Who am I forgetting?
* = spoke with this person!
+ = saw this person on stage (I didn't really include musicians on this + list)
Mary Tyler Moore*
-I don't talk about this interaction much, but, to make a long story short, I met my idol during my last week in NYC due entirely to my parents' efforts!
Lars (Real World London)*
-I have a vague recollection of talking to Lars at some point. No idea what we talked about or why I was in the same place as he & Malik, but it must have been interesting at the time, as I wrote it down in my "celeb" list. Malik (Real World NY II)
Bryan Adams+
-Saw him perform on Late Night with David Letterman in duet with Celine Dion. Dear Lord.
Celine Dion
-Due to my friend Matt 1's urging, we waited for her to emerge from the LNWDL backstage door. There were TONS of chanting, yelling fans waiting for her, all of whom turned against her with merciless boos when she didn't sign autographs. Creepy mob experiment I never wish to repeat.
Jared Leto
-We passed each other in the crosswalk on University Pl. near NYU. I thought, "Man, that bleach-blond dude looks just like Jordan Catalano!" Turns out he was in the midst of filming Requiem for a Dream.
Wallace Shawn ("Inconthheivable!")*
-He came into Starbucks when I worked there and requested a grande iced coffee, no room for cream. Moments after he exited, my Wallace-Shawn-obsessed roommate came in for the first and only time to visit me at work. "Wallace Shawn was here two seconds ago!" I told her. "He went out that way!" Her face flushed and, teary-eyed, she bolted out the side door but had no luck finding him to say hi. Sad.
Liev Schrieber*
-We were BFF a few times when he came into Starbucks to get coffee while rehearsing for Hamlet at the Public Theatre.
Anna Paquin
-When I was a sophomore, I had to go to the admissions office one day. As I waited for my appointment, AP walked in and smiled at me.
Tom Irwin (dad from My So-Called Life)*
-This guy is too old for me but ever so cute. Another Starbucks coup! He came in with a friend and we all hit it off. I took my 15-minute break immediately after he left and called my sister using the Starbucks office phone. (I was a couple of years away from getting a cell phone so busted out the "emergency" family calling card number.)
Janine Garafalo
-She live(d) right in the Village, so we NYU kids saw her a lot. Once Kerri said to me, "It's not fair that everyone else has seen Janine Garafalo and I haven't!" Later that afternoon, we met up for coffee on 8th St., and who should be in line in front of us but Janine? See? God exists.
David Letterman*
-Went to his show a few times during college and once since. In May 2008, Jim & I went to the show and, before we hit airtime, I asked Dave about a quilt my aunt made him many a year ago. He then mentioned me and my Aunt Dorth on the show! Very exciting time in Kirchner life.
Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead)
-The night I prowled the Radiohead line looking for an impossible-to-find, affordable ticket, he popped out of the stage door right as I cruised by.
Sheryl Crow*
-Yet another NYC Starbucks interaction. My brawny Staten Island coworker was flirting with her like CRAZY, which was a bit embarrassing. We talked for just a minute while I rang her up, and after she left, I asked my coworker why he had flirted so shamelessly. Turns out he had no idea who she was.
Monica Keena ("Abby Morgan" from Dawson's Creek)*
-I met her 60 minutes after her character was killed off Dawson's Creek, a show I watched every week in college with my friends. It was surreal.
Amy Smart*
-My friend Carley & I worked at this "Women & Wine" event in LA a few years back. Amy was one of the invitees. I got to fill her glass with Veuve Cliquot a few times.
Bonnie Sommerville*
-See "Amy Smart."
Keri Russell
-Saw her in Washington Square Park doing location shots as Felic.
Philip Seymour Hoffman+/*
-Being friends with the theatre kids in college paid off. I got to go to free plays a lot and, in this case, attended a talk by PSH. It was incredible to hear him break down his acting techniques. I love him.
Gregory Peck
-In the audience at the opening night revival of Death of a Salesman, Lauren Bacall on his arm.
Lauren Bacall
Arthur Miller+
-Came out onstage to a standing ovation after opening night of DOAS.
Kevin Klein
-Outside the Guggenheim having a smoke before his car came to fetch him. (My parents and I were together, gawking on the opposite corner.)
