Lifestyles of the Rich and the Slaters

Tenuous, indeed:

- A guy I work with is married to Mark "Neidermayer" Metcalfe's cousin (who actually lives in the Milwaukee area now - his restaurant, Libby Montana's, is pretty good)

- I have a photo of myself in front of the apartment building used in Singles

Eh, I think Ron Howard had a steak here once.

Meaning in a restaurant, not my living room.

I was an extra in Jumanji.
Oliver Stone, when I met him, probably didn't even know I was there, let alone where he was.

There's a lot more, but that's all I felt like sharing.

Edited to say that I know someone's going to come along and blow everyone out of the water, as expected.

We won't mention Nick or SJR....or even Devin for that matter.

I thought for a minute that this was a rant about the extremely low number of film projects being produced in Emporia, Kansas. If that had been the case, my first and last response would have been to buy Slater a bus ticket to Hollyweird and revoke his Midwesterner status.

But since it's not, I'll share my story about Topeka. Some people know that Topeka used to be famous for the Menninger Clinic. Well over the years various celebrities who needed some drug and alcohol treatment or just a breather out of the limelight would fly into Topeka to stay in the clinic. Kansas is a fairly anonymous place for hiding out, as are various wellness centers in Europe I imagine. Fortunately for me, I had some contacts in the clinic who would pass little tidbits of information about who was staying out there. Also some of the famous folk would get a little stir crazy during their treatment, and they would be seen around town by local shop keepers. The ones I've heard of are such:

Brett Favre was here trying to kick his addiction to pain killers.

Stephen King was here multiple times in the 80's and 90's for alcoholism.

Donald Sutherland checked in over the years, also for alcohol. He was also seen riding a transit bus to Walmart and browsing for books in Barnes and Noble.

I saved the best for last. Nicole Kidman stayed for a while, but I never heard what she was being treated for. At that time, a friend of mine said she spotted Tom Cruise sitting alone in a local coffee shop. He was apparently staying at Paul Newman's house outside of town while Nicole was in treatment. Newman keeps a house here because it's close to Heartland Park Raceway. I did some extra coffee drinking to try for a first-hand look, but I spotted no short dark-haired superstars.

So, not a close brush with any kind of fame, but for Topeka I think that's pretty impressive. The moral of this story is: Kansas may be a shithole place to live, but for some it has its advantages.

...if you're an alcoholic, or a crack-addict.

Still, that beats me.

The town (Covington, GA) where I grew up and continue to live to this day is affectionately referred to as "Hollywood South."

The first five episodes of The Dukes of Hazzard were filmed here in late 1978 before Warner Bros. moved the production to California due to the high cost. Covington was also home to the now syndicated TV series In the Heat of the Night.

Other notable productions filmed here include:

Cannonball Run, My Cousin Vinny, Kalifornia, Black Dog, Remember the Titans, Sweet Home Alabama and the soon-to-be-released-on-VHS Run Ronnie Run!. And that's not counting the slew of TV movies that have filmed here. See the page below for a complete listing of all TV and film productions that have come to Covington, as well as other info.

<a href="http://www.geocities.com/moovyphreak/covington.htm" target="_blank">http://www.geocities.com/moovyphreak/covington.htm</a>

Back in the late 80s, after DoH had ended its TV run, Ben Jones, who played Cooter ran for Congress and lived here for a while. My dad and I met him one day at the post office. Mr. Jones also held 2-3 political picnics at a local lake and had some of his co-stars from the show come and meet and greet with supporters. I met Sonny Shroyer (Enos), James Best (Rosco P. Coltrane) and the late Sorrell Booke (Boss Hogg). An episode of Heat was filmed at my neighbor's and best friend's houses in 1993 and I got to meet Larry Hagman, who directed the episode. I also met David Cross and Bob Odenkirk in the fall of 2000, when I worked as an extra on Run Ronnie Run!

As a closing note, on the last weekend of June, the North American General Lee Fan Club is hosting a big 3-day convention of DUKES fan here in town and three Hollywood stuntmen are coming here to perform car chases with the General Lee and some Hazzard police cars, as well as a flying jump with the General. For more information on the convention, click <a href="http://www.jumpthegeneral.com" target="_blank">here</a>. Also, one of the stuntmen coming to the convention worked as Clive Owen's stunt driver on Season 2 of the BMW Films series. He did all those crazy spins and jumps in the Z4 in John Woo's [i]Hostage[/b].

For what it's worth, my mother, who was a plebotemist, drew a pint of blood from none other than Hoyt Axton in Ada, Oklahoma.

And I spoke to Phil Brown (Uncle Owen, Star Wars:New Hope) once, while he was a convention, and he was looking for a place to have his lunch. And for eight glorious floors, I shared an elevator with a post-Belveder Bob Uebanks.

Why, I'm pratically Rylander!

I met Warwick Davis and Jeremy Bulloch once. Nice blokes.

