Famous people I've met who would never remember me in a million years

Many people have a story about an encounter they've had with a famous person, whether it was in an airport or restaurant, at a sporting event, or wherever.

And by the way, I always say you should never judge celebrities based on your one encounter with them, good or bad. You're not always at your best (or worst), and there should be some understanding on our part that in the end, they're people just like us.

Anyway, for whatever reason, I've had the opportunity to encounter a few famous types. I have friends and co-workers who have met far more stars and world-class athletes than me, but I'm going to say I've met more than the average person.

And by "meet," I mean you have to shake their hand and/or have direct conversation with them, no matter how brief.

Here's my list:

Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, Sarah Silverman
I met the three of them on the set of a movie in which my company is pretty heavily integrated. The release of the movie, titled "Marry Me," has been pushed back a few times and is now set for February 2022. The photo at the top of this post is Sarah and me. She might actually have a faint memory of me because we talked for a good 10 minutes on the set and she once did a skit about Vitamix on "Saturday Night Live." She was nice. Owen Wilson was also nice, though I didn't get to speak with him for nearly as long. As for J-Lo, she was sitting in a director's chair and I just walked up to her, introduced myself, and quickly said how excited we were to be involved in the film. She was soft-spoken and polite to me, but clearly I wasn't supposed to do this. I think I interrupted her while she was studying her lines or something. I chalk it up to being a hayseed Midwestern PR guy who didn't know any better.

Gerard Butler

Met him a few years ago at the Sundance Film Festival. He drank lemon curd directly from one of our Vitamix containers. That's a true story. He was extremely friendly, in part because he had clearly been imbibing that evening. I asked if I could send him a Vitamix to use and possibly post about on social media. His response was, "You sure can!", only he inserted an extremely bad word in gerund form between "sure" and "can." It was in his Gerard Butler Scottish accent, which made the whole thing even better.

Sting
I wrote about the encounter my nephew Mark and I had with the Sting-ster a few years ago. It was July 1996 and we met him before a concert. I have seen Sting play live 10 times in the past 33 years, but this was the only time I actually got to shake his hand and briefly converse with him. He was a little distracted in that he was about to go out and play a show in front of a big crowd, but he was also used to these little meet-and-greets and was very nice about the whole thing.

Octavia Spencer
Had my picture taken with this wonderful actress a few years ago after she gave a speech in Cleveland. I was one of maybe a hundred people with whom she shared a handshake, a moment of small talk, and a quick photo. And then I moved on. And so, I'm guessing, did she.

Colin Hay
My roster of truly famous people gets really thin really fast, but I enjoyed meeting Mr. Hay, the former lead singer of Men at Work and someone whose solo work I've followed and listened to regularly for three-plus decades. This also happened with Nephew Mark, and it was after a show Colin played at the Winchester in Lakewood, Ohio. Terry always makes fun of the fact that in the photo I took with Colin, he has a sour expression on his face, while in the photo of Colin with Mark, he was smiling broadly. I choose to think he was just overwhelmed meeting his #1 fan (me).

Bob Barker and Meredith Vieira
This was when I was a contestant on The Price Is Right and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, respectively. I will not go into detail here, since Terry will once again accuse me of bringing these experiences up at every possible opportunity. I will only include links to The Price Is Right video here and the Millionaire video here. And that's it. Really, I won't say anything else about this.

Dave Koz
Dave is a big deal in the smooth jazz world. A supremely talented saxophonist. You either know him or, as in most cases, you don't. But I think he led Arsenio Hall's house band for a while. And he used to appear regularly on "General Hospital." And Terry and I have become friends with him, so he counts. He's the only person on this list who definitely does know who I am.

Bernie Kosar
My Cleveland friends certainly know who Bernie is, as do football fans from around the country. He was the face of the Browns' franchise in the 80s and early 90s, and he is a big fan of Vitamix. In fact, if you saw Bernie five years ago and then looked at the photo on the right, you almost wouldn't believe it's the same person. He has really slimmed down and now works to help others understand the value of proper nutrition.

