Where I've Been

As of April 2008:



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Star Trekking

A Partial List of Everyone Famous That I've Ever Seen In Person (note that this does not include people I paid to see at concerts or plays or sporting events)

Actors & Directors

• Joan Allen - the actress was at Bottino on Friday night (23 Sep 05) while I was dining with friends.
• Billy Baldwin - believe it or not, I actually worked with him at Novix Media in 2000 - the failed dot.com. He was meant to be a political columnist or something. Mostly he sat around in our offices and showed us pictures of his wife, Chynna Phillips and his new baby. Chynna was bare-chested while she breast-fed, and I thought it a bit odd that Billy would show us those pictures.
• Stephen Baldwin - I sat with him and his wife at an A&F catalog launch party at APT. They were very nice.
• Michael Baryshnikov - he walked right in front of my building here in the East Village, with a friend.
• Roseanne Barr - does she go with a last name anymore? I saw her on Prince Street in SoHo, actually looking pretty good. This was post all the plastic surgery and lipo.
• Richard Belzer - "Law & Order" actor, walking his dog on Park Avenue and 53rd Street. April 2008
  
• Matthew Broderick - at my Crunch on Lafayette Street. Working out with a trainer and looking very bloated and pale.
• Ed Burns - where haven't I've seen him? Always in the Hamptons at some restaurant, working it.
• Erika Christensen - on 5/4/05 - she was wandering down 14th Street, looked like she was window shopping. She looked very much like the college student.
• Joan Collins - I worship her. This was at lunch with my friend Ziad and his brother Tareq at Voile Rouge in St. Tropez, the little cafe on the beach that's very trendy. Joan came up the beach off a yacht, all dressed in white with a big white hat. She sang at the table she was at, drank champagne, and generally looked the part of the Alexis Carrington Colby Dexter that we all remember. I refused to leave our table because I was eating up every seond of my Joan encounter.
• Drea Damatteo - of The Sopranos and now Joey. She worked out at my Crunch gym.
• Kristin Davis - of Sex in the City. She was at the store opening party for Carolina Herrera.
• Ellen Degeneres - in the lobby of the Mercer Hotel. And she was chatting with the actor Jeremy Piven, who looked like he was lolling about the lobby waiting on someone to recognize him.
• Rupert Everett - he was at Tea & Sympathy on Greenwich Avenue, leaving as I arrived. In a tank top. He's quite large and had a nice body.
• Richard Gere - on Gibson Beach in East Hampton. He was with a son and I think a nanny. He sort of sat around in a baseball cap and open oxford shirt while the kid played around at the water's edge.
• John Goodman - he was lumbering up Lafayette Street with a beard. I think it must have been for some role.
• Jeanine Gorafalo - she was in line ahead of me at Gourmet Garage in SoHo. She dropped a nickel, I picked it up. She is so tiny.
• Lauren Graham - She's the mom on "Gilmore Girls". Can't say I've ever seen her show, but my friend Sam Pancake (yes) is good friends with her. He came to town in 2002 and the three of us went to dinner together at Five Points, in NoHo. Lauren is very down to earth and friendly. I enjoyed her company.
• George Hamilton - at the opening of the Ferragamo store in SoHo. Looking very pulled. And with a younger woman.
• AJ Hammer - former VH1 VJ. At the VH1 Fashion Awards after party. I've always had a crush on him. But now that he's the host of CNN's "Showbiz Today" I see he's aging a bit. But so am I...
• Mariska Hargitay - What is she on... Law & Order? I saw her leaving a play on 42nd Street. She's so striking.
• Goldi Hawn - walking across Madison Avenue, in jeans, having a great ass.
• Philip Seymour Hoffman - at the opening party for the Ferragamo store in SoHo.
• Nicole Kidman - she was filming her new movie The Interpreter across the street from my apartment last winter. Her trailer was parked at my building front door.
• Ben Kingsley - I went with my friends Lili, Jeff and Veronica on one of those Gray Line tours around Brooklyn. Don't ask. We needed a cocktail afterwards and headed to the Mercer Hotel in SoHo. Ben was there in the lobby. He looked good! (28 Aug 05).
• Carson Kressley - of the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy "fame". We were introduced last night at Beige (3/29/05). He was pretty chipper, and was chatting up an enormous Danish neanderthal.
• Christopher Lawford -the actor and famous political family member worked at Novix Media (our failed dot.com) in 2000. He was meant to be a political reporter, I think. He was a pretty nice dude. Very approachable and friendly.
• Spike Lee - the "all whities are bad" racist was getting out of a chauffer-driven Range Rover in SoHo. He had a leather backpack.
• John Leguizamo - he was walking with his two kids yesterday (4/15/05) to take them to the school at the end of my street.
