Two Degrees Of Celebrity Sighting

Jerry Rice in a San Francisco club, photo © 2009 by beeca. All rights reserved.

I am so obsessed with celebrity that even though I don’t know who this man is—my sisters and niece tell me he is famous—I am posting his photo on the blog. And not only is he famous—he is retired NFL player Jerry Rice, used to play for the San Francisco 49ers—but because he was runner-up in the second season of Dancing with the Stars, losing to Drew Lashea, who I also didn’t know but am told was in a boy band with brother Nick, who used to be married to Jessica Simpson, I am now connected through six degrees of separation to Tony Romo of the Dallas Cowboys. (I don’t know who he is either, and my niece just reminded me that since they are both of football fame, Tony and I are probably connected through three degrees, not six.)

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My Brushes With Fame

• February 1978: Rode up three floors in an elevator with Rock Hudson. I was in Durango, Colorado, with my high school ski club over Presidents Day holiday. Rock was in Colorado filming the movie Avalanche, also starring Mia Farrow. We were at the plush (for those days) Tamarron Resort. I got onto the elevator, saw Rock, turned my back and acted like I didn’t notice him. Three floors later the doors opened and Rock got out. He brought light to the then little known AIDS epidemic after dying from the disease a few years later.
• 1982: My college friend “Suzy Paduzer,” whose uncle was a well-known Hollywood film director, insisted I meet someone named Demi Moore and her husband Freddy for a drink at a hotel lobby bar in Albuquerque. Demi and Freddy were in town to see Demi’s mother, who Suzy had in Spanish class at the University of New Mexico. Suzy said that Demi and Freddy were the coolest people ever, that Demi was a promising actor who’d just been cast in a soap opera, and her husband was lead singer for a band called Boy. I joined Suzy, Demi’s mom, Demi, and Freddy for a drink. They seemed distracted and bored, although my friend Suzy, who I eventually lost track of, continued her friendship with Demi for some time.
• About four years ago: Sold a pair of vintage Ecuadoran silver earrings, dangle-y, to Ali McGraw during the annual Santa Fe Ethnographic Art Show. Ali, who has a home in Santa Fe, was working with a flamboyant and famous (among folk art folk) businessman friend of hers, while I was working the booth across from them for a not-so-famous but respected vendor of Latin American jewelry and art. I acted (guess how?) cool as a cucumber as I wrote out the sales slip and handed Ali her new earrings. She must have been in her 60s and still cute as a bug, albeit a wee bit snooty. But then again, so was I.
• October before last: During the Abiquiu art studio tour, stopped in at Marsha Mason’s lavender farm. Marsha wasn’t there, and as I recall the place was for sale, but still, I bet I stepped on Talavera tiles that she stepped on a thousand times, barefoot.
• Tonight: Ate at Temple Club in Ho Chi Minh City—gorgeous, quaint, and serving yummy food, plus is the spot where Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in 2006 had dinner and scootered to their hotel. I’m told they reserved the intimate top floor, where we sat tonight. For all I know, one of them (or both) sat on the same velvety chair that I sat on.

What about you? What are your brushes with fame?

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