Kevin Spacey
-He hosted the GQ awards the night that I, along with 50-some-odd other girls, donned a wedding dress to promote the huge runaway hit The Bachelor. We yelled in unison: "Kevin Spacey, will you marry me?!" He didn't every answer us. Hmm...
Liza Minelli
-She was half-dancing, half-walking down 2nd Ave. with an entourage of at least 5 younger men. All right, Liza.
Cynthia Nixon*
-I ran smack into her as she came out of her apartment near NYU. She was pushing a stroller. "Excuse me!" I said, and then, upon recognizing her from somewhere and figuring I knew her somehow, I said, "Oh--hi!" She graciously said hi. Days later I realized she was the redhead from Sex & the City, a show I'd not yet watched.
Holly Hunter
-We passed each other on some street in NYC.
Jennifer Jason Leigh+
-She thoroughly annoyed me with her "I'm-beyond-bored-and-sound-like-a-jerky-preteen-boy" voice as I watched her perform in Proof.
Christian Slater+
-Passed him and Uma Thurman in Washington Square Park over ten years ago. Then in college I saw him as a guest on Late Night with David Letterman. Dave was horribly mean, rude, and disrespectful--but much of his real-life interview was cut by the time the show aired that night. I like Dave, but after that experience I respected him less. Also, Sweet tells me we saw him in a coffee shop once pushing a stroller.
Lily Tomlin+
-Saw her read/speak/perform in small doses at the Union Square Barnes & Noble. I love her.
Christy Turlington
-OMG, we totally went to the same college.
Sigourney Weaver
-Coming out of Patricia Fields on 8th St.
Dar Williams*
-I've met her a few times and had a couple of mini-chats that dazed my teenage self. Most recently, I wrote her an email before her early 2009 concert in Athens and she was very cordial and sweet.
Joy Behar (from The View)
-Eating lunch at some outdoor cafe in midtown Manhattan.
John Mayer
-Standing on top of his tour bus outside Irving Plaza, spraying a group of horny barely-of-age girls with champagne. "Oh, it's that guy from Atlanta," thought I.
Al Franken
-Eating with his kid at Dojo near NYU in 1998.
Lisa Loeb
-I don't remember where I encountered this character.
Judy Collins*
-Kate & I met and chatted with Judy after her Fox Theatre show in February 1997. She was really sweet to us and we had a little email exchange a couple of years later! We also met and talked with Roberta Flack that night.
Roberta Flack*
Nina Persson (from The Cardigans)*
-Some of my high school BFFs & I stayed late after The Cardigans' 1998 Variety Playhouse show. Nina, the adorable lead singer, was nice to us. Lieeish and I like to quote her as she watched us shivering in the February cold: "Go home, get warm."
Amy Ray* Emily Saliers*
-Being a crazy Indigo Girls fan in Georgia means I've met the Indigo Girls a few times. Once Lieeish & I were complaining aloud that whenever we ate at one of the ATL restaurants Emily partly owns, we never saw her. Then we noticed she was at the next table--she glanced over and smiled at us knowingly. Ha.
Shawn Mullins*
-I met him a few times in the late 90s before he hit the big time ever so briefly with "Lullaby." On one occasion, we were chatting for a moment when he asked me to hold his coffee cup so he could sign an autograph for another fan. We're really good friends, obvs.
Nanci Griffith*
-Peyton & I waited to meet her after a show in Atlanta during high school. She had remarkably soft hands, we noticed.
Edward James Olmos
-Walking with the Mothers of the Disappeared in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, 2001.
Michael Stipe Peter Buck Mike Mills
-These guys, especially MS & MM, have houses in Athens, so we townies see them a lot. Luckily we're WAY too cool to think it's cool.
Martin Sheen
-He was staying at the same place as my dad & me in NYC once in the late 90s.
Tom Brokaw*
-Well, I didn't actually meet him, but a few members of my family have chatted with him, and my grandfather Gregory Kirchner was featured in one of The Greatest Generation books!
Mitch Hedberg+
-Went to his comedy show in early 2003. I have perhaps never laughed so hard at a performance in my entire life.