Hockey Players You May or May Not Know
Gordie Howe, Mario Lemieux, and Marty McSorley. This was when I was sports writing. All very nice gentlemen. The first two are famous as two of the greatest hockey players of all time. The third was famous for punching people. Covering hockey taught me that in 95% of cases, the fighters are the nicest guys you'll ever want to me. Off the ice, that is. On the ice, they are likely to cause you permanent facial damage. I met Marty off the ice and he was a delight to talk to.

Other Athletes That, Again, You May Not Know
And again, this was from my sports journalism days. Carlos Baerga, Kenny Lofton, Dennis Eckersley, Johnny Damon, and Warren Sapp are on the list. There were probably others, but we're really starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel now, so let's stop.

The point is, almost none of these people would (or could) ever remember who I am, but I remember all of them. Such is the nature of fame.

My 15 minutes (maybe 20) of TV fame were up long ago

Everyone has something interesting or strange they've done in their life. And I do mean everyone. I've never met a person yet who, if you talk to them long enough, won't surprise you with some quirky hobby, experience or brush with fame they've had.

Mine, as my wife will readily tell you, is that I've appeared as a contestant on two game shows: "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" and "The Price Is Right." I say that my wife will tell you because she claims I'm so impressed by this fact about myself that I make a point of bringing it up with any new person I meet.

This isn't true, of course. This blog has been humming along for, what, three months? And I don't remember mentioning it once.

Because I readily acknowledge two facts about my game show experience:

(1) The whole thing was a lot of dumb luck on my part, and

(2) The only person who's truly impressed is me. I know this.

Game shows went out of style long ago. When I was growing up, you could turn on the TV almost any time between the hours of, say, 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and find a game show on somewhere. And that was when we only had four channels! And our TVs weighed 500 pounds and were operated by little handcranks. And we had to ride our horse and buggy into town if we wanted to watch one of those newfangled "cable" TV shows.

Anyway, yes, I realize that game shows are more mocked than respected these days. This process started 20 years ago and reached its nadir with the retirement of Bob Barker. Bob was the last link to the good old days of game shows, and when he left "The Price Is Right," a piece of the past went out with him.

I actually got to meet Bob when I was on "Price." (That's what we veterans call it: "Price." Well, OK, I'm probably the only who calls it that. Just go with it.) I made the decision to fly out to Los Angeles and attempt to get on the show in 2006, soon after Bob announced that that season would be his last. No offense to Drew Carey, but if I was ever going to become a contestant, it had to be with Bob.

I also really liked Meredith Vieira, the host of "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire." I was a contestant there during the first season of the syndicated show, which began in 2002 after ABC had managed to air the original so many times that Americans got sick of Regis Philbin.

Meredith was very touchy feely. She was always reaching over and patting my shoulder or touching my arm. After the show aired, people told me she was flirting with me. I told them to watch other episodes. Meredith flirts with EVERYBODY. Man or woman, doesn't matter to Meredith. Her way of making you feel comfortable in the Hot Seat is to hit on you. I guess it works.

Bob was also very smooth. And tan. Like scary tanned. He was bronzed from head to toe, and given that he lives in Southern California, it was hard to tell how much of it was real and how much was spray-on.

It didn't matter, though, because this was BOB. Right in front of me was Bob Barker. In the flesh. This was the guy I had watched countless times while laying on the couch when I was sick and stayed home from school. The guy who carried that long microphone around and wooed the ladies without even trying. BOB BARKER.

He did have pretty significant crows feet, of course, but give the guy a break. He was 83 years old at the time! And it was clear that, if he had wanted, he could still break me in half. Yet he looked you right in the eye when he spoke and treated you like you were the most important contestant in the history of the show. That's something he learned over 35 years of hosting TPIR, I'm sure, but it's also largely an innate talent.

During the commercial breaks, Bob would take questions from the audience, and he was hilarious. These were probably all questions he had been asked a million times before and his answers were likely rehearsed, but it didn't matter. People howled with laughter. Bob was in control of that studio from the moment he walked in.