That and I swapped emails with V creator Kenny Johnson. But that's it. Not much excitement over here really...

If were talking emails, I emailed Michael Kamen (favorite composer)praising him for his work on the Die Hards and Lethal Weapons and he ANSWERED BACK! That's class.

Okay I did meet Dean Haglund (Langley from Lone Gunmen) at a comedy show. Got an autographed photo and found out he likes Barenaked Ladies a lot. That was a bummer.

I know someone from Libby, MT!

Also, I semi-regularly eat at the restaurant Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman went to all the time while they were filming Far and Away here.

My wife's mother is the cousin of Madge Sinclair, who played Eddie Murphy's mom in Coming To America. And that, in a very long-winded (and utterly fictional) way makes me related to James Earl Jones, and thus Darth Vader.

Everything Billz3 said including the Dean Haglund part but minus the autographed photo. Oh, and Screetch from Saved By The Bell did a show in town about a month ago. I missed it.

Jeremy Bulloch's son, Robby, went to my school meaning Mr Fett, B. probably saw some play I was in with him. And continuing the drama theme, I was in two plays at the Edinburgh Festival with Jude Law.

I'm out (of stories, not the closet. But with all this theatre talk, I'll head of the the rumours at this pass...)

Dan...I am your wife's mother's cousin's co-star.

Noooooo!!!! That's impossible!

I was working late in my office building in downtown Pittsburgh on the night of the MLB All-Star game in 1995. We're right across the street from the County Courthouse and Jail, and the Keaton-Garcia trainwreck Desperate Measures was partly filmed here then.

I come out of the building around 8:00 P.M., thinking I'll get home by the second inning or so. All of the corners have been blocked off by fake-looking police (intermingled with some real police doing crowd control), and everybody has been cleared out except for a bunch of people standing in a group. The real police are shooing out stragglers, so I melted in with the group of people and stood there for a couple of minutes. Pretty soon a young woman comes up and starts critiquing the people-- "You don't look right, Your clothes are wrong, You look OK."-- and then she spots me and tells me that I look just right.

All right. So I'm an unintentional extra.

Our group is supposed to stand there as Keaton is driven by in the back of an escorted paddywagon. We're supposed to yell at him. They run through it a few times. Yeah, sure enough, Keaton's in there.

After a few takes, the AD herds all the extras up to a holding room with a buffet and a prop table set up. I followed them around for a few minutes, but got terribly bored and realized there would be no per diem with my name on it. I went home and caught the fourth inning.

About a year before that I spent a night at the Civic Arena eating free hot dogs and chanting the name of some non-existent goaltender (because Tom Barrasso would not consent to the use of his name) for crowd shots in the Van Dammage vehicle (a broken-down lemon of a vehicle at that) Sudden Death.

i once lived in Renoir's (not the painter, but his filmmaker son) house. Though I didn't like The Grand Illusion, living where this guy prepped the movie felt odd at times.

Oh, I was a couple block saway from where then Manson murders took place.

Oh, and, the Boss was my neighbor.

And alley scenes in Above The Law were filmed in our alley back in Chitown.

I stayed at the same Bed and Breakfast Ashley Judd lived in while filming Kiss the Girls. Of course everything had been washed up by the time I got there.

When I was at Six Flags Magic Mountain as a kid I came across a very Hollywood-ish looking trailer just kind of sitting there. The door opened and none other than Scott Baio got out. He walked over to a roped off area and I had the distinct pleasure of seeing both Willie Aames and Heather Thomas as well. That's right, jealous bitches, I was present for part of the filming of Zapped!
My wife grew up in Yuma, Arizona which is an absolute armpit but also happens to be the place that just about any desert scene in a movie gets shot. She waited tables during high school at a restaurant that has a pretty good reputation with the film crews (nice outdoor cafe, kind of secluded). We were watching a movie one night and James Spader came on the screen. She leaned over and said "Who is that asshole?" I was kind of amused because Spader always does play the asshole and I told her his name. She told me that he was a rude prick at her restaurant, ordering everything special and being mean to the people working there and then leaving a dollar tip (this was during the filming of Stargate). To this day if we're watching a movie and he pops up on screen she mutters "a dollar" under her breath.

My sister-in-law's aunt was married to Redd Foxx for a few years.

I love this detail.

Well, you will be glad to know that there will be a dozen or more Chargers there. Word is that Dukes fans from Europe are coming to this event.

Unbelievably, this detail is even funnier.

That is classic! I just read that Spader has signed on to star in ABC's The Practice as a regular cast member next season, since six of the main stars left the show.

I'm such a shit ass name dropper, I should sit this one out.

However, earlier this week while driving home from work I saw none other than Carrot Top, hopping out of his white BMW on Beverly Blvd. I guess he's making some good bank off of those damn commercials. Still, it pissed me off because that's someone who I never want to see ever, whether on TV or in life. I'm going to be stocking my car with eye-wash from now on.

I know. I am a fan of the series as it aired during my impressionable years, but some of these people devote their lives to living this show.