• Tina Louise - aka "Ginger". At the preview of the Jackie Kennedy Onassis auction at Sotheby's. And at an A&F catalog launch party.
• Liza Minelli - I sat next to her at Les Caves du Roy, the nightclub under the Hotel Byblos. She had on no makeup and was only drinking water. Though I think she's fallen off (and gotten back on) the wagon a few times since then.
• Bill Murray - he was walking in front of my building with his kids, looking for a restaurant.
• Chris Noth - of Sex in the City fame. He works out at my old Crunch.
• The Olsen Twins - they were sitting at the table next to mine at Cafeteria, in Chelsea. I think this was when they were here in 2003 looking at NYU. I could not believe how small they are. Like mice.
• Tatum O'Neal - I've seen Tatum twice. Once a few years ago in NoHo, looking a bit rough. And I saw her tonight in Chelsea on the corner of 6th Avenue and 16th Street as I came up from the E train, she was chatting with some guy and her hair was very blonde. 3 October 2005
• Sarah Jessica Parker - on Charlton Street in the West Village. Looking very scrawny.
• Al Pacino - he was walkind on 2nd Avenue near that gondola thing that crosses to Roosevelt Island. He is so small and looks like he has not aged well.
• Parker Posey - one of my favorite actresses. She was getting a smoothie across the street at Liquiteria.
• Keanu Reaves - at my Crunch on Lafayette Street. Looking very pale and with very messy hair.
• Miranda Richardson - 12 Nov 05. Walking on 61st Street between Park and Madison, talkin on a cell phone, dressed in jeans.
• Joan Rivers - I've seen Joan more times that I can remember. She sat behind me at the "Zanna, Don't" play. I've seen her on Sixth Avenue doing interviews. She really, really looks monstrous in person. But somehow OK on television.
• Jai Rodriguez - of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy "fame". At Beige last night (3/29/05). He was chatting last night with friends, being all "I'm so in the business, let's just chat all about it." What a shrimp.
• Bob Sagget - Former host of America's Funniest Home Videos and star of Full House, we saw him pass through the lobby of the Mercer Hotel in SoHo with his family (28 Aug 05).
• Soupy Sales - how nice was he? He's aging now. He was getting out of the cab that we wanted. He offered to buy my friend Jaleh's baby that we were carrying. It was a joke, you had to be there, but it was cute.
• Adam Sandler - he was filming on the street in front of my building here in the East Village.
• Susan Sarandon - she and I live near-ish each other on opposite sides of Union Square, so I see her quite a bit in the 'hood. She's really petite.
• Arnold Schwarzeneger - at the inauguration of George H.W. Bush in Washington, DC in 1988.
• Jaclyn Smith - Of Charlie's Angels fame. At Barney's over the Christmas 2004 season, shoe shopping with her daughter (who did not, unforunately, inherit Jaclyn's still- very-good looks.)
• Barry Sonnenfeld - the director of Men In Black, Get Shorty, Wild Wild West, etc was a stockholder and creative contributor to our failed dot.com, Novix Media. He had lots of stock options (now worthless) and contributed to one or two meetings. He was bit odd, I remember. He was talking about wishing his mother was dead in the meeting. It was supposed to be funny but really it was just odd.
• Sharon Stone - At New York's very exclusive and still trendy Mr. Chow's Chinese restaurant. She was at the center of a large table that included the heir to the Fiat fortune and generally a chic crowd. She was very animated and looked like she was having a great time. And she does look great in person. March 2008.
  
• Hillary Swank with Chad Lowe - they sat behind us at our favorite little Italian place in the West Village, Malatesta. This was September 12, 2001. We had all gone to the West Side Highway to watch/be with all the rescue workers who were shuttling into and out of the World Trade Center site, which was burning badly down the road. The restaurant had all the windows open, and smoke from the Trade Center kept blowing in. Hillary looked like a boy in her baseball cap.
• Lili Taylor - the actress was wandering in front of my apartment here in the East Village. I still hate her by transference for that annoying character she played on Six Feet Under.
• Uma Thurman - I've seen Uma a few times at the Chelsea Flea Market. Yesterday (4/15/05) she was puching her kid in a carriage through Madison Square.
• Marisa Tomei - at the opening party for the Ferragamo store in SoHo.
• Sigourney Weaver - I rode the elevator with her at 270 Lafayette, where I worked. She was quite tall in person, and in need of a good moisturizer.
• Bruce Willis - at the preview of the Jackie Kennedy Onassis auction at Sotheby's.
• B.D. Wong - he won a Tony for "M. Butterfly" and is on some cop show these days. I used to see him at my Crunch working out with a trainer. Yesterday (4/14/05) I saw him with his little adopted Asian baby, walking down 7th Avenue.
• Ian Zeiring - From 90210. He was on the treadmill at the Crunch in Hollywood.

