...I got looked at by a princess today, but I shall leave that for last. You have to sit through these two first.
Actors I have seen on the streets of London in the last month - as usual, the ones nobody else recognises:
Julian Wadham, eyeing up some shirts in the Muji on Tottenham Court Road, where I was buying some stationery.
He usually plays aristocratic fellows in period dramas and is also very Shakespearean. He was in The English Patient. He attended Ampleforth at the same time as Rupert Everett. Julian and Rupert. Actually, they did witty dialogues together.
Kathryn Drysdale, with her boyfriend at the Waitrose I go to on Finchley Road. She was in Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps as annoying squeaky Louise, and in other minor series'.
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And finally, today I saw Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, with their mother Sarah, the Duchess of York.
I was walking down Wimpole Street (Harley Street area for you non-Londoners) when I came upon a dark Jag parked with all the doors open and flanked by two drivers. I glanced in as I walked past and saw a girl bending over to get something out of her handbag on the floor.
It's wierd, the moment when you recognise someone you've barely seen - her mousy brown hair and her blunt profile instantly said to me "Princess Beatrice".
Fortunately, I was just going across the road to the museum in the British Dental Association HQ. So I hung about on the steps for a few minutes and then I saw another dark car draw up behind. They all got out and hugged, and at that point I was no longer thinking of who they were because I was doubting my eyes. Fergie is just a middle-aged lady with flat shoes and a handbag. She must be on sabbatical from Weight Watchers because she wasn't wearing make up and her flame red hair is fading to grey, and I bet she is more freckled than ever now. Of course her identity was confirmed when I saw the familiar stumping gait, as she and a bodyguard went a little way down the street, rang the bell and entered the building. After that, the car containing the princesses drove past and one of them looked at me.
So I got looked at by a Princess. :P
Coming upon a Royal incidentally is much cooler than coming across an actor because Royals are so sheltered.
Yes, of all the afternoons I could have chosen to go and see the accountant, and at that very moment, when I had already spent 15 minutes wandering around the area drinking my smoothie and reading the blue plaques because I was half an hour early for my appointment.
15 comments:
WOW THAT IS SO AWESOME!!!!! Did I tell you that i saw Willie Nelson in the airport? hahaha yeah, noone gets excited about my viewings haha. Well, I did see Christina Applegate and Camerón Díaz at a restaurant in LA hehe. Wow, but those viewings surely pale in comparison to your royalty viewing!!! wow wow wow. I'm surprised they did not mistake you for royalty. You always look so distinguished to me, but I guess that is b/c I'm seeing you through USican eyes ;).
I miss our talks, chica!
hi bubble,
I saw Jo Whiley in Selfridges the other day. She spent ages looking and was buying jim-jams.
She's a lot bigger in person than on the radio!!!
hey that is cool!
Guess who I saw??
Angelina Jolia, I was not that impressed :(
this sounds nice. so fergie had graying hair, huh? but hey... they are just ppl, right.
i once saw telly savalis... if you remember him. don't even know if that's the correct spelling of his name. he was a huge man and he took my hand... it was gigantic compared to mine. he was very nice and had a beautiful blonde waiting in the car for him.
alesbica! Willie Nelson is well the most impressive in this list, I mean royalty is all well and good if unelected spongers that don't live in the real world is your bag, but Willie? Man's a legend! lol!
It is quite impressive you caught glimpse of them Liv, but they should happier about a real person looking at them than you should be about them looking at you ;)
No I'm not a member of the SWP, or a communist, or indeed much of a socialist! "I don't mean to sound bitter, caustic or callous but I am so that's the way it comes out" (Marcus Brigstocke)
Since everyone else is giving you their own, impressive anecdotes, I'll add my own:
I actually met a princess!
Actually, only this year she was stripped of her royal title because she married a commoner, thus assuming his "common" surname. However, when I was introduced to her at a national youth orchestra event here in Japan about 6 years ago, and when she later scolded me for being nervous (saying something like, "You'll find that greeting me is really no different from greeting anyone else...") she was still known as Princess Nori no Miya, or Sayako-sama, daughter of the Emperor. (Now she is just "Sayako, wife of a Tokyo government bureaucrat". Oh, well.)
She was petite, not exactly the most beautiful woman in the world (to put it kindly, but she had a fetching smile), but her famously lovely voice was just that: famously lovely.
Incidentally, I went with our school orchestra to the same event last year. I never saw her there, and didn't even know she'd arrived (amazingly considering the entourage she'd had before), but several of our students said she shocked them by suddenly walking into our designated rehearsal room (unescorted), looking around, bowing once with a smile, and leaving without a word.
Was she looking for me?
Memoria - Who else did you spot in LA???
Studying linguistics means you get to make up words like USican, hehe!
When I get my new laptop I will try to be on MSN more often.
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Anon - if Jo Whiley is on the radio, how do you know what she looks like?
Apparently, if you had read the Metro, which I am sure you don't, someone spotted her this week on Park Lane.
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JL - hey, I guess you're not studying too hard yet.
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Leilouta - where did you see her? I know, I saw Julia Roberts and blah!
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Tooners - yea, but you know when she does her Weight Watchers, she must get her hair coloured. Easy to forget hair that red won't always be so.
Telly Savalas, Kojak and his lollipop, of course! Where did you see him?
He is Greek, so did you know he is Jennifer Aniston's godfather, and his daughter is Nicolette Sheridan? Ooh, maybe the blonde was her!
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Matt - what, they're not real people? We've been looking at holograms since 1986!
Oh what's the use, you're Welsh.
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Minstrel - yes, I have heard of Sayako. At the time, I was intrigued by the circumstances surrounding her love match and everything that surrounded her loss of position. So, as she is married to a gov. bureaucrat, her lifestyle can't be that bad, but it's surely a step down - she has probably had to learn how to socialise with people in real life.
Maybe she came to see if the gaijin was still teaching music!
One of my friends is from an upper class Japanese family, and she just doesn't go around making friends, and didn't speak to the other Japanese girls on our course.
Well, ok my uncle the artist met Prince Philip and the Queen(portrait) and the Duke of Devonshire (restoration).
My aunt met Princess Diana at a charity event she was part of.
And my dad used to date a Rothschild.
Oh, and I know someone who is friends with a Lord and another who is friends with Prince Harry.
But still, all very boring, isn't it?
It's all smoke, mirrors and papier mache I tells ya! hehe.
Ok, am in a slightly less revolutionary mood today, thye are still a bunch of unelected spongers that can't justify their roles though! hehe.
*deleted political content* - Sorry! Rambled on about the arms trade there for a momnet, with only the most tenuous of links to Royalty!
Ach! I am torn now! Who is the best? Willie Nelson or Telly? I am going to have to go with Willie Nelson purely on the basis that Telly is the Godfather of Aniston.
Willie - who loves ya baby?
I saw her at the Conan O'Brien show in NYC. I was in the audience.
"Burn the Big 'Oose! Are ya with me laads?!"
Matt - there's a joke that the number of teeth in the audience at the front row of a Willie Nelson concert are probably barely enough to fill one mouth altogether.
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Leilouta - aha, but you didn't pass her in the street - somehow among celeb watchers, that counts for more than going to a show... :P
In fact, gossip columns are in all the lighter newspapers with sightings being sent in all the time about seeing who where doing what.
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Matt - shoo, you rebel! Even my French ancestors were Royalists.
When will you be online again????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I need to tell you how fast my biological clock is ticking! hahaha Miss ya lots!
So, I just read your reply about when you get the new laptop you'll be on MSN, so ignore my previously-made inquiry. I have to remember to check YOUR comments to see the replies made to MY comments haha.
Yes, Mem, it is also helpful to read other people's comments because we can have quite good discussions amongst ourselves!
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