Audra McDonald+
-This Broadway star, whom I saw in Showboat during a high school trip, was on Conan or David Letterman when I went once. She was really pretty in person.
April Wilkner* (America's Next Top Model)
-Lots of my college friends are friends with this pretty young lady, though I haven't gone beyond exchanging pleasantries with her. For a while my 19-year-old self was jealous of her, as she dated my crush for a bit.
Steve Avery (Braves)*
-During a field trip to the bank in 1993 or so, the teller told us that Atlanta Braves star Steve Avery was in the lobby--did we want to meet him? So we all got his autograph and thought we were really cool. Clearly I still think so, as I'm telling the story 16 years later.
Walt Clyde Frasier (Knicks star)*
-Long story. In the end, I was sitting next to him at a swanky midtown restaurant as he tried to get me to try the various kinds of sushi that were laid out in front of him. He also told me I had really good style. (Trying to be nice, perhaps, as I walked into the restaurant with jeans and sneakers, not realizing I was going to be breaking an unspoken dress code.)
Cameron Diaz
-She sat near us at Yaffa Cafe on St. Marks.
Ben Folds*
-I've seen him in concert a handful of times, but the interaction that most sticks out is the time when Julie, Sweet, and I saw him at Yaffa Cafe with his parents. I didn't know much about him at the time, but we stood outside the restaurant afterward trying to decide what to do next and I started busting out the song "Brick" really loudly. I turned around when Sweet cleared her throat: he was walking right next to me, laughing quietly. Oops.
John Hannah (from Sliding Doors)*
-Amazingly enough, I ran smack into this dude as he exited the W. 4th subway station while I tried to enter. It was very Sliding Doors.
Gwyneth Paltrow
-She walked by me on the red carpet during the GQ Awards when I was dressed as a bride.
Neil Diamond*
-Once, out of dedication to my friend Phil G., I ran through college buildings in order to corner Neil as he entered his limo, which was tucked away behind a maze of buildings and protective road blocks. It was exciting and ridiculous.
Henry Winkler*
-He spoke at the Love of Literacy Luncheon sponsored by the Palm Beach Literacy Coalition in 2003. He approached the AmeriCorps kids' table and came over to me. Stroking my cheek with the backside of two fingers, he said creepily, "This must be the young table." Ugh.
Mandy Moore
-Sitting in the stands at the Chris Evert Celebrity-Pro Tennis Classic in Delray Beach, Florida. She was so sweet and kind to her preteen fans that I decided I liked her, too.
Dr. Phil+
-Played in the aforementioned Tennis Classic and got RUL tudey when half the stands left to get faux-referee Fran Drescher's autograph.
Fran Drescher+
-Pretend ref at the tennis thing. Obnoxious and unfunny, if you can believe it. (She and all the players were miked.) Andy Roddick+
-Played at the tennis classic, his then lady-love Mandy watching from afar. Jon Lovitz+
-Tennis thang.
Chris Evert+
-Tennis thang.
Josh Taylor
-Days of Our Lives Star! My sister shook his hand at Disney World in the 80s. So exciting.
Sandra Burnhardt
-Walking out the backstage door after Elaine Stricht's one-woman Broadway show in May 2002.
Real World/Road Rules guy Mark
-At a deli in Melbourne, FL.
Demi Moore & kids
-Emerging from their Central Park West apartment building and then getting into a car. The doorman informed me that I had just missed Bruce.
Brian Dennehy+
-He starred in the revival of Death of a Salesman.
Alan Rickman+
-Starred in Noel Coward's Private Lives, which my mom and I watched from the front row.
Lindsey Duncan+
-Starred with Alan Rickman in Private Lives.
Some old-ish dude who claimed to be "THE Jack Hanna(h)"
-At a sushi place in Buenos Aires, 2001. The cartoonist was dead by then, and this guy was NOT the animal dude. So... I have no idea who this guy was, but he was flanked by people and paid for some of our drinks.
Jennifer Nettles*
-Formerly of Soul Miner's Daughter and the Jennifer Nettles Band, this former Athenian is now some megastar in Sugarland. Good for her.
