brief encounters with the rich and famous

I once stood behind Geoffrey Rush in the queue for the staff cafeteria at the Arts Centre. I thought to myself, 'only in this country would a best actor Oscar winner at the peak of his career have to queue in the staff cafeteria for this shitty food!'

When I was working at the NGVA shop, I was bending down doing something or other under the counter and when I stood up my colleague said "you just missed Viggo Moretson, I just served him." Pissed off or what, he could have given me a little kick!

Apparently Steven Sylvani was starring at my Butt when I was shelving books but I didn't notice.

I recognised the name "Adam Gilchrist" when serving him, but thought to myself 'that sounds familiar, is he a footballer or something' until all my giggly colleagues set me straight. Cricket huh!? means nothing to me! But I did notice he was a little put out when I asked for his name!

Saw Goldie at Camden markets in London in 1997, my boyfriend at the time pointed him out to me, and I said (a little too loudly) "Who's Goldie?" which was of course overheard by the man himself. we then played a little paparazzi with him and I have a great photo of him just laughing at us. Mind you I still have no idea who Goldie actually is!

I was working as an assistant for a photographer for TV Week for a while which meant a lot of encounters with the cast of Neighbours (Funny coz the first time I went to Britain, upon finding out I was Aussie, everyone would ask "have you been to Ramsay st and have you met anyone from Neighbours" and I would say "Nuh" in a rather patronising tone, second time I went to Britain I had been to Ramsay St and I had met several cast members but never got asked once!!!!) Anyways, the one that stands out for me was walking past Lou Carpenter in the hallway and going to say hi as you do when you see a familiar face but realising I didn't actually know him tried to suppress it and just looked like an idiot. He then made a point of saying hi as I slunk of Red faced.

It happens like that sometimes, you see a familiar face and think you must know then but cant figure out why, like serving a big fat sweaty politician and wondering if he's one of your friends dads who you've only met once or something until he hands over his credit card and you realise he's the deputy prime minister!

But my favourite on was when we had Eric burden from the Animals come to a signing at the Bookshop which shall not be named. I decided to get a copy for my Mum and put a sticky note with "Carol" on the front as is sometimes the done thing at such signings... lets just say he was a little out of it! (see picture above!)