Wednesday, October 8, 2008

FaMe with a capital M, part 1

Someone calling him- or herself "-M" commented on my last post, asking if I'd seen any celebrities lately.
I don't know whether "-M" is Mel Gibson or Michelle Obama, but I am pretty sure it's one of them, because those are the two celebrities I have seen in the last 24 hours.
Yeah, you city slickers out there thought I was moving to podunkville. Who did you see today? Marion Barry?
Here's the Mel story:
My college roommate and I get together now and then for dinner, in Northampton, Mass., which is about midway between our houses. This time, we found a really lovely little cafe. The owner seated us, and he was delightful. The waitress was also delightful, although a mixup in the kitchen meant we didn't get our food for a really long time. The food was amazing, when it came, and there was a cracking fire. Just lovely.
And then Mel Gibson walked in.
To answer the most common questions:
  • He was drinking water.
  • He didn't yell, though he did do a funny trick with a hat.
  • I did not stare.
  • The other patrons did not stare.
  • He was eating with four other people, none of them discernibly famous.
  • He was not handsome in a swoony movie star way, though he was handsome in the way you might think a movie star who's pushing 60 and a little ragged from a long day would be.
  • I did not get a picture.
  • I did text four people, chosen largely because they were the last four people I'd texted.
After I did so, he whipped out his iPhone. I suggested to my friend that maybe he was texting four people to let them know he'd seen us in a restaurant. She agreed, and it's stuff like that that makes a friendship sustainable for 19 years.
We also agreed we were glad we'd already finished discussing politics.
Our waitress (having tried to clear our silverware and offer us coffee and dessert before we'd gotten our entrees), did eventually get us our entrees and all but force a free dessert on us. We cut her a little slack because of the famous person in the restaurant. I probably cut her more than a little because she was cute.
The owner smiled and made a remark about falling stars (falling into his restaurant, presumably; there was no literal falling involved) as we left.

2 comments:

Lisa Clarke said...

How cool is that?!

I think the most famous person I remember seeing up close was NY newsman Chuck Scarborough on a grade school class trip to NBC Studios. He was walking out of the place as we were walking in. Good times.

Anonymous said...

I'm not the M, just for the record. And one does run into famous people hereabouts (including, but not limited to, Marion Barry), but my perversely favorite celebrity encounters have involved not recognizing the person right away. I once said "Where do I know you from?" to Ritchie Havens and something similar (probably "you look familiar") to The Hon. Jim Jeffords. I also checked myself just in time to avoid doing the same thing to Neil Young. (All three encounters took place at poltiical demonstrations.)