Easiest celebrity sighting ever
Of all the neighborhoods in Los Angeles, mine is one of the best to spot celebrities, and over the last few years, I’ve gotten pretty good at recognizing them. The key is to remember that they never look exactly like they do on TV or in the movies. (That’s why so many celebrities have people come up to them and say, “Has anyone ever told you that you look like __________?”)
Here’s how it usually works: as you get closer to the blonde girl walking towards you on the sidewalk, you think to yourself, “That girl kind of looks like Reese Witherspoon.” A few seconds later, as she walks past you, you realize that it is Reese Witherspoon.
Or you’re walking down another sidewalk and a man comes out of the coffee shop just as you pass. He looks familiar, but it isn’t until a few steps later that you realize you almost ran into Christopher Guest.
Tonight, however, I had the easiest celebrity sighting of my celebrity sighting career. Walking down the sidewalk (yes, I do a lot of walking, and most of it takes place on the sidewalk), I saw a man and woman having a conversation perhaps 30 feet away. They were standing underneath a large fluorescent light, putting both of them in silhouette. Ordinarily, this would be an impossible circumstance to spot a celebrity, but there was no mistaking the identity of man, thanks to his height, long appendages and perfectly coiffed pompadour: Conan O’Brien.
I’m a big fan of his work, but he doesn’t qualify as my favorite celebrity sighting. That happened two summers ago at the Subway down the street. My friend Mike and I were ordering a sandwich when the old man eating outside came in to use the bathroom. It turned out he wasn’t just any old man, he was Peter Falk.
“Restroom?” he asked the woman fixing our sandwiches.
“We don’t have one,” she told him.
He turned to leave, disappointed. In my mind, he took one step towards the door, turned back around and said, “Uh…just one more thing,” in perfect Columbo style.
Instead, he went outside to find another place to pee.