One of the girls in my Sunday School Class is related to Philip Seymour Hoffman and has spoken to him and met him on a regular basis.

Another one of my guy's mother works with Jimmy Buffet.

I know I am the third, but this is the best thing I have read all day. Classic!

I emailed Ray McKinnon (who was the suitor in O Brother, Where Art Thou?) to congratulate him after he won the Best Live Action Short Film Oscar in 2001 for his film The Accountant (which filmed in the Covington area) and he replied. I tried to set up an interview for CHUD, as he is originally from Georgia, but that never panned out.

Well, khitcher, you win. That seems to be the closest anybody's come to a star in their family. I almost forgot to mention that <a href="http://www.tvland.com/shows/oddcouple/actor3.jhtml" target="_blank">this guy</a> is a distant cousin of mine.

What the....

I suppose Tanya has everyone beat out here cept for maybe Rylander so far.

For me I ran into Connie Selica and John Tesh outside of a Costco. Had a nice little chat with everyone's favorite director once. Ran into the guy who plays the father of Garner's character on Alias at the Sunset 5.

Other than that it would only be sightings which I suppose everyone in LA has from time to time.

I week ago yesterday I had a brief conversation with Henry Rollins and Keith Morris. As strange as it is, the only thing I really talked about with The Rollins was how rad it would have been to see him play Angelo in "Death To Smoochy" (Those who have seen his "Up For It" DVD will know what I'm talking about).

And Keith Morris is one of the nicest rock singers I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.

This just gets better and better and better. I can't tell you how many times I've looked up at the TV while putting on my socks, seen the sweatshirted dolts holding up their Rah-Rah I'm from Nebraska signs outside the studio window and wished some sort of chestbursting organism would give them something to really shriek about.

When I went to the University of Arizona I was lucky enough to catch a great basketball game (U of A vs. Duke) at the end of the season. This is when UNLV was the best team in the country and U of A and Duke were both fighting for respect. U of A also had their absurd home winning streak still alive and escaped the game with a double overtime victory.
As everybody flooded out onto the sidewalk outside McKale Center after the game I was walking and talking with a friend and right behind me I heard "Unbeleeeeeeeeevable babeeeeeeeee!". I turned around and Dick Vitale was about 5 feet behind me on the sidewalk walking my way. I opened my mouth to say something (don't even remember what) as he was just getting to me and his bodyguard put a forearm into my chest knocking me into the street. I can't say if Dick was a nice guy, but his bodyguard was pretty strong.

Back during my senior year in high school, a guy I grew up with went to NYC with the yearbook club and they stood outside NBC Studios during the Today broadcast and while Al Roker stood before the crowd reporting, my friend yelled, "AL ROKER!! PIMP DADDY!!" which garnered a good chuckle from Al.

Slater, these are excellent stories.

Al Roker is a pimp daddy. He bagged that hot news lady from Dateline.

Holy poop, Julia Roberts is from fucking Smyrna? I had no idea.

I'll have to remember to tell my mother that. For some reason, she (my mother) hates Smyrna, Georgia. Whenever it comes up in conversation, gets mentioned on a news/weather broadcast, somebody says something about it on In the Heat of the Night or Matlock, whatever, she starts making fun of it. To this day I have no idea why. And she's not a big fan of Ol' Horseteeth, either, so this should only add fuel to the fire.

My classmate from high school is a B-movie stuntman/actor/star in Japan (I suppose a US equivalent would be Patrick Kilpatrick or Danny Trejo).

He plays one of the Crazy 88's (Lucy Liu's yakuza henchmen) in Kill Bill.

You went to ND?

You are now officially better than everyone else on the boards.

As much as I LOVE the school, I've known only one person who's gone there. Weird.

Anyways I have a first cousin who's an actor & writer. He's been in a few movies (Magnolia, Pearl Harbor) but has mostly done TV work. HE made a movie that played at sundance & was bought by showtime & I believe he's adapting it for a show or a film for Showtime right now.

Yeah, it's as close as I'll ever get but it's nice to see family in the credits.

Slater,

I just laughed so hard I snarfed and struggled to breathe. I then brought in my roommate to read this thread and he laughed so hard I thought he was going to choke.

Great great GREAT stuff, man.

If my cousin was Steve Guttenberg, I'd be living the good life.

Yeah, I reckon I'd be chillin in a nice double-wide in Pensacola or something. Maybe Amarillo.

I could live off of the fat Big Green cash for roughly two and a half hours.

Just another reason for everybody to be disgusted with me -
I count many of the people you guys drool about on these boards as friends - del Toro, Darabont, a bunch more.
You know what? They're just regular folks.

Who am I kidding? They're too cool!

Funnily enough, we just saw Tesh & wife Connie coming out of a restaurant next to the old "Hellboy" production offices.
One of my fondest recent experiences was discussing Ep 2 with Mark Hammill and Lawrence Kasdan within hours of each other. Really weird.