Anyway, to answer the questions that 95% of people ask (and that I would certainly ask) when they find out about me and the game show thing:

(1) How did I get on? Like I said, dumb luck. The Millionaire people held tryouts in Cleveland and I think I just happened to fit their "Goofy White Guy" profile quota for the day. And for Price, my pre-show interview happened to be with a producer with whom I could really relate. He and I clicked. If it had been someone else, I doubt I would have been chosen to "come on down."

(2) How did I do? I won $32,000 on Millionaire and $2,500 and four electric guitars on Price. One guy in my Millionaire group of contestants won $250,000. It made my $32K look kind of piddly. On Price, I made it all the way to the Showcase Showdown at the end of the show before losing.

(3) What question did I miss on Millionaire? It was about Mary Cassatt and the kinds of portraits she painted. How come no one ever cares about the 10 questions I got right?

(4) Was the big wheel on "Price Is Right" heavy? Yeah, sort of. But if you're a guy up there spinning it, the last thing you want is to give it a wimpy spin and get booed off the stage, so you try your best to wing it around several times in manly fashion.

(5) Did they take taxes out of your earnings? The Millionaire people did not, while the Price people took California taxes but not federal taxes. The taxes actually weren't that bad, surprisingly.

(6) What did you do with the money? Kept my family alive with a roof over their heads. And I think I bought a hockey jersey, too. I'm quite the big spender.

I'm sometimes asked what my next game show will be, and the answer is "none of the above." I think my short-lived TV career is pretty well over. It's nearly impossible to get onto "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune." And I have no desire to do something like "Survivor" or "Fear Factor." So I'll just keep the DVD recordings of my appearances along with my memories and leave it at that.

And I'll keep my hockey jersey, too. It really is cool.

A $3,800 barbeque grill?

As I said, I've been watching the show everyday and taking notes on prices, bidding strategies, pricing game rules, etc. Generally speaking, I'm good at figuring out the cost of the smaller, grocery-type items. But the big-ticket items are throwing me a little. To wit:

- A Meade telescope that costs $2,100. At one point a few years ago I priced telescopes that looked just like it, and they were nowhere near $2,100. Maybe there's some sort of gold nuggets hidden inside of it.

- A silver-plated punch bowl with 12 cups - $1,575. Really? I know it's silver-plated and all, but $1,575? I would have said 700 bucks, max.

- A $1,000 espresso maker. What?!?!? A thousand dollars for a glorified coffee maker? (I forgot to mention that bid included a supply of Hot Pockets pizza snacks, but I doubt those accounted for much of the $1,000 price tag).

On the bright side, I'm getting better at pricing cars. And so far I've seen only three or four different cars that they're giving away with any regularity: Ford Mustangs, Ford Focuses, and Dodge Chargers. Throw in the occasional Lincoln or SUV, but those are the cars you see most often.

Anyway, the point is, I've still got prep work to do before I get out there. If I somehow manage to get picked as a contestant, rest assured that I'm going to kick butt...

Meet Dave, my TPIR buddy

For the past few weeks, I've known that I wouldn't be making the trip out to Los Angeles by myself. My brother-in-law, Dave Ross, will be taking the "Price Is Right" pilgrimmage with me. The problem was, Dave himself didn't know any of this until yesterday.

Shortly after I made arrangements to attend a taping of the show, I got an e-mail from my sister-in-law, Cathleen, Dave's wife. She wanted to know what I thought about the idea of having Dave come with me on the trip. What did I think? I thought it would be awesome! It will be nice to have some company, and Dave is a great choice to come along.

Cathleen made the arrangements to get Dave a ticket to the show and get him on my flight to L.A. My hotel room was already a double, so we were all set there. The plan was to keep it secret from him until Christmas Day, when he would receive the trip as a gift.

We were at Dave and Cathleen's house for the holiday yesterday. After everyone else had opened their presents, Dave's kids (my niece Courtney and nephew Chandler) brought out a new suitcase and gave it to Dave, with instructions to open it. Inside he found several wrapped gifts, including the shirt you see in the photo above (2021 EDITOR'S NOTE - Sorry the photos are no longer available!) There was also a handmade "Price Is Right" sign.

