Name Dropping
Still bored, still wasting time at the keyboard here. From the other room comes peals of children’s laughter — Zoe is having a sleepover with two kids from school. So I’ll write about the kids … sort of.
Zoe attends a private school that’s popular in the entertainment community. Lots of celeb’s kids are there, so we rub elbows with Hollywood’s movers and shakers at school functions. It’s a little weird sometimes, straddling the divide between their world and mine, between having to budget your vacation days from your job to cover the school holidays versus jetting off to Paris at a moment’s notice and letting the nanny take care of the kids while you’re gone. But they’re just normal people, people just like us … but with a fuck of a lot more money.
Without naming names for the Google spiderbots and thus violating these folks’ privacy, here’s a rundown of some of the folks we bump into from to time.
For tonight’s guests, one’s mother was the subject of a hit song by the 80’s band Toto, and the other’s father is a member of a popular vocal jazz group named for a New York City borough “X-fer.”
Last year I was looking forward to this. It didn’t happen — last year. This year? Oh yeah. I want to invite mom over for a sleepover.
Parents of former classmates who’ve moved on to other schools include two producers of an NBC sitcom featuring a gay lawyer and his female best friend, an actor famous for a role as a ticket scalper in a 1982 “fast” movie about the “times” at a California high school (he’s a really great guy, I like him a lot), and a singer whose first name is also that of a department store and whose last name is a neutral color.
In the schoolyard and at school events we frequently see:
- A prominent actor who was in two movies about talking gorillas
- An actor most famous for three recent science fiction movies about a computer generated world (his godchild is here tonight, Beth tells me)
- An actor who’s not a very “old man” who recently appeared in a “serious, black” role in two Harry Potter movies
- A “Monkish” fellow and his actress wife who once nearly had her “body snatched.”
- One of Charlie’s original angels — the smart one
- A prominent actor who played a Don in three Mafia movies and a Cuban drug lord with a scar on his face in the 80’s
- The founder of a musical duo named for “crying” for “what scares you” that just reunited and me and Beth are seeing them in concert next month
- The object of Gib’s (and my) fantasies and the namesake of one of my all-time favorite movies The Sure Thing
- A pretty lifeguard from a TV show where they “watched” the “bay,” who was also once the TV “charge” of a guy named “Charles”
- An “always-lazy” member of Monty Python’s Flying Circus (I was a major geekboy the day I met him, let me tell you)
- The T-1000 Terminator from T2.
- …and numerous other behind-the-scenes entertainment industry players whose names I recognize from the trades but I don’t know their faces.
Good lord, I’m an idiot. I’ve been trying to be all coy as I write this and not use their names or even link directly to them on IMDB because I didn’t want their names to even appear in the HTML link code … and I just realized IMDB doesn’t use names in the link; it’s an internal numerical code. I could have just linked straight to most of these people without being all disingenuous talking about “a movie with talking gorillas” and all.
Okay, fine. I’ve gone back and stuck in all the direct links I could have done in the first place. But you know what? I spent so much time and meager brainpower being all clever about dropping their names without actually dropping their names that I’m going to leave all that cleverness in there, even though it’s no longer necessary — and not all that clever. Feh.
What a tool. A name dropping tool.
I normally don’t like name dropping (or name droppers), but one really impressed: Zoe.
Few fathers appreciate sitting and enjoying the unique sound of their daughter’s sleepovers (until it’s too late).
Enjoy those ‘peals of children’s laughter’ my friend… those treasures slip through your fingers way too fast!
I can see why you don’t like Republicans – it would be a real shame to open up your fine private school to poor minorities with school vouchers.
God, you’re sickening. Maybe you should re-evaluate your commitment to the “people”. Like Mr. Kerry and his numerous estates, you seem to prefer them as a concept rather than a reality.
How do you know Zoe’s not there on a voucher herself? Oh, I know: because she’s white and only minorities are poor. Pardon, your racism is showing.
Actually, there are several children in each class who are there on what is essentially a scholarship because the school is committed to diversity. It’s not just wall-to-wall rich kids. And we are very much not rich ourselves — Zoe is able to go there thanks to the generosity of her grandfather. I guess you assumed we’re rich too, proving the old adage that when you assume, you make an ass…
Since you can see why I don’t like Republicans, then I’ll commend you on your clear thinking and thank you in advance for helping me vote W out of office.
Well….I’ll step up here as the better half of the writer of this journal:
1. Posting as anonymous is plain old chickenshit. Don’t make comments behind a screen. If you feel strongly enough to comment you should stand up for what you say and put your name.
2. While the list of parents was all about the famous people, there are a large percentage of scholarship children at our daughter’s school. It’s not all about the rich and famous but for goodness sake, we live in Los Angeles….you can’t go to the freakin supermarket without running into someone famous. It’s not like we live in Kansas.
3. You know nothing about our life or lifestyle. If you read carefully, Chuck pointed out that we carefully budget our vacation days to cover school holidays. Vacation days from our jobs.
go get ’em beth.
that said…i never get to see anyone famous. I thought I saw an ex ER actor (balding guy, last name was a color) at the pizza place on monday…but i am just not sure.
First: KUDOS Beth & Chuck to the perfect and succinct responses to the lameass anon guy. Whatever.
NOW………
A) I so, so, so, totally hate you guys.
B) I, meaning as in ME, Celtic Goddess Chick Extraoridinaire, was supposed to have G.O.’s kids. So when you see him next, please tell him that the candles are lit and if he doesn’t leave his wife and get his ass over here I’ll start stalking him like he’s never known. I’m not kidding about this.
C) Keanu Reeves has KIDS???? What happened to the strippers & the plane???
D) Um, WHERE are the KISS guys?
E) I was supposed to have P.A.’s kids too. Please ditto the above mentioned comment in B to her.
F) I occasionally buy Kate’s shit at KMart. The least she could do is call.
G) I so, so, so totally hate you guys.
-Your Red-Headed Stalker Chick Who Lives in the Belly of the Beast But Never Sees Anyone Cool, Even Though Four of the Top SoCal Resorts are Within 5 Miles of Where She Lives
*The above is not a comment on how boring her life is. She actually has a fabulous, exciting life. She just doesn’t want to bore you with the details.
K
I am pretty sure G.O. is no longer with any sort of spousal unit. He’s always at school with his boys. Keanu is the godfather of one of Zoe’s very good friends (and attendee at the discussed sleepover). The KISS guys are at sushi, not school. P.A.? A.P. maybe? I’ve never seen him but if I do i’ll pass on your message. Kate isn’t there anymore–she got tired of the mother of one of Zoe’s classmates stalking her I think.
Don’t hate us, love us.
xxb
So, G.O. is without spousal unit, hmmm?
Um, what school is this again? And, since I have no children, do you think they’ll accept cats as students? They’re very smart cats. Just ask Monsieur Amaya.