DM's Brushes With Fame

I have a copy of The Unadulterated Cat, which a friend had autographed for me by the author, Terry Pratchett.
My brother once saw a book-signing session with actor Tony Curtis.
A friend of mine did acting auditions for NIDA with TV show host and actress Sophie Lee.
I've eaten pizza at a place where the owner knows science fiction author Terry Dowling.
I've received e-mail from the Sydney Cricket Ground groundsman Peter Leroy.
A pen-friend of mine sent me a picture of her holding up a shirt once worn by guitarist in the rock band INXS Tim Farriss.
I shared an office with someone who went to school with actress Nicole Kidman.
My PhD supervisor had a yearly Sydney Symphony Orchestra subscription, with seats in the row behind ex-Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.
A friend of mine went ten-pin bowling, and playing in the lane next to him was actor Gary Sweet.
My brother received a fax at work, accidentally sent to the wrong number, which was an invitation to attend a function with singer Billy Joel.
I got a backrub from a woman who has been on the set of the TV show Quantum Leap and has met actors Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell.
A friend of mine was in a local shopping centre once and saw and shook hands with Australian cricketing hero Steve Waugh.
My brother had a book signed for me by naturalist and television documentary maker Sir David Attenborough.
A friend of mine works with someone whose flatmate is the niece of Australian TV show presenter Simon Townsend.
A friend of mine, while cheering at a football game, was told to "just shut up and watch the bloody game" by the person behind him, who turned out to be TV rugby league commentator and ex-player Rex Mossop.
The sister of the person who sits next to one of my friends at work lives over a back fence from Footrot Flats cartoonist Murray Ball.
A friend of mine went to school with Triple-J radio DJ and Saturday Morning cartoon show TV presenter Catriona Rowntree.
A friend of mine worked at the VLA telescope in New Mexico during the filming of the film Contact, and actually met and shook hands with and had a conversation with actress Jodie Foster.
For our weekend honeymoon, my wife and I stayed in a small guesthouse, in the same room used earlier in the same year by US Ambassador to Australia Edward Perkins. (Perkins also represented the USA in the United Nations in 1992-93.)
I had a hamburger in a cafe in Sydney where singer Belinda Carlisle once ate a meal.
I saw, waiting to be picked up by a friend at a bus stop about 5 minutes walk from where I live, Hey Dad! actress Julie McGregor.
A friend of mine went to the Melbourne v West Coast AFL game at the MCG in 1990 and sat in the seat next to rock singer Paul Kelly.
The wife of a friend of mine played in a string duo in a cafe, and in the audience was rock singer Bruce Springsteen.
A friend of the family of a friend of mine is cousin to singer-songwriter John Williamson.
A friend of mine saw someone at a Peugeot dealership in Melbourne, apparently buying a new car, and it was comedian Mark Mitchell.
At Disneyland's 35th Anniversary celebrations in Anaheim, California, I saw a live cross for Australian TV being done by Australian breakfast TV news presenter Liz Hayes.
I once had dinner at the house of a man who owns one of the original Morse code telegraph keys owned and used by inventor Thomas Edison.
A friend of mine appeared on the TV game show Wheel of Fortune and met presenter John Burgess.
My wife once booked plane tickets for the wife of rock singer Jimmy Barnes.
I ate lunch in a cafeteria with the son of eminent physicist Karl Schwarzschild (after whom the Schwarzschild radius of black holes is named).
When my mother was a little girl, she wrote a letter to and received a reply from US First Lady Lady Bird Johnson, wife of then President Lyndon B. Johnson.
I have had a phone conversation with someone who is in a joint business venture with rock singer Mick Jagger.
I have had a phone conversation with Canadian science fiction author Spider Robinson.
I saw a chauffeur-driven Government car drive past me on the street, and sitting in the back was Federal Industrial Relations Minister Peter Reith.
I have conversed with someone on the Internet whose grandfather was a winemaker in Warsaw and who, in 1906, was introduced to, got drunk with, and was serenaded by legendary Opera singer Enrico Caruso.
A friend of mine attended Harvard University and went to lectures given by eminent evolutionary biologist and author Stephen Jay Gould.
I won tickets to the World Premiere of the Australian movie Cut (from a competition entered when I donated blood), and at the premiere the film was introduced by the lead actress Molly Ringwald.
I've met a woman who, as a 5-year-old, managed to get in the way during the blowing of an oil-rig fire and was soundly spanked by well-known oil rig firefighter Red Adair.
I have received e-mail from Australian Democrats Senator Natasha Stott-Despoja.
I have had dinner with someone who on a school trip to the airport saw pop singer Kylie Minogue.
I've spoken with someone who once met Their Royal Hignesses Prince Andrew and Prince Phillip.
The father of a person I have co-designed web pages with was a good friend of Christopher Robin Milne, son of - and inspiration for the children's books featuring Winnie the Pooh by - author A. A. Milne.
I know someone who once chatted with a woman on the Internet who had eaten brunch in the same restaurant with science fiction author Kurt Vonnegut.
On my way down in a crowded lift at the Sydney Cricket Ground after watching a cricket match, the lift doors opened behind me on another floor to let some passengers out, then closed and continued down, at which point someone mentioned that standing outside the lift on the floor we had just stopped at was Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
A person I've chatted with on the net is a cellist who once played in an orchestra conducted by American composer Aaron Copland.
I have conversed on Internet Relay Chat with a person who has met and had a conversation with actor Robin Williams.
A friend of mine once worked for a man who is a friend of former Candian Prime Minister Jean Chretien.
Someone I speak to on the net once shook hands in an election campaign in 1979 with eventual US President Ronald Reagan.
I know someone whose cousin painted a painting which now hangs in the White House, and has been seen by former US President Bill Clinton.
My brother once accidentally stepped on the foot of the father of Kung Fu movie star Jackie Chan.
The former boyfriend of the sister of someone who once answered a question of mine in an Internet newsgroup was once spat on by punk rocker Sid Vicious.
I know someone who once offered a beer, which was refused, to fantasy gaming author Ed Greenwood.
I have worked on gaming material with someone who once shared lunch with famous mathematician Paul Erdos. (I claim this gives me a pseudo-Erdos number of 2.)
Someone I know was run into by someone who was exiting from the wrong door from FAO Schwartz in New York, who turned out to be actor Ted Danson.
The twin brother of someone I once had dinner with went to the same school as and had a crush on the woman who later became Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary of Denmark (née Mary Donaldson).
I know someone whose next-door neighbour was the aunt of 80s pop singer Tiffany.
On a holiday in 2007, I left the German city of Dresden on the same day that Monty Python member and travel writer Michael Palin arrived on his "New Europe" expedition.
A friend of mine went to the Sydney Royal Easter Show and chatted up a woman in the dog show pavilion, only later finding out it was radio DJ Jackie O.
At a concert in the Sydney Opera House, the person sitting in the row in front of me and four seats along was magazine editor and publisher Ita Buttrose.
I crossed a street in Paris, and crossing in the opposite direction, walking her dog, was actress Melissa George.
I was having dinner in a local pizza restaurant, when someone came in to pick up a take-away order, and it was former Prime Minister John Howard.
I once flew back from a trip to Germany out of Frankfurt Airport, and later learnt from his Twitter feed that also passing through Frankfurt Airport on the exact same day was webcomic author Ryan North.
While eating at a local restaurant, my wife spotted sitting at the table next to us, and asked to have his photo taken with our dog, TV journalist Ray Martin.

