h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Forgot to mention - a good schoolfriend of mine was pulled off the Brent Spar oil platform when they tried to sink it in the North Sea a few years ago. He's not that "R", but he's still "F" locally.

Sticking with the tenuous:

One of my Great Aunts on my father's side was married to Blondin's (the tightrope walker) son.

I went to school with the Great Granddaughter of Bram Stoker and, briefly, Patrick Stewart's daughter.

I was taught at primary school by Hugh Grant's mum.

My mum used to teach John Thaw's daughters and Stewart Pearce (she apparantly told him he'd never get anywhere playing football...)

My brother walked past Ronan Keating's (of Boyzone) garden a couple of days ago. Apparently he was doing some weeding.

So I guess we wouldn't know if someone rich and famous posted to this conversation...

Two things I can think of:

1. My paternal grandfather sold Lawrence of Arabia the motorbike on which he was killed.

2. I'm an almost direct descendant related to Dick Turpin, the imfamous English Highwayman. There are only two marriage divisions between our family lines.

Maybe I should steal motorbikes for a living...

Something to think about next time you're jobless

Say, was your grandfather a dodgy motorbike dealer? Cos maybe it was his fault the guy died.

My great grandfathers brother was prime minister of Denmark in the 30´ties. And my grandfather worked with Kaj Munk, well known poet and member of the Danish resistance.

My great-great-uncle was the young cadet who Terrence Rattigan based The Winslow Boy on; My grandmother was personally acquainted with FDR in her youth (so I'm led to believe), my English teacher's sister was Douglas Adams' neighbour, I heard he'd once got his sofa stuck in the stairwell.

I once met Miki from Lush, who was lovely, and signed my Melody Maker. On a college trip I went on to the Houses of Parliament, Ian Paisley bumped into me and almost trod on me in the lobby. Man, that guy was huge. I am heir to the Gates fortune, and also the rightful King of Nepal.

(not all the above is correct)

Ooh, lovely.

I have two. My friend's dad watched the '97 election with DNA and John Cleese (I think round at DNA's house). At least that's her story - it's possibly true though, as he's a TV producer and I know that he knows Cleese from when he did a program about "Fierce Creatures".

Also, my ex-girlfriend used to be Billie "Mrs Chris Evans" Piper's tutor. It wasn't her fault...

I just stumbled onto this thread. Love it!

As an amatuer genealogist, I can positively state that My Great-Great-Great Aunt was married to the Great-Great-Great-Great Uncle of a person who is the ninth cousin, twice removed, of the Canadian singer Celine Dion.

That should be tenuous enough for just about anyone.

I lived downstairs from Jeannie Fisher, who plays Morag in Take The High Road, and she bought me a chinese meal once. I've conversed with the incredibly poshly spoken Clarissa Dickson-Wright in her bookshop on the evils of frozen food, bought a book from her, without realising who she was. My fiancee once saw Shirley Manson looking in a local charity shop in Stockbridge. I've stood next to Dylan Moran outside the Playhouse, and only realised who he was when he got on stage. A friend of mine (who I unfortunately I lost contact with - last I heard he was reading the news on Qfm in Glasgow) knows most of Mogwai. Err... I've spoken to Naomi Klein (author of No Logo) via IRC. My parents know world-famous artist Jack Vettriano well enough to spot his former girlfriends in his work - or so they claim. My Dad's had a drink with Billy Connelly and Gerry Rafferty - at the same time! My Mum saw Robert Plant before he was famous, and my brother has helped US punk band Less Than Jake make awkward purchases in a Glasgow Fish & Chip Shop.

Will any of those do?

My uncle's uncle was Stan Laurel.

Let's see . . .

Semi-tenuous: My aunt served as the nanny for Shirley Jones (of "The Partridge Family") and watched over the Cassidy children.

Now for the people I've met personally: Being the political junkie that I am, I was at the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles and met quite a few political celebrities there. Among the three most interesting experiences were:

* Striking up a conversation with a familiar-looking guy during a special political breakfast. I later found out I was talking to John Kerry, an influential Senator and possible contender for the 2004 Presidential Race.

* Rushing through the convention floor quite quickly, and nearly knocking CNN news anchor Wolf Blitzer down a flight of stairs.

* Being slammed into a wall by a member of the politically powerful Kennedy family because I got in his way. (Not knowing who it was, I turned around with some harsh words for the guy. The security guard kindly explained "Oh, that was a Kennedy." I thought it to be wise not to say anything further.)