Julianne Moore*
-Met her at Book Expo America in May 2009. She was stunningly gorgeous in person and was kind enough to sign a copy of her new book for me.
Julie Andrews+
-She spoke at Book Expo America in May 2009. It was surreal to be in the same room as she.
John Irving+
Richard Russo+
-I LOVE these authors and was thrilled to be in the small audience when they spoke with one another at BEA 2009.
Neil Gaiman*
-Saw him at Book Expo this year. AND he sent me a personal message on Twitter.
Steven Tyler+
Chuck Klosterman+
Clarence Clemons+
-These two rock stars were the keynote speakers at Book Expo 2009. I found myself really liking Clarence and really disliking Steven Tyler. Sorry, Liv.
Cher+
Cyndi Lauper+
-I saw Cher & Cyndi TWICE on their summer 1999 tour. Amazing. I believe.
Ed Begley, Jr.+
-Book Expo keynote speaker, 2008. Amy & I faux-stalked him for a few minutes before the keynote. We are awesome.
Craig Kilborn+
-Went to the Daily Show with friends in 1998 or so and nearly died laughing during the portion of the show about the Ohio man who impersonates first ladies.
Conan O'Brien+
-Went to his show a couple of times. He's very tall.
Recent additions others reminded me of:
Lisa Loeb
-On the sidewalk near Bloomingdale's while walking with Sweet
Nancy Grace*
-At Book Expo America, NYC 2009. Jim waited in line to meet her while I was at a seminar. "Who should I make this out to?" she asked him. "Make it out 'to Aunt Evie,'" he replied. Nancy gave him an odd look (or so I surmise) so Jim proceeded to spell it out: "A-U-N-T..." HA! A few minutes later, I appeared and got in line to acquire an autographed book for our friend Matt (who loved the surprise, personalized gift!). A new bookstore friend came up to us post-signing and asked us, "Did you meet Nancy Grace?" "Yes." "I went right up to her and said, 'You are the most obnoxious woman on CNN." "No you didn't!" He continued: "She just laughed and said, 'I KNOW!'" (This snippet made me like Nancy Grace more.)
Amber Tamblyn*
-She's a poet as well as an actress! I met her this year at Book Expo and had a good chat. She's reached out to a lot of young writers and even personally critiques their work on her website. I liked her a lot.
John Carter Cash*
-Son of June & Johnny! Autographed his kids' book for me so I could give it to Mary Beth & Oscar.
Tomie dePaola*
-Multi-award-winning children's author/illustrator.
Walter Dean Myers & son*
-Multi-award-winning children's author with his artist son (they just came out with a book).
Mary Karr*
-Author of the acclaimed memoirs The Liars Club, Cherry, and (coming soon) Lit. Told her I "loved" her books, which is sort of a f'ed up thing to say to someone who's chronicled her scary, abusive, alcoholic former life. Oops. (Her books are great and very brave.)
Craig Ferguson+ Jeannette Walls+
-Craig (late night host) & Jeannette (author of The Glass Castle, which is a phenomenal memoir) appeared on a panel at BEA 2009.
Philippa Gregory+
-On stage speaking at BEA 2008.
Meg Cabot*
-Jim and I had a little crush on her--such a funny, enthusiastic woman (and Key West resident, which is awesome). When Jim went up to get his copy of her new book, a story for preteen girls, he had her make it out to him. He's a weird dude, but he's MY weird dude.
Kathie Lee Gifford
-At Book Expo 2009 signing whatever she wrote. She looked all made up for TV but was in a fluorescently-lit conference hall. Weird. And a tiny bit scary.
Joan Baker*
-You'll know her voice more than her face. Jim befriended Joan at BEA this year and then told me to go up and talk to her. (She was as great as he'd promised.) She wrote a book about voice over acting and has been featured in TONS of commercials, ads, etc. Really nice woman!
Dr. Ruth*
-Yep, that Dr. Ruth. She was tinier than I expected (which is saying a lot). Jim and I got autographed copies of her book and were, quite dorkily, among the first people in line to meet her. (Truth be told, we wanted to spy on her a little bit and listen to the funny things she was saying to her publishers as they got ready for the signing.)
happy 
