Friday, July 16, 2010

May I introduce....?



ROSEMARY:
I'm not much of a fan girl. Maybe it was growing up in New York where it was not that unusual to see the odd celebrity on the street, in a restaurant or at a basketball game. Native New Yorkers either are - or pretend to be - too cool to make a fuss over someone famous.
"Oh yes, that's Robert DeNiro having a drink with Mike Tyson. No biggie. Harrison? Uma? He's taller, she's thinner. That's nice."
But this blog isn't about name-dropping. Not exactly.
I recently drove from DC to Connecticut with two large boxes of CDs on the passenger seat. I can drive anywhere with a few cans of diet Red Bull and good music. The CD I kept going back to was a compilation of John Barry's greatest hits. Not familiar with the name? He's responsible for some of the best movie music of the past 30-40 years. From Born Free and Out of Africa to James Bond films, to Walkabout and Midnight Cowboy, Body Heat and Dances With Wolves. I can't imagine anyone being brilliant enough to create original music and I found myself thinking it would be really cool to meet him. I know - I'm a New Yorker. We're not supposed to gush over celebs, but there I was. Gushing. (As much as you can gush in a car by yourself.)
Excluding other authors - no sucking up allowed - who would you really like to meet?




HALLIE: I've always wanted to meet Lynn Johnston (10 points to anyone who knows who that is). She draws/writes the comic strip "For Better or For Worse." Like probably a gazillion other women of a certain age, I've always felt Lynne (I feel we are on a first-name basis) was spying on my life. The (2 older) kids in the strip are my kids' ages, and I so recognized the situations. Her main characters aged (like me, surprise surprise) in real time...until she dialed it back 30. I hope she has real kids and a goofy husband like her character Elly (and if she doesn't, then I'll just keep on pretending that she does).




HANK: I love that comic strip! That said, I'd like to chat with oh, what's his name, who draws Calvin and Hobbes. Bill...Watters?. (Watterson...)

Do you suppose he's as clever and aadorable as that comic strip? Stephen Sondheim. Although I'd be tongue-tied. I have a very good pal who is very good pals with Hilary Clinton. It would be fun to see what she's reallly like. I mean RO, it would be just as fascinating to be a fly on the wall in those people's lives, wouldn't it? (Can flies hear?) I saw James Taylor in the Gap once--I left him alone, but it was all I could do not to gush. I was going to say---I couldn't have made it through college without you. But I decided to let him buy his jeans in peace.



ROBERTA: Meryl Streep, because I so admire her work. And she keeps producing amazing characters and looking amazing as she gets older.
ROSEMARY: Who else would we like to meet?? Who would you like to meet?

11 comments:

  1. Well, I just met one! (I know ou said no authors, but...)

    At Thrillerfest. It was James Grady, who wrote Six Days of the Condor, the book that was turned into the movie Three Days of the Condor. (There's a writing joke there somenewhere.) But he was a writing idol, really, and one ofthe reasons I got into thrillers all those years ago. That book is a classic. (And he wrote it at age 23 or something.)

    And there he was! SO Cool. And charming, and interesting, and interested. And we have so much in common, it was almost too conncidental to be real.

    Sigh. I was so smitten.

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  2. So since Hank already broke the rule of no authors -- I'd like to meet Scott Turow and Larry McMurtry (is Larry McMurtry still alive?)


    I'd also like to meet Venus,, Andy Roddick, Roger Federer. Terry Francona and Pete Carroll, who I have a terrible crush on.

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  3. Oh, gosh - authors I've been star struck meeting -- Sue Grafton at last year's Crime Bake (WOW!), Sarah Paretsky (who I'm sure was afraid I was going to be a stalker), John Lescroart, Lee Child, Martin Cruz Smith, Deborah Crombie... Dead author I'd most like to meet, easy, Patricia Highsmith.

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  4. OH, John Lescroart. Another huge favorite. He's such a charimng man. Sue Grafton, yikes. World's most wonderful. Can you imagine being THAT famous?

    But we're not supposed to be talking about authors.

    Wouldnt if be fun to meet Hugh Grant? Just to hear him talk?? And I'd adore to hang out with Eddie Izzard.

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  5. You gals just won't take direction, will you?

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  6. No authors? Well that leaves out just about everyone I currently want to meet! I'm with Hallie here then, and rebelling against taking direction *grin*. I want to meet Hank, and Jessica Conant-Park for starters, and then I'm going to get ambitious and want to meet Barbara Mertz/Michaels/Elizabeth Peters and Joan Hess!

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  7. Had to laugh at this post. I had the opportunity to interview the Bellamy Brothers when they came to our small town for a concert. I was doing a story for our local online community magazine and was supposed to act like this professional reporter. Sure, I get to interview celebs all the time. I gushed.

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  8. I really would like to meet Ringo Starr.

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  9. Ringo! Did you see the big news on him: he's just turned 70.

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  10. I would also love to meet Meryl Streep. Not only is she a brilliant actress but she has found a way to be ageless.
    I really wanted to meet Peter Ustinov. The only time I've been really star struck was when I sat next to Tony Hillerman and babbled that I loved his books!
    Sorry about the occasional popping in and out... I'm in a small village in England and off to Wales tomorrow

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  11. Gee, I was pretty gobsmacked when I asked Roberta and then Rosemary to come and talk at my library and I got to meet them!

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