solvang. She started rattling off celebrities as if she was reporting live on the red carpet at Oscar time. It seems celebrities, and their kids, love an ice cream treat in Solvang.
Yes, I’ve seen celebrities, but the one that made the biggest impact was when I was a kid in Milwaukee in the earlyl 1960s. I was watching a parade, probably on the Fourth of July, that was held downtown. I watched it from the median on Wisconsin Avenue. There in a light-colored convertible was Rick Jason, the actor on “Combat!” — one of my favorite TV shows (which ran from 1962 to 1967 and can now be seen on DVD) — the lieutenant! Lt. Hanley. Right THERE. I could SEE him! WOW. Now, that was somethin’ for an 8-year-old. Wow, what a treat. Jason, who was a couple of years older than my mom, died in 2000.
Steve:
Don’t worry about blog hijiking — comments from surfing Hoosiers are always appreciated (even if you did go to Purdue).
A friend of my brother’s once saw Harry in Chicago. My brother’s friend was holding a six pack and asked Harry for an autograph. Harry said he’d trade an autograph for the 6-pack. The deal was made.
Oh, I forgot to add one more celeb sighting I had: Porn/reality TV star Ron Jeremy was at the Aerosmith show in Paso last year.
I was going to remind you about Ron Jeremy. In my mind, that’s the best celebrity sighting yet.
Since I’m originally from the Pacific Northwest, which is not exactly a popular celeb hangout, I haven’t seen a ton of celebrities. I’ve just interviewed a few of ‘em. (Oh, and I’ve kissed David Copperfield on the cheek.)
However, I can say that my friend Christen rented bowling shoes to Eugene Levy and his family when she worked in Sun Valley. I think she met Elizabeth Smart’s family that way, too.