Degrees of Separation

1 Degree: Famous people I have actually met*

*: Been introduced to, shook hands with, or had a conversation with.

Jeff Watson (presenter on ABC-TV's Towards 2000 and the 7 Network's Beyond 2000)
Kevin J. Anderson (author of novels including Assemblers of Infinity, The Trinity Project, The X-Files: Ground Zero, Ruins, and Antibodies.)
James Kemsley (author of Ginger Meggs)
Greg Dyer (Australian Test wicketkeeper 1986-1988)
Roger Allen (republican constitutional convention delegate)
Murray Rose (quadruple Olympic swimming gold medallist)
Tim Lane (ABC Radio cricket commentator)
Jeff Thomson (Australian Test fast bowler)
Bryan Gaensler (1999 Young Australian of the Year)
Greg Matthews (Australian Test all-rounder)
Steve Jackson (game designer and publisher)
Dame Jane Goodall (primatologist)
Shaenon Garrity (cartoonist)
Trent Zimmerman (Federal Member of Parliament for North Sydney)

2 Degrees: Famous people met by people I have met

Douglas Adams (author)
Alec Baldwin (actor)
Sir Donald Bradman (legendary Australian Test cricketer)
Bill Clinton (US President)
Albert Einstein (physicist)
Lary Elmore (artist)
Alan Dean Foster (author)
Jodie Foster (actress)
Neil Gaimain (author)
Bill Gates (multibillionaire businessman)
Debbie Gibson (singer)
John Howard (Prime Minister of Australia)
Paul Keating (ex Prime Minister of Australia)
Nicole Kidman (actress)
George Lucas (film director)
Mike Oldfield (composer)

3 Degrees: Famous people met by people, met by people I have met

This includes a lot of famous people. Only the more interesting ones are listed specifically.

Queen Elizabeth II of England
King George VI of England
Pelé (soccer player)
Babe Ruth (American baseball player)
Stephen Spielberg (film director)
Actually, pretty much anyone in Hollywood