Famous people met/seen while flying.

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Warks

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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.
 
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.
 
markis10 said:
... 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 ...
 
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
 
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).
 
markis10 said:
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
 
Dave Noble said:
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.
 
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.
 
Okay the QC (or QP) in Sydney is the spot to see the celebs (not major movie stars though) from my experience.

Martina Hingis was a row behind me in J to Tokyo (JAL) the day after she lost the Australian Open final.
Thorpy was with us plebs in Y from BNE-SYD, I must add this was before the Sydney Olympics when he had just risen to prominence. I recognised him by his enormous feet!
Paul Kelly (singer not AFL player or journo) in QC Sydney.
You Am I at the Oversized Baggage counter.
Richard Fidler on a flight to Melbourne (big star!!)
Toni Collette in Admirals Club in LAX.
Wallabies team in MEL QC and lounge. This was after they won their RWC QF vs Ireland in 2003. The "big names" were all in the QC and the lesser lights had to hang at the gate.
On a flight to BNE I was walking off the plane with Steve Waugh, then on my return to SYD I had Wally Lewis on board - 2 Aust captains.
Saw Scott Cam that builder bloke from Backyard Blitz at the Third World gate for Vermin in SYD a few years back.
Saw Matthew Quartermain (The Panel - I guess he does more in MEL) at OOL QC.

Many more than this but I can't recall at this stage.
As you can see I am a bit of a spotter as I'm pretty good at faces. However I've never acknowledged any of these people as anything other than fellow travellers. They are entitled to privacy.
 
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Dave Noble said:
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 am in exactly the same boat. I could be seated next to many of those mentioned and would not notice.

The only ones I can remember are Larry Perkins on a MEL-BNE flight, and Bob Hawk in a hotel lobby in Melbourne.

Oh yes, and speaking of stars, I have met Dave Noble in a Qantas Club lounge or two. :D
 
NM said:
Oh yes, and speaking of stars, I have met Dave Noble in a Qantas Club lounge or two. :D

Wow...You did? Im impressed. Ive heard that getting an audience with him is pretty hard :)

Dave
 
I sat next to Barry Sheane in QF Business on an ADL-SYD flight after the Clipsal 500 2 years back. I was hoping for a bit of a post-race rant but he put the eye shades on and slept the whole way.

Ran into Barry Crocker in the MEL lounge (actually I had no idea who he was, had my mother with me who noticed!)

Also sat next to Vince somebody-or-other (commedian, now on the QF ads). Rather boring for someone who's job is to make people laugh!

Shared a row with two people from Home & Away on a Virgin flight OOL-SYD.

And, of course, shared the plane with a few others travelling SYD-BKK-LHR but only managed a few glances.

Bit of a run of B-Grade celebs I guess! But still a slight thril at the time.
 
As long as we're on B Grade celebs, Nick Giannopoulous (The Wogboy), introducing himself to the Essendon Football team in the PER Dom QP. I think it was the day James Hird underwent a significant facial rearrangement.

After a flight to SYD one evening, proceeding to baggage collection, a woman in front me said to a man standing nearby, "Hi Don, it's Susie Elelman". She was speaking to Don Burke. Didn't know who the woman was at the time, but it turned out she became prominent (very prominent!!) at the Logie Awards one year. She was size 14, her dress was size 8.

And danielribo, I suspect your memory is letting you down by one or two years. :). Indeed Barry Sheene wouldn't have said much two years ago as he shuffled off the coil in March 2003.

Cheers
 
It's been a dry year for me for celebs. Excluding politicians, sports stars & Asian celebrities, I've only seen Jackie Chan (yes, i know he's asian too :oops: ) at ICN bypassing the immigration line :oops: .
 
If those a B grade celebs, my spottings must be C grade.

An extra for the Wiggles. Various TV/sports presenters. Various sports stars in AFL, NRL and ARU, the runner up for Australian Idol last year (Anthony somethingoranother) etc....

Oh and some really dodgy unknown bands too.
 
I'm amazed that there are many celebs who fly with the plebs down the back. I sat next to John Eales a couple of months ago from SYD-BNE.
Best celebrity I have come across was Rowan Atkinson - and we had a good chat!
 
Warks said:
Wallabies team in MEL QC and lounge. This was after they won their RWC QF vs Ireland in 2003. The "big names" were all in the QC and the lesser lights had to hang at the gate.

I was in the QP that day as well. I flew down to Melbourne for the game and back to Canberra the next day. I also encountered both the Wallabies and the British Lions at Melbourne Airport after the big game in 2001. The Wallabies were in the Qantas Club and the Lions were just going to their gate.

I sat across the aisle from Jana Wendt on a SYD-LAX flight in 1996. She was with Channel 7 then and a number of their sports presenters were with Jana in the bubble of the 744 on their way to Atlanta for the Olympics. One of my work colleagues coughily noted that Jana "looks as bad as the rest of us after a 14 hour flight".
 
Sports:

Shane Warne standing at the urinals in HOB - he turns out to be very tall!

Michelle Timms on MEL-SYD J

Adam Gilchrist in PER and MEL QFP

Bulldogs - a few of them at time of the Coffs investigation keeping their heads down and avoiding all eye contact on CNS-SYD J

Pollies:

Amanda Vanstone pushed in front of me to plonk her sorry fat butt at the front of the J/QFC queue at CBR check in - just about to tell her to reposition her aforementioned derriere when a minder produced some boarding passes and she waddled off looking like some severely bloated roadkill roo.

Phillip "beware of dark and murky characters" Ruddock meeting someone at CNS arrivals trying to blend into the local tropical scene by wearing a white safari suit

Bob Brown on HOB-SYD who was then warmly greeted by all in T2 and ended up sitting across on the train (yep using the train not a tax payer funded car)

John Brogden - in T3 at security just after the NSW election loss wearing a bright red shirt and grinning stupidly with a "look at me" lear, which of course was greeted with not one once of recognition from anyone (compare to the Bob Brown encounter!) - moment of panic (can't stand the bloke) when I realised he was on my flight SYD-CNS, but luckily he was in Y and myself J

Alexander FranknFurter Downer - on ADL-SYD J being a pompous prick and studiously ignored by all and sundry - ended up in the gents wash basins next to him and yep he obviously has the same humbling bodily functions as us lesser folk

Michael Wooldridge - in the old Ansett days in T2 keeping a low profile at the time of the medical equipment scandal


Media folk:

Teresa Livingstone - sat next to her on a SYD-ASP J shen she was off to film a segment with Troy Dan and didn't have a clue who she was so ended up asking lots of dumb questions (the brand new Akubra hat led me to assume she was a tourist!)


Ellen Fanning - (what ever happened to her after her moment on 60 minutes?) sat next to her on a SYD-CBR J but didnt' talk
 
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