ask a celebrity

Many people are star-struck and would love to meet their favorite celebrity. I don't necessarily have that same compulsion, mostly because I'd have no idea what to say and wouldn't want to come off sounding stupid, and I'm not really into the autograph thing. I've also been involved in a number of activities where I've had the opportunity to be around some levels of celebrity, so I'm not as fazed about it.

The first celebrity I recall ever seeing in person was Ted Lange. Our family was just leaving a restaurant after dinner, and we noticed him at a table with a lady. We couldn't help being excited, and he noticed us and smiled, but none of us approached him. Quite some time ago, I had the opportunity to meet Harrison Ford, and that was pretty exciting. I shook his hand and didn't really say much else to him, just being content with standing there and listening to him talk to the other people. He was very nice. I also had the opportunity at one point to spend a little bit of time hanging out with Ernie Hudson while he was shooting a movie, and he was really nice, with a great sense of humour.

There are a few celebrities that I can think of that I'd like to meet and have some time to talk to, but that's really because I actually have things I'd like to talk to them about, though they're probably not what most people would be interested in.

Cady McClain - Yeah, I loved watching her as Dixie, and she's got a very funny sense of humour, and she's brash and sassy when she writes, so I'm sure she'd have a lot of funny and interesting things to say anyway. But, she's also apparently a huge fan of "24". I'd totally want to talk "24" and Jack Bauer with her!

Billy Crystal - I want to know if he knew who was supposed to get custody of the baby, Jodie or Carol? Stupid ABC were totally wusses and gave in to pressure and cancelled the show, never even giving them the opportunity to wrap up the season-ending cliffhangers. It's always bugged me, all these years, wanting to know whether gay Jodie and his football-player boyfriend would get custody or whether lesbian Carol would get custody.

John Lasseter - I would want to know who came up with the "Feed the Kitty" homage segment in "Monsters, Inc." and discuss the whole Pussyfoot thing as much as he wanted to. And then I'd want to talk to him about Robert (Bob) Olzewski, since I know he's a fan of his work as well. I'd want to know how he got into it, what he likes about it, the same conversations I have with other Olszewski collectors.

Greg Grunberg - Yeah, ok, I like him in "Heroes", but whatever with that. When I saw Genesis on tour last year, on the last night of the tour at the Hollywood Bowl, I noticed him as I was leaving at the end of the concert. I then learned recently that he's in a band called Band From TV, and he's the drummer. The drummer? Dude, I *love* drummers! I heard an interview with him on Kevin and Bean where he talked about being very young and loving drumming, so he pulled out a Rush album and tried to drum along with Neil Peart. Wow, aim low to start with, why don't you! He was asked how that went, and he said not very well! So I would *love* to discuss drumming and Genesis with him. OK, it's not like I know how to drum, but I love to hear drummer stories, and yeah, I wanna talk Genesis with him!