It’s that time again.

Here are the rules to my favourite game. It is called “Tenuous Connections”. You have to come up with a tenuous connection to a celebrity. The cheesier or weirder the celebrity the more points you get. The more tenuous (or weirder) the connection the better too (although there is a cut-off point – seeing them on television does not count, nor, please note Heather, does living in the same country).

Some game winning past entries (none of them mine):

(1)   My Dad once shared a hotel bed with Roy Hattersley;
(2)   My sister went out with the brother of the saxaphone player in Spandau Ballet.
(3)   Thom Yorke babysat for us once in Cornwall.

Those of you who have entered before cannot rely on an entry used before (i.e. no rodent, Norah). I am easily influenced so it is worth commenting on other people’s entires in the hope of persuading me to score them up or down.

Who’ll be first?

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55 thoughts on “”

  1. Strange you should bring this up now, I was out last night with a close friend and we got talking about music as we usually do and I mentioned Led Zeppelin at which point he told me that one of his friend’s best friend is the niece of John Bonham. My dad once nearly ran over Jimmy Hill, but I don’t think I have any direct links to celebrities, tenuous or otherwise. I’ll be sure to let you know if anything comes to me.

  2. Rick those are two absolute stonkers to kick us off. I think teh Jimmy HIll one alone may win it. Let’s see.

  3. My friend, Amber, was at a nice bar here in Washington, DC recently and so was Jenna Bush – one of G.W.’s daughters. (Boooooo!)

    When Jenna and her friend went into the bathroom, Amber and HER friend followed them. Jenna and friend were standing right in front of an empty stall talking about being SO drunk the night before, ignoring Amber and her friend. Amber walked into a stall, not wanting to obviously look like they were stalking the Bush girl and when she came out, Jenna and friend had gone into their own stalls.

    Then, another patron walked into the bathroom and proceeded to open Jenna’s stall door, which she had neglected to lock.

    Good times.

  4. When I was very young I nearly drowned in a Pontins swimming pool. Shiny headed, former Olympian, Duncan Goodhew was only yards away.
    He didn’t help.

  5. A confrere once helped to arrange a meeting for Sting with the Pope. In gratitude, he was allowed to meet Sting in his hotel room. I covered the job of answering the phone and door while he went off to meet him. I received a scrap of paper with Sting’s (illegible) autograph in recompense. Sting’s wife came to the monastery to meet said brother, and I spied her through the open door of the parlor.

  7. I can’t remember if I used this one in the last round but here goes, Mr H had a pee whilst standing next to Geoffrey Howe – it was in the Gents….

    And……I rented a holiday cottage in Turkey that had been rented previously by Damon Albarn.

  10. Heather – It is good you added that bit about the gents, I had visions of him peeing in the street next to Geoffrey.

  12. I once stood in line for an airplane bathroom (before 9-11 when you could stand up in planes) in front of Victoria Jackson. She was so nice (I was so hyperventilating) that I let her go first.

  13. OK…here we go:

    My Uncle…Don Phillips…is a producer/caster in Hollywood…SOOO…he has done lines with Robert Plant (yes…that Robert Plant and when I mean lines…cocaine people…it was the 80’s!)…he casted Fast Times at Ridgemont High so he basically discovered Sean Penn…Jennifer Jason Leigh and whomever else was in that movie. He got Matthew McConaughey his first role in Dazed and Confused…and my mom went out to V-Day dinner with Sean and my uncle about 6 years ago where upon Sean began to cry about his marriage to Robin Wright and then profusely went off about what a bitch Madonna was when he was married to her. Very surreal.

    My own personal experiences:

    I once bummed a cigarette off Keanu Reeves when they were filming My Own Private Idaho in Portland. I didn’t smoke…but wanted an opening to talk to him. SOOOOO…he gave me a cig…we talked about fun places to hang out and I seriously thought he would show up in the bar I told him about. He didn’t.

    I was in NYC as a child and Age Bagoda was at the table next to us…eating a salami sandwhich.

    In L.A. my mom and I went to see Steve Martin’s play…and want to eat at the friggin Olive Garden afterwards…and there was Steve. UNBELIEVABLE!! I couldn’t eat cuz I just watched him the whole time…

    When I lived in San Francisco…I had just walked out of the dentists office when Nicolas Cage walked by me. I immediately hopped on my scooter…rode about two blocks ahead of him…and then slowwwllly got off my scooter just in time to take off my helmet…flip my hair and exchange a hello with him. Best.trip.from.the.dentist.EVER!

    Also in SF…I was a nanny at the time and the twins I took care of took karate with Robin Williams son Cody. They were having a karate exhibition one day…and Robin showed up with his wife and stood right next to me the whole time. I wanted to tell him “Hey…we have the same birthday.” but then realized I would come off as some kind of stalker.

    So there ya go!!! 🙂

    This was fun…like a walk down memory lane…

  14. My mum works with a woman who is the auntie of one of the guys from The Artful Dodger. That’s a bit vague.

    Also I’ve kinda met Jennie Bond. She possibly owns or stays in a holiday home in south devon near where I go on holiday every year. And we’ve seen her in the pub and on the beach.

    Another thing – I’ve seen Rik Mayall in south devon too – he’s a popular local apparently. Didnt speak to him tho.

  15. I think moochy really deserves an honorable mention for completely understanding what a tenuous link to fame is…..

    Mr H’s mum lives in the road that a woman from HiDeHI used to live in but I don’t think that they lived in the road at the same time.

  18. And here I thought it was impressive that my dad ran into Liberache at a mall in Vegas back in the mid ’80s. I’ve obviously been hangin’ out with the wrong people.

