Richard Simmons at LAX ... very hyper

Sat next to Gordon Ramsey (celebrity chef in London) today LHR-GLA.

Was pleased to see my *A status got me an aisle seat in business class. His celebrity status (or perhaps reputation for having a foul temper) got him a middle seat.

Also had to chuckle to myself as I watched a two-star Michelin-rated chef choke down an airline breakfast.

EFREM: I began at page 5. ANNABANANA: not
indignant at all, just an observation of the times. HEDOMAN: agreed, just more of the light lunacy that passes for entertainment these days but still drivel and drool. SCROG: come back and I'll stand good for lunch. ELMHURSTNICK: We agree that it is senseless drivel, just like my taking time to reply to all you nice people. PREMEX 2000: is it not just possible that ND is my real name? Besides, Gs&Ds was anything but drivel, thanks to my late namesake. FINALLY, and not to date myself, I don't even recognize 80 or 90% of these "celebrities." Try me with FDR,
Truman, IKE, Gary Cooper, Nixon, The Band of Brothers (not a musical group), Rita Heyworth, Betty Grable, Jack Benny, the late great Red Skelton, and that generation. Now there were some real celebrities, with talent and taste thrown in for good measure. But HAPPY DAY to one and all....and God bless you, too, Tiny Tim.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by AAaLot:
[B]Richard Simmons at LAX ... very hyper

Really? I am sooooooo jealous!! You win the celebrity contest.

I had a double sighting last December at LAX. I first spotted the then Secretary of State Warren Christopher in the temporary Delta Crown Room after my flight was delayed four hours. Then, when I boarded my flight, I found myself seated next to actor Jeffrey Jones (he played the Emporer Joseph in "Amadeus", and the principal in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off") from LA to Tampa.

Sure I have my share or more of aircraft/airport encoutners, won't go into details for lack of space.

Most memorable while not an airport was in November last year, the seventh I think, whaever the day is the Americans amongst you do that voting thing (while I live here now, I'm still an Aussie, so I pretty much ignored the election until it turned into the mess that it did).

After a day of meetings around New York I jumped a taxi back to my hotel, the cab driver was clearly upset by this and tried to convince me not to go to that particular establishment. Sure enough when we started to get close traffic was a mess, nothing was moving etc etc...

Finally get close enough to walk to the hotel, arrive to find a police//media/fire dept blitz going on... two forms of identification to get past security to get into the hotel...

So Hillary and Bill are there preparing to give a victory speech, the hotel is packed full fo democratic faithfull all going berserk as it is still early in the evening and the media are still calling it a Gore victory.

Couldn't miss out on this one, the place was amazing. I went and freshend up and came down to the bar to watch proceedings. Of course I couldn't get into the ballroom where Hillary and Bill were scheduled to speak, but there were plenty of party faithfull in the same boat as me and the bar was plenty interesting...

Of course you all know what happened that night, so I won't go there, but when they gave New York to Hillary the place went nuts. Both Hillary and Bill had their tunr on stage upstairs, the place went more nuts.

Just when I figure it's all over and think about retiring for the evening Hillary and Bill decide to eat and come downstairs, handlers of course, but they came around the bar for a few minutes and helped us "celebrate" before heading to the restaurant.

Needless to say that in addition to very brief in person encounter with the "happy couple" there were plenty of other democrat celebs and media folks by the dozen there.

Sure it was a major coincidence I was in that city on business on that day and chose that hotel, but what I had intended to be an early and quiet evening with total indifference to the US Elections turned into a truly remarkable evening literally at ground zero.

A VERY memorable experience, but not very related to airlines, sorry.

When traveling for football during college, we had the following celebrity encounters:

October 1996 - DFW American Airlines Terminal
Sandra Bullock and Matthew McConahagh (sp) browsing the gift shop

September 1997 - DEN->LAX
Huey Lewis and the News
Huey signed my game plan and sat in First Class while the News sat in coach.

Also ate next to Ice Cube in Vegas, and flew to Omaha from Denver with Hulk Hogan.

Beckles-
What a great topic. I have met/seen many celebrities at fundraisers and others walking the streets of Manhattan, however, I will only list those celebrities that I bumped into or saw in an airplane or airport.

Rick Morranis YYZ-LGA. Wow was he upset with me for coming over to him. He was actually flying coach (bulkhead) maybe that's why he was in such a bad mood.

Rick Springfield LAS-LAX. Didn't know who he was until the FT came over and said how she is such a big fan.

