Who is the most famous person you've ever met?

[mnhtnbb]

36. When we lived in L.A. I had sightings or interactions with quite a few

Hollywood types: Lucille Ball, Henry Morgan, Lindsay Wagner, Gary Burghoff
(I was on a game show where Jamie Farr was my 'partner') and in
New York one time George Clooney came in to a restaurant and
sat at the table next to ours.

But my favorite interaction was with Walter Matthau. I was in
the bank, in Pacific Palisades, with my almost two year old
son. He was a handful at that point. I was standing at the teller
window, he by my side, and all of a sudden he bolted for the front
door (which opened onto a sidewalk fronting a busy street). I had
to sprint after him. Walter Matthau, who had been sitting at a desk
chatting with the bank manager, turned to me and said, "he's a real
Dennis the Menace, isn't he?" Well, I thought that a little odd (since
my son was so little) and about a year later out came the Dennis the
Menace movie with Matthau playing Mr. Wilson. Looking back on it,
he was probably shooting the movie at the time.

I keep thinking of things! Hubby is a psychiatrist/psychoanalyst
and we were in NY one time years ago for a psychoanalytic event that
was honoring the playwright, Wendy Wasserstein. So I had
a nice chat with her. She was very nice--down to earth.


Also, when I was a student at UCLA, Jimmy Connors was there. I was
a PE major (pre-Physical Therapy at the time) and we were required
to take four sports activities classes. I was already a pretty good
tennis player, so tennis was one of the classes. The teacher
had Jimmy 'helping' her with the class, and he would rally with
those of us who were 'advanced'. I learned two handed back-hand
from Jimmy Connors because of that class.

When we lived in Nebraska, Molly Ivins came to be the speaker at
a Jefferson Jackson dinner. I got to sit next to her! She was quite
a wit. We also hosted a pre-Jefferson/Jackson dinner cocktail
party at our house one year (in Lincoln, NE). Bob Kerrey sat
on a barstool at my kitchen counter for most of that party,
and JFK's speechwriter, Ted Sorensen, was there, as well as
Ben Nelson.