Designers

• Carolina Herrera - at her store opening party.
• Dolce & Gabbana - 12 Nov 05. Both of them, with their respective boyfriends, sitting next to us at lunch at Fred's (at Barney's). Gabbana was wearing D&G shoes that said "Dolce" on them. His boyfriend was HOT.
• Marc Jacobs - lots of times.
• Calvin Klein- he's everywhere, especially in the gay places since he divorced Kelly Klein. He looks like a lizzard - WAY too much sun and way too many late nights of boozing and drugging for that one.
• Isaac Mizrahi - he lives on 12th Street near me, so I see him walking his dog quite a bit in the AM. But I did meet him at a Christmas 2003 party in Southampton. He was very charming, if a bit spacey.
  

Generally Famous for No Reason

• Nicky Hilton - she and I sat together in a group at a launch party for an A&F catalog.
• The Miller Sisters - all three of 'em: Marie Chantal (now married to the Crown Prince of Greece), Alexa (now the ex-wife of Alexander von Furstenburg) and Pia (married to a Getty). All were having lunch at Fred's at Barney's.
• Lee Radziwill - sister of Jacqueline Kennedy. She was at a play I was at with Kenneth Jay Lane. My friend thought she was a drag queen impersonating Jackie Kennedy!
• Jack Valenti - the former head of the MPAA at a McLean, VA book signing party for the Empress Farah Pahlavi.
  

Infamous

• Lizzie Grubman - I met with her way before she ran over sixteen people and became infamous herself. We were discussing launch strategies for a dot.com I was working at in 2000.
• Jocelyn Wildenstein - she's probably more famous in New York than anywhere else. This is the "Cat Woman" who's had tons of surgery and now looks like a freaky cat.
  

Just Rich

• Michael Bloomberg - my college friend Suzy Assaad, who is an anchor for Bloomberg, let me come one day and watch her host her noon show. I sat right at the edge of her newsdesk, off camera. She was so polished. Michael Bloomberg's little glass office was just off to the side, and he walked in, complaining about the traffic he'd just encountered. This was before he became mayor.
• Donald and Ivana Trump - with my sister, in the bar of the Hotel Jerome in Aspen. This was pre-divorce and pre-surgery for Ivana.

Magicians

• David Copperfield - the magician was at the VH1 Fashion Awards after-party.
  

Models/Actors

• Christie Brinkley - she was either checking in to or out of The Carlyle.
• Cindy Crawford - running across Madison Avenue in a horsey outfit and looking like millions and millions of dollars.
• Helena Christiansen - at the Yves St. Laurent party at Bergdorf Goodman - 1 November 2005. She's tall.
• Linda Evangelista - at the Yves St. Laurent party at Bergdorf Goodman - 1 November 2005. Pretty as a picture, dressed in a 50s style cocktail dress.
• Rachel Hunter - at some birthday party in Southampton. She hovered by the bar the entire time, and looked pretty wasted. But she also looked like she was having fun.
• Lauren Hutton - I saw the model/actress on Lafayette Street, hobbling with a cane. This was while she was recovering from her near fatal motorcycle accident.
• Iman - looking fabulous with a shock of red hair. Sitting with Patrick McMullen at Fressen, in the Meat Packing District.
• Jamie King - former model and star of Pearl Harbor, I met her at the premier of her new TV show called Kitchen Confidential, airing on Fox. (10 Sep 05). She's very sweet, but not so great teeth.
• Claudia Schiffer - making out with then-boyfriend Tim Jeffries on Lafayette Street in SoHo.
• Christy Turlington - I've seen Miss Christy a few times. Once at the old T Salon in SoHo. Once on the beach with her sisters and ridiculously cute nephews/nieces on Gibson Beach in East Hampton.
• Patricia Valezquez - Venezuelan model and actress, most notably for The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. Patricia was seated next to us at Osteria del Sole on West 4th Street on Wednesday night (4/27/05). She was with a gaggle of lesbians, and our friend Antonio, who works at Osteria, tells us the Patricia is lesbian too, and generally has bad taste in women. I thought the girls she was with looked cool.
• Mark Vanderloo - male model, big in the nineties. Walking in SoHo.
• Veronica Webb - at the Yves St. Laurent party at Bergdorf Goodman - 1 November 2005. She is tall and so pretty.