Ricky Lake walking through LAX. Her asssitant cut me off at the x-ray machines as she was running late to pick her up.

Fabio LGA-YYZ. He was very nice. He waited to take a picture with me and my sister.

John Stamos and his GORGEOUS wife Rebecca. JFK-LAX. There were sitting in the first row of coach far righthand side of the plane, were the last people to board. He was very nice. Unfortunately his wife was sick and slept most of the flight. But got my picture with him.

Cate Blanchet LAX-SFO. Sitting accross from me up front. I went over to her with my camera in hand after the flight because I thought she was Robin Wright, Sean Penns wife and she said sorry I am not Robin Wright. The woman sitting next to her walked by 30 seconds later and informed me it was Kate Blanchet. Ahhhh.

Typically I have noticed that celebrities for the most part board last, 5-10 minutes before the schedualed departure.

By far one of my biggest thrills in life was meeting Lou Holtz in the Columbus Airport while we were waiting for a flight to Orlando.

We both graduated from the same school so it was fun to talk about our memories of the place and talked a lot about one his former bosses and a God in my eyes, Wayne Woodrow Hayes. Mr. Holtz could not have been more polite and gentlemanlike. BTW: he sat in Steerage.

I was sitting next to Keyshawn Johnson in the Delta Room at LAX but didn't realise it until they called his name over the loudspeaker to tell him that his escort was ready. Needless to say all heads turned his way.

On a flight from DAY to IAD in early June 1998, there were about 10 WWF wrestlers on my flight. "Bam Bam Bigelow" (sp? - I'm not a wrestling fan, so I'm not sure if this name is even exactly right) was seated just ahead of me and was very nice, he helped me put my carry-on in the overhead compartment, and was not at all what I expected from a WWF wrestler with tattoos all over his bald head.

During my old FedEx days I was always on the LAX-MEM non-stop on NW:

Morgan Freeman (what a great actor) in 1st
Linda Hunt across the aisle from me in coach.

My wife and I were on Am West from LAX-LAS in January and at the last minute Lt. Uhura (Nichele Nichols?) from Star Trek took the bulkhead in the front of coach. She was with two younger ladies who looked like they could be her daughters. They were all in big furs. They looked like they should have been in first the way they were dressed... but hey, it WAS a Vegas flight!

For all the flying I have done, and so much of it from LAX, I think I am low on the ratio. Just think how many famous people are on our flights that we never even know!

Kevin

On a return flight to New York, I was tickled to be upgraded to first class. As it turned out the gentleman sitting next to me was not only charming and conversational throughout the flight but after we landed he was kind enough to help me with my bags and he instructed his driver to take me home. It made me wonder if this happens everytime you get upgraded to first class...The gentleman was Carl Bernstein.

Just don't get those Texas guys together, like Durwood and Joe West! They'll kill you with war stories! But catch 'em in the pub after the game and they are sure to buy you a beer or two! The pro guys get a bad rap but are the nicest guys off the field!

As for sightings, we were at The Vatican visiting the Sistine Chapel in May of 1992 and there was this 'halo' in the middle of the room. It was Marilyn Quayle being shown around by the Italian Premier's lovely wife whilst Potato Dan was in G-7 meetings. Of course, being the proud civil servant that I was, went right up and said hello and she introduced herself and her hostess while the Secret Service guys were spuming all over their shirts! No guts, no glory.

Then there are the 'pro' wrestlers I always seemed to be seated next to out of CLT. Rick Flair is sure a short little s**t and Roddy Piper is just as dumb in person as on the tube. But the greatest flight was many years ago out of Dallas with Dusty Rhodes. Man, what a great flight that was. Real down to earth guy.

Can start a thread of pro baseball players that I ejected when they were in college ball, but that's no fun.

I was recently at UA checkin at SEA for a flight to PHL via ORD and (eventually, with help from my travel companion) recognised that the couple checking in next to me were Graham Kerr (aka The Galloping Gourmet) and his wife.

Later, we discovered that they were one row ahead of us on a flight from SEA to ORD. Both of them were quite friendly.

Rudolf Scharping* (and bodyguards...) in the LH Senator Lounge in FRA last sunday evening (9:00 pm), waiting for his flight to Berlin.

--------
* : German Secretary of Defense, currently in trouble because he flew 44 times with the (official use only) aircrafts of the german Air Force to visit his new girlfriend, Kristina countess Pilati, in FRA.
Paid flight, this time ...




[This message has been edited by ahrz (edited 09-08-2001).]