A Brush with the Bushes

(Republished from extinct blog) November 2004

Ok, so I’ve always been a bit goofy around famous people. It hasn’t happened often, but when I’ve had a brush with people In The News (“…with Christopher Glenn,” am I the only one who remembers this?), it’s been downright embarrassing. Until last week. When I got to scare a famous person, and this time not be creepy about it.

But first, some context. Driving through Amagansett (“It’s in the Hamptons, and you are so not cool for having to ask”), NY, approximately 25 years ago, I was faced with one of my rare celebrity sightings. I was in my happening 1972 VW Squareback Sedan — the non-dented parts were still identifiably green — just tooling down Rt 28.

When I looked over and saw a friend getting something out of the trunk of his black Mercedes. I say friend, because he looked so damned familiar. And even though I was living in the Hamptons, where people famously ignored the famous, it’s entirely possible I honked my horn, leaned my head out the window and yelled, “Hey! How ya doin!”

Grammy-Award Winner Paul Simon looked up, glanced at my car and then my face, realized he knew neither, and walked away. No doubt grumbling to himself that the Hamptons were becoming just like everywhere else. That’s about the time I realized why his face was so familiar… This, then, was my low point in celebrity interactions.

So fast forward to last Thursday. I’m in the audience of a community theater production. In the second row. In the…