[Warks]

As we know the rich and famous have to fly as well and sometimes put up with us plebs sharing their cabin space or lounge. Over time you see a lot of well known people. I'd be interested to see who you've seen.
Will come back with my own list. Any good stories? We all know NM was once seen sharing champagne with Mick Jagger and Angelina Jolie in First Class but who else has a story?

celeb spotting is never an odd thing in any frequent travelers life.

I *ALWAYS* see random famous people while flying. For example, my last trip sights included: Charles Shausghnessy in LAX T4 F lounge, Paris Hilton at Lowes Hotel South Beach FL and Kevin Pollak in 2B on a flight back to LAX.

I never see anyone half interesting on domestic flights except those bloody football teams that end up stealing J class

Domestic...


Molly Meldrum - on more than one flight SYD-MEL or MEL-SYD. Molly is a great travel companion, literally will not shut up (except when shovelling a bloody mary down his throat). Fantastic bloke, great sense of humour and chock-full of anecdotes.

Richard Feidler - who didn't seem too offended when I told him I used to watch him "piss-fart around on stage with Paul McDermot and the other bloke".

Senator Andrew "I'm allright to drive" Bartlett of the commun....I mean Democrats. A week or two after Barto came clean on his little drinking problem, he was one row in front of me MEL-SYD. When he tripped on his footrest as he got up to stretch his legs, I couldn't resist calling out "TAXI!". The look of barely suppressed rage was priceless.

Plenty of local and therefore unremarkable politicians on NTL-SYD-NTL routes. Usually cop an ear-bashing from me over their inherent uselessness.


Alan Joyce, DeathStar CEO on a QF-Link BNE-NTL flight. Not a bad bloke, quite switched on and shares my low opinion of all things Virgin (who would have thought?).

John Farnham and his Manager (Glen....W?) who have been stalking me at MEL for months.


Sighted Jean Kitson a few times at the MEL QF Pub.



International....


Jake the Muss on a NZ flight CHristchurch - Dunedin.

The Mad Monk (Tony Abbot) on the domestic leg of a NRT-CNS-SYD flight.

Not a celebrity, but I was overjoyed to sit next to an ex-SR-71 driver on an ORD-LAX flight a few years ago.

Oprah Winfrey in the foyer of the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago.



And in the ultimate celeb-fest, Mrs Shillard and I got to walk the red carpet of the ARIAs last year, thanks to a corporate sponsorship. We de-bussed from the limo around the same time as members of Jet and Powderfinger, and had Pete Hellier and Kerryn Grant consider interviewing us for half a second, until they realised we were nobodies.

I worked with one of the official photographers, who called out "Mr & Mrs Shillard, over here!" and snapped off a few shots, which precipitated confused looks on the rest of the press gallery, who were obviously
thinking "should we know who these people are...."?

Also rubbed shoulders with Mark Webber, Rubens Barachello and Michael Schumacher during last year's Suzuka Grand Prix, thanks to a day in the Ferrari paddock area.


If you're an NRL fan you would no doubt salivate at my experiences there, my dad's been involved in group-level administration for years and I used to play on Jack Gibson's farm as a kid. I'm also closeley related to one former "star" of a certain Sydney Club, but the less said about that the better.


But my ultimate celebrity experience would have been when, blind drunk, I apparently bailed up some Greens MP (who I didn't recognise) at a party and held them captive for around an hour trying to convince them of the merits of permitting civilians to carry concealed firearms when going about their daily business. What makes it even more remarkable is that my future wife was at the same party.....



My experiences pale in comparison to one of my best mates, who is a celeb magnet. Can't go anywhere without having some sort of celebrity close-shave, including playing blackjack and then sharing a few beers with Samuel L Jackson, and managing to shag a pretty prominent TV news reader (who is quite aesthetically pleasing). Beats me how he does it, he's even uglier than I am.

[markis10]

On our honeymoon we came across Will Smith who is my wifes favorite actor/singer in the F lounge in Sydney, we flew to Singapore and had a stopover. Next day we ran into No Doubt (my other halfs favorite band) in the J lounge at Singapore and they ended up travelling in our J cabin to HK as they had a concert there to do. After that we had an unfullfilled expectation that we would meet more celebs :roll: !

Generally you get the big brother evictees hanging out in the QPub if it is that time of year, I saw Mad Ron in the QF Pub a few months back when he no doubt was doing the odd trip to Bali, Molly occasionally, generally I suspect the "infamous" people can be found in the QF Pub in Sydney and Melbourne while the real movers and shakers and celebs are in the CL.

[serfty]

Originally Posted by markis10

... the real movers and shakers and celebs are in the CL.

Back before the CL days when the QP was quite "Exclusive" I have seen:

Cathy Freeman
Peter Senior
Wayne Grady

More recently on Flights:

Red Symons
Leigh Mathews
Molly meldrum (he DOES get around)
"Anastasia"

Also recently saw in QP this year:

Robert Dipieromenico
Mark Williams

And travelled back with Melbourne Storm last year 73H BNE-MEL.

I was in 1F, they had first few rows of whY. Most of them attended the f'rd toilet during the flight, almost all were limping or had some sort of injury. Tough game this NRL ...

[Dave Noble]

I expect that there have been "celebrities" on some flights I have taken...however I wouldn't recognise them; I am bad for recognising them ( many of those mentioned above Ive never heard of anyway)

I did fly from LHR-OZ on EK with the Australian cricket team; some ppl were up with me in the F cabin, whilst others were slumming it in J

Dave

[aspro2]

Nelson Mandela and his entourage were in the J cabin of a flight CPH-FRA back when he was President of the RSA. I was immediately behind the curtain, sitting in Y, and didn't know a thing about it until the cabin manager apologised to passengers for the delay in disembarking and explained why (special coach and security for the dignitaries to ferry them from the plane to the terminal).

Originally Posted by markis10

On our honeymoon we came across Will Smith who is my wifes favorite actor/singer in the F lounge in Sydney, we flew to Singapore and had a stopover.

"Will Smith" and "actor/ singer" don't compute.

Oh well, I married well above my station - looks like you might have taken the other option. :P

[oz_mark]

Originally Posted by Dave Noble

I expect that there have been "celebrities" on some flights I have taken...however I wouldn't recognise them; I am bad for recognising them ( many of those mentioned above Ive never heard of anyway)

Must be afflicted with the same syndrome as me. Most times I have noticed anyone of note on a flight its because a travelling companion has pointed them out to me. However, have seen (or had pointed out to me) a number of celebs/sporting folk, such as Bob Geldof, Pat Rafter, various pollies, various oz musos.

[Lindsay Wilson]

Domestically - MEL QP meeting Matt Hayden and Ian Healy (I work with his brother), sitting down and having a beer with them. A Channel 7 newsreader in BNE is a client and so is James Blundell.

Internationally - Cher, her daugher and nanny in JFK Flagship Lounge, sat across the F aisle from Loretta Swit 20 minutes later on AA3 JFK/LAX.