Still, even when he opened an envelope containing his ticket to the show and flight information, I'm not quite sure he understood what was going on. That was when I told him, "Dave, you're going to be watching the national championship (football) game with me 3,000 miles away on the West Coast, because you're coming with me to see 'The Price Is Right.'"

The national collegiate championship football game involving our beloved Ohio State Buckeyes is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 8, the day we fly out to California. After he was assured that we would be in our hotel room in plenty of time that day to watch the game, Dave understood everything and seemed genuinely surprised and excited.

Dave called us this morning on his way home from work (he had to go in for a few hours...I had the day off) as I was watching today's episode of the show and taking notes. I promised him I would share my extensive notes and list of bids with him, at which point I think he realized just how insane his travel buddy really is. This ought to be interesting...

I gotta start researching car prices

So I've begun taping episodes of the show and watching them, pen and notebook in hand to jot down prices, bids, helpful tips, etc. I got a rude awakening during today's Showcase Showdown telling me that while I have a pretty good handle on the prices of grocery items, I'm clueless when it comes to new cars.

One of the showcases consisted of a cell phone, an ab exercise station, and a 2007 Lincoln Town Car Signature Edition. Obviously, the key to bidding on that showcase is knowing the price of the car, since the other two are low-cost items. If I had been presented with that showcase, I probably would have bid around $34,000. The contestant bid $32,000. The actual retail price? $44,620.

I went online and found out that 2007 Lincoln Town Car Signature Editions have an MSRP of $44,980 and an invoice price of $41,432. I had no idea. In my defense, though, I've never purchased/owned a new car in my entire life, so I guess it's time to search through the paper for car ads, and maybe take a look at motortrend.com.

On the bright side, I would have won several of the pricing games on the show, including the Grand Game, Barker's Bargain Bar, and Secret X.

Hurry up and wait: Attending a TPIR taping

By all accounts, a taping of "The Price Is Right" is an all-day affair for audience members. And when I say "all-day affair," I mean an "ALL-day affair."

From what I can gather from various websites and people who have been through this, you need to show up at the CBS Studios by about 6 a.m. if you want to maximize your chances of getting into the studio. And really, if you wait until 6 a.m. to arrive, you probably won't get anything resembling a good seat.

Now you might read that and say, "Wait, I thought you already had a ticket." I do, but that doesn't necessarily guarantee anything. From what I can tell, that ticket only allows me to get a priority number, which gets me into line, which means I'll probably get in, but it's not for sure. Preference is given to groups of 20 or more...they don't have to wait in line as long as the rest of us do, and I guess every effort is made to ensure that they get seats.

Anyway, here's how things will probably play out on Tape Day (Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2007):

4 a.m. -- Rise and shine! This is when I plan to roll out of bed at the Farmer's Daughter Hotel. I'll shower, get dressed, maybe down a bagel or something, and then head across the street to the CBS Studios to get in line for the audience holding area. Notice I say "get in line," because there will almost surely be at least 20 or 30 people in line by that point, if not more. According to the good folks over at Golden-Road.net – an excellent TPIR tribute site – it's common for people to begin lining up at 3 a.m., and some even camp out there overnight to get front-row seats for the next day's taping. Yikes.

The one advantage I have here is that, coming from the Eastern time zone, I should be fairly wide awake, even that early in the morning. If I can get out of bed even earlier than 4, I will.

6 a.m. -- This is when the CSB Television City gates actually open. In the hour or two preceding this, I'll be standing in a line that will extend down L.A.'s Fairfax Boulevard, chatting with other audience members and trying to stay warm (yes, it's Los Angeles, but overnight temperatures in January still get down into the 40's). Many people bring folding chairs and food for this phase of The Big Wait.

Once the gates open, those of us in line will be given order-of-arrival slips, which of course are numbered according to each person's place in line. At that point we'll be allowed to sit on benches outside the studio until...

