Jesse Richards
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It's only been six years in the city, but I've seen lots of famous people. You might notice below that there is a disproportionate number of attractive women in this selection (Mila Kunis, Keri Russell, etc). Sorry about that. Who knows how many male celebrities I've missed walking on the streets of New York? Note: Click on some of the photos to see larger pictures.
Ric Ocasek, the lead singer of The Cars, can not possibly be mistaken for anyone else. He's gaunt, tall, and wears all black. He wandered into Big Daddy's the other day.
A highlight of my celebrity brushes - Mila Kunis, star of That 70's Show and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. And really really short, which is nice. Marc and I saw her walking in the Village with an albino-esque guy. He was most likely Macauley Culkin, but I didn't add him to this page as we didn't get a good look at him for some reason.
John Adams himself was waiting in the (unmoving)taxi line with us at Union Station in Washington during the blizzard of December '09. 2 feet of snow. No taxis. Sad Paul.
Moby of being Moby fame, was eating at the table next to us at Rice restaurant (which is delicious, fyi imho btw lol.)
Scarlett sat next to Rachel and I at the good ol' Lyric Diner. She was with a friend and wore a black coat and fedora that she pulled down over her face when she stood up. She was obviously trying to stand out by pretending to be inconspicuous. I did not notice what she ordered for dinner.
Larry David sat behind us when I saw not-cheesy-at-all the Broadway show Little Women with my girlfriend. No laughs - clearly the show was awesome enough that he wanted to see it too.
I saw Keri Russell walking along Sixth Avenue and it only took me about three blocks to work up the nerve to say "Hi" to her. She also said, "Hi." And that was the end of that. (By the way, she's attractive, it turns out.) The picture here (along with the words) was one of the first that came up after Google Image searching Kerri Russell to find one for the page. It cracks me up.
Lawrence M. of New York, New York, writes: "This morning I saw Spike Lee in the Dunkin Donuts in my office building. He was buying breakfast for his kid. He is short and wears thick glasses."
I passed Kirsten walking on Broadway. She was wearing a plain white t-shirt and looked like she was coming from some type of yoga or dance class.
My friend Viviane and I sat next to Jason Schwartzman and his wife, clothing designer Brady Cunningham, at Cafe Gitane in SoHo. They had a dog that was friendly to Viv and wisely steared clear of me.
I didn't get to see her, but Lawrence and his friend saw a movie with Julia Roberts, star of "Hook" and "Eat Love". She was actually in the theater in Union Square with them watching "The Other Guys." When she left she climbed into a black SUV with her entourage.
I passed Sarah on Broadway too, right outside the Meetup office. She was very casually dressed, with a baseball cap and backpack. She was smirking. Mike alter claimed to have made out with her.
Yesterday I saw Boone from Lost (Ian Somethinghander) walking down the street talking on his cell phone, presumably to my friend Ji. Or perhaps, to one of Ji's friends, asking them to see if Ji "like" likes him.
Of course, it's unlikely he could even form complete sentences since due to his untimely death this was most likely Zombie Boone. Perhaps he was asking about Ji's brains.
Jay Baruchel was filming Sorcerer's Apprentice near where I work. He was in Tropic Thunder, Undeclared, and is shown here with Kristen Bell in Fanboys.
Elisha Cuthbert of TV's 24 sat next to Rachel and I at a restaurant down the street on 3rd Ave.
Saw someone who looked just like Seth Rogen on 5th avenue one night, so I'm going to assume it was him. This means there are actually two people named Seth on this page, weird.
I just saw Harvey Keitel shooting a scene for Life on Mars on Bleecker Street where I work. It felt like I walked into the 1970s. Except Mila Kunis wasn't there.
Spotted Sarah Jessica Parker outside our apartment packing clothes in a wardrobe trailer. At least, it looked like her from above. The staff was wearing Sex in the City shirts - kind of a tip-off.
Saw John Wesley Shipp, of the ol' Flash TV show (and Dawsons Creek), at a comic book show. A very nice guy.
We saw Adam West at the same show, but we didn't want to have to wait in line to actually meet him. He seemed so special, with his fancy security detail and all.
Saw Jimmy Fallon one night at The Copper Door - right down the street. It was very late - presumably after an SNL taping! He was talking to us and everything, basically because there was no one else in the bar.
We passed Jane Krakowski, from 30 Rock, at WholeFoods - but she did not look like Betty Rubble.
Marc and I saw Ali Larter a while ago walking her dog downtown. This was long before her 21 annoying characters on Heroes.
Marc, Lawrence and I saw Oliver Platt walking between 5th and 6th Avenue on 22nd street. Probably headed towards Barnes & Noble, like any reasonable person. He looked cool, but not as attractive as Ali Larter.
