Bill Cosby. I was introduced to him by Rev. John Gensel backstage at an All Souls night Jazz Concert at St. Peter’s Church in New York City at which I was a volunteer.

I, too, have met many famous people, but my first encounter has left a lasting impression. When I was a child, I was in FAO Schwarz toy store with my mother and Salvador Dali and his wife Gala came around the corner. He caught my eye and winked at me and I was terrified and thrilled at the same time! I knew who he was because I had a wonderful extracurricular art teacher who had introduced me to modern art and artists. It was a memorable encounter.

Gloria Allred. I was so fortunate to attend a women’s conference and she stayed afterwards to sign her books. I didn’t have a book, yet she warmly embraced me. I got a letter for my contributions to the plight of mentally ill women from Maria Shriver which is framed in my office. My husband is a rock musician so I see alot of people who flock to various concerts but I am impressed with those with contribute substance.

I had the fortunate destiny to meet several VIPs in life….two are most important in my childhood. First was Duke Ellington, I sat on his piano stool and we played the keys when he was in his Harlem upper west side apartment. He lived in 4J, my great aunt lived above him in 5J. The building is now a historical landmark because of him, 935 Saint Nicholas Avenue West 157th Street. She would always cooked a home dish for him and his wife. When I visit her I knew when Duke was home hearing his piano. The second person was Billy Holiday, my family friend was a musician and would take me for walks in Harlem, he knew her and we meet at a small bar on 145th Street on Sugar Hill. She gave me a hug and lifted me up on a bar seat and gave me a coke soda. The bar was closed by the way. She looked Beautiful and had a soft voice I WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER.

You can’t swing a cat without hitting a celeb in this har town, but the ones I cherish having met over the years are the old schoolers, George Burns (he did an impromptu soft shoe, delightful!), Bob Hope and Van Johnson (old studio contract pros!) I’ve met Liza a few times, (lovely woman, sensitive) Streisand (sensitive too, sweats talent), Clint Eastwood (charisma!), director Arthur Hiller (confident - he nicked his finger on the clasp of my Chanel bracelet at a function - embarrassing), oh so many. My favorite of all was playwright Arthur Miller (mysterious and brooding). So interesting! Met him when Death of A Salesman was being released (directed by Volker Schlondorff). We spoke briefly about his next play. And yes ladies, I had the gall to ask him to write something for a woman. Hah! He said he was, he was working on one right then. Never learned what it was.

I worked at Sally Jessy Raphel’s talk show back in 1992, but just as I started she was having her own major personal crisis where her daughter Allison died and her son JJ had a horrible car crash. Within two weeks time they had her back to work, I sent over from the production office to Sally a rabbit to her knowing her foundness of the animals and it cheered her up. I almost met Patrick Sawyze back stage there, and now that he has cancer, and having experienced this disease in my own family, my heart really goes out to him. Aaron Spelling personally called me after writing to him asking him for an internship back in 1991, on the then new show, Beverly Hills 90210. I wasn’t home and my mother answered the phone stating “Aaron who?” and he had to explain himself he was the producer of Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Charlie’s Angels. I called back, but of course Mr. Spelling wouldn’t talk to me, he was already insulted by my mother. To this day, I won’t let me mother live this one down. I met Bill & Hillary Clinton, which seemed surreal. Jay Leno, Richard Keel, Hulk Hogan, Michael J. Fox, Liza Minelli, Kenny Rogers, Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Nora Ephron, Rob Reiner, Luther Vandeross, Regis and Kathy Lee with Gelman, Conan O’ Brien, Phil Donahue, and Rolanda Watts. Richard Simmons I met back stage at Sally, he was so nice and upon meeting him he had given me a hug. I was thinking to myself, I had spoken to him many times on the phone (he called almost every day at Sally’s show), but I don’t know this man why is he hugging me? John Stamos I went out of my way for to meet him. This was back in 1988, he was at the Hartford Civic Center in Conneticut. He was 25 and I was 18, this was my dream come true. I left at 4 in the morning with my mother and I had gotten to the show by 11. John showed up at 12 and my heart raced as I ran backstage with my fake press pass. Tapped him on the shoulder as he put his arm around me. I wanted an interview with him for my college paper, who granted me front page if I had gotten it. His agent, greg alliapolis, stated after Thanksgiving that they would arrange a phone interview. I did speak with his mother, Loretta Stamos, who was very sweet and cordial. He was living with Chelesa Nobel at the time according to his mom. and my heart sunk. (Of course Chesesa married Kirk Cameron). I left several messages for Mr. alliapolis only to get a very nasty call on my answering machine stating that John will NOT do an interview with me. John, I am still waiting, you promised me after all…. and greg has since died of AIDS.

While I have been in the vicinity of famous people a few times (Sen. Patrick Moynihan on a plane, journalist Les Payne on the LIRR, Hee-Haw host Buck Owens) I’ve actually had the pleasure of meeting singer Melba Moore. She was the guest vocalist at a wedding I attended on a yacht. While waiting to use the lavatory we had a short conversation about our children and our homes. She graciously signed her photo for me and smiled with recognition as she saw me disembark at the end of the night. What a lady.

What’s important to me is that I met someone famous I wanted to meet, one of the most brilliant Arab poets “Mahmoud Darweesh,” that was definitely an honour I will always cherish.