Jeff

Welllll....

Some time ago, my uncle (mother's brother) began doing some genealogical research for the family. I was only about 10 years old when this nugget was passed along, but apparently due to the fact that my maternal grandmother's surname was Dowd, I am in some distant way related to George O'Dowd, better known of course as Boy George. Apparently all the Dowds are connected at some point waaayayyayayy back.

As for personal experiences, hmm. I went on the NBC Studio tour in LA several years ago, and brushed past Jeff "Tain" Watts, then the drummer for the house band. My friend and I recognized him and were pretty happy about that, and so everyone asked "Who was that? Who was that?", to which we replied "Jeff Watts." They looked excited for a second, then confused because they didn't know the name, and walked off. I don't really recommend the NBC tour, unless you're really, really keen to see the Tonight Show set.

The same friend in the above story worked on a TV show for Nickelodeon, and we'd often go to tapings. Most of the cast of the show were in the Disney movie "Newsies", and...hmmm...the keyboardist in *that* house band later found out his father was David Crosby, and now they're touring together. And I saw Julia Roberts there once. And I stole John Ritter's parking-place nametag. We used to fool around in the "Gilligan's Island" lagoon set, although they've removed it since. I tried peeking in Roseanne's trailer outside their sound stage. We saw American Gladiator tryouts...

I walked on to the "Seinfeld" set once, but it was broken down for summer and they were shooting a pilot for some other show in there.

I saw Kathy Kinney (Mimi from the "Drew Carey Show") in Shannon airport.

Um...I sold sunglasses to the drummer of Blink 182. I had to get out of Magic Johnson's way during halftime of a Laker game.

Daryl Gates (the Chief of the LAPD during the Rodney King trial) lives in my hometown.

My high school jazz band and I played basketball with Wynton Marsalis and his band.

Um...one of my best friends from high school has played with Sean Lennon and Cibo Matto.

That's all I can come up with now.

I thought of something more tenuous--a friend's college roommate was involved in the selection process of MTV's Real World/Road Rules. They picked six, I think. He was seventh. About six months after meeting him, MTV showed a video of their selection process--interviews and their final decision--and I saw him again.

Now I can't remember his name. Started with S, I'm pretty sure. Spencer? Maybe.

1) My father used to race cars with James Garner (of American TV's "The Rockford Files"), once or twice partied at Kim Novak's house, and did some of the underwater footage in "The Creature from the Black Lagoon".

2) My mom ran into Jerry Lewis at San Francisco International Airport and dragged him over to meet my (embarrassed) dad and I.

3) I once ran up to Dave Vanian of the Damned and tried to give him a big kiss. Highly unsuccessfully, I might add.

Ok, lessee...

I've worked with Mel Blanc, Farrah Fawcett, Gerald McRaney (of Major Dad and Simon and Simon fame) Robert Guilliame and Emmanual Lewis. Of course, this was when I was 7 or so and didn't appreiciate who any of these people were...

I've met Ah-nold, Jim Carrey, Magic Johnson, Tia and Tamara Mowry, John Stamos, David Duchovney, and the entire cast of American Pie. (I spent a week in a Long Beach high school for the prom scene, and it was unadulterated Heck!)

Um... and I'm related on my dad's side to Charleton Heston. Which I think is quite cool.

Charlton Heston? Be ashamed, be very ashamed.

But you´re darn lucky to have met Shannon Elizabeth

My Grandmother sat between Edmund Hillary's mother and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay at a celebratory dinner held on their behalf after they conquered Everest.

My Dad got p***ed in Dublin with Bono before U2 made it big. He also got into a lift with the Gallagher brothers and thought that they were probably famous, and if they were, they were almost definitely Genesis ... but totally true!

Walter Scott was staying with us when he wrote The Talisman (obviously a while ago but it's the same thing ... sort of), and a great-great something or other was one of Mary Queen of Scots ladies in waiting while she was imprisoned at Urquart Castle before she lost her head - silly old baggage!

My Dad apparently used to share an Royal Air Force bunkhouse with Spike Milligan and Dick Emery (at separate times). He was also offered a job at Disney (just before they made Snow White) as an apprentice animator, but his dad (who played for Spurs (as did his uncle)) made him stay on at school. Finally, he also won a competition to design the Spurs logo whilst still at school.