••• CLICK HERE FOR AMT239 •••
Our next correspondent Chris is from Hollywood, so it’s little wonder he is touched by fame! Alright, Hollywood in Solihull. Which is why he’s been touched by very minor fame:
In 1989, Dave Benson Philips made my mum a balloon hat at Chessington.
In 2009 I attended a preview screening of Ice Age 3 with my son, and sat slightly near Alison from Big Brother 3.
In 2010 I walked past Paul Lewis from Radio 4’s Moneybox Live in Euston station. He was sitting on the railing outside the paperchase kiosk.
in December 2012 I bumped into Martin the Sound Man at All Tomorrow’s Parties.
So answer me this: what’s your least impressive celebrity sighting, that you will still fondly remember in 20 years?
OK, get ready:
In 1990ish, I sold Peter Sissons ten books of NSPCC raffle tickets at a horse show.
Around the same time, they filmed an episode of Perfect Scoundrels in my road.
As recounted in AMT148, my mum was a maker of celebrity bread (celebready?).
Arthur Miller took my cousin on holiday to a safari park.
I walked past Chelsea Clinton in the street once.
Readers, think you can the-opposite-of-outdo those? Go directly to the comments to dazzle us with your own encounters with (not very shiny) stars.
Don’t feel too disappointed if you can’t unbeat Martin the Sound Man’s story in AMT131 about how his mum was in a bakery queue with Phillip Schofield.
UPDATE: just remembered another good one from a few years ago – backstage at Latitude Festival I practiced glockenspiel next to Gary ‘sacked from CSI for prolific drug use’ Dourdan, who fell asleep on his chair. I also told Amanda Seyfried where the water was kept.
Answer Me This! Podcast 
January 11, 2013 at 12:00 pm |
Oh! Just remembered: many years ago I sat next to Rosario Dawson at a friend’s comedy gig in a Soho pub. She volunteered to go onstage to kiss a man to guess which disgusting foodstuff he had just eaten.
December 21, 2012 at 2:58 pm |
The only celeb spotting on mine worth mentioning is thus:
About a month ago, I rode the escalator down to the Victoria Line tube behind Martin the Sound Man at Victoria Station. I really wanted to say hi but he was eating a pasty and looked like he’d tell me to fuck off if I interrupted him.
December 8, 2012 at 12:18 am |
Bruce Dickinson flew me on an air austraeus to Egypt in about jan/feb 2006.
December 8, 2012 at 12:10 am |
Oh fuck whilst we’re at it, my girlfriend and I were on the next table to Mark Gatiss in the Waterloo bar and kitchen next to the old vic before a performance of Richard III in August 2011.
December 8, 2012 at 12:07 am |
I also saw one of either Chas or Dave in the Breakfast Club on Rufus street near Hoxton Square in shoreditch, winter 2011
December 8, 2012 at 12:04 am |
Oct 2010, around mile 12 of the royal parks half marathon in Hyde park I passed both of the cheeky girls.
December 7, 2012 at 3:07 pm |
I saw Jamie Lester from The Apprentice walking his dog in Fulham once.
December 7, 2012 at 1:50 am |
Kathy Burke asked me for a light once whilst I was smoking outside a pub.
December 7, 2012 at 1:00 am |
Ooh, and when I worked in Burger King in 1991 I swapped tills with someone else just so I could serve Jimmy White.
December 7, 2012 at 12:57 am |
Eve Pollard’s sons taught me to play pontoon on a holiday in Costa Blanca in about 1980. I was six.
I spoke to Pat Coombs on the phone in 1998 when I worked in customer service, and she was convinced I was too young to have heard of her.
Both Terry Scott and Penelope Keith shopped in the same Circle K shop as us where I grew up in Milford, Surrey. I remember once when Terry was on TV:AM he claimed he lived in Godalming instead of Milford and for some reason I was very annoyed at him for lying.
And Emily Lloyd once brushed past me on Waterloo Station.
December 6, 2012 at 8:51 pm |
I once saw Alan Shearer. He was playing football. I was one person in a crowd of 75,000 so I’m not to sure that he will have seen me. But he might.
December 6, 2012 at 8:47 pm |
I once saw Alan Shearer. He was playing football. I was in a crowd aong with 75,000 others.
