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.