The most famous person I ever met in the US was Henry Kissinger, in NY. I worked freelance for Italian television and they called me in as an interpreter to accompany a sports journalist and two-man video crew to interview the late Steve Ross, then head of Time Warner, who that morning had announced plans to hold the World Cup of Soccer in the US with Henry Kissinger at his side. Kissinger was on the executive committee. Ross gave the journalist a very long interview, much more than the journalist expected. The journalist knew that Kissinger had been at the morning press conference and asked Ross if he could arrange to have him interview Kissinger. Ross to his secretary: “Leila, get me Henry on the phone.” One-two-three, the three Italians and I were in a taxi to Park Avenue and Kissinger’s office. The Italian crew had used most of their video tape during the Ross interview and had very little left. The journalist did not want to lose time or keep the great man waiting by going back to the tv headquarters to procure additional tape, so he instructed the crew to just keep taping while Kissinger spoke, even if they ran out of tape. Their illustrious subject must never know. After we arrived, Kissinger kept us and our meager supply of videotape waiting in Lawrence Eagleburger’s office for at least 20-30 minutes. We could hear him chatting amiably on the phone in his own office with another mover/shaker. When he finally joined us he gave a very short, formal interview. The crew had enough tape to get the entire interview and didn’t have to fake it. Once the crew had packed all their equipment away, no lights, camera, or action, Kissinger was at last ready to talk off-the-cuff and at length about his passion for soccer. We must have been there with him for at least another 20 minutes. My interpretarial services were no longer needed at this point because among soccer lovers language is no barrier. I listened in and nodded along and Kissinger gave me a nice long smile while he reminisced about some of the great soccer moments of his life. Kissinger was very amiable and showed a side of himself one rarely sees in public. Before we left he shook our hands. And that was that. Moral of the story, never leave the office without an extra supply of videotape. It is lighter and cheaper than film stock and you just never know who you might meet.

I have met many famous celebs as I was married to a well known musician while living and working in LA and Las Vegas in the 50’s. After my divorce my trips to Europe, and later on the Concorde I sat next to many of the famous. Tom Hanks,Elie Weisel, JJ Cousteau,etc. Norman Mailer I knew for many years through his sister who was my friend in the 60’s. Last saw him at art gallery opening shortly before he passed on. Hillary I have met twice and have photos with her taken at private fundraisers in New York at private home of a major fundraiser for Democrats. She was absolutely radiant, energetic, and brilliant. A very accessible person. Jackie Kennedy who I sat next to in dining room for 5 days in outdoor dining area of La Semana resort in St. Martin in the70’s. She was spectacular, beautiful, smart, friendly and private. I went to La Semana many times in its hey day and many celebs were there, but our proximity was our meal seating. Accidental and fascinating. As a Paris Ritz patron for many years I’ve met quite a few celebrities, but two stand out. Yves St. Laurent who was sitting adjacent to me and my companion at lunch in the Ritz garden. I swooned. Naturally it was during his Russian Peasant period, and I was all tricked out in Rich Russian Peasant YSL. An absolutely charming and elegant man. The second Ritz encounter was on a summer evening in Ritz garden for dinner and facing Michelle Morgan and her husband. In her 80’s,she was still very beautiful, but I was particularly impressed at seeing this once famous French star of the cinema who I had always admired in the 40’s and 50’s when I was a young impressionable movie buff. . This was in the 1980’s and I still remember her. It took me back.

I met John Denver when I was sixteen. The concert was performed on the stage of a grand old theatre in the city where I lived, and I happened to work that year at the snack bar. Does that count?? :-) My dad’s family was known for starting from scratch and doing well from potato chips to Enron, but I had no clue how famous Ken Lay would become until he was indentified as a bad boy! Otherwise he was just the cousin that put together reunions occasionally.

The most famous person I didn’t actually meet, but was a hostess at an award dinner for President Kennedy, I got to have dinner with him and the guest, just not at his table, (LOL). I met Jimmy Carter, I volunteered during his campaign for President (first time). I met Jane Fonda, belonged to a womens group and she was our guest speaker.

I have met many famous people because of my work as a journalist/editor/communicator. Hard to pick the most notable, but here are a few: Lunch with Cary Grant at Mr. Chow’s in London; showing Patty Duke how to burp her then newborn baby (now actor Sean Astin); being taught an exercise routine by Mae West in her all-white penthouse on Ravenswood; being pushed down a staircase at the Beverly Hills Hotel by Peter Sellers, then later “rubbing noses” with him in front of a hotel in London; discussing raising chickens and how to put up green beans with Susan Hayward; getting down in “the pits” with Paul Newman at the Ontario Speedway; kicking off my shoes and drinking white wine with Jane Russell at the San Francisco Film Festival; getting a Sunday morning phone call from Olivia DeHaviland telling me how much she liked an article I had written in a magazine; helping Phyllis Diller find her retainers, which had been inadverdantly thrown out with the champagne corks; eating French fries and catsup with Olga Korbut, the Russian gymnast; directing Shirley Jones, Pierce Brosnan. Rue McClanahan and William Shatner in separate public service spots; double-dating with a gay friend and his date, Christine Jorgensen, to hear Tiny Tim at The Troubador; catching Ronald Reagan at Lindburg Field in San Diego on his way back from a fishing trip in Mexico with a film crew to get his reaction to the failure of his “mental health” program in California when he was governor; taping an interview with Chad Everett in the only “building” on his homesite in Chatsworth, the Port-a-potty; confronting Hugh Hefner in his pajamas at the Playboy Mansion; getting James Garner’s favorite chili recipe on a ski trip in Snow Valley; being cornered in a locked room with Dennis Hopper at his birthday party while he claimed I was his “earthmother” and I played the ukulele and sang loudly; meeting Marlo Thomas at the wrap party for “That Girl”; arranging the dedication of the British Pediatric Research Laboratory at the City of Hope and giving a Tea for her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.