Are you a people watcher? Do you enjoy sitting at the snack bar at Price Club (oops Costco) watching the crowds as they check out? Do you wonder why someone might possibly need 5 gallons of milk? Or , my favorite, Why someone would come all the way to the warehouse store, park, shop, and then wait on those long lines (no express in the warehouse) to get one rotisserie chicken?
If so you are my kinda guy/gal.
Of course the super bowl of people watching is to be found on the streets of midtown Manhattan. Oh the things you will see! Oh the stories you will be able to create! The cast of CHARACTERS !The faces, the clothes, the languages, the moods..... Bliss.
If you walk around with your eyes open you will see that most rarefied of all characters- the celebrity. I guarantee ever time you are wandering midtown ,if you are looking ,you will find some one of some renown. For the sake of argument I will define celebrity somewhat loosely- I have seen Martin Scorsese, Nathan Lane, Walter Cronkite, Ed Koch as well as Robert Benton, Phyllis Hyman, Jennifer Tilly and John McCuen. To me, all celebrities.
Now days of course with the contagion that is "reality" the definition has become all but meaningless. The other day I was in the City and missed , by just a scant few hours, the chance to gaze upon Kim Kardashian as she cut the ribbon on the new public Toilet facility in Times Square (sponsored By Charmin) Ah, the price of fame.
Of course, there have always been people who were Famous for being famous , Kardashians say Hello to the Gabors, but these days it would seem to be.....ah......debased?
Bill Murray had a wonderful line about fame (I paraphrase) - All these people who want to be rich and famous, try just being rich- see if that would work for you.
Odd thing,fame.
So, I'm in Penn Station the other night, about 10:15 standing around looking at that big board waiting to see what track my train will be on. Every once in a while I love to turn around and look at all the people looking up at the sign, watching people watching.
This night I see a familiar face, it takes me a second to process who this is, it's Julia Stiles- lovely young actress, great face. ( Years ago she was Ophelia in a modern re telling of hamlet - with Bill Murray as Polonius(!) and there was a long lingering close up of her face that was breathtaking)
She's wearing jeans and a jacket and a hat pulled low , but no mistaking ,it's her. She's saying goodbye to someone getting on the train and in that fleeting moment that I'm looking at her a guy walks right up to her without a word and takes her picture and then walks away.
What stunned me was that he didn't say a word, didn't ask if it was okay to take a picture and certainly no thank you after.
I know, no big deal, it's just a picture, but still it was a bit... shocking is probably too strong a word.......shocking.
a further bit of oddity was the fact that 15 feet away there was Julia Stiles on the cover of a magazine (I think Cosmo) looking all glam.
Fame ..ain't it a bitch. (aj benza)
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