8 a.m. -- This is when everyone is given a priority number, which a CBS page will write on each of our tickets. Thankfully, once you get a priority number, you're allowed to leave the studio for awhile. I'll likely go back across the street to the hotel for a little rest and maybe some actual breakfast. Getting a priority number is a big step because it means that, barring anything unusual, you'll probably get into the taping. Some people show up later in the day to get into the stand-by line. Stand-bys are allowed into the studio if, for some reason, a seat opens up. No way am I taking THAT chance...

10 a.m. -- I'm guessing on the time here. All I know is that you're told to come back by a certain time, and you'd darn well better be back by that time. You've already committed a lot to this. The last thing you want is to come back late and be told you've missed your chance. Anyway, what apparently happens here is that you once again get to sit on the outside benches while the pages collect everyone's ticket and hand out contestant numbers. There's also a form or something to fill out with your name, Social Security number, and a signature line to acknowledge that you've read and understood the rules.

Then there's more waiting. A lot of waiting, actually, as the pages process the 300-plus people trying to get in for the taping. I imagine there will be many conversations with those around me in line. Maybe I'll bring a book, too, just to pass some time. But the important thing to realize, I've read, is that show producers may be walking around at this point observing people in line (and you don't know that they're show producers). They're already looking for people with some personality, so you don't want to withdraw from everyone else and act like a bump on a log.

At some point I know you also have to produce not one but two pieces of identification, one of which needs to have your Social Security number on it. This is for tax purposes in case you become a contestant and win anything.

By the way, to be eligible as a contestant, you must:

* Be 18 or older (check...many times over)
* Not have been a contestant on any previous version of TPIR, even from the pre-Bob Barker era (check)
* Not have been on any game show within the past year (check...it has been almost four years since my "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" appearance)
* Not be running for public office or planning to run for public office any time soon (ummmm, check)

Eventually, the pages will start handing out those pricetag-shaped name tags to everyone. You put them on the left side of your shirt, with your large contestant number hanging from the tag. At that point I guess you're free to roam around a little, though you can't leave the CBS property. There's a gift shop and a snack bar there, so those should be good time-killers.

Noon(???) -- Again, I'm guessing on the time here. There will come a point when it's time for your interview with the show's contestant coordinators. You're taken in groups of 10 or 15 to a different area, where everyone is essentially asked one question and given 10 seconds or so to answer. I'll talk about this more in a later post, but suffice to say, this is the make-or-break point when it comes to whether or not you'll be selected as a contestant. According to my boss' niece, who appeared on the show a few years ago and actually won some stuff, you have to have a little speech/answer prepared and be ready to be enthusiastic, though not overly so.

After everyone is interviewed, you pass through a metal detector and surrender any cell phones, cameras and related stuff you might have on your person (you get them back later, of course). You get to do a little more waiting, then they start to bring people into Studio 33 for the actual taping. Apparently everyone has the same reaction when they enter the studio:

(1) It's really, really cold.
(2) It's a LOT smaller than it appears on TV.

2:30 p.m. -- The taping isn't much longer than the show itself, maybe 70 minutes. By the time it's over, it will have been 11 or 12 hours since some people got into line. No matter what happens, it's going to be a long day.

Using my kids to get on the show

The question of whether or not to wear a goofy t-shirt is something of an eternal debate among Price Is Right fans and would-be contestants. On the one hand, having a t-shirt that says "I Love Bob" shows you've made some effort and are willing to work a little to get on the show. But then again, Bob rarely acknowledges these shirts once you get up on stage, so it's hard to say how much the shirt actually influences the producers when they're selecting contestants.

I've decided to go the way of the shirt. And specifically, I've decided to go with a shirt that has a picture of my kids on it, because they – and the fact that they've been watching the show since they were toddlers – are really my strongest angles. Whatever I end up saying to the "Price Is Right" producer who interviews me in L.A., I'm sure my kids are somehow going to be part of it.

Anyway, here's the photo that's going on the front of the shirt:



Then, at Terry's suggestion, on the back will be lettering that says, "Mommy wants a hot tub," or something to that effect. Whaddya think? Does that work?

By the way, we'll get more into the process of becoming a contestant in later posts, but for those who don't know, everyone who attends a taping of TPIR takes part in a group interview with a producer. That's how they determine who's actually getting onto the show (though the contestants themselves don't know they've been picked until they're told to "come on down!")

Me and Bobby B.

Since the tender age of about 4, I have been a fan – nay, a devotee – of that paragon of television excellence, the Game Show to End All Game Shows, the Greatest Hour of Entertainment Yet Offered Up By Mankind. I speak, of course, of the long-running CBS program "The Price Is Right."

My love for "The Price Is Right" (or, as it will be known here, "TPIR") knows few bounds. Throughout my childhood and adult life, whenever I've been home at 11 a.m. on a weekday and not otherwise engaged in diaper maintenance – my own and others' – or some such activity, the TV has been tuned to Channel 8 to watch Bob Barker (or, as he will be known here, "Sensei Bob") work his magic for 60 minutes. You have to understand, I absolutely LOVE this show. I mean, I really, really love this show.

So that's why, when the news of Sensei Bob's impending retirement came down several weeks ago – on Halloween, to be exact – I knew instantly what I must do. It had always been assumed in my house that one day I would visit the holy shrine that is the CBS Studios to attend a taping of TPIR and (dare I say it?) try to become a contestant. Without hesitation, I went into my wife and had the following conversation.


ME: Wife, it has come to my attention that Bob Barker is retiring in June. I think you know what I must do.

WIFE: Yes, I know. Though I long to be with you every minute of every day, I understand that you must travel to Los Angeles to meet He Whose Name We Are Not Worthy to Speak. May your trip be fruitful, my husband. May the Plinko chips fall in your favor. Now go, run like the wind and never look back.

ME: You are a faithful and understanding woman. I will share with you my winnings from the Showcase Showdown. Now I must go and make preparations for the journey.


Though I may have embellished the words somewhat, we really do talk that way all the time. The point is that she gave me her blessing, which is about Reason #5,914 why I'll love her forever.

I immediately fired up my web browser to plan for my trip to L.A. The first thing I did was to hit the CBS website to find a list of show tape dates. My thought was to go sometime in January, maybe right after the holidays for a quick out-and-back trip to La-La-Land. My eyes fell on Tuesday, January 9th, 2007. There's a 2:30 p.m. taping of the show scheduled for that day. I could fly out on Monday, attend the taping on Tuesday, and come back Wednesday. Perfect.

I called the nice folks at Continental Airlines and cashed in some frequent-flyer miles for a plane ticket to get out there. Then I requested a free ticket to the show online, secured one, and printed it out (more on this in a later post). Finally, I booked a room at the Farmer's Daughter Hotel which, while it sounds as if they would charge in 15-minute increments, is actually a very nice establishment right across the street from the TPIR audience holding area. (By the way, I already knew this because I've been trolling TPIR-related sites for years looking for tips on how to get on to the show, where to stay, when to line up for admission, etc. I'm telling you, my devotion to this show is borderline frightening.)

And just like that, my travel plans were set. I'm going out there in a few weeks aiming for nothing less than to become a contestant on the show. They actually pick contestants from the audience as you're waiting in line for your taping. Every audience member gets a very short interview with a producer, and that's how they determine who gets on. Coming up with a compelling story and interview response is going to be key to this whole process. Again, more on that in a later post.

The point is, I've created this blog because I thought 1 or 2 of you might have some interest in this little adventure of mine, though now that I actually think about it, you would probably have to be as demented as I am to care about this in any way, shape or form. I'll be posting most days between now and the day I come back from my little excursion on Jan. 10. I'll be anxious to hear your suggestions as to what I should say to the producer who interviews me, what the T-shirt I wear should say, and anything else related to my TPIR adventure.

The goal, of course, is to hear those glorious words: "Scott Tennant, come on down! YOU are the next contestant on The Price Is Right!!!" Everyone has a dream, ya know...