Before I answer the big question from the last post, I just wanted to mention something weird I’ve noticed about celebrities and me. Living in Budapest for the past 3 years, I somehow came into contact with Vágó István, possibly [edit at the request of VI] definitely the most celebrated celebrity in Hungary.
The man has been on TV since the 70′s and not only is he an incredibly talented entertainer, he’s also extremely intelligent and speaks like a gazillion languages (and he’s a decent musician to boot). I know this because we somehow became decent friends over the past year or so. We don’t go drinking together or anything, but I feel that we have a pretty good connection.
At a few times, I have been drinking with Fekete Jenő who seems to be a Hungarian blues legend in the music scene here. At one point, I even have fuzzy memories of playing keyboards with his band one drunken night in Fészek.
Also, on a recent trip to Japan at the beginning of the month, once I stepped off the plane, I ran into Erika Sawajiri (沢尻 エリカ) and her soon to be celebrity groom, Tsuyoshi Takashiro (高城剛) while mobs of press were asking them about their upcoming wedding.
I could see they were a bit irritated getting off the flight and the last thing they wanted to do was deal with the press hounding them already, so I walked in front of them on the escalator and pretended to pose for the cameras saying, “Waitasec… these people aren’t here to take pictures of me?” to ease the tension a bit.
They of course brightened up and laughed and Takashiro-san said, “No, no… I think they are! You’ll be on TV tomorrow!” and laughed.
And strangely enough, I was. Every dang news show in Japan with a celebrity segment showed me walking in front of them on the escalator every day for the next 3 weeks (although, they never showed my pretty face). Googling for a pic only supplied me with this succession of gems:
See the progression? Peeved off, mild confusion, bewilderment, happiness. 
I seem to have that effect on people. Oh yeah, and that dark piece of jacket not completely cropped out in the third picture? My jacket. That’s right! My jacket is famous now! I’ll be taking bids on Ebay soon…
Anyway, the point of this post… Right, well celebrities seem to have some sort of affinity towards me (especially foreign ones, it seems) yet I’ve never been able to become a celebrity myself. I wonder if that’s the case, or I simply don’t take advantage of opportunities/people enough.
Maybe it’s genetic? I guess my dad has always been in a similar position, running a super-secret-underground-luxury resort for uber-rich people and celebrities for years. He deals with these types of people on a daily basis. But I don’t think he ever wanted or tried to become a celebrity himself.
I guess I just gotta try harder… Right, so back to work! I’ll answer this question soon, I promise!