News People

• Tom Brokaw - wandering around by himself in SoHo around Christmas time. I think he was shopping for gifts. He looked wayward.
• Anderson Cooper - sat behind him (and his boyfriend?) at Cirque du Soleil on Randall's Island.
• Katie Couric - power walking near the Haarlem Meer in Central Park, with some guy. She looked tanned and fit.
• Lester Holt - of NBC and MSNBC. He was taking his dog for a walk in Chelsea.

Politicians

• George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush - walking down Pennsylvania Avenue during his inauguration in 1988.
• Hillary Clinton - at the White House in 1998. She spoke at The Coming Up Taller awards event under the aegis of The President's Committee on The Arts and The Humanities. We sat in the East Room and I have to say that I was very, very, very impressed by her smarts and down-to-earth quality.
• The Gorbachevs - when I worked on Capitol Hill ('88 - '92) I would get my sandwich and find someplace outside to eat (weather permitting). The Gorbachevs walked right past me up the steps of the Library of Congress. I remember being struck by how small the both of them were. As was Wolf Blitzer, who was broadcasting nearby.
• Rudolph Guiliani - at an Empire State Pride Agenda dinner.
• Governor George Pataki - at an Empire State Pride Agenda dinner.
  

Royalty

• Prince Dmitri of Yugoslavia - we were introduced at Sotheby's, where he worked in jewelry at the time. Now his family has all their palaces back in Serbia and Montenegro, so I'm sure he's much happier.
• Crown Prince Kardam of Bulgaria - conveniently, his father is also King Simeon and the current prime minister of Bulgaria. We were at a party as his then-girlfriend's (named Sassy) apartment. He's a really nice guy. I remember that he used to crop dust, which I found interesting.
• Prince Nicholas of Greece - son of King Constantine. He's a friend of friends. And he is not nice.
• Princesss Stephanie of Monaco - making out in a lounge in LA. Some rocker dude. This was before she ever married or had kids. At the beginning of her wild phase.

Singers

• Chris Isaac - the singer was at the VH1 Fashion Awards after-party. I stalked him a while but his publicist had such tight reign on access to him.
• Li'l Kim - last summer, during my civic duty at the Supreme Court, I saw Li'l Kim leaving the court after a day of her perjury trial. She was later convicted at will be sentenced soon. She looked very smart in her gray pinstriped suit.
• Seal with Heidi Klum - they were having dinner together at one of our favorite Italian places in the West Village, Malatesta. They were also with her baby by some other dude, and I think her mother.
• Britney Spears & Kevin Federline - at Barney's in January 2005. They were in the mens' department. Kevin purchased a long white coat for a few grand. Britney jumped on him and wrapped her legs around him, and they made out. Her mom was there too, giggling with a giant bodyguard.
• Lou Reed - saw the singer all week on Parrot Cay during August '05 with his wife (or is she a girlfriend?) singer Laurie Anderson. They have a small dog named "Lola." I was very nice to Lola and waved to Lou and Laurie every time I saw them at the pool, or at lunch, or on the beach, and they just stared at me. Everyone else at Parrot Cay was getting on famously (no pun intended) and Lou and Laurie just acted like we were all aliens. Let me tell you, you do not want to see Lou Reed in a Speedo.
• Rod Stewart - sitting on the steps in the lobby of The Peninsula Hotel with his girlfriend and kids, waiting on a car.

Sports

• Chris Everet - I ball-boyed for her at the Family Circle Magazine Cup on Hilton Head when I was a teenager.
• Yvonne Goolagong - I ball-boyed for her at the Family Circle Magazine Cup on Hilton Head when I was a teenager.
• Billie Jean King - I ball-boyed for her at the Family Circle Magazine Cup on Hilton Head when I was a teenager. And I recently saw her (Fall 2004) on the Upper West Side taking a walk. I think she lives around there.
• John MacEnroe - at a restaurant called Amaranth on the Upper East Side. And at the US Open as a commentator.

Writers

• Ahn Dang - at the Yves St. Laurent party at Bergdorf Goodman - 1 November 2005. I don't know what she writes, but I know she's a writer. And man is she tall and skinny.
• Dominick Dunne - At the book signing party for Empress Farah Pahlavi at Le Cirque 2000, hosted by David Rockefeller, Veronica Hearst and Barbara Walters (who was not nice to my boyfriend.)
• Salman Rushdie - twice. The first time I was on a layover in Brussels in 2001, sleeping on a bench between flights. I woke, startled, 'cause I was thinking I'd overslept and missed my flight. When I awoke, Salman was sitting across from me, staring at me, and scared the crap out of me. Second time: 12 Nov 05, having lunch with my niece Kristin and my friend Sam Pancake (yes). We were at Fred's at Barney's and Salman was with his very hot wife. He was wearing dark glasses.