  20. I have three – but I have to admit I’m never that impressed with celebrities. I never get any autographs or anything, coz to me they’re just people…..
    Here goes:

    At a Take That concert in Essex in 1992, Gary Barlow politely told me to get out of the way. I obliged.

    More recently (2003 or 4 I think) at a similar concert in Essex, I reprimanded the lead singer of Nickleback for taking a shortcut through a first aid post. He apologised and walked round instead.

    I stood near Blue (when they were still together) while they waited to go on stage. Some of their small children were playing together too. They seemed like very nice people.

    Ta daaaah!

  22. What rodent?

    Here’s my entry for today: I once snogged a guy who’s gran knows Jon BonJovi’s mum.

  23. At my big sister’s 18th I danced with the girl who went on to play Lovejoy’s daughter.

    Johnny Lee Miller was in my mum’s kitchen once, at a party we were throwing. He didn’t say anything.

    Until I moved six weeks ago, Mike from ‘Spaced’ was stalking me: he’d be at the next table in the pub, in the café when I bought my morning coffee, coming out of the newsagent as I walked in, a few places away from me in the Tesco queue. This cannot be coincidence.

    I gave Gina Bellman two pound coins for a two-pound coin, for the parking meters in Golden Square.

    My sisters and I met Jimmy Savile on an Edinburgh to London train, back in the days he was advertising ‘The Age of the Train’.

    Feargal Sharkey used to work in the office next door to mine. I could never understand a bleeding word he said.

    A girl I used to know was Posh Spice’s sister’s best friend. I have a signed promotional postcard for the ‘Mama’/’Who Do You Think You Are’ single to prove it. Signed by Posh Spice, that is, not her sister. Nor the best friend.

  24. My house was previously owned by a man who was a chauffeur for a record company and , according to my neighbours, he once brought Tina Turner home for a cup of tea.

  25. Norah – remember this?

    “My younger brother shared a house at uni with the son of the guy who was in the Rodent of Unusual Size costume in The Princess Bride film.
    C’mon. That HAS to win me something.”

    Also ruled out is your having seen Ulrika naked.

    However, with the quality of today’s entry I don’t think you’ll be needing the other things.

  26. My even more tenuous claim to fame is that a woman who snogged a guy and gran..knows Bonjovis ma….she once commented on my blog. Can you get more tenuous than that?

  27. great game!

    i worked as a maternity nurse for andy fletcher from depeche mode for a couple of months. i met the dudes from hothouse flowers (anyone remember them?) and my friend gave them some bangles she got from nepal, we later saw them on tv wearing them. i drove past martin clunes in dorset once! i saw kylie minogue standing out the front of harrod’s too!

  28. Heather – I doubt it.

    Please all go and vote for heather’s blog on the swiss blog awards website!

  30. Warp records’ noisesmith, Tom Jenkinson (aka Squarepusher), stole my friend’s barbeque.

  31. Does being a celebrity stalker allow one to win this competition or do you get disqualified for bringing the game into disrepute?

  32. Rick – It depends. If your entry was:

    “My probation officer snogged Michael Barrymore after he came in to complain about my stalking” that would probably be ok.

    “I have Michael Barrymore’s severed head in my fridge so that I can win tenuous connections” might be more problematic.

    Jef- I thought I was the only person with a Squarepusher CD. I supose he counts as “weird”

  33. My dad has been drinking in the same pub as Jethro (bearded westcountry comedian) on 2 occasions. Different pubs both times, I hasten to add.

  38. I saw Natalie Cole’s (Nat King Cole’s daughter) buttcrack and it wasn’t pretty. I wanted to put a quarter in it to see if she’d sing “Unforgettable”, because that was…

  39. I sat behind Richard E Grant in the Vagina Monologues and we were both born in Zambia. Does that count?

  41. Living in L.A., you can have a brush with a celeb by just pulling into a gas station. Here’s my faves:

    One of my best friends used to be roommates with Paula Abdul. This was when she was starting her singing career. She also referred me to one of my clients, E! Entertainment, because she was dating one of the partners at the time.

    i go to the same gynecologist as Lisa Kudrow (Friends). This OB/GYN delivered her baby, as well as my two girls. (Okay, come up with your own funny line here.)

  42. Oh Moobs – I meant to tell you, I finally got round to going to that link you suggested. I always liked Rather Good Videos when it was on Channel 4. Not sure about the lyrical content of that song though.

  43. Tenuous? Rosalie and I once sat in an IKEA cafe near Manchester – Noddy Holder was at a facing table. I’ve also been in Costa Coffee only inches away from George Martin (which counts as a tenuous link to John Lennon, I think). And then there was my brief conversation with one of Madonna’s bodyguards.

    Even more tenuous? I once worked with someone whose osteopath also treated Yasmin Le Bon. Surely Duran Duran win some cheese points…

  44. And I did once share a house near Romford around the corner from which was the house Five Star lived in – you could tell which one was theirs as the crazy paving continued up the wall. That’s probably enough 80’s pop connections for now.

  45. Many moons ago I was running on the treadmill at the Palace of Westminster gym when I noticed none other, running on the machine next to me, than Sebastian Coe (who was then an MP).
    So I stopped.

  46. If I was judging this contest then I I would be tempted to give hopeful amphibian a lot of points for an osteopath and Yasmin le Bon –

  48. My sister who is a doctor, treated Jeremy Irons’ son in hospital when he broke his arm
    My best friend at school went to church with Mick Jagger’s nephew
    I had a Dutch friend who was Rutger Hauer’s cousin
    My Dad was at the same school as Lovejoy
    I sat next to Rory Bremner during the warm up act to his show
    I shook hands with Douglas Hurd in Moscow

  49. Oh, and I saw Neil Kinnock’s head walking past our classroom when he came to visit our school

    These just aren’t tenuous enough….

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