We saw Naveen Andrews - Sayid of TV's Lost - an hour before we were about to watch the show. Ji and Lawrence and I saw him at some movie premiere in Union Square. There were other actors there too, giving interviews to the cameras, but he was the only one we recognized.
Famke Janssen is our second celeb spotting at the delicious restaurant Rice on Elizabeth St. in NoHo.
John Glover, hero of Gremlins 2*, was next to us at the counter of Banana Republic today, arguing over a coupon. That's how he made that Luthor fortune!
*The New Batch.
Marc and I also ran into Pacey Jackson, star of Dawson's Creek as well as Dawson's Creek Season Two. He walked out a movie theater with us after we saw Big Fish. He held the door for us, which was nice. His date was unsurpisingly attractive. (In the photo at left, I went to college with the other guy, James Vanderdawson.)
Kristin Davis is gorgeous, and apparently prone to walking along Fifth Avenue, next to Central Park. An equally gorgeous walk.
Illeana Douglas is in a bazillion movies, such as Ghost World. She was at Union Square's modelly Coffee Shop.
Matt Pinfield (not to be confused with Penfold, whom we did NOT see, unfortunately) and his posse were in a BBQ place where my boss and I were eating. Antwan and I were very embarrassed when Jon talked to him, but he seemed a good sport.
Lawrence saw Kelly Clarkson, who is his Idol. Ha ha Ha! Whew.
Scott Wolf and his wife, Kelly something from the Real World, were shopping at Banana Republic in SoHo. They are both attractive, and like many of the folks here, much shorter than you'd think.
Dear Scott - I love Lost!
Mark Linn-Baker, best known to non-theatre-goers as cousin Larry on Perfect Strangers, walked by me on the way to work ... for both of us. He's in a show now across the street from Meetup, where I work. Here's a great caricature by the indomitable Al Hirschfeld (with Nathan Lane on the left, I think).
Hey - it's that guy from 30 Rock! You know, that guy. He was at a restaurant on Bleecker across the street from Qdoba. The guys who work at Qdoba are so nice. And they have little chip strips that can go on your taco salad - an important edge over their bitter rival, Chipotle. What were we talking about?
Here's Danny Strong, who played Jonathan for many years on Buffy. He's very short. I passed him in the West Village on the way to work one day. This was the funniest photo I could find of him online, on a Jedi Chefs site. Yes.
Julianne Moore, or her bizarro twin because I swear it looked just like her, was standing by me on 3rd Ave. She was with some elementary school kids. I wonder if she has kids, or was just kidnapping some. I guess I could look that up if I felt like it.
This photo is a brilliant recreation of a Sargent painting.
Cynthia Nixon makes my Sex in the City celebrity bump-intos almost complete. She was in the Met with people who looked like her parents, and a baby. Of course, it might have been an animatronic baby, or a pig; I didn't get that close a look.
This guy has crazy hair. He's Joe Perry from Aerosmith. We saw him talking on the phone a block away from our apartment. No doubt discussing with Steven Tyler how to make Amazing into another song.
Lawrence also saw Ja Rule. I have no idea who he is, but he looks pretty tough in this photo, much like Lawrence himself.
AND, Lawrence saw Chris Robinson, from the Black Crowes and married to Kate Hudson fame. Oddly, his friend saw the lead singer from the Counting Crows the other day. Next we plan to see Ray Bolger, Brandon Lee, and Cillian Murphy.
I saw Julia Louis-Dreyfus in the Rodeo Bar two blocks up from our old apartment. Lawrence didn't believe me since his back was to her.
This is Paul Dano, who was in The Girl Next Door with Elisha Cuthbert (see above) and Little Miss Sunshine. We saw him at the good ol' Lyric Diner.
Ji saw Seth Green (not his action figure version) on NJ Transit and ALSO on the subway! It's like he was stalking her.
I was lucky enough to run into John Flansburgh and John Linnell of one of my favorite bands, They Might Be Giants, in Union Square. Of all these celebrities, they were the only ones I stopped to say hi too, and shake their hands. They were nice and had at least one Dan from their band of Dans with them too.
Omg, I happened to go to this great club with Heroes' famous cheerleader, Hayden Panettiere. I bet just writing the words Hayden Panettiere will help with my search engine placement. A lot more people are interested in Hayden Panettiere than most of my other 500 pages here. Which is sad. Hayden Panettiere.
Wow, I also just happened to run into Kristen Bell of TV's Veronica Mars and Heroes in Washington Square Park! What are the chances?! ...
... Ok, I didn't really bump into Kristen Bell and Hayden Panettiere. But I did meet them. I posed for professional photos with them both. Whatever, you would too.