He waved at me after he’d scored a goal!
Beat that.
December 6, 2012 at 5:30 pm |
October this year is sat a few seats away from Roger Lloyd Pack in a wagamama on the south bank. He drank green tea…I also once met Graham Cole (formerly in the Bill) and asked him for directions to the haymarket – I had no idea who he was and it was my friend who pointed it out…I should add as friendly as he was his directions were shit and I had to ask for further help from some fire fighter.
December 6, 2012 at 5:02 pm |
Having now read the description I would like to retroactively reclaim my comment below. I suspected there was something fishy about me having the best spot.
December 6, 2012 at 4:50 pm |
I saw Amy Winehouse in the jazz area at Glastonbury. She was making a beeline for the portaloo (really) and not looking all too fantastic. An overly keen stranger asked me odd questions about it afterwards, but I didn’t realise until later that I should have been spitting at him. A few hours later I saw her again but I can only assume she was too busy being on the main stage and punching crowd members to recognise me.
December 6, 2012 at 4:43 pm |
I saw Neil Warnock (then manager of Sheffield United, now Leeds United) in a Tesco in Sheffield. He bought black shoe polish.
Maybe he had dirty shoes, or maybe he’s a black-and-white minstrel home enthusiast. We may never know.
December 6, 2012 at 4:37 pm |
I served Audrey from Coranation Street a baguette once. It was roasted vegetable and feta cheese. Claim to fame right there…
December 5, 2012 at 9:48 pm |
Another time I was invited out to a dinner with my then boss Ted Turner. He brought his then wife, Jane Fonda. It was a big party & I didn’t get a chance to speak to them the whole evening until the very end as we were leaving. I said “Hi, bye.” but wanted the conversation to be more meaningful so I searched for something witty.
I noticed that Jane was wearing a western jacket with the fringe on the arm so I said something to the effect of “Oh, you’ve got a jacket with western fringe. Did you know that originally the fringe was on the jackets in case the cowboy needed to tie up something in a pinch and didn’t have any string?” They both just stared at me. So I continued “And just now I have a need of a good shoe string” and then smiled. They rushed into their car and didn’t look back.
I made sure to hide out at work for a few months hoping that Ted wouldn’t remember his employee who had too much wine and tried to rip off the fringe from his wife’s jacket.
December 5, 2012 at 9:34 pm |
Once I was writing on my laptop at a cafe in Hollywood. They ran out of outdoor tables so the hostess sat Kiefer Sutherland and his girlfriend with me. He sat across from me and she was next to me. I think they just had cigs and lettuce. I didn’t get a lot of writing done.
December 5, 2012 at 3:04 pm |
I sat next to Steve Harris (Bass player of Iron Maiden) for the entire length of a school production of les miserables. It went on for an hour and a half and by the end he looked les miserables
December 5, 2012 at 2:45 pm |
My dad’s old dentist was DJ Tony Blackburn’s father.
December 5, 2012 at 2:20 pm |
I saw Gabriella Ellis from ‘Made in Chelsea’, she seemed to be drunk and flirting inappropriately with an man at the bar.. All rather awkward.
December 5, 2012 at 2:19 pm |
I once sat behind Christopher Biggins on a hovercraft.
December 5, 2012 at 1:24 pm |
I stood behind Lenny Henry in Marks and Spencer in Wokingham. Some weeks later I walked past Rosie from Road Wars in Waitrose in Wokingham. And then a few months after that I bumped into Lt.Colonel Dick Strawbridge in a petrol station in Wokingham. (Wokingham clearly is the celebrity capital of the UK). Needless to say, I was extremely excited by all of these encounters!
December 5, 2012 at 1:21 pm |
I stood behind terry Nutkins in the queue for the ferry to get to the farm at Thopre Park sometime in the early 90’s.
December 5, 2012 at 1:02 pm |
I was behind Richard Whitely in a bus queue once. When the bus arrived he left the queue and went into a nearby chippy instead. Curious man.
December 5, 2012 at 1:01 pm |
I once knocked Keith Chegwin onto his arse by excitedly running into a gallery in Manchester and smashing him with the door.
He was fully clothed.