Saturday, January 17, 2009

Hey… do you need a ride

Inspired by Three Boys One Mommy's post about 6 degrees of separation— I have decided to talk about our connection to Mandy Patinkin.

Living in Chicago, my wife and I don't see as many celebrities as people we know in New York or Los Angeles. The only time we may see someone is if we go to a book signing. We have an inside joke amongst ourselves that we should be more sociable and offer the person a ride or something just to actually meet them— but being the shy people we are we never do.

When visiting my wife's sister and brother-in-law in LA, we stayed two blocks from Hugo's— one of the restaurants they own and run. One morning when we came into visit, our brother-in-law sat us down and proceeded to point out the celebrities dining with us at the time.

"Over there" he began… "is Susan Anton— and over there is Mandy Patinkin. We proceeded to finish our breakfast and just hung around (because we had no where else to go)— when we saw Mandy out in the parking lot looking like he was waiting for something. One of us said to the other "Perhaps he needs a ride"… how apropos is that.

Shoot… why is it when we have a golden opportunity— something has to stop us (we didn't have a car, nor could we steal our brother-in-law's car to actually give him a ride). We were pretty sure that he secured a ride anyway since we saw him on his Cell phone at one point— so we let it go.

After I got back from LA, I told this story to one of my co-workers when they asked me how my vacation went. Upon hearing the name Mandy Patinkin they added "Oh, Mandy Patinkin— he's my uncle"… what a small world. I never bothered to ask if they talked to Mandy and relayed the story— but it is nice knowing that you know someone who has an uncle who is famous.

14 comments:

Denise @ Sunflowers, Chocolate and Little Boys said...

Thats a cool story. Too bad you didnt have a car so you could have offered that ride. Who knows, he may have said yes.

Deb said...

perhaps next time something like this happens, and you don't have time to steal a car, you could ask, "could YOU offer US a ride?"

The Wife O Riley said...

Great Story!!

I once saw Marlie Matlin at a Ben and Jerry's. My husband went to go run to Blockbuster to see if they had a copy of "Children of a Lesser God" that she could sign and when he stood up he hit his head on the light. She laughed at him. The next day, we saw her at Woodfield and she remembered him.

Anonymous said...

Great story. Too bad you didn't know about him being your friend's uncle before cause that would have been your in! I just moved from a small mountain art community which was a vacation spot/boarding school for the kids of famous people. Never saw any myself. Oh well.

in time out said...

love this. awesome story. Thanks for sharing. and for the support. I have been out...surgery...but I am back...ha ha...i had surgery on my back...that made me laugh even as I wrote it. Okay, call me crazy...or just come by sometime. hope you are well. thanks for the great read.

Wendyburd1 said...

AHHHHH YOU SAW MANDY!!! How could you NOT get an autograph and picture with him!! I LOVE MANDY!, DID a whole post dedicated to him!! ohhh Mandy!!

Anonymous said...

That's a great story. I don't know who Susan Anton is, but I do know who Mandy Patinkin is because my nephew used to love to watch Elmo in Grouchland and in the movie Manday Patinkin plays the bad guy that steals Elmo's blanket and Elmo sets out to get it back :-)I would have asked for an autograph and I don't normally ask for autographs when I see celebrites unless they are comic book artists then I have them draw something in my sketch book - maybe I should stop this comment here before it gets too long - oops it's already too long - take care

Sarah's Blogtastic Adventures said...

Ok I have to admit that I had to google Mandy Patinkin. But I did reconize him at least! : ) That sounds like fun just being able to people watch in a big city would keep me busy for hours!!

Aracely said...

No way! He's my uncle too ;-) Great story and thanks for the link love.

Anonymous said...

There are a lot of Patinkins in Chicago who would be related to him, but none of his true nieces/nephews lives or works there.... Any relation would have to be more distant, but it might be easier to just say uncle....

Kristin said...

That is a cool story.

kel said...

cool story!

and hey, i just noticed the pics of your dog on your sidebar! so freakin cute!!

Anonymous said...

That's a cool story and I'm wondering if you managed to snap a picture of any of the stars you saw.

Erin said...

Great story! I have a second cousin twice removed or something that played the best friend of Tom Hanks in Big. That was my big claim to fame when I was little.

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