What sightings do you have of famous people doing mundane stuff? Prompted by walking past the Sainsbury's Local where I witnessed Peter Stringfellow buying a pint of milk (semi-skimmed).
In another Sainsbury's, I saw David Trimble considering a Secretary DVD. (That Sainsbury's has since been demolished.)
@internetsdairy My brother sold some eggs to Andrew Lincoln, which was funny because he played Egg, you see.
When I was working in WHSmith as a saturday job, M People's Heather Small came in and bought a magazine, but not from my till.
@internetsdairy Saw a miserable looking post-scandal Philip Schofield following his wife around a service station M&S. He didn’t buy anything.
@internetsdairy I sold petrol to Matthew Letissier once, back in the days when he was famous for playing football rather than being a vaccine truther.
@internetsdairy My mum once served either Paul King or Pete Burns in the drycleaners she worked at in the 1980s. She doesn’t know which, because they had similar hair at the time.
Lol just saw Ant (sans Dec) in Wimbledon village coming out of a corner shop with two carrier bags full of Evian bottles
@internetsdairy I used to work in Soho, so we'd see all sorts, but I think my best was standing behind Bill Oddie in the Tottenham Court Road Virgin Megastore a few days before xmas, who was trying to buy a (very sold out) Playstation 2
@internetsdairy I once collided with Nick Cave coming out of Shoreditch High Street tube station.
@internetsdairy I believe Sara Cox once ran past me in Birmingham New Street station. I didn't try to stop her to make certain though
@internetsdairy Circa 2004, Nick Owen in the first floor mezzanine of the old Birmingham Pavillions branch of HMV smiling sheepishly as his kids and their friends browsed the CD singles.
@internetsdairy I once was behind Sophie Marceau in the tabac, if I recall correctly she got Marlboros
I've got a ton of these. I nearly ran over Russell Brand who was jogging past my flats and didn't look where he was going as I pulled out of the car park (in hindsight an opportunity missed).
The best one (I've mentioned it before here) was actually my mates sister when we were about 15. She worked in WHSmith at Heathrow airport and sold porn magazines to Bob Monkhouse (forever known as Bob Wankhouse thereafter).
@internetsdairy Steve Coogan in the chip shop at Baker St, Brighton.
@internetsdairy A couple of weeks ago I sat beside Stewart Lee when he was having his lunch with his kids (a kind of kebab thing).
@internetsdairy Of course when some people do mundane things they still get in the local paper: https://www.wiltsglosstandard.co.uk/news/25197993.noel-edmonds-spotted-cirencester-town-centre/
“On May 16, Mr Edmonds was seen visiting Seasalt in Cirencester's Cricklade Street.
As was the case on Sunday, the presenter was believed to have been with his wife.
He was also photographed visiting the Decimal. skateshop in Cirencester’s Swan Yard and was pictured outside the Simply Crystals shop in the yard.”
@internetsdairy Dion Dublin was on our (budget) flight from Krakow to Luton. He somehow got whisked to the front of the long queue at passport control
@internetsdairy I once saw John Barnes with his kids in a Frankie & Benny’s on the Wirral. He recognised my partner’s sister from her career as an exotic dancer and winked at her on the way out.
@internetsdairy once witnessed Hugh Dennis emerge at dusk from the pedestrian subway that connects Cromwell Road to South Ken tube station, look around with the aspect of an irritated meerkat, and return back to the subway
Actually probably the most notable one I have is: a friend and I were in Sausage & Mash in Islington. Boris Johnson (then Mayor) pulls up on his bike, comes in and sits down with and chats to a tight-lipped woman and her three or four young children. After five minutes, he gives her a wad of money, then leaves.
@internetsdairy I danced next to Tim Minchin at a Maceo Parker show at Koko. Minchin was barefoot. At Koko.
Edited 11d ago
Nodded to Lembit Opik (he nodded back) as I passed him coming out of the toilets at some motorway services when I was heading in.
Saw Jim Bowen standing outside what's now the Primark in Commercial Road, Portsmouth with a plastic carrier bag in his hand.
Saw Andy Jenkins (now disgraced former darts player) with family buying a TV in a Dixons.
@internetsdairy I once nearly bumped into Björk in the center of Brussels. She was pushing a pram.
@internetsdairy Marc Almond in a Waitrose, Jonathon Morris from Bread in a pub, less mundane but my partner kicked over Ed Sheeran’s guitar backstage (surprisingly this was by accident), Jon Snow in the lifts at work (he liked my hair), Boy George pissing in the bogs at The Fridge, and I only fantasised about pushing Simon Heffer in front of that tube train.
@internetsdairy What? When? Stringfellow died in 2018. What’s his ghost doing buying milk?
When I was a student at Bournemouth University, I walked past Robert Fripp and Toyah Wilcox filling their boot with shopping at Asda.
At least I think I did - I was stoned for much of that period of my life.
@internetsdairy Mundane things -
1. Clive Anderson once stood on my foot.
2. I had a wee next to David Coulthard in the loos at the Albert Hall.
3. Amanda Lamb from A Place in the Sun told us about a good hotel in Sicily.
4. Darren Day, running away from children asking for his autograph outside the Fairfield Halls in Croydon.
5. Attractive tousled-haired footballer David Ginola, on an easyJet flight from Gatwick to Nice.
@arratoon A BBC reporter - I forget his name but he's recently grown a beard - stood on my foot in a press scum while I was trying to film David Cameron. Hard to say which one I hate most when I see them on TV though the reporter is on more often these days.
@arratoon I could have been clearer: I saw him getting milk before he died. I was reminded of this the other day when I walked past the same Sainsbury's local.
@internetsdairy Phew! Thank God his spirit is not condemned to haunt the dairy aisles in perpetuity.
@internetsdairy Oh, and Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli, and Slash from Guns and Roses (incl. hat) all on the same flight to LA. We’d splashed out on silly tickets.
@Polypompholyx Jon Snow did a talk at our work one time, he seems really sound.
@Polypompholyx Does Slash's hat have its own seat?
@internetsdairy I once drove past a giant silver Land Rover in the suburbs of Bath, who'd had to stop and give way to me on the narrow road. I am 90% sure the driver was John Cleese, sitting very upright
@jackeric Yeah, he would sit upright. Reminds me, car-based ones: a car drove past me in Northampton once; in the back was Alan Yentob. He was picking his nose.
I've also saw Charles and Di in the back of a car one time, and on another occasion, the Queen and Prince Phillip, though not sure if it counts when they're in a motorcade. None of them were picking their nose.
@internetsdairy @jackeric I once saw Camilla at the junction of Highgrove, driving a Landrover. And I once saw Prince Harry playing polo, but that’s not very mundane is it. Unless you’re dead posh. And then running round on a horse with a big mallet is just normal.
@Nickiquote @jackeric Depends. was he was riding his horse round big Tesco, knocking tins of beans into the trolley with his mallet?
@internetsdairy @jackeric No, it was more a traditional polo setting. Like you walk across the park and oh there’s a polo game on and oh, there’s a member of the Royal family and you suddenly wonder how many security people are watching you at that moment.
@Nickiquote @jackeric Well, they'd be watching the polo, a famously mesmerising sport. The perfect opportunity for an assassin tbh
@internetsdairy @jackeric This was back when Harry had security of course. Not like now, when they basically hand you a crossbow and suggest you have a punt.
@Nickiquote "Who cares about Noel Edmonds poncing about Cirencester. I'm more worried about the state of the town and the roundabout at Watermoor it's a absolute disgrace"
@internetsdairy That’s quite right about the roundabout, it was a disgrace. It took almost a year longer than promised and caused traffic jams daily.
But I’m not sure that this story about the business brain behind Blobbyland, Morecambe really took away much investigative journalistic resource from that story.
@internetsdairy I once had dinner with a lady who had been Noel Edmonds’ PA when things went south for him. She was retraining to be a teacher. I got the impression that the toils of Lynn from Alan Partridge weren’t far from the truth.
Edited 11d ago
✅