Weird Airport Encounter

Yet another celebrity encounter to report. You'd think with a town as big as L.A., I wouldn't see as many as I do, but alas, they seem to follow me everywhere.

I was flying back to L.A. last night and had over an hour to kill in the terminal. As usual, I was unprepared to entertain my toddler so I just let her wander around to play. It took less than five minutes for her to find another little girl with a box full of toys. She ran over, I followed, and found myself standing over Weird Al Yankovic and his wife and daughter. I'm happy to report that his hair is even bigger and weirder in person since he apparently doesn't use all that gooey hair product when he travels.

I never know what to do in these situations. Do I play it cool and pretend that I'm so far out of the pop culture bubble not to know about him? Do I gracefully acknowledge that he's a comedic genius and then move on to other topics? Do I scream, make him autograph my pregnant belly with his ear wax and force him promise to become a regular visitor of my blog? Faced with all these choices, I decided to just talk to his wife for a while and then work him into the conversation like any other mom at an airport would do. Mostly though, I was surprised they didn't recognize me. Honestly, I thought everyone read my blog! I guess I should have just given him my signature anyway so he doesn't realize his mistake later and spend the rest of his life in regret.

Yes, I did make Weird Al laugh. No, he didn't say anything remotely funny. According to the rules of rational deduction, this means I am funnier than him. My daughter and I camped out with their family for a good 20 minutes and just had normal parent conversation revolving around our kids before Pixie got bored and ran off to chase the electric carts zipping through the terminals. I'm always surprised at how exciting these non-exciting celebrity encounters are. Oh, and that Tom Wood guy was on our flight as well (from the movie The Fugitive). He was absolutely thrilled to see me! I'm glad some people are familiar with genius when they see it.

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Here's a great link my sister Annie put up to Weird Al's "White and Nerdy" music video. Good stuff and so true! Keep a tally as to how many of the things in this video you have done. Scary.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I love the White and Nerdy Video!! Sorry I haven't visited you in a while!
Anonymous said…
I hear Weird Al is a very nice guy. Does he look as much like Andrew Vestal in person as he does in his pictures?

Also, when I tell Francis about this, he's going to collapse in paroxisms of jealousy.
Anonymous said…
You lucky duck, you. Hey, have you ever listened to his version of "Peter and the Wolf"? I highly recommend it...very, very funny.
Anonymous said…
I was going to Denver one day and Screech was on my plane. I blogged about it, but who cares.

Screech was just about as odd-looking as you'd expect, but he's famous. So I slugged him in the gut.
Suzie Petunia said…
I'm so jealous! I never meet famous people. So, did you acknowledge that you recognized him? I didn't quite catch that.
Sarah said…
For the people who are coming from the link on the Weird Al forum, I'm kidding about being famous and having people recognize me. I guess to someone who has never come to my blog this post must make me look like a puffed up peacock (which I am, but try to hide on my blog.) I'm just another nobody amazed by any amount of celebrity :)
Anonymous said…
Wow. Some people need their sarcasm detectors recalibrated. Mine works fine, I knew you were joking.
Anonymous said…
oh my gosh i'm so jealous (and impressed with your "skillz"). not just a sighting, but a play it cool mommy conversation and a full on hang out session. the other night we saw weird al on jay leno (as close to celebs as we get) and we were trying to figure out how long he has been around--at LEAST 20 years. I can remember him singing "Just Eat It" when I was in about 4th grade, which was about that long ago. We figured that he has outlasted just about everybody that he has parodied except maybe Madonna (Like a Surgeon).
Robyn said…
OooOOOoooooo Neato! Don't you just love when your kids get you into stuff! There was no way any one else at the airport could've had that conversation. No twithout a kid at least. I think you're cool. And, I'm not sure you aren't totally famous. How many Hollywood Flakes could there be???
Anonymous said…
I just watched the video and was reading some of the blog comments, and one of them said that Donny Osmond was the background dancer. HAHAHA.
Unknown said…
My celebrity sightings at LAX include the daughter from Gilmore Girls. I reached out and touched her back pack has she butted in front of me in line. I know, I'm creepy. And Tyra Banks.
Anonymous said…
I once dined with our great friends the Ohrns in the Edwardian Room at the Waldorf the morning after one of our Waltz Evenings. Who was sitting at the next table but BaBa WaWa (Barbara Walters).

Another time Lynne O. and I were putzing around Manhattan and I stepped into Cartier and there was Lena Horne at the counter, a scarf wrapped around her head, quiet and normal as could be as she chatted with the clerk.

Last October when we took Nubsy to NYC to see Wicked, we saw Winona Ryder outside the side of the theater standing on the curb, looking for all the world as if she HOPED someone would come up to her and ask her for her autograph. Sure enough some girls did, and boy did she seem delighted.

In Stamford, CT, we lived down the street from Meat Loaf. I knew it, but didn't really know who Meat Loaf was. Does anyone?

And now, for the hottest sighting of all, when Mr. and Bill and I flew to Tokyo together, we sat RIGHT in FRONT of the members of Metallica. They were about to do a concert in Tokyo and were worried about whether people would come. They seemed like normal guys, quite unlike their musical personae...We listened to them chatting with the flight attendant, turned around and checked 'em out every once in awhile, but I confess I was so busy raising my little baby Benacs that the thrill of being so near such a famous group was nearly totally lost on me.
PS Why you not comment on my blog?
Annie said…
Wow! That's so cool that you saw wierd Al! What a clever ploy to use Penny as the opening. Milk it while she's young!
Dane said…
I seem to remember you did a pretty good job playing it cool with Lou Reed years ago when a bunch of us went to see Laurie Anderson.

"Look, I don't even know who you are. This is for the ladies sitting behind me, so just sign it."
Marie said…
But but but -- no one asked the most important question of all!

What did you say to make Weird Al laugh??

The Answer to this Question has the power to shoot us all to super-stardom (or at least win us a spot on the Yankovic Christmas card list!)

I await with bated breath.
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