(no subject)

[slemslempike]

I am not sure if these sorts of posts work nowadays, but I would like people to tell me about their tenuous connections to fame. Not actual connections, it's important that there is no direct contact between you and a celebrity.

Examples I invite people to retell:

* your piano tuner is the nephew of someone literary
* your mum's friend went out with a musician before they were famous
* your next door neighbour once almost bought a house that later an actor moved in to

No link too tenuous!

Comments

[slemslempike]

My aunt and uncle went to stay in a holiday home that turned out to be owned by Boris Johnson's dad.

[slemslempike]

My aunt was taught piano in the 1970s by the brother of a British actor called jeremy who isn't Jeremy irons but I can't find him on Google.

[norfolkian]

Roger Moore once bought my mum a Mars bar. When she was a kid in Malta he was doing some filming there and my mum and a bunch of school pals were watching the filming. He went into a nearby shop and bought then all chocolate bars.

[lilliburlero]

I used occasionally to meet Cillian Murphy's dad in Irish higher education contexts.

[whatho]

I have one about my sister and Wil Wheaton, but you know about that.

[whatho]

My neighbour Nancy went on a Buddhism-themed tour in India, about 20 years ago, that was led by the brother of the novelist Vikram Seth.

[whatho]

My mother, though she doesn't recall why, is Facebook friends with Carol Drinkwater, who played the first incarnation of Helen Herriot in All Creatures Great and Small.

[whatho]

(I like this one because it puts me at a three-degree and 20-year remove from the source of fame.)

[antisoppist]

I knew someone online in the 1990s whose osteopath was Mark Lester who played Oliver in the film "Oliver!"

[slemslempike]

Oh how nice! I am glad that he does the sort of thing that he seems like would be the sort of thing he does.

[slemslempike]

I like that very much! Nice example, a remove from the actual celebrity but a clear link, an unrelated topic, and the everydayness of it being work contexts.

[slemslempike]

Definitely an excellent example of tenuosity.

[slemslempike]

And a lovely example of a very parochial sounding celebrity link.

[slemslempike]

Well you SHOULD be. I am especially pleased that your link into this is an online person so you have not even seen the back that Mark Lester touched.

[slemslempike]

Or is it necks that Osteopaths do?

[antisoppist]

We did have a couple of group meet-ups but it was a very long time ago. I am sorry if this makes it less valuable to your research.

(I think it is backs)

[chiasmata]

I have one that I can't even remember the details of, but it's something along the lines of Brian Clough spotting my (then-teenage) mother hitch-hiking, offering her a lift, but insisting on driving her straight home to her mother instead of wherever it was she wanted to be going.

[caulkhead]

Michael Caine stole my friend's panini.

[jinty]

One that is probably less tenuous than you are looking for but may count: my brother in law's uncle played in famous bands including The Soft Boys (which I am a fan of) and apparently also with David Bowie in Live Aid.

A more appropriately tenuous one: my friend's bandmate (who I am also friends with online) has a family friendship with Anne Widdecombe and as a result AW has slept in her old bedroom.

[joyeuce]

My parents used to be (possibly my father still is) in the same amateur dramatic society as one of Rowan Atkinson's brothers.

My grandfather had the following conversation with the Prince of Wales, which I think one or both of them felt was slightly risque:
Someone-or-other: This is the Mayor of Restormel [aka my Gran], Your Highness, and this is the Mayor's Consort [Grandad].
HRH: What does the Mayor's Consort do?
Grandad: Just what your dad does for your mum!

[yiskah]

Please post anyway for people who are not Clare!

[alithea]

I'm not sure any of mine are tenuous enough I'm afraid...

Oh no, I've remembered one now! My Dad used to work with Richard Bacon of getting kicked off Blue Peter fame's dad.

[whatho]

Ha ha - sadly I don't know much about it myself other than that Wil Wheaton commented on something my sister had written but she won't reveal where in order to protect Wil Wheaton's privacy, so I have to assume it was something magnificently shameful.

[whatho]

I disappointed that this wasn't featured in The Damned United.

[miss_newham]

This is a very good question! Naomi Alderman once came to my flat (before she was famous) but I was out. I've met Adele's dog. My childhood friend's mum used to be in a prayer support group for Cliff Richard. I feel I must have better tenuous connections somewhere in the back of my memory...