A brush with fame.....
D. was so funny Wednesday. I was at the docks and just about to leave the municipal markets in San Pedro and head over to Terminal Island. It was 8 AM and I wasn’t expecting her for at least another hour and a half. She pulled up beside me and jumped out of the pickup, fairly vibrating with excitement.
"Oh, I just had to tell someone who could relate!" she exclaimed.
She had gone to Vancouver to visit her husband, who is up there on business. Because he had a lot of frequent flyer miles, she was able to upgrade her ticket to first class for $57. On her way home, first class was almost deserted, but a good-looking man sat across the aisle and behind her. As he was putting his carry-ons away, she realized it was Hugh Jackman (Wolverine from The X-Men movie). "His butt was not two feet from my face!" She said she wanted to give him his privacy and not bug him, so she didn't speak to him during the entire flight, though her heart was pounding in my ears the whole time, and she kept sneaking looks over shoulder out of the corner of her eye ("He’s so gorgeous - I just couldn't help doing at least that!") At one point the flight attendant looked at him and said "You look familiar - have you been on one of my flights before?"
"No," he answered simply, with a slight smile.
Finally, after the plane landed (and after several gin and tonics), D. decided if she never spoke to him she would be kicking herself forever afterward. So, as they were side by side getting their things down from the luggage rack, she faced and asked, "Mr. Jackman?"
He smiled and nodded.
"I just have to tell you that my son and I loved your interpretation of Wolverine."
He thanked her and actually asked her name and how old her son was. She asked what he had been doing in Vancouver; if maybe he lived there. He explained that no, they were shooting another X-Men movie there and he had to come down to L.A. to be fitted for a costume for it. They chatted a bit more on the way off the plane, about their families, kids, etc. (he has a two-year old). Two guys waiting to get to get on the plane recognized him and yelled "It’s Wolverine, yeah!" and then they were in the terminal. He said good-bye and took off, and she thought that was it.
LAX was deserted as well, and on the way to the baggage claim she could hear him ahead of her on his cell phone - "Yeah, I'm here, I'm off the plane - you know, I don't know if I'm going the right way or not. Just a minute, I'll call you back…." and then he put away the phone, turned around, saw her, and actually stopped and waited for her to catch up. She told him yes he was headed the right way, and they chatted some more again, until they reached the baggage claim, whereupon he got in a limo and was gone.
She was amazed at how friendly and personable he was, and she was dying to tell someone about it all the way home, but she didn't have her cell phone with her. She went straight to the beach where her son was at Jr. Lifeguards, and waved at him in the water. "Mom, what are you doing here?" She told him what had happened and he was properly impressed. However, when she told her husband on the phone later, she got a cool "Well that’s very nice honey, I'm happy for you," (much like my husband's reaction, when I related this story, ha!).
So she couldn't wait to tell us at work; she knew we'd appreciate it. Having not been to a movie since the last Star Wars, I haven't actually seen any of his films, (bits and pieces of X-Men on HBO- I'll have to rent the DVD), but I'm well aware of who he is. I probably couldn't have screwed my courage up enough to say anything. But D. is vivacious and pretty and smart (and a few years younger and thinner